Drew McLellan is the Top Dog at Agency Management Institute. For the past 21 years, he has also owned and operated his own agency. Drew’s unique vantage point as being both an active agency owner and working with 250+ small- to mid-size agencies throughout the year, give him a unique perspective on running an agency today.
AMI works with agency owners by:
- Leading agency owner peer groups
- Offering workshops for owners and their leadership teams
- Offering AE bootcamps
- Conducting individual agency owner coaching
- Doing on-site consulting
- Offering online courses in agency new business and account service
Because he works with those 250+ agencies every year — he has the unique opportunity to see the patterns and the habits (both good and bad) that happen over and over again. He has also written two books and been featured in The New York Times, Entrepreneur Magazine, and Fortune Small Business. The Wall Street Journal called his blog “One of 10 blogs every entrepreneur should read.”
What you’ll learn about in this episode:
- Why I absolutely believe Jim Rohn’s famous adage that we are the average of the five people we spend the most time with
- Why you should go back and take a look at the one page life plan I outlined in episode 10
- Spending time with the people who inspire you to commit to excellence in every aspect of your life
- Spending time with the people you learn from that challenge you to think in different ways
- Spending time with people that you can teach
- Hanging out with people who see you more clearly than you see yourself
- Spending time with people who will call you out when you need to be called out
- Having people in your life that make you push harder than you would on your own
- Spending time with the people that fill you with joy
Ways to contact Drew McLellan:
We’re proud to announce that Hubspot is now the presenting sponsor of the Build A Better Agency podcast! Many thanks to them for their support!
Phil Gerbyshak is a speaker and a trainer, who delivers programs on the power of technology, social selling and connection. With a unique speaking style—part technology and sales expert, part entertainer—Phil keeps his audiences awake and engaged while providing micro-tactics to help you get more leads, earn referrals, and improve your business. When he’s not traveling, speaking, or making new connections, Phil writes. He’s published 5 books, including "10 Ways to Make It Great" and "#TwitterWorks," more than 2,500 articles, and has been interviewed by the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Financial Times, and more.
What you’ll learn about in this episode:
- Social selling: getting people to convert for you
- Making a connection with someone online (this isn’t a follow or a like)
- Why keyword targeting isn’t necessarily the best path to success
- Why Phil actively connects people he thinks should know about each other
- How Phil uses LinkedIn as a powerful sales and research tool
- Why you have to share content that isn’t your own
- Why you should congratulate your competition -- and why you need to be genuine about it
- Phil’s strategy for creating content people need and starting conversations
- Cultivating and leveraging testimonials
- How to use your pinned post wisely
- Things you can do right now to start putting into practice the ideas from this episode
- Phil’s podcast “Conversations with Phil”
Ways to Contact Phil Gerbyshak:
- Website: www.philgerbyshak.com
- Podcast: conversationswithphil.com
- Twitter: @PhilGerb
- Email: phil@philgerbyshak.com
- Text: (414) 640-7445
We’re proud to announce that Hubspot is now the presenting sponsor of the Build A Better Agency podcast! Many thanks to them for their support!
Kris Hoet has a broad experience on both the client and agency side and brings a unique perspective to his work at the crossover of creativity and technology. His passion for technology and how to translate that into change and impact first came through when he was working as a client enabling better connections with consumers by building some of the first online cinema experiences in the late 90s and kickstarting some of Microsoft's first influencer marketing activities in the early 2000s.
Currently Kris is heading up the innovation initiatives at Happiness, an agency he co-founded, a role he also fulfills for the global FCB network to which Happiness belongs. Before joining Happiness, Kris was part of the management team at Duval Guillaume responsible for some advertising classics such as TNT's Push to add drama & Carlsbergs Bikers. During his time there the agency became Digital Agency of the Year twice and following that was elected Agency of the Year for three consecutive years.
Kris is also a renowned speaker at international marketing conferences. He was one of the Advocates of the TED Ads Worth Spreading program and is still a curator of All Gunns Blazing, a selection of some of the most innovative worldwide creative work of the famed Gunn Report.
He is an avid mountain biker and a self-proclaimed petrolhead with a special love for vintage cars.
What you’ll learn about in this episode:
- Why Kris made the jump to the agency side -- and why he started his own agency
- Innovation initiatives and driving change in every aspect of a company
- Why small changes across a company are better than one big change
- Getting ideas for change from other industries
- Some feeds that Kris follows to get inspiration
- Finding the time to focus on innovation and learning for learning's sake while also running a client-driven profitable business
- Why everybody needs to be involved in an initiative
- Working in a messy way with these innovation initiatives and why that demands more trust between agency and client
- Why you can do this with your employees you have (if they’re actual good employees)
- How to inspire your team to want to innovate
- How to get innovation started
Ways to Contact Kris Hoet:
- Twitter: @krishoet
- Newsletter: crossthebreeze.com/warped
- Company Twitter: @hppnssanywhere
We’re proud to announce that Hubspot is now the presenting sponsor of the Build A Better Agency podcast! Many thanks to them for their support!
Chris Wilson is the Founder and Chief Client Advocate of Function Point Productivity Software Inc.
As the company’s leader, Chris wants to create the world's leading digital tools for managing the day to day hassle of running a professional service firm. Chris’ focus is on creating a place, a team and a culture where the best creators, communicators and collaborators can grow.
Chris has an extensive understanding of the operation, management and workflow processes of Design studios, Advertising agencies and Architectural firms, with experience assisting thousands of firms in standardizing their business of design.
Chris holds a Bachelor of Commerce with a major in Service Industries.
What you’ll learn about in this episode:
- The typical reasons that agencies decide they need to get better systems in place
- What Chris’ company Function Point does
- Mistakes that agencies make when it comes to starting to think about workflow and using a tool like Function Point
- How to figure out if your workflow process needs improving
- Why workflow allows people to put their brain flow in the right place
- Why systems have to be easy to use
- Why timesheets are absolutely necessary and why agency owners can’t be exempt from them
- Warning signs that your workflow needs improvement
- Making sure you have strong creative briefs
- Steps that you can take right now
Ways to Contact Chris Wilson:
- Website: www.functionpoint.com
- LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/groups/3802657
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/functionpoint
- Twitter: @functionpoint
- Email: chris@functionpoint.com
We’re proud to announce that Hubspot is now the presenting sponsor of the Build A Better Agency podcast! Many thanks to them for their support!