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Facing my problem head-on

I’ve had this problem for a while. I feel it impeding my ability to do my best, most important work, and yet, I haven’t faced it before. Oh, I give it lip service or a half-hearted fix, but nothing sticks.   Today, I took the first step to truly eradicating from my life. Why am I telling you this? Because I suspect many of you suffer from the same affliction, and I thought we might work on it together. My problem? There’s no white space on my calendar.   I book myself so tightly in meetings, coaching calls, on-site consultations, workshops, peer groups, etc., that I don’t give myself enough margin to actually get my work done. And so I do it on the weekends or at 1 am. I get it done but is it as good as it would be if I were fully charged and wasn’t trying to cram it into the cracks? I have some huge plans for 2021, but to cross the finish line, I need big blocks of time to create. I know if I can find that time, I can create uber helpful content, videos, mini-courses, and other teaching tools that will be incredibly valuable to you. But…first I have to find the time. The challenge is — I love every single activity that fills my calendar. I love coaching agency owners. I love sitting in a conference room working with a leadership team. I love teaching a workshop or consulting on a gnarly issue. I’m good at them, and the work is rewarding. For you, it might be doing strategy for a client or sitting in on a creative brainstorming session. Or putting out a client fire or jumping [...]

September 23rd, 2022|

Lori Highby

Workshop Leader Lori Highby is a podcast host, speaker, educator, and founder of Keystone Click, a strategic digital marketing agency based in Milwaukee, WI. With education as a core value of Lori’s, she has taught and guest lectured to hundreds of students and professionals on various topics surrounding business and marketing; most notably, as an adjunct professor at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, she taught B2B Sales & Marketing and Principles of Marketing. Using her vast multi-industry knowledge - gained from experience and education, She has the ability to see the potential of greatness within the already established good of a business. Through strategic actionable moves, she has worked with Fortune 500 companies such as ABB and Syngenta to micro-business owners, to achieve their marketing goals. She has a BS from Marian University and a Masters from Cardinal Stritch University. Lori carries her energy and drive into her professional engagements in order to empower and educate other fellow life-long learners.  When she's not guiding clients or teaching agency account executives how to reach professional excellence, she can be found playing hockey, brewing beer with her husband Andy, or going on ridiculously long bike rides just to see if she can!

September 12th, 2022|

The Spreadsheet, A Marketer’s Frenemy –And A Better Alternative

I would like to thank AMI for giving us the opportunity to share something that we at Workamajig are very passionate about; helping creative agencies optimize their workflow and increase accountability to improve performance. For over 30 years, Workamajig has been helping agencies streamline their operations and unclog their bottlenecks –first as a consultancy firm and eventually as a project management tool for creative agencies.  We pioneered the SaaS model for the creative industry by combining sales, accounting, reporting, and collaboration functionalities in one piece of software for an affordable rate. Today, we work with over 3000 agencies, and 20% of Fortune 500 marketing departments rely on us to scale their excellence.  Working with new clients, we usually encounter one common confession: many rely on spreadsheets for most of their marketing and company operations. While spreadsheets are great, they also have limitations. Let’s talk about what makes them awesome, and what makes them less than ideal for our purposes. Why We Love Spreadsheets It’s Free Google Sheets was released on March 9, 2006. Since then, anyone who had access to the internet could use spreadsheets for free. This allowed professionals from all industries to maximize its functions until it eventually became a staple in most workplaces. In 2017 and 2018, data shows that Microsoft Excel was the most used software by market researchers. Years later, spreadsheets stay in the same position, with 77% of respondents (from staff to upper management) spend over 10+ hours a week working with Microsoft Excel and other spreadsheet software, according to a 2022 MarTech Career and Salary survey.  Spreadsheets are versatile, and they’re cost-efficient. This makes them the go-to option for many parts of a business. It’s Flexible Many [...]

August 22nd, 2022|

Getting it Write! Proposals that Win!

"I just want to say thank you for creating the "Getting it Write!" session with Robin and her team. I just can't believe how much I took away. It completely changed the way I look at proposals, case studies, bios, and the process of winning new work. And now I'm hungry for more!" Are you an agency owner, leadership team member and/or business development director? Are you charged with growing the agency by landing new clients and growing your current client list? Then this workshop was designed with you in mind. Whether you're submitting a proposal in response to a referral or inbound lead or jumping through the hoops of an RFI/RFP, what you say and how you say it in your written documents is your golden ticket to the next round of consideration. Or not. There are numerous perils to pitching new business today, especially in a written format: Difficulty “standing out” Difficulty communicating your unique and winning agency culture How to build chemistry via the written word Too much reliance on a small group of senior “sellers” Balancing senior & account team roles And more… Robin Boehler, Steve Boehler, and Lindsay O’Neil of Mercer Island Group can help. They read hundreds of written proposals and capabilities decks every year. They know what stands out to clients, what encourages them to ask for more, and, ultimately, what wins. In this two-day workshop, you're going to dive into what works and what doesn’t work when it comes to: Cover letters Tackling the business issue Case studies Agency bios Look & feel And then some… If you’ve attended in the past, this is new content that will build on what you’ve already learned. If you’ve never [...]

August 18th, 2022|

How could you change the rules?

We’ve been doing some initial strategic planning in the hallowed halls of AMI and one of the questions that keeps getting batted around is… what if we changed our own rules?  It’s led to some very intriguing conversations and “what if” scenarios.  And no doubt will continue to do so. I think as business owners we sometimes forget that we actually get to make the rules.  All too often, we let clients or employees or habit or convention or fear or complacency (or any combination of these) drive how we actually run our business.  It’s so easy to get stuck in a rut or feel boundaries that may actually not exist. What if you HAD to change the rules?  What rules would you consider modifying, eliminating or strengthening? Just as a mental exercise... imagine you had to radically change something in each of these areas: How you are staffed How do you mentor or groom your team? The types of clients you serve How/where you connect with your clients The work your agency produces Your pricing model Your biz dev model How you as an owner spend your days Your work schedule The metrics that define success How you manage your agency’s money I’m not suggesting that you implement all of these radical ideas.  But when you force yourself to come up with crazy things… some of the crazy might actually also be smart. Another way to approach this… same list but answer this question for each area — what do I hate about how we… Just some food for thought that might yield a big change or two.   This was originally published in the weekly AMI newsletter.  To subscribe, click here.

August 12th, 2022|

Taking control of occupational burnout before it burns you with Dr. Gerry Farris

For many of us, agency ownership means that most of our time and energy goes into our work. Even when trying to sleep, we’re replaying a frustrating conversation we had earlier that day, doomscrolling, or even dreaming about everything on our to-do lists. When we can’t turn off our minds at the end of a long day, we set ourselves up for occupational burnout. […]

August 1st, 2022|

How do you deliver bad news?

I was on a flight last week, and it was a few minutes past the time that they should have closed the cabin doors.  The pilot came out and got on the PA system.  Here’s what he said: “Folks, you know when the captain comes out of the cockpit to talk to you, it’s not good news. We’re going to be delayed because there’s a malfunction in the oxygen system in the cockpit and if something happens mid-flight, believe me; you want a conscious pilot. I know I’m old, but I promise, I’m more alert when I have oxygen.  This problem is only in the cockpit. There’s nothing wrong with the oxygen system in the main cabin. I’m am very sorry about this, and if anyone wants to yell at me about the delay, please come on up. But, I want to warn you - I’ve been married for 30 years, so I’m pretty immune. But you can still yell if it makes you feel better.  Once the maintenance crew gets here, it should take them about ten minutes to fix the problem, so I expect we’ll be in the air in thirty minutes.  If I think it’s going to be longer than that, I will let you know.” When he was done, people laughed and applauded.  They applauded a flight delay announcement.  That doesn’t happen very often.  So, what did the pilot do to earn everyone’s grace? He was sincere and genuinely apologized. He explained the root problem and the risks of not fixing the problem. He gave specific details as to the timeframe to fix the problem. He promised to keep his customers informed if there was a change in the plan or [...]

July 8th, 2022|

2022 Marketing trends (PART 2) with Drew McLellan

This week on Build a Better Agency, we’re jumping right back into our breakdown of 2022 Marketing Trends. Last time, we talked about noticeable trends in agency spending, shifting client expectations, and not missing out on opportunities for business development. This time, we’re taking things a bit closer to home by talking about trends we’re seeing in our own marketing tactics, in our employees, and in ourselves as agency owners. […]

June 20th, 2022|

We always have choices

I’ve been recording the video lessons for our new Foundations mini course (for agency owners in their first 5 years of existence) and I’m noticing there is a recurring theme woven into a lot of what I am teaching. Choice.  And for every choice, there is a consequence. I think we forget how fortunate we are to have as much control as we do over our own destiny.  We sometimes respond or act as though the world is whipping us around and we’re not able to get what we want, but often that is because of the choices we’ve made. We decide: If our agency is back at the office or still working virtually Who our agency serves The kinds of people we hire How much money we make (are you going to enforce change orders or be overstaffed, etc.) If we’re closed for the week between Christmas and New Year’s How robust our 401K program is If we have enough prospects in the pipeline (never forget — this is a choice) Can we as owners truly disconnect from the business while on vacation You get the idea.  We talk about many of the above items as though they’re being done to us.  I think it’s healthy to remember that we as agency owners actually control how things play out in our shops.  If you don’t like an outcome — odds are you need to do or decide something different. Now, choice does not come without its little sister — consequence.  Every choice we make yields a new consequence and sometimes more than one.  I am not suggesting this is simple or easy.  But I am reminded you (and me too!) that if there’s something [...]

June 17th, 2022|

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