Obstacles are a given. We don’t get to waltz through life without facing some tough days, barriers and people who are pretty convinced we’re crazy. As a result – we all have “those days.” Those days of doubt, of worry and of asking ourselves, “what am I doing?” I don’t know about you, but there are days when I wonder how I got on this crazy roller coaster. But then I realize that I stood in line just for a shot at the ride and most days, I love it. Every day we make choices and those choices have consequences.
The choices we make lead define the life we live. I work hard to come at life from a growth mindset. I know there will be uphill days, but I am going to tackle that hill and figure out how to avoid having to climb it again. My only other option is a limiting mindset.
My guest for this podcast is a person I’ve followed and admired for years and I couldn’t wait to speak with her – in fact we planned a return visit to the podcast not even halfway through this one! Pam Slim digs deep to get to the bottom of those tough questions that keep business owners stuck in place or afraid to step out into the light. Her goal is to find answers that allow us to face and overcome those inevitable challenges, so we can enjoy the ride.
Pam had just embarked on some pretty incredible research on this very subject of overcoming or not overcoming challenges right before we got together. I wanted to get a sneak peek at the findings and Pam delivered! We talked about the power of building a community around you and the power that unleashes as you both get support and support others.
Pam Slim is an award-winning author, speaker, and small business coach. Most of you probably know her from her book, Escape From Cubicle Nation, but there is a lot more to tell.
Pam spent the first 10 years of her solo practice as a consultant to large corporations like HP and Cisco and to worked with thousands of employees, managers, and executives. Then came then Cubicle Nation, the blog which led to the book. Her latest book, Body of Work was released with Penguin Portfolio in 2015. In her hometown of Mesa, AZ, Pam has opened up what she calls a business learning library called K’é, which is a Navajo word meaning “a system of kinship connection.”
What you’ll learn about in this episode:
- What kinship has to do with building a business
- The impact of your attitude toward obstacles
- Why people gather in ecosystems of shared values and experiences
- What it means to have a “growth” vs. a “fixed” mindset
- How to course-correct your business whether you’ve been in it for a year or 30 years
- Why a great business ecosystem is like the ultimate dinner party
- What the High Council of Jedi Knights can teach us about sharpening our business outcomes
- The toll that a lack of shared values will take on you in a business (or any) relationship
- The results of a major research study on overcoming obstacles
- The power of a group of people who both have your back and hold you accountable
Ways to contact Pamela Slim:
- Website: pamelaslim.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!
I hang out with agency owners every day and 95% of them resist proactive business development for as long as they can. Until that big client starts to give “I want to break up” signs, they are happy to rely on referrals and anyone who crosses the threshold as a substitute for a true biz dev program.
Most owners will tell me that they either hate sales or they’re terrible at them. But the reality is – you are all brilliant sales people because you are not a sales person. You are uniquely skilled at having business conversations at a level that no average salesperson can have.
The other excuse some owners will offer is that they are introverts, which means they can’t be good at sales. Again, I disagree. The key to good sales is asking better questions and listening with more intentionality and no one is better at that then someone who is more introverted.
All of this is why I invited Matthew Pollard to be on the show. He’s here to share insights from his work and from his forthcoming book, The Introvert’s Edge. He’s got some really great things to share to get us out of our reluctance about selling and networking.
Can narrowing our niche help us sell better? Matthew thinks so. Should we get beyond describing our work as a functional skill – the same skill everyone in the marketplace has? Matthew knows getting beyond functional skill is a crucial step.
Matthew is the Rapid Growth Guy. He's dedicated to helping small business owners succeed by giving them methods that helped them transform their business from struggling into profitable success stories. He is the founder and executive director of the Small Business Festival, ranked among the top five conferences in the nation by Inc. magazine. He is in the international sales blogger awards hall of fame and has been featured in Entrepreneur, CEO magazine, Fortune, you name it. But what we care about is that he's going to help us be smarter about selling.
What you’ll learn about in this episode:
- How to craft a unified message about why people should work with you
- The difference between your functional skills and the reason people actually work with you
- The three-step process to rapid growth
- Why you don’t have to be an extrovert to be excellent at sales
- Plenty of life hacks for your next networking event
- How to stand out when your services have been commoditized
- Why bending yourself to perceived market “needs” will leave you tired and frustrated
- How niching narrows your market in all the right ways
- The folly of sharing a bland message in a crowded market – and what to do instead
- Why a small niche you are excited about is better than a giant market you don’t care about
Ways to contact Matthew/Resources:
- Website: matthewpollard.com
- Podcast: matthewpollard.com/better-business-coach/forget-about-goals-why-is-the-key-to-success
- Free chapter: matthewpollard.com/theintrovertsedge/book
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!
I have the good fortune of hanging out with agency owners and their teams every day of the year. We work with over 250 agencies that range from a handful of employees to several hundred team members. While every agency is absolutely unique – there are some common themes and trends that bubble up as we work alongside our agency clients.
Every year I pull together the trends I see time and time so the agencies we serve aren’t surprised by any of them. I’ve categorized them into some big buckets: money, employees, agency structure, clients, tactics, and revenue opportunities.
There were too many trends to pack into one solocast, so I’ll cover half this time and the other half in July.
Here’s the good news – it’s a great time to be in the business. As always, both challenges and opportunity abound. My goal is to help you spot the opportunities so you can maximize them while sidestep the trouble spots.
What you’ll learn about in this episode:
- How agencies fared financially in 2017
- Why 2017 was a great year for agencies to make money – and where that profit got re-allocated
- The factors complicating employee hiring and retention
- Agency structure changes in terms of both department structure and employee life/work models
Drew McLellan is the CEO at Agency Management Institute. He has also owned and operated his own agency since 1995 and is still actively running the agency today. Drew’s unique vantage point as being both an agency owner and working with 250+ small- to mid-size agencies throughout the year gives 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 — Drew 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, Forbes, Entrepreneur Magazine, and Fortune Small Business. The Wall Street Journal called his blog “One of 10 blogs every entrepreneur should read.”
Ways to contact Drew McLellan:
- Email: drew@agencymanagementinstitute.com
- LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/drewmclellan
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!
Every agency has an internal culture. The only question is – did you build it on purpose. Intentionality. That is the bottom line. If you want to consciously create your team’s functionality and effectiveness, what kind of clients you attract, and where your own focus should be – that takes intentionality. That level of thinking has helped Raman Sehgal build an agency that allows him to work with clients from all over the world and enjoy a staff retention rate of 80%.
Raman Sehgal is the owner of a UK-based marketing agency called Ramarketing, an award-winning, creative, digital and PR agency. They are in the business of helping fast-growing companies in the life science, pharma, and manufacturing sectors get noticed.
Nine years ago, he was working from a desk in his home. His agency has now grown the agency to a staff of over 20 and they working with clients across the UK, the US, and Europe, and still have the very first client that they landed almost a decade ago.
What you’ll learn about in this episode:
- What it looks like to go from freelancer to running an agency
- How the job of owner changes over the lifecycle of an agency
- Why it’s possible to run an agency from a kitchen counter or a big corporate office
- How most agency owners become accidental business owners
- How Raman’s agency model compares to how a traditional agency runs
- How to build a family first, work second culture in your business
- What it takes to serve clients in multiple markets around the globe
- The power of being “meaningfully specific” in an agency
- Raman’s agency billing structure and the difference between billing by the hour for the US compared to the UK
- Building a fee structure on deliverables
- The correlation between giving clients a good return and the margin you receive on your work
- The red flags you can use to vet prospects and make sure they are a good fit for your agency
- How trying to make a difficult client happy can actually cost you and your staff
- Best practices to keep your team productive
Ways to contact Raman Sehgal:
- Website: www.ramarktingpr.com
- LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/ramansehgaluk
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!