Christopher Lochhead is co-author of Harper Collins' instant classic “Play Bigger” and host of the Legends and Losers podcast.
Christopher is a retired three-time, Silicon Valley, public company CMO, entrepreneur and category designer. Fast Company Magazine calls him a "Human Exclamation Point and The Economist calls him "off-putting to some. He can recite much of The Big Lebowski but can't remember his wife's phone number. He's a proud advisor to nonprofit 1 Life Fully Lived, an ass-kicking public speaker, and surf / ski bum living happily ever after in Santa Cruz California with a wonderful tribe and 7 beautiful hens.
What you’ll learn about in this episode:
- Chris’ career journey that took him from Silicon Valley CMO to coach to podcast host
- Chris’ book: “Play Bigger: How Pirates, Dreamers, and Innovators Create and Dominate Markets”
- What category design is and why every agency needs to get great at it
- Why “category” is as important as “product” and “company”
- How to position your agency in a category that you can dominate
- The two kinds of problems that need solving
- The three questions to ask to start creating your category to dominate
- The three ways service-based businesses make money
- Why your client base may change after you define your category (and why that’s perfectly okay)
- Why your agency can still do work that doesn’t fit exactly in your category if needed (the kids gotta eat!) as long as the perception of your agency stays within your category
- Why legendary category designers always expand what they do
- Why becoming a category king is going to take a leap of faith
- And tons of examples of category kings that have done what it takes to stand out amongst the competition
Ways to Contact Christopher Lochhead:
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 you need think long and hard before making employees partners
- Why partnerships will look different if you’re a C Corp than any other structure (S Corp, LLC, etc.)
- Why you need to make sure someone actually wants to be a partner before you offer them a partnership
- Why you need to sell shares and not gift shares
- Why you should only bring on one partner at a time
- Why -- if your employee doesn’t have the skills they need to be a partner -- and they probably don’t -- you need to teach them
- Why it usually takes about 10 years to groom someone to take over for you
- Why you really need to decide if you’re ready for all of your autonomy to go away
- How to finance partnerships (odds are they can’t afford it on their salary)
- How to start having the conversation about funding your buyout
Ways to contact Drew McLellan:
Aaron Agius is one of the world’s leading digital marketers according to Forbes. He is CEO of Louder Online, one of the world’s leading digital agencies with a global reach.
Louder Online is an inbound marketing agency, working globally with clients such as Salesforce, IBM, Coca-Cola, Intel and scores of leading brands, showing them how to technically optimize their sites, perform influencer outreach and link acquisition and produce and distribute content that drives significant lead generation and ROI.
Aaron is a highly sought speaker at Search, Content Marketing and Growth Hacking and many other conferences around the globe including the U.S, U.K, Brazil, London and Australia. His passion to help businesses is driven from his own experience. Aaron was at the cutting edge of the emerging digital marketing field over 10 years ago. He uses that lived experience and now translates it into revenue for clients.
He is also a regular contributor to some of the world’s largest editorial publications, including Entrepreneur.com, Hubspot.com and many more, with thought leadership on marketing and business growth.
What you’ll learn about in this episode:
- Why you absolutely must work on and invest in the business (no excuses!)
- How Aaron established himself as a thought leader through guest blogging and what he would recommend doing today
- Why you need high-quality proposal documents
- Why you need to be cooperative rather than competitive with agencies that you share a client with
- Why Aaron has created smaller sister agencies in other countries instead of using freelancers
- Aaron’s genius strategy for leveraging LinkedIn
- How to prove the ROI of your work to a client
- Why it’s the CEO’s job to stay on top of what’s coming next
- Resources that Aaron himself uses to stay current
- How continually writing blogs, being on podcasts, hosting webinars, etc. helps you keep the clients you have
- Why you have to write for readers, not search engines
Ways to Contact Aaron Agius:
- Website: louder.online
- Welcome page: louder.online/build
- Twitter: @IAmAaronAgius
- LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/aaronagius
- Blog: How the Pros Track Conversions and ROI With These Content Marketing Metrics
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!
Marcus Blankenship is a management consultant, trainer and executive coach for software managers and leaders. He helps companies hire the right people, create the right culture, and set up the right process which achieves their goals. Managing a team isn’t something learned in college. In fact, his clients often tell him “I never prepared for this role, I always focused on doing the work.” If you’re ready to improve your leadership, process and team then you need to know Marcus.
What you’ll learn about in this episode:
- Why you must identify your high and low performers
- Why you shouldn’t be a passive-aggressive leader
- Why you can’t hire anyone you can’t fire
- Structured management: why you can’t set people free without management and why you need to set up strong management systems when your agency is small
- Why consistent one-on-one meetings are so crucial
- What happens in your employee’s head when you cancel a one-on-one meeting
- How to create a safe environment where the people below you are willing to give you the feedback you need
- Why you shouldn’t let feedback sit more than a week
- Marcus’ one-on-one framework guide
Ways to Contact Marcus Blankenship:
- Website: marcusblankenship.com
- Email: marcus@marcusblankenship.com
- Book: "7 Habits that Ruin your Technical Team"
- Marcus’ One-on-One Meeting Framework
- Email list with articles on running your team, daily management tips and guides for running your team: marcusblankenship.com/list
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!