As agency owners and leaders, we have 90 days to put 2020 to bed and get ready for 2021. To help you prepare, I’ve created a To Do list for every agency owner to work through in the 4th quarter. Use this checklist to dodge the landmines and give your agency a leg up for the new year. In this episode of Build A Better Agency, I’ll walk you through the To Do list I’ve built out based on what I call the four critical components of a profitable and growing agency. They are leadership, biz dev, getti...
Sep 28, 2020•54 min•Ep. 260
Ongoing professional development is a challenge in most agencies. It’s tough to gather the right tools/resources, some agency owners aren’t sure about how to make it happen and for most the biggest challenge is making the time. And yet we know that one of the critical elements of our agency’s ongoing success is that our team has to keep getting better. I am a firm believer that professional development is a shared responsibility, which means your employees should do some of it on their own time ...
Sep 21, 2020•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 259
Many of us have earned our MBAs in leadership over this past year. As we wrap up 2020, we have some ground to make up and we can’t do that alone. We need to inspire our teammates to rise to the occasion, overcome their personal speed bumps, and build momentum as we drive to the end of the year. Elise Mitchell’s experience running agencies and coaching business owners provides actionable clarity on how we get there. Elise Mitchell started Mitchell, her PR firm back in the nineties grew it to a se...
Sep 14, 2020•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 258
They say that the only thing we fear more than public speaking is death. That’s some pretty deep seeded fear! On top of the fear, many agencies want to leverage speaking as part of their biz dev strategy but there are so many questions. How do you get in front of the right audience? How do you capture email addresses from the stage? How do you convince event organizers that you have something of value to offer? The good news is – it’s not as scary or as hard as it might appear. We are itching to...
Sep 07, 2020•51 min•Ep. 257
Agency growth isn’t easy and it isn’t a given. It’s not because agency owners don’t want to build their agency to be sustainable, scalable, or sellable down the road. It’s because they consciously or unconsciously avoid putting systems and processes into place. Instead of having a “your agency name here” way, every one of your team members has their own way of serving clients and getting the work done. When you’re five people, that’s tolerable. But once you get past ten employees or so, that bre...
Aug 31, 2020•56 min•Ep. 256
There’s no doubt that covid is going to leave its mark. For most of us, it’s the most disruptive event of our lifetime. The question is – what are those lasting marks? In this solocast, I’m going to walk you the changes that I think are inevitable. Some of them are short term and others will be around for many years. The good news is – it’s not all bad news! We’re going to look at changes that will impact your staffing, your pocketbook, the work you do, what clients are demanding, and how your w...
Aug 24, 2020•50 min•Ep. 255
We all have experienced the membership economy. Disney+, Dollar Shave Club, and a wide variety of meal prep kits delivered to your door. But, does it work in the B2B or service delivery worlds? When we talk about the membership economy, we are talking about something much deeper than the transactional value of memberships and subscriptions we pay for each month. It’s about how we are treated and cared for by the businesses whose programs we join. As we think about how to strategically guide our ...
Aug 17, 2020•50 min•Ep. 254
Prior to the economic downturn in ‘07-’08, I worked with a lot of agency owners who were very adamant that they would never outsource any of their services. Then the recession hit. Agencies were forced to trim their payroll and job-out projects to 1099s and other partners. Today, 99% of the agencies I work with have a hybrid business model that incorporates some type of outsourcing. When done well, this is actually a benefit to your clients so the question becomes how can you make this work in y...
Aug 10, 2020•57 min•Ep. 253
This may be the most unorthodox episode of Build A Better Agency to date. When I met Amira Alverez, who helps agency owners and leaders really harness the power of the subconscious mind, I was intrigued and invited her to be a guest. But then she asked if she could turn the tables on me and do a coaching session with me – live – and we’d let all of you eavesdrop in on the session. I’ll admit, I was anxious about it. I didn’t want the episode to be about me. But Amira flipped the script and takes...
Aug 03, 2020•1 hr 12 min•Ep. 252
As agency owners, we are constantly searching for new ways to harness the power of persuasion and trigger an audience’s buy-button on behalf of our clients. Understanding what’s happening inside the consumer’s head and what drives their behavior is where that effort begins. We’ve always worked to understand how audiences in the past, but what if we could leverage data and science to crack the code and target the decision-making part of a prospect’s brain? As a neuroscientist and an agency owner,...
Jul 27, 2020•58 min•Ep. 251
In my 250th (man, how times flies!) episode of Build a Better Agency, we look at the next set of client and employee-focused trends from the 2020 Agency Trends Report, picking up where I left off in episode #245 , which was me walking you through the first half of the trends. The back half of the report covers everything from employee retention and happiness to the changing needs of your clients as they respond to current events. I am hoping these trends will give you a better idea of what we ca...
Jul 20, 2020•52 min•Ep. 250
Most agencies do not have a reliable sales strategy. They either rely on referrals or they employ what I call the feast or famine methodology. Neither strategy actually delivers consistent, profitable prospects or new clients. There’s a new, better way to sell for agencies. I’m a huge believer in an agency owning a position of authority and using it to make sales easier, faster and more profitable. That’s why Stephen Woessner and I wrote a book on the subject ! And it’s why I wanted to invite Mi...
Jul 13, 2020•59 min•Ep. 249
The Black Lives Matter movement has triggered a global conversation that has been a long time coming. Like other business owners, agency leaders are wrestling with the questions and concerns about racial equality in their agency and in our industry. How should our agencies respond internally and externally? The demand for conversations about racial equality is louder and more urgent now than it has ever been. Employment attorney and discrimination complaint investigator Jennifer Long has a scala...
Jul 06, 2020•1 hr 10 min•Ep. 248
There are very few agency owners who love biz dev. It’s time consuming, sometimes it feels like you are trying to target shoot in the dark, and you often end up settling for prospects that aren’t quite the right fit. But at least it’s a win! Your spidey senses are tingling and you know there’s trouble ahead but you ignore that little voice and forge ahead, hoping for the best. What if you could eliminate those near misses? I’m a firm believer that every agency should have a clear understanding o...
Jun 29, 2020•57 min•Ep. 247
Most agencies have yet to harness the power of data automation tools, and the numbers reveal a concerning reality. 60% of all agencies believe that they make at least 6 costly digital marketing mistakes on a client’s account every week. 33% of agencies have eaten between $5-$10,000 to fix a single campaign mistake. And it doesn’t get better with size. The number of mistakes nearly doubles when a digital agency scales from $1 million to $5 million in fees. And that’s not the most horrifying news ...
Jun 22, 2020•59 min•Ep. 246
The past three months have felt like a bad sci-fi movie. As agency leaders, most of us have navigated the economic struggles right after 9/11 and the great recession of 07-08’. But nothing has come close to the economic, health, and social impacts that we’ve experienced recently. But we need to stay smart and fight our way out of this economic slowdown. I want to share some trends that will help you do just that. COVID continues to be a major topic of discussion throughout the world. It is still...
Jun 15, 2020•46 min•Ep. 245
Most agency owners would put attorneys in the cost column. Until they get into legal trouble. Then, they quickly realize how much they could have ultimately saved if they’d been a little more proactive and worked with an attorney before they got into hot water. But with the right attorney who specializes in agencies and understands our world, you can navigate common legal obstacles while saving hundreds of thousands of dollars. My guest is AMI’s go to attorney, Sharon Toerek. Sharon’s depth of e...
Jun 08, 2020•58 min•Ep. 244
There are two questions plaguing agencies in the spring of 2020. The first is how are brands going to respond to covid when it comes to budgets, tackling new projects and their relationships with agencies. The second is how can the agency sensitively and successfully mine for new business while the world is trying to get back on its axis. Fortunately, RSW/US recently released a new study that answers both of these questions and is filled with more good news than you might expect. The first piece...
Jun 01, 2020•57 min•Ep. 243
The most popular relief loan in the US is the Paycheck Protection Program loan or PPP loan. Unfortunately, in a rush to get the funds out to agencies and other businesses, the Small Business Administration and Treasury Department forgot to define how the loan and its forgiveness will work. There’s a lot of grey area surrounding the PPP, so in this episode of Build a Better Agency, tax advisor Craig Cody joins me to explain what we do know and what we’re still waiting to discover. Craig is a Cert...
May 25, 2020•49 min•Ep. 242
Very few agency owners are giddy about the prospect of prospecting for new clients. It feels uncomfortable and unnatural. But what if it isn’t that they hate biz dev but that they just weren’t doing it in a way that aligns with their strengths? If sales felt comfortable and easy, wouldn’t you do more of it? In this episode of Build a Better Agency, we are joined by biz dev expert Jody Sutter of The Sutter Company, a new business consultancy that advises small agencies on organizing and operation...
May 18, 2020•52 min•Ep. 241
The panic around COVID lockdown is plateauing. The storm has certainly not passed, but we’ve navigated out of the panic stage and now everyone is realizing they need to get back to business. Whether you live someplace that is still sheltering in place or you are figuring out how to get back to the office — we have to sustain our business through this and come out on the other side. If we do it well, we can not only come out on the other side but we can come on stronger and better than ever. In t...
May 11, 2020•1 hr 22 min•Ep. 240
There’s always been a great debate among agency owners – does cold email work as a new business strategy. Many will argue that given SPAM filters and the volume of email that everyone gets, it’s impossible to break through and actually get the attention of someone in the C-suite. My guest Jeff Winters proves that belief wrong for his clients every day. But will it work for your agency? There’s always been a great debate among agency owners – does cold email work as a new business strategy. Many ...
May 04, 2020•54 min•Ep. 239
When you realize that this episode is about holding a virtual event, you might jump to the conclusion that this is a C19 focused episode. Nothing could be further from the truth. Virtual events have been successful for years and are always worth considering, pandemic or not! Agency owner Nicole Mahoney has always been an innovative marketer on behalf of her agency. Her podcast and other industry-specific content has positioned her agency as one of the country’s authorities on destination marketi...
Apr 27, 2020•54 min•Ep. 238
Agency owners are scrambling to take advantage of the CARES Act, and in particular the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans but there’s a lot we don’t know because there’s a lot that is not set in stone. There is a total lack of clarity around this how the PPP works – from application all the way through repayment and potential forgiveness. The 800-page act says one thing and the SBA says another. As I describe it in my conversation with guest Stephen Katz, we are repairing the plane while we...
Apr 20, 2020•53 min•Ep. 237
Agency owners wear many hats and certainly one of the most important is leader. There are days when that’s easy and even fun. And then, there are days like the ones we’ve been having lately, when the weight of that role can get pretty heavy. Our employees need us to guide them through these uncharted waters. And to do that, we need to stay calm, confident and compassionate. But how do you do that when you can’t even be in the same room. The current COVID crisis is pushing teams and agency leader...
Apr 13, 2020•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 236
Odds are you cannot remember a more tumultuous time in your agency. You probably endured through 9/11 but we understood what happened and why. You probably survived the 07-08 recession but we saw it coming and had time to plan and adjust. Covid-19 brings a rare and overwhelming combination of a health scare, human isolation, and an economic shutdown all in one fell swoop. No wonder you’re feeling a bit frantic. That’s why I’m worried about you. If you can’t stand strong through this, your agency...
Apr 06, 2020•45 min•Ep. 235
US and European based agency owners are fightly vigilantly as the coronavirus pandemic unfolds in their region of the world. It’s affecting agencies and their clients in significant ways. I’ve been talking to agency owners non-stop for the last two weeks and one thing is for sure – one agency’s experience is not like another’s. For some, business and AGI has never been better. In others, 50% of their AGI has walked out in less than ten days. I wanted to connect with an agency owner who had alrea...
Mar 30, 2020•1 hr 10 min•Ep. 234
Today’s episode is a twofer – and both topics are going to benefit your shop. The first is the idea of collaborating with your prospects to create content that is valuable for both of you. From there you can leverage that shared experience to create new opportunities for your agency. The second is how you can write that book you’ve been thinking about, despite how overloaded your calendar and life can be. My guest is James Carbary, the owner of Sweet Fish Media, a podcast-first media company. Ja...
Mar 23, 2020•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 232
There’s not a small business owner on the planet who isn’t concerned about how the coronavirus is going to impact their business, employees, clients, and family. Those worries are complicated by the fact that this is also a health risk to those you love. I can’t help with the health risk part – but I can help ease your fears about your business. We’re going to survive this together and in this episode, I am going to give you some tips and tactics to get you and your agency through this storm and...
Mar 16, 2020•42 min•Ep. 232
The more you know about a person, the easier it is to connect with them. One of the challenges when it comes to biz dev is that we really don’t know too much about the prospect we’re trying to build a relationship with, especially in the early stages of the sales pitch. But what if there was a way for you to gain those insights even if you’ve never met them in person? Charlie Poulson’s first job out of college was building PPT decks for one of the country’s largest agencies. That experience gave...
Mar 09, 2020•48 min•Ep. 231
