2023 is quickly coming to a close, so it’s time for agency owners to start thinking about the year ahead to come up with their 2024 game plan. With holiday hibernation quickly approaching for most agency owners, this is the perfect time to reflect on 2023 and start thinking about what we want to improve for 2024.

Many of us are coming out of a less-than-ideal year that threw us a lot of curveballs. So, if this year wasn’t your year, what game plan can you develop to make 2024 even better?

This episode is packed with a ton of action items that will set you on the path to getting your agency on the right track as soon as you’re back from the holidays. Whether you’re looking to tighten up your budget, grow your existing clients, reevaluate your team, or even find more time to do something memorable this year, this episode has everything you need to do to make your game plan and stick to it.

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.

In This Episode:

• Making a game plan aligned with the legacy you want to leave
• Creating a budget and aligning your expenses to it
• Connecting better with your team to help them grow
• Have a career path for every position
• Improving your leadership team, including the agency owner
• Identifying A, B, C, and D players
• Having a growth plan for existing clients
• Finding your niche and owning it
• How will you show your clients and team you appreciate them?
• What is one thing that would make 2024 unbelievable for you?

Finding right-fit clients, especially in a slow economy, is always a frustrating task. For the past year or so, agency owners have been expressing more and more frustrations over finding and keeping good clients at the right price point.

In this episode, Jason Swenk shares some tips and tricks about what he sees agencies doing right when it comes to client acquisition that keeps them profitable even in the toughest economies. He shares the 3 main channels where agencies can find right-fit clients — hint: it’s got nothing to do with referrals — that position your agency as a must-have problem solver for prospects.

If you’re ready to find the perfect clients, get paid what you’re worth (or more), and make them feel like they can’t live without your services, this is your episode. You’ll learn some tangible tips for impressing clients and staying ahead of the curve to keep them interested.

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 the agencies who are getting new clients are doing right
• Getting clear on the types of clients you want to go after
• Why you shouldn’t rely on referrals as your main client go-getter
• Figuring out how to solve your clients’ problems innovatively
• The 3 main channels you should be resourcing to find right-fit clients
• Why podcasting is one of the greatest inbound sales channels
• Creating an attractive offer ladder without using retainers
• What does the agency of the future look like?
• 2 of the biggest challenges agencies need to anticipate for the future

We’ve all lowballed ourselves when going into negotiations. Whether it was for a raise, a proposal to a new client, a request to be a keynote speaker or a promotion, we’ve probably left opportunity on the table without even realizing it.

The good news is that it’s extremely common, so you’re not alone. But the bad news is that you could probably be getting so much more than you realize, but you’re not asking in the right way.

This week, Dia Bondi teaches us how to ask like an auctioneer in negotiations. At auctions, you’re not looking for an immediate yes. You’re searching until you ultimately find that no, and that’s where the fun really begins.

You never know what you can get until you ask, but if you never receive that initial “no” and start the negotiation process, you’ll never know where the ceiling of potential is for your ask. So, in this episode, Dia encourages us to step out of our comfort zones and challenge ourselves to maximize our potential to further ourselves and our careers by learning to ask like an auctioneer.

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 it means to ask like an auctioneer
• Finding your ZOFO
• Why you should always look for a no to maximize the potential of your proposals
• The 4 different types of asks you can make
• What to do when you’re met with a no
• The Boomerang Effect that can turn a no into a yes later on
• The 6-step framework that will build your confidence in negotiations
• Letting go of asking for what you think you deserve
• What to do when the “no” is a hard no

Usually, a sabbatical is for people who need time to rest and recharge. But did you know that sabbaticals are important for your agency operations, too?

This week, we’re taking a different approach to the ongoing conversation we’ve been having about systems and processes, agency operations, and ways to optimize your business growth. From Alyson Caffrey’s perspective, it’s not just employees and agency owners who need time to rest and recharge — your business does, too.

Blocking out time to work on biz dev and improving systems and processes is the break your agency needs in order to grow. Like training for a marathon, an agency needs time to rest and create muscle memory around new agency operations.

With these dedicated mini sabbaticals, not only will your agency be more optimized, but it will increase your agency value when it’s time to start working on succession planning. You literally can’t afford not to try this method out.

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 two traditional forms of sabbaticals people take
• What is an agency sabbatical?
• How we can weave sabbaticals into our daily, weekly, monthly, and quarterly routines
• Setting boundaries that help you weave rest into your work routine
• What it means to allow rest for the agency
• How to retrain your team to protect their time and use it purposefully
• Getting agency operations to function flawlessly without bottlenecks
• Identifying which systems and processes to document and how to break them down into more manageable pieces
• Starting where you’re at without pressuring yourself to be perfect