How We Stopped Ignoring the Engine Light and Tripled Our Capacity

We stopped ignoring the engine light, looked under the hood… and found endless opportunities for improvement and growth.

It happened again. A friend asked what I do for work. So, I went over some of my past and current projects at The Sponge, highlighting what I enjoy doing most. Then I paused… I looked at my friend and lowered my voice. As if admitting a huge secret, I said I actually really, really like Excel spreadsheets! I waited for the usual reaction of either surprise, disgust, disbelief, or simply mixed emotions.

I never thought that some of the things I enjoy doing most at work could be the very same things other people are averse to. It’s true. Give me messy procedures, unclear processes and inefficient tools and I will gladly accept the challenge to refresh and improve (and document!) it all.

This is how I ended up joining The Sponge team. A year ago, I went through a normal selection and interview process for an awesome new position. I was profiled as an Accumulator by Talent Dynamics and magically became an Impact Growth Alchemist for The Sponge. I started here with one mission: to help the team create a bigger impact. Overall, this meant increasing efficiency and capacity, preparing for growth and improving team and client satisfaction – accomplishing what most people (such as our CEO Luke, profiled as a creator) can do, but lack the interest or time to do. It was a great match as I was given a blank canvas to conduct all the analysis I could dream of.

The Sponge had – and still has – an awesome purpose and many bold dreams and goals for the world. But we needed to take a step back, reassess and refresh what we already had in order to truly and effectively move forward into the future.

This is what the last 12 months have looked like:

Continuous improvement being one of The Sponge’s values (and in my opinion an essential standard for every successful business), my work is never fully done here. However, over the last year, as efficiency increased, my workload slowly decreased and some of the difficult analysis and development was replaced with easier maintenance tasks – a testament to my hard work and success.

This is why, eleven months into my adventure with The Sponge, time came to complete my hardest task to date. My latest recommendation to benefit the business: to find an individual better aligned with the portion of my own role that no longer make financial sense for an Impact Growth Alchemist to work on. Of course, I’m still here to keep things in check, make sure everything looks good on our new dashboard, and start new exciting projects with The Sponge.

The key to the success of my role was always to keep The Sponge’s best interest at heart – and to take all the “horrible” spreadsheet and analysis work away from Luke, so he could concentrate on what he loves and his creativity.

Wouldn’t you want the same for you and your own Good Business?

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Humbling Words From Awesome People

  • The Sponge is enabling small business to focus on essential elements of marketing/strategy. I used to go in circles and best guess engagement with customers; I didn’t understand my target market. The Sponge gave me a real wake-up call: To realise how much time and money I was throwing away for no return. The learning was interesting and interactive. Now, I feel in control and focused.

    Sue Lea Timely Business Solutions
  • We were in the middle of re-branding and wanted to know how better to market our product including how better to tell our story. This webinar provided practical marketing techniques, and rationale to explain the benefit of this strategy. The 'light bulb' moment for me was making the connection between the power of storytelling and marketing our brand.

    Susan Perry CEO CommunityGro
  • Branding is a familiar concept to comms & marketing professionals like myself. But it’s often a mystery to other staff, and for brand to be authentic, unique and indispensable they all need to be on board. This training helped me clarify branding to everyone in our organisation. Now they’re all part of the brand redevelopment crew, identifying and sharing stories that resonate with our values and purpose. Thanks, Luke, for launching our journey to uncover the brand that ‘comes from within’.

    Avril Janks Communications and Marketing Coordinator
  • The Sponge’s perceptive sensibility guarantees a perfect match between your business and its presentation to the world. They makes your values, ethics, goals, and the 'feel' of your business shine through every aspect of your brand.

    Geoff Walker Sydney Massage Time Pty Ltd
  • I recommend The Sponge’s services to new and established organizations who are looking to differentiate themselves from the “ordinary” and stand out from the crowd.

    Annette Wright InfoGenesis Pty Limited
  • One of Luke’s talents is his ability to move people and organizations from the creative to the innovative, commercializing ideas and inventions.

    Rodney Marks Hoax Speaker
  • I have had The Sponge involved in several IT based projects over my years working as a Software Developer. Each project has seen results that have exceeded expectations and I highly recommend them.

    Shane Wisniewski Wesfarmers Industrial and Safety
  • I usually don’t believe in one stop shops, because of the inability to be great across many areas, but The Sponge truly are the one stop shop for brand creation, innovation and lead generation.

    Mark Capelin Tribe Social Fitness
  • Luke and the crew at the Sponge helped set up our Corporate image as it stands today. They were extremely helpful and patient. They took the time to understand our business and brainstormed with us some of the essential elements and came up with various images until we were happy with the final one. Can't recommend Luke and his team enough. Thanks again Luke.

    Kim Lie Jom Complete Health Chiropractic
  • The Sponge team are great to work with. They translate your ideas and vision into something real and tangible and they truly want to make an impact to your business strategy with their valuable insights. We have been using them for over 10 years and would highly recommend their expertise.

    M Levonian William, Thyme & Prophet / Report Factory
  • A great vibe and energy brought to every project that The Sponge have led for me. Easy to work with, quick on the uptake of direction and prompt service. Will definitely be using The Sponge again and highly recommend.

    Lucette King NSW Department of Education
  • High level strategic thinking and their creativity makes them stand out. Quick turn around time and reasonable price make them the winner every single time.

    Syed Mujtuba Crescent Wealth
  • Awesome company with awesome creativity. After working with them over 2 years, The Sponge has successfully turned me from a happy customer into a raving fan!

    Jeremy Chen Claytan Australia
  • Great creative proactive company. Could not be happier with the works they both provided and suggested. Now our go to company for branding.

    Ross Thompson JHA Engineers
  • Awesome design. Easy to work with. Jobs are completed quickly. Highly recommended.

    Alexander Bont BONT
  • Luke and the team at the Sponge are truly artisans of their craft. They're AWARE, they DARE and DELIVER.

    Claude Di Ciano Richardson & Wrench Willoughby
  • Love their vision, love their work and mostly love the team!

    C. S. Chen Claytan Australia
  • The Sponge truly immersed themselves into our business, our team and our culture to develop a brand that not only captured our essence but more importantly; expressed it to the world.

    Mende Seljanovski Enth° Projects
  • The Sponge have been outstanding to work with. Their expertise, dedication and outstanding quality of work is second to none. I am grateful for their input into the design of our brand and website.

    Matt Malouf The Fortune Institute
  • Our brand looks better than we could have dreamed and The Sponge team managed to squeeze so much meaning into it that our prospects really get a sense of how we can help them.

    Darren Vardy Insolvency Options

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