We’re in Las Vegas with our two oldest kids. We decided to play a game. Everybody got $20, and we had 30 minutes. The goal was to see who had the most money at the end of 30 minutes, so you could keep your $20.
You could play on a single bet or color at roulette. You could play one penny slots, whatever you want to do. But you had to cash out at the end of the 30 minutes.
And then we are going to compare.
It was interesting. Two of the kids crapped out and had nothing. I think Danyel had about $10 left. But I was playing dollar slots, and about 20 minutes into the 30 minutes, I hit. I hadn’t won anything, and then I hit, and I won $130.
So then the decision is, I have another ten minutes. Do I try and turn that $130 into something more, or do I cash out and call it a day? So I opted to cash out. The stakes were low. There was no big prize or contest, but it got me thinking about how we think about cashing out, how we think about ending something when we think it’s gone as far as it has.
And my experience is that most of you cash out too soon, that you decide to start something. And I find this ironic, because this is the conversation you have with your clients all the time. Like you have to let things simmer. You have to let them work. It’s like planting a bulb and then digging it up the next day because it hasn’t broken ground.
But I find many agency owners don’t have the patience and the discipline to let things ride for as long as they should. And so what I’m going to tell you is if you start a new initiative, unless it’s incredibly expensive, you have to give yourself at least a year for that initiative to take root and to grow and to kind of break the ground and for you to see the fruit of that labor.
So as you’re thinking about the rest of 2025, especially as you’re probably cutting some budget and you’re looking for things to sort of trim down, if you’re struggling with some of the economic conditions that many agencies are today, I just want to remind you that if you believe in it enough to start it, you need to believe in it enough to let it ride for at least a year.
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Hey, everybody. Drew McLellan here from Agency Management Institute this week coming to you from Las Vegas. So we're here with our two oldest kids. We decided to play a game. Everybody got $20 and we had 30 minutes. And the goal was to see who had the most money at the end of 30 minutes. So you could just keep your $20. You could play on a single bet or color at roulette. You could play one penny slots, whatever you want to do. But at the end of the 30 minutes you had to cash out. And then we are going to compare. It was interesting. So, two of the kids crapped out and had nothing. I think Danyel had like $10 left. But I was playing dollar slots, and about 20 minutes into the 30 minutes I hit. I hadn't won anything and then I hit and I won $130. So then the decision is I have another ten minutes. Do I try and turn that $130 into something more, or do I cash out and call it a day? So I opted to cash out. The stakes were low. There was no big prize or contest, but it got me thinking about how we think about cashing out, how we think about ending something when we think it's gone as far as it has.
And my experience is that most of you cash out too soon, that you decide to start something. And I find this ironic, because this is the conversation you have with your clients all the time. Like you have to let things simmer. You have to let them work. It's like planting a bulb and then digging it up the next day because it hasn't broken ground. But I find many agency owners don't have the patience and the discipline to let things ride for as long as they should. And so what I'm going to tell you is if you start a new initiative, unless it's incredibly expensive, you have to give yourself at least a year for that initiative to take root and to grow and to kind of break the ground and for you to see the fruit of that labor. So as you're thinking about the rest of 2025, especially as you're probably cutting some budget and you're looking for things to sort of trim down, if you're struggling with some of the economic conditions that many agencies are today, I just want to remind you that if you believe in it enough to start it, you need to believe in it enough to let it ride for at least a year.
