Trailblazer FM: WordPress without the drama

How should you show your appreciation to your clients this season? Our agencies share their ideas, experiences and one crazy idea we do NOT recommend. (Cough... looking at you Travis). Full show notes: https://trailblazer.fm/giving-gifts-to-your-clients/

Wondering what sort of gift to give your team this holiday season? I spoke with our agency owners to discover how they handle the art of gift giving. Enjoy a plethora of unique ways you can bless your team throughout the year. We explore the gift of time, shared experiences, gift ideas and more. Full show notes: https://trailblazer.fm/giving-gifts-to-your-team/

Celebrating the holidays and ensuring we honour our teams and supporting our clients can be a challenge. This season, we are interviewing agency owners from around the world, asking them key questions.  How do they celebrate the holiday season? Do they give gifts to their team or their clients? Do they have any of those ghosts of Christmas past to share that we can learn from? How do they manage s...

he shares five common mistakes agencies make when hosting summits for their clients. To learn more about summits, get guidance on coming up and validating your profitable summit idea, and understand all processes involved in hosting a summit, sign up for Jan's free workshops (running live every month) at  agencytrailblazer.com/vsmworkshop Full show notes: agencytrailblazer.com/329

Note: The next season of the podcast starts in September 2021. Have a wonderful summer! Angled Crown launched in early 2013 and was my passion for many years. Yet at the end of 2020 I began to close things down. I’d fallen out of love with what I was doing and it was draining me, physically, mentally and financially. As the host of a show dedicated to helping agencies build an agency they love, it...

Meet Marie-Louise from the local networking scene here in Northamptonshire. Over years of networking, Marie-Louise noticed that those who were very specific about what they did and who they did it for were far more interesting and memorable. Backed by 16 years in design, branding, and her Design Degree, Marie-Louise shares how she's developed her niche utilizing, of all products, Canva! Full show...

Since 2015, many of you have left reviews that have helped spur me on and have helped change the direction of this podcast. In this week's episode, I read just some of your reviews which had a massive impact on me and share some of the background stories as to where I was at. Thank you for supporting the show over the years. If you would like to support us with a review, please click here . Episod...

With the cost of entry dropping so rapidly for web design and development, how does an agency stand out when trying to generate new leads? According to Beth Livingston, they need to stop selling websites and start selling solutions to problems! In this episode, Beth unpacks the benefits of building a relationship and engaging in a much wider conversation with potential clients. Full show notes: ht...

Do you stare at your screen overthinking the copy you need to create? Frustrated that you didn't write the perfect content first time? Struggle creating the content for your website? Chances are, many of your clients are facing the same struggle. What if you could beat writers block and support your clients? Full show notes: https://agencytrailblazer.com/beating-writers-block/

In this episode, we catch up with Imogen Allen. She takes us on her journey of discovery as she learns more about herself and unlocks her own potential. Her business takes an unexpected shift, she recognises the value she can bring in helping others unlock their identity and the story they have inside. This has enabled her to launch a product to help others and created a fantastic opportunity to p...

"When one door closes, another window opens." In this episode, we meet with Paul Lacey who made the difficult choice of closing down his agency. Having realised that keeping their agency going was not for them, Paul and his business partner agreed to part ways and are embarking on their own separate plans. Full show notes: https://agencytrailblazer.com/322

Last week, Nicole shared what an awesome experience she had with Design Box during her rebrand. What was it about her experience that we can replicate in our businesses? We ask Tom that very question and he delivers!

Over the last few years, Nicole has been refining her audience and building an awesome business providing support to agency owners. Having originally served many niches, she realised her existing brand did not reflect who she was any more, nor did it necessarily attract those she wanted to serve. She connected with Tom and the team at Design Box Media , and thus began their rebrand process. Full s...

Have you been underestimating the value of support contracts? This week, Dave shares how his care plans helped support his business through Covid. He discusses the initial impact Covid had on his mindset, how his care plans provided a recurring income and how he's been able to add immense value to his clients. Full show notes: https://agencytrailblazer.com/319

I was trapped in my agency and utterly hated it. Several experiences became the catalyst for change. In this episode., I'd like to start a bit of a raw conversation and find out how you are doing . I’ll share a couple of experiences as an agency owner and how tough I found them. To discover the transformation stages we went through to turn things around, be sure to check out Episode 200 . Full sho...

In a break from the scheduled podcast and for personal reasons I’d like to share a few thoughts. Life is so precious. We spend much of it working hard and long hours. This impacts our mental health and our relationships deeply. Add lockdown to the mix and those who were already struggling with various mental illnesses are struggling so much more than many of us can possibly understand. I am gratef...

The battle of the gatekeeper is often the most fought by agency owners. When trying to connect with small to medium enterprises, you will often be greeted by an overzealous assistants or team members who tend to be super protective of their managers time and will often become the blocker to further communication. In this episode we discover ways to get past the gatekeeper in order to connect with...

On todays show we wrap our series with how to monetise your new podcast. These are all methods that we’ve applied to our podcast in the past and whilst there are many others, we like to teach what we know, not theory! We will look at: Sponsorship Affiliate opportunities Promoting services Custom products & services Creator donations Full show notes: https://agencytrailblazer.com/315

Over the last four weeks we’ve unpacked how to plan and create your show. With all that hard work, you will be ready to launch. In today’s episode we will look at: Pre-launch Launch day Ongoing episodic promotion Community building Marketing evolution Full show notes: https://agencytrailblazer.com/314

This week we look at how and where you can host your new podcast and how to get it listed. We look at free or low cost solutions along with practical advice for ensuring you get the most out of the platform you choose. Remember this is part of our ongoing “How to start a podcast” series focusing on helping you build an MVP podcast to validate that idea you may have. As with previous episodes we ge...

This week we will unpack the process for editing your audio files and compiling your podcast. We focus Audacity, an open source and cross platform audio editor however the tips in here will work for most professional applications. As with our other episodes, we are focused on helping you get the MVP podcast up and running, so we don't beat around the bush. Full show notes: https://agencytrailblaze...

This week we will look at the hardware and software you can use to record your show. Our approach is as a minimum viable product (MVP) ensuring a good quality recording utilising low or no cost solutions in order to validate your podcast over the next few months. Full show notes: https://agencytrailblazer.com/how-to-start-a-podcast-hardware-software

Over the next few episodes, I will be breaking down how to plan, launch and grow a podcast in your industry niche. Each episode will come with a workbook to help take you through each step and by the end of the series you should be ready to go live with your first show. This series assumes you have already gone through the necessary journey of unpacking your why and defining your target audience....

After years implementing awesome WordPress solutions we are breaking up. It's not just us... it's WordPress too! We will stay friends, we love the community and will continue to work with it where it meets relevant needs. But since we started dating, we feel WordPress has changed and not for the better. Full show notes: https://agencytrailblazer.com/why-we-are-moving-beyond-wordpress

What if I told you there was a text focused protocol that is picking up steam? Whilst it is not about to replace the internet, it can teach us a lot about content, it's structure and accessibility. This week I'd like to explore the Gemini protocol with you and share some valuable lessons I've learned that are changing the way I build our future. Full show notes: https://agencytrailblazer.com/gemin...