Episodit
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Christian Banach (Principal and Chief Growth Officer at Christian Banach) helps agencies, B2B companies, small to large, across marketing disciplines, land 6- and 7-figure opportunities predictably through consulting, training, and outsourced lead generation services.
More than 20 years ago, Christian started his career by throwing small social events that grew into parties featuring superstars like Lady Gaga, T-Pain and Pitbull. As those grew, he started working with brands that were looking to sponsor events as part of their overall marketing strategy.
During the pandemic Christian started his current venture. He saw a lot of agencies struggling to keep the lights on, so starting his own consulting firm was the next logical move. Now they help over a dozen clients break into enterprise accounts and close 6-7 figure contracts.
What makes breaking into enterprise accounts so incredibly difficult is that everyone is trying to get their attention through the same means. Christian recommends that you really do some original research about their audience and book that first meeting by showing that you already know what improvements would drive real outcomes for their business.
Tune into the full episode to learn how to close enterprise contracts!
HIGHLIGHTS:
0:00 Intro
0:53 Generating millions for clients
2:06 How Christian grew his first business
5:04 Original research matters!
9:35 The Christian Banach Playbook
14:25 Embrace Warm Outbound Sales
Connect with Christian - https://www.linkedin.com/in/christianbanach/Connect with Mikael - www.linkedin.com/in/mikaeldia/
Check out Christian’s Newsletter - https://christianbanach.com/
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Jeff Meade (President of MEADE) is an expert in agency positioning. He managed to grow his agency beyond $20 million in revenue prior to moving into agency coaching.
An agency wasn’t the initial vision. At first, Jeff and his co-founders were trying to operate as a consultancy. They quickly learned that a team of 20-somethings simply don’t have the domain expertise to sell consulting services to a Gen Y audience, so they pivoted to an agency model instead.
After growing their agency to 8 figures, they wanted to go international. While they had good conversations with potential partners, they fumbled the offers due to inexperience. They took it as a learning experience and Jeff moved on to coach agencies on how to nail their positioning.
The real battle when trying to settle on your position in the market is really understanding who are the folks you can help and why should they believe in your ability to perform. When people come to Jeff, typically they have a loose position and aren’t at a stage where going all-in on lead generation makes sense. To identify your focus point, you need to stop looking at your previous clients as your north star and really figure out the right profile outside of your existing rolodex.
Tune into the full episode to learn how to differentiate your agency!
HIGHLIGHTS:
0:00 Intro
3:58 Getting to $20+ Million
7:31 The impact of packaging the right offer
10:47 How Jeff moved into coaching
13:03 How to think about positioning
21:24 Grow via thought leadershipConnect with Jeff - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffmeade/
Connect with Mikael - www.linkedin.com/in/mikaeldia/
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Andy Crestodina (Co-Founder and CMO at Orbit Media) is an expert at SEO, Analytics, AI, Content Strategy and Website Optimization. He’s gathered a huge following consisting of 100k+ LinkedIn followers and newsletter subscribers. He’s been publishing since 2007, and nowadays speaks on 100+ stages per year. These efforts have enabled his team to generate $8 Million in yearly revenue with no outbound motion and 0 ad spend.
To say that content marketing has evolved over the last 20 years would be an understatement. One tactic that has always worked and still works today is to publish on other, established platforms when you’re new and need to generate initial traction.
Video is all the rage right now, but unless you’re selling something super transactional with widespread appeal, you need a solid strategy to make it into a real revenue generator. As an agency, you should utilize the tactic of BOFU content to help build trust with those who have been burned by other service providers.
Tune into the full episode to learn more insights from a true content marketing master!
HIGHLIGHTS:
0:00 Intro
4:02 The evolution of content marketing
7:03 Is video worth the investment?
10:10 Invest in owned media
13:15 AI for content - hype or the real deal?
20:07 How good can AI really get?
22:44 Grow through variated contentConnect with Andy - https://www.linkedin.com/in/andycrestodina/
Connect with Mikael - www.linkedin.com/in/mikaeldia/ -
Galen Low (Co-Founder at The Digital Project Manager) helps agency owners completely transition out of project management work by leveling up their project managers and enabling them to be self-sufficient. Their training program has certified over 700 agency professionals to date, and helped alleviate 50-75% of project management costs for owners.
Their program's first goal is helping PM’s understand the full business picture of what they do and why it’s important. Second is getting rid of the notion that projects run smoothly all the time, and teaching them what to do when issues arise.
SEO is a touchy subject right now. The rise of AI and the rapidly changing Google algorithm has left this field in a state of disarray. SEO did magic for the growth of The Digital Project Manager and even the recent changes haven't affected their traffic. Galen attributes this to the fact that their SEO strategy was never about SEO - but simply about creating high value content that people actually want to read.
Tune into the full episode to learn how to transition out of operations?
HIGHLIGHTS:
0:00 Intro
2:35 Early course mistakes
8:51 Practitioner to teacher
12:17 Common operational problems
15:28 How to level up your PM’s
20:51 Winning SEO approach in 2024Connect with Galen - https://www.linkedin.com/in/galen-low-digital-transformation-advisor/
Connect with Mikael - www.linkedin.com/in/mikaeldia/
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Gray MacKenzie (Founder of ZenPilot) saves agencies from constantly hopping between project management tools such as Asana, Monday, ClickUp, Notion, Teamwork, Wrike, Basecamp, Trello etc. They’ve led over 3000 teams to tighten their operations through ClickUp.
Before becoming a full-time operations consultancy, Gray ran a separate business that offered a project management platform. When they were sunsetting, they took their existing clients and helped them transition to ClickUp, which is how they landed their initial wins. Their next step to grow to 3000+ clients was content creation around the different use cases that ClickUp offers.
Achieving operational excellence comes down to 3 pieces - tools, processes and habits. The toughest part of it all is habits, because unless your team knows they’re being held accountable for their side of the process, everything will quickly fall apart. Gray recommends daily spot checks, as well as scheduled, routine meetings to look at the data and figure out your weakest links.
Tune into the full episode to learn how to master ClickUp for your agency!
HIGHLIGHTS:
0:00 Intro
4:30 Growing to 3000 clients
5:32 From SaaS to Service
8:34 How to achieve operational success
12:01 Some founders HATE project management
16:38 Owners shouldn’t work on delivering
20:42 Content-led GrowthConnect with Gray - https://www.linkedin.com/in/graymackenzie/
Connect with Mikael - www.linkedin.com/in/mikaeldia/
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Karl Sakas (Agency Consultant & Executive Coach at Sakas & Company) helps agency owners work less and earn more, while rewarding their best team members. So far he’s worked with over 600 agencies across the globe.
It’s safe to say that working less and earning more is a very common goal. Karl adapted this messaging and even wrote a book - Work Less, Earn More - on this particular subject, as it has universal appeal beyond the agency space.
Not every agency owner wants an exit. Often we see agency owners wanting to scale to a place where the agency does its own work, instead of them working for the agency all the time. Karl believes that agency owners aren’t necessarily either building a lifestyle agency or an equity agency, and instead have shifting priorities that steer them towards one or the other. Both need help to work less and earn more, as an agency that’s fully dependent on the owner is a tough sell, and an agency that requires constant input doesn’t exactly warrant a great lifestyle.
Tune into the full episode to learn how to work less AND earn more!
HIGHLIGHTS:
0:00 Intro
2:48 Ex boss becomes first client
5:17 Work Less, Earn More
7:07 Lifestyle agency or equity agency?
10:55 Make yourself optional
16:08 Proactive prep for an exit
18:46 Clarity is key
21:42 Split the 2 brandsConnect with Mikael - https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikaeldia/
Connect with Karl - https://www.linkedin.com/in/karlsakas/
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Full Episode Here - https://youtu.be/85hOIwCkTN4
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Jordan Daniel Bell (Founder/CEO of Agency Bell) has managed $100+ Million in ad spend and currently helps companies get more customers with AI-powered advertising.
Jordan has been running agencies for 10+ years. During this time he came to the conclusion that the ads space desperately needs to make better targeting decisions and a way to gather and dissect that data. They found that the data sets were very scattered and it was truly difficult to make the right data-driven decisions. They started focusing on attribution data, which led them to build their own automations.
His favorite piece of tech was always Zapier, and he dedicated a significant amount of time mastering the platform and all the benefits it brings. The biggest value add from the get go was seamlessly getting information into CRM. This proved to be no easy task, as the statuses can vary heavily and CRM hygiene is difficult to maintain.
Tune into the full episode to learn how to automate your advertising flow!
HIGHLIGHTS:
0:00 Intro
4:20 Make better targeting decisions
8:21 The right ad tech stack
12:29 Data-driven ad campaigns
21:35 Spend more time talking to customersConnect with Mikael - https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikaeldia/
Connect with Jordan - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jordanbell/
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Robin Waite (Founder of CourseApp and Fearless Business) helps agency owners stop leaving money on the table, fix their pricing and start growing their businesses to it’s true potential.
When Robin was running his web design agency he noticed that there was a ton of friction in their overall process, with deals taking up to 3 months to finalize and ultimately closing without profit. Frustrated with the status quo, he came up with a 1 day branding workshop flow that quickly became a huge success. This made him realize that speed of delivery was the ultimate profit hack and got him 40 new, profitable clients.
The answer to your agency's profit problems is almost always productization. Productizing your service isn’t a new concept, but it’s one that many agencies struggle to implement. Robin has identified that the main issue is that agency owners often base their rates according to their own internal value system, which typically isn’t a reflection of your clients value system. When implementing productization, you absolutely need to have a clear understanding of the timeline in which you can deliver - and that number should be as low as possible.
Tune into the full episode to learn how to stop leaving money on the table!
HIGHLIGHTS:0:00 Intro
4:09 Speed of delivery matters
9:25 12x deal size opportunity
16:17 The key to pricing right
19:32 “it depends” does it really?
23:31 Grow through partnerships
Connect with Mikael - https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikaeldia/Connect with Robin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/robinmwaite/
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Marquis Murray (Founder & CEO of Cirface) specializes in elevating the operational efficiency of Marketing & eCommerce teams by streamlining their processes and maximizing technology utilization. He’s also an Asana partner and helps clients get the most out of their platform.
With his background in corporate operations, Marquis quickly realized that marketing agencies aren’t typically super efficient when it comes to systems. One of his freelance clients brought him in-house, where he learned that he can fully deliver for their clients. Naturally this led to Marquis starting his own agency. He knew that scrupulous documentation was his best chance at gaining a competitive advantage, so he started getting serious about organization and delegation.
When Marquis starts working with a new client, he uses a specific playbook to turn teams from silos into true operators. He calls it the 4 D Framework - Discovery, Design, Deployment and Documentation. This requires a lot of communication, experimentation and teamwork to figure out what makes sense and what needs to stop. Once the workflows look good and everybody agrees, then they document everything and provide ongoing support to make sure things are working.
Tune into the full episode to learn how to improve your agency's operations!
HIGHLIGHTS:
0:00 Intro
3:55 From freelancer to agency owner
8:41 Eliminate burnout = eliminate friction
11:53 the 4 D Framework
15:49 Deployment is key
20:39 Start a YouTube channelConnect with Mikael - https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikaeldia/
Connect with Marquis - https://www.linkedin.com/in/marquisamurray/
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Paul Boag (Founding Partner of Boagworks) is a CRO (Conversion Rate Optimization) expert whose goal is to help companies better understand the new generation of connected consumers. Over the last 30 years he’s worked with hundreds of clients, including huge names such as Puma and Shell.
Many of today's marketers had a social media account by the time they were in middle school. Paul started working in marketing back when the internet was a completely new concept. During those super early days he got obsessed with user experience and the concept of optimizing the way we serve our potential buyers.
What really attracted Paul to UX was the opportunity to decrease friction for users and ultimately lead to more sales. While the rest of the market was trying to be deceptive and entice FOMO, Paul was always focused on serving the user - which is a great way to stand out.
CRO and UX are essentially the same thing. Paul likes to challenge the traditional thinking of prioritizing the businesses goals over the users experience, as a great user experience will ultimately drive outcomes either way - and with a smiling buyer on the other end of the transaction.
Tune into the full episode to learn how to master UX & CRO!
HIGHLIGHTS:
0:00 Intro
2:53 Marketing before the internet
5:03 The beginnings of UX
7:55 Truly serving the user
11:01 CRO vs UX
20:29 Decrease their cognitive loadConnect with Mikael - https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikaeldia/
Connect with Paul - https://www.linkedin.com/in/paulboag/
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Shaun Clark (Co-Founder of HighLevel [GoHighLevel]) has helped countless agencies grow their revenue through white-label software and service solutions.
Agencies can get hesitant when thinking of implementing new technology for their clients, as with the software evolving they can take over the clients needs fully and make the agency redundant. Shaun heard the market when they encountered this issue, which is why he became heavily invested in white-labeling.
The platform that Shaun and his team built really took off as more agencies saw the value behind a mediator between them and software platforms. Their go-to-market motion was kind of an afterthought at first, as they realized that hiring the level of creativity it takes to stand out through an internal marketing effort would be extremely difficult. Word-of-mouth and affiliates have ultimately carried their marketing effort to this day.
Tune into the full episode to learn the journey of GoHighLevel!
HIGHLIGHTS:
0:00 Intro
4:23 SaaS stealing agency clients?
6:30 How HighLevel took off
9:00 Word-of-mouth and affiliate mastery
11:16 The new CRM world
14:39 GoHighLevel exits
17:10 Grow through one-to-manyConnect with Mikael - https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikaeldia/
Connect with Shaun - https://www.gohighlevel.com/main-page
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Melanie Chandruang (Founder of WeConsult) is a financial nerd, an operations whiz, and an expert integrator all rolled into one charming, no-nonsense package. She makes agencies more profitable, sellable, and run like well oiled machines by optimizing their operations.
For the last 6 years, Melanie has been serving agencies with operations consulting or fractional ops work, helping them scale all the way to exits. Agency owners typically come to Melanie with very specific needs, revolving around their inability to consistently service clients due to the fact that the owner is too involved in the day to day delivery.
Melanie’s agency journey started when she founded a devshop, which is where she discovered that her true passion lies in operations. Soon enough she learned that her role was very complimentary to the creative work that was being done by her team members. It took a few years for her to fully understand exactly how valuable her skills are in the agency world, and after seeing multiple managers fail to truly advocate for their teams and add real value she created her own unique approach that really bridged the gaps she experienced first hand.
Tune into the full episode to learn more on how to handle operational problems!
HIGHLIGHTS:
0:00 Intro
1:07 Scale operations to exit
4:47 The real problem with agency operations
6:57 How Melanie found operations
9:57 Owners struggle most
12:02 What type of agencies Melanie works with
14:05 The Million Dollar Problem
17:57 Look beyond the numbers
Connect with Mikael - https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikaeldia/
Connect with Melanie - https://www.linkedin.com/in/melaniechandruang/ -
Troy Dean (Founder of Agency Mavericks) helps agency owners expand, get more time, and sometimes even leave their businesses successfully. The work they do generates between $50 - $100 Million per year for their clients. He’s also one of the founding members of Funnelytics.
Agency owners are often the most busy and stressed out entrepreneurs you’ll find, although it doesn’t have to be that way. Troy has identified that a lack of structure, processes and confidence is what leads to agency owners feeling stuck and unhappy, and all of that can be built out to help owners reclaim their time and energy.
Troy realized that agencies have a huge structural problem back when he was growing his own. When he started delegating work to his VA, he noticed that without proper documentation it was almost impossible to have them work autonomously. He started by creating videos, which would then be turned into workflow documents - and it worked great. Troy then started sharing these workflows with the Wordpress community, which is how he started gaining traction with his next ideal client profile.
Tune into the full episode to learn more on how to master documentation and reclaim your time!
HIGHLIGHTS:
0:00 Intro
2:35 $50 - $100 Million/Year
5:00 How Agency Mavericks began
7:22 Scale with confidence
10:44 The real reason most agencies fail
14:08 Preventing distractions is key
16:42 You don’t need more leads
20:28 The paid discovery method
24:27 How much should you charge?Connect with Mikael - https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikaeldia/
Connect with Troy - https://www.linkedin.com/in/troydean/
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Anthony Gindin (Founder & CEO of Agency Different™) helps agency principals with strategic planning, business model design, brand positioning, service productization, client acquisition, and enhancing profitability through growth.
Anthony started his first agency at the age of 17 and sold it within 5 years. Then at 24, he sold his second agency that had scaled up to 45+ employees. In total, he’s founded 6 companies, sold 4 and taken 2 public on the Canadian Stock Exchange.
The key to success for an agency lies in differentiation. Every agency is unique, but they often look the same from outside because they follow the market instead of focusing on building a unique brand with a high perceived value. Anthony suggests you improve your perceived value through market specificity, a deep understanding of the results you bring and unique methods for delivering those results.
Tune into the full episode to learn more on how to increase your agency's win rate!
HIGHLIGHTS:
0:00 Intro
0:53 Founding 6 companies
3:35 The Agency Secret
5:56 Differentiation is key
7:55 Increasing your perceived value
10:41 The move to client side
14:27 The move back to agency lifeConnect with Mikael - https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikaeldia/
Connect with Anthony - https://www.linkedin.com/in/anthonygindin/
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