At this moment, there’s a lot of pause, and there’s a lot of fear that has caused everybody to freeze. What we’re hearing from agencies all across the world, but particularly here in the United States, is that the pipeline has just dried up, that clients and prospects don’t want to talk about more budget or a new budget.
They’re frozen in place as they wait for things to settle down, for the tariff talks to change, for some certainty to come into this great uncertainty. We’re also seeing that same behavior showing up in agencies and agency owners that you, too, have paused. You’re not initiating big new programs. You are not creating new things for prospects, clients, and team members.
I want to challenge you in this: right now, while the world is watching and waiting, we don’t have to watch and wait. We have all this control over our own business. We can’t control what the economy is doing, our worldview, or what’s happening politically, but we can control how we show up in our own businesses.
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Hey, everybody. Drew McLellan here from Agency Management Institute this week coming to you from beautiful Pacific Beach in San Diego. You know, in this moment, there's a lot of pause, there's a lot of fear that has caused everybody to freeze. What we're hearing from agencies all across the world, but particularly here in the United States, is that the pipeline has just dried up, that clients and prospects don't want to talk about more budget, new budget. They're sort of frozen in place as they wait for things to settle down, for the tariff talks to change, for some certainty to come into this moment of great uncertainty. We're also seeing that same behavior showing up in agencies and agency owners that you too have paused. You're not initiating big new programs. You are not creating new things for prospects, for clients, for team members.
I really want to challenge you that in this – right now, while the world is watching and waiting, we don't have to watch and wait. We have all this control over our own business. We can't control what the economy is doing. We can't control the world view. We can't control what's happening politically. But what we can control is how we show up in our own businesses. And this is the time for us to demonstrate our entrepreneurial spirit. This is the time for us to do something bold. To do something that feels audacious. So whether it's a new employee program, whether it's a new business effort, whether it's a new content strategy, whether it's doubling down on your niche, I want to challenge you to look at your business and say, I'm going to do something big. Yes, mitigate risk. Be smart about what you choose. But if I was going to do something big, if I was going to take a big, bold chance, what would that be?
And is now the perfect time, while the rest of the world is kind of quiet and I can get even more attention and I can get even more credit for doing something big and bold, is this the time for me to step out and do something that maybe takes me outside of my comfort zone, that stretches us a little bit, but also creates a new opportunity for us? So in this moment, I am – I'm asking you, I'm challenging you to go big, go bold and do something that makes you feel alive, gets you excited, gives you some energy, gives your team some energy. I think there's a lot of malaise in the world, and one of the ways we can fix that is by going out and doing something that says, I am in charge of my own business, I am in charge of my own destiny, and I'm going to do something that is beneficial, and I'm going to do something that is big, and I'm going to do something that changes the trajectory of my business. I want you to think about that. And more importantly, I want you to take the risk and do it.
