Craig Rodney (Founder at The Agency Coach) helps agencies systemize their processes and scale. He started his first agency way back in 2002, grew the business, went through a merger and in 2013 sold his first business. After 2016, he started coaching other agency owners so they can follow his path.

The first big mistake that Craig had to pinpoint and solve in his agency was the fact that he was the go-to person for all of their clients. Even though this approach got them blue chip clients, he realized the same thing that most agency owners run into - you can’t scale yourself.

Delegation is hard when you’re a small agency owner. Being overly attached to your work and thinking you’re the only person who can deliver real quality normal, but it’s also a one-way ticket to staying in survival mode forever. Craig advises that you get out of survival mode as soon as possible by learning how to hire the right people - ones that allow you to devalue money and increase the value of time.

Tune into the full episode to learn how to properly scale an agency!

HIGHLIGHTS:
0:00 Intro
2:43 How Craig learned how to let go
6:04 You need to be ready to delegate
9:02 Survival mode decisions don’t scale
13:00 Leverage your time correctly
16:49 Mindspace matters most

Connect with Mikael - https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikaeldia/
Connect with Craig - https://www.linkedin.com/in/craigrodney/

Frank S. Pierce (3x CMO with enterprise sales expertise in Financial Services, Retail and Tech) joined the show to discuss how agencies can get out of the SMB space and secure upmarket clients.

While Frank started out in Marketing and has held 3 CMO roles, his latest career accolades are mostly in the realm of enterprise sales. As a marketer, he sat in on many client calls - which ultimately helped him understand the market better and got him interested in moving on to sales. Over the years, Frank has noticed that the salespeople who succeed no matter the circumstances are the ones who take their preparation very seriously.

Tune into the full episode to learn how to sell into F500 companies!

HIGHLIGHTS:

0:00 Intro
1:13 Three time CMO journey
2:53 How Frank went into enterprise sales
4:35 Preparation is everything in sales
7:55 How to effectively multithread
10:12 Identifying the right stakeholders
12:31 Be nice to the assistants!
13:49 The Enterprise Sales framework
17:01 Figure out what really matters

Connect with Mikael - https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikaeldia/

Connect with Frank - https://www.linkedin.com/in/frankspierce/

Audra Carpenter (Founder of ATEC Dynamics and zindo+co) is an expert in utilizing AI in marketing. She’s worked with companies across the whole spectrum - from early stage startups all the way to the Fortune 500, providing services such as website building, AI implementation and overall strategy.

When it comes to AI implementation, Audra started with figuring out which parts of her daily workflow could be augmented to either reduce the time spent or automate completely. Now she’s combining multiple tools to create content at scale. What used to take 2 days now takes 10 minutes to draft, but Audra still recommends that you make your own edits and adjust the content so you won’t jeopardize your brand with low quality content.

Tune into the full episode to learn new ways how to use AI in marketing!

HIGHLIGHTS:
0:00 Intro
3:01 What’s the state of AI in marketing today?
6:41 The current state of AI in marketing
8:10 Creating AI content at scale
9:36 How to make AI sound on brand
11:49 Audra’s new content creation product
13:06 How the Marketing role is changing
17:41 Don’t get replaced by AI

Connect with Mikael - https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikaeldia/

Connect with Audra - https://www.linkedin.com/in/audracarpenter/