Small But Mighty Agency: Win clients and build better networks for marketing and consulting agencies – Details, episodes & analysis

Has your agency hit a plateau? Maybe you're attracting the wrong clients or feeling like your services aren’t being valued as much as they should be. 

If this sounds familiar, it might be time to rethink your positioning.

In this episode of Small But Mighty Agency, we’re diving into how repositioning your agency can help you:

• Break out of a growth plateau
• Attract bigger, higher-paying clients who truly value your expertise
• Gain clarity on your niche and stand out in a crowded market
• Build a reputation as a go-to expert in your industry

Wondering if it’s time to reposition? 

I’ll walk you through the four key signs that indicate a shift is needed and share actionable steps to successfully reposition your agency and reignite growth.

Key Takeaways:

• The benefits of repositioning and why it can transform your agency’s prospects
• Practical insights on how to realign your services and messaging to attract the clients you truly want
• How to shift your positioning to open doors to higher-value clients and more lucrative opportunities

Let me know your thoughts after you listen—I’d love to hear from you!

Show Links

Access our network designed for agency owners to get more consistent referrals, connections and collaborations. Agency Together can save you time and help you build a network that gets you the clients you want to work with. 

And don’t forget the free Agency Together Newsletter.

Join hundreds of agency owners receiving insights about growing and leading a small – less than 50 people – mighty agency. Try the free newsletter.

Hey thank for hanging out with me at the Small But Mighty Podcast. If you enjoyed this episode it would mean the world to me if you hit the follow or subscribe button in your podcast app and share it with a friend. And I’ll see you on the next one. 

Get the full show notes and more information here: https://audreyjoykwan.com/podcast/ep112

Podcast Edits by Lindsay Curtis

Are you a small agency owner wondering how to really stand out?

If you've been feeling the pressure of competition and questioning how to unlock new growth opportunities, you're in the right place.

 In today's episode, I’m unpacking a strategy to transform how you approach growth. 

The future of small agencies is in building networks, not silos. 

Specialization and collaborative ecosystems are already opening doors to new opportunities that many small agencies might have thought were out of reach. 

That’s why in this episode, I’m sharing the answers to these three key questions: 

• Why are small agencies better together
• How choosing collaboration over competition is not just a trend—it's the future.
• Why the old “competition” mindset is holding you back—and how to shift it for more success 

If you’re of the mindset that other agencies who offer the same services are your competition, it could be limiting your potential. 

So stick around because if you want smarter ways to grow and shape the success of your agency, this episode will point you in the right direction.

Show Links

If I may suggest a collaborative ecosystem, check out Agency Together – a referral network designed to help busy agency owners get more consistent referrals and connections without wasting time. 

Don’t Forget The Free Agency Together Newsletter.

Join hundreds of agency owners receiving insights about growing and leading a small – less than 50 people – mighty agency. Try the free newsletter.

Hey thank for hanging out with me at the Small But Mighty Podcast. If you enjoyed this episode it would mean the world to me if you hit the follow or subscribe button in your podcast app and share it with a friend. And I’ll see you on the next one. 

Get the full show notes and more information here: https://audreyjoykwan.com/podcast/ep111

Podcast Edits by Lindsay Curtis

How do you know if a referral network is right for you? 

Imagine having a network that’s not just another mastermind or course but a community focused on helping you grow through strategic collaborations and consistent referrals. 

Picture this: curated connections, referral pods, and collaboration events tailored to extend your reach and grow your business. 

At Agency Together, we’ve created a purposeful community where the intent is crystal clear: generating strategic collaborations and referrals to grow your agency. 

If you’re an agency with a niche, tune in. 

We’ll dive into:

• Why is a niche your best friend for making memorable referral-ask 
• The untapped potential of strategic collaborations for agencies
• How to know if a referral network like Agency Together is your perfect match

Don’t miss this episode. Learn how to stand out, get more clients in a referral network and leverage a referral community for maximum impact.

Show Links

Is Agency Together Right for You? 

Connect on LinkedIn

Join a community where the intent is crystal clear: generating strategic collaborations and referrals to grow your agency without feeling the transactional ick factor. 

You should apply for Agency Together if want consistent referrals and collaborations opportunities to increase visibility for your brand and agency. Apply here.

Hey thank for hanging out with me at the Small But Mighty Podcast. If you enjoyed this episode it would mean the world to me if you hit the follow or subscribe button in your podcast app and share it with a friend. And I’ll see you on the next one. 

Get the full show notes and more information here: https://audreyjoykwan.com/podcast-ep102

Podcast Edits by Lindsay Curtis

Have you hired somebody into your business before and felt burned because it didn’t work out? Michael did, and it cost him $60,ooo. In this episode, we explore the hiring and leadership insights gained from the costly mistake and how the mistake he made 6 years ago informs his approach to  hiring and building his team today.

On this episode of Small But Mighty Agency: 

• How to avoid making $60,000 in hiring mistakes 
• The leadership skills that are necessary for team building 
• Creating KPI’s to help team members see how their salary and role can grow with the company 
• The necessity of creating additional time to train people and the payoff 
• Rebounding from losing over $250,000 in four days in the covid pandemic 

Michael Tighe is the co-founder and managing director of SOLID, a creative design and marketing agency that launched in 2010. Mike has a long-standing success record in agencies, before co-founding SOLID he worked at Critical Mass, and started up his first design company before co-founding SOLID. Mike is now the leader of a team of 14 with 5 full-time staff and 11 contractors. His quotable, "People think you have to be this otherworldly strong person to start a business, to build a business, and that's not true, To me, what it really means is your ability to bend and not break."

Show Links

Solid Website: https://asolidsite.com/ 

Michael Tighe Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/miketighe/  

Thanks for listening to the Small But Mighty Agency Podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a review on iTunes or send a screenshot on Instagram while tagging me  @audreyjoykwan

If you’re a service-based solopreneur bumping up against capacity, what might feel scary but necessary is to de-prioritize business-building activities like marketing and visibility for business-stabilizing activities like systems, process improvements, and building your team. 

If onboarding two more clients in your business with the current structure you have now creates anxiety about servicing them with excellence, it's time to look at your operations and team. 

Karen Seymour was a solopreneur who started her digital marketing business four years ago. Over the past four years she’s gone from wondering how to get her next client to now bumping into a capacity challenge. This year, she’s deciding to put her clients first by focusing on business-stabilizing activities like systems, processes and team to better serve her current and future clients. 

On this episode of Small But Mighty Agency: 

• What’s growing her business right now
• How to know it’s time to focus on streamlining operations and team 
• What a team can really do for your business
• What’s working on social media this year
• Why networking is more important than ever 

Karen Seymour is the Founder & Social Media Strategist at Karen J Seymour - Digital Marketing, LLC in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She started her business in 2017, after a 10-year career as a consultant and project manager.  Karen specializes in growing audiences and creating communities of loyal, raving fans and customers on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram. When she’s not working, you can find Karen shopping online, brunching with friends, or spending time with her husband Geoff and 2 adorable fur babies, Roger and Eboni.

 Show Links

Facebook: @kjsmarketing

Instagram: @kjs_marketing 

Email: hello@karenjseymour.com

Website: https://www.karenjseymour.com/

 This episode is brought to you by the FREE Strategic Connections Roundtable

Join the free Strategic Connections Roundtable where creatives, consultants, and service-based business owners can meet new business connections without the awkwardness of traditional networking. It's a curated experience where the group fit is curated so that connections and conversations thrive.

That means that every month, a strategic connections roundtable will bring together a group of service based business owners in similar stages of business who can benefit from knowing each other SO that you can

• Make connections easier
• Share what your business offers
• Discover new resources
• And have an opportunity to mastermind a challenge

Save your free seat right here

Thanks for listening to the Small But Mighty Agency Podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a review on iTunes or send a screenshot on Instagram while tagging me  @audreyjoykwan

While partnership in a business isn’t for everyone, it has its benefits. 

Darian Kovacs started his agency from a storage closet in the start-up days and now has a thriving agency of 80 clients. 

Jelly Digital Marketing and PR who serves clients like La-Z-Boy and Splash Down Waterpark went from an agency of one owner -- Darian Kovacs -- and towards his vision of an agency owned by a team by bringing in business partner, Sarah Clark. 

In this special episode we speak with Darian and Sarah about what makes a partnership successful and we get an inside peak of the systems and processes that make running 80+ clients possible in their business. 

On this episode of Small But Mighty Agency: 

• What makes partnership in an agency successful
• What systems and processes make running 80+ clients possible
• The Standard Operating Procedure that is working for Jelly Digital Marketing and PR to help the team prioritize their work
• How Jelly Digital Marketing and PR plan and track capacity so that budget and people are balanced
• Why launching their own podcast isn’t the marketing strategy most people think it is

Show Links

Jelly Digital Marketing and PR (https://jellymarketing.ca/)

Jelly Digital Marketing and PR (https://www.instagram.com/jellymarketing/)

Marketing News Canada (https://marketingnewscanada.com/)

You Are Special, Max Lucado (https://www.amazon.ca/You-Are-Special-Max-Lucado/dp/1581342195)

This episode is brought to you by the FREE Strategic Connections Roundtable

Join the free Strategic Connections Roundtable where creatives, consultants and service-based business owners can meet new business connections without the awkwardness of traditional networking. It's a curated experience where the group fit is curated so that connections and conversations thrive.

That means that every month, a strategic connections roundtable will bring together a group of service based business owners in similar stages of business who can benefit from knowing each other SO that you can

• Make connections easier
• Share what your business offers
• Discover new resources
• And have an opportunity to mastermind a challenge

Save your free seat right here

Thanks for listening to the Small But Mighty Agency Podcast, if you enjoyed this episode please leave a review on iTunes or send a screenshot on Instagram while tagging me  @audreyjoykwan

Having a full service agency was not a business that Jenn Ennis planned for when she started offering graphic design services as a freelancer back in 2014. 

Jenn credits a series of small pivotal moments in her journey adding up to the business she has now.

In this episode we explore the small but mighty moments, including a lesson in pricing that set her up for success, and how one project can change your confidence and the trajectory of your business. 

Jenn is the proud wife of an actor, and mom to three boys. A graphic designer by trade, and over 15 years of working in brand development and design, Jenn founded Jennis Design Co. in 2014. JDCO is a full-service creative agency specializing in practical brand strategy and cohesive design solutions for print and digital marketing. Jenn is also the co-host of the Raising Mom Podcast.

On this episode of Small But Mighty Agency:

9:58: Starting out as a boutique graphic design services and becoming a creative agency

11:25: How new hires helped her expand her scope of services 

12:29: Landing her first 5 figure client and how it changed the business

15:19: How to price your services

18:08: When increasing your prices does and doesn’t make sense

21:47: Why transform a creative agency into a digital agency

26:51: What does it mean to switch to a leadership mindset

Show Links

Graphic Artist Guild Handbook

JDCO Website

JDCO Instagram 

This episode is brought to you by the FREE Strategic Connections Roundtable

Join the free Strategic Connections Roundtable where creatives, consultants and service-based business owners can meet new business connections without the awkwardness of traditional networking. It's a curated experience where the group fit is curated so that connections and conversations thrive.

That means that every month, a strategic connections roundtable will bring together a group of service based business owners in similar stages of business who can benefit from knowing each other SO that you can

• Make connections easier
• Share what your business offers
• Discover new resources
• And have an opportunity to mastermind a challenge

Save your free seat right here

Thanks for listening to the Small But Mighty Agency Podcast, if you enjoyed this episode please leave a review on iTunes or send a screenshot on Instagram while tagging me  @audreyjoykwan

Do you feel like delegation is a struggle and you have a hard time trusting the people you’ve hired, BUT you still have hope that you can build a team that doesn’t rely on you to function?

When that happens, you know you will regain time freedom and bandwidth. 

Yes, it's possible.

Tune into this episode to hear the four things that might be holding you back from having a self managing team 

On this episode of Small But Mighty Agency Podcast, you will

1. Recognize the hazards of the self employment mindset trap to growing a business
2. Gain clarity on how communicating a strategic plan helps to build a self managing team 
3. Learn what needs to come before your hiring process in order attract A+ people 
4. Hear why processes and systems are not enough to set others up for success

This week's episode of the Small But Mighty Agency Podcast is a solo episode. From time to time, I’ll be covering questions and challenges that I see my clients experience to support business owners like you to set up their teams and operations to be strategic. 

Show Links

Website
Instagram
LinkedIn

This episode is brought to you by the FREE Strategic Connections Roundtable

Join the free Strategic Connections Roundtable where creatives, consultants and service-based business owners can meet new business connections without the awkwardness of traditional networking. It's a curated experience where the group fit is curated so that connections and conversations thrive.

That means that every month, a strategic connections roundtable will bring together a group of service based business owners in similar stages of business who can benefit from knowing each other SO that you can

• Make connections easier
• Share what your business offers
• Discover new resources
• And have an opportunity to mastermind a challenge

Save your free seat right here

Thanks for listening to the Small But Mighty Agency Podcast, if you enjoyed this episode please leave a review on iTunes or send a screenshot on Instagram while tagging me  @audreyjoykwan

How is this Leader of the Year named by Marketing News Canada making the competition irrelevant? 

While most people know that consultant-type businesses don’t scale, this marketing agency owner isn’t too concerned with scaling right now, instead he’s focusing on what he calls building a defensible model. 

In other words, he would rather be in an uncontested marketplace solving a unique challenge for his clients than compete in a crowded one solving the same problems as everybody else. 

He’s carved out a healthy portfolio of B2B clients in travel, tech, and retail but scaling isn’t his focus right now. 

Conner Galway is the President of Junction Consulting – a digital consultancy in Vancouver, BC. Junction Consulting’s recent work includes helping to create a digital learning platform for Destination BC, and training for Lululemon. Conner was most recently named Leader of the Year by Marketing News Canada for his support of Canada’s tourism industry through the COVID-19 pandemic.  Conner is one of Canada’s premiere digital business educators, teaching and developing curriculum at schools like Brainstation, Simon Fraser University, and Capilano University. He shares his latest thinking in a weekly email called The Brief that’s read by leaders at many of North America’s most respected brands.

On this episode of Small But Mighty Agency: 

2:41: How Conner started his first agency

4:45: Why the marketing consultant agency model over a traditional marketing agency that does implementation

8:50: The team structure he uses to run his marketing consultant agency

11:14: Why say “no” to the execution and implementation of marketing strategy and what to focus on instead

12:44: The “bias” and why it may not best serve clients best interest

14:39: What is the concept of digital from the inside out

19:15: What is Junction doing to productize and systematize a consultant-agency business

21:22: Why scaling is over-glorified and what is more important than scaling for Conner 

26:41: What is and isn’t working to grow the business? 

Show Links

Website: wearejunction.com

Twitter: @Conner_G

Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/connergalway

The Brief weekly newsletter: brief.wearejunction.com

This episode is brought to you by the FREE Strategic Connections Roundtable

Join the free Strategic Connections Roundtable where creatives, consultants and service-based business owners can meet new business connections without the awkwardness of traditional networking. It's a curated experience where the group fit is curated so that connections and conversations thrive.

That means that every month, a strategic connections roundtable will bring together a group of service based business owners in similar stages of business who can benefit from knowing each other SO that you can

• Make connections easier
• Share what your business offers
• Discover new resources
• And have an opportunity to mastermind a challenge

Save your free seat right here

Thanks for listening to the Small But Mighty Agency Podcast, if you enjoyed this episode please leave a review on iTunes or send a screenshot on Instagram while tagging me  @audreyjoykwan

If you can set yourself up to avoid the Self Employment Trap of owning an agency in the first few years of business, the result is a business that sets you up for more time freedom. 

What’s the Self Employment Trap? It’s when you the business owner become the chief of everything by day juggling all the responsibilities and firefighter by night fixing all the problems, and feeling like you don’t have a team that you can trust. 

Meet Shannon, she is a consultant turned agency-owner. We explore why she started an agency, the things she would do differently if she were to start again, and what she is doing to pave her way forward to building a bigger team to get out of day to day operations 

Shannon DeSouza’s boutique digital marketing agency is based in Vancouver, where she leads all initiatives on web design, social media coaching and launch campaigns. Her professional experience comes from the software industry, where she spent 10 years working alongside CEO’s. For the last 5 years, her digital marketing agency has helped clients become more profitable by gaining more visibility, driving traffic, and increasing their sales online.

On this episode of Small But Mighty Agency: 

4:10 Why positioning herself as a consultant first was the right first step

8:20: Who she doesn’t want to be in her business and what was holding her back

9:32: What is the first system and process she invested in for her business 

10:31: What she would do differently in her first year of business

12:43: Insights about her clients behavior before they buy and how that has changed her service offerings

15:22: What she is doing in her own social media to warm up cold audiences

24:03 The exact mindset block on money that she had to overcome to get to the next level 

36:20: Why men and women are different when it comes to the selling 

Show Links
Marketing 4 Moms Website
Marketing 4 Moms on LinkedIn
Marketing 4 Moms on Instagram


This episode is brought to you by the FREE Strategic Connections Roundtable

Join the free Strategic Connections Roundtable where creatives, consultants and service-based business owners can meet new business connections without the awkwardness of traditional networking. It's a curated experience where the group fit is curated so that connections and conversations thrive.

That means that every month, a strategic connections roundtable will bring together a group of service based business owners in similar stages of business who can benefit from knowing each other SO that you can

• Make connections easier
• Share what your business offers
• Discover new resources
• And have an opportunity to mastermind a challenge

Save your free seat right here

Thanks for listening to the Small But Mighty Agency Podcast, if you enjoyed this episode please leave a review on iTunes or send a screenshot on Instagram while tagging me  @audreyjoykwan