Running a business isn’t just hard; it can be relentless. We all have a finite capacity for the number of hard things we can deal with at once, and that capacity is often not enough. We all have different ways to cope when we feel ourselves reaching (or passing) that capacity, but I want to…
Have you ever counted up the sheer number of questions you field each day as a leader? Or calculated the hours you sacrifice giving answers to ‘quick questions’? While being available for quick questions might seem like the WD-40 that keeps your agency running smoothly, it comes with its own set of hidden costs. Once…
A practical breakdown of how trust, consistency, and a clear ask turn LinkedIn into a repeatable client channel.
It’s easy to dismiss the role of luck in business success. Many business books make business seem like a recipe that is almost guaranteed to succeed if you mix the right ingredients in the right way, but I don’t believe that is the truth. Tainted by the author’s own survivorship bias, these books often overlook…
Recent years have seen a rise in the personal productivity approach of building a “second-brain”. The idea involves capturing thoughts, notes, and ideas in one central software repository. The potential benefits of managing personal knowledge in this way are many, from reducing cognitive load, aiding recall, building connections and creativity to improved communication and decision…
There’s a point in a growing business where things often take a sudden shift from “Wow, this is going well” to “Help, it’s all falling apart”. It’s rarely one thing, but instead a rapidly growing undercurrent of things being missed, inconsistent delivery and decreasing morale. A panicked leader might even try to fix it by…
All good things come to an end and your involvement with your agency will be no exception. It’s no more avoidable than death or taxes (and will possibly involve at least one of those things). Despite this, many agency leaders never give serious consideration to this inevitable business milestone. They should. Knowing where you want…
It’s easy to get caught up in the pursuit of speed in our businesses. We all want to enjoy the fruits of our success sooner and it seems logical that moving more quickly will get us there faster. In fact the whole language of business emphasises the importance of speed: “Act now” “Move fast” “No…
High up on my personal list of “Mistakes agency owners know they’re making (but just keep repeating)” is allowing things that are urgent to take priority over what is actually important. Whilst this is a pitfall for any type of business, the nature of the model makes it particularly common in agency world: Constant deadlines,…
There’s a word that I and others have been using to describe me over the last few months, that I think I am going to stop using. It’s not an entirely inaccurate description of me, but it’s a C word with problems. The word is, of course, “Coach”. When I exited my own agency in…