Celebrating the joy that comes with agency ownership with Drew McLellan

Hey, everybody. Drew here. You know, we are always looking for more ways to be helpful and meet you wherever you’re at to help you grow your agency. It’s one of the reasons why we’ve produced this podcast for so long, and I’m super grateful that you listen as often as you do. However, there are some topics that are better suited for quick, hyper-focused answers in under 10 minutes. That’s where our YouTube channel really comes in. For quick doses of inspiration, best practices, tips and tricks, head over to youtube.com/the at sign Agency Management institute. Again, that’s youtube.com/the at sign or symbol.

And then Agency Management Institute, all one word. Subscribe and search the existing video database for all sorts of actionable topics that you can implement in your shop today. Alright, let’s get to the show.

It doesn’t matter what kind of agency you run, traditional digital media buying, web dev, PRR brand, whatever your focus, you still need to run a profitable business. The Build A Better Agency Podcast presented by a White Label IQ, will expose you to the best practices that drive growth, client and employee retention and profitability, bringing his 25 plus years of experience as both an agency owner and agency consultant, please welcome your host, Drew McLellan.

Hey everybody. Drew McLellan here from Agency Management Institute with a, what I believe will be a brief holiday bonus solo cast. So I just did a solo cast, but this will air live the week of December 23rd. So that’s the week of Christmas and Hanukkah. And so I suspect many of you will not be spending a ton of time listening to podcasts, but I didn’t want to not have a new episode this week. And as I was thinking about some messaging, you know, I, I think a lot of you are struggling right now, honestly, and I have some theories and thoughts about why that is and some potential cures for that struggle, but that does not feel like a holiday message.

And so I’m gonna save that for my January solo cast. So watch for that. But I wanted to look a little bit at the flip side of that, which is, you know, I think it’s so easy when we are, you know, most agency owners and leaders, we are type A, we are push, push, push. We wanna be better no matter how good we are, there’s always room for improvement. There’s always better margin, better profits, better performance, better client retention, better employee satisfaction survey scores. There’s always something we’re striving for. And you know what, I’m wired that way too. I get it. And I don’t think there’s anything wrong with it.

I think it’s one of, one of the reasons why we are so successful is because we are always driven to be a little better than we were the day before. But I also think that comes with a consequence. And the consequence is that when we are constantly pushing for improvement for one notch, higher, taller, better, stronger, whatever it may be, I think it’s really easy to focus on what’s not working, what’s not quite right, what could be better. And certainly pre C-I-C-O-V-I-D years post CO, when you think about what we’ve gone through and all the changes that we are facing, it’s understandable that we are a little uncertain and it’s understandable that we want it to be better, stronger, more stable, that we are hungry for maybe some of the things that we used to have in the agency that we don’t have anymore.

And nonetheless, even even if your agency is doing well, odds are you are wired to want to do better again, more power to you. I think that is absolutely one of the things that makes you successful. But I think it also makes us a little bit askew in our perception and our perspective. And so I wanna take a minute or two this holiday week for many of us and remind ourselves that no matter how much better it could be, that even when it’s not great, even when it’s bad, even for many of you, when you didn’t get a new, a new client in all of 20, 23, even in all of those sort of hardships, it’s still a pretty good gig.

And I think we lose sight of that. I think we lose sight of the fact that at the end of the day, there’s a lot of joy in our work. There’s a lot of joy in our professional life in owning the business or helping run the business that we are in such a hurry to chase after a little better, that we rarely pause and catch our breath to just soak in the joy of that moment. So for those of you that were at the summit in 2023, which as you know, was the year that I was not there because I was in the hospital with a kidney stone for the entire event, but I did record my keynote.

And the point of my keynote that year, which I still think is absolutely applicable to us today, is we have to pause and see and feel and savor the joy that our professional life brings us. It’s so easy when you are a type A overachiever to not recognize that even in its imperfections, it is good and it is generous to us in our life. Most of us are able to control our work schedule. You know, when I was an agency owner back in the day when Kelsey was a little girl, I was a single dad and I stopped working at three 30 every day.

And I picked her up after school before she could drive. And I met her at home when she could drive. But I was present after school every day. I couldn’t have done that if I worked at a corporate job. No one was gonna say to me, you know what drew, from the time your kid’s 18 months old, which is when I got divorced and had primary care custody of my daughter, you know what, yes, you can take off at three 30 and then you can work your second shift after she goes to bed at night. Would’ve never happened. For many of us, we can weave our work schedule around our life. So as we are facing temporary issues of health or crisis in our family or great things like the kids dance recital or something like that, we can always be there If we are facing something bigger or longer like I was, I needed my schedule to flex around the fact that I was a parent and needed to be able to pick up, drop my daughter off at school every day and pick her up after school every day.

And I was able to do that. We have a lot of control over our schedule and how we work even more so today with working at home, being so prevalent. But even back in the day when I was starting my agency, I still had a lot of control over how I worked when I worked and where I worked. Huge privilege for us, even for most of us in the worst year of our agency, we make a decent living by the time you add up our W2 income dividends. And in even though years that we didn’t get a dollar in dividends, dividends, our 401k or our simple IRA contributions that pass throughs, we’re able to run through the business.

Most of us make a pretty good living even in the rough years, and we make an amazing living in the good years. So there’s that. We also have to remember the work. We get to do something interesting and creative and challenging for people that we care about, that we like. One of the privileges of owning the business or being a leader in the business is you don’t have to work for people that you don’t respect, that you don’t like, that don’t respect you. Again, that is a privilege that very few people have on this planet. Most people they work with, whoever their boss tells them to work with, and they work for whoever their job tells them to work for.

We don’t have either of those. We also get to surround ourselves with agency people. And I gotta tell you, I honestly believe agency people are some of the best human beings on the planet. They’re smart, they’re funny, they are creative, they are charismatic, they are interesting people. They come from a varied array of backgrounds. They’re fascinating people and they live fascinating lives. And we get to surround ourselves by that creativity, by that energy. Again, not something everybody gets to do.

Hey, everybody, just wanna remind you before we get back to the show, that we have a very engaged Facebook group. It’s a private group just for podcast listeners and agency owners that are in the A AMI community. And to find it, if you’re not a member, head over to facebook.com/groups/ba a podcast. So again, facebook.com/groups/bab podcast. All you have to do is answer a few questions to make sure that you are an actual agency owner or leader, and we will let you right in and you can join over 1700 other agency owners and leaders. And I’m telling you, there’s probably 10 or 15 conversations that are started every day that are gonna be of value to you.

So come join us. We also get to do work that we love. Now, as an agency owner, let’s be honest, odds are you don’t love every part about your job. And even if you’re an agency leader, there are probably parts of your job that you do not love. But for most of us, the vast majority of our day is spent doing things that fill our bucket, that make us happy, that, that are expansive for us, not something that everybody can say if they have a corporate job, for sure. So at the end of the day, as we go into the holidays, and as you’re planning for 2025, and as you are gearing up, putting together your business plan of what you’re gonna do to make the business stronger, better, more stable, more scalable, all the things, which again, I underline, I applaud you, we encourage it.

Heck, we teach it. But as you, as you focus on all of that, just take a little bit of time and think about what your life would be like if you were a bank teller or you were VP of marketing in a large corporation where you didn’t have much control or say, or that you were doing some manual labor job in either the bitter cold of winter or the super hot of summer. My point is this, can it be better always?

Absolutely. But do we have it pretty good? We do. And so I want you to think about, and in fact, I might encourage you to sit down and just journal, what are the things about owning the agency or working at the agency that give you joy? And it might be something about the work itself. It might be a privilege that you get because of where you work or because you own the joint. But think about where there are moments and sources of joy that come to you because of the work you do and the agency that you do it for, whether it’s yours or not.

Just slow down, stop pushing to be better, and just pause and recognize that even if it doesn’t get any better than it is today, most people would kill to swap jobs with us. Most people would be elated to make what we make. Most people would love to be surrounded by the creative people we’re surrounded by, and to serve clients who actually appreciate them the way many of our clients appreciate us. We are blessed, we are fortunate, and there is so much joy in our work.

If we slow down and we pause and we see it, and we feel it and we celebrate it, I just want you to go into the new year and think about not only what’s possible, but what you’ve already achieved, what you’ve already given yourself professionally, what you’ve already given yourself personally, the gifts that your job give to your family. And how, again, regardless of if you own it or you’re just helping run it, the fact that you are creating a place where working, there is a gift to the people who work there too.

We have more impact than we give ourselves credit for. We are creating more of a legacy than we pause to recognize. And there’s a lot more joy in our work than we give ourselves or the work credit for. So that’s it. I’m just asking you to slow down, count your blessings, recognize that no matter how tough it is. Some days, and I know it can be really tough, but no matter how tough it is, some days it’s a pretty good gig and we are very lucky to be in the position that we’re in. So let’s give some thanks.

And in my next solo cast, we’ll talk about some of the things that I think are impacting your energy level, your focus, your enthusiasm for the work and what I think you can do about it. All right? But for now, just be grateful. Just be grateful and pause and think about the joy. For me, this podcast is a moment of joy, whether I’m just talking to you and I feel like I know a lot of us have never met in person before, but I feel like I know you and I hope you feel like you know me. And so to be able to sit with friends and have these kind of conversations, really a privilege for me.

It is joyful for me. And when I get to have a guest on the show and I get to ask them questions and I get to learn and get smarter on your behalf and on my behalf, I love that I get to do that every week. That’s a privilege, that’s joy. And are there some mornings I don’t wanna get up and do it? Absolutely. Are there times when I’m like, you know what, I, I have talked to everybody on the planet. I maybe I, maybe I should roll this thing up. Absolutely. But those are fleeting because then I stop and I think about how many of you I have gotten to meet because of the podcast.

How many of you have reached out to say that there was something in one podcast episode that was valuable to you? That’s privilege, that’s joy, that’s a blessing. And so I am gonna soak in that this week I am going to pause and be grateful for the people that we get to help Every day. I am going to think about the joy of seeing clients and knowing that we’re gonna have a hug and we’re gonna talk and we’re gonna share stories. And you know, who knows after work we might share a drink or a meal. How awesome is that? We have a lot of joy that comes to us from our work.

Pause. Recognize it, celebrate it, be grateful for it. That’s it. That’s what I have for you this time. So whatever holiday you may be celebrating this week or this month, I wish you a really joyful time with people that you care about, whether it’s your family or it’s a family you’ve built out of friends. Whether you are doing something adventurous like traveling, or you’re just staying home around a fire. I was just talking to an agency owner in Australia and he’s going fishing. ’cause of course it’s Summer Santa in Australia. So however you are celebrating the end of the year and the start of 2025, I hope it is filled with joy.

You, you deserve it. You’ve given it to yourself. So, so in it, savor it. All right? Okay, I’ll talk to you next year. Huge shout out and thank you. Of course, as always, to our friends at White Label IQ, love those people. They serve many, many A MI agencies. They do white label design dev and PPC for agencies of all sizes all over the world. And so what they do is they’ll come alongside you. If you just need an extra set of hands or if you don’t wanna have that service in-house at all, they’re happy to be your outsourced partner. Head over to White Label IQ dot com slash AAMI to learn more about them and please, when you talk to them, thank them for sponsoring the podcast.

Thank them for sponsoring the summit. They make a lot of what a MI does possible for you. So thank them. Give them some joy. Let them know that what they’re doing matters. Okay? Alright, I’ll talk to you soon.

Come back next week for another episode. Designed to help you build a stronger, more stable and sustainable agency. Check out our workshops, coaching and consulting packages, and other professional development [email protected].