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:
- Reasons to build a leadership team
- Why you should never start a leadership team out of frustration or overwhelm
- Why your leadership team is a great place to mentor employees ready for the next level
- How building a leadership team fits into your succession plan
- What kinds of employees should be on your leadership team (and why you shouldn’t just look at employees with certain titles)
- The huge decisions that you as the agency owner have to make before having your first leadership team meeting
- What leadership team meetings should accomplish
- Why every leadership team member needs to leave the meeting with a goal to accomplish before the next meeting
- How to decide when to include your leadership team in the decision-making (and the three levels of decision-making you can use)
- Why you need to have SMART goals for your leadership team
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!
Gene Hammett turns everyday entrepreneurs into FORCES of nature in their market. He sorts through the complexities of business strategies to help you “be THE choice, not just a choice.”
Gene has been a business leader for 20+ years. He started and ran multiple million dollar companies. He succeeded, failed, reinvented himself, and succeeded again. He can pass along to you the key lessons he’s learned in the process so you can have a business that is both successful and fulfilling.
On his podcast, Leaders in the Trenches, Gene has interviewed hundreds of world thought leaders and best-selling New York Times authors. Gene has been featured in Forbes, Success Magazine, Business Insider, and INC Magazine. Gene is also a regular contributor to Entrepreneur Magazine.
In all of his keynotes, Gene uses personal stories and humor to clarify key points. This message is a unique approach to how stepping out of your comfort zone, thinking differently, and innovating can lead to increased market share and trusted authority status. Gene always gives powerful strategies to be implemented right away to create immediate results.
What you’ll learn about in this episode:
- Why Gene became a coach after losing 3 million dollars
- The real reasons you should be speaking (it’s not a speaker’s fee)
- Why you shouldn’t shy away from the “breakout” sessions at conferences as a speaker
- The opportunity for diverse speakers
- Why being a generalist is dangerous for speakers
- Why great content rules over speaking skills
- Giving attendees permission to come and find you instead of trying to sell from the stage
- Why you need to build relationships before filling out the speaker submission form
- How to figure out what to speak about
- Getting on the radar of the conferences by you want to speak at through writing
- Gene’s 5-day “authority gap” challenge
Ways to Contact Gene Hammett:
- The “Authority Gap” challenge: leadersinthetrenches.com/challenge
- Free researched list of conferences and guide typically only available for Gene’s clients: leadersinthetrenches.com/ami
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!
Not only does Lisa believe in enduring partnerships that matter, but she actively participates in creating them. Having consulted on and managed agency reviews including Lee Jeans, Panera Bread, and Subaru - just to name three of the reviews AAR has conducted for clients in virtually every major industry - Lisa tackles and solves the most vexing agency search challenges and has enabled hundreds of marketers to meet and/or exceed their business goals. Described as an agency search consultant whose unique perspective is highly valued, Lisa counsels both marketers and communications agencies on their business and branding efforts.
In addition to her role as a consultant, she has created a new business service center for agencies by co-founding Access Confidential in 2005. The comprehensive new business research tool has become the go-to resource helping communications agencies to prospect smart and avoid the pitch!
Lisa also works with the academic world including Wharton's Future of Advertising Program, as well as teaching as an adjunct advertising professor at NYIT. Many of her articles on the subject of client/agency relations have been printed in industry trades such as Forbes, Huffington Post, Advertising Age, Adweek, and HubSpot Blogs Agency Post. Lisa is also part of the industry speaking circuit presenting at national conferences including AAF, HOW Design Live, Mirren, and Ad Age Small Agency Conference.
Lisa recently wrote the book "@AARLlisa: New Biz in 140 Characters (or less)."
What you’ll learn about in this episode:
- The simple mistakes agencies make in the new business search process
- Why complacency is a big problem for agencies
- The importance of continuing to court your current clients
- Why chemistry is so vital in an agency-client relationship
- Prospecting smarter with Lisa’s Four T’s
- Building relationships by teaching
- Why you need to know what your agency is -- and isn’t -- good at
- What to do when executives change (both on client and agency sides)
- Finding project work for your agency (and growing that into a larger relationship)
- The danger of coming off as desperate to leads
- Why you need at least one person whose job is new business
- The importance of an integrated new business plan
Ways to Contact Lisa Colantuono:
- Email: lisa@aarpartners.com or l2@aarpartners.com
- Book: "@AARLlisa: New Biz in 140 Characters (or less)"
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!
John Heenan is a former Chief Marketing Officer / New Business Leader at a variety of small and mid-size agencies responsible for business development and agency marketing. Before that, he worked on the client side managing advertising and agencies for big global brands like Sony, Phillips, and Uniden.
He has created and managed successful business development programs for small, medium, and large agencies generating millions of dollars in agency revenue. He has managed multi-million dollar ad budgets as a client, hired talent, built competitive advantage, and inspired great outcomes in support of business objectives.
John has also worked with some of the top innovative brands and aggressive advertising agencies in the world in both traditional and digital channels. Having been on both sides of the client-agency relationship, he has a unique understanding of what clients want and what agencies deliver. Today he is putting that experience to work for a small group of agencies who struggle to grow.
What you’ll learn about in this episode:
- The experiences John had on the client side that led him to working on matching up agencies and clients
- Why cohesive culture throughout the agency matters for clients
- Why you must treat your agency as your #1 client
- Crafting the first impression that leads will have of your agency
- The importance of getting crystal clear on what your agency is selling
- Director of Delivery: an important role inside modern agencies to make sure agencies deliver to clients
- Why agency owners need to get out of the day-to-day and focus on new business
- What John does differently to help agencies with new business
- Why your agency needs to be rapidly changing
Ways to Contact John Heenan:
- Website: www.jheenan.com
- Email: john@jheenan.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!
C.C. Chapman describes himself as a New England raised storyteller, explorer, and humanitarian. Others have described him as a thought leader in the online marketing space, a grounded futurist and one the nicest guy on the Internet. Over the years of his career, he has worked with a variety of clients including Nike, HBO, American Eagle Outfitters, ONE, Verizon FiOS, and The Coca-Cola Company.
He is the co-author of the International bestseller “Content Rules” and is also the author of “Amazing Things Will Happen.” He travels the world speaking in front of audiences to do more in the world and how to understand content marketing better. C.C. has taught classes for Lynda.com, CreativeLive and now as an adjunct professor at Bentley University (where he also graduated from).
C.C. is an advocate who speaks about building passionate communities and the strategic values of content-based marketing. He is a Samsung Imagelogger, the original ONE Dad and a UN Foundation Social Good Fellow. As a storyteller for hire, his work has appeared on the pages of Rolling Stone and The Wall Street Journal.
C.C. serves as the Chairman of the Board at Wediko and serves on the board of The Hockey Foundation. He happily lives in the woods outside of Boston with his loving family.
What you’ll learn about in this episode:
- Social Good: giving your employees an opportunity to make a difference
- How to pick the right cause for your agency to support
- Don’t be too humble: why you need to talk about the non-profit work that you do
- The International bestseller “Content Rules” C.C. co-authored
- Speak Human: the most violated rule from “Content Rules”
- Differentiation: what makes your agency different?
- Creating content that plays to your strengths
- Why you can’t afford not to have content for yourself (and how to get it produced if you honestly don’t have the time to do it personally)
- Building trust by giving away at least pieces of what you do
- How to make your content stand out from all the other content out there
- Connecting your offline life with your digital presence
- Doing a regular social media audit to make sure your content is presenting your agency the way you want to be presented
Ways to Contact C.C. Chapman:
- Website: www.cc-chapman.com
- Twitter: @cc_chapman
- Book: "Content Rules"
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!