Funnel Vision - For Performance-Driven Agencies & Marketers

Troy Dean (Founder of Agency Mavericks) helps agency owners expand, get more time, and sometimes even leave their businesses successfully. The work they do generates between $50 - $100 Million per year for their clients. He’s also one of the founding members of Funnelytics.Agency owners are often the most busy and stressed out entrepreneurs you’ll find, although it doesn’t have to be that way. Troy has identified that a lack of structure, processes and confidence is what leads to agency owners feeling stuck and unhappy, and all of that can be built out to help owners reclaim their time and energy.Troy realized that agencies have a huge structural problem back when he was growing his own. When he started delegating work to his VA, he noticed that without proper documentation it was almost impossible to have them work autonomously. He started by creating videos, which would then be turned into workflow documents - and it worked great. Troy then started sharing these workflows with the Wordpress community, which is how he started gaining traction with his next ideal client profile. Tune into the full episode to learn more on how to master documentation and reclaim your time!HIGHLIGHTS:0:00 Intro2:35 $50 - $100 Million/Year5:00 How Agency Mavericks began 7:22 Scale with confidence  10:44 The real reason most agencies fail14:08 Preventing distractions is key16:42 You don’t need more leads20:28 The paid discovery method24:27 How much should you charge?Connect with Mikael - https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikaeldia/Connect with Troy - https://www.linkedin.com/in/troydean/

Anthony Gindin (Founder & CEO of Agency Different™) helps agency principals with strategic planning, business model design, brand positioning, service productization, client acquisition, and enhancing profitability through growth.Anthony started his first agency at the age of 17 and sold it within 5 years. Then at 24, he sold his second agency that had scaled up to 45+ employees. In total, he’s founded 6 companies, sold 4 and taken 2 public on the Canadian Stock Exchange.The key to success for an agency lies in differentiation. Every agency is unique, but they often look the same from outside  because they follow the market instead of focusing on building a unique brand with a high perceived value. Anthony suggests you improve your perceived value through market specificity, a deep understanding of the results you bring and unique methods for delivering those results.Tune into the full episode to learn more on how to increase your agency's win rate!HIGHLIGHTS:0:00 Intro0:53 Founding 6 companies3:35 The Agency Secret5:56 Differentiation is key7:55 Increasing your perceived value10:41 The move to client side 14:27 The move back to agency lifeConnect with Mikael - https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikaeldia/Connect with Anthony - https://www.linkedin.com/in/anthonygindin/

This is a snippet from the last episode of the Funnel Vision Show with Kara Redman (Founder and CEO of Backroom), who has helped founders launch startups, build brands and secure venture capital for the last 10 years.For the full episode check out the previous episode!

Kara Redman (Founder and CEO of Backroom) has helped founders launch startups, build brands and secure venture capital for the last 10 years. From finding their first investors to making global expansions, Kara has helped startups reach their dreams - without ever niching down.Kara’s journey is one that very many agency owners can relate to. She didn’t go the academic route or inherit a company. Instead, she took on the entrepreneurial path as a young, single mother. She worked at an agency prior to starting her own, which is where she realized that marketing was an avenue she seriously wanted to pursue.Backroom has always been about positive change. Kara didn’t abide by the standards of old, stuffy, controlling and toxic corporate culture. Instead, she built out a successful business that puts their people first, which wasn’t nearly as trendy back in 2014. Her people-first approach isn’t a gated secret - part of her business now is to help others achieve the same organizational structure while remaining operationally excellent.Founder-led growth is a concept that Kara truly embraced last year. She started out with around 3000 followers, never really looking at herself as a social media content creator. Once she began posting though, the feedback was overwhelming. Over the last year and a half, she’s grown to over 50,000 followers and has gone viral multiple times while generating revenue along the way.Tune into the full episode to learn more of Kara Redman’s journey leading Backroom!HIGHLIGHTS:0:00 Intro2:20 Going against the grain4:14 The vision for Backroom7:03 Becoming people-first9:14 Building the right culture10:51 3k -> 50k LinkedIn Followers in 1.5 years15:21 Incremental growth is painful 17:58 Founder-led is a growth hackConnect with Mikael - https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikaeldia/Connect with Kara - https://www.linkedin.com/in/kararedman/

This is a snippet from our podcast episode with Jhana Li. For the full conversation, tune in to the last episode of Funnel Vision!

Jhana Li (Founder of Spyglass Ops) is a wizard of operations who helps scale businesses through efficient and autonomous processes, enabling founders to take a step back from being involved in every single part of the day-to-day..Jhana got into operations while doing vanlife through North & South America. Her boyfriend at the time was running a digital marketing agency, and during that time she got a good glimpse of how archaic and disorganized agencies can be. A bit later on a team member left the agency and Jhana took over operations as they searched for a replacement. In the end no replacement was needed as Jhana ended up their next COO.Many parts of the business succeed because they are built through a founder's lens. Operations are NOT included in that list. Following the pattern for success requires a visionary who drives the business forward through growth stages and someone who can steer the day-to-day, fix leaky buckets and make sure things get done in time.Spyglass Ops wasn’t a planned decision. Jhana was between roles when she took on her first consulting client. This scaled pretty quick, with her ending up in a position where she could no longer take on more clients as a solopreneur. Tune into the full episode to learn more on how operations can change your business!HIGHLIGHTS:0:00 Intro2:43 How Jhana got into operations5:17 Why most founders struggle with operations9:01 From COO to Entrepreneur11:10 How to improve your operations15:45 The real value of operations20:06 Traits of a great operator23:13 The ultimate growth hackConnect with Jhana - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jhana-li/Connect with Mikael - www.linkedin.com/in/mikaeldia/

This is a snippet from our podcast episode with Tim Kilroy. For the full conversation, tune into the last episode of The Funnel Vision Show!

Tim Kilroy (CEO of Retriever and eComAllies & Agency Coach, Consultant & Advisor at TimKilroy.com) joins Mikael to talk about how agency owners can build a better business model that actually fits their goals and personality.Tim has launched 3 agencies. One crashed, while the other two ended up being sold. His current consulting/coaching tagline is “more revenue = more profit = more happy”, which at first glance might seem like a service that increases your agency's profit, thus increasing your happiness level, while in reality something completely different. His approach boils down to optimizing revenue and profits so that agency owners can enjoy life, instead of being constantly miserable due to the amount of work and stress that agency ownership often comes with.There is no right or wrong way to run an agency. Tim advises that you let go of the processes that you’re simply not consistent at, and stop trying to model your agency based on other people’s ideas. One of his clients had lost up to 400k in 2 years by trying to run his agency based on guidelines provided by outsiders. This is where a lot of agency owners end up with the wrong coaches, as they buy into a business model adjustment that simply doesn’t fit their personality and actively works against their strengths.Tune into the full episode to learn more on how to run your agency in a way that fits you!HIGHLIGHTS:0:00 Intro1:30 revenue = profit = happy?6:09 Choosing the right coach7:40 Journey into coaching11:14 Building your agency the right way14:39 Increasing your pricing is a must16:35 The ultimate growth tactic19:39 Leadership is a must22:42 What first time CEO’s get wrongConnect with Tim - https://www.linkedin.com/in/timkilroy/Connect with Mikael - www.linkedin.com/in/mikaeldia/

Joshua Tiernan (Founder of No Code Founders, Tiny Empires and Chief Growth Officer Network) is a no-code development expert who’s built and sold 4 companies. He joins Mikael Dia to discuss..A no-code business is hard to define. Most of these businesses fall under the SaaS category, and are typically built using platforms such as Webflow and Bubble which don’t require the level of technical expertise needed to build software from scratch. It can also be used to describe communities, newsletters and blogs that aren’t attached as part of an individual businesses marketing strategy, but instead exist as independent beings.Before discovering no-code, Joshua had tried to launch a few businesses, all of which didn’t succeed. With time he learned how to hack together different software tools to craft new solutions, which is a type of no-code development. Bubble was a real gamechanger, allowing him to build his first business that was acquired only 6 months later.Joshua’s community has been active for 5 years and has gathered over 20,000 members. He hasn’t been intentional about marketing, but that being said he’s been consistent on organic social media channels. His first few thousand members found out about the community through Joshua interviewing other community members. He then started partnering with no-code platforms that helped spread awareness and started building out user generated content, which spread the word even quicker and got them to the 20,000 mark. Tune into the full episode to learn what it takes to build a 20,000 member no-code community!HIGHLIGHTS:0:00 Intro1:56 What is no-code business?4:03 Who should consider no-code?5:41 Joshua’s first exit6:59 How Agencies work with Joshua9:18 Growing the no-code community12:19 How to keep your community engaged 13:45 The biggest selling point of communities Connect with Joshua - https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshuatiernan/Connect with Mikael - www.linkedin.com/in/mikaeldia/

This episode is a snippet from a podcast with Liana Ling - the Lead Gen Queen and CEO of AdSkills -  an expert of Meta Ads specializing in helping coaches and info product sellers drive down their Cost Per Lead (CPL).For the full conversation, check out the previous episode of the Funnel Vision Show!