The Deep Specialization™ Podcast

"If I would have called my services Fractional CMO 10 years ago, people would have thought I was crazy. Now, the market's ready for it.” – John Jantsch, Founder of Duct Tape Marketing. In recent years, we’ve witnessed the resurgence of fractional CMOs - Why now? With the pandemic, many companies were caught red-handed for their lack of marketing strategy - coupled with financial strains,...

Episode: 14 Chapter Fourteen of Anyone, Not Everyone highlights the power of vertical outbound sales and marketing strategies, stressing the importance of proactively reaching out to potential clients within a targeted vertical market. It introduces the concept of the Zone of Indifference, where the majority of clients are neither actively seeking nor strongly opposed to new services, and emphasiz...

“I  built out a cold outreach methodology around heuristics, which is a series of pattern interrupts, or shortcuts.” Justin Michael, Co-Founder of Hard Skill Exchange Ready for a different perspective on sales outreach?  This week’s guest is an executive sales coach who has helped over 200 startups make over their outbound efforts by leaning into the unexpected. Justin Michael is a best-selling au...

Episode: 13 Chapter Thirteen of Anyone, Not Everyone discusses vertical inbound marketing strategies, emphasizing the need for agencies to be easily discovered by potential clients who are already seeking solutions. It advises on thought leadership through content marketing, visibility through speaking at and hosting events, and targeting through paid advertising. The chapter stresses that a proac...

“Eventually, we stopped the shenanigans and got vertical."  –  Rob Murray, Founder and President of Intrigue Media Some founding stories are more eccentric, and entertaining, than others, and today’s guest certainly has a tale to tell. While these days, the digital marketing agency Intrigue Media does over $5 million in annual revenue serving 110 clients and counting, its founder, Rob Murray...

Episode: 12 Chapter Twelve of Anyone, Not Everyone outlines the necessity of creating specific sales and marketing materials to appeal to a chosen vertical market, stressing that most of a client's buying decision is made before the first contact. It recommends crafting a dedicated vertical webpage, compiling impactful client success stories and testimonials, and gathering vertical-specific s...

“The first six, seven years were a lot of lessons. I made a lot of mistakes. I did not know how to lead people. I didn't know what kind of people should be hired."  –  Manish Dudharejia, Founder and President E2M Solutions This week’s guest, Manish Duharejia, is a true agency aficionado with over a decade at the helm of his marketing company, E2M Solutions. Founded in 2012, E2M Solutions...

Episode: 11 Chapter Eleven of Anyone, Not Everyone discusses vertical sales and marketing strategies, emphasizing the importance of choosing specific actions and avoiding others. The chapter breaks down the sales and marketing activities into inbound marketing, outbound sales and marketing, and relationship marketing, providing an approach to reach clients in the active buying process and underlin...

"Niche is the number one growth accelerator."  – Josh Nelson, Mentor & Coach at Seven Figure Agency Growth can happen in an instant when you’re doing the right things. But when you find the right fit, niche, offering, and vertical, that’s the unfair advantage. Nobody knows this better than today’s guest, who not only coaches agencies on growth, but also grew his own verticalized agen...

Episode: 10 Chapter Ten of Anyone, Not Everyone presents the development of a Vertical Messaging Guide as an essential framework for consistent, high-quality messaging in marketing efforts for a chosen vertical market. This guide compiles key elements such as the agency’s Point of View, vertical positioning, client attributes, business challenges, intrinsic and extrinsic wins, transformation narra...

"We specialize in B2B and we specialize in the experiences of three things: A better brand that will create a better employee experience and ultimately, a stronger client experience."  – Susan Quinn, President and CEO of Circle S Studio It’s not every day you get to sit down with an agency leader with a career spanning four decades, and running! This week’s podcast guest, Susan Quinn, is...

Episode: 9 Chapter Nine of Anyone, Not Everyone discusses how crafting a unique Point of View (POV) for your agency provides a competitive edge and serves as a key differentiator in a crowded marketplace. The chapter guides you through identifying a significant, meaningful problem in your vertical market, framing it against a metaphorical villain, envisioning a transformed future without the probl...

"We've operated in over 30 states in Europe, Mexico and Canada. The Cannabis Creative Group has absolutely taken off like wildfire . "  – Dan Serard, VP of Sales and Marketing for Cannabis Creative Group  Let’s take a deep dive into a vertical that certainly is anything but dull. This week's guest, Dan Serard is a trailblazer in cannabis marketing and has stories to tell in set...

Episode: 8 Chapter Eight of Anyone, Not Everyone outlines a four-step process for developing a distinctive vertical positioning, ensuring your agency stands out in the marketplace. It involves identifying key attributes that your vertical clients desire, plotting these attributes to find your unique "white space," and crafting a vertical positioning statement that encapsulates your agenc...

"The average small business uses over three dozen different pieces of software to run different aspects of their business."   – Jeff Tomlin, Co-Founder & CMO of Vendasta If you had to summarize Vendasta’s marketplace for small and medium sized agencies, it would be, in Jeff’s words, “Business in a box”.  Vendasta gives 80k+ agencies a full-stack platform to rebrand and resell online...

Episode: 7 Chapter Seven of Anyone, Not Everyone advises on the importance of understanding your competition in the chosen vertical market, with 90% of marketers reporting positive outcomes from such research. It suggests balancing competitive analysis with a focus on clients, emphasizing that overconcentration on competitors may lead to reactive, non-client-focused decisions. This chapter guides...

"T he higher that gross margin is, the more optionality you have to make deliberate decisions about your agency . "   – Marcel Petitpas, Co-Founder & CEO of Parakeeto Agency founders are often incredible visionaries when it comes to their core competency, but financials are rarely something they enjoy or excel at (pun intended). Between billable hours, shifting client scopes, clients...

Episode: 6   Chapter Six of Anyone, Not Everyone stresses the significance of deeply understanding the needs, desires, and fears of your target vertical market to create marketing that resonates and stands out amidst the noise. It guides readers on conducting buyer journey client interviews, a method superior to assumptions or surface-level market research, for crafting highly relevant and impactf...

" The two challenges that we see with most agencies are that they don't have a clear growth strategy nor the resources to execute it. "  – Eric Brown, Co-Founder at Blood Sweat & Tears Most agencies initially grow through founder-led sales and tapping into leads in your network, but what is the next step? Where do agencies typically get stuck and how can they break through? Ther...

Episode: 5   Chapter Five of Anyone, Not Everyone introduces a four-step process for selecting the ideal vertical market for your agency, including gathering client data, identifying potential verticals, scoring them based on qualitative and quantitative factors, and finally, validating the market to ensure it can meet your business growth goals. This systematic approach serves as both an investme...

"We went from generalist agency to performance marketing for franchises and renovations . "   – Marty Menard, President of Giant Creative Finding success by niching down your agency focus surely isn’t a new story on this podcast, but there is a reason our guests on the show have found scalable growth through verticalization. And, each story comes with unique insights founders can tap int...

Episode: 4 Chapter Four of Anyone, Not Everyone emphasizes the vital role of empathy in deep specialization, likening it to the caring aspect of good parenting, essential for the long-term success of an agency. By genuinely investing in clients' businesses and industries, and offering support especially in challenging times, an agency can significantly differentiate itself from competitors, b...

" What most people are trying to talk about when they talk about scale, but that's really leverage. " – Greg Hickman, Founder of AltAgency Leverage is everything when it comes to growing a successful agency or service offering. And that’s exactly what today’s guest helps develop for his clients: Leverage to grow and develop their business to the level and direction they want to go....

Episode 3 Chapter Three of Anyone, Not Everyone underlines the importance of careful and informed selection when choosing a vertical market to specialize in, warning that a hasty or ill-informed choice can lead to significant loss of time and potential revenue. It encourages agency founders to use their client history data to make an educated decision and highlights the characteristics of a desira...

" Acquiring a service you want to offer helps your company leapfrog years of trial and error. " – Sam Shepler, Founder of Testimonial Hero We welcome back Sam Shepler, Founder of Testimonial Hero, a global video testimonial company that helps B2B SaaS companies close more deals through customer stories.   After a quick recap on what Testimonial Hero does (listen to episode 55 for part on...