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How to Achieve Your Dream Life

There’s always a lot of talk about building your dream life or living out your dreams.  For many people, that’s a myth. They don’t have the opportunity to make the changes and choices that will allow them to move closer to the life they aspire to have. But business owners have a unique set of circumstances that make that a real possibility. In this solocast, I’ll tell you a little bit about an exercise that I believe can help you define how you’d like your life to be and begin to move in that direction. I know it can be a powerful experience because it has had a huge impact on my own life and getting closer to living my dream life. Join me in mapping out the future that you are uniquely positioned to create. In this episode, we’ll talk about: A CPA I recently met in San Diego who has built his life around what he loves most of all An exercise that a coach I had about 10 years ago shared with me and the impact that exercise has had Why my life would not look like it does today if 10 years ago I hadn’t visualized what I wanted it to look like ten years down the road Why it’s okay if everything doesn’t play out exactly the way you visualize How to do the exercise my coach gave me Drew McLellan is the Top Dog at Agency Management Institute. For the past 20+ 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 [...]

March 17th, 2017|

Get Clear on What Your Dream Life Looks Like, with Drew McLellan.

[easy-social-share buttons=”facebook,twitter,google,linkedin,mail” counters=1 counter_pos=”topm” total_counter_pos=”leftbig” style=”icon_hover”] 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: A CPA I recently met in San Diego who built his life around being able to go surfing every day An exercise a coach I had about 10 years ago would put me through so that I would envision my future as if it had already happened Why my life would not look like it does today if 10 years ago I had not visualized what I wanted it to look like today Why it’s okay if everything doesn’t play out exactly the way you visualize How to do the Reporter Exercise my coach gave me (linked below)   The Golden Nugget: [...]

March 13th, 2017|

How Partnering with a Nonprofit Can Create an Impact for Your Business

Want to leave a lasting legacy in your community, engage your employees, thrill your vendors and be able to serve and help those who really need it? It’s possible, practical, profitable and probably the last place you would look for a business opportunity – pro bono work for the nonprofits in your community.     As an agency you are inevitably going to be asked by a nonprofit for free work. Make that inevitability a win-win for everyone involved by serving the nonprofits in your community in a way that is bigger and better both in the short-term and the long-term.    Join me in this solocast as I walk you through: Why short term nonprofit projects don’t do much good for your agency or a nonprofit Creating a contest for nonprofits where the winner will become your client for a year How this contest and resulting year-long relationship will bring in a ton of PR How this lengthy commitment with a single nonprofit allows you to gracefully turn down other nonprofits that you don’t have time to work with What to ask for in applications to find the right nonprofit to work with How your relationship with a nonprofit can be a great business development opportunity Why you need to get in front of the nonprofit’s board of directors How this relationship will dramatically change the impact that the nonprofits you adopt can make What your process for setting up this yearly project should look like Why your team will love doing work with a nonprofit 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 [...]

February 10th, 2017|

How to Actually Have an Impact When Working With Nonprofits, with Drew McLellan.

[easy-social-share buttons=”facebook,twitter,google,linkedin,mail” counters=1 counter_pos=”topm” total_counter_pos=”leftbig” style=”icon_hover”] 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 short term nonprofit projects don’t do much good for your agency or a nonprofit Creating a contest for nonprofits where the winner will become your client for a year How this contest and resulting year-long relationship will bring in a ton of PR How this lengthy commitment with a single nonprofit allows you gracefully turn down other nonprofits that you don’t have time to work with What to ask for in applications to find the right nonprofit to work with How your relationship with a nonprofit can be a great business development opportunity Why you need to get in front of the nonprofit’s board of directors [...]

February 6th, 2017|

5 Ways to Measure What Matters, with Drew McLellan.

[easy-social-share buttons=”facebook,twitter,google,linkedin,mail” counters=1 counter_pos=”topm” total_counter_pos=”leftbig” style=”icon_hover”] 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 have to measure inside your agency The AGI/FTE ratio: why you should be aiming for this to be 150,000 (and why many agencies struggle to reach this goal) Measuring over/under on projects: how often are you over, how often are you under, and by how much? Why you need to look at profitability on a client by client basis (and how to know when to fire a client due to profitability) Why you need a minimum standard AGI for all your clients Why you absolutely need to use timesheets inside your agency (and why this doesn’t mean you should bill by the hour)   The [...]

January 2nd, 2017|

How to Use Public Speaking to Strategically Grow Your Business with Tamsen Webster

Public speaking is the number one fear in America. Death is number two. From sweaty palms to cracking voices, speaking in public can be terrifying, yet it is a crucial skill to have in the agency world. As agency owners, our speaking skills are in the spotlight, be it in presentations, pitches, at conferences or just in front of your kid’s school. No matter how many people you’re in front of or how long you have to talk – every presentation matters. Tamsen Webster believes passionately in the power of human-to-human communication and has made it her life’s work to see to it that you become a better speaker. She coaches TedTalk speakers, business leaders and teams on how to get the audience to focus and relate to your ideas and feel connected to you in the process. Join Tamsen and I as we flesh out how to use presentations and speeches in a strategic way to grow your business. We cover:   Why speaking is the best tool for convincing someone that your agency is the best agency for them Why you need to make your speeches about your audience and not about you Mistakes that agencies make in pitches all the time How to structure your new business presentations so that you win the business Why you want people to remember the one big idea of your presentation — not specific tactics How to develop a thought leadership presentation Why niched presentations are a lot more effective than broad ones “Why,” “what now,” and “how” talks: what’s different about these kind of presentations How to structure a talk when you are given a general topic that you have to speak on Why you should stop before [...]

December 9th, 2016|

Why Who You Spend Time with is Critical to Your Success

"We are the average of the five people that we hang out with the most." Jim Rohn is famous for making that statement and I believe he was absolutely right. But most business leaders won’t take the time to be thoughtful about the people they surround themselves with and I think that’s short-sighted. Who are you hanging out with? What does your average look like? Determining who your posse is says a lot about you but it also says a lot about where you’re going. The people that inspire you, challenge you, teach you, celebrate you, call you out, push you and fill you with joy are the people we’re going to be talking about in this solocast, so join me and discover: Why I absolutely believe Jim Rohn’s famous adage that we are the average of the five people we spend the most time with Why you should go back and take a look at the one page life plan I outlined in episode 10 Spending time with the people who inspire you to commit to excellence in every aspect of your life Spending time with the people you learn from that challenge you to think in different ways Spending time with people that you can teach Hanging out with people who see you more clearly than you see yourself Spending time with people who will call you out when you need to be called out Having people in your life that make you push harder than you would on your own Spending time with the people that fill you with joy Drew McLellan is the Top Dog at Agency Management Institute. For the past 21 years, he has also owned and operated his own [...]

December 2nd, 2016|

Fill Your Life with the Five People Who Help You Create the Best Version of You, with Drew McLellan.

[easy-social-share buttons=”facebook,twitter,google,linkedin,mail” counters=1 counter_pos=”topm” total_counter_pos=”leftbig” style=”icon_hover”] 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 I absolutely believe Jim Rohn’s famous adage that we are the average of the five people we spend the most time with Why you should go back and take a look at the one page life plan I outlined in episode 10 Spending time with the people who inspire you to commit to excellence in every aspect of your life Spending time with the people you learn from that challenge you to think in different ways Spending time with people that you can teach Hanging out with people who see you more clearly than you see yourself Spending time with people who will call you out [...]

November 28th, 2016|

How to Embrace Change as a Small Business Owner in Today’s World

The only constant in life is change, and man, does that apply to our world and agency life. The truth is – it’s not going to suddenly get easier, slower or less jarring.  If anything, it’s just going to get a little quicker. So buckle up. I have been in a unique position, because of my work with hundreds of agencies, to see these changes firsthand and want to share with you where I think our industry is headed. Our customers today aren’t just looking for someone to manage an ad campaign or make a media buy, they are looking for partners. Strategic partners who get business. While most of the “stuff” that we create can be commoditized, what makes us different and what can’t be commoditized is our ability to think strategically. The game has changed and agencies that are able to successfully partner with their customers beyond marketing and delve into the sales and customer service arenas are the ones that are succeeding. Learn how your agency can embrace change and succeed in these arenas by answering: Why the speed of change is the new normal and why you have to embrace that How what agencies sell has changed from the Mad Men days to today Why you need to tie marketing, sales, and customer service together to be a great agency today Why data analysis is more important than it ever has been Leads, sales, and retention: why you need to focus on these at a much higher level if you want to keep charging a premium price The importance of making real time decisions and adapting based on data Why we need to work with clients who may be resistant to [...]

October 28th, 2016|

Effective New Business Strategies and The Four Most Vital Areas of the Sales Funnel

New business, new business, new business. It’s something that I find myself talking to agency owners about every single day. Unfortunately most agencies are so busy retooling their business development program to chase new prospects that they forget their most important new business target – their current clients. 70% of your new revenue should be coming from your existing clients … 70%! What new business strategies do you have in place to make sure that happens? New business opportunities aimed at new prospects always have to be a part of the plan but you also need to be courting your current roster of clients. In this podcast, I give you a path to follow to address both your 70% and your 30%:     Why about 70% of your new revenue should come from existing clients How to teach your AEs to grow the business that they’re serving The new business strategies for you, the business owner, to focus on new business The four areas of the sales funnel and how to work with all four The system for reaching out to your 25 best prospects 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 [...]

September 23rd, 2016|

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