Agency Advantage - Actionable advice to help digital agency owners, consultants, and freelancers be more successful

Background Today, on Hubstaff’s Agency Advantage Podcast, you get me, Andy Baldacci. This is the final episode of the podcast, so I wanted to do things a bit differently. In the 77 interviews I’ve done for this show, I’ve learned so much about agencies from some amazing guests and over the next hour, I’m going... The post Andy Baldacci on 6 Steps to Building the Agency of Your Dreams appeared first on Hubstaff Blog.

Background Andrew and his partners started White Shark Media in 2011. Six years later, when Andrew decided to leave the agency behind and launch SavvyRevenue, the company had 1,500 clients, 220 employees, and over $10,000,000 in annual revenue. He learned a lot in those six years, but even after building a successful agency, he is... The post Andrew Lolk on Leaving An 8-Figure Agency To Start Again From Scratch appeared first on Hubstaff Blog.

Background Today, on Hubstaff’s Agency Advantage Podcast, I’m talking with Jason Swenk who shares how to use systems to grow your agency. Jason built his first agency, Solar Velocity, into a $13 million/year business before selling it, and now he shares his expertise with other agency owners. Having a system-oriented mindset is one of the... The post Jason Swenk on Using Systems to Grow Your Agency appeared first on Hubstaff Blog.

Background On today’s episode of Hubstaff’s Agency Advantage Podcast, I’m doing round two with Brent Weaver of uGurus, who walks us through the exact sales process he teaches agencies to help them close 5- and 6-figure deals. We’ve spent a lot of time on this show talking about methods for generating more leads through strong... The post Brent Weaver on Closing 5- and 6-Figure Deals appeared first on Hubstaff Blog.

In today’s episode of Hubstaff’s Agency Advantage Podcast, I’m talking with Dan Englander of Sales Schema, who shares how to grow your agency with cold email. Cold email is a subject that has been getting more and more attention over the last few years, especially in the startup world. In fact, you probably get more... The post Dan Englander on How to Grow Your Agency With Cold Email appeared first on Hubstaff Blog.

Background Today, I’m talking with Andrew Dymski of DoInbound, who shares how to build an agency sales system. Andrew’s company provides the software, processes, and training to build the agency you love. He also ran an agency himself and hosts the Inbound Agency Journey podcast, which is about to hit 100 episodes, so you could... The post Andrew Dymski on How to Build Your Agency Sales System appeared first on Hubstaff Blog.

Background Today, on Hubstaff’s Agency Advantage Podcast, I’m talking with Siimon Sander, founder of Oscar Hamilton, a productized service agency that helps clients produce and edit their podcasts. Siimon built this agency on the back of his popular podcast, Entrepreneur Decoded, and today we talk about how other agencies could benefit from the same process.... The post Siimon Sander on Using a Podcast to Build an Agency appeared first on Hubstaff Blog.

Background Today, on Hubstaff’s Agency Advantage Podcast, I’m talking with Chantell Glenville, author of the book What Clients Really Want (And the S**t That Drives Them Crazy). Chantell has worked at some of the world’s top agencies and also managed agencies in her role at Vodafone. It wasn’t until she made this switch to the... The post Chantell Glenville on What Clients Really Want appeared first on Hubstaff Blog.

Background Today, on Hubstaff’s Agency Advantage Podcast, I’m talking with Pia Silva of Worstofall Design. We’re talking about how to “Badass Your Brand“—which is also the title of her new book. Pia and her partner work one to two weeks a month, bring home around $250,000 a year, don’t have to spend all of their remaining... The post Pia Silva on How to Badass Your Brand appeared first on Hubstaff Blog.

Background Today, on Hubstaff’s Agency Advantage Podcast, I’m talking with Simon Thompson of Content Kite who shares how to build a content marketing machine for your agency. Simon’s spent years working for agencies and big corporations, creating content strategies for major brands like Disney and BMW. He saw the power of content, but realized so... The post Simon Thompson on Building a Content Marketing Machine appeared first on Hubstaff Blog.

Background Today, on Hubstaff’s Agency Advantage Podcast, I’m talking with Jason Blumer of Blumer and Associates, who shares how you can leverage your agency’s most valuable resource, your time. Jason is a CPA who provides his clients, agency owners, with bookkeeping services, but that doesn’t begin to cover all of the ways Jason and his... The post Jason Blumer on Leveraging Your Agency’s Most Valuable Resource appeared first on Hubstaff Blog.

Background Today, on Hubstaff’s Agency Advantage Podcast, I’m talking with Greg Verdino of VERDINO & CO, the consultancy he started with his wife to help clients get the attention, engagement, and outcomes they need by giving their audiences content they’ll crave. Today he shares how content marketing is evolving and how your agency can stay... The post Greg Verdino on Why Content Marketing Needs To Be More Than Blogging appeared first on Hubstaff Blog.

Background Today, on Hubstaff’s Agency Advantage Podcast, I’m talking with Justin McGill of LeadFuze who shares why he left behind a $360,000 a year service business to go all-in on a product. Justin launched his first agency back in 2008 and built it into a 7-figure agency. Along the way he had his first idea... The post Justin McGill on Leaving Services Behind And Going All-In On Products appeared first on Hubstaff Blog.

Background Today, on Hubstaff’s Agency Advantage Podcast, I’m talking with Michael Gass of Fueling New Business who shares how to use content marketing to get more leads in just 30 days. Since 2007, Michael has pioneered the use of social media, content, and inbound marketing strategies to help agencies win new business, and he has... The post Michael Gass on Fueling New Business With Content Marketing appeared first on Hubstaff Blog.

Background Josh Steimle’s agency, MWI, was slowly killing him– he had no life, was in massive debt, and wasn’t making any money. He went four years without collecting a paycheck, all while putting in 80-100 hour weeks. Today, he shares how he was able to turn things around and build a profitable, growing agency by... The post Josh Steimle on 10X-ing in a year by finding the right partners appeared first on Hubstaff Blog.

Background Today, on Hubstaff’s Agency Advantage Podcast, I’ve got Johnathan Dane of KlientBoost back for a fun and informative chat. I last had Johnathan on this podcast back in May of 2016, where he shared the story of how he and his team grew KlientBoost to over $100k/mo in recurring billing in the first year,... The post Johnathan Dane on building a $3.6mm/yr (and growing) agency in two years appeared first on Hubstaff Blog.

Background Today, on Hubstaff’s Agency Advantage Podcast, I’m talking with Blair Enns of Win Without Pitching who shares his 5 Rules for Selling Digital Services. Blair is a 25-year veteran of the business side of the creative professions and has over 30,000 hours invested in the question, “How do creative firms win new business without... The post Blair Enns Shares 5 Rules for Digital Agency Growth appeared first on Hubstaff Blog.

Background Today, on Hubstaff’s Agency Advantage Podcast, I’m talking with Derek Hart (Twitter) of Get the Gigs who shares how to grow your agency by niching down. Derek shares how he took his struggling web design business to new heights by narrowing his focus. Instead of building sites for anybody and everybody, today he specializes... The post Derek Hart on Building Up an Agency by Niching Down appeared first on Hubstaff Blog.

Background In this episode, I’m talking with Jake Jorgovan of Outbound Creative. I had Jake on the podcast almost a year ago. At that time he was focused primarily on using “eye catching outreach” like messages in a bottle or hollowed-out books to help his clients close deals. He was also ramping up his team.... The post Building the Agency Business of Your Dreams with Jake Jorgovan appeared first on Hubstaff Blog.

Background In this episode of Agency Advantage, Karl Sakas of Sakas and Company talks about how you can improve your management expertise as a leader inside an agency. At Sakas and Company, Karl helps agencies grow without the usual pains. By working with hundreds of agencies, he has learned that you don’t need to be a... The post Podcast: Better Agency Leadership with Karl Sakas appeared first on Hubstaff Blog.

Background In this episode I’m talking with Alex Berman of experiment27, an agency marketing company that helps agency owners get more high-value leads. In this episode he shares the strategies he uses to get his clients new business. Alex is the former director of marketing at the 60-person design and development studio, Dom & Tom. In... The post Agency Growth: 8 Strategies Alex Berman Used to Grow His Business to $2.5M in ‘Closed Sales’ appeared first on Hubstaff Blog.

Background In this episode I’m talking with Gene Hammett of Leaders in the Trenches, a consultancy that helps entrepreneurs and team leaders achieve their goals. During our discussion he shared with me how agency owners can use speaking gigs to reliably generate new business. Gene was referred to me by our mutual friend, Matt Inglot, and I’m... The post Using Speaking Gigs to Land High-Paying Clients with Gene Hammett appeared first on Hubstaff Blog.

In this episode of Hubstaff’s Agency Advantage Podcast, I’m talking with Samuel Thimothy of OneIMS who shares how his agency launched a successful product business. Samuel and his brother Solomon founded the marketing agency back in 2006. Since then they have grown tremendously while generating remarkable returns for their clients. Their company has taken some... The post Agency Advantage 56: Samuel Thimothy on Launching a Product by Scratching Your Own Itch appeared first on Hubstaff Blog.

In this episode of Hubstaff’s Agency Advantage Podcast, I’m talking with Mark Sneider of RSW/US who shares a proven methodology for winning agencies new business. Mark is a 30-year veteran of the advertising and marketing service industry. Today he runs the 40-person agency, RSW/US, where he and his team help marketing service firms find and... The post Agency Advantage 55: Mark Sneider on 5 Steps to Grow Beyond Word of Mouth appeared first on Hubstaff Blog.

In this episode of Hubstaff’s Agency Advantage Podcast, I’m talking with Peter Levitan (Twitter) about how to develop skills a client can’t ignore. Peter has owned his own two-office agency, bought and sold three agencies, worked for the largest agency in the world in New York and London, wrote the book Buy This Book. Win... The post Agency Advantage 54: Peter Levitan on Developing Skills a Client Can’t Ignore appeared first on Hubstaff Blog.

In this episode of Hubstaff’s Agency Advantage Podcast, I’m speaking with Mark Thompson of Digital Kickstart. Like many of us, Mark wasn’t cut out for having a boss, so after getting fired from his last job he started the SEO agency Search Creatively. While he was able to build it up into a successful agency, he... The post Mark Thompson on Becoming A Software Entrepreneur, Building a Product Empire & Leaving Client Work Behind appeared first on Hubstaff Blog.

For this 1-year anniversary episode of Hubstaff’s Agency Advantage Podcast, I’m talking with none other than Marcus Sheridan of the Sales Lion. Today Marcus is one of the biggest names in the inbound and content marketing world, but in 2008 he was the owner of a swimming pool company that was on the brink of... The post Agency Advantage 52: Marcus Sheridan on The #1 Reason Agencies Fail With Clients appeared first on Hubstaff Blog.

In this episode of Hubstaff’s Agency Advantage Podcast, I’m talking with Keith Perhac (Twitter) of DelfiNet. DelfiNet is a technical marketing agency that at its peak had a team of 14 spread around the world, servicing clients in Japan and the US. But his life was a constant battle of managing client expectations, managing his... The post Agency Advantage 51: Keith Perhac on How to Avoid Horrible Hiring Mistakes appeared first on Hubstaff Blog.

In this episode of Hubstaff’s Agency Advantage Podcast, I’m talking with Rich Brooks of the web design and internet marketing agency flyte new media. In addition to running his agency, Rich runs the annual Agents of Change conference in the great state of Maine, and also hosts the Agents of Change podcast. Today we talk about... The post Agency Advantage 50: Rich Brooks On Growing Your Agency By Building A Brand appeared first on Hubstaff Blog.

In this episode of Hubstaff’s Agency Advantage Podcast, I’m talking with Brian Casel (Twitter) of Audience Ops. Audience Ops helps businesses grow their audience, email list, and customer-base with done-for-you content marketing. From creating lead magnets to email marketing automation, to writing the blogs themselves, they do it all. Brian was on the 3rd episode... The post Agency Advantage 49: Brian Casel on How to Profitably Launch a Product as an Agency appeared first on Hubstaff Blog.

In this episode of Hubstaff’s Agency Advantage Podcast, we talk with Dan Golden (Twitter), founder and President of the 45+ person digital marketing agency, Be Found Online. Be Found Online was recently awarded a spot on the Inc 500 list of the fastest growing private companies in America, and if that alone isn’t impressive enough,... The post Agency Advantage 48: Dan Golden on Building a High-Performing Team with Open-Book Management appeared first on Hubstaff Blog.

Casey Cobb [Twitter] is the founder of the 25-person design and development shop, Project Ricochet, but he is also an inventor, angel investor, writer, speaker, and has co-founded 2 other companies. In this interview, Casey shares with us a concept that describes why working with a team can be so miserable sometimes. That concept is... The post Agency Advantage 47: Casey Cobb on How to Avoid Accidental Evil appeared first on Hubstaff Blog.

The dream of many agency owners is to one day be able to sell their agency and, frankly, get a nice payday after putting in years of hard work. A few agency owners are able to pull it off, but for most, it doesn’t pan out, for one reason or another. Henry Corona (LinkedIn) of... The post Agency Advantage 46: Henry Corona on What You Need to Know Before Selling Your Agency appeared first on Hubstaff Blog.

Responding to RFPs can suck the life out of any agency. You’re the expert, but the potential client is telling you what needs to be done and for how much, before you’ve even had a chance to really understand the scope. And because you aren’t getting paid for this work, you have to try to... The post Agency Advantage 45: Sara Bacon on How to Fix the RFP Process appeared first on Hubstaff Blog.

I was introduced to Jake Finkelstein (Twitter) of Method Savvy by another guest of the podcast, Karl Sakas, who told me that he considers Jake one of the top 1% of decision makers out there. After this podcast, I understand why. But what sets Jake apart isn’t that he always makes the right decision, it’s... The post Agency Advantage 44: Jake Finkelstein on Avoiding Shiny Object Syndrome appeared first on Hubstaff Blog.

I’ve talked to a lot of really interesting people as host of this show, but Bill is right up there near the top, and you’re all in for a treat. Bill Faeth has started 23 businesses, yup, 23, including a limousine company he built up to $8.8 million a year before selling, and a national... The post Agency Advantage 43: Bill Faeth on Building an Agency that Lasts appeared first on Hubstaff Blog.

In this episode of Hubstaff’s Agency Advantage Podcast, we’re talking with Justin Christianson of Conversion Fanatics. Justin is a longtime entrepreneur and after selling his previous business, he began consulting and eventually launched Conversion Fanatics, an agency that specializes in data-driven conversion optimization strategies. They have been growing like crazy recently (150% last year), and... The post Agency Advantage 42: Justin Christianson on Doubling Your Agency With Direct Mail appeared first on Hubstaff Blog.

In this episode of Hubstaff’s Agency Advantage Podcast, we’re talking with Drew McLellan of the Agency Management Institute and the McLellan Marketing Group. Drew has more than 25 years in the agency world, including 5 years at Mega-Agency Y&R, running his own agency for 21 years and counting, and working with hundreds of agencies at... The post Agency Advantage 41: Drew McLellan on Five Mistakes that Derail Your New Business Efforts appeared first on Hubstaff Blog.

In this episode of Hubstaff’s Agency Advantage Podcast, we’re talking with Paul Roetzer of PR 20/20, who shares the importance of developing your own unique intellectual property. Since I began hosting the podcast a year ago, I noticed a major difference in how big agencies market themselves compared to smaller agencies. Larger agencies almost always... The post Agency Advantage 40: Paul Roetzer on Why Your Agency Needs to Develop Intellectual Property appeared first on Hubstaff Blog.

In this episode of Hubstaff’s Agency Advantage Podcast, we’re talking with Eric Baum of BluLeadz, who shares how he overcame the evolving problems he faced as his agency grew. One of the struggles of hosting this podcast is that I know listeners are at different places in the lifecycle of their agency. Some just made... The post Agency Advantage 39: Eric Baum on Overcoming the New Challenges as Your Agency Grows appeared first on Hubstaff Blog.

In this episode of Hubstaff’s Agency Advantage Podcast, we’re talking with Bob Ruffolo of IMPACT Branding and Design who shares how establishing a strong set of values saved his agency. To be honest, whenever I heard someone talk about their mission statement or core values, I thought of cheesy motivational posters with words like “Perseverance” and a... The post Agency Advantage 38: Bob Ruffolo on Why Team Culture Matters for the Bottom Line appeared first on Hubstaff Blog.

In this episode, I talk with Brent Weaver (Twitter) of uGurus. Brent built a multi-million dollar web agency, sold it, and now works with other web professionals to help them build their own successful agencies. He developed a system to dramatically increase your chances of success and learned a few lessons through 12 years of trial... The post Agency Advantage 37: Brent Weaver on Turning Agency Building into a Repeatable System appeared first on Hubstaff Blog.

In this episode of Hubstaff’s Agency Advantage Podcast, we’re talking with Mandi Ellefson of HandsOffCEO.com, who shares how your agency can grow without losing your work/life balance. Many agency owners feel like as their business expands, so do their work hours and stress. On top of all of that, expenses often grow faster than revenue,... The post Agency Advantage 36: Mandi Ellefson on How to Scale to Freedom appeared first on Hubstaff Blog.

On this podcast, I talk to Gray MacKenzie of GuavaBox and DoInbound. Gray has expertise in one of the most important aspects of running a successful agency: developing processes. For most small agency owners, everything they do lives in their heads. This means that when you write a blog post, you do it one way, but... The post Podcast: Gray MacKenzie on How to Grow Your Agency Beyond Yourself appeared first on Hubstaff Blog.

In this interview, I’m talking with Galen Vinter of ClientFlow, who shares how to fix the pain that is client communication. Galen is a front-end developer by trade, but after working at a startup for a few years, he ventured out on his own as a consultant. While he was able to quickly build up... The post Agency Advantage 34: Galen Vinter on Streamlining Client Communication appeared first on Hubstaff Blog.

In today’s interview, I’m talking with Dan Englander (Twitter) of SalesSchema.com. Dan was employee #2 at a video production agency and was able to grow it to $1.4 million in revenues in two years. Like many of us, he didn’t see himself as a salesperson when he started out. However, he knew that needed to change... The post Agency Advantage 33: Dan Englander on a Digital Agency’s Most Overlooked Asset appeared first on Hubstaff Blog.

James Carbary is the founder of Sweet Fish Media, an agency that helps their clients start 52 new relationships with their ideal prospects every year using a unique sales system built around podcasts. Instead of solely looking at podcasts as a way to build an audience, James sees them as a way to get his... The post Agency Advantage 32: James Carbary Shares His $4,700,000 Sales System appeared first on Hubstaff Blog.

Koby Conrad is a unique guest, to say the least. He sold his first company last year at the age of 21, and now has started a digital agency that did over $300k in revenue in its first year and landed one of the biggest players in Koby’s target industry. What’s that industry? Well, Koby... The post Agency Advantage 31: Koby Conrad on Building an Agency in a Controversial Market appeared first on Hubstaff Blog.

Noah Fleming is the bestselling author of EVERGREEN: Cultivate The Enduring Customer Loyalty That Keeps Your Business Thriving, and helps $2M to $2B companies create long-term, sustainable, highly profitable customer relationships. Noah doesn’t bill by the hour or sell deliverables. He regularly sells $70,000 projects that he used to sell for $7,000. (No, Noah isn’t... The post Agency Advantage 30: Noah Fleming on 10x-ing From $7k Projects to $70k with Value-Based Fees appeared first on Hubstaff Blog.

Kurt Elster, co-founder of the Chicago-based digital agency Ethercycle, started out like many of you. He made websites for all kinds of different businesses and slowly built that into an agency. As his network and portfolio grew, he partnered up with larger agencies and started doing work for big clients like Verizon. Kurt was making... The post Agency Advantage 29: Kurt Elster on How to Earn >$200/hr Designing Websites appeared first on Hubstaff Blog.

Today I’m talking with Jeremy Reeves, who helps businesses grow their revenue with more automation, stability, and consistency using sales funnels. In this episode, Jeremy explains what most copywriters get wrong and details how he built his own audience from scratch using podcasts and guest posts. He shares what he does to capture prospects’ attention,... The post Agency Advantage 28: How Jeremy Reeves Generated More Than $120,000 With a Single Guest Post appeared first on Hubstaff Blog.