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!")

One Great Studio is giving life to ideas through websites, web applications, graphic design & branding. They have 3 core beliefs...Don't Be GreedyThink Long TermDo GoodIn January 2015, the studio began the transition to value pricing & have experienced some amazing changes in the agency and their lives as a result. Currently, partners Djuvane & Gina, and the team at One Great Studio are working on their first SaaS product – Buildt, a web & mobile service app for churches scheduled to be released in January, 2016.

Tom Greever is the UX Director at Bitovi Agency. They help companies create better web applications, and have worked with clients such as WalMart, T Mobile, and Cars.com.Tom Greever's book, Articulating Design Decisions, helps designers justify design to non-designers.

Mike talks about Onboarding becoming a great way to align not only new clients, but existing clients as well. We discuss the steps Rauch Brothers Animation uses to onboard their clients.

In this episode, we discuss the difficulties of an agency that has to balance design for clients, while at the same time aligning digital strategy with the goals of the client. At Brolik, the team is always working internally to give their clients great design on top of a strategy that drives traffic and business.Other topics discussed: -Brolik is finding that clients need business growth strategists to uncover client needs, and not just agency owners to lead design.-Brolik is building their own CMS called Leverage. Building a product inside of a service agency is a struggle, but is a challenge they have embraced.-What it means to grow with 'living' Guidelines and Missions Statements.

Even though Matt builds products, he doesn't want to leave the service of clients in his agency. He just wants larger clients to help him sort through what types of products to build.As he points out, there aren't 7 quick steps to building a product. But you can solve your own itch. Matt's product strategy is to "build for yourself first, then package it for the masses and see if they like it." In this strategy, there is no market research required as long as you know you need it first. Also, limit your market share, move up market and price more for high value as opposed to high volume.Product development and client service goes together! We also talk about the intricacies of building a team around product building inside of a service agency.

Jamie goes deep with us in this episode to talk about the anxiety he faces while running a creative company. Undoubtedly, many people face this at the head of their own creative companies. We also discuss mentorship, and the beauty of serving such an amazing team. He loves his team, and the work that they do.