Episode 485

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I wanted to wait until after the holidays to talk about this topic because it’s a bit heavier than what we usually talk about on the show. But it’s something that Danyel and I have noticed weighing heavily on a lot of you since COVID, and that is agency owner grief. 

It’s true that many of you have experienced quite a lot of loss and change these past few years  — with the way we work, how well our business is doing, AI, our overall productivity, and so much more. It’s a lot of change to handle, and for many of us, we haven’t taken the proper time to actually acknowledge our grief and begin to let it go. 

But without taking those first steps, that grief will continue to take hold of us and affect us in all aspects of our business — and even our personal lives. Many of you report being restless, unable to focus, depressed, uninspired, feeling heavy, and burnt out. And it’s all because we’re burning the candle at both ends without taking the time to acknowledge just how much change we’ve gone through in the past 5 years as agency owners. 

So I hope you’ll join me and take some time to take stock of everything that’s happened from 2020 to now — the good and the bad — and start to recognize just how much we’ve gone through so we can collectively learn to grieve and begin to let go of the bad to make more room for some good. 

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.

agency owner grief

What You Will Learn in This Episode:

  • Why agency owners are struggling mentally and emotionally more than ever
  • Understanding agency owner grief and what’s caused it to increase in the past 5 years
  • Addressing agency owner grief
  • The 5 stages of grief and how it manifests for agency owners
  • The trickle effect of grief on agencies
  • How we can begin to identify our grief 
  • Starting the healing process after we identify the source of our grief
  • Seeing post-COVID as an agency renaissance

“You were so busy managing the change that I don't think you stopped to recognize or deal with the grief. We grieve when we lose a person, nothing that says we won’t grieve when we experience change in other aspects of our lives.” - Drew McLellan Share on X
“We have not yet worked our way out of that grief because we haven't given ourselves permission to grieve. So we're stuck in this state, and we cannot get to the acceptance stage.” - Drew McLellan Share on X
“We didn't get to control the change. We didn't ask for it, we didn't want it, we just had to endure the consequences of it. And I think the weight of that is one of the things that you are feeling right now.” - Drew McLellan Share on X
“We were so focused on the struggle to get to the goal we didn't leave room for the emotions. We tamped down that grief. We have to recognize it's there, it's in our heart and our head. It's affecting us physically, emotionally.” - Drew McLellan Share on X
“You can thrive in today’s business environment, but you have to shed the grief we’re feeling over how our business had to change. Free up that headspace and get energy back in heart so you can pour it into where the agency is today.” - Drew McLellan Share on X

Ways to contact Drew:

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