Agency growth and biz dev can feel like an uphill battle when we’re already so tired, overworked, and burnt out. But it doesn’t have to be hard or add anything extra on our already full to-do lists. In fact, it shouldn’t be difficult at all. 

Tori Boats joined me this week to help close out the year on a high note and show us that setting our agencies up for exponential growth in 2025 doesn’t have to be tough — and it can even be fun. 

If you’re feeling that end of the year slump, this episode should inspire you to rediscover that creative spark that motivated you to start an agency in the first place. No worrying about what’s profitable or competitive — just pure creative and visionary ideations that will give you the fresh thinking you need to start off 2025 on the right foot. 

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:

• What gets in the way of the spark of agency ownership

• Getting into an innovative and creative headspace

• Translating a creative spark into sustainable agency growth

• Centering your clients’ needs instead of yourself or the agency

• Challenge yourself to come up with silly, unrealistic ideas

• Infusing energy, excitement, excitement, and visionary ideas to agency employees

• Having a vision is the key to getting unstuck

• The 5 mistakes agency owners make that keep us stuck

Agency ownership can leave us stressed, burnt out, and sometimes, thinking the grass is greener somewhere else. But when you really sit back and think about it, we have it pretty good — we just lose sight of it sometimes. 

So this week, I’m finishing off the year with another solo episode to really sit down and take stock of what it is about agency ownership that makes it so special compared to other jobs. Because no matter how hard things get or how many bad days we have, our jobs are still pretty special and unique. 

While you listen to this episode, I want you to reflect on all the things that you could take a little more time to appreciate. Whether that’s your employees, your work-life balance, your clients, or even just the type of work you get to do, there’s always something we can be grateful for in this industry. 

In 2025, let’s find a little more joy in our work and give ourselves more credit for all the hard work we already do and will continue to do — because we love it that much.

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:

• We’re wired to constantly want to do better
• Agency owners can lose sight of how much joy is in the industry
• Agency ownership brings us balance in our personal and professional lives
• You can still make a decent living as an agency owner even if you have a bad year
• Getting to work for and with whomever you want
• Doing the type of creative work you want to do (for the most part)
• Why you should take some time to reflect on all the joys that come with agency ownership
• Agencies have more impact than we give ourselves credit for

As we round the bend into the new year, I’m reflecting on the lessons learned from my time as an agency owner and the insights I've gained from working with hundreds of agencies. 

While there are too many to count, I’m going to try to boil down my experiences into a few points that I hope you can take into 2025 as you start to think about what you want the next year to look like for your agency. This episode is packed with actionable advice on things like niche selection, service offerings, operational efficiencies, and how to foster a culture of continuous growth and dedication among your staff. 

As you go into the new year, ask yourself, How do you want your agency to look different? How do you want your team to look different? How do you want to look different to the world? And how do you want the clients you serve to be different?

With those questions in mind, join me as I walk through what my dream agency would look like today and how you can implement these strategies to align your agency for success in 2025.  

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:

• The most profitable size of an agency
• Dividing in-office work and at-home work for a hybrid agency
• The importance of having in-house accounts service people who are dedicated to growing the agency
• Using freelancers and contractors to support a smaller team of in-house creatives
• The continued importance of running the agency by the numbers for maximum profitability
• Having one-on-ones to check in with agency employees and clients
• Narrowing down your niche to get to that 20% profitability
• Building a recession-proof agency
• Getting more thoughtful about what the agency owner role looks like and hiring roles to support it
• Getting smart about paying yourself 
• Team off-sites and investing in professional development

To grow the agency, agency owners need to be working on the business, not working in it. That means we have to accept that it’s time to get out of the day-to-day and embrace agency entrepreneurship as business leaders. 

Michael E. Gerber, author of The E-Myth and renowned business guru, joined us today to share some profound lessons for agency owners to uplevel their businesses and stop getting stuck just being technicians of the business. 

Too many of us get stuck in the day-to-day operations, doing work we should hire other experts to do. And while those experts do what they do best — so should we. By focusing on biz dev and enhancing the mission, vision, and values of the agency, we’re making room for the agency to grow while achieving our dreams. 

If you’ve been looking for a push to get inspired to finally run the agency as the visionary you are, this is your episode. Michael is a great inspiration to show agency owners that following our dreams and visions is possible if we set ourselves up for the right kind of success.  

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:

• How agency owners get in their own way of their success
• Many agency owners are technicians suffering from entrepreneurial tendencies
• How to use systems and processes when you’re an agency doing custom work
• The 8 distinct personalities for a great entrepreneur
• Running an agency vs. doing the work of an agency
• Create systems and processes, and then make your agency the product
• Great entrepreneurs are great creators

Account executives are critical for agency profitability and success. Without them, we wouldn’t have anybody responsible for building deeper trust with clients and growing their accounts.

That’s why we’ve brought Lori Highby on the show this week to share everything she knows about the account executive role. Some of you might recognize her from the AE Bootcamps she teaches at, and she’s here to bring that wisdom to the greater AMI community so we can better understand just how important our AEs are for agency success.

As someone who has an inside look at how AEs think and the questions and concerns that are always in their heads, Lori is the perfect person to share them so we can learn how to better support our AEs.  

We cover everything from the expectations in an AE role, how agency owners can better communicate their goals and expectations to AEs, recognizing their hard work, and supporting their goals and aspirations within their role so they can also grow with the agency. 

This episode is packed with incredible insights, so we hope you can take some of these topics and use them to better understand and support the AEs in your agency. 

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:

• Recurring struggles that account executives face and are looking for guidance about
• The importance of standardized communication on the team and with clients
• Helping AEs level up their soft communication skills
• Supporting your account executives’ eagerness to learn and level up
• The importance of AEs knowing agency math and using it to determine profitability
• What AEs really want from agency leadership 
• Take more time to recognize and appreciate your account executives’ hard work
• How to find more moments for recognition on your team
• What AEs love about their jobs
• How to support and encourage your team in leveling up their skills
• How agency owners can amplify AE success in the agency