Listen Now

If you deal with imposter syndrome and fear in your business, you’re in good company. Today’s guest, Mike McDerment, is the co-founder of Freshbooks. His company has a team of 500 and he still faces it on the regular.  In this episode you’ll learn how to put a positive spin on imposter syndrome to grow as a person & leader. You’ll also hear about how and why Freshbooks created a second product to compete with themselves – a fascinating story.  Resources mentioned in the episode Freshbooks      Connect with Mike TwitterFacebookLinkedInYouTube About Mike Mike McDerment is the Co-Founder and CEO of FreshBooks, the world’s #1 cloud accounting software for self-employed professionals. Built out of frustration after accidentally saving over an invoice, Mike spent 3.5 years growing FreshBooks from his parents’ basement. Since launching in 2003, over 24 million people have used FreshBooks to save time billing, and collect billions of dollars. A lover of the outdoors, Mike has been bitten so many times it’s rumored he’s the first human to have developed immunity to mosquitoes.

If you’re on the lookout for new services you can add to your agency with very little effort, this is a great episode for you. Garret Sussman from Traject shares how you can add reviews and reputation management as a service. These can be an entire service offering on their own, or act as a foot-in-the-door to impress your clients before bringing them on for a major project.  Resources mentioned in the episode Agency Automation interview on Agency AheadGrade.usGatherUp Connect with Garrett TwitterLinkedIn About Garrett Garrett Sussman is a B2B SaaS content marketer through and through. He's the Head of Content for the digital marketing software company Traject. Traject is a suite of digital marketing tools including Grade.us, GatherUp, Cyfe, Fanbooster, AuthorityLabs, and Traject Data. When he's not pumping out SEO focused blog posts, crafting email copy, and strategizing his content marketing funnel, he's hosting the Agency Ahead podcast. Working remotely in Arlington, Virginia, Garrett brews a mean cup of ice coffee, obsesses over graphic novels, and loves spending time with his wife Jenny and his mini Goldendoodle, Lucy.

If you help your clients with their social media, this is an interview for you. Tim Hill from Social Status joins the show to discuss how to run better campaigns.  You learn about setting goals, which channels to target, what content to produce and how to generate amazing reports for your clients.  Resources mentioned in the episode Social Status – social media reporting tool for agenciesA guide on social media analyticsA good tool for managing UTMsSimple explanation of EdgeRank Connect with Tim Tim’s Twitter About Tim Tim is the Co-Founder and CEO of social media analytics and reporting platform Social Status https://www.socialstatus.io/. With over 8,000 marketers worldwide on platform, Social Status has quickly become the gold standard in social media analytics, used by sole traders to SMEs to global corporations. Prior to Social Status, Tim spent over seven years working in advertising and digital agencies including BMF, Magnum & Co, Reading Room and Hoodlum. In these roles he led digital and social strategy for iconic consumer brands such as Sony Pictures, ALDI Australia, GoDaddy, Lion, Tip Top, Expedia, Ferrero, Meat & Livestock Australia, Yahoo! and Foxtel. Tim also has significant experience in the Gov sector at both state and federal level having consulted into the PM’s office in the years of KRudd and working with clients including the Department of Sustainability, Department of Broadband, Department of Defence, Public Transport Ticketing Corporation and the National Prescribing Service. He also teaches social media marketing courses for ADMA (Association for Data-driven Marketing & Advertising) and Zambesi in Sydney and Melbourne.

A virtual summit can create an insane amount of awareness for your agency in a short time. You’ll bring together experts that serve your target audience, which creates relationships. You’ll also get in front of potentially hundreds or thousands of your target audience as attendees.  Krista Miller has been helping people run profitable virtual summits through Summit In A Box. Today you’ll learn how to run your own.  Resources mentioned in the episode Krista’s amazing virtual summit post on Content Snare Connect with Krista Instagram About Krista At Summit In A Box, Krista helps entrepreneurs 3x their monthly revenue through virtual summits without wondering where to start or what to do next. Her method is focused on strong connections, collaboration, and making a difference in the lives of everyone involved. The best part? She makes it easy! With every strategy, copy template, website template, script, tech tutorial, and resources you'd ever need, your summit prep just got a whole lot easier!

Andy Cabasso from Postaga joins Agency Highway to share what’s working in creating link generation campaigns for clients. SEO can be a great source of recurring revenue for agencies, so if this is a service you already offer or are thinking about offering, give this episode a listen.  Resources mentioned in the episode Postaga blogBacklinkoAhrefsAuthorityHackerGrow together SEO – Andy’s Facebook group Connect with Andy TwitterLinkedInFacebook About Andy Andy Cabasso is a digital marketing professional, speaker, lawyer, and occasional wedding officiant. He is the co-founder of Postaga, an all-in-one platform for link building and email outreach. Prior to Postaga, he started, grew, and then successfully sold a digital marketing agency. If you're interested in trying out Postaga, you can grab a free account at https://postaga.com.

Case studies can be instrumental in converting potential clients. In this interview, Anfernee Chansamooth from Simple Creative Marketing shares some brilliant tips for you to use case studies to your advantage.  You’ll learn how to get them, how to write them and where to share them for maximum impact. Resources mentioned in the episode Anf’s Case Study Guide7 Day StartupJesse’s Bento Case StudyThe Website Owner’s Manual15 Ways to share your case study Connect with Anfernee FacebookLinkedInTwitterInstagram About Afernee Anfernee Chansamooth is a content strategist, writer, and speaker. He’s the Director of Simple Creative Marketing, a company known for creating case studies and content that drive leads and sales for fast-growing services businesses. He’s worked with leading brands such as Bean Ninjas and Hub Australia and has been featured in Forbes, Inc, The Good Men Project, and Huffington Post.

Steve Pockross from Verblio joins the show to discuss how agencies can outsource quality content for their agencies. Content can be very hard to outsource and still ensure great quality (things people actually want to read). The tips in this interview will help you fix that.  Resources mentioned in the episode Verbio WebsiteThe Verbio Show – Podcast Connect with Steve LinkedIn About Steve Steve Pockross brings more than 20 years of startup, Fortune 500, and nonprofit experience to his role at Verblio. As CEO, he applies leading marketplace and SaaS principles to create an industry-leading content creation platform with 3,000 writers supporting the creation of high-quality content at scale in every niche.. Steve was part of the early management team at marketplace services pioneer LiveOps, growing the company into the largest virtual contact center in the world. At LiveOps, Steve served as vice president of business development and strategy, and also spearheaded the creation of the award-winning LiveOps Foundation. He also served in marketing, strategy, and operational leadership roles at Tendril, Western Union, Marketing Technologies Group, and HSBC. Steve received his MBA from Kellogg School of Business and his MA in history from Wesleyan University. Outside the office, Steve is a Denver native and enjoys ultimate frisbee, telemark skiing, practicing his Portuguese, and spending time with his two boys. And while he’s not bullish, he’s still hoping for a second career as a Brazilian rockstar.

This year has forced a lot of change – and the ways you can pitch clients is one of them. Alex Price has switched his agency to virtual pitches. In the process, he’s learned that there are actually a lot of benefits to doing it this way. Here’s how you can win more pitches without leaving your house.  Resources mentioned in the episode 93 Digital93x Agency Connect with Alex LinkedInTwitter About Alex Passionate about partnering with ambitious marketing and content teams, empowering them to achieve success. Included twice in the BIMA 100 of the ‘people shaping the future of the digital industry' and named by The Drum as their ‘Agency Rising Star' of 2016, I founded 93digital in my bedroom before dropping out of university to turn a freelance business into an award winning Top 100 UK Independent Digital Agency (according to The Drum) in under 3 years. In 2019 we were named as an Econsultancy ‘One to Watch' Agency in their Top 100 Agency table. I'm excited by opportunities to help clients apply strategy, creativity and technology together for marketing and revenue impact. I'm also passionate about getting more young people from diverse backgrounds into the digital industry and give up my time to talk and lecture, whilst supporting BIMA by serving on their Young Talent Council.

Gray MacKenzie, founder of ZenPilot, has helped countless agencies with their processes, greatly increasing their profitability in the process. In this interview you’ll learn how your digital agency should create and store processes to become a much more efficient operation/ Resources mentioned in the episode ClickUp for agencies Connect with Gray TwitterLinkedIn About Gray Gray MacKenzie is a co-founder at ZenPilot, an agency training and consulting business focused on replacing chaos with clarity. Gray and his team run ClickUp for Agencies, a comprehensive program to help agency teams quickly implement ClickUp to scale their operations.

Brent Weaver from UGURUS joins the show to share how you can get rich by owning your market. Choosing your niche is a bit like dating – you can try a few before having to commit and get married to it. We cover how to choose your niche without alienating your existing client base, how to build initial traction and when to pull the plug. Resources mentioned in the episode Pre Order Brent’s book – email Brent to get your bonuses (brent@ugurus.com)SparktoroIbisworld Connect with Brent FacebookFacebook – UguruswebInstagramLinkedIn About Brent During one of the most disruptive times in our entire history, people are floundering when it comes to where to use their buying power. Whether you’re a digital agency owner concerned about how to stay essential, or anyone else running a client-based business, Brent Weaver has the solution. From a bank balance of three dollars, Brent grew his digital agency to seven figures a year while managing more than 300 active clients, including Dish, Anheuser-Busch, InBev, and Adobe. As the Founder & CEO of UGURUS, he creates educational programs that help digital agency owners get more leads, secure more deals, drive additional revenue, increase profits, and achieve freedom in business and life. In addition to leading UGURUS, he is also helping other companies with his digital marketing expertise. He is in partnership with UnlimitedWP—a scalable white label WordPress development team to help digital agencies grow without all the headaches of hiring and managing people. He’s also a Brand Ambassador for Cloudways, a WordPress hosting company, helping them evangelize their platform. When readers follow the principles in his newest book, Get Rich In The Deep End, they’ll identify their ideal target audience, build awareness of their business, use stories and frameworks to attract the right customers, establish their authority, and build a marketing engine that will help them acquire a solid, growing client base. With over 10,000 downloads a month and 135 episodes and counting, Brent hosts one of the leading podcasts in the business niche—The Digital Agency Show. Whether you’re just starting out in business or you’re an industry veteran who can’t seem to get the recognition you deserve, Brent shows entrepreneurs and business owners all over the country how to own their market to become an invaluable expert for their chosen industry and build the stable, successful business they’ve always dreamed of.

When you start working with a client and you realise their current brand assets suck, things get difficult. Do you just tell them their logo sucks? Or do you try to pitch a rebrand and risk a backlash? Ross Kimbarovsky from Crowdspring joins the podcast to share how to navigate this situation and how you can become a better agency in the process. Resources mentioned in the episode Crowdspring ProCrowdspring Agency ResourcesCrowdspringCrowdspring Blog Connect with Ross TwitterLinkedIn About Ross Ross founded and is the CEO at crowdspring, where more than 220,000 experienced freelancers help agencies, small businesses, entrepreneurs, and non-profits with high-quality custom logo design, web design, graphic design, product design, and company naming services. Crowdspring has worked with the world’s best brands, including Amazon, LG, Starbucks, Microsoft, Barilla, Philips, and also with many of the world’s best agencies – and tens of thousands of entrepreneurs and startups. Before founding crowdspring, Ross practiced law for 13 years as a successful trial attorney. Fun fact: there's a rumor that Ross left his law practice in 2007 to found crowdspring so that he could wear shorts to work. That rumor is true. Agencies that want to innovate and laterally expand their business can do so without incurring capital expenses and without risk. Learn how through a complete Design Service Starter Guide, which you can get for free here: https://www.crowdspring.com/agency-resources/

Kelly Campell is a consultant who helps agency leaders transform their life and their agency. In this episode, you’ll learn how to develop your listening skills, how to improve your empathy and how to apply that to pitching your clients. Resources mentioned in the episode Website Connect with Kelly LinkedInTwitterInstagram About Kelly Kelly Campbell is a Leader Transformation Coach based in New York. The former owner of a cause marketing agency for 14 years, she helps creative and technology leaders transform their lives and businesses by first diving inward. A keynote speaker at conferences across the country, Kelly has been featured in The New York Times, Woman Entrepreneur and Forbes, gets vulnerable on Medium, and is currently authoring her first book on reimagining what leadership means in the new now. She is the host of THRIVE: Your Agency Resource, a bi-weekly video podcast sponsored by Workamajig that helps agency owners navigate personal and professional growth.

John Doherty from Credo joins the show to talk about agency lead generation. John has been involved with 125 million in closed leads for agencies over the last 5 years so he knows a thing or two. In this episode you’ll learn what most agencies are doing wrong, how to turn a lead into a qualified prospect and how Credo can help you generate more business.  Resources mentioned in the episode Credo  Connect with John TwitterFacebookYouTube About John I am the founder of Credo, a service connecting businesses with the right marketing provider to help them grow. We've helped 4,000+ businesses, including some of the world's largest brands and sites, since late 2015. I'm also an international speaker, well known blogger, and have bylines across Entrepreneur, The Next Web, and more as well as having my work featured on CNBC, Today.com, and more. As an SEO and growth consultant working with the occasional high growth client, I help marketplaces, large ecommerce, and content sites grow through B2C customer acquisition via SEO, email marketing, and content. With 10 years of enterprise SEO experience and 2 years full time leading marketing and growth on marketplaces with over 10 million+ visitors a month, I know what it takes to grow your traffic and revenue. I was formerly the lead growth manager at Trulia Rentals, head of marketing at HotPads, and head of and senior consultant at Distilled NYC. I have also run Destinee Media in Switzerland and worked in-house in online education. In my personal life, I am married to Courtney, who is a product designer at Trello. We have a daughter named Tatum and own a large black labrador named Butterbean. On the weekends, we can often be found cycling, skiing, hiking, camping, and otherwise exploring the area around Denver, Colorado.

Sales is an area that many agencies struggle with. In this interview, Joey Gilkey from Sales Driven Agency shares how you can hire great salespeople to dramatically grow your agency.  You’ll learn where to start, how to set up the processes and how much to pay salespeople. This was one of my favourite episodes to date. I learned a lot and I think you will too. Resources mentioned in the episode Joey’s stacking guide Connect with Joey Sales Driven AgencyLinkedIn About Joey Joey Gilkey has now worked hands on with over 200 agencies and built his career around helping businesses with building out their sales department and sales operation. Whether it was leading a global IT services division of 115 salespeople for a Fortune 100 company, taking a $1m consulting firm to $9.5m in 18 months, scaling a digital agency’s growth from 60k MRR to 560k MRR in 9 months, or driving over $1.3 Billion in sales pipeline for clients in 3 years… Joey knows what it takes to be a Sales Driven Agency. When he's not building agency sales departments, you can find Joey, his wife, and son in Knoxville Tennessee. He's passionate about college football, collecting bourbon, and being outdoors.

Reporting isn’t a sexy topic, but it can make or break your business. Robert Patin consults with creative agencies to help them become more profitable while maintaining a great culture. In this episode, you’ll learn: What you should trackHow to get buy-in from your teamHow to build a dashboard Resources mentioned in the episode The Creative Industry ReportJames Schramko book – Work Less Make More Connect with Robert FacebookLinkedInInstagram About Robert Robert is the Managing Partner and Founder of Patin & Associates and the author of the international best-selling book The Agency Blueprint.

You hear a lot of stories about people selling their agency and moving onto products. Dave Schneider has gone the other way.  In this casual interview, you’ll learn why running an agency can be so attractive, the pros and cons and how Dave attracts clients for his agency. Resources mentioned in the episode Shorlist.io websiteDave Schneider website Connect with Dave WebsiteLinkedIn About Dave  Graduate from Harvard with a degree in Applied Math, in 2012 I quit my corporate job to travel the world with my wife, and over 5+ years we visited over 60 countries together. During that time I launched and exited from my first SaaS, NinjaOutreach, an influencer marketing platform. Now I run Shortlist.io, a Marketing Un-Agency that specializes in helping businesses increase their traffic and revenue through different methods: SEO, Link Building, Website Development, Social Media and Inbound Marketing. Recently we launched the Shortlist Metrics Tool where you can analyze thousands of websites for SEO metrics in minutes. Also, I previously owned and successfully sold two SaaS businesses myself (NinjaOutreach.com and LessChurn.io), and our agency did about $500k in its first year. I'd love to share our approach to growth; what's worked and what hasn't, as well as talk about the transition from software to a service-based business and the challenges that come along with it.

This interview is a start-to-finish playbook on how to find and get on podcasts. There is a TON of benefit to going on podcasts for agency owners. They are a great source of leads, help you build relationships and are amazing for building your authority. Kai Davis shares the entire process – where to start, what to talk about, how to reach out to hosts, and more. IMO this is one of the best episodes yet. If you want help getting on podcasts, take Kai’s free course at getonpodcasts.com Resources mentioned in the episode Interview with Phil Singleton – SEO for your agencyGet on Podcasts – free course and help with outreachKai’s newsletter for marketing & indie consultants with marketing tips Connect with Kai TwitterLinkedInKai Davis – websitePodcast OutreachDouble Your Commerce About Kai Kai Davis helps indie consultants and firms attract more clients like their best clients. He lives in Oregon, has a wonderful cat, and writes a DAILY letter on marketing tips for indie consultants and firms (sign up here: https://kaidavis.com)

You might know Yelp for their restaurant reviews… but did you know 50% of what they do is for OTHER verticals? This means there is a huge opportunity for you to help your clients generate more business from Yelp. On top of that, it’s another marketing channel for your own agency.  Tune into this episode to learn how you can add more revenue to your agency and better support your clients.  Sign up for the Yelp partner program at https://agencyhighway.com/yelp Resources mentioned in the episode Yelp Advertising Partner Program Connection with Gary Kagan WebsiteLinkedIn About Gary  Gary Kagan is the Regional Director of Partner Sales at Yelp. He has personal experience in selling directly to SMB, Mid-Market, and Enterprise businesses. As the first rep on the ground he helped build the Channel sales segment from $0 and no partners to what is now a meaningful revenue line for Yelp with hundreds of partners operating within the program. He now oversees sales teams and works with product, customer success, and operations to assist partners in successfully selling and optimizing Yelp's products. Tip for the listener: If you have clients that are brick and mortar or service-based businesses reach out to yelpadpartners@yelp.com. You'll be able to connect with a representative in the partnerships department. We're happy to share our data with agencies along with complimentary audits of your client's businesses on Yelp.

This has to be one of my favorite interviews so far. Jonathan Stark shares some super actionable advice around value pricing – most importantly – how you can get started in the easiest way possible without risking your neck. Resources mentioned in the episode Jonathan’s proposal templateValue pricing bootcamp (free) Connect with Jonathan Website About Jonathan Jonathan Stark is a former software developer who is on a mission to rid the world of hourly billing. He is the author of Hourly Billing Is Nuts, the host of Ditching Hourly, and writes a daily newsletter on pricing for independent professionals.

Do team meetings feel like a waste of time? Kimberly Lipari from Valet.io joins the show to explain how they’ve changed their team meetings to run much more efficiently. Resources mentioned in the episode Website – valet.io Connect with Kimberly LinkedInFacebookTwitter About  Kimberly My name is Kimberly Lipari and I live just outside of New Orleans, Louisiana. I am a wife and mother of 3. I currently lead a fully remote agency. We've been in business servicing businesses that have WordPress websites for nearly a decade. My transition from Survey Drafting Engineer to CoFounder of a digital website Development and Support business has gifted me much experience by way of managing processes and projects. You wouldn't believe how skills from my first career path translated to where I am now.