In this episode, we cover agency growth questions like:- What is an agency?- What hinders an agency from growing?- Should agencies consider merging or selling?- Should agencies sell out to Facebook, Google, and IBM?

We talk about how to move out of freelancing, watching project and financial trends so you'll know when to hire, the value of migrating to a CRM to monitor your sales funnels, and moving revenue from project-based to retainer-based.The last half of the podcast was about a pricing ideal Tim discovered called Golden Mean Pricing. This pricing is the perfect point between two extremes, and you can get the free eBook and Excel tool at the link below.

In the last half of the podcast, Jason and Brad talk through what it means to truly build culture through intense change in an agency. Brad talks through the creative way they have developed their core values to balance each other, and the three key components any good list of core values has.Other topics discussed are:- delegating as you grow your business,- managing change and maintaining culture through change, and- using social media channels to attract new talent and new clients.

Hear how Grain & Mortar prices their projects, and how that relates to their project management processes. Here Kristin's view on tracking time, how they actually scope projects while they price it, and how the technical partners are also involved in the up front pricing.

Learn how 352 noticed it was time to move their agency to a team model. What were the signs that let them know its time to change their business model? Learn how 352 built their teams, changed their teams, and ultimately moved the whole organization over to a new team model.

In this episode, we explore many agency leadership issues such as what it takes to solve large business problems with clients. One example you'll hear is how Clearleft transformed Penguin Books recently.We also explore:- what is an agency,- why the CEO should be the least talented person in the agency,- finding the right team,- documenting your agency's core values,- how to allow the client to become an engaged part of your agency's team, and- how to grow slowly.

This episode came out of the frustrations the guest had in building websites for clients (see the book link below that addresses these topics). In particular, there was no plan before beginning a new website build. In fact, few agencies will do a Needs Assessment or Discovery before embarking on the work of building the right site, while this could be a life changing event for the client. Many clients may think, "what I'm doing is working" instead of thinking, "what new thing am I not doing that could propel my business forward?" Proper planning can vet this out.Other topics addressed: - the critical nature of branding, - business success despite bad digital marketing, and - the high value of good photo, writing and video.

Richard did video interviews with smart design leaders across the profession. This desire to know what other design leaders think led to a book called Design Leadership. Richard gets transparent in this interview as he talks about how he had to change as a leader - focus and patience were his initial downfalls that he had to change. True creative leaders will stop doing many things, and will instead focus on the one thing only they can do well.Creation of a vision, and the values that support that vision need to be:- timeless- disconnected from technology, and- have immense focus built into themThere are many more leadership nuggets in this interview!

Hear how the founders of Forefathers Group started an agency as partners without having ever met. Still, 5 years later, they have never met face to face, and are still prospering and growing together. We discuss how it happened, their struggles to overcome, and why it's been successful.They learned:- how to create great work together, instead of on their own,- how to setup taxes in a multi-state environment,- how to take each other's feedback,- how they matured in their respective work and say 'no' to certain roles,- how to 'emotionally audit' their clients, and- how working in person in this digital age is no longer a requirement for building a strong company.

Nate and his co-founder, Connor Hood, have found a way to provide white glove service to those needing full stack development, or monthly web maintenance services on Wordpress. But they had to figure out who their client was so they can focus on selling their services for a profitable price. They focus on large agencies and large Fortune 500 enterprise companies.It seems the design/web/code profession is de-coupling as service providers are seeing the value in focusing on what they do best, and letting other partners focus on their best service too. Cody My Views has built a white label platform allowing agencies to sell the services of Code My Views as part of the agency's own services. Also discussed:- speed: they provide their service very quickly, and they price in a way that allows them to move fast. The faster you want delivery, the more you pay.- they price by the complexity, the timeline, and the type of project they are working on. - it's true, code can be viewed as a commodity.- part of the work of the leadership of Cody My Views is to constantly be looking for developers, instead of just hiring when they need one.- automating their service platform to serve more customers so that they only have to hire engineers ("anything you can write code for to make things easier, you should!")