Welcome to another insightful episode of Build a Better Agency! This week, host Drew McLellan welcomes Kevin Eikenberry to the show to explore the ever-evolving landscape of leadership. Kevin, a seasoned expert in leadership and learning with over three decades of experience, shares his expertise on how flexibility and adaptability are integral to …

Welcome to the latest episode of Build a Better Agency! Host Drew McLellan returns with an engaging conversation that every agency owner needs to hear. In this episode, Drew welcomes back returning guest Casey Brown, a pricing guru known for her unique and insightful perspective on pricing strategy and negotiation. If you’ve ever struggled with fin…

In this episode of Build a Better Agency, Drew McLellan emphasizes the game-changing impact of one-on-one meetings and why agency owners should make them a non-negotiable part of their leadership strategy. Drawing from real-world agency experiences, Drew shares why these meetings serve as an "early warning radar system," helping leaders stay connec…

In this episode of Build a Better Agency, Drew McLellan sits down with leadership and workplace culture expert Sarah Noll Wilson to unpack one of the biggest challenges agency owners face today—building real culture and connection in a rapidly changing workplace. Drew and Sarah explore how generational shifts, post-pandemic workplace dynamics, and …

Welcome to the latest episode of Build a Better Agency! In this episode, host Drew McLellan dives into a fascinating yet often overlooked topic that will have you rethinking how you present yourself professionally. Joined by expert guest Morgan Wider, Drew explores the powerful impact of wardrobe choices on your personal and professional brand. Mor…

In this episode of Build a Better Agency Drew McLellan talks with Tessa White, also known as the Job Doctor. Tessa has a rich background with 25 years in HR and a fascinating journey that saw her pivot from corporate life to empower individuals in the workforce, all during the turbulent times of late 2020. What started as a simple endeavor on TikTo…

Agency book writing and publishing can seem like a daunting mountain to climb. But with the right people to help you through the process, it can be one of the best things you can do to uplevel your thought leadership efforts. That’s why this week, I invited Shadley Grei, an agency book publishing expert and newer member of AMI, onto the show to sha…

I wanted to wait until after the holidays to talk about this topic because it’s a bit heavier than what we usually talk about on the show. But it’s something that Danyel and I have noticed weighing heavily on a lot of you since COVID, and that is agency owner grief. It’s true that many of you have experienced quite a lot of loss and change these pa…

Many agency owners feel like their clients are putting them in a box of specific skills they’re able to perform for them. And for many of us, that’s not a good feeling. We’re wired to think creatively and break free from that metaphorical box, but it can be hard to communicate that to our clients in a sea of competition. So, it’s time to break out …

Almost no agency owner got into the agency world for their passion for bookkeeping. And if you did — great! You’re several steps ahead of most of us. But the reality is, most of us are just happy to keep cash in the bank for payroll and probably aren’t looking at the finances as much as we should be. Sandy Catour joined me this week to share why we…

Agency growth and biz dev can feel like an uphill battle when we’re already so tired, overworked, and burnt out. But it doesn’t have to be hard or add anything extra on our already full to-do lists. In fact, it shouldn’t be difficult at all. Tori Boats joined me this week to help close out the year on a high note and show us that setting our agenci…

Agency ownership can leave us stressed, burnt out, and sometimes, thinking the grass is greener somewhere else. But when you really sit back and think about it, we have it pretty good — we just lose sight of it sometimes. So this week, I’m finishing off the year with another solo episode to really sit down and take stock of what it is about agency …

As we round the bend into the new year, I’m reflecting on the lessons learned from my time as an agency owner and the insights I've gained from working with hundreds of agencies. While there are too many to count, I’m going to try to boil down my experiences into a few points that I hope you can take into 2025 as you start to think about what you w…

To grow the agency, agency owners need to be working on the business, not working in it. That means we have to accept that it’s time to get out of the day-to-day and embrace agency entrepreneurship as business leaders. Michael E. Gerber, author of The E-Myth and renowned business guru, joined us today to share some profound lessons for agency owner…

Account executives are critical for agency profitability and success. Without them, we wouldn’t have anybody responsible for building deeper trust with clients and growing their accounts. That’s why we’ve brought Lori Highby on the show this week to share everything she knows about the account executive role. Some of you might recognize her from th…

This one is going to be hard for most agency owners to hear, but you need to take a sabbatical — or a vacation or any amount of time off where you completely unplug from the agency. No Slack, no email, no phone calls. Nothing. Most of you just got really uncomfortable reading that statement, but it’s absolutely necessary if you want your agency to …

The future of work is becoming more fractional. Instead of full-time, in-house teams doing all the work — how many of us grew up in the agency world — fractional employees like contractors and freelancers can take on more and more complex roles for us. With remote and hybrid work still on the rise, we can leverage fractional employees to bring a mo…

Many agency owners reported in 2024 that one of the best things about their agencies are their employees. Despite continued biz dev struggles and slow sales cycles, agency owners have had a hard time shrinking their teams because they just love them that much. So, this week, let’s talk about some of the ways we can think about agency employee compe…

It’s no secret that new business for agencies was brutal in 2023. And for some in 2024, it’s been equally difficult. So, for 2025, we want to challenge you to get unstuck from those difficult sales cycles and lay the groundwork for some new energy as we come to the end of this year. This week, Susan Baier joined me again to help us look at the agen…

With more agency owners wanting to step out of the agency’s day-to-day operations to focus more on being the company’s visionary leader, there are many areas of the business that can sometimes go overlooked. To remedy this, many agencies are embracing the COO role to help keep things running smoothly. With the fast growth of this role comes many qu…

This is a topic we’ve covered many times before, but it’s an important one. When was the last time you checked in with yourself about what agency growth really means to you? It can be more than just adding more team members and physically growing and expanding the agency. It can also mean growing your AGI, getting higher paying clients, more intere…

As agency owners, we’re perpetual change-makers, striving to affect real and sustained transformation not just in our clients’ lives, but also in our own. But as we all know, creating transformational, lasting change within the agency can be an uphill battle. Humans are hardwired to resist change because it can feel unsafe. So when we want to chang…

Your business should serve your lifestyle — not the other way around. Many agency owners got into the industry because it affords them a lifestyle and freedom most people dream of. But it’s easy to lose sight of that when the business gets overwhelming and we fall into agency owner fatigue. For this week’s solocast, I want to do a deep dive into on…

Agency leaders have some of the most important roles in the agency. They’re key team members supporting the agency owner in the agency’s day-to-day operations and taking on roles that allow the agency owner to focus on business development and other key tasks. The truth is, it can be a lonely position. As agency owners, we need to consistently work…

Agency owners and leaders are no strangers to proposal writing. But despite our vast experience, there are things we still get wrong, and there is always something we can improve — especially as the industry shifts and changes so quickly. I got to sit down with Robin Boehler and Emily Shapiro from Mercer Island Group to talk about the often-overloo…