Funnel Vision - For Performance-Driven Agencies & Marketers

Rob Da Costa (Business Owner, Agency Coach & Mentor), helps agency owners grow their agencies in a sustainable and profitable way. Having started, grew and sold his own agency, he has an in-depth understanding of the challenges agency owners face. Back in 1992, Rob was a marketer for early tech companies. They kept trying to hire agencies but always ran into issues finding ones that could really move the needle. At the age of 24, Rob quit his job and started his first agency - CIT PR - which he grew to 25 staff members with revenues of £1.5m. That led him to a successful exit in 2003, after which he leveraged his experience to start a coaching business in 2007.Most small agency owners get stuck being the delivery person instead of actually leading and growing the agency. To realistically start growing, agency owners need to change their focus towards structure, delegation and productization. After the 10+ employee mark, a leadership team also becomes a necessity to sustainably expand, as otherwise you’re split between internal and client strategy which causes one or the other to be neglected.Tune into the full episode to learn how to turn your agency into a self-sufficient, profitable and sustainable business!HIGHLIGHTS:0:00 Intro2:47 How Rob sold his agency and became a coach6:17 Why people choose to hire Rob10:45 How to build a self-sufficient agency 14:21 You need a leadership team16:12 What if you can’t afford to hire?19:51 Rob's best growth hackConnect with Mikael - https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikaeldia/Connect with Rob - https://www.linkedin.com/in/robdacosta/

David Meerman Scott (Entrepreneur, Advisor, Keynote Speaker and WSJ Best-selling Author) began his entrepreneurial journey in 2002 - at the cusp of the internet revolution. Now he’s written 12 books that have sold millions of copies, done marketing and business presentations on all 7 continents, advised countless clients and been on HubSpot’s advisory board since 2007.The tipping point that caused David to move into advising happened back when he was the VP of marketing at Newsedge - a small information company. They went on to be acquired by Thomson Reuters who weren’t too keen on David’s perspective that online marketing was the future, so they let him go. Within a few months he was making more money than ever before - which ultimately solidified David’s decision as the right one for him.David saw a huge opportunity when Google went real time. Nobody was talking about it, and he leveraged it to again gain an unfair advantage. Now that AI is starting to take a significant chunk of the search platform marketshare, David recommends that you familiarize yourself with Perplexity.ai as it very well could be the future.Tune into the full episode to learn real insights from a marketing expert with 30+ years of experience!HIGHLIGHTS:0:00 Intro3:29 David’s career journey7:01 Pioneering the digital marketing movement8:26 Getting fired and becoming an advisor12:01 When Google went real time15:43 The real value of AI in marketing19:53 You need to tie back your content to your product Connect with Mikael - https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikaeldia/Connect with David - https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidmeermanscott/

Ken Fitzpatrick led the Digital Marketing Institute (DMI) - the largest global digital marketing training and certification body with 75k+ certifications and 330k+ members - for over 11 years until he moved on to a new role at BPP 2 months ago. He’s also led companies to 3 successful exits.The focus of DMI was always  to create a standard that raises the bar for digital marketing skills - and over the years they achieved that goal. The business was initially hard to scale as an in-person model, but once they transitioned to a fully online service they finally unlocked scale. After that they hired established executives who helped move them even further until they hit their biggest growth spurt by partnering with the American Marketing Association.AI is really causing shockwaves throughout the education industry. Ken isn’t quite ready to take a stance on its potential impact, but for now he sees it as a positive that can reduce a lot of the gruntwork that goes into a marketer's daily workflow. Marketers should embrace AI as a tool, not as a single source of truth for all of their insights and knowledge.Tune into the full episode to hear Ken’s journey running DMI!HIGHLIGHTS:0:00 Intro2:15 Why people turn to DMI3:51 Ken’s journey with the DMI6:01 11 Years of challenges9:24 The role of AI in marketing education14:41 Universities vs Certificates 16:27 Ken’s CEO PlaybookConnect with Mikael - https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikaeldia/Connect with Ken - https://www.linkedin.com/in/kenfitzpatrickdmi/

Full Episode Here - https://youtu.be/eOZ9DQhM7LE

Christian Banach (Principal and Chief Growth Officer at Christian Banach) helps agencies, B2B companies, small to large, across marketing disciplines, land 6- and 7-figure opportunities predictably through consulting, training, and outsourced lead generation services.More than 20 years ago, Christian started his career by throwing small social events that grew into parties featuring superstars like Lady Gaga, T-Pain and Pitbull. As those grew, he started working with brands that were looking to sponsor events as part of their overall marketing strategy. During the pandemic Christian started his current venture. He saw a lot of agencies struggling to keep the lights on, so starting his own consulting firm was the next logical move. Now they help over a dozen clients break into enterprise accounts and close 6-7 figure contracts.What makes breaking into enterprise accounts so incredibly difficult is that everyone is trying to get their attention through the same means. Christian recommends that you really do some original research about their audience and book that first meeting by showing that you already know what improvements would drive real outcomes for their business.Tune into the full episode to learn how to close enterprise contracts!HIGHLIGHTS:0:00 Intro0:53 Generating millions for clients2:06 How Christian grew his first business5:04 Original research matters!9:35 The Christian Banach Playbook14:25 Embrace Warm Outbound SalesConnect with Christian - https://www.linkedin.com/in/christianbanach/Connect with Mikael - www.linkedin.com/in/mikaeldia/Check out Christian’s Newsletter - https://christianbanach.com/

Jeff Meade (President of MEADE) is an expert in agency positioning. He managed to grow his agency beyond $20 million in revenue prior to moving into agency coaching. An agency wasn’t the initial vision. At first, Jeff and his co-founders were trying to operate as a consultancy. They quickly learned that a team of 20-somethings simply don’t have the domain expertise to sell consulting services to a Gen Y audience, so they pivoted to an agency model instead. After growing their agency to 8 figures, they wanted to go international. While they had good conversations with potential partners, they fumbled the offers due to inexperience. They took it as a learning experience and Jeff moved on to coach agencies on how to nail their positioning.The real battle when trying to settle on your position in the market is really understanding who are the folks you can help and why should they believe in your ability to perform. When people come to Jeff, typically they have a loose position and aren’t at a stage where going all-in on lead generation makes sense. To identify your focus point, you need to stop looking at your previous clients as your north star and really figure out the right profile outside of your existing rolodex.Tune into the full episode to learn how to differentiate your agency!HIGHLIGHTS:0:00 Intro3:58 Getting to $20+ Million7:31 The impact of packaging the right offer 10:47 How Jeff moved into coaching13:03 How to think about positioning21:24 Grow via thought leadership Connect with Jeff - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffmeade/ Connect with Mikael - www.linkedin.com/in/mikaeldia/

Andy Crestodina (Co-Founder and CMO at Orbit Media) is an expert at SEO, Analytics, AI, Content Strategy and Website Optimization. He’s gathered a huge following consisting of 100k+ LinkedIn followers and newsletter subscribers. He’s been publishing since 2007, and nowadays speaks on 100+ stages per year. These efforts have enabled his team to generate $8 Million in yearly revenue with no outbound motion and 0 ad spend.To say that content marketing has evolved over the last 20 years would be an understatement. One tactic that has always worked and still works today is to publish on other, established platforms when you’re new and need to generate initial traction.Video is all the rage right now, but unless you’re selling something super transactional with widespread appeal, you need a solid strategy to make it into a real revenue generator. As an agency, you should utilize the tactic of BOFU content to help build trust with those who have been burned by other service providers.Tune into the full episode to learn more insights from a true content marketing master!HIGHLIGHTS:0:00 Intro4:02 The evolution of content marketing7:03 Is video worth the investment?10:10 Invest in owned media 13:15 AI for content - hype or the real deal?20:07 How good can AI really get?22:44 Grow through variated content Connect with Andy - https://www.linkedin.com/in/andycrestodina/Connect with Mikael - www.linkedin.com/in/mikaeldia/

Full Episode Here - https://youtu.be/b3ea3C6x9_A

Galen Low (Co-Founder at The Digital Project Manager) helps agency owners completely transition out of project management work by leveling up their project managers and enabling them to be self-sufficient. Their training program has certified over 700 agency professionals to date, and helped alleviate 50-75% of project management costs for owners.Their program's first goal is helping PM’s understand the full business picture of what they do and why it’s important. Second is getting rid of the notion that projects run smoothly all the time, and teaching them what to do when issues arise. SEO is a touchy subject right now. The rise of AI and the rapidly changing Google algorithm has left this field in a state of disarray. SEO did magic for the growth of The Digital Project Manager and even the recent changes haven't affected their traffic. Galen attributes this to the fact that their SEO strategy was never about SEO - but simply about creating high value content that people actually want to read.Tune into the full episode to learn how to transition out of operations?HIGHLIGHTS:0:00 Intro2:35 Early course mistakes8:51 Practitioner to teacher 12:17 Common operational problems15:28 How to level up your PM’s20:51 Winning SEO approach in 2024Connect with Galen - https://www.linkedin.com/in/galen-low-digital-transformation-advisor/Connect with Mikael - www.linkedin.com/in/mikaeldia/

Gray MacKenzie (Founder of ZenPilot) saves agencies from constantly hopping between project management tools such as Asana, Monday, ClickUp, Notion, Teamwork, Wrike, Basecamp, Trello etc. They’ve led over 3000 teams to tighten their operations through ClickUp.Before becoming a full-time operations consultancy, Gray ran a separate business that offered a project management platform. When they were sunsetting, they took their existing clients and helped them transition to ClickUp, which is how they landed their initial wins. Their next step to grow to 3000+ clients was content creation around the different use cases that ClickUp offers. Achieving operational excellence comes down to 3 pieces - tools, processes and habits. The toughest part of it all is habits, because unless your team knows they’re being held accountable for their side of the process, everything will quickly fall apart. Gray recommends daily spot checks, as well as scheduled, routine meetings to look at the data and figure out your weakest links.Tune into the full episode to learn how to master ClickUp for your agency!HIGHLIGHTS:0:00 Intro4:30 Growing to 3000 clients5:32 From SaaS to Service 8:34 How to achieve operational success12:01 Some founders HATE project management16:38 Owners shouldn’t work on delivering 20:42 Content-led Growth Connect with Gray - https://www.linkedin.com/in/graymackenzie/Connect with Mikael - www.linkedin.com/in/mikaeldia/