

Build a Better Agency Podcast
Drew McLellan
Scale and grow your agency with better clients, invested employees, and a stronger bottom line, with Drew McLellan.
Episodes
Mentioned books

Apr 24, 2023 • 48min
EP 394: How podcasting is shaping future advertising habits with Tom Webster
Podcasts, radio, and TV are all similar mediums with a broad reach across the US. But over the years, younger audiences have moved away from radio and TV in favor of other platforms that offer ad-free subscriptions. Quickly rising to the top amongst millennials and Gen Z is podcasting. So how do we still reach people who are consistently opting out of popular advertising avenues? Tom Webster has some answers for us. He’s on the podcast today to break down the findings from The Media Moves the Message study that his firm, Sounds Profitable, did on advertising performance between cable TV, AM/FM radio, and podcasting. This deep dive will give you all the evidence you need to understand that podcasting has a bright future. And as long as we don’t oversaturate it with advertising, it will be here to stay amongst audiences, both old and young, as the medium grows. A big thank you to our podcast’s presenting sponsor, White Label IQ. They’re an amazing resource for agencies who want to outsource their design, dev, or PPC work at wholesale prices. Check out their special offer (10 free hours!) for podcast listeners here. What You Will Learn in This Episode: How we can take advantage of the podcasting medium as advertisers The Media Moves the Message study The most noteworthy takeaways from the study How podcast listeners skew age-wise and where we can make improvements What the study results mean for agency owners and leaders Will we eventually oversaturate podcasts with ads? What the study means for content creators and podcast hosts Trusting that a podcast host knows how to advertise to their audience Areas where podcasting is lacking The power of small podcasts

Apr 17, 2023 • 53min
EP 393: An accidental agency owner’s guide to scaling your business effectively with Herb Cogliano
Herb Cogliano, expert in scaling agencies, shares his insights on overcoming barriers to growth for accidental agency owners. He discusses hiring according to core values, finding general manager-level leaders, and remaining profitable. Learn how to go from accidental to intentional agency owner.

Apr 10, 2023 • 41min
EP 392: The CRAVE approach to successful agency leadership with Dr. Amin Sanaia
How you lead your business is critical to its success. People are the most important assets in our agencies, and without them, we can’t deliver our best work to our customers. That’s why it’s critical to prioritize agency leadership so your teams can do their best work and grow alongside your organization. Dr. Amin Sanaia is an expert in leadership development with extensive experience studying what attributes make the most successful leaders. Today, he shares the top five personality traits of a good leader, also known as CRAVE, and how we can bring leadership development and growth opportunities to our employees. If you’re ready to take your leadership to the next level and start showing up for your people with more empathy and authenticity, Dr. Amin has the tools to get you on the right path. A big thank you to our podcast’s presenting sponsor, White Label IQ. They’re an amazing resource for agencies who want to outsource their design, dev, or PPC work at wholesale prices. Check out their special offer (10 free hours!) for podcast listeners here. What You Will Learn in This Episode: What gets in the way of being a great leader Finding the balance between servant leadership and honest feedback Balancing employee wants and running your business profitably Offering fringe benefits over more money How agency leadership can show up with more empathy without going overboard Setting the tone of your agency culture Coaching and mentoring new agency leadership How to start behaving like a leader

Apr 3, 2023 • 56min
EP 391: How sales prospects want to be sold to with Jeremy Miner
So many of us hate selling or feeling like we are “being sold to” because it has the old reputation of being manipulative, exploitative, and too pushy. Thanks to the sales tactics of the old days, our sales prospects have walls up before a call or meeting even starts. When we know the psychology of sales and truly understand how people want to be sold to, that’s where the magic begins. Jeremy Miner, voted in the top 50 best salespeople worldwide, has some knowledge to share with us about approaching the sales process in a way that sets you up for success from the beginning. Not only can you ditch lengthy sales pitches and pretend to care about the weather in your prospect’s city, but you can also get to the root of their needs much more efficiently and teach them how you fit into that equation. Your prospects win because they learn about their company’s problems, you win because you know how to solve them, and you both win again because fixing those blind spots helps you both make more money. What do you have to lose? A big thank you to our podcast’s presenting sponsor, White Label IQ. They’re an amazing resource for agencies who want to outsource their design, dev, or PPC work at wholesale prices. Check out their special offer (10 free hours!) for podcast listeners here. What You Will Learn in This Episode: Jeremy’s first door-to-door sales job How to get sales prospects to pull you in rather than you pushing them to make a decision Getting to the bottom of your prospect’s problems and figuring out how to solve them The least persuasive way to sell Leading sales conversations with emotion instead of logic The NEPQ approach to sales conversations How Covid impacted selling to prospects Building a visual gap between where your sales prospects are and where they want to be Asking the right questions

Mar 27, 2023 • 25min
EP 390: The AMI membership FAQ for agency owners and leaders with Drew McLellan
This week, I’m using this episode to talk about some questions I get asked a lot, and that is what we offer in AMI memberships. Many of you want to know what our different tiers of memberships include and what other services we offer. If you’re curious about AMI and our membership offerings, this episode is for you. I will break down what we offer for agency owners and leaders and how you can get involved in the AMI community if you feel compelled to do so. We have a ton of different ways to become a community member, get consulting and one-on-one coaching, access our peer networks, and even get help with succession work. Our goal is always to help small to mid-size agencies reach their goals and get access to the best network possible. You’re never too small or far away from us to participate, so if you’re feeling compelled to join the community in some way, I’m giving you all the details here today. For 30+ years, Drew McLellan has been in the advertising industry. He started his career at Y&R, worked in boutique-sized agencies, and then started his own (which he still owns and runs) agency in 1995. Additionally, Drew owns and leads the Agency Management Institute, which advises hundreds of small to mid-sized agencies on how to grow their agency and its profitability through agency owner peer groups, consulting, coaching, workshops and more. A big thank you to our podcast’s presenting sponsor, White Label IQ. They’re an amazing resource for agencies who want to outsource their design, dev, or PPC work at wholesale prices. Check out their special offer (10 free hours!) for podcast listeners here. What You Will Learn in This Episode: The free resources we always offer agency owners and leaders Our workshops, both online and in-person Online and onsite consulting with experienced business leaders Creating a network of agency leaders with Peer Networks and Virtual Peer Groups How we can help in succession planning and coaching new buyers to acquire an agency The BABA Summit How to get involved if you can’t travel or just want some content from us The members-only perks as an add-on to our free content

Mar 20, 2023 • 54min
EP 389: Infusing innovative ideas into your agency operations with Stan Phelps
You need innovative ideas to stand out and be ahead of the curve. We often get caught up in the chaos of day-to-day agency operations and retreat into the comfort zone of doing things the same way we’ve always done them. Today, we’re talking you out of that way of thinking and giving you an entirely different framework for approaching client projects. Stan Phelps, an author and keynote speaker with prior agency experience, has a whole new way of thinking about client projects and asking the right questions to build out innovative ideas that will keep clients coming back to you for more. When we make the time, space, and budget to allow our teams to think outside of the box and take more creative risks, we make space for better, more trusting clients who know you’ll hit a home run for them every time. A big thank you to our podcast’s presenting sponsor, White Label IQ. They’re an amazing resource for agencies who want to outsource their design, dev, or PPC work at wholesale prices. Check out their special offer (10 free hours!) for podcast listeners here. What You Will Learn in This Episode: Creating innovation through action and insights Why we need to be incentivizing our teams and clients to think outside the box The IDEA Framework for mapping out innovative ideas Sometimes it’s about learning what our clients don’t value Using attribute and journey mapping to learn about customers and how they interact with us How to start asking your clients the big questions that lead to big ideas What to internally evaluate before taking your ideas to a client How to infuse innovation into agency operations as an agency leader

Mar 13, 2023 • 52min
EP 388: Community building as a brand marketing strategy with Mark Schaefer
Think about some of your favorite brands for just a moment. What aspects of those brands make you feel the most connected to them? Do you ever find yourself talking to your friends or family about a company you love so much because of what they stand for or how they connect with people? Enter community building as a marketing strategy — the next big thing in brand marketing, according to Mark Schaefer. This week, he will teach us why brands need to hop on this trend as quickly as possible and how agencies can join in on the fun, too. As business leaders, the best way to reach our audience is to turn that audience into a community and connect with the people who are your biggest advocates. In this episode, we’ll talk about the role of creating emotional connections to your brand, the difference between an audience and a community, how agencies can become leaders in community building for brands, and so much more. Mark will leave you thinking about how your agency can evolve into a thriving community while growing your brand organically. A big thank you to our podcast’s presenting sponsor, White Label IQ. They’re an amazing resource for agencies who want to outsource their design, dev, or PPC work at wholesale prices. Check out their special offer (10 free hours!) for podcast listeners here. What You Will Learn in This Episode: Mark’s inspiration for writing his book on the next big brand marketing strategies The 3 trends that came together to bring community building to the forefront of brand marketing The importance of having an emotional connection with your community The major difference between audience and community How can agencies begin helping brands with community building? Nurturing organic advocacy for your brand Perfecting community building in both online and face-to-face interactions Some pitfalls to avoid when beginning to dabble in community building Can/should agencies create their own communities?

Mar 6, 2023 • 54min
EP 387: The four leadership shifts agency owners need to make to adapt to an evolving workforce with Heather McGowan
There’s no denying that when the pandemic hit, the workforce changed forever. We experienced some of the most rapid shifts in our economy and lifestyles this century, and we still feel its effects today. Most notably, our work standards morphed along with how we view leadership and hustle culture. The old ways of working longer hours and devoting yourself to a company to climb your way to the top have dissolved. This week, Heather McGowan is joining me to talk about the major shifts we’ve recently experienced and will shed some light on how agency owners can adapt to better fit the new roles employees expect leadership to fill. She’ll talk about “The Five Greats” that led to these intense shifts, and four leadership adaptations agency owners should consider making to support the new-age workforce best. A big thank you to our podcast’s presenting sponsor, White Label IQ. They’re an amazing resource for agencies who want to outsource their design, dev, or PPC work at wholesale prices. Check out their special offer (10 free hours!) for podcast listeners here. What You Will Learn in This Episode: How Heather accidentally became an expert in human work culture “The Five Greats” that collided all at once to shift the workforce How to change the mindset around hustle culture and where it still has its place Four shifts an agency owner needs to make to align themselves with the current workforce Moving from competition to collaboration to motivate your workforce Polling your workers and being open to feedback as you make changes How agencies are successfully building a remote culture What are the new standards of effective leadership today?

Feb 27, 2023 • 51min
EP 386: Restructuring agency billing and pricing models based on scope value with Jonathan Stark
If you’re tired of assessing your agency’s project values based on an average hourly rate and having your team constantly updating timesheets, you’ll want to take some notes on this episode. Today’s topic is all about restructuring pricing models to focus more on the scope value rather than an average billable hourly rate. Our guest, Jonathan Stark, is a former software developer on a mission to rid the world of hourly billing. He’ll teach us to reevaluate the work scopes we’re pitching to prospects and customize it so you can focus on their actual needs rather than what they think they need. By using this method, you will not only remove the headache of hourly billing but also have better conversations with prospects, establish yourself as a thought leader, and have the potential to increase your profit exponentially — just by changing this small aspect of your sales and discovery calls. A big thank you to our podcast’s presenting sponsor, White Label IQ. They’re an amazing resource for agencies who want to outsource their design, dev, or PPC work at wholesale prices. Check out their special offer (10 free hours!) for podcast listeners here. What You Will Learn in This Episode: How and why Jonathan became so passionate about eliminating hourly billing from his agency structure Why fixed pricing models based on scope value are both easier and more profitable Asking the right questions to get to the bottom of your prospect’s actual needs and weed out bad clients Talking about the value of the outcome of the work you’re going to do for clients Building proposals with 3 budget options based on a fixed-price value How to engage with a prospect to discover what they need and how to price it out The pros and cons of changing your pricing strategy Productizing some of your services as “off-the-shelf offerings” How to implement this strategy as a smaller agency without too much risk

Feb 20, 2023 • 51min
EP 385: Taking stock of where you make fear-based decisions in your agency with Drew McLellan
One of the most common traps we fall into as agency owners is making decisions based on our fears. Every day we have to make hard choices, and it’s easy to fall victim to a fear-based narrative when trying to make everyone happy while keeping a business afloat. But fear not — I have some advice for you that will help you see the bigger picture of where you are likely making fear-based decisions for your agency. This week, my goal is to help you identify the most common fear-based business decisions, understand why this happens almost universally, and learn some tricks to rewire our thinking around these decisions. As you listen to this episode, take stock of when you’ve made decisions out of fear. Fear of losing a good employee, fear of losing money, fear of missing out on a good project or client — and see if you can find a better approach to tackling even just one of these examples. For 30+ years, Drew McLellan has been in the advertising industry. He started his career at Y&R, worked in boutique-sized agencies, and then started his own (which he still owns and runs) agency in 1995. Additionally, Drew owns and leads the Agency Management Institute, which advises hundreds of small to mid-sized agencies on how to grow their agency and its profitability through agency owner peer groups, consulting, coaching, workshops and more. A big thank you to our podcast’s presenting sponsor, White Label IQ. They’re an amazing resource for agencies who want to outsource their design, dev, or PPC work at wholesale prices. Check out their special offer (10 free hours!) for podcast listeners here. What You Will Learn in This Episode: The biggest, worst fear-based decision agency owners often make Acknowledging the truths behind our fears and putting action behind them Financial decisions (and mistakes) we make when we’re afraid How we hand over control to our clients when we’re acting out of fear The vital role of client and employee satisfaction surveys The psychology behind fear-based decisions Why you should step away from a problem and ask for help How to rewire our thinking around decisions and get out of the fear narrative