In this episode, Jason Blumer is honored to speak with Joe Erwin of Erwin Creates and Endeavor. Joe shares the story of how he co-founded Erwin Penland and lessons learned throughout his career.Joe shares a few items from his list of what to do and what not to do as you grow your agency, including one item that actually made BOTH lists.From Joe's list of dos and don'ts, he explains why it is great to start some traditions and why you shouldn't waste time with negative people, which leads to the story of the first time he fired someone. He'll also share how freeing it is to stop worrying about your competition.This is a must listen episode. We hope you enjoy it!

Hear Kade Wilcox tell the story, and lessons learned, of how he grew Primitive Social from a 2 person team to a 30+ person, multi-million dollar company in 6 years.Kade shares his thoughts on the value of a strong team, how he found and chose a partner, the impact hiring quickly has had on the company and culture, the challenge of finding people with the right skill level, and how to add new layers of leadership to their growing team.

Design Extensions is an 18 year old company that has grown each year. Hear Jay Owen describe how that growth happened, and how he knew to implement intentional changes so that growth could continue.Jason and Jay also discuss what is great but also difficult about growing a company. They focus on topics like culture, hiring, business structure, their favorites books and tools, and leadership.Also learn about Design Extension's core values and how they shape everything the company does, both internally and externally.

Jason Blumer and Keith Shields discuss a number of topics including:how Designli is able to build custom apps with fixed pricingwhy customer education is so important from the beginning of the relationshipDesignli's modular approachthe two types of clients Designli serveswhy Keith believes the freelance model breaks down quicklywhy hiring the right people is so important in a service based company

Marc Avila and Lysa Miller share their knowledge in the areas of: -staying on the same page as partners-why they chose to significantly prune their client base and the effect that had on their bottom line-responding to growth and growing in a sustainable way-why they focused on building a stronger leadership team over sales when they hit a growth ceiling-why they decided to stay involved with their own business development-how they help clients see the value they add with their services-how they add new services to their existing client base

Mickey Mellen shares how he and his partner, Ali Green, started their agency and how they work as partners. He also shares the role of risk in their decisions, why they have chosen to keep their team at its current size, and how they hire.Also hear Mickey's passion for the design community and why he began hosting meetups in the Atlanta area to build community with those who are normally competitors.

Dan Rundle is the CEO of Worthwhile, a 20+ year old software development agency. In this episode, Jason Blumer and Dan cover a number of topics including:-Why Worthwhile eliminated several types of service to focus on software development three years ago-The challenges of developing software (scoping projects, meeting objectives, etc.)-How Worthwhile spends their time at the beginning of a project in order to guarantee their clients that they can create an accurate timeline, budget, and deliver on features-Why Worthwhile says no to so many opportunities-Why Worthwhile has chosen to have salaried employees vs. contractors-How Dan discovered that he needed to communicate the Worthwhile vision with his team

Adam shares his story of freelancer to leader of a team at Image Conscious Studios.Topics included in this episode:-How Adam's relationship with design has changed-How Adam, as the owner, works with the Project Manager at ICS-Why finding the right cultural fit in new team members matters at ICS-How the creative team at ICS works with clients

Ashleigh Ferran, TJ Cichecki, and Abe Garcia share key learning around becoming partners and the challenges of building authentic brands.They address several topics including:- how they decided to become partners- the work they did to start their partnership out right, including discussing how it would end- why merging companies isn't an automatic fast track to bigger or faster sales- the book that helped them create the living document that guides their partnership- how Workhorse helps to build better and more authentic brands

GuavaBox began like many agencies, with strong roots in web design. It didn't take long for Gray MacKenzie and his partner to realize they wanted to go all in with the inbound philosophy and begin partnering with Hubspot, which led to more leads and closing more deals.In this episode hear how GuavaBox developed their own internal process/project management software called DoInbound, which is now their biggest focus. DoInbound exists to help other agencies serve their clients.Jason and Gray discuss several topics, including:- The value of weekly batch days for content production- The choice to use contractors in their business model versus full time employees- Why delegating the sales process too soon didn't work out for GuavaBox- The importance of culture even in a virtual model with contractors- The process of learning who their ideal clients are- Why producing leads for clients isn’t enough to help them succeed