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 evolving expectations have reshaped the employer-employee relationship. They discuss why traditional leadership approaches—like assuming loyalty comes from salary or benefits alone—no longer work and how agency owners can foster genuine commitment and engagement. Sarah shares eye-opening insights on the importance of psychological safety, trust, and open communication, explaining why employees today expect to be seen, valued, and respected in ways that differ from the past.

If you’ve ever felt frustrated by shifting workforce expectations, struggled to retain top talent, or wondered how to get your team to care as much as you do about the business, this conversation is a must-listen. Tune in to gain practical strategies for fostering a workplace culture that works—not just for you, but for your employees and the success of your agency. A big thank you to our podcast’s presenting sponsor, White Label IQ. They’re an amazing resource for agencies who want to outsource their design, dev, or PPC work at wholesale prices. Check out their special offer (10 free hours!) for podcast listeners here.

• Understanding the generational shift in workplace dynamics 
• Navigating emotional engagement in leadership roles
• The importance of aligning agency culture with values 
• Rethinking how to build trust and commitment 
• Addressing the challenges of hybrid and remote work environments
• Experimenting with new strategies for relationship-building
• Embracing intellectual humility to foster collaboration 

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.

Morgan, a seasoned wardrobe stylist with a decade of corporate retail experience, shares invaluable insights on how to ensure your exterior appearance aligns with the professional image you want to project. Whether you’ve been dressing the same way for years or are looking to make a change, Morgan’s advice on intentional dressing and wardrobe curation will make you reconsider your daily attire.

They’ll discuss practical tips on evaluating your current wardrobe, making intentional color choices, and infusing your outfits with personality through accessories. You'll also hear about common wardrobe mistakes and the small tweaks that can make a big difference in how you’re perceived by others.

Don’t miss this episode if you're ready to take actionable steps towards enhancing your executive presence, boosting your confidence, and standing out in your field in the most authentic way. Trust us—by the end, you'll be walking into your closet with a whole new perspective.

Let’s get started!

A big thank you to our podcast’s presenting sponsor, White Label IQ. They’re an amazing resource for agencies who want to outsource their design, dev, or PPC work at wholesale prices. Check out their special offer (10 free hours!) for podcast listeners here.

• The importance of intentionality in how we dress to convey our professional message 
• Understanding the alignment of personal authenticity with professional attire 
• How our wardrobe choices influence both self-perception and external perception 
• The significance of avoiding the default "should" outfits to stand out while respecting professional norms 
• Practical tips for refining wardrobe choices to maintain authenticity and professionalism
• Utilizing accessories and small details to add personality and create conversation starters
• The value of an external perspective to reassess and enhance your professional wardrobe choices 

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 TikTok quickly transformed into a massive platform with millions of followers and a compelling new book, “The Unspoken Truths for Career Success.”

We explore the evolving dynamics of employer-employee relationships, the importance of effective communication, and how generational perspectives are reshaping the workplace. Tessa offers eye-opening strategies for building loyalty, beyond merely providing great benefits or flexible work conditions.

Whether you’re an agency owner struggling with the concept of loyalty in the modern workforce or looking for innovative ways to connect with your team, this episode is packed with transformative insights. Join us as Tessa White breaks down what employees really crave in their careers and how business owners can adapt to these changing demands. Grab your notepad; you won’t want to miss this!

A big thank you to our podcast’s presenting sponsor, White Label IQ. They’re an amazing resource for agencies who want to outsource their design, dev, or PPC work at wholesale prices. Check out their special offer (10 free hours!) for podcast listeners here.

• Understanding the disconnect between employers and employees 
• How to foster employee loyalty in a changing workforce 
• The importance of career pathing from day one 
• Rethinking compensation and rewards 
• The power of customization in the workplace
• How to build stronger relationships in hybrid and remote environments
• Adapting to the future of work 

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 share how agency owners can start thinking about writing their first (or next) book with the help of a ghostwriter. He shares how his agency helps other agency owners discover if their ideas are ready to become a full-fledged book, and how to start compiling it all to collaborate with a ghostwriter. 

As the visionaries of the agency, we need to be always looking for the new, unspoken angles of things in the work we do, and Shadley helps agency owners share their perspectives without the pressure of having to do it alone. 

If you think you might be ready to finally get your idea or vision out in writing in 2025, this episode has all the info you need to start turning that idea into reality.  

A big thank you to our podcast’s presenting sponsor, White Label IQ. They’re an amazing resource for agencies who want to outsource their design, dev, or PPC work at wholesale prices. Check out their special offer (10 free hours!) for podcast listeners here.

• How a ghostwriter can be a partner in helping you find unseen angles for your book
• How to get a seat at the table and show clients you’re capable of more
• What producing a book can do for the agency and agency owner
• How and why Shadley got interested in starting his own publishing company
• The fun of partnering with thought leaders to help their ideas come to life
• Using a ghostwriter isn’t cheating — it’s a strategy
• 3 ways to know if you’re ready to write a book
• Getting over fear and owning your expertise

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 past few years  — with the way we work, how well our business is doing, AI, our overall productivity, and so much more. It’s a lot of change to handle, and for many of us, we haven’t taken the proper time to actually acknowledge our grief and begin to let it go. 

But without taking those first steps, that grief will continue to take hold of us and affect us in all aspects of our business — and even our personal lives. Many of you report being restless, unable to focus, depressed, uninspired, feeling heavy, and burnt out. And it’s all because we’re burning the candle at both ends without taking the time to acknowledge just how much change we’ve gone through in the past 5 years as agency owners. 

So I hope you’ll join me and take some time to take stock of everything that’s happened from 2020 to now — the good and the bad — and start to recognize just how much we’ve gone through so we can collectively learn to grieve and begin to let go of the bad to make more room for some good. 

A big thank you to our podcast’s presenting sponsor, White Label IQ. They’re an amazing resource for agencies who want to outsource their design, dev, or PPC work at wholesale prices. Check out their special offer (10 free hours!) for podcast listeners here.

• Why agency owners are struggling mentally and emotionally more than ever

• Understanding agency owner grief and what’s caused it to increase in the past 5 years

• Addressing agency owner grief

• The 5 stages of grief and how it manifests for agency owners

• The trickle effect of grief on agencies

• How we can begin to identify our grief 

• Starting the healing process after we identify the source of our grief

• Seeing post-COVID as an agency renaissance

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 of that box in 2025. 

That means we need fresh ideas, innovative thought leadership, and non-obvious thinking. And there’s nobody better to talk to us about this than Rohit Bhargava, from Non-Obvious Company. He knows exactly what it’s like to be put in a box creatively, but he’s even better at breaking out of it. 

For years, he’s taken a hold of the status quo to challenge it, question it, and ask more of it so that he can stay ahead of the conversation and shape it to better serve his clients — and his agency. 

So join us to get inspired to do some fresh, non-obvious thinking in this week’s episode.

A big thank you to our podcast’s presenting sponsor, White Label IQ. They’re an amazing resource for agencies who want to outsource their design, dev, or PPC work at wholesale prices. Check out their special offer (10 free hours!) for podcast listeners here.

• What should be on every agency owner’s mind in 2025
• How to get a seat at the table and show clients you’re capable of more
• The importance of thought leadership to make sales come to you
• The difference between content creation and thought leadership
• How to apply non-obvious thinking to our agency work
• Getting our clients to be more open-minded, creative thinkers with us
• The role of AI in the future of agencies
• The importance of demonstrating real connection and chemistry to both potential and current clients
• Trends agency owners should be paying attention to in 2025

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 should rewire this habit. Agency owners should be just as involved with the agency finances as their finance and accounting teams, and they should be in frequent communication with one another. 

Without a good understanding of your cash forecast, how your money is being spent, and where you’re losing the most profit, it’s impossible to run the agency by the numbers and keep a good handle on where all your money is going. 

So join us to get a realistic look at what agency owners should care about the most in the agency financial reports and what they can talk to their finance teams more openly and honestly about in 2025.  

A big thank you to our podcast’s presenting sponsor, White Label IQ. They’re an amazing resource for agencies who want to outsource their design, dev, or PPC work at wholesale prices. Check out their special offer (10 free hours!) for podcast listeners here.

• How an agency owner should approach agency finances

• How agency finance conversations differ between small and medium agencies

• What financial reports you should be looking at as an agency owner

• Knowing how to price and how to find profit black holes in the numbers

• How agency owners should think about the financial roles in their company and how they serve the agency

• How to communicate well with your financial team

• What monthly financial meetings should look like with your accountants, bookkeepers, or other finance team members

• Getting an accounting person to put together a cash forecast and what that should look like

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 agencies up for exponential growth in 2025 doesn’t have to be tough — and it can even be fun. 

If you’re feeling that end of the year slump, this episode should inspire you to rediscover that creative spark that motivated you to start an agency in the first place. No worrying about what’s profitable or competitive — just pure creative and visionary ideations that will give you the fresh thinking you need to start off 2025 on the right foot. 

A big thank you to our podcast’s presenting sponsor, White Label IQ. They’re an amazing resource for agencies who want to outsource their design, dev, or PPC work at wholesale prices. Check out their special offer (10 free hours!) for podcast listeners here.

• What gets in the way of the spark of agency ownership

• Getting into an innovative and creative headspace

• Translating a creative spark into sustainable agency growth

• Centering your clients’ needs instead of yourself or the agency

• Challenge yourself to come up with silly, unrealistic ideas

• Infusing energy, excitement, excitement, and visionary ideas to agency employees

• Having a vision is the key to getting unstuck

• The 5 mistakes agency owners make that keep us stuck

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 ownership that makes it so special compared to other jobs. Because no matter how hard things get or how many bad days we have, our jobs are still pretty special and unique. 

While you listen to this episode, I want you to reflect on all the things that you could take a little more time to appreciate. Whether that’s your employees, your work-life balance, your clients, or even just the type of work you get to do, there’s always something we can be grateful for in this industry. 

In 2025, let’s find a little more joy in our work and give ourselves more credit for all the hard work we already do and will continue to do — because we love it that much.

A big thank you to our podcast’s presenting sponsor, White Label IQ. They’re an amazing resource for agencies who want to outsource their design, dev, or PPC work at wholesale prices. Check out their special offer (10 free hours!) for podcast listeners here.

• We’re wired to constantly want to do better
• Agency owners can lose sight of how much joy is in the industry
• Agency ownership brings us balance in our personal and professional lives
• You can still make a decent living as an agency owner even if you have a bad year
• Getting to work for and with whomever you want
• Doing the type of creative work you want to do (for the most part)
• Why you should take some time to reflect on all the joys that come with agency ownership
• Agencies have more impact than we give ourselves credit for

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 want the next year to look like for your agency. This episode is packed with actionable advice on things like niche selection, service offerings, operational efficiencies, and how to foster a culture of continuous growth and dedication among your staff. 

As you go into the new year, ask yourself, How do you want your agency to look different? How do you want your team to look different? How do you want to look different to the world? And how do you want the clients you serve to be different?

With those questions in mind, join me as I walk through what my dream agency would look like today and how you can implement these strategies to align your agency for success in 2025.  

A big thank you to our podcast’s presenting sponsor, White Label IQ. They’re an amazing resource for agencies who want to outsource their design, dev, or PPC work at wholesale prices. Check out their special offer (10 free hours!) for podcast listeners here.

• The most profitable size of an agency
• Dividing in-office work and at-home work for a hybrid agency
• The importance of having in-house accounts service people who are dedicated to growing the agency
• Using freelancers and contractors to support a smaller team of in-house creatives
• The continued importance of running the agency by the numbers for maximum profitability
• Having one-on-ones to check in with agency employees and clients
• Narrowing down your niche to get to that 20% profitability
• Building a recession-proof agency
• Getting more thoughtful about what the agency owner role looks like and hiring roles to support it
• Getting smart about paying yourself 
• Team off-sites and investing in professional development