The Agency Accelerator

Imagine going to your best friend’s wedding and having too good a time and waking up with an almighty headache the next morning. Would you reach for a pain killer or take a vitamin pill? Well a pain killer of course! Clients who are in pain have an urgent need to solve that pain (with your solution). Yet many agencies are trying to sell their prospective clients a vitamin pill (something that is nice to have but not urgent) rather than a pain killer! In this short podcast, I am going to teach you how to make sure you are selling your customers the right sort of pill….   [3:00] Your client is buying a transformation from being in pain, to not being in pain. For example, “my website is not generating enough traffic” to “you’ve helped my website generate loads of traffic!” [5:57] You can’t address a customer’s pain points unless you know them and what makes them tick [08:53] Is your site’s homepage all about you? If so, you need to change this! Customers don’t care about this. [11:47] Are you standing in your clients’ shoes throughout all of your outbound marketing? [14:05] Dig deep and understand what jobs need to be done! Links to the e-books I mentioned (I have tonnes more, so don’t forget to check them out!): Are you a niche or generalist agency? Know your customer   Subscribe & Review Are you subscribed to my podcast yet? If you’re not, please do so to avoid missing out on any episodes! You can subscribe/ follow on iTunes, Spotify or directly from my website. I would be very grateful if you left me a review over on iTunes, too as they will help other people to find my podcasts and it's also great to read your comments! Thanks so much, Rob

Standing out from the crowd when it comes to marketing your business is getting harder and harder these days and posting the odd blog just isn’t enough anymore. So, in this episode I’m joined by Ian Laurie of Snow Digital Media and we are going to be looking at the importance of adding video into your marketing strategy, in particular using it on LinkedIn. [02:50] Ian shares his journey of running his own business and discusses the dos and don’ts of running your own agency. It can be “lonely at the top”. Ian shares his experiences of working with business partners. You obviously have to have shared values and make sure you’re on the same page otherwise it won’t work, so how did Ian find the experience? [08:24] Ian remembers what it was like to experience the peaks and troughs of running your own business, especially near the beginning. [11:00] Why should video be part of a marketing agency’s strategy and why is LinkedIn the platform we should be focusing on right now? [15:08] Is it ok to post video content using a third party app or should we only post natively? [17:01] Ian discusses the ideal length and content for a video on LinkedIn and he reminds us why we need to make sure we grab the audience’s attention within the first 5 seconds. [24:00] Ian loves video podcasts. They are the perfect for creating lots of small pieces of content from one big piece of content. [27:24] So… that‘s all good and well talking about how to do videos, but how do you get BETTER at doing them?  [29:53] Rob asks Ian what advice would he give his younger business self?   Subscribe & Review Are you subscribed to my podcast yet? If you’re not, please do so to avoid missing out on any episodes! You can subscribe/ follow on iTunes, Spotify or directly from my website. I would be very grateful if you left me a review over on iTunes, too as they will help other people to find my podcasts and it's also great to read your comments! Thanks so much, Rob

Picture this: You’re walking the dog or standing in the shower and you have a brainwave of an idea for a new product, course or a new business idea. You get very excited by this and sit down and start fleshing it out and then put it into action. After many weeks and late nights of work you’re finally ready to launch. You’re very excited to get your product or business out there so you launch with a big fanfare but sadly to little response. When we think we know what our audience wants, when we are absolutely certain our idea is a sure-fire winner, when we believe we know best for our clients, WE HAVE TO FIRST VALIDATE OUR IDEA...... [01:24] If your launch fails, it doesn’t necessarily mean the content was bad but the positioning and messaging just clearly wasn't right. I’ve been there. I assumed I knew what my audience wanted, and I was unfortunately very wrong! [07:04] What's the VERY first thing you should do to validate your idea? [10:38] Are you selling painkillers or vitamins? [14:36] Let’s look at the actual validation process. Start with an email list or at least 60 people to talk to. If you don't have these, you need to focus on building your list before you even think about launching a new product! [18:11] Did at least 10% of people who did your survey say they were interested in your new business/ product? [20:10] Don't make the mistakes I made in the past. Validation isn't the most exciting things to do, but it can save you SO much time and heartache. If you are interested in a step-step guide on exactly how to do what I outlined in this blog, including the exact emails and survey templates, then grab a copy of my 27-page step-by-step guide on selecting and validating your idea BEFORE you go to market. Subscribe & Review Are you subscribed to my podcast yet? If you’re not, please do so to avoid missing out on any episodes! You can subscribe/ follow on iTunes, Spotify or directly from my website. I would be very grateful if you left me a review over on iTunes, too as they will help other people to find my podcasts and it's also great to read your comments! Thanks so much, Rob

Fear of public speaking is an incredibly common phobia and affects around 75% of the population. As business owners, many of us (no matter how much we hate it) are unable to avoid public speaking situations thanks to meetings or presentations – in fact it’s a crucial part of building our agency. So wouldn’t it be a lot easier if we could learn to cope with it a bit better, or even crazier….learn to enjoy it? In this episode of The Agency Accelerator, I am joined by award-winning keynote conference speaker Steve Bustin, who is going to be sharing some great tips and advice on how we can improve our own public speaking, better prepare for it and ultimately, not be so terrified by it! [1:14] Steve has a very colourful business background and his passions and focus have evolved over the years. Starting as a BBC journalist, he then went into PR before realising what his true passion was: speaking and training others how to do it well. [7:10] Let’s unpack some of the interesting points Steve just mentioned about his past experiences including being led by opportunity and the effects that losing a big client can have on your business. [9:36] Steve discusses the Sunday night blues and how life is too short – and what to do about it [11:23] There is a trend of people moving away from the retainer model within agencies. Could this be a good thing? [13:35] Rob asks Steve why he thinks public speaking is the second biggest fear after death! Why do we care so much what people think of us? Steve also explains why we need to train our staff with the skills to be great leaders and that includes learning how to be a great speaker. [20:41] Steve shares how he helps people overcome their fears of public speaking and he explains why you’ve got to have passion for whatever your talking about, otherwise how do you expect your clients to be passionate about it? And we must remember, we all present differently and that’s a good thing! [23:18] Rob takes us back to a workshop he hosted and the importance of managing your ‘internal dialog’. Also, why do so many of us never rehearse our presentations before the big day? Surely this will help to get rid of so much of the anxiety we feel before speaking?! [27:31] What is the perfect structure of a presentation? Why does great structure tend to revolve around just 3 main arguments? And how can you grab the audiences’ attention? [34:00] Rob asks Steve what happens if you can see people yawning in the audience during your presentation? Does this mean you’re too boring and should stop right now?! [37:40] Steve gives 3 brilliant top tips for improving your own public speaking [44:56] Rob asks Steve: “if you could go back in time and give your younger self some business advice what would it be?” Subscribe & Review Are you subscribed to my podcast yet? If you’re not, please do so to avoid missing out on any episodes! You can subscribe/ follow on iTunes, Spotify or directly from my website. I would be very grateful if you left me a review over on iTunes, too as they will help other people to find my podcasts and it's also great to read your comments! Thanks so much, Rob

The Coronavirus has disrupted the entire world in ways we haven’t seen since WWII. Chances are your own business has been affected, whether it’s the amount of clients you now have or the fact you and your whole team are now working remotely. In this episode I want to discuss 5 key areas that you need to work on in order to not just survive the virus, but thrive. They are; mind-set, serving your audience, pivoting where necessary, sales and marketing and the importance of having a strategy. [1:45] You need to make sure you have the right mind-set if your agency is going to survive this pandemic. Remember, people are still spending money. It’s your own self-limiting beliefs that tell you otherwise. Identify your priorities for the week and write them down. When you have a plan you have a sense of control.   [09:20] How can you best keep serving your audience? If your business is genuinely helping people, then they need to hear about it! [11:59] You can pivot your business in three ways; offering, price and message. Which one is best for your business? [20:52] Should you be marketing your services at the moment or is this in bad taste? [24:15] You need to have a strategy, and this is probably going to look different to what it did a couple of months ago.  Subscribe & Review Are you subscribed to my podcast yet? If you’re not, please do so to avoid missing out on any episodes! You can subscribe/ follow on iTunes, Spotify or directly from my website. I would be very grateful if you left me a review over on iTunes, too as they will help other people to find my podcasts and it's also great to read your comments! Thanks so much, Rob   Links mentioned:  TEMPLATE PRODUCTIVITY EPISODE LINK

In this episode, I focus on something very close to my heart – the importance of niching. Agencies that have a clearly defined niche massively outperform those that don’t in almost every way: revenue, customer retention, employee satisfaction, and in the quality of their client relationships (because prospects see you as the expert, not just as a supplier). A big statement to make? Sure - but I know it’s accurate because I’ve lived it. Niching my agency allowed me to triple my profits inside 6 months and I’ve helped so many other agencies to substantially grow their profits after doing the same thing. So if you run an agency and you’re still on the fence about whether or not niching is right for you, keep listening:   [01:37] Why is niching so important and how did it work for me and my agency? [05:28] If you don’t niche, you can differentiate on two things – price and/or service. But is that really wise? [07:40] How exactly do you find your niche? Grab a pen and paper for this bit! [11:40] Here are the 2 key learnings to help you create your niche, serve your audience well and enjoy a profitable agency. [15:47] Once you have found your niche, commit to it! [17:33] One of my pet hates is when I see an agency website that is all about them and not the client. Your potential clients don’t care about you, they just want to know how you can help them. Make sure your website is about your client, NOT you! FREEBIE – Defining Your Niche Subscribe & Review Are you subscribed to my podcast yet? If you’re not, please do so to avoid missing out on any episodes! You can subscribe/ follow on iTunes, Spotify or directly from my website. I would be very grateful if you left me a review over on iTunes, too as they will help other people to find my podcasts and it's also great to read your comments! Thanks so much, Rob

In this latest episode, I am joined by Roland Gurney of copywriting company, Treacle. Treacle helps creative and digital agencies clarify their position and messaging. Whilst we are of course going to be discussing all things copywriting (like how to improve your own website’s copy and if business blogs still have a place in today’s world) we are also going to look at the importance of niching and see how it totally transformed Roland’s company! [02:23] Roland discusses his journey into running his own agency and how he has niched Treacle, the benefits and explains why it doesn’t have to be so scary. [10:17] Rob asks Roland How important good content is for an agencies overall marketing. We are all busy trying to make our clients look good but agencies need to ensure their own websites are great too! [14:35] What are Roland’s top bugbears about agency websites? [20:05] What are the current trends in copy and how have they changed over the years? [22:03] Roland shares his top tips for writing great copy. [27:09] Rob & Roland discuss the importance of business blogs and how they can help your business to stand out. The more you niche your business, the more they will resonate with potential clients! [34:54] If Roland could go back in time, what advice would he give himself?   Subscribe & Review Are you subscribed to my podcast yet? If you're not, please do so to avoid missing out on any episodes! You can subscribe/ follow on iTunes, Spotify or directly from my website. I would be very grateful if you left me a review over on iTunes, too as they will help other people to find my podcasts and it's also great to read your comments! Thanks so much, Rob

In today’s podcast, I’m going to show you how to identify your ideal client and how to go about winning them! This is something I spend a lot of time discussing with my coaching clients because so many of us (myself included) have wasted a lot of time and money attracting the wrong types of clients. I’m going to be giving you loads of practical advice so if you can, grab a pen and paper and make some notes because you can start implementing a lot of this information from today.   [1:19] Today is the final day for enrolment to my 12-Week Agency Accelerator Mastermind Programme! I was so excited when recording this I actually forgot what year it was (it’s 2020 not 2019 at the time of recording! If you’re serious about growing your agency in a profitable & sustainable way, this is for you. If you’re listening to this podcast in the future (are there flying cars yet?!), keep an eye out for future programmes by signing up to my mailing list. *EDIT – Due to the current global climate, I have extended the deadline until the 8th April at 7pm.   [2:00] Can you relate to this typical scenario I’ve seen happen so many times before? An email pings and it’s an enquiry from someone interested in your services, you’re excited so you agree to a meeting but when you turn up, they are not a good fit and it turns out you’ve completely wasted your time!   [5:52] Get clear on your target niche - do not try to be a generalist and please everyone. It won’t work! Download my ebook on defining your niche - where I go into this topic in a lot more detail. [7:51] Define your ideal target customer - what is their job? What are their pain points? Where do they go for information etc? Learn as much as possible about your ideal target customer and your life will become so much easier.   [9:04] Target the easy wins and work on your ‘know, like & trust’ sales funnel   [12:16] Education based marketing should not involve you using your time! – Do not waste your time educating an unsuitable prospect when you could have spent that time putting that info into a useful free ebook to share with potential clients for years. Let your prospects educate and qualify themselves using your online content!   [14:12] Ask each prospect some non-negotiable questions – what questions MUST be answered before your prospect moves to the next stage of the sales funnel? Make sure they answer these before moving forward.   [15:47] Make sure you and your prospect both go to the meeting with the same agenda – you can do this in an email before the meeting takes place to ensure you’re both on the same page.   [18:00] Close the meeting properly – Put an action on you & them and get a date in the diary for the next interaction.   Subscribe & Review Are you subscribed to my podcast yet? If you’re not, please do so to avoid missing out on any episodes! You can subscribe/ follow on iTunes, Spotify or directly from my website. I would be very grateful if you left me a review over on iTunes, too as they will help other people to find my podcasts and it's also great to read your comments! Thanks so much, Rob   LINKS Are you a niche or a generalist - ebook? How to define your ideal target customer - ebook

I am super excited to be joined by Lee Jackson of Agency Transformation and the Agency Trailblazer Podcast. This episode is jam PACKED with actionable tips and advice to help you with your agency’s growth. We are going to be looking at the 5 stages of growth and transformation every agency needs to go through in order to grow. So grab a pen and paper because you’re going to be taking away so much from this episode today.   [1:09] Doors are finally open to my 12-Week Agency Accelerator Mastermind Programme! If you’re serious about growing your agency in a profitable & sustainable way, this is for you. Doors to enrolment are only open for one week so be quick, since there are limited places available in 2020. [1:52] Lee Jackson has been a very busy guy for the past few years with multiple projects including the Agency Trailblazer podcast, The Event Engine and his brand new podcast The Event Martech. How on earth does he manage his time and keep on top of it all? [5:18] With so much going on, how does Lee determine what he’s going do and what he’s not going to do? Lee actually closed one of his groups recently and he explains the reasons behind this. Focus on what moves the needle forward for you. [7:42] Let’s look at the typical journey someone takes when they go out on their own. Like many agency owners in the early days, Lee used to work 18 hours days. However, long hours and passion isn’t enough to succeed and grow (indeed it can actually be detrimental to your to agency’s growth!). Lee discusses the 5 pillars of transformation and how every agency owner needs to go through each stage in order to grow their business. [12:47] The first pillar of transformation – Know Your Identity You need to know your identity. Be the authentic version of you and commit to your niche. Lee flashes back to when he used to show up to meetings in a suit and tie (totally not how he likes to dress) ….which would attract the complete opposite types of clients he wanted to work with! [17:29] The second pillar of transformation - Value So many agency owners still don’t value themselves enough and they regularly find themselves in the feast and famine cycle. We need to recognise that we are amazing at what we do and make sure we charge our worth. [21:47] The third pillar of transformation – Messaging Getting the first 2 pillars nailed will make it much easier to understand your messaging and choose the best platforms to get your message across to your audience e.g. Which social media platforms are best for what you do? Lee shares with us how he found his perfect platforms and how you can find yours. [28:19] The fourth pillar of transformation – Nail Your Output Be amazing at what you do! We need to make sure the quality of what we deliver matches our pricing. [32:40] The fifth pillar of transformation – Future If we haven’t worked out the last four pillars, how can we work out our future? This is all about scalability. [35:02] How long does it usually take for an agency owner to go through each of the five stages? [38:06] Why agency owners need to align themselves with someone that talks their language…. [41:24] Lee tells us about his next amazing event for agency owners - Agency Transformation Live on 6-8th May 2020. Read more about the event. [44:08] I ask Lee “if you could go back in time, what advice would you give yourself?” Subscribe & Review Are you subscribed to my podcast yet? If you’re not, please do so to avoid missing out on any episodes! You can subscribe/ follow on iTunes, Spotify or directly from my website. I would be very grateful if you left me a review over on iTunes, too as they will help other people to find my podcasts and it's also great to read your comments! Thanks so much, Rob Book Links: Mike Hyatt, Free to Focus Lee Cockerell, Time Management Magic The E-Myth Revisted

Hello from South Africa! I have been fortunate enough to have spent the last month here and I’m recording this podcast from Cape Town, during my last week in this stunning country. I’ve learnt some really great lessons during my time here and I wanted to share my thoughts about Cape Town and South Africa in general and how they can relate to the way that we run our agencies (and our lives!):   [1:37] The Importance of Branding - “yes but Rob, is it safe?” is exactly what so many people asked me before I came here. This is my 4th trip to South Africa and to be honest, in my opinion it’s as safe as any big city I have been to! It’s clear that South Africa needs to do some serious rebranding to shake off its past reputation and this highlights just how important branding really is to your business. Once you are known for one thing, you have to work super hard to rebrand to become known for something else. [5:12] Living In The Present - We seem to be a lot more present and ‘in the moment’ when we’re on holiday, which is a shame because most of us only tend to spend a few weeks of the year away (if we’re lucky enough), and the rest of it is spent working. Stop wishing time away. Life is too short and if you hate your job, try to find something you love doing because before you know it, 20 years would have flown by and you’ll never get that back. [8:00] Be Efficient With Your Time – Know what your goals are and organise your time properly. During my last two weeks here, I made a plan to work from 7am-3pm each day. Knowing I could be exploring the beautiful sunny Cape Town at the end of each day meant I didn’t waste any time throughout the day, and I achieved so much because of this. Giving yourself a reward, (even something small like a cup of tea or a nice 30-minute walk) can help you get super focused throughout your day. [10:39] Morning/ Evening Routines – Following on from the last point, having a consistent morning and evening routine helps me to be really efficient with my time during the day. I highly recommend you check out Free to Focus by Michael Hyatt if this is something you’d like to work on.   [11:39] We All Have Choices – I’ve been told by various people that I’m so lucky to be able to go on trips like this, but to be honest it has nothing to do with luck. It was all simply in the planning and this is something you could do too, if you really wanted to! Stop constraining yourself. Stop telling yourself stories that you believe as facts. Step outside of your comfort zone and into your learning zone, and remember, it’s all about choices and planning. Listen to my episode Starting the Year With A Positive Mindset for help with this. [13:51] Sun Is So Good For The Soul! - Seriously, doesn’t everyone seem so much happier when the weather is beautiful? [15:06] It’s A Small World - So much of business operates on a “who you know” basis, so always make sure to keep networking and making sure the world knows who you are.  [15:43] Practise Gratitude - There is a lot of poverty in South Africa and it reminds me just how lucky most of us really are. We need to remember to be grateful for what we have and stop moaning about such small things. Subscribe & Review Are you subscribed to my podcast yet? If you’re not, please do so to avoid missing out on any episodes! You can subscribe/ follow on iTunes, Spotify or directly from my website. I would be very grateful if you left me a review over on iTunes, too as they will help other people to find my podcasts and it's also great to read your comments! Thanks so much, Rob