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Scaling a marketing agency is no small feat, especially when faced with challenges like finding the right talent, creating scalable systems, and maintaining personal growth. In this episode, I sit down with Azhar Siddiqui, founder and CEO of RepStack, to uncover the strategies that helped him grow his agency from a solo operation to a thriving business with over 250 employees. Azhar shares how his entrepreneurial journey taught him the importance of mindset, routine, and continuous learning in overcoming obstacles and achieving success.
From building a strong morning routine to fostering a culture of growth within his team, Azhar’s approach to leadership is both inspiring and actionable. Whether you’re looking to hire the right talent, implement scalable systems, or simply find balance in your life as a leader, this conversation is packed with practical insights you can apply today. Don’t miss the book recommendations and resources that have been instrumental in shaping Azhar’s leadership philosophy.
Connect with Azhar Siddiqui:
If you’re ready to take your agency to the next level with proven strategies and expert insights, connect with Azhar Siddiqui. Visit RepStack.co or reach out to him on Instagram @SiddiquiAzhar for practical advice and tailored solutions for your business.
Books Mentioned:
Maste
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It is such a joy today to have Azhar Siddiqui on the podcast. Azhar is the founder and CEO of RepStack, a TAS that's Talent as a Service business. Repstack allows marketing agencies and SaaS businesses to subscribe to mission-driven and long-term team members. His mission is to level the playing field for digital marketing agency specialists based on merit and not on their location. His book Hiring Secrets for Digital Marketing Agencies is the perfect guide for helping digital marketing agency owners to scale their agencies by hiring perfect talent at every position. Ashar, I'm so glad you're here, man. Thanks for being on the show.
Azhar Siddiqui:
Dr Attaway, it's a pleasure. I've heard so many great things about your show and I am honored that you even considered me inviting here, so it's great to be here, really looking forward to our conversation.
Dr. William Attaway:
I'm looking forward to it as well. Then please call me William. This is going to be a great conversation, man.
Intro/Outro:
Welcome to Catalytic Leadership, the podcast designed to help leaders intentionally grow and thrive. Here is your host author and leadership and executive coach, dr William Attaway.
Dr. William Attaway:
I want to start with your story. I would love for you to share some of your story with our listeners, particularly around your journey and your development as a leader. How did you get started?
Azhar Siddiqui:
Wow, that's a loaded question right there. I'm known to be long-winded, especially when it comes to stuff that I love. But let's see if I can break it down for you so early on love, but let's see if I can break it down for you so early on, like right in college or university, I went to school in Minnesota. I was 19 when I moved here from Pakistan and I went to Minnesota State to finish my undergrad that I got transferred over from back home and early on I realized that, you know, right when I was in university, I'm like this is the land of opportunities. I got to do something big and the only way to do it is through business. So I already knew that I was going to be a business owner. And when I was like 20 years old and I've had some stints back home where it's, you know, like person like me, who's like, like you know, a little bit of middle class person where parents can afford my education, they're of the mindset that, hey, you gotta go and finish your education first, we're paying for everything, and then go and do your job and all of that stuff. So but you know, my I wasn't thinking at that at that time, but I had this inclination in me that I had to do this. So, you know, I went, was like 16, 17 years old. I went against my dad. For the first time my uncle invested in me. We started a cyber cafe back in 1998 in my city of Islamabad and that business was a bust completely because, you know, my friends would be using the computers instead of the customers and we'd be like, hey, we're using these, come back later, right? So that did not work out, needless to say. But you know, I had early inclinations that I'm going to do this stuff. And then when I came to the US, it was a no brainer. I went to school for computer science but you know, I realized that websites is where it's going to be.
Azhar Siddiqui:
But then it took me some time to get to the point where I could actually start the business, because I always thought that it was going to be easy. But I couldn't sell. I wasn't a very outwardly type person, really introvert type, and I couldn't sell anything. So I finally decided, when I moved to Canada in 2004, that I'm going to buckle down, get myself a sales job and put my head down. I got to start earning. You know, this business thing is not working out for the time being. So, you know, I went and got a sales job at Best Buy and started learning sales. So I spent seven years there, two of them as a leadership role as well, and that's when I was able to get my marketing agency started back in 2008.
Azhar Siddiqui:
In 2011, I went full time on my agency, ran it all the way up to 2020 for about 15 years. It still runs on autopilot. Some of my old clients in Calgary are still with me. I don't know why, but they don't want to leave. But you know, the marketing agency was my bread and butter. That's what I did.
Azhar Siddiqui:
But I was like a one-man band throughout that journey that 15-year agency world, you know, and I like you know, even though I was doing great for myself as a one-person agency, it was doing phenomenal. I went through a lot of tough times, but after 2017, you know, onwards it was really comfortable for me. Like I was making great money working for myself. I was working from home since 2011,. Way before, it was cool to work remotely and all of that stuff. So I've got all of that stuff, but this was missing Like I wanted to grow something big and that was still not there. My agency, you know, like never did over 30 grand a month in revenues and stuff like that, so that bigger business was missing out there.
Azhar Siddiqui:
And then you know, all of a sudden we got this opportunity and you know there's obviously lots of stuff that happened to get to that opportunity part as well but just post-COVID we got an opportunity to start placing people inside marketing agencies and our first client turned into a joint venture partner for us. And talk about the right place at the right time, putting in all the experience that you needed like 15 years running an agency. Had I not done that, none of this would have come about. And then, yeah, so from that first client, which turned into a JV partner, we were able to just like, not look back. And this was.
Azhar Siddiqui:
We closed our first deal at RepStack October 2020 with no employees and today, december 2024, we're roughly about 250 employees and you know that scale has really you know it's it's put me in a really good mood and you know it's like everything I wanted to do. But that's my experience and I've had to power learn over the last four years to become an okay leader for these people and our plan is to go up to 5 000 people over the next 10 years. So, um, so you know we're we're shooting for the stars and the journey is where it's at. It's incredible and the leadership. I learned this, actually, from a book that you, uh, recommended, I think it was in culture rules, where a job of a leader is to get the people that are following you to a place in the future where no one's gone before.
Azhar Siddiqui:
It's not task management, it's none of that day-to-day stuff. It's basically taking these group of people and taking to this promised land that all of you guys agree on, and that's our job. It's very intangible at some times and it's never been done before, because our unique circumstances are going to take us there and it's very challenging, but that's the beauty of it, right? That's why visionary people do such a great job being great leaders. That's why visionary people do such a great job being great leaders.
Dr. William Attaway:
I love that and I love that, with the success that you have seen so far, even in just four years, that you're not just kind of throttling back, you know, just kind of kicking your feet up and saying, oh, I'm just going to enjoy this. Now We've got no, you've got a vision far beyond what exists today. This four years ago was just an idea, but you're not done yet. Like what? What creates that drive in you to continue to build? Continue to create new jobs, new opportunities for people you don't even know yet?
Azhar Siddiqui:
Yeah, I think that's a good question. It's a very inherent question and I haven't answered that in a long time. I think that drive comes from this idea, that I think the kids call it YOLO these days.
Intro/Outro:
Right.
Azhar Siddiqui:
And you got an opportunity to do something amazing. One of my favorite authors, robert Green, talks about in one of his books, or maybe one of his podcasts, where he talks about this you know, this magical world that exists out there that we can manifest and we can make happen if we have the right mindset and we choose not to. There's so much we can achieve with with the right mindset. Right mindset and we can get to these magical things right. We think that, hey, man, like I got to watch that movie, to go into that sci-fi movie, and you know, get all of that perspective us is so magical that our days and lives can turn into that story.
Azhar Siddiqui:
We don't realize that and that's what drives me, uh, william, that you know, to make the day-to-day as magical and my monday should be as exciting as my saturday night. And you know, I'm getting to that point, like you know, like getting up on monday at 4 am is like, is like I spring out of bed. I never thought that it would be possible, but I do now. I think that's what drives me trying to live every single day to its max and putting in maximum effort. And it should not even feel like effort, it should feel like fun.
Intro/Outro:
I love that.
Azhar Siddiqui:
So that's kind of, I think, the driving factor. I don't think it's going to be that end point that I'm trying to get to, or that 10 year goal or things like that. It's really, to be honest, it's the journey that I'm having the most fun in, that day to day and coming into work, and not even before work. I have a pretty in-depth routine in my mornings and things like that. So all of that stuff is just like it's life changing and the more I do it, the more fulfilling it's becoming right now. So it's just like a self-fulfilling prophecy right now, you just keep going.
Dr. William Attaway:
So good. You mentioned your morning routine. So many of the high capacity, high performing leaders that I talk to have a very consistent morning routine that they really don't deviate from often, if at all. Would you be willing to share yours?
Azhar Siddiqui:
I would love to. I would love to. So yeah, my work at RevSec starts at usually my first call is at 10 am and uh, all the way and. But I get up in the morning at around 4 am. In the morning it's between 4 and 4 30 and I don't have to, but I get up because, uh, you know, get up. I need that time to myself. It's quiet and you know, I have this bone broth with turmeric and some collagen protein tea that I drink first thing in the morning and then I have my, some of my spiritual stuff that I like to do pray in the morning and all of that stuff. And and then, you know, like, look forward to that coffee, that first cup of coffee. You know you can't beat that. So I really look forward to that. So you know.
Azhar Siddiqui:
So that takes me about an hour. Just, you know, doing these things, hour, sometimes hour and a half. I want to take my time. I don't want to be rushed into anything, I want to do it at my terms. So around six o'clock I land at the gym. Now I'm at the gym for about two and a half hours.
Azhar Siddiqui:
That includes about an hour, hour and a half of working out 20 to 30 minutes every single day, five to six days in the sauna, ending it off with a cold shower, and that's the point where I feel the best in my day when I finish that shower. At that point and now I still have one hour left so I come home for my breakfast and try to eat something healthy and get started, and then also during that time at the gym, going there, coming back, I'm listening to an audio book, which you know I'm an avid listener, and I recently finished the books that you recommended Culture Rules and the Amazon Way phenomenal books on culture. I needed that help and you kind of tell me and they were spot on. Thank you for that recommendation. And yeah, and that's kind of so that you know that four to five hours in the morning now with my learnings, kind of turns into seven hours of productivity, of me working on myself, you know as my taking care of my spiritual stuff, taking care of my body, taking care of my learnings, and this has, like it's, a full-time shift. That has already happened in the first, like you know, five to six hours of the day, and now I come in at work at 10 am, ready and primed and ready to go and this is going to be my last call of the day, so start at 10.
Azhar Siddiqui:
Right now it's 2.37 on the East Coast, so about 3 pm I'll be done. Like five hours of power through calls, after calls, work, work, work, work and then I'm done and now I'm going to be down with my beautiful wife. We're going to have some lunch and we're going to spend some time, maybe an afternoon workout again. But the drawback only is that you know that bed around after eight o'clock it calling my name. But I do enjoy a good night's sleep, so I'd like to take at least six between six and eight hours. I prioritize that sleep as well. I can work on less because I do have a very crazy travel routine, but if I can get my like I have up to eight hours, that's perfect for me.
Dr. William Attaway:
You know, it's so fascinating to listen to you describe that, because you're hitting on so many different spheres of your life. You're dealing with your physical health and vitality, you're dealing with your intellectual health and vitality, you're dealing with your spiritual health and vitality, your emotional and relational health and vitality, and you don't ignore any of those. So often I see leaders, particularly in the entrepreneurial space, who will ignore those lights on the dashboard in pursuit of simply greater revenue, greater financial success in the business, and they think there'll be time enough for all that later. You are different. You are looking at all of those lights on the dashboard and you are prioritizing those things in a way that I have not often seen. Has that always been the case? Has this always been important to you or has this been a journey?
Azhar Siddiqui:
No, it's been a huge journey for sure, like when I first started my agency and when I went full-time back in 2011. You know, I got like my. I had a weight problem. I went up to 230 pounds. So I've been on this physical journey there, but the mental connecting the dots I think that's the more important. Like that's why, you know, mindset is such an important thing. And it's been like, you know it's been like as we've gotten success in our startup. You know it has become more dialed in for us. Like we're like we understand why we need to do this, why we need to focus on ourselves.
Azhar Siddiqui:
Like if you look at that first picture when we went to Miami attending Josh Nelson, our coach event back in December 2020, you know, me and my brothers all three of us are, you know, kind of out of shape at that time and four years later, if you look at our pictures from November, all three of us are like in really good shape right now and you know, so we realized that we're getting the success, and part of the success is that we need to reinvest this energy and the success back into not just the business, but you got to invest it in yourself, right, like what got us to those opportunities was. I was just telling you that my this, this journey of learning that I started about in 2018, where I started listening to books. Just two years into it, we got this first breakthrough of RepStack starting out. So I wanted to double down on that. So that learning thing kind of like you know, now I'm in sixth year of that learning, learning one to two hours of something new every single day. That has aggregated Now the fitness stuff has aggregated and all of that stuff.
Azhar Siddiqui:
Now that we see that now we can take this stuff and apply that really effectively back into our business, it just gives us, like my brothers are doing all over the place. We're in different continents, sometimes different countries, but we're connected all the time with our workout routines. We're taking care of ourselves. We know if we're taking care of ourselves, you know business is going to be the easy part because we enjoy that so much. So, yeah, I think, and yeah, that's, that's probably what it is it's. You know, you, the more success you get, the better you're going to get at this stuff as well. You're going to learn to connect the dots and you're going to say that, hey, this is something that has to be done. I don't think it's the 90s and the 80s where you can just go off and do these crazy things and grow a business and just let go of yourself completely. All the leaders that we see right now who are doing something great, are really prioritizing themselves as well. Jeff Bezos' case in point 100%.
Dr. William Attaway:
Well, it's a holistic view. It's understanding that you are not just one aspect of your life, you are all of the aspects of your life. It's a holistic way of looking at yourself. And what does health and vitality really mean? If you're just healthy and vital in one area in your business, is that enough to carry the rest? And the answer is no, and we've seen enough people do that journey wrong that I think today we are more aware than ever. What are you?
Azhar Siddiqui:
bringing to the work life, then, right, like, what kind of energies are you bringing there? But, like, I would rather bring this energy that I built up over the first six hours of my day into the business and pass this over, right, and then I'm like I'm really exhausted at the end of it. But that's what you want, right, like you want to have a good day every single day. You don't want to wait for the weekend.
Azhar Siddiqui:
Hey, it's going to be Saturday and I'm going to go out and I'm going to have some fun, like it should be fun every single day, and this is kind of my hack for that. I love that.
Dr. William Attaway:
Ashar, you are a continual learner and we've talked about that. I've heard you say that several times through our conversations. I'm curious how do you stay on top of your game? How do you level up with new leadership skills that RepStack and your team and your clients are going to need you to have? I mean, you have to lead at a higher level today than you did two or three years ago, and that same thing is going to be true, even more so, two or three years from now. What are you doing?
Azhar Siddiqui:
to level up? Yeah, that's a great question and I think for us as business leaders, this is a non-negotiable Like. Leveling up has to be a part of our DNA, it has to be a part of our day-to-day. Like you know, my days are like involved, like I said, in my morning routines. My learnings are there. So, on any given day, between one to two hours of an audience is a must for me and I've made that a part of my daily routine. Where, you know, like my, I don't have as elaborate of a library, but my library in the virtual world is growing now and I'm real proud of that. That's awesome and I think that's how I level up. And I also like to work with a lot of coaches. People like you, like I got an opportunity to coach with you, have in a mastermind with you where I got some great nuggets. So that's also fear on the fire, learning from people.
Azhar Siddiqui:
Another thing that I do is a cool hack that I've recently started implementing has been working phenomenally is that I'm just, you know, people that I see on a daily basis, like at my gym, like when I go there first thing in the morning, 6am. These are some of the most disciplined people in the city then doing some amazing work right. So I see all these fit people and I try to say hi to them and that has led to making some phenomenal friendships people helping me out, me working out with the right people. You know people who are like. I've been running for the last 13 years but I recently said hi to a gentleman, an older gentleman, who was wearing these running shoes, because I know a little bit about running shoes I'm like nice shoes and that led to me running with some world-class marathoners right now. So I'm two to three days a week I'm training with these world cross marathoners now and my times that for the life of me I couldn't get my 5k, which is about 3.2 miles, under 30 minutes. I've been running 13 years and just six months working with these guys I'm down to 27 minutes and 23 seconds. Oh, that's awesome and that's because I'm learning from the best right, like working with coaches and mentors. So that's phenomenal.
Azhar Siddiqui:
You just got to look for the right person who's going to be the right fit for you, and that relentless learning of books whether it's podcasts, audio books and all of that stuff and relentlessly working on yourself. I think that's how kind of you know that's a part of my life. I look forward to those things every single day, like if it's going to be a drag for you. Then there's something that my mental connection is still not there, but you want to get it to a point where it's a vicious circle. It's just feeding like. I learned this. I applied my work, I don't have a good work day, I come back, I learned something else and it just feeds itself and just I can't get enough of it.
Azhar Siddiqui:
So so good, I don't know that's so good, I'm sounding like crazy person right now, but that's good.
Dr. William Attaway:
No, no, I think you're sounding like somebody who is in a perpetual posture of learning. You have what I call a teachable spirit and you are looking for opportunities to learn and grow everywhere you go.
Azhar Siddiqui:
Yeah, we were playing this. Another example, right? So we were. We did our first leadership offsite in September. So we took our leadership team on a golf course and none of us have really, really had too much experience with golfing and stuff like that, but we had the opportunity to have these caddies with us and none of the teams that we people I was with they didn't rely on any of the caddies, but these guys knew the course really well, they know how to play the golf really well. And I just started I'm like, hey, man, can you tell me what I'm doing wrong over here? And I just like, every time I, before hitting shot and long behold, just in that one game, you know, I came out top three and it's that easy right, like, it's not rocket science.
Azhar Siddiqui:
You just work with the right people. But your mindset has to be there, like you know. You have to be in perpetual like you said, perpetual state of learning. You need to be open all the time. You know, sometimes it's going to be stuff that you would not want to do, like my diet right now and my I hear that and you know. But we get the job done right, like, and that's right.
Azhar Siddiqui:
And another one last thing on this thing is leveling up is also you gotta fall in love with the hard things, and I think that's another thing that I've changed over the course of last 10 years is that, especially over the last four years now, with this thing growing up, I don't have time for any bs, so I lean into the hard stuff now. So if there is a corner, if something's bothering me, I'm gonna go tackle it immediately. That's why I go and, like you know, nearly kill myself in the morning. I know like doing at the squat track at 7 am or 6 30 in the morning. You know doing those bulgarian split squats, because I might as well do the hard things myself before you know, and that also helps me with pressure and all that stuff.
Azhar Siddiqui:
But leaning into hard stuff, if it's something's bothering you, that means that's your body's sign of telling you that you gotta go take care of that. And if you don't do that, then you know it's just going to pent up, it's going to build up, build up. It's going to be way more than you need it. So I've been just hitting stuff, the difficult stuff first, and that's been working really, really well. And then, before you know it, you fall in love with that stuff, right Like my workout routine. I can't stay away from it anymore.
Intro/Outro:
My learning. I'm addicted to it.
Azhar Siddiqui:
So, before you know it, the hard things become easy stuff. You look forward to those things every day.
Dr. William Attaway:
Love that. You know you've mentioned several books and several authors while we've been in this conversation. I'm curious is there one that stands out that you would love to recommend to the leaders who are listening? If you haven't read this? This author you got to check this out.
Azhar Siddiqui:
Yeah, that's a very good question. I'm really excited about learnings and maybe I would like to give you just a couple, if you don't mind.
Azhar Siddiqui:
Please, no, please, okay, so here's my top one, and this one is for mindset and, I think, mastery, by Robert Greene is my all-time favorite for really, really, really dialing in the mindset when it comes down to how work should be done and the ownership of work. My favorite there is Extreme Ownership by Jaco Willings how fast a business, your scale and how effective you should be at executing. I think I really love the bezos letters and I think I can add the amazon way to that as well the book you recommended, and uh. And then on the business side, all of these are really related to business as well, but, like you know for especially for agencies, I love Never Lose an Employee Again and Never Lose a Customer Again by Joey Coleman. Both of those books are really really good. So you know, that's my all time favorites these days. I have so many more. Like, I love biographies. I love Phil Knight's the Shoe Dogs yes, yes, that's a phenomenal biography, but these ones are top of the list these days.
Dr. William Attaway:
We will have links to all of those in the show notes. Thank you for sharing those. You're welcome, Azhar. This has been such a great conversation and I know our listeners are going to want to stay connected to you and continue to learn from you and more about what RepStack is doing and how it can serve them and their business. What's the best way for folks to do that?
Azhar Siddiqui:
Just go to our website, repstackco, and check us out. You'll probably find a VSL from me. And then, if you just want to reach out to me, my Instagram is at Siddiqui Azhar S-I-D-D-I-q-u-i-a-z-h-a-r and um, and yeah, so just reach out to me. If you have a question, send it over to me on instagram. If you want to check out what we do at rep stack, go to rep stackcom. Yeah, and it's great pleasure here. It did not feel like, uh, you know I had to to do anything extra. It's just natural and that's what you want to do, I think, and that's where I want to spend more time every single day with people like William. You, where, like it doesn't feel like work. It's just natural progression of my day and I get to finish my day on such an amazing high note and having this conversation with you. So thank you for that.
Dr. William Attaway:
Well, thank you for sharing so openly today and so freely from what you've learned so far and I know your best days are still to come, man. I can't wait to see what's going to happen next.
Azhar Siddiqui:
Thank you. I look forward to seeing you next time, and real soon.
Dr. William Attaway:
Thanks for joining me for this episode today. As we wrap up, I'd love for you to do two things. First, subscribe to this podcast so you don't miss an episode, and if you find value here, I'd love it if you would rate it and review it. That really does make a difference in helping other people to discover this podcast. Second, if you don't have a copy of my newest book, catalytic Leadership, I'd love to put a copy in your hands. If you go to catalyticleadershipbookcom, you can get a copy for free. Just pay the shipping so I can get it to you and we'll get one right out.
Dr. William Attaway:
My goal is to put this into the hands of as many leaders as possible. This book captures principles that I've learned in 20 plus years of coaching leaders in the entrepreneurial space, in business, government, nonprofits, education and the local church. You can also connect with me on LinkedIn to keep up with what I'm currently learning and thinking about. And if you're ready to take a next step with a coach to help you intentionally grow and thrive as a leader, I'd be honored to help you. Just go to catalyticleadershipnet to book a call with me. Stay tuned for our next episode next week. Until then, as always, leaders choose to be catalytic.
Intro/Outro:
Thanks for listening to Catalytic Leadership with Dr William Attaway. Be sure to subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts so you don't miss the next episode. Want more? Go to catalyticleadershipnet.
