Build a Better Agency Podcast

Latest Episodes:

Episode 85: The Top Agency Trends of 2017 (Part 1), with Drew McLellan. May 22, 2017

Show notes

Drew McLellan is the Top Dog at Agency Management Institute. For the past 21 years, he has also owned and operated his own agency. Drew's unique vantage point as being both an active agency owner and working with 250+ small- to mid-size agencies throughout the year, give him a unique perspective on running an agency today. AMI works with agency owners by:

Leading agency owner peer groups
Offering workshops for owners and their leadership teams
Offering AE bootcamps
Conducting individual agency owner coaching
Doing on-site consulting
Offering online courses in agency new business and account service

Because he works with those 250+ agencies every year — he has the unique opportunity to see the patterns and the habits (both good and bad) that happen over and over again. He has also written two books and been featured in The New York Times, Entrepreneur Magazine, and Fortune Small Business. The Wall Street Journal called his blog "One of 10 blogs every entrepreneur should read."

What you'll learn about in this episode:

Why agency owners are confident again and why new business is easier to come by right now
The trend where talent inside agencies has become a scarce resource
What to do about having to hire underskilled employees
The challenge of providing clients with the right data
Having an answer when clients ask agencies about diversity
Opportunities for agencies with old school media
Why you have to be great at marketing automation

Ways to contact Drew McLellan:

Email: drew@agencymanagementinstitute.com

Episode 84: How to Solve Tough Problems, with Tim Sanders. May 15, 2017

Show notes

Tim Sanders is a veteran sales, marketing, and HR leader with expertise in sales collaboration, relationship management, leadership, and customer experience design. For almost 20 years, Tim Sanders has closed deals and led B2B sales teams to victory using his Dealstorming methodology. He was an early member of Mark Cuban's broadcast.com and then later, CSO at Yahoo during their best days. Today he consults with leading companies on how to drain their pipeline, secure major accounts, and beat the competition with teamwork. Financial Times calls his latest book, "Dealstorming: The Secret Weapon That Can Solve Your Toughest Sales Challenges" a 'force multiplier.' He gives some unconventional insights that just may get you to the finish line on your next big selling opportunity.

What you'll learn about in this episode:

Tim's start in sales working for a radio station
Dealstorming: how Tim took dealmaking and brainstorming and put them together
The difference between collaboration and cooperation
How to strategically build your dealstorm team
Turning your peer group into "competimates" that you can collaborate with to make each other stronger
Why you absolutely need diverse perspectives in the room (and why you should have an external voice on your dealstorm team)
The secrets to making your dealstorm meeting a magic meeting with results
New business through rapid problem solving
The hacker, the chef, and the artist: the three personas for solving different problems
How leaders lead culture

Ways to Contact Tim Sanders:

Website: timsanders.com
Free chapter of "Dealstorming": dealstorming.net/free

We're proud to announce that Hubspot is now the presenting sponsor of the Build A Better Agency podcast! Many thanks to them for their support!

Episode 83: How to Start Working on New Business, with Jake Jorgovan. May 08, 2017

Show notes

For several years Jake owned a video production agency. His business partner was the brilliant technician and he was the guy who got the agency the work. Jake landed multiple Fortune 500 clients and A-List touring artists by running a dream client campaign.

After leaving the video agency, Jake went out and worked as a digital marketing and web consultant for several years and eventually realized that he was much better at getting the work than he was doing it. At that point, Jake started pairing with other agencies to help them win more clients.

What you'll learn about in this episode:

Why you need to look at new business as an art form
How to get started getting better at new business
How to make the most of your time at conferences as it relates to new business
How to effectively follow up with contacts you make at conferences
How to stay top of mind with people who aren't ready to buy now
Why your prospect list can't be too big and why you need to stay very personal with them
Why strategic partnerships have gotten even more important as agencies become specialists
Why you need to carve out at least an hour a day for working on new business (and why it's a good idea to do it away from the office)
Why you need to figure out what your actionable objectives are and then break them down
How to get referrals that are exact fits for the kinds of clients you want

Ways to Contact Jake Jorgovan:

Website: Jake-Jorgovan.com
Upcoming book: WinYourDreamClients.com

Resources:

Blog: How to 10x the results from the next conference you attend by Jake Jorgovan

We're proud to announce that Hubspot is now the presenting sponsor of the Build A Better Agency podcast! Many thanks to them for their support!

Episode 82: How to Stay Top of Mind, with John Hall. May 01, 2017

Show notes

John Hall is co-founder and CEO of Influence & Co., a content marketing agency that helps companies and individuals extract and leverage their expertise to create, publish, and distribute content to their key audiences.

In five years, John has grown Influence & Co. into one of the largest providers of high-quality expert content to more than 1,000 of the world's top publications. Under John's leadership, Influence & Co. was ranked No. 72 on Forbes' "Most Promising Companies in America" list in 2014 and was named Empact's "Best Marketing and Advertising Company of 2014" at the United Nations. Influence & Co. was also recently mentioned in Inc. as the No. 1 company dominating content marketing.

John has weekly columns for Forbes and Inc. and has contributed to more than 50 publications, including Harvard Business Review, Fast Company, The Washington Post, and Mashable. John was recently recognized as a "must-see" and one of the most authentic speakers in Forbes. His talks have inspired thousands of leaders, marketers, salespeople, entrepreneurs, and others to improve their performance.

What you'll learn about in this episode:

John's new book "Top of Mind: Use Content to Unleash Your Influence and Engage Those Who Matter To You"
How John's book fits into his thought leadership strategy
Why staying top of mind is a great strategy for developing trust
Short-term to long-term memory: consistently engaging people so that they remember forever
Why you need to make yourself approachable
Why showing your failings and foibles does not diminish your thought leadership
Why you must understand what is truly helpful for individuals
Why you must help people without expecting anything in return
How to tell people how you helped them without it sounding self-serving
Why you shouldn't be too aggressive and should build a relationship over time
Why you need to start small with changing how you relate to others

Ways to Contact John Hall:

Email: john@influenceandco.com
Twitter: @johnhall
Website: www.influenceandco.com
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/johnhall4
Book: "Top of Mind: Use Content to Unleash Your Influence and Engage Those Who Matter To You"

EP 81: Brand positioning and becoming a category king with Christopher Lochhead Apr 24, 2017

Show notes

Christopher Lochhead is co-author of Harper Collins' instant classic "Play Bigger" and host of the Legends and Losers podcast.

Christopher is a retired three-time, Silicon Valley, public company CMO, entrepreneur and category designer. Fast Company Magazine calls him a "Human Exclamation Point and The Economist calls him "off-putting to some. He can recite much of The Big Lebowski but can't remember his wife's phone number. He's a proud advisor to nonprofit 1 Life Fully Lived, an ass-kicking public speaker, and surf / ski bum living happily ever after in Santa Cruz California with a wonderful tribe and 7 beautiful hens.

What you'll learn about in this episode:

Chris' career journey that took him from Silicon Valley CMO to coach to podcast host
Chris' book: "Play Bigger: How Pirates, Dreamers, and Innovators Create and Dominate Markets"
What category design is and why every agency needs to get great at it
Why "category" is as important as "product" and "company"
How to position your agency in a category that you can dominate
The two kinds of problems that need solving
The three questions to ask to start creating your category to dominate
The three ways service-based businesses make money
Why your client base may change after you define your category (and why that's perfectly okay)
Why your agency can still do work that doesn't fit exactly in your category if needed (the kids gotta eat!) as long as the perception of your agency stays within your category
Why legendary category designers always expand what they do
Why becoming a category king is going to take a leap of faith
And tons of examples of category kings that have done what it takes to stand out amongst the competition

Ways to Contact Christopher Lochhead:

Episode 80: Minority Partnerships – the Good, Bad and the Ugly, with Drew McLellan. Apr 17, 2017

Show notes

AMI works with agency owners by:

Leading agency owner peer groups
Offering workshops for owners and their leadership teams
Offering AE bootcamps
Conducting individual agency owner coaching
Doing on-site consulting
Offering online courses in agency new business and account service

What you'll learn about in this episode:

Why you need think long and hard before making employees partners
Why partnerships will look different if you're a C Corp than any other structure (S Corp, LLC, etc.)
Why you need to make sure someone actually wants to be a partner before you offer them a partnership
Why you need to sell shares and not gift shares
Why you should only bring on one partner at a time
Why -- if your employee doesn't have the skills they need to be a partner -- and they probably don't -- you need to teach them
Why it usually takes about 10 years to groom someone to take over for you
Why you really need to decide if you're ready for all of your autonomy to go away
How to finance partnerships (odds are they can't afford it on their salary)
How to start having the conversation about funding your buyout

Ways to contact Drew McLellan:

Email: drew@agencymanagementinstitute.com

Episode 79: How to Establish Yourself as a Thought Leader, with Aaron Agius. Apr 10, 2017

Show notes

Aaron Agius is one of the world's leading digital marketers according to Forbes. He is CEO of Louder Online, one of the world's leading digital agencies with a global reach.

Louder Online is an inbound marketing agency, working globally with clients such as Salesforce, IBM, Coca-Cola, Intel and scores of leading brands, showing them how to technically optimize their sites, perform influencer outreach and link acquisition and produce and distribute content that drives significant lead generation and ROI.

Aaron is a highly sought speaker at Search, Content Marketing and Growth Hacking and many other conferences around the globe including the U.S, U.K, Brazil, London and Australia. His passion to help businesses is driven from his own experience. Aaron was at the cutting edge of the emerging digital marketing field over 10 years ago. He uses that lived experience and now translates it into revenue for clients.

He is also a regular contributor to some of the world's largest editorial publications, including Entrepreneur.com, Hubspot.com and many more, with thought leadership on marketing and business growth.

What you'll learn about in this episode:

Why you absolutely must work on and invest in the business (no excuses!)
How Aaron established himself as a thought leader through guest blogging and what he would recommend doing today
Why you need high-quality proposal documents
Why you need to be cooperative rather than competitive with agencies that you share a client with
Why Aaron has created smaller sister agencies in other countries instead of using freelancers
Aaron's genius strategy for leveraging LinkedIn
How to prove the ROI of your work to a client
Why it's the CEO's job to stay on top of what's coming next
Resources that Aaron himself uses to stay current
How continually writing blogs, being on podcasts, hosting webinars, etc. helps you keep the clients you have
Why you have to write for readers, not search engines

Ways to Contact Aaron Agius:

Website: louder.online
Welcome page: louder.online/build
Twitter: @IAmAaronAgius
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/aaronagius
Blog: How the Pros Track Conversions and ROI With These Content Marketing Metrics

We're proud to announce that Hubspot is now the presenting sponsor of the Build A Better Agency podcast! Many thanks to them for their support!

Episode 78: How to Get Your Team to Work Well Together, with Marcus Blankenship. Apr 03, 2017

Show notes

Marcus Blankenship is a management consultant, trainer and executive coach for software managers and leaders. He helps companies hire the right people, create the right culture, and set up the right process which achieves their goals. Managing a team isn't something learned in college. In fact, his clients often tell him "I never prepared for this role, I always focused on doing the work." If you're ready to improve your leadership, process and team then you need to know Marcus.

What you'll learn about in this episode:

Why you must identify your high and low performers
Why you shouldn't be a passive-aggressive leader
Why you can't hire anyone you can't fire
Structured management: why you can't set people free without management and why you need to set up strong management systems when your agency is small
Why consistent one-on-one meetings are so crucial
What happens in your employee's head when you cancel a one-on-one meeting
How to create a safe environment where the people below you are willing to give you the feedback you need
Why you shouldn't let feedback sit more than a week
Marcus' one-on-one framework guide

Ways to Contact Marcus Blankenship:

Website: marcusblankenship.com
Email: marcus@marcusblankenship.com
Book: "7 Habits that Ruin your Technical Team"
Marcus' One-on-One Meeting Framework
Email list with articles on running your team, daily management tips and guides for running your team: marcusblankenship.com/list

We're proud to announce that Hubspot is now the presenting sponsor of the Build A Better Agency podcast! Many thanks to them for their support!

Episode 77: How to Blend Content and SEO, with John Jantsch. Mar 27, 2017

Show notes

John Jantsch is a marketing consultant, speaker, and author of "Duct Tape Marketing," "Duct Tape Selling," "The Commitment Engine," and "The Referral Engine." He is also the founder of the Duct Tape Marketing Consultant Network. His latest book, "SEO for Growth - The Ultimate Guide for Marketers, Web Designers, and Entrepreneurs," is changing the way the world thinks about SEO.

What you'll learn about in this episode:

The big changes SEO has undergone recently
Why you need to re-engineer a client's editorial approach when you're assisting them with an existing website
Some of John's favorite web/SEO tools
Why content and SEO can't be thought of as two different things
Big mistakes people make with SEO
How to charge for SEO and demonstrate ROI
How John uses an editorial calendar to plan and write all of his content
Why you need content built for every stage of the customer journey
Why SEO is all about consistency
Why backlinks are still important in 2017 and how to do them right without getting penalized
Resources that John recommends to grow your digital know-how

Ways to Contact John Jantsch:

We're proud to announce that Hubspot is now the presenting sponsor of the Build A Better Agency podcast! Many thanks to them for their support!

Episode 76: How to Fill Your Sales Pipeline with Quality Leads, with Dan Englander. Mar 20, 2017

Show notes

Dan Englander is the founder of Sales Schema, where he helps marketing agencies grow by way of done-for-you lead generation and consulting. He's the author of Mastering Account Management. Previously, as the first hire at the animation studio IdeaRocket, he brought the company from zero to seven figures, encompassing dozens of Fortune 500 clients.

What you'll learn about in this episode:

How Dan helps agencies fill their sales pipelines
Why you can't rely on referrals from your network for sales
Why creating content is not a sales strategy
Why you need to systematize pipeline work and why you need to allot daily time for working on your pipeline
Honing in on a particular niche when generating leads
Why driving prospects to your website is not what you want to be doing
Why you need to have a follow-up plan in place for your cold emails
Why you need to get on the phone with a lead as soon as possible
How to word cold emails so they actually resonate with cold leads
How Dan's company helps agencies hone in on their niche
Why cold emails have to come from a real person (and which person inside an agency they should come from)
Why you need to get the right clients for your agency
Why you shouldn't overinvest in tools
Some good tools that Dan likes
Dan's book: "Mastering Account Management"

Ways to Contact Dan Englander:

Free copy of Dan's book: www.salesschema.com/buildabetteragency
Website: www.salesschema.com
Twitter: @DansPalace
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/danenglander

We're proud to announce that Hubspot is now the presenting sponsor of the Build A Better Agency podcast! Many thanks to them for their support!

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