Build a Better Agency Podcast

No matter what kind of agency you own, where it's located, or how large it is – there is a truth about your business. You are literally and figuratively on stage every single day. Whether you're on the phone with a client, sitting across the table from a few people, or standing on the stage at a national conference, we are constantly presenting. We can't afford to be shy about presenting. I'm not...

Branding has always been a cornerstone of my own agency. We've spent a ton of time and effort building brands for clients. We have, like all of you, created what we think of as a proprietary process around brand, and it's a topic that I have a great passion around. Many of you are either too polite to ask or have point-blank asked me, "Drew, what is the deal with you at Disney." Brand is part of w...

If you've ever hung out with me for more than 10 minutes, you've probably heard me say something like "there are no bad clients. But there are bad clients for YOUR agency." I do believe that there's an agency out there for every client. But it very well may not be yours. One of the most critical skills an agency owner/leader must develop is the ability to discern if a prospect belongs on your clie...

One of the most rewarding aspects of AMI is that we can give agency owners a sense of perspective. Owning and running an agency is lonely and isolated. You make decisions based on what you know and usually you only know your own reality. I love it when I can shine a light on how other agencies are doing something or a best practice or metric that gives owners confidence that you're on track or eve...

A frustration for many agencies today is that it's tough to get clients to commit to ongoing retainers. Post recession, clients are drawn to project work as opposed to the longer-term, on-going work that agencies prefer. There are many factors that play into this and some agencies have cracked the code of earning a client's confidence and being positioned as an on-going partner. Barry O'Kane has c...

It started with the cats. Who knew cats were trend setters but when it comes to video they were on board long before we were! One of the biggest trends I've seen over the last five years is the proliferation of video. You can't go anywhere (Online, mass transit, Times Square or your home security system) without seeing a video these days. And these are not the videos of old. When I started in the...

When I think about this episode, it's all about voice but not just in the way that you might first assume. Stephen Woessner and I taught a workshop together in January called Creating Content that Creates Revenue. One of the big themes from that workshop was the idea that most agencies really haven't defined their distinct point of view. I did a whole solocast on that that really does a deep dive...

A lot of agency owners say to me, " Drew, I know you're running your own agency and I know you're running AMI. I know you've got some other things on the side like real estate. How in the world do you get it all done and how do you keep yourself organized, on track, and on-time? " So for today's solocast, I want to talk about how you can get more out of your day. I know that I may give the impress...

A healthy agency, on average, loses about 10-15% of their AGI every year through client attrition. That means that just to stay even, you have to sell. If you want to grow – you have to sell. If you want more money to give raises, bonuses or take a little for yourself – you have to sell. Unfortunately, 95% of agency owners hate to sell. You hire sales people so you don't have to do it. Sadly – the...

The truth is that our world as agency owners is in constant flux. Think back to the Mad Men days when we didn't charge clients anything for creative or strategy. We lived and died off media commissions. That wasn't hundreds of years ago, that was just a few decades ago. So it's no big shock that our industry is, yet again, undergoing a transformation. We've seen it coming for a while and for many...

Agencies are in an all-out talent war these days. New business is coming faster and easier. Your clients had a good year and so did you. But if you're like many agency owners, you're actually considering shutting down the biz dev spigot because you can't find and keep the staff to service the new growth. When you see it in writing, it's ridiculous, right? But if you're struggling with staffing, yo...

I don't believe in life/work balance. When I was a kid, my "work dad" would come home from the bank in his three-piece suit and he'd go upstairs and my "home dad" would come downstairs in jeans, looking for his martini and the download of our day while my mom cooked dinner. Sounds very Leave it to Beaver, doesn't it? It really was. My dad didn't have a computer or a cell phone. I can remember the...

Have you ever walked around Times Square? I was in New York City last week, and if you've ever been here before, you know it's crazy. With all the lights, the billboards, the chaos, the signage, and the people dancing and handing out flyers – it's just sensory overload. The eight blocks or so radius that makes up Times Square is a study in advertising and in messaging, sort of both from an old sch...

I don't know about you, but I never feel quite caught up. Thanks to my high tech Post It Note strategy (Every night I list the 3 things, and no more, I must get done the next day and put it on my laptop) I get the most critical things done but there's always more to do. What saves my bacon every day is that I have a superb team around me and they have systems and processes that allow them to work...

It doesn't matter if I'm wearing my agency owner hat or my AMI hat, branding is one of the topics that I always love to talk about. It's one of the few things in our world that has stayed consistent. It's very difficult today to survive and thrive if you are indistinguishable from your competitors. I know many of you spend a lot of time and energy developing brands for your clients but struggle wh...

One of the most common challenges agencies of all sizes are facing right now is the finding the right people to add to the team. Client budgets and programs are growing, new business is getting a little easier and so everything should be rosey. But when you don't have the right team to get the work done – it's frustrating and frightening. 10-15 years ago the prevailing attitude was that agencies n...

Joe Kashurba started a freelance web design business when he was in high school and grew it into a digital agency with a world-class team and clients around the world. He went from building $300 websites to building $30,000 websites and managing 6-figure digital advertising budgets for some of the largest manufacturing and construction companies.   What you'll learn about in this episode: Joe's ag...

It's funny what a single question can do. I was all set to record this week's solocast about the content from the workshop I taught earlier in the week and then someone asked me a question that took me in a completely different direction. The direction of how much agency owners need a posse. I'll get to the workshop content next time but for this solocast I followed the nudge of the question and t...

Duane Melius has worked eight years in journalism, social enterprise, and media production in London and over six years across Southeast Asia in a digital agency environment. He's previously had clients in banking, automotive, food & hospitality, FMCG, entertainment, and more, and those clients have been both B2B and B2C. He has millions of dollars of Digital campaign experience. Duane specializes...

As soon as I heard the tax law had passed, I made one call – to Eric Levenhagen, my personal tax advisor who has helped me craft my own tax strategy for years and today works with many agency owners across the country. I had two questions for him: 1) How do we need to alter the tactics we've been applying for my businesses and 2) Will you be on my podcast and help my listeners understand how the t...

Jeremy Knight spent 20 years as a B2B publisher creating publications for the private equity and fast growth business sectors. With digital technology, the Internet, and social web Jeremy believed making clients the publisher in a new media age was not just a good idea, it was the foundation for building a business. After all, building an audience was a better proposition than renting a list or le...

Lindsay Grinstead & Bill Boris-Schacter have lived and breathed the experiential marketing space collectively for over 50 years. They started Tonic Consulting Group to take that experience and help other live event agencies, and their partners, grow both their top and bottom line. Through their combined experience, they bring an operations and sales expertise to their clients. Lindsay has worn a s...

Drew McLellan is the CEO at Agency Management Institute. For the past 23+ 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 gives him a unique perspective on running an agency today. AMI works with agency owners by: Leading agency owner peer groups Offering wor...

Based in Dallas, Stephanie Chung and Associates offer sales training, executive coaching, and small business mentorship services nationwide. Among her products is the High Ticket Selling Made Simple course, designed to help small business owners sell more and make more. As a former sales executive in the aviation and private jet industry, Stephanie has mastered the art of high ticket selling and h...

With 19 years of Outdoor Advertising experience, Betsy McLarney has planned, managed, and executed many fully integrated Out of Home (OOH) advertising campaigns throughout North America and worldwide. Today she leads a team of experienced, dedicated strategists who help clients maximize the potential of Outdoor advertising (OOH), by complementing a robust integrated media plan. EMC Outdoor works s...