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Second in Command: The Chief Behind the Chief with Cameron Herold

Ep.521 - Ruby Digital COO Ebert Grobler Explains How “Grow People, Grow Profit” Built a Thriving Culture

Second in Command: The Chief Behind the Chief with Cameron Herold

Second in Command with Cameron Herold

Management, Careers, Entrepreneurship, Business

4.9 • 224 Ratings

🗓️ 23 October 2025

⏱️ 38 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In this episode of the Second in Command Podcast, Cameron Herold sits down with Ebert Grobler, COO and co-founder of Ruby Digital, one of South Africa’s top-ranked digital agencies now expanding across the globe.

Ebert, who is a COO Alliance member, shares how his company has achieved near-perfect team retention and why their internal mantra—“Grow People, Grow Global, Grow Profit”—has fueled both performance and culture. From developing a system called The Ruby Way to empowering every team member to operate like an entrepreneur, Ebert breaks down how Ruby Digital builds sustainable high performance without burnout.

He also explains how they’ve turned retention, trust, and human connection into a competitive advantage in a saturated market and why premium service is still one of the rarest differentiators in the U.S. marketing landscape.

Timestamped Highlights

 [00:01:45] – Why Ruby Digital is expanding from South Africa into the U.S.

[00:05:25] – The surprising gap in the U.S. market: quality and retention.

[00:08:12] – How Ruby Digital achieves 95–100% staff retention.

[00:10:20] – Creating “The Ruby Way”: an operating system built on trust.

[00:12:45] – Letting employees act like entrepreneurs without the risk.

[00:16:00] – “Step Up”: the six-month advancement model that keeps people growing.

[00:18:30] – Guardrails against burnout: scorecards, balance wheels, and wellbeing KPIs.

[00:22:40] – Why culture drives premium client delivery.

[00:25:05] – How Ebert measures success: Grow People → Grow Global → Grow Profit.

[00:27:15] – Ruby’s philosophy: manage risk, not just marketing.

[00:30:10] – B2B growth: focusing on long-term relationships, not quick wins.

[00:33:25] – The “SMC client” model—serving sophisticated, mature companies.

[00:36:10] – How much companies should invest in marketing (and why most don’t).

[00:41:10] – Ruby’s 15% marketing reinvestment and in-house client mindset.

[00:45:30] – Turning unused leads into referral revenue.

[00:48:10] – The biggest lesson from failure: trust is earned, not given.

Resources & Mentions


About the Guest

Ebert Grobler is the COO and co-founder of Ruby Digital, a global performance marketing agency headquartered in South Africa with hubs in the U.K. and U.S. A former communication-science student turned “human-systems engineer,” Ebert is known for creating organizational models that blend business growth with human sustainability. Under his leadership, Ruby Digital has been recognized as one of the Top 20 Companies to Work For in South Africa by the U.K. Sunday Times and continues to redefine what it means to run a people-first, performance-driven company.

🔗 LinkedIn | Website

Important Links


Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

where our focus has come in. So 40% retention rate in the US on average. That's what the state

0:06.2

suggests. On the contrast, we have been able to retain 100% of our senior management for more than

0:13.5

three years. We have retained more than 95% of our mid to senior staff for more than five years. And that kind of continuity

0:22.1

just allows you to build a culture of excellence. Welcome to the Second in Command podcast,

0:34.3

produced by the C-O Alliance and brought to you by its founder, Cameron Harold. In the

0:39.8

second in command podcast, we talk to top COOs who share the insights, strategies, and tactics

0:46.0

that made them the chief behind the chief. And now, here's your host, Cameron Harold.

0:55.7

All right, buckle up for today's episode with Ebert Grobler. He's the C-O-O and co-founder

1:00.1

of Ruby Digital, a South African-based company. He's also a C-O Alliance member flying all the way

1:06.0

from South Africa to Boston to attend one of our in-person COO Connect events.

1:13.8

He's the co-founder and group COO of Ruby Digital.

1:19.7

Ebert's all about shaking up the 9-5 grind using tech to supercharge how we work and live.

1:24.4

With his wife and kids as his rock, he's led global performance marketing powerhouses across the USA, the UK, and South Africa with 20 years of epic growth

1:28.7

and innovation under his belt. He's also delivered jaw-dropping results like 10x revenue spikes

1:33.6

and award-winning exits. Since joining Ruby Digital in 2021, he's fueled their rise to global

1:39.1

fame snagging titles like Specialist Internet Marketing Agency of the Year, and South Africa's top agency rank.

1:45.8

He's also a culture champ and the co-host of the Smart Marketing 2.0 podcast,

1:50.4

dishing out smart game-changing businesses.

1:52.9

Also, they run one of the top companies to work for in South Africa.

1:56.6

You're going to love this episode.

1:58.0

You can watch all of our episodes on our Second and Command podcast YouTube channel. Make sure you subscribe and share this episode with your friends and coworkers. We'll see you on the inside. So, Iber, welcome to the Second Command podcast. Thanks for having me, Cameron. Looking forward to this. It's funny, just before we went live, I kind of grabbed your accent right away that's South African. I don't even know if that was in your bio, and I probably missed it if I had read it earlier. But the fact that you're in South Africa, I was just there back in April and May, is your whole company, Ruby Digital, based in South Africa? Are most of your employees there, or is it just you that's there?

2:36.9

Most of our employees, but we're a multinational. We're registered in South Africa, UK, and we're currently wrapping up our international structure, and then we'll be registering our LLC in the US, but we're already operating out of two virtual hubs out of Atlanta,

...

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