Welcome to another insightful episode of Build a Better Agency! This week, host Drew McLellan is joined by returning guest Nicole Mahoney, an accomplished agency owner and thought leader renowned for her innovative work in collaboration within the travel and tourism space. Drawing on her 15 years of industry expertise, Nicole shares how strategic partnerships have propelled her agency to new heights—even during challenging times like the pandemic.

Together, Drew McLellan and Nicole Mahoney dig deep into the multifaceted nature of agency collaboration, both with competitors and complementary businesses. Nicole reveals insights from her research, podcast, and her newly released book, breaking down the different types of collaborators—the promoters, doubters, and protectors—and why understanding these archetypes is key to building mutually beneficial relationships. They also explore how agencies can be more intentional with partnerships to drive growth, resilience, and innovation.

Expect actionable frameworks, real case studies of cross-agency teamwork, and candid stories about what works (and what doesn't) when it comes to navigating collaborations—from RFP responses to co-hosting major events. Nicole introduces her proven "3C framework" for successful partnerships and shares how agencies can assess and operationalize collaboration as part of their strategic planning, especially heading into 2026.  

If you're rethinking how to strengthen your agency's network, improve client offerings, or simply want to learn from real-world examples of effective coopetition, this episode is packed with takeaways. Don't miss this opportunity to hear fresh perspectives on how working together not only benefits your agency, but helps build a stronger, more connected industry.  

A big thank you to our podcast's presenting sponsor, White Label IQ. They're an amazing resource for agencies who want to outsource their design, dev, or PPC work at wholesale prices. Check out their special offer (10 free hours!) for podcast listeners here.

What You Will Learn in This Episode:

• • Building agency growth and resiliency through strategic collaboration  
  • Understanding the three types of collaborators: promoters, doubters, and protectors
  • Operationalizing collaboration as an intentional business strategy
  • Keys to effective partnerships: communication, commonality, and commitment
  • Creating mutually beneficial relationships even with competitors (coopetition)
  • Leveraging collaborations to diversify offerings and better serve clients
  • Using partnerships to overcome resource gaps and win larger opportunities

Welcome to another thought-provoking episode of Build a Better Agency! Host Drew McLellan sits down with Robin Bonn, agency veteran and founder of Codefinery, for a candid conversation that tackles one of the agency world's biggest challenges: true differentiation. Drawing on over two decades of industry experience and insights from his new book, Market of One, Robin unpacks why even the most creative agencies struggle to set themselves apart and how owners can reimagine their businesses for lasting competitive advantage.

Drew and Robin delve deep into the heart of agency positioning, debunking the myths and tired tropes that so many firms rely on to claim they're "different." From generic claims about people and creativity to the pitfalls of "category norms," Robin shares why most agencies' attempts at standing out fall flat—and what it really means to create a business model that's as unique as a fingerprint. Listeners will hear practical advice for moving beyond superficial branding tactics and start building what Robin calls a "market of one"—where your agency's true value is clear, tangible, and uncopyable.

The episode also explores the often-overlooked role of pricing as a key differentiator, the pervasive fear and herd mentality that keep agencies stuck, and the transformative impact of AI on agency business models. Robin challenges listeners to rethink everything from service offerings to client fit—encouraging leaders to embrace strategy, redefine success beyond just growth, and make bold choices that align with both financial health and personal fulfillment.  

Tune in if you're ready to move past the sea of sameness and face the future with optimism and intention. By the end of the episode, you'll walk away with actionable questions, a fresh strategic lens, and the inspiration to reshape not just what your agency does, but how—and why—you do it.  

A big thank you to our podcast's presenting sponsor, White Label IQ. They're an amazing resource for agencies who want to outsource their design, dev, or PPC work at wholesale prices. Check out their special offer (10 free hours!) for podcast listeners here.

What You Will Learn in This Episode:

• • Why true agency differentiation is so difficult—and why most agencies still struggle with it  
  • Common pitfalls that lead agencies into the "sea of sameness"
  • Distinguishing between superficial distinctiveness and authentic, business-model-driven differentiation
  • The critical role of clear positioning and deep strategy in agency growth
  • How fear, herd mentality, and legacy habits hold agencies back from standing out
  • The power of pricing as an underutilized differentiator
  • Embracing change, enjoying the business, and defining what success means for your agency

Welcome to another episode of Build a Better Agency! This week, host Drew McLellan shines a light on an area vital to every agency's growth: how to show up for clients and prospects in ways that build genuine trust, loyalty, and long-term relationships. To explore this undervalued but crucial topic, Drew is joined by Jamie Shibley, founder of The Expressory and expert in strategic engagement and relationship-driven agency growth.

Jamie shares her fascinating journey from two decades in corporate IT and ecommerce management to launching her own agency, where she helps businesses nurture relationships through intentional and personalized engagement. Through insightful stories and real-life examples, Jamie and Drew examine why clients crave more than just a transactional relationship—they want to feel seen, valued, and heard. Together, they unpack the psychology behind meaningful connections, discussing simple but powerful ways agencies can differentiate themselves by caring more deeply and showing it consistently.

Listeners will learn how to communicate care and appreciation, not just during the wooing phase, but throughout the client journey. Jamie reveals the six strategic storylines that should guide your client engagement, offers practical tips for intentional gifting (hint: it's more about thoughtfulness than price or heavy branding), and shares eye-opening data on the tangible impact of consistent relationship nurturing. Drew and Jamie also address common barriers, like lack of time or uncertainty about what to say, and provide actionable strategies to overcome them.  

If you're looking to solidify your client retention, inspire advocacy, and create memorable experiences that set your agency apart, this episode is a must-listen. Discover how small, intentional acts can have outsized effects on your business—and why now, more than ever, demonstrating care can be your most powerful growth lever.  

A big thank you to our podcast's presenting sponsor, White Label IQ. They're an amazing resource for agencies who want to outsource their design, dev, or PPC work at wholesale prices. Check out their special offer (10 free hours!) for podcast listeners here.

What You Will Learn in This Episode:

• • The evolution of business relationships in a post-COVID, highly digital landscape  
  • Why intentional, personal connection is a key agency differentiator
  • The science and psychology behind making clients feel seen and valued
  • Practical strategies for nurturing client relationships—before and after the sale
  • The impact of thoughtful, tailored gifts and gestures (beyond traditional swag)
  • Easy ways to operationalize meaningful engagement—without overwhelming your team
  • How consistent care and acknowledgment lead to trust, referrals, and stronger client retention

It's easy to get caught up in the chaos of day-to-day agency life. We all have a million things on our to-do lists, and they just keep growing. But part of being a successful agency owner is being present and open to what's right in front of you.

Doug Fleener knows all about what it means to run a business intentionally. With history as a business owner and a rock bottom moment that led him into recovery, he's had to learn some truths about life the hard way. But from that, he has developed some core principles to help business and agency owners live more intentionally.

His six core principles can help anyone start their day on the right foot to make incremental but powerful life changes. All it takes is one day to wake up and decide to make positive changes, and if you take anything away from this episode, it's that intentional actions create intentional results.

This episode is packed with action items that are not only simple concepts but also easy to implement. I have no doubt that Doug will leave you feeling inspired and ready to start 2024 with a fresh set of eyes and a renewed inspiration to take intentional action toward making your year great.

A big thank you to our podcast's presenting sponsor, White Label IQ. They're an amazing resource for agencies who want to outsource their design, dev, or PPC work at wholesale prices. Check out their special offer (10 free hours!) for podcast listeners here.

• Learning to live in the day and making each day a little better
• Taking responsibility of yourself to make positive change
• Intentional actions create intentional results
• Practicing relentless simplicity in life and business
• Thinking of 3 things you can improve each day
• Micro habits that feed greater improvements
• Helping others to help yourself
• Mastering the ability to be present
• Having more intentionality throughout your day
• Implementing the 6 core principles and applying them to your business

Remote and hybrid work environments are here to stay. While some agencies have successfully returned to the office full-time, and some may have never even left, many agencies are still struggling to crack the code on hybrid work without upsetting their employees.

It's a difficult balance, but it has become ever-important as these demands begin cementing into our work culture. And if you're working with creatives, the conversation around a hybrid workplace has probably been even louder.

So this week, we're joined by Felice Ekelman and Julie Kantor, authors of Thrive With a Hybrid Workplace: Step-by-step Guidance From the Experts, to teach us how to approach these conversations and transitions from a legal and psychological point-of-view.

We all know that as agency owners, there's nothing more expensive or as valuable as our employees, and we just want them to be happy working with us. So tune in to learn how to have these conversations and set expectations around hybrid work environments so we can all have a better agency together.

A big thank you to our podcast's presenting sponsor, White Label IQ. They're an amazing resource for agencies who want to outsource their design, dev, or PPC work at wholesale prices. Check out their special offer (10 free hours!) for podcast listeners here.

• The making of the Thrive With a Hybrid Workplace book
• The shifts and trends of hybrid and remote work post-covid
• Creating a balance in a hybrid work environment
• The challenges for agency leaders in creating a collaborative hybrid work environment and maintaining communication
• What type of training agency leaders need to build a thriving hybrid work culture
• How to develop productivity benchmarks without the ability to observe in person
• Getting agency leaders out of the fear mindset and setting appropriate boundaries with agency employees

Agencies are under more pressure than ever to be innovative. While it used to be easier to solve your clients' problems and wow them with a great solution, these days, it's much harder to do that with the bar constantly moving. This is why it's essential to develop an innovation strategy.

Wouldn't it be nice to bring a lofty, innovative idea to a client and have them be over the moon and excited to be a part of the process? With the right innovation strategy, that dream can be a reality.

An innovation strategy can help your team jumpstart the creative and problem-solving process while leaving room for co-creation and collaboration with your clients. This streamlines the creative process and takes the pressure off you and your team to have all the answers while you search for the solutions to their problems.

Tune in to learn how your agency can become problem-solving and innovation experts by asking the right questions, enacting decisive decision-making, and building out a creative workflow.

A big thank you to our podcast's presenting sponsor, White Label IQ. They're an amazing resource for agencies who want to outsource their design, dev, or PPC work at wholesale prices. Check out their special offer (10 free hours!) for podcast listeners here.

• The hardest part of innovation
• Collaboration is key for driving innovation
• Boiling down the "how" of problem-solving and innovation
• Creating an upstream methodology — the question-asking stage
• Getting a client to buy into an innovative idea
• The importance of collaboration and outside input for an innovation strategy
• The landmines to be aware of in the upstream production stages
• Workshopping ideas to produce quicker outcomes

It's no secret that 2023 has been a rough year for most agency owners. Between the elongated sales cycles, shrinking prospect budgets, and the need to re-evaluate some of our own expenses that have been piling up, many of you are feeling burnt out.

But it's not all bad news. There's still time to take a fresh look at how you want to run your agency in 2024 and pull yourself out of the trenches if 2023 has gotten the better of you. This episode will focus on what we can be doing differently in 2024 in our biz dev strategy, which will make next year a little less stressful for us.

We're taking a look at the data that Lee McKnight Jr. and his agency have compiled from many agency owners about their experiences throughout 2023. And while many of you were plagued with lower-budget prospects, dried-up client referrals, and slowed client growth, this leaves a glimmer of hope that the pendulum will swing the other way for us next year.

So don't miss this episode to learn how to dial in your biz dev strategy and prepare for what we hope is an exciting new year full of new prospects, bigger returns, and, of course, happier agency owners.

A big thank you to our podcast's presenting sponsor, White Label IQ. They're an amazing resource for agencies who want to outsource their design, dev, or PPC work at wholesale prices. Check out their special offer (10 free hours!) for podcast listeners here.

• The strain on obtaining new business in 2023 and its effects on agencies
• How agency owners have been coping with elongated sales cycles
• The importance of staying vigilant in business development even when work is abundant
• Shrinking prospect budgets and diminishing returns on new business
• Keeping up with client outreach, especially in an elongated sales cycle
• The biz dev strategies that still work to obtain new business
• What to expect from a new business manager
• The four prongs of biz dev that will still get you out of a rut
• What outbound efforts are still working on clients
• The biz dev strategies that are working and what to avoid in the new year

2023 is quickly coming to a close, so it's time for agency owners to start thinking about the year ahead to come up with their 2024 game plan. With holiday hibernation quickly approaching for most agency owners, this is the perfect time to reflect on 2023 and start thinking about what we want to improve for 2024.

Many of us are coming out of a less-than-ideal year that threw us a lot of curveballs. So, if this year wasn't your year, what game plan can you develop to make 2024 even better?

This episode is packed with a ton of action items that will set you on the path to getting your agency on the right track as soon as you're back from the holidays. Whether you're looking to tighten up your budget, grow your existing clients, reevaluate your team, or even find more time to do something memorable this year, this episode has everything you need to do to make your game plan and stick to it.

For 30+ years, Drew McLellan has been in the advertising industry. He started his career at Y&R, worked in boutique-sized agencies, and then started his own (which he still owns and runs) agency in 1995. Additionally, Drew owns and leads the Agency Management Institute, which advises hundreds of small to mid-sized agencies on how to grow their agency and its profitability through agency owner peer groups, consulting, coaching, workshops and more.

A big thank you to our podcast's presenting sponsor, White Label IQ. They're an amazing resource for agencies who want to outsource their design, dev, or PPC work at wholesale prices. Check out their special offer (10 free hours!) for podcast listeners here.

• Making a game plan aligned with the legacy you want to leave
• Creating a budget and aligning your expenses to it
• Connecting better with your team to help them grow
• Have a career path for every position
• Improving your leadership team, including the agency owner
• Identifying A, B, C, and D players
• Having a growth plan for existing clients
• Finding your niche and owning it
• How will you show your clients and team you appreciate them?
• What is one thing that would make 2024 unbelievable for you?

Finding right-fit clients, especially in a slow economy, is always a frustrating task. For the past year or so, agency owners have been expressing more and more frustrations over finding and keeping good clients at the right price point.

In this episode, Jason Swenk shares some tips and tricks about what he sees agencies doing right when it comes to client acquisition that keeps them profitable even in the toughest economies. He shares the 3 main channels where agencies can find right-fit clients — hint: it's got nothing to do with referrals — that position your agency as a must-have problem solver for prospects.

If you're ready to find the perfect clients, get paid what you're worth (or more), and make them feel like they can't live without your services, this is your episode. You'll learn some tangible tips for impressing clients and staying ahead of the curve to keep them interested.

A big thank you to our podcast's presenting sponsor, White Label IQ. They're an amazing resource for agencies who want to outsource their design, dev, or PPC work at wholesale prices. Check out their special offer (10 free hours!) for podcast listeners here.

• What the agencies who are getting new clients are doing right
• Getting clear on the types of clients you want to go after
• Why you shouldn't rely on referrals as your main client go-getter
• Figuring out how to solve your clients' problems innovatively
• The 3 main channels you should be resourcing to find right-fit clients
• Why podcasting is one of the greatest inbound sales channels
• Creating an attractive offer ladder without using retainers
• What does the agency of the future look like?
• 2 of the biggest challenges agencies need to anticipate for the future

We've all lowballed ourselves when going into negotiations. Whether it was for a raise, a proposal to a new client, a request to be a keynote speaker or a promotion, we've probably left opportunity on the table without even realizing it.

The good news is that it's extremely common, so you're not alone. But the bad news is that you could probably be getting so much more than you realize, but you're not asking in the right way.

This week, Dia Bondi teaches us how to ask like an auctioneer in negotiations. At auctions, you're not looking for an immediate yes. You're searching until you ultimately find that no, and that's where the fun really begins.

You never know what you can get until you ask, but if you never receive that initial "no" and start the negotiation process, you'll never know where the ceiling of potential is for your ask. So, in this episode, Dia encourages us to step out of our comfort zones and challenge ourselves to maximize our potential to further ourselves and our careers by learning to ask like an auctioneer.

A big thank you to our podcast's presenting sponsor, White Label IQ. They're an amazing resource for agencies who want to outsource their design, dev, or PPC work at wholesale prices. Check out their special offer (10 free hours!) for podcast listeners here.

• What it means to ask like an auctioneer
• Finding your ZOFO
• Why you should always look for a no to maximize the potential of your proposals
• The 4 different types of asks you can make
• What to do when you're met with a no
• The Boomerang Effect that can turn a no into a yes later on
• The 6-step framework that will build your confidence in negotiations
• Letting go of asking for what you think you deserve
• What to do when the "no" is a hard no

Usually, a sabbatical is for people who need time to rest and recharge. But did you know that sabbaticals are important for your agency operations, too?

This week, we're taking a different approach to the ongoing conversation we've been having about systems and processes, agency operations, and ways to optimize your business growth. From Alyson Caffrey's perspective, it's not just employees and agency owners who need time to rest and recharge — your business does, too.

Blocking out time to work on biz dev and improving systems and processes is the break your agency needs in order to grow. Like training for a marathon, an agency needs time to rest and create muscle memory around new agency operations.

With these dedicated mini sabbaticals, not only will your agency be more optimized, but it will increase your agency value when it's time to start working on succession planning. You literally can't afford not to try this method out.

A big thank you to our podcast's presenting sponsor, White Label IQ. They're an amazing resource for agencies who want to outsource their design, dev, or PPC work at wholesale prices. Check out their special offer (10 free hours!) for podcast listeners here.

• The two traditional forms of sabbaticals people take
• What is an agency sabbatical?
• How we can weave sabbaticals into our daily, weekly, monthly, and quarterly routines
• Setting boundaries that help you weave rest into your work routine
• What it means to allow rest for the agency
• How to retrain your team to protect their time and use it purposefully
• Getting agency operations to function flawlessly without bottlenecks
• Identifying which systems and processes to document and how to break them down into more manageable pieces
• Starting where you're at without pressuring yourself to be perfect

Productivity means profitability. One of the key ways to boost your productivity is to hone in on your systems and processes to get things done faster and more efficiently without bottlenecking your creative process.

This week, we're chatting with Michelle LaBrosse, a systems and processes expert, about how agency owners, teams, and even clients can work together to be faster and get projects done in as little as two weeks.

Sound too good to be true? It won't after the hour is up.

Michelle has been perfecting agency systems and processes for decades, and her methodology has become standard practice for many. Her tips and tools for boosting productivity and project efficiency will leave you wondering why you haven't adopted these systems and processes sooner.

A big thank you to our podcast's presenting sponsor, White Label IQ. They're an amazing resource for agencies who want to outsource their design, dev, or PPC work at wholesale prices. Check out their special offer (10 free hours!) for podcast listeners here.

• Breaking deliverables and projects into 2-week deadlines
• Getting everyone on the same page about what "done" means
• How having more systems and processes can aid creativity
• How to get the client on board with your process
• Getting away from overcomplicated systems and processes
• The process behind creating simple processes
• Making tools fit the workflow, not the other way around
• How agency owners and leaders can respect new systems and processes
• Owning your distraction issues that stifle productivity

Many agency owners want to see 20% growth (or more) year over year while staying profitable. This goal isn't entirely unrealistic, but the bigger you get, the harder it is to maintain such impressive numbers if you're not investing resources in the right things to support that growth.

For this week's solocast, I have some homework for you to do to help you see if you're prepared to meet your growth goals in 2024. Don't worry; we will do it together while I walk you through how to crunch the numbers step-by-step.

If you want to follow along, grab your P&L statement and our growth goal worksheet linked below, and get ready to do some math. By the end of this episode, you'll have a much clearer picture of where your agency is at financially and what level of growth you can support next year based on the numbers we calculate today.

For 30+ years, Drew McLellan has been in the advertising industry. He started his career at Y&R, worked in boutique-sized agencies, and then started his own (which he still owns and runs) agency in 1995. Additionally, Drew owns and leads the Agency Management Institute, which advises hundreds of small to mid-sized agencies on how to grow their agency and its profitability through agency owner peer groups, consulting, coaching, workshops and more.

A big thank you to our podcast's presenting sponsor, White Label IQ. They're an amazing resource for agencies who want to outsource their design, dev, or PPC work at wholesale prices. Check out their special offer (10 free hours!) for podcast listeners here.

• The basics of staying at 20% profit while doubling in size
• The mistakes we often make when setting end-of-year growth goals
• How to set a healthy growth goal based on your agency stats
• Why attrition affects your growth goal, and how much
• Emphasizing the role AEs play in growing clients
• What your agency needs if you plan to grow more than 15% year over year
• Which tough decisions agency owners need to make to hit growth goals
• The importance of niching down to boost growth

Welcome to another insightful episode of Build a Better Agency! This week, host Drew McLellan turns the focus inward—with a practical conversation that every agency leader needs to hear. Joined by long-time AMI partner and Strategic Talent Management co-owner Sue MacArthur, Drew unpacks one of the most nuanced and important topics in the business: how to elevate your team, enhance retention, and lead with intention by mastering the art of the "stay interview."

Sue shares her extensive experience helping agencies solve their most pressing people challenges, from leadership development to hiring, performance management, and succession planning. Together, Drew and Sue dig into the realities of leading in a post-Covid landscape, emphasizing that being a good manager or leader doesn't happen by accident—it requires thoughtful systems, ongoing engagement, and real, authentic conversations with your team.

The heart of this episode centers on the stay interview: what it is, why it matters, and how it can radically transform your agency's culture and retention. Sue offers actionable advice on how to incorporate stay interview questions into regular one-on-ones, how to create safe space for candid feedback, and how to foster a two-way dialogue where employees feel empowered to ask leadership tough questions as well. Drew and Sue also explore best practices for rolling out this process in your agency, including tips for building trust, handling difficult feedback, and turning employee insights into real, meaningful change.  

Don't miss this episode if you're ready to build deeper trust with your team, prevent regrettable departures, and unlock the potential sitting right within your agency walls. Drew even leaves you with a clear action plan and resources, so you can start integrating these conversations right away and position your agency—and your people—for long-term success.  

A big thank you to our podcast's presenting sponsor, White Label IQ. They're an amazing resource for agencies who want to outsource their design, dev, or PPC work at wholesale prices. Check out their special offer (10 free hours!) for podcast listeners here.

What You Will Learn in This Episode:

• • The value of stay interviews for employee retention and engagement  
  • Why performance management should be a continuous, intentional process
  • How to create safe spaces for candid employee feedback
  • Strategies for helping employees shape their career paths within small agencies
  • The importance of modeling open communication and vulnerability as a leader
  • Turning employee feedback into actionable change and team-wide improvement
  • Balancing listening with encouraging solution-oriented problem solving

One of the most common questions we still receive is about how to decouple yourself from the day-to-day grind of agency life and finally get to focus on being an agency owner. Many of us became accidental entrepreneurs and owners, and now that we have teams to lead, it can be hard to stop doing the old work that got us started on this journey.

This week, Lien De Pau is giving us a roadmap for successfully decoupling ourselves from the daily grind so we can start focusing on biz dev, sales, admin, and other tasks that often get put on the back burner in favor of things that we could easily delegate or outsource.

The key to growing (and eventually selling) an agency is to get out of your own way and become irrelevant to the business. Join us to learn how to start advocating for your own success as an agency owner and get out of the daily grind holding your agency back from reaching its peak potential.

A big thank you to our podcast's presenting sponsor, White Label IQ. They're an amazing resource for agencies who want to outsource their design, dev, or PPC work at wholesale prices. Check out their special offer (10 free hours!) for podcast listeners here.

• The mindset work that begins the process of removing yourself from the day-to-day
• Hiring out your weaknesses to others
• Letting go of your ego getting in the way
• The 5-step roadmap to decouple yourself from the agency
• How creative agency owners can productize their services to facilitate SOPs
• The roadblocks agency owners face when stepping away from the day-to-day
• Acting like an entrepreneur vs. an employee
• Leveling up as an entrepreneur
• How agency growth is linked to your success in the decoupling process

Shifting agency culture has been a huge point of contention for many agency owners since the beginning of the pandemic. For some, it's brought a lot of challenges in understanding how we can work as a team while being scattered around, while others have embraced the changes and have tried to adapt the best they can.

However, it can still be challenging to fully adapt to how quickly agency life has changed in just a few years. Our guest today, Gustavo Razzetti, has one simple message for us — it's time to accept that agency life as we know it has changed forever, and we need to figure out what that means for us and our teams.

Agency culture may never be the same, but we shouldn't be less successful because of it. Join us in listening to our discussion about creating an effective agency culture for you and your team, whether hybrid, remote, or trying to figure out something entirely new. There is no one-size-fits-all approach, but we can at least help get the wheels spinning so you can figure out where to begin.

A big thank you to our podcast's presenting sponsor, White Label IQ. They're an amazing resource for agencies who want to outsource their design, dev, or PPC work at wholesale prices. Check out their special offer (10 free hours!) for podcast listeners here.

• Why agency culture is so important today compared to in past decades
• Creating a workplace culture that makes people want to work there AND stay
• Welcoming communication and collaboration in remote or hybrid teams
• Getting a facilitator involved in agency culture shifts
• Trialing new ideas and work strategies before fully committing
• Workplace trends that are coming, and what's here to stay
• Why the 9-5 is dead, but the 4-day work week isn't the solution
• Flexibility goes both ways
• Helping clients overcome common remote workplace challenges
• Involving employees in problem-solving earlier in the process
• How owners and leaders can create a strong agency culture in a new modern work environment

No matter how experienced you are, everyone gets nervous before getting up in front of a room full of people to speak. The adrenaline starts pumping, and you start doubting yourself and your ideas a little bit. It's a universal experience we've all felt at least once in our lives.

Michael Weiss is here to teach us that giving presentations doesn't have to be the stressful, nerve-wracking experience we often make it out to be. When you boil it down, it's just an exchange of ideas you're gifting to your audience. And with enough rehearsal and understanding of your speaking style, it can be engaging and fun, too.

If you have a sales pitch, an important client presentation, or even a big presentation on stage at a conference coming up, be sure to refer back to this episode to learn professional strategies for how to deliver an informative presentation while keeping your audience engaged and interested.

A big thank you to our podcast's presenting sponsor, White Label IQ. They're an amazing resource for agencies who want to outsource their design, dev, or PPC work at wholesale prices. Check out their special offer (10 free hours!) for podcast listeners here.

• Helping people recognize they've earned the right to be on stage
• Understanding that the audience wants you to succeed
• Why you must always rehearse before presentations, and for how long
• Getting more comfortable with rehearsing presentations
• How agency leaders can set great examples for the team with presentations
• Finding a groove when presenting with multiple speakers
• Honoring your speaking style and giving engaging presentations
• How to have brilliant and clear slide decks
• Reading the audience and keeping them engaged

With new client acquisition at an all-time low, it's more important than ever to focus on growing your existing client base. In fact, 60 to 70 percent of your net new revenue should now come from existing clients to continue being profitable.

This means it's time to teach your AE's how crucial it is to know how to navigate agency math, foster agency growth, and sell new, innovative ideas to your existing clients. Many AEs don't realize it's their job to do these tasks, which means there's room for improvement from agency owners to teach them these skills so your agency can continue to grow in a difficult economic time.

In this episode, we'll cover topics like the roles AEs play in agency growth and growing existing clients, how to adjust your work scope over time to remain profitable, the importance of bringing innovative ideas to your clients, and many more actionable items for your team to learn and grow from.

A big thank you to our podcast's presenting sponsor, White Label IQ. They're an amazing resource for agencies who want to outsource their design, dev, or PPC work at wholesale prices. Check out their special offer (10 free hours!) for podcast listeners here.

• How to get 60 to 70 percent of your net new revenue to come from existing clients
• The cost of acquiring new clients over growing existing ones
• How to adjust a growing work scope with a client over time
• The importance of teaching AEs agency math and how we make money
• Where AEs need to step up to help grow the existing client base
• Allowing clients to talk about the problems they need to be solved
• How we frustrate our clients by being too timid
• Being a catalyst for bringing experts together to solve your client's problems

There's more M&A activity amongst agencies than ever before. As agency owners get older and running the business becomes more stressful, many owners are running out of gas and looking for a reset. This means there has never been a more perfect time if you're looking to buy an agency. And if you're looking to sell, it might go faster than you anticipate.

We know that M&As are stressful on both sides of the deal, no matter how much you plan ahead. So this week, we're taking a deep dive into the whole process — how far in advance to plan your sale, valuation, succession planning, dealing with the emotions behind it, and much more.

Even if you're not planning to sell your agency right now, eventually, this will become a reality, and it's always better to be ahead of the curve. So don't miss this longer episode packed with tips for passing the torch and preparing for the future of your agency.

A big thank you to our podcast's presenting sponsor, White Label IQ. They're an amazing resource for agencies who want to outsource their design, dev, or PPC work at wholesale prices. Check out their special offer (10 free hours!) for podcast listeners here.

• Why M&A activity is so high right now
• The strongest factors that will determine agency valuation
• How to assess your agency valuation
• Preparing 3-5 years in advance for an M&A
• Passing the torch to a new owner and being the buyer's cheerleader
• Giving your employees the opportunity to be an internal buyer
• Preparing for an M&A for both a buyer and a seller
• Expenses to expect when preparing for a sale on both sides

Does your agency have what it takes to provide best-in-class service to your clients? According to Susan Quinn's research, there are 9 traits that an agency should have in order to get there.

It's not always about being the fastest or having the best prices. In fact, it's almost never about price when you're providing top-notch service. What it ultimately comes down to is living by your agency's core values, innovation, and an intense focus on quality.

Susan Quinn and her team have been living by these traits so well that they began studying them to find out just what makes the best client experience and best-in-class service. So, if you're ready to take your agency to the next level and partner with next-level companies, tune in to learn how they constantly improve their client experience and how you stack up against the competition.

A big thank you to our podcast's presenting sponsor, White Label IQ. They're an amazing resource for agencies who want to outsource their design, dev, or PPC work at wholesale prices. Check out their special offer (10 free hours!) for podcast listeners here.

• The basis for the research about the 9 traits of agencies with best-in-class service
• Breaking down each trait
• Why adopting the 9 traits will set your agency up for continued growth
• How Susan's agency conducted their research
• The 3 ways C-Suite employees categorized their best-in-class status
• How niching down has changed Susan's agency over decades
• The importance of partnering with other agencies with the same core values
• Why you and your agency should always be learning and innovating

Do you know the "why" behind the work you do? If not, it might be time to find out. Understanding the motivation behind why we show up and feel connected to our work is key to personal happiness and effective interpersonal communication.

As it turns out, there are nine "whys" that we could categorize ourselves into that affect agency communication and connectivity. Knowing where we fall on that spectrum, especially as agency owners, can remove blocks and help your agency reach its goals faster and more effectively than doing things the same old way we always do them.

If your agency has a lot of goals, but the team sometimes struggles to execute them, it might be time for the "why" mindset strategy that our guest, Linda Perry, is teaching us about in this episode. Because at the end of the day, your people are your greatest asset, and knowing how to communicate with them how they receive it best is a recipe for success.

A big thank you to our podcast's presenting sponsor, White Label IQ. They're an amazing resource for agencies who want to outsource their design, dev, or PPC work at wholesale prices. Check out their special offer (10 free hours!) for podcast listeners here.

• The mindset perspective that helps agencies reach their goals faster
• Getting to the bottom of limiting beliefs that prevent us from growing
• The what, the why, and the how for better agency communication
• Creating connectivity between agency owners, leadership, and team members
• The agency owner's responsibility is to create moments of connection
• How to navigate different "whys" and assign tasks accordingly
• How the "why" mindset strategy aligns with the agency's mission, vision, and values
• Understanding a client's "why" for better sales strategies

When you think about how you do business, do you find that you're purposefully taking longer to respond to inquiries because you don't want a client to believe you're not busy enough? Or do you hesitate to answer right away because you don't want that to be their new expectation of your agency?

Unfortunately, this is where many agencies get it backward. Clients already expect quick responses, regardless of how fast or slow you were the first time. In fact, speed is one of the most important factors for client happiness, and it will only go higher on the priority list from here.

Jay Baer has done intense research on this very topic and is sharing his findings with us. As many of you know, he's always ahead of the curve when it comes to agency trends. And he's passionately confident that agencies need to get faster so they're first in line when a prospect calls them up. Because if he's learned anything, it's that speed will beat out price almost every time.

A big thank you to our podcast's presenting sponsor, White Label IQ. They're an amazing resource for agencies who want to outsource their design, dev, or PPC work at wholesale prices. Check out their special offer (10 free hours!) for podcast listeners here.

• The generational differences in patience in business settings
• Speed is the most important factor for client happiness
• The psychology of speed and how it equates to caring
• Closing uncertainty gaps with clients
• Creating a "fast pass" lane for impatient clients
• The "Got it Audit" for the customer journey
• When fast is too fast
• The hierarchy of when speed is most important for client satisfaction
• Where we get speed wrong in business decisions

As your agency grows, your leadership team must grow alongside it. You'll notice as your team gets bigger, the day-to-day operations become more complicated, and you might want to start taking a step back from certain tasks altogether.

That's where a COO comes in to save the day. A successful, growing agency must have someone to handle day-to-day operations and implement systems and processes properly. And if you have the right person to take some tasks off your plate, that opens you up to focus on the parts of the business you're most passionate about, like being a visionary.

This week, I'm talking with Carolyn Lodge about the signs and symptoms of when it's time to grow your leadership team and hire a COO. We discuss how to identify the right person for the job, their roles and expectations, how to integrate them with the rest of your team to build trust, and what traits are most commonly needed in the COO position.

A big thank you to our podcast's presenting sponsor, White Label IQ. They're an amazing resource for agencies who want to outsource their design, dev, or PPC work at wholesale prices. Check out their special offer (10 free hours!) for podcast listeners here.

• The clues that show it might be time to hire a COO
• What size agency is too small to have a COO role
• The skills and traits of a good COO
• Implementing the founder's or owner's vision
• Building trust within your leadership team as you bring on new team members
• Ensuring your COO is a good culture fit for the job
• How a COO changes the day-to-day of a CEO
• Go-to questions to vet a potential COO

One of the most powerful new business tools to establish credibility as an agency is right at our fingertips. Finding speaking opportunities at conferences, trade shows, and even as a podcast guest is a great first step to entering the world of thought leadership.

While it may seem daunting initially, especially if you're new to this, thought leadership is about as easy as simple networking. Your network can get you into spaces you've never dreamed of if you have the right tools to navigate it.

This week, Katy Boos is giving us those tools to show us how practical and valuable thought leadership and public speaking can be for agency owners and leaders. With in-person events making a huge comeback post-Covid, the need for the best and brightest speakers is on the rise, too. Tune in to learn how to get your ideas in front of the right audience and establish yourself and your agency as one of the next great thought leaders.

A big thank you to our podcast's presenting sponsor, White Label IQ. They're an amazing resource for agencies who want to outsource their design, dev, or PPC work at wholesale prices. Check out their special offer (10 free hours!) for podcast listeners here.

• The top most beneficial reasons for speaking at an event
• Speaking at a big event vs. the right event
• Looking beyond the room you're speaking in
• Determining who's the right person to put on the stage
• Narrowing down your topic and finding the right-fit audience
• The post-Covid trade show and conference outlook
• How to get conference organizers hyped up on your thought leadership
• Getting in front of the right podcast audience
• Creating content from your speaking event
• Common mistakes that get us a "no" from conference organizers
• Getting your foot in the door

Welcome to another thought-provoking episode of Build a Better Agency! This week, host Drew McLellan is joined by returning guest Michael Farmer, a renowned consultant and author with decades of experience advising both global agency holding companies and independent shops. Together, they pull back the curtain on one of the agency world's most persistent and problematic issues: the disconnect between the value agencies provide, the scope of work they deliver, and the fees they collect.

Michael shares candid insights from his 30-plus years helping agencies navigate profitability challenges, particularly around scoping, resourcing, and pricing work appropriately. He recounts eye-opening stories from inside major agencies, including how a lack of clarity around deliverables and the overuse of creative resources can quietly erode margins—and ultimately, agency health. Michael breaks down his approach to rigorous scope management, explaining why developing a detailed, data-driven understanding of agency output is essential for both profitability and sustainability.

Drew and Michael explore why so many agencies—especially large holding companies—fall into the trap of doing too much for too little, and why today's independent agencies are uniquely positioned to break that cycle. Their conversation highlights how smaller agencies can differentiate themselves by adopting a consulting mindset, engaging more meaningfully with clients about business outcomes rather than just deliverables, and leveraging freelance talent for maximum flexibility.  

If you're ready to move beyond being a "deliverable shop" and reposition your agency as a true strategic partner, this episode is a must-listen. You'll walk away with actionable advice on scoping, pricing, business model evolution, and why now is the perfect moment for independent agencies to lead the industry forward by focusing on the work that truly moves the needle for clients.  

A big thank you to our podcast's presenting sponsor, White Label IQ. They're an amazing resource for agencies who want to outsource their design, dev, or PPC work at wholesale prices. Check out their special offer (10 free hours!) for podcast listeners here.

What You Will Learn in This Episode:

• • Why agencies must shift from delivering quantity to delivering strategic value  
  • The dangers of undervaluing agency work and over-delivering for too little revenue
  • The critical importance of scoping, pricing, and tracking deliverables accurately
  • How smaller, independent agencies are positioned to outpace big holding companies
  • The need for deeper alignment with client business goals, not just creative output
  • Leveraging freelance and specialized talent to extend agency capabilities
  • Preparing for the future: consulting mindset, strategic focus, and harnessing AI responsibly

Lately, agency owners and leaders have been hitting their heads against a biz dev brick wall. With increased sales cycles, difficulty getting clients to start projects, tightened budgets, and more, it seems like we're in a cycle of never-ending struggle.

Even if the future looks bleak, there are always more things that can be done and new strategies to try to help push through a difficult time. That's why now more than ever, it's critical for agency owners and leaders to track certain metrics to ensure you'll end 2023 in the black, even as everyone is seemingly tightening their belts.

This week, I'm sharing five metrics you should be tracking with your teams to ensure you're making the right strategic decisions during heightened hardship. From taking a closer look at your numbers to ensuring client satisfaction, we have the tools to help you end the year in the black against all odds.

For 30+ years, Drew McLellan has been in the advertising industry. He started his career at Y&R, worked in boutique-sized agencies, and then started his own (which he still owns and runs) agency in 1995. Additionally, Drew owns and leads the Agency Management Institute, which advises hundreds of small to mid-sized agencies on how to grow their agency and its profitability through agency owner peer groups, consulting, coaching, workshops and more.

A big thank you to our podcast's presenting sponsor, White Label IQ. They're an amazing resource for agencies who want to outsource their design, dev, or PPC work at wholesale prices. Check out their special offer (10 free hours!) for podcast listeners here.

• Tracking your 55-25-20 AGI metrics more closely
• Deciding where to move money around to keep good employees
• Doubling down on biz dev efforts
• Getting your existing clients to spend more money on you
• Why AEs should be helping to grow the existing client base
• Why client satisfaction scores are more critical than ever
• Good employee retention sends a positive message to customers

In-person networking and relationship building are not dead. For agencies, it remains one of the most important methods of building your client base. And unfortunately, odds are you're not doing it enough.

Showing up is a huge part of the biz dev battle that a Zoom call or Slack channel just can't fix. And in a time when many of us have to rely on current clients to keep ourselves afloat, cutting corners on new business opportunities won't get us very far.

For Hank Blank, some of the biggest red flags from the clients' perspective directly result from our increasingly virtual ways of doing business. In his eyes, you will struggle to find new clients if you're not attending events, doing in-person networking, inviting people into your agency's space, or making philanthropic efforts in your community.

If you want to learn what always stands the test of time for agencies battling it out for new clients, don't miss this conversation with one of the best in the business.

A big thank you to our podcast's presenting sponsor, White Label IQ. They're an amazing resource for agencies who want to outsource their design, dev, or PPC work at wholesale prices. Check out their special offer (10 free hours!) for podcast listeners here.

• How smaller agencies can stand out against large agencies with in-house teams
• The biggest mistakes agencies make when searching for new business
• How agencies make themselves look unavailable or uninterested in new clients
• Why in-person networking is still imperative for growing a client base
• How agencies can develop a meaningful brand for themselves
• Letting creativity guide you in your networking and biz dev
• The 3 things that win new business
• Making working at an agency fun again
• Getting ahead of the competition to educate clients on new technology

The workforce has changed forever, which has brought change fatigue along with it. This means how we navigate problem-solving and facilitate change amongst our teams has to change, too.

This week, I'm chatting with Jenny Magic, an expert in all things change and team morale. For almost 20 years, she's been working with agency leaders and their teams to help implement strategies. She noticed that there were often major disconnects between agency leaders and their team's opinions on new strategies and changes to SOPs. She set out to discover what makes teams get on board with change without getting burnt out.

We'll discuss the best ways to facilitate change with your teams, get employees on board with your ideas and strategies, and the importance of psychological safety for employees to share openly. When you know how to facilitate change effectively, you'll be surprised how much easier it is to get your teams on board with new ideas and strategies.

A big thank you to our podcast's presenting sponsor, White Label IQ. They're an amazing resource for agencies who want to outsource their design, dev, or PPC work at wholesale prices. Check out their special offer (10 free hours!) for podcast listeners here.

• How the world of change has changed
• How to line up change so that it actually gets implemented
• The cost of change
• The real roots of change fatigue
• Why so many employees start "treading water" when you try a new strategy
• The value of co-creating change with your team
• Utilizing confidential inquiries to get honest responses from employees
• There is no "one-size fits all" training model that actually works
• Creating psychological safety among team members

AI has been at the top of everyone's minds this year, particularly with the birth of ChatGPT in November 2022. We're currently in a renaissance where AI innovation and creativity are fusing to push the limits of what we ever thought was previously possible.

With these new AI tools comes a lot to look forward to, but also a lot of fear and uncertainty. Many of you are worried about job security, work expectations, and getting left behind in favor of faster, newer technology. In this episode, we'll address these valid concerns with AI expert Paul Roetzer.

Paul has been at the forefront of AI innovation for most of his career and has some ideas to share with us about how this all started, where it's at now, and what's possible for the future. While the uncertainty is scary, one certainty is that we must lean into the AI movement with an open mind and be ready to adapt alongside it.

A big thank you to our podcast's presenting sponsor, White Label IQ. They're an amazing resource for agencies who want to outsource their design, dev, or PPC work at wholesale prices. Check out their special offer (10 free hours!) for podcast listeners here.

• How clients are starting to wise up to AI use for projects
• Copyright concerns for agencies using AI
• The real threats agencies should be looking out for with AI innovation
• The move to client-agency co-creation
• Always be testing
• Helping clients pilot AI tools in their strategy and operations
• The evolution of agencies that utilize AI innovation
• How to vet new AI tools in a sea of uncertainty
• The future of AI integrations

The idea of agency culture has been on my mind a lot lately, especially now that we're all settling into new post-covid workplace structures. Without as much face time in an office, many of you are starting to wonder how to continue cultivating a healthy workplace environment for your employees over video calls and Slack channels.

For this week's solocast, I'm sharing what research shows are the four core pillars of a healthy agency culture that will ensure your employees feel seen, heard, safe, and valued. It's not just about proximity and having office parties or team outings anymore. And as agency leaders, it's essential that we lead by example in creating the right environment for our teams to thrive.

If you can weave these four concepts into how you run your agency and build up your teams, your agency will be set up for success, no matter if you're in the office, fully remote, or somewhere in between.

For 30+ years, Drew McLellan has been in the advertising industry. He started his career at Y&R, worked in boutique-sized agencies, and then started his own (which he still owns and runs) agency in 1995. Additionally, Drew owns and leads the Agency Management Institute, which advises hundreds of small to mid-sized agencies on how to grow their agency and its profitability through agency owner peer groups, consulting, coaching, workshops and more.

A big thank you to our podcast's presenting sponsor, White Label IQ. They're an amazing resource for agencies who want to outsource their design, dev, or PPC work at wholesale prices. Check out their special offer (10 free hours!) for podcast listeners here.

• Thinking about agency culture differently
• Why agency owners must lead the charge in creating a healthy agency culture
• Creating an environment of inclusivity for all team members
• Leading with love and being curious about your people
• Creating learning opportunities for yourself and the team
• Encouraging quarterly growth goals for employees
• Celebrating contributions and identifying employee strengths
• Leaving space for employees to challenge the status quo
• Making it ok for people to disagree respectfully

Agency culture has encountered a massive shift post-pandemic. With hybrid and remote work more common than ever, weaving our missions, goals, values, and purpose into our teams requires a different approach than before.

This week, we're talking to Chad Kearns, an agency culture expert, to discuss how agency leaders are at the forefront of agency culture and should run their agency according to their core values. If you don't align yourself with your own mission and values, your team won't be operating at its peak, which can throw the whole agency off balance.

If it sounds high-stakes, it's because it is. Everything starts with agency culture — from screening a potential new hire to your employee retention rate. Tune in to learn how to align your agency to your core values and discover what people value the most when choosing to work for an agency.

A big thank you to our podcast's presenting sponsor, White Label IQ. They're an amazing resource for agencies who want to outsource their design, dev, or PPC work at wholesale prices. Check out their special offer (10 free hours!) for podcast listeners here.

• People are at the core of the agency world
• How cultural concerns have changed post-pandemic
• Challenges that clients face today with agency culture
• Finding right-fit employees who will embody your agency culture
• Aligning yourself and exemplifying your mission, values, and goals to your team
• Where agencies often fail to uphold their core values and missions
• Culture goes beyond social interaction
• How to attract better talent aligned with your agency values
• Why good onboarding is imperative for healthy agency culture

With the elongated sales cycles we have all seen throughout 2023, knowing your lifetime customer value is more important than ever. It's essential not only for you as an agency but also to calculate that data for your clients.

Clients are looking for the most value for their money, and everyone is tightening their belts. Gone are the days of patient clients willing to wait around for results. Now, it's all about data-driven, proven results that your agency can provide ASAP. If you can't provide everything they need, they expect you to find the people who can partner with you to get it done.

In this episode, we're discussing how you can adapt to the new era of agency ownership with data-driven metrics and proven results for your clients and their customers. We know it's hard to adapt to a fast-changing and ever-adapting world of work, but we're here to help you work through it and find innovative ways to stay ahead of the curve.

A big thank you to our podcast's presenting sponsor, White Label IQ. They're an amazing resource for agencies who want to outsource their design, dev, or PPC work at wholesale prices. Check out their special offer (10 free hours!) for podcast listeners here.

• Defining lifetime customer value
• How an agency can help a client calculate their lifetime customer value
• The trends and metrics that non-commerce agencies can analyze for their LCV
• How LCV calculations can help you and your clients get smarter about budgeting
• Why agencies are struggling to acquire new customers and how to adapt
• The growing importance of agency syndication
• The swinging pendulum of agency hiring
• The 3 pillars of customer value optimization
• How agencies can troubleshoot for their clients and course-correct their offerings

It's that time of year again — we're evaluating the 2023 Agency Edge Research study, where we polled people who hire agencies about what they expect from agencies and what gets them to open their wallets for us.

Despite a challenging year of having to find creative ways to get existing clients to spend more money with us, a lot of good news came out of this study. Overall, existing clients with larger budgets are much more willing to stick with an agency and spend more money if we present them with a compelling reason to do so.

What do we do with that information? We've been preparing you for months leading up to this study, covering many of the topics we'll see today. So, if you missed any of those episodes, be sure to go back so you can be on top of your game going into 2024.

A big thank you to our podcast's presenting sponsor, White Label IQ. They're an amazing resource for agencies who want to outsource their design, dev, or PPC work at wholesale prices. Check out their special offer (10 free hours!) for podcast listeners here.

• The three main client archetypes
• How the three archetypes spend their money
• How clients use agencies to fill their different needs
• The revenue and budget breakdowns of each existing client group
• What makes a current client want to spend more money with us, and when
• The biggest motivation existing clients have for increasing their spend
• What clients believe makes the best agency
• The increased importance of client love and getting to know their teams
• Why we should be pitching new ideas to our clients and asking them to experiment with us

Part of being an agency means that you solve problems for a living. Clients come to you with a problem, and it's up to you and your team to figure out the solution and present it to them in a neat package. Simply put, creative innovation is woven into the DNA of an agency.

Under pressure and deadlines, creative innovation can quickly be squashed, rushed, or underprioritized. But Carla Johnson, an ideation and innovation expert, has studied and produced an effective formula for how agencies can reinvigorate their creative strategies.

Her methodology can be incorporated with client projects and daily agency strategy to improve systems and processes. Innovation doesn't always have to be creative, but getting creative about innovation can change how your team solves problems and could even save you time and money when putting it to the test.

A big thank you to our podcast's presenting sponsor, White Label IQ. They're an amazing resource for agencies who want to outsource their design, dev, or PPC work at wholesale prices. Check out their special offer (10 free hours!) for podcast listeners here.

• What our clients are really hiring us to do
• Figuring out how to connect the dots more efficiently
• Innovative ways to approach creative ideation on your team
• Bringing clients into the creative innovation process
• Getting creative about systems and processes during growth moments in the agency
• The 5-step Wheel of Innovation
• Weaving creative thinking into everyday life
• The intersection of business strategy and creative innovation

It's that time of year again — we're going over the top agency trends we're noticing so far in 2023 and going into 2024. A lot has changed since the last time we went over the data, which means we have a ton of information that you'll hopefully find valuable and can use as a compass for where to lead your agency through the rest of the year heading into 2024.

As we exit the pandemic era and move into the AI era, there's a lot to consider in how agencies function regarding what our clients want, how fast our sales cycle moves, how we hire, where we should focus our biz dev, and more.

One thing is certain — many agency owners like you feel re-energized and reinvigorated coming out of 2022. Let this episode be a ray of light that gives you an extra boost of encouragement for the rest of 2023, and keep that momentum going for as long as possible.

For 30+ years, Drew McLellan has been in the advertising industry. He started his career at Y&R, worked in boutique-sized agencies, and then started his own (which he still owns and runs) agency in 1995. Additionally, Drew owns and leads the Agency Management Institute, which advises hundreds of small to mid-sized agencies on how to grow their agency and its profitability through agency owner peer groups, consulting, coaching, workshops and more.

A big thank you to our podcast's presenting sponsor, White Label IQ. They're an amazing resource for agencies who want to outsource their design, dev, or PPC work at wholesale prices. Check out their special offer (10 free hours!) for podcast listeners here.

• The impacts of recession fears on AGI and revenue
• ROI — the new agency buzzword
• A growing agency trend in having amazing teams
• Rebalancing overservicing and overstaffing issues
• The fading trend of over-specialization of agencies
• The PPC, SEO, and data analyst job boom
• A positive trend in agency owner happiness
• The continued importance of thought leadership and community spaces
• The agency employee trends of 2023
• Embracing AI and using it as a tool for your work

Welcome to another enlightening episode of Build a Better Agency! This week, host Drew McLellan explores a twist on the usual business leadership topics by delving into the lucrative—and often misunderstood—world of credit card points and travel rewards. Drew is joined by Julia Menez, a points and miles strategist who specializes in helping business owners and high cash flow individuals stretch their credit card points for maximum value, especially when it comes to travel.

Julia, a former actuary turned travel-hacking expert, brings her analytical prowess to the conversation, breaking down why agency owners are likely leaving thousands of dollars on the table by failing to optimize how they earn and redeem credit card rewards. Together, Drew and Julia uncover the most common mistakes agencies make, like fixating on specific airline cards or booking through credit card travel portals, and instead highlight how a flexible, strategic approach can unlock first-class flights and luxury hotels at a fraction of the usual cost.

Listeners will get actionable steps on how to inventory their current points, choose the right credit card mix for their agency's unique spending patterns, and use powerful online tools to research and book flights and hotels for optimal value. Julia also shares her personal tips for planning both business and family travel—whether you're seeking a bucket-list lay-flat seat to Asia or a dream resort stay in Europe—plus why being open to new destinations and dates can yield incredible deals.  

Don't miss this episode if you want to elevate your agency's perks and personal travel experiences without blowing the budget. From maximizing signup bonuses to smart redemption hacks, Drew and Julia's conversation will transform the way you think about your agency's everyday expenses—and could help you turn business costs into unforgettable travel adventures. Grab your notepad, and get ready to make your points work harder for you!  

A big thank you to our podcast's presenting sponsor, White Label IQ. They're an amazing resource for agencies who want to outsource their design, dev, or PPC work at wholesale prices. Check out their special offer (10 free hours!) for podcast listeners here.
What You Will Learn in This Episode:

• • Maximizing the value of credit card points for business and personal travel  
  • The advantage of flexible points over single-airline credit cards
  • How to approach booking award flights for best deals (flights over the ocean, positioning flights, and flexibility on dates/destinations)
  • Why business expenses offer serious potential for earning free or discounted business class flights
  • The most common mistakes agencies and business owners make with points and rewards
  • Tips for selecting the right credit cards and optimizing spend categories
  • Tools, resources, and step-by-step strategies for DIY points travel planning

Keeping up with data protection and privacy laws is exhausting. Nearly every month, new legislation is being introduced state by state to help keep users' data protected online. And while this is overall a good thing, it can get really messy if agency owners aren't educated and informing their clients about what this means when they build out their websites.

Luckily, our guest today, Hans Skillrud, has collaborated with his wife to create an easy, self-updating tool that agency owners can implement on their own websites and the sites they build for their clients. He has committed himself to ensuring that data protection tools and documentation are easily accessible for anyone without needing a legal degree to make sense of it all.

In this episode, you'll learn why you must educate yourself and your clients on the most current privacy policy and data protection laws, why not to cut corners in this department, and why you should never collect more data than you actually need.

Even if it doesn't seem like a big deal right now, with the constantly changing environment of privacy laws, you never know when you could end up in a mess, even five years later. Don't delay on this, and get your documentation in check today.

A big thank you to our podcast's presenting sponsor, White Label IQ. They're an amazing resource for agencies who want to outsource their design, dev, or PPC work at wholesale prices. Check out their special offer (10 free hours!) for podcast listeners here.

• What is Termageddon?
• What agencies are required to provide to their clients in terms of documentation
• The risks for smaller businesses and agencies for not practicing good data protection
• Why agencies should embrace data protection policies, even if it seems complicated
• Can chatGPT write our policies for us?
• Why copying and pasting someone else's policies is a bad idea
• How data protection lawsuits happen
• How the Termageddon team keeps up with constantly changing data protection laws
• The confusing future of privacy law
• Three best data protection practices for agencies and website builders

Marketing today is not absolute. It's experimental, iterative, and ever-changing. And with that comes many challenges that we have to overcome and adapt to as agency leaders. One of those challenges is offering data analytics services to our clients.

Many of us got into the industry, hoping to avoid doing math. And yet, here we are again, going over another way tech and mathematics are imperative in our industry. While it might be exhausting or frustrating, a subject matter expert is joining us to help make it a little less confusing for everyone.

This week, I'm interviewing Jim Sterne, a data analytics expert who knows so much about the industry. Jim started the Data Analytics Association and wrote 12 books on the topic.

In this episode, he'll share the importance of offering data analytics expertise to better serve clients, how to hire either in-house or third-party data analysts, and tons of resources on where to look for advice and find other experts to help get you started.

Those who adapt survive. Don't wait on this one, and don't try to be a hero. The more we can help our clients reach their goals, the better off we are as an industry. Get help, look to the experts, and start offering your clients data analytics services as soon as possible.

A big thank you to our podcast's presenting sponsor, White Label IQ. They're an amazing resource for agencies who want to outsource their design, dev, or PPC work at wholesale prices. Check out their special offer (10 free hours!) for podcast listeners here.

• Why data analytics is more about the questions you ask rather than the answers you get
• The biggest hurdles agencies face when presenting data to clients
• Should you go third-party or stay in-house?
• What to look for when hiring a third-party data analytics expert
• How to make data useful to the client
• Data reports vs. data alerts, which is better?
• How to become a data storyteller
• Helping clients embrace experimental results over having absolute certainty
• The best resources for wannabe data analysts or those just starting out

AI-generated content is rapidly finding its way into professional spaces and changing the way we work forever. This fact is especially important for creative agencies that are quickly realizing there could be legal implications for using AI to create work proposals, creative IPs, legal documents, and more.

And like most legal questions, the answer to "Can I use AI to generate work for clients?" is, "It depends." We're in such a gray area with AI right now that the legal system hasn't had a chance to catch up to technological advances. So how do agencies protect themselves, their workers, clients, and their IP when everything is so up in the air right now?

Sharon Toerek has some common sense advice for approaching AI in the workplace to avoid a potential legal nightmare. In this episode, we'll cover human-generated vs. AI-generated content, the gray areas we need to look out for when using AI, how to protect client and agency copyrights, how to avoid infringing other copyrighted content, and so much more.

AI-generated content is an incredibly important and ever-changing topic. And if you're an agency owner, this needs to be addressed in your agency today.

A big thank you to our podcast's presenting sponsor, White Label IQ. They're an amazing resource for agencies who want to outsource their design, dev, or PPC work at wholesale prices. Check out their special offer (10 free hours!) for podcast listeners here.

• The top 3 questions lawyers are receiving about AI
• Having conversations with clients about the use of AI-generated content
• The gray area between AI-generated and human-generated content
• The ownability of AI-generated output
• Creating documentation about implementing AI tools in a typical workflow
• Including AI prompt strategies in trade secrets documentation
• Can we protect the data we're inputting into the collective that is AI?
• Addressing the use of AI in SOWs
• Should we use AI tools to create legal documents?

We all want to get paid what we're worth. But it's more than likely that we're downplaying our agency's value because we're too worried about pricing ourselves out or overcharging. This week, our guest, Casey Brown, will explain why that's wrong and how to get out of a fear-based pricing mindset for good.

Casey has been serving small to mid-sized agencies for the past 15 years to bring her corporate pricing expertise to private companies. She'll teach us why it's probable that we're talking ourselves out of charging what we're worth and giving discounts where they're not needed.

Our time is valuable in a typically creative industry, and we deserve to be paid what we're worth. Get ready to take action after listening to this episode so you can start having better pricing conversations with customers and stand up for your true worth as an agency.

A big thank you to our podcast's presenting sponsor, White Label IQ. They're an amazing resource for agencies who want to outsource their design, dev, or PPC work at wholesale prices. Check out their special offer (10 free hours!) for podcast listeners here.

• Why you should never pre-discount in pricing conversations
• The questions you should be asking when a client pushes back on price
• How to establish pricing integrity that establishes trust between you and the customer
• How to gauge if a client's low budget is real
• Building confidence in your pricing
• How to get out of a fear-based mindset
• The best approach to raising prices on legacy clients
• Protecting your margins in this current economy
• How to know if your pricing is right

This week, I'm covering an important topic I haven't covered on a solocast before — agency owner work balance. Often, agency owners get pulled into too much of the day-to-day client work or aren't correctly staffing the agency to get the support they need on the work they have.

There's a formula you should be following for how you break down your workday or workweek to be a successful business leader, and I'm going to map it out in an easily applicable formula. It's not always easy to get ourselves out of the daily client tasks, but the recipe I'm sharing with you today will help you block out more time for the things that matter the most.

If you're not doing your job, nobody else is going to do it, either. And your job is the most important job in the entire agency. So tune in to learn how to map out your days better, get out of the day-to-day, and focus your attention where you're needed most.

For 30+ years, Drew McLellan has been in the advertising industry. He started his career at Y&R, worked in boutique-sized agencies, and then started his own (which he still owns and runs) agency in 1995. Additionally, Drew owns and leads the Agency Management Institute, which advises hundreds of small to mid-sized agencies on how to grow their agency and its profitability through agency owner peer groups, consulting, coaching, workshops and more.

A big thank you to our podcast's presenting sponsor, White Label IQ. They're an amazing resource for agencies who want to outsource their design, dev, or PPC work at wholesale prices. Check out their special offer (10 free hours!) for podcast listeners here.

• Getting out of the day-to-day client work
• The percentage breakdown of how an agency owner should spend their day
• Why blocking your time efficiently and effectively is incredibly important
• The key factors that add value to your agency
• How to shift to this new breakdown of work
• Why biz dev is the most important task
• How to delegate and divide tasks between you and your business partner
• The importance of making yourself unavailable sometimes

Podcasts, radio, and TV are all similar mediums with a broad reach across the US. But over the years, younger audiences have moved away from radio and TV in favor of other platforms that offer ad-free subscriptions.

Quickly rising to the top amongst millennials and Gen Z is podcasting. So how do we still reach people who are consistently opting out of popular advertising avenues? Tom Webster has some answers for us.

He's on the podcast today to break down the findings from The Media Moves the Message study that his firm, Sounds Profitable, did on advertising performance between cable TV, AM/FM radio, and podcasting.

This deep dive will give you all the evidence you need to understand that podcasting has a bright future. And as long as we don't oversaturate it with advertising, it will be here to stay amongst audiences, both old and young, as the medium grows.

A big thank you to our podcast's presenting sponsor, White Label IQ. They're an amazing resource for agencies who want to outsource their design, dev, or PPC work at wholesale prices. Check out their special offer (10 free hours!) for podcast listeners here.

• How we can take advantage of the podcasting medium as advertisers
• The Media Moves the Message study
• The most noteworthy takeaways from the study
• How podcast listeners skew age-wise and where we can make improvements
• What the study results mean for agency owners and leaders
• Will we eventually oversaturate podcasts with ads?
• What the study means for content creators and podcast hosts
• Trusting that a podcast host knows how to advertise to their audience
• Areas where podcasting is lacking
• The power of small podcasts

Many of us didn't initially set out to become agency owners when we first started working in the business we're in now. It sort of happened accidentally, and we put our agency together on an as-needed basis as the clients kept coming in and our services and offerings evolved.

As accidental agency owners, we're left with a lot of room for error as we try to scale our agencies to fit our core values while also turning a profit. That's where Herb Cogliano's expertise comes in.

As an entrepreneur for over 30 years and a consultant helping scale and grow businesses, he knows all the pain points for agency owners as they navigate growing an agency.

Herb will teach us three major barriers to growth: hiring people in line with your core values, identifying general manager-level leadership, and remaining profitable as you and your team adapt to changes along the way. Herb wants us to run our business rather than the business running us. Tune in to learn how to go from an accidental agency owner to an intentional one.

A big thank you to our podcast's presenting sponsor, White Label IQ. They're an amazing resource for agencies who want to outsource their design, dev, or PPC work at wholesale prices. Check out their special offer (10 free hours!) for podcast listeners here.

• Three major barriers to our growth as agency owners
• The decisions around people, strategy, execution, and cash that we need to get right
• What we often get wrong about scaling
• How to improve cash flow and profits inside the business
• How to evolve the business in the right direction
• Establishing your core values and sticking to them
• What to look for in good leadership as you plan your leadership succession
• Creating processes to boost efficiency
• How to take the fear out of change for your employees

How you lead your business is critical to its success. People are the most important assets in our agencies, and without them, we can't deliver our best work to our customers. That's why it's critical to prioritize agency leadership so your teams can do their best work and grow alongside your organization.

Dr. Amin Sanaia is an expert in leadership development with extensive experience studying what attributes make the most successful leaders. Today, he shares the top five personality traits of a good leader, also known as CRAVE, and how we can bring leadership development and growth opportunities to our employees.

If you're ready to take your leadership to the next level and start showing up for your people with more empathy and authenticity, Dr. Amin has the tools to get you on the right path.

A big thank you to our podcast's presenting sponsor, White Label IQ. They're an amazing resource for agencies who want to outsource their design, dev, or PPC work at wholesale prices. Check out their special offer (10 free hours!) for podcast listeners here.

• What gets in the way of being a great leader
• Finding the balance between servant leadership and honest feedback
• Balancing employee wants and running your business profitably
• Offering fringe benefits over more money
• How agency leadership can show up with more empathy without going overboard
• Setting the tone of your agency culture
• Coaching and mentoring new agency leadership
• How to start behaving like a leader

So many of us hate selling or feeling like we are "being sold to" because it has the old reputation of being manipulative, exploitative, and too pushy. Thanks to the sales tactics of the old days, our sales prospects have walls up before a call or meeting even starts.

When we know the psychology of sales and truly understand how people want to be sold to, that's where the magic begins. Jeremy Miner, voted in the top 50 best salespeople worldwide, has some knowledge to share with us about approaching the sales process in a way that sets you up for success from the beginning.

Not only can you ditch lengthy sales pitches and pretend to care about the weather in your prospect's city, but you can also get to the root of their needs much more efficiently and teach them how you fit into that equation. Your prospects win because they learn about their company's problems, you win because you know how to solve them, and you both win again because fixing those blind spots helps you both make more money. What do you have to lose?

A big thank you to our podcast's presenting sponsor, White Label IQ. They're an amazing resource for agencies who want to outsource their design, dev, or PPC work at wholesale prices. Check out their special offer (10 free hours!) for podcast listeners here.

• Jeremy's first door-to-door sales job
• How to get sales prospects to pull you in rather than you pushing them to make a decision
• Getting to the bottom of your prospect's problems and figuring out how to solve them
• The least persuasive way to sell
• Leading sales conversations with emotion instead of logic
• The NEPQ approach to sales conversations
• How Covid impacted selling to prospects
• Building a visual gap between where your sales prospects are and where they want to be
• Asking the right questions

This week, I'm using this episode to talk about some questions I get asked a lot, and that is what we offer in AMI memberships. Many of you want to know what our different tiers of memberships include and what other services we offer. If you're curious about AMI and our membership offerings, this episode is for you.

I will break down what we offer for agency owners and leaders and how you can get involved in the AMI community if you feel compelled to do so. We have a ton of different ways to become a community member, get consulting and one-on-one coaching, access our peer networks, and even get help with succession work.

Our goal is always to help small to mid-size agencies reach their goals and get access to the best network possible. You're never too small or far away from us to participate, so if you're feeling compelled to join the community in some way, I'm giving you all the details here today.

For 30+ years, Drew McLellan has been in the advertising industry. He started his career at Y&R, worked in boutique-sized agencies, and then started his own (which he still owns and runs) agency in 1995. Additionally, Drew owns and leads the Agency Management Institute, which advises hundreds of small to mid-sized agencies on how to grow their agency and its profitability through agency owner peer groups, consulting, coaching, workshops and more.

A big thank you to our podcast's presenting sponsor, White Label IQ. They're an amazing resource for agencies who want to outsource their design, dev, or PPC work at wholesale prices. Check out their special offer (10 free hours!) for podcast listeners here.

• The free resources we always offer agency owners and leaders
• Our workshops, both online and in-person
• Online and onsite consulting with experienced business leaders
• Creating a network of agency leaders with Peer Networks and Virtual Peer Groups
• How we can help in succession planning and coaching new buyers to acquire an agency
• The BABA Summit
• How to get involved if you can't travel or just want some content from us
• The members-only perks as an add-on to our free content

Welcome to another episode of Build a Better Agency! In this special solo cast, host Drew McLellan tackles one of the perennial challenges and hottest conversations among agency leaders: how to strategically shape your agency team for lasting success. Drawing on decades of experience and access to the financial workings of hundreds of agencies, Drew provides listeners with a timely and insightful look at evolving team structures as agencies gear up for 2026.

Drew shares fascinating trends shaping today's agency workforce, including the rise of smaller in-house teams, increased reliance on part-time employees, contractors, and global talent, as well as the impact of AI on traditional roles. He explores why the most profitable agencies typically have teams between 12 and 40 people, and details how agencies are leveraging a blend of strategic full-timers and specialized contractors to maximize expertise while remaining nimble. Throughout the episode, Drew challenges listeners to move beyond old paradigms of in-house staffing, instead embracing flexible models that respond to both economic realities and shifting client needs.

Listeners will gain practical advice for preparing their own agencies for the future. Drew urges owners to focus on cultivating "Sherpa-like" team members—those who act as strategic guides and teachers for clients, rather than simply executing deliverables. He highlights the growing importance of nurturing a culture of continuous learning and adaptability, as well as prioritizing skills and problem-solving ability over traditional credentials in new hires.

If you're ready to future-proof your agency, enhance your strategic value to clients, and reimagine what a modern, high-performing agency team should look like, this episode is packed with actionable insights and food for thought. Whether you're planning for next quarter or looking ahead to 2026, Drew's thoughtful analysis and forward-thinking advice will help you start important conversations about the future of your agency

A big thank you to our podcast's presenting sponsor, White Label IQ. They're an amazing resource for agencies who want to outsource their design, dev, or PPC work at wholesale prices. Check out their special offer (10 free hours!) for podcast listeners here.

• • Shifting agency team structures for maximum profitability
  • The growing blend of full-time, part-time, and contract talent
  • Leveraging global talent for specialized and technical roles
  • The impact of AI on team composition and the "hollowing out" of the agency pyramid
  • Evolving client needs: strategic partners and "Sherpa"-style leadership
  • Rethinking hiring for skills and adaptability over formal education  
  • Building a learning organization to stay ahead in a rapidly changing landscape

You need innovative ideas to stand out and be ahead of the curve. We often get caught up in the chaos of day-to-day agency operations and retreat into the comfort zone of doing things the same way we've always done them.

Today, we're talking you out of that way of thinking and giving you an entirely different framework for approaching client projects. Stan Phelps, an author and keynote speaker with prior agency experience, has a whole new way of thinking about client projects and asking the right questions to build out innovative ideas that will keep clients coming back to you for more.

When we make the time, space, and budget to allow our teams to think outside of the box and take more creative risks, we make space for better, more trusting clients who know you'll hit a home run for them every time.

A big thank you to our podcast's presenting sponsor, White Label IQ. They're an amazing resource for agencies who want to outsource their design, dev, or PPC work at wholesale prices. Check out their special offer (10 free hours!) for podcast listeners here.

• Creating innovation through action and insights
• Why we need to be incentivizing our teams and clients to think outside the box
• The IDEA Framework for mapping out innovative ideas
• Sometimes it's about learning what our clients don't value
• Using attribute and journey mapping to learn about customers and how they interact with us
• How to start asking your clients the big questions that lead to big ideas
• What to internally evaluate before taking your ideas to a client
• How to infuse innovation into agency operations as an agency leader

Think about some of your favorite brands for just a moment. What aspects of those brands make you feel the most connected to them? Do you ever find yourself talking to your friends or family about a company you love so much because of what they stand for or how they connect with people?

Enter community building as a marketing strategy — the next big thing in brand marketing, according to Mark Schaefer. This week, he will teach us why brands need to hop on this trend as quickly as possible and how agencies can join in on the fun, too.

As business leaders, the best way to reach our audience is to turn that audience into a community and connect with the people who are your biggest advocates. In this episode, we'll talk about the role of creating emotional connections to your brand, the difference between an audience and a community, how agencies can become leaders in community building for brands, and so much more. Mark will leave you thinking about how your agency can evolve into a thriving community while growing your brand organically.

A big thank you to our podcast's presenting sponsor, White Label IQ. They're an amazing resource for agencies who want to outsource their design, dev, or PPC work at wholesale prices. Check out their special offer (10 free hours!) for podcast listeners here.

• Mark's inspiration for writing his book on the next big brand marketing strategies
• The 3 trends that came together to bring community building to the forefront of brand marketing
• The importance of having an emotional connection with your community
• The major difference between audience and community
• How can agencies begin helping brands with community building?
• Nurturing organic advocacy for your brand
• Perfecting community building in both online and face-to-face interactions
• Some pitfalls to avoid when beginning to dabble in community building
• Can/should agencies create their own communities?

There's no denying that when the pandemic hit, the workforce changed forever. We experienced some of the most rapid shifts in our economy and lifestyles this century, and we still feel its effects today.

Most notably, our work standards morphed along with how we view leadership and hustle culture. The old ways of working longer hours and devoting yourself to a company to climb your way to the top have dissolved.

This week, Heather McGowan is joining me to talk about the major shifts we've recently experienced and will shed some light on how agency owners can adapt to better fit the new roles employees expect leadership to fill. She'll talk about "The Five Greats" that led to these intense shifts, and four leadership adaptations agency owners should consider making to support the new-age workforce best.

A big thank you to our podcast's presenting sponsor, White Label IQ. They're an amazing resource for agencies who want to outsource their design, dev, or PPC work at wholesale prices. Check out their special offer (10 free hours!) for podcast listeners here.

• How Heather accidentally became an expert in human work culture
• "The Five Greats" that collided all at once to shift the workforce
• How to change the mindset around hustle culture and where it still has its place
• Four shifts an agency owner needs to make to align themselves with the current workforce
• Moving from competition to collaboration to motivate your workforce
• Polling your workers and being open to feedback as you make changes
• How agencies are successfully building a remote culture
• What are the new standards of effective leadership today?