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© 2024 Agency Life
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Real stories from digital agencies about their journeys, the successes that defined them, and the failures they overcame. We talk about the highs and lows—and everything in between—on this crazy, roller coaster ride that is Agency Life.
53 Episodes
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As the saying goes, “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.” But what if you’re killing your culture without even realizing it? Cas Majid, multiple-time agency founder & CEO of Wow Group, an agency to agencies, found himself in a similar situation. Realizing where one leadership habit was creating a nearly toxic work environment in his agency. In today’s conversation with Cas, you’ll hear: The culture-killing habit that lead to lower team morale & less client satisfactionT...
AI is disrupting every industry and maybe it’s caused a shake up or 2 in your agency over the last year. But there’s an opportunity that most agencies are likely overlooking. That’s according to today’s guest, Richard Banfield. Richard is a veteran of agency life, a self-described recovering CEO, multiple time author, now an investor and advisor. He was the co-founder of Acceleration, which was purchased by WPP several years back. In today’s conversation with Richard, you’ll hea...
Scientific research shows there are common parts of your deck design and delivery that are causing your agency's pitches to fall on deaf ears. As today’s guest, Tom Martin explains, in some cases, that’s pretty close to literally true: your potential clients aren’t even hearing the words in your pitch as you deliver it. Tom fell into business development during his early days of business development and now as the founder of Converse Digital, he helps agencies of all sizes turn conve...
There’s a role in your agency that has a bigger impact on your bottom line than you realize. Project Managers are often thought to “just” deliver client projects on time, on scope and on budget. But if you aren’t thinking bigger than that “just” mentality, you could be missing the impact of this important role on your agency’s profitability. Galen Low, Co-Founder of The Digital Project Manager, has led numerous agency teams–with time spent on everything from project management to busi...
They increased lead conversion by 300%, they broke out of their agency’s growth slump and are now able to take on more right-fit clients for their agency. How did Sean Sweet and his team at Blend Marketing achieve all that from one year to the next? They made a hard decision that most agencies avoid. One that you might think would limit your agencies growth and ability to win new clients. In today’s conversation, you’ll learn: The decision this agency made that helped them avoid a fin...
If your agency does creative work, it’s easy to think that WHAT you deliver to your clients is all that matters. But according to Guy Bauer, Founder of Umault, a B2B video ad agency, that’s only half of the client satisfaction equation. The other half is something we neglect all the time. In today’s conversation, you’ll learn: The hidden reason clients become unhappy, even when you’re delivering great workWhat the Domino’s Pizza Tracker can teach us about managing client projec...
Have you ever dealt with a client that was acting a little…client-ey? They’d demand you drop everything to meet at a moment’s notice. Maybe they’d beat you up over price all the time. Maybe, they were the type of client whose demands just kept escalating. If you’ve dealt with clients acting this way, you’re not alone. In a special episode of the podcast, we celebrate the launch of the 2nd installment of The Client by sharing 7 stories from agencies leaders who’ve dealt wi...
Is your agency leaving nearly 2/3rds of your new client acquisition up to chance? If so, you’re not alone. But it doesn’t have to be that way. According to research from WordStream, 60% of most new agency clients are coming from a channel that you can’t directly control, let alone scale. That scary stat is exactly what today’s guest is helping agencies avoid by building a portfolio of offers you can use to drive more inbound leads and create a re-usable marketing asset that pays for ...
Your life as an agency owner is crazy–you’re hiring (and probably firing), doing business development, meeting with clients, preparing pitch decks, trying to lead your team and a million other things. But, did you know there are only 5 things you should be spending your time on–if you want to successfully scale or sell your agency? Jason Swenk is the Founder of Agency Mastery 360, whose system has helped over 10,000 agencies successfully scale. Jason's had successful agency exi...
Do you feel like something’s not working in your agency? You’ve got processes that are outdated (or just plain not documented). You’ve got tools that aren’t the right fit or you’re not getting enough out of. Even though you feel the need for change, it terrifies you. If so, you’re not alone, I was at an agency-focused conference in Denver just a few weeks back, and several agency owners I spoke with said that they knew they needed to make a change with a major software platform that helps ru...
Agency clients often want more strategic consulting from the agencies they hire. At the same time, many agencies feel like the services they’re delivering are often undervalued by the clients they serve. If both of these are true, then why are so many agencies caught in what Pete Caputa calls the “Tactician’s Trap” where it feels like you’re on an endless hamster wheel selling implementation services without being valued for the strategic insights you can provide to your clients. Toda...
He went from working 70-80 hour weeks to building a 7-figure agency with 50% profit margins while only working about 1 hour per week. Today he’s the founder of GrowthDaily.com & AgencyReviews.io & he’s known by his 45,000 followers on X as @MarketingMax, but several years ago he was an agency co-owner struggling to make the sort of money he wanted to make (and enjoy the work in the process). That’s when a timely LinkedIn post came across his feed & recommended a book that change...
How can you leverage thought leadership to gain new followers, win new clients, keep them longer and increase referrals for your agency? Susan Baier, Founder of Audience Audit, where they help agencies create thought leadership content based on quantitative research that builds trust with potential clients, has seen thought leadership done well (with great results) and has seen it done poorly (with wasted time and money). Based on her team’s on research into the topic, in today’s conversati...
Over 1/3 of agencies frequently struggle with overservicing clients. You’ve likely felt the pain yourself. When projects are going well out of scope and things are taking longer than your team planned, it can have a major impact on your agency’s profitability. Alyson Caffrey, Founder & COO of Operations Agency, has identified the 5 biggest scoping mistakes across dozens of agencies that are often leading to this overservicing problem–and ultimately underperforming profit margins. &...
Clients who are “happy” may still leave you. But clients who are seeing results–and seeing them fast? Now, that increases the value you deliver and decreases the chances that new clients will churn. So, how did this digital marketing agency drive client results 70% faster, increase customer satisfaction scores and start getting glowing feedback from more clients? It was all about strategy. More specifically, they did away with the old divide between their strategy and client service...
Isn’t it refreshing when someone further down the path is willing to share the successes AND failures they’ve seen along the way? That’s exactly the type of conversation you’ll get from today’s episode with Eric Siu, CEO of Single Grain, Founder of Leveling Up and Co-Host of the top-ranked Marketing School Podcast. Eric’s journey has taken him from having “no idea how to run a business” at 27 to now having scaled his agency into 8-figures, all while building a media brand, authoring a book ...
Today he runs an agency doing $25MM in ARR with around 150 employees. But–as the story usually goes–this success didn’t come overnight & started with much more humble beginnings. From not getting paid by one of his first clients to gaining traction with small monthly retainers on Fiverr to now running a successful performance marketing agency for SaaS companies, Garrett Mehrguth, CEO of Directive, has learned a forecasting model that’s allowed him to scale his agency well be...
It can be terrifying to allow your clients to “see how the sausage is made,” and this is one of the main concerns related to handling client communications within your project management or professional service automation software. While there are benefits to streamlining your client communications and inviting them into the system that runs your agency–benefits like visibility, client perception & efficiency–each of those benefits comes with some pretty intimidating risks. What if inte...
Wanna know how a 200-person agency reduced churn by 50% from one year to the next? Even though Hawke Media is one of the most successful marketing agencies in the United States and they’ve scaled to hundreds of millions in annual revenue, their journey hasn’t been without bumps in the road. At the beginning of 2022, they saw client churn on the rise and their CEO, Erik Huberman, knew he had to adjust their strategy to address a new challenge. In today’s conversation, you’ll hear from...
What’s one mistake you’ve made as an agency leader you’ll never forget? Several guests on this show have shared the same exact answer: “I wish I’d invested in my own financial literacy sooner!” But, what financial metrics should you focus on the most? Even if you answer that question—how do you (and your team) impact those financial metrics that matter most for your agency? To answer these questions, in today’s episode, you’ll hear from Ryan Watson from Upsourced Accounting, ...
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