The Power of The Next 5: How Small Goals Lead to Big Wins
Agency leaders often dream of scale. It’s the promised land where leads flow like wine, clients stay forever, and growth is easy and endless.
That’s how the crazy “leads on autopilot” and “buy my agency course” folks make it seem, anyways. In reality, racing for scale is often what leads to chaos.
That’s how spray-and-pray prospecting, content so thin it’s translucent, undifferentiated services that blend into a sea of beige sneaks into your agency.
Worse yet, all of that leads to clients who churn faster than you can say, “Welcome aboard! We are excited to work with you!”
Sound familiar?
You’re not alone. The dream of scale often causes agencies to stumble before they can even walk.
You can stop the madness. Let’s walk through my UNSCALE-friendly solution:
The Next 5 Framework.
It’s deceptively simple – it helps shifts your focus from building scale to taking the right next steps that deliver results and clarity.
Why Scaling Too Soon Doesn't Work
Scale is a REALLY seductive idea. It’s sexy, it’s good for your ego, and you know it’s gonna be great for the ol’ bank account.
Who doesn’t want lead gen or a content engine that churns out new clients on “autopilot”? Focusing on scale rather than right fit clients and right fit processes is like putting a Ferrari engine into a Volkswagen Beetle. It might make a big growl, but that beast isn’t going to get you very far. You are likely to end up spinning out on the straightaway as your transmission blows and your rear axle disintegrates.
Here’s what happens when your agency is only focused on scale:
- Lack of Focus: You’re trying to be whatever you need to be so that someone will write a check. Shiny objects really start looking like diamonds. Your outreach feels cold, your messaging is off, and your offers don’t resonate.
- Poor Execution: Because you are trying to fit yourself to a wide array of clients, and you have to manage a million different set of circumstances, you become crazed task doers rather than high quality partners who create real business value.
- Burnout: Spreading your team (and yourself) too thin trying to satisfy an acquisition machine leads to lack of clarity, lack of client focus, and lack of joy.
- High Client Churn: You acquiring clients who don’t stick around because you’re focused on volume over value. You are making offers to people you can’t help & diluting your impact on clients who can’t see your contributions. ALSO, CHURN DEMORALIZES YOUR TEAM (AND YOU) AND IT JUST MAKES EVERYTHING WORSE.
There is a big price to pay for chasing scale. All that time, energy, and money you spend on chasing the scale dream are resources that could have been spent building something that you love.
What's The Next 5 Framework?
Say hello to THE NEXT 5.
This framework is all about breaking your goals into small, manageable chunks that are laser-focused on delivering immediate impact.
Forget about scale for a minute. The Next 5 is gonna get you there, step by step, just stick with me, ok?
Instead of building things that will work when you reach scale, start with smaller chunks. When you build a little at a time, you end up building a structure that is stronger (and more effective because it is built on experience and growth, not on abstract plans.) Start to think like this:
- What do you need to do to get your next 5 leads
- What do you need to do to get your next 5 sales conversations?
- What do you need to do to get your next 5 closes
- What do you need to do to get your next 5 LinkedIn posts done?
- What do you need to do to get your next 5 quality job applicants?
Entrepreneurs are big dreamers. And it’s really fun to live in the future where all the hard work is done and the rewards are rolling in. Sadly, though, you’ll never get there without some clear steps.
The other thing that entrepreneurs are really good at is building stuff. So, when it comes to building your future success, you are going to build a better machine by iterating one version after the next
The Next 5 taps into that entrepreneurial strength, letting you & your team focus, learn, and adapt without the overwhelm and wasted resources.
Apply The Next 5 To Your Agency
The Next 5 framework isn’t just about sales & revenue growth. It can transform all parts of your agency.
Lead Generation
Instead of designing a massive prospecting funnel that targets the every company who matches the firmographics of your ICP, focus on identifying your next five your next 5 prospects. Who are they? Why might they need your services? What’s the best way to reach them? How can you express why you are the right fit? What can you show them that no one else can?
Quick Story: A small agency who was struggling with high volume cold outreach shifted to a Next 5 approach. They had a great system for making high-quality static creatives for FB ads. Instead of targeting a huge number of ecommerce clients, they only targeted those that hadn’t updated their ad creative in more than 60 days – and they offered 10 free static creatives. This targeted approach is helping them add 10-12 clients every quarter.
Content Creation
Dreaming of a giant content engine? Cool. But it starts with your next 5 posts. What are the things your audience cares about? What’s your unique perspective? What’s the specific plan to create, post, and iterate?
Hiring
You never want to be in a position where you are hiring the next person you interview because you need them desperately. What is your plan to attract your next 5 interviews? What do you need to say to attract great candidates? Who do you need to network with? Quality applicants and great employees don’t happen because you put up a job listing. You have to have a plan to shape that experience so you get candidates that you value.
Team Development
Your team can benefit from The Next 5 too. It’s a terrific management approach. Example – if a new hire is struggling, ask them: “What do you need to do to complete your next 5 tasks without errors?” This approach builds confidence and creates a clear path to improvement.
The Next 5 Over The Long Term
What makes The Next 5 so freaking awesome is that it’s infinitely extensible. Once you’ve mastered the framework on a small stuff, you can apply it to those BHAGs (Big Hairy Audacious Goals).
Here’s how The Next 5 could work for you:
- Strategic Growth: Use The Next 5 to test and refine strategies before rolling them out at scale. Here is an example – what are the approaches you need month by month to insure that you’ll hit your next 5 monthly sales goals? If you’ve planned and adapted well over those 5 months, you are going to have a great framework for the following 12 months.
- Training New Hires: Apply the framework to their onboarding process. By focusing on their first five tasks or deliverables, you’ll help them gain confidence and competence more quickly.
- Iterative Improvement: Each Next 5 cycle provides insights you can use to improve your processes, messaging, or services.
Why Does The Next 5 Work? Because Your Brain Likes It
Why does The Next 5 work? Because it’s designed to work with how our brains are hard-wired. Our brains are amazing machines that filter out irrelevant information. Big, huge projects over a long period of time are exhausting for our squishy meat calculators that we carry in our skulls. The Next 5 keeps the focus close & the relevance high. The Next 5 works because it:
- Reduces Overwhelm: Big goals can feel like a giant wall to climb over. (I call it “the wall of suck”.) That can make it overwhelming to get started. Smaller, more incremental goals allow you to control the number of variables you need to manage so you can get to work.
- Builds Momentum: Each small win fuels motivation. Completing your next five tasks creates a sense of progress that keeps you moving forward.
- Boosts Confidence: Success breeds confidence. The more you achieve, the more capable you feel.
- Encourages Iteration: Small steps allow you to test, learn, and adapt without risking massive failure.
Start Focusing On Your Next 5
You can’t jump straight to the big leagues. You’ve got to build up to bigger and better through focused, intentional action. By embracing The Next 5, you’re not just creating small wins, you’re generating the momentum and clarity needed for sustainable growth.
So, what’s your next 5?
Is it five leads? Five blog posts? Five quality job applicants? Whatever it is, start small, learn fast, and grow better.
The path to big dreams begins with a single step—or in this case, the next five.