EP 485: It’s time to heal from post-COVID agency owner grief with Drew McLellan
Jan 20, 2025
The discussion dives deep into the emotional toll COVID-19 has imposed on agency owners, highlighting the unnoticed grief that lingers. It emphasizes the need to acknowledge these feelings to pave the way for healing and renewal. The conversation encourages releasing old habits to embrace fresh opportunities in a changing landscape. Listeners are urged to reflect on their journey from 2020 to now, recognizing both the challenges and triumphs that have shaped their resilience and passion for innovation in business.
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insights INSIGHT
Agency Owner Grief
Agency owners are experiencing grief due to profound business loss since COVID.
This grief stems from losing pre-pandemic norms, work styles, and even business identities.
insights INSIGHT
Unprocessed Grief
Unaddressed grief doesn't disappear; it intensifies and eventually demands attention.
Many agency owners are now burdened by the weight of unprocessed grief, hindering their performance.
volunteer_activism ADVICE
Acknowledge and Express Grief
Acknowledge and accept your grief over losing pre-pandemic operations.
Express your feelings through writing, peer groups, or discussions with understanding colleagues.
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I wanted to wait until after the holidays to talk about this topic because it’s a bit heavier than what we usually talk about on the show. But it’s something that Danyel and I have noticed weighing heavily on a lot of you since COVID, and that is agency owner grief.
It’s true that many of you have experienced quite a lot of loss and change these past few years — with the way we work, how well our business is doing, AI, our overall productivity, and so much more. It’s a lot of change to handle, and for many of us, we haven’t taken the proper time to actually acknowledge our grief and begin to let it go.
But without taking those first steps, that grief will continue to take hold of us and affect us in all aspects of our business — and even our personal lives. Many of you report being restless, unable to focus, depressed, uninspired, feeling heavy, and burnt out. And it’s all because we’re burning the candle at both ends without taking the time to acknowledge just how much change we’ve gone through in the past 5 years as agency owners.
So I hope you’ll join me and take some time to take stock of everything that’s happened from 2020 to now — the good and the bad — and start to recognize just how much we’ve gone through so we can collectively learn to grieve and begin to let go of the bad to make more room for some good.
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 agency owners are struggling mentally and emotionally more than ever
Understanding agency owner grief and what’s caused it to increase in the past 5 years
Addressing agency owner grief
The 5 stages of grief and how it manifests for agency owners
The trickle effect of grief on agencies
How we can begin to identify our grief
Starting the healing process after we identify the source of our grief
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