John D. Saunders is passionate about digital marketing and helping businesses make the most of their online presence. Listen for ideas, tips, tricks, and loads of wisdom about: -SEO and how it's changed -Repurposing Content and catering to YOUR preferences and style -The value of long form content -The 80/20 rule for social media sharing -Taking a lead from awareness to a purchase -John's favorite tools that anyone can use in digital marketing...
Nov 15, 2018•26 min
Hear how Anna Wolf, CEO of SuperScript Marketing, has been growing her company. She shares: - How she chose her niche - Why finding valuable team members is a challenge, but worth pursuing - How she knows her value to her market - How she and her team created their own "Playbook," a unique resource that helps clients know if their content marketing is delivering results - Why metrics matter for content marketers
Oct 13, 2018•34 min
In this episode, hear from Proportion Design partner, Blake Goodwin. Blake shares how Proportion, a branding agency, runs their business. Blake shares his thoughts on: -when it’s necessary to lean on a contact -how long a typical project lasts for Proportion -how Proportion Design determines if a client will be a right fit (or not!) -the internal team structure that allows for the best client experience -the early collaborative process and the deliverables involved Blake also shares his niche an...
Aug 14, 2018•32 min
In episode 80, Jason Blumer and his guest, Jeremiah Smith of Simple Tiger, cover areas related to SEO and beyond, including: - How SEO relates to inbound marketing - The value of SEO to clients - The importance of permission marketing - Why he decided to choose one service (SEO) and commit to being excellent in that one area - How Simple Tiger educates clients on getting the most value from the traffic they get - The role of ethics in an SEO firm - Researching key words - Maximizing the value of...
Jun 17, 2018•36 min
In Episode 79, Jason Blumer speaks with Chris Vogel. Chris defines his company as a one man agency. He explains the difference between his model and a freelancing model. Chris is a picture of intentionality in business. He can articulate each decision he has made. Learn about Chris' love of process and his Instruction Maps, why he intends to remain a small agency, his definition of a brand, and the importance of his onboarding process.
May 15, 2018•31 min
Mike Lieberman shares with us how companies need to adjust their marketing strategy today, even compared to the strategies of just a few years ago. He also explains the relationship between sales and marketing and what it REALLY means to the customer. Mike shares the meaning behind his title (Chief Revenue Scientist), the model his agency uses to serve clients, how they manage retainers in a way that pleases the client, and more.
Apr 11, 2018•36 min
In this episode, Jason Blumer is honored to speak with Joe Erwin of Erwin Creates and Endeavor. Joe shares the story of how he co-founded Erwin Penland and lessons learned throughout his career. Joe shares a few items from his list of what to do and what not to do as you grow your agency, including one item that actually made BOTH lists. From Joe's list of dos and don'ts, he explains why it is great to start some traditions and why you shouldn't waste time with negative people, which leads to th...
Mar 14, 2018•34 min
Hear Kade Wilcox tell the story, and lessons learned, of how he grew Primitive Social from a 2 person team to a 30+ person, multi-million dollar company in 6 years. Kade shares his thoughts on the value of a strong team, how he found and chose a partner, the impact hiring quickly has had on the company and culture, the challenge of finding people with the right skill level, and how to add new layers of leadership to their growing team.
Feb 13, 2018•37 min
Design Extensions is an 18 year old company that has grown each year. Hear Jay Owen describe how that growth happened, and how he knew to implement intentional changes so that growth could continue. Jason and Jay also discuss what is great but also difficult about growing a company. They focus on topics like culture, hiring, business structure, their favorites books and tools, and leadership. Also learn about Design Extension's core values and how they shape everything the company does, both int...
Jan 12, 2018•36 min
Jason Blumer and Keith Shields discuss a number of topics including: how Designli is able to build custom apps with fixed pricing why customer education is so important from the beginning of the relationship Designli's modular approach the two types of clients Designli serves why Keith believes the freelance model breaks down quickly why hiring the right people is so important in a service based company
Dec 13, 2017•36 min
Marc Avila and Lysa Miller share their knowledge in the areas of: -staying on the same page as partners -why they chose to significantly prune their client base and the effect that had on their bottom line -responding to growth and growing in a sustainable way -why they focused on building a stronger leadership team over sales when they hit a growth ceiling -why they decided to stay involved with their own business development -how they help clients see the value they add with their services -ho...
Nov 10, 2017•35 min
Mickey Mellen shares how he and his partner, Ali Green, started their agency and how they work as partners. He also shares the role of risk in their decisions, why they have chosen to keep their team at its current size, and how they hire. Also hear Mickey's passion for the design community and why he began hosting meetups in the Atlanta area to build community with those who are normally competitors.
Oct 15, 2017•33 min
Dan Rundle is the CEO of Worthwhile, a 20+ year old software development agency. In this episode, Jason Blumer and Dan cover a number of topics including: -Why Worthwhile eliminated several types of service to focus on software development three years ago -The challenges of developing software (scoping projects, meeting objectives, etc.) -How Worthwhile spends their time at the beginning of a project in order to guarantee their clients that they can create an accurate timeline, budget, and deliv...
Sep 15, 2017•36 min
Adam shares his story of freelancer to leader of a team at Image Conscious Studios. Topics included in this episode: -How Adam's relationship with design has changed -How Adam, as the owner, works with the Project Manager at ICS -Why finding the right cultural fit in new team members matters at ICS -How the creative team at ICS works with clients
Aug 15, 2017•33 min
Ashleigh Ferran, TJ Cichecki, and Abe Garcia share key learning around becoming partners and the challenges of building authentic brands. They address several topics including: - how they decided to become partners - the work they did to start their partnership out right, including discussing how it would end - why merging companies isn't an automatic fast track to bigger or faster sales - the book that helped them create the living document that guides their partnership - how Workhorse helps to...
Jul 14, 2017•34 min
GuavaBox began like many agencies, with strong roots in web design. It didn't take long for Gray MacKenzie and his partner to realize they wanted to go all in with the inbound philosophy and begin partnering with Hubspot, which led to more leads and closing more deals. In this episode hear how GuavaBox developed their own internal process/project management software called DoInbound, which is now their biggest focus. DoInbound exists to help other agencies serve their clients. Jason and Gray dis...
Jun 14, 2017•34 min
Hear Thom Vest of Studio Seven Consulting share his ideas on a number of topics including: -how his company uses experiences to mobilize influencers for brands -why deciding on a golden purpose at the beginning of a project is critical -who makes up a dream team at Studio Seven Consulting -the role of analytics in building a successful campaign -why he still stays hands on with each client his company serves
Jun 01, 2017•31 min
Agency Labs is like a swiss army knife for agencies, providing just the right tool at the right time. By finding a major pain point in the design and agency world (and solving it), they found that they can serve agencies of any size with their technology and development needs, helping them to get off the production roller coaster. In this episode, hear Jonathan Soares describe why they don't do remote work, why they work with agency partners only, and how avoiding emotional decisions and remaini...
May 17, 2017•35 min
Raven and Finch helps companies build brands with music and sound, sometimes working directly with clients and sometimes consulting with other branding agencies. Some of the topics discussed in this episode: -Profile and profit projects -The role of digital and technology in musical composition -Helping companies clarify what they hope to achieve with music -Understanding the importance of a competitor’s musical brand -Sound logos -Hearing as an untapped sense in branding -What we can learn abou...
Apr 26, 2017•38 min
Rob and Gavin share their journey as leaders individually and as CEOs of Artifact Group. Having recently celebrated thriller company’s tenth anniversary, we discuss how growing to a 60 team member company has required adjustments to their strategies. We also discuss: -What kind of work is so important that even clients can’t interrupt it -How they have transitioned from doing design work (client work) to leading a team -How developing a product for agencies affected them internally and why it be...
Apr 05, 2017•47 min
Coming from the digital web side of an agency, Luke Summerfield learned that there are a lot of problems in how agencies deliver web deliverables to their clients. After some extensive research, Luke discovered that delivering websites is often unprofitable for an agency. He began to explore how this service could be delivered more profitably, and successfully, and came up with the minimum viable website (a name that did not resonate well with clients!). This idea morphed into experiments within...
Mar 15, 2017•33 min
We glean huge amounts of information from Mlicki's 15 years of experience in his agency (that has been around for 44 years!). We dive into how Rattleback made decisions around their positioning, and how trying to nail your positioning is always a moving target. We discuss why he chose to focus on a professional services niche, which led to many other questions: - what services are you providing to a narrow niche and is it perceived as more valuable just because you are niched? - does your agency...
Jan 14, 2017•37 min
We asked Maria Rapetskaya some great questions about serving narrowly: - why would you narrowly define your services? - is their fear in saying no to a broader range of services? - does narrowly defined services mean you are paid like an expert? - how did you start out working with such large clients? Maria was also brave enough to share her history of building companies, her failures, and the solid lessons she learned that makes her successful now. And she shares a beautiful balance between doi...
Dec 20, 2016•35 min
We discuss 2 key problems a lot of agency owners face: (1.) they don't understand their financial metrics ('Agency Math'), and (2.) the agency owner is too entrenched in the day to day operations of the agency. AMI helps agencies solve these problems. Here are some key ways to build a better agency: - agency owners must move into their client's sales funnel, and begin helping their clients not only with websites and branding, but sales creation and documentation. - after assisting with the sales...
Oct 30, 2016•34 min
In this episode, we discuss Kevin Hoffman's view on the Freelancer vs. the Agency. Which one should you be? Both? Neither? The Experienced Freelancer (aka independent design consultants) can do what agencies do because their network is so deep, and their overhead is so low. Those working in a design business on their own can build amazing teams, and still work with Fortune 100 clients. Maybe you can too. Other topics discussed: - freelancers as mercenaries, - freelancers may take orders, but ind...
Sep 24, 2016•41 min
In this episode, we discuss: - whether you should specialize in target markets, or strategic services - what integrated marketing actually is - creating services by trial and error - delivering a full brand experience for a client - how to chose what services you offer, and what to say no to - performing up front persona discovery to develop a brand - discussions on project vs. recurring revenue
Sep 09, 2016•31 min
In this episode, we cover agency growth questions like: - What is an agency? - What hinders an agency from growing? - Should agencies consider merging or selling? - Should agencies sell out to Facebook, Google, and IBM?
Aug 10, 2016•27 min
We talk about how to move out of freelancing, watching project and financial trends so you'll know when to hire, the value of migrating to a CRM to monitor your sales funnels, and moving revenue from project-based to retainer-based. The last half of the podcast was about a pricing ideal Tim discovered called Golden Mean Pricing. This pricing is the perfect point between two extremes, and you can get the free eBook and Excel tool at the link below.
Jul 25, 2016•43 min
In the last half of the podcast, Jason and Brad talk through what it means to truly build culture through intense change in an agency. Brad talks through the creative way they have developed their core values to balance each other, and the three key components any good list of core values has. Other topics discussed are: - delegating as you grow your business, - managing change and maintaining culture through change, and - using social media channels to attract new talent and new clients....
Jun 25, 2016•37 min
Hear how Grain & Mortar prices their projects, and how that relates to their project management processes. Here Kristin's view on tracking time, how they actually scope projects while they price it, and how the technical partners are also involved in the up front pricing.
May 25, 2016•37 min
