As higher education faces increasing pressure to not just educate students but better prepare them for gainful employment after graduation, the student-run PR agency model provides some useful lessons.

Boston University’s PRLab is the longest-running such program in the United States, and co-director Amy Shanler joined Chip on this episode to talk about what it is and how it works. She explains how the students handle not just client service, but also the business and operations side of running an agency.

This show includes valuable lessons — whether you’re a student yourself or an experienced agency owner.

Amy Pavel Shanler has 25 years of experience managing communications activities for multiple organizations and industries, including retail, technology, business, health care, and entertainment. As co-director of PRLab, the nation’s longest-running student-managed public relations agency and a cornerstone of Boston University’s College of Communication PR curriculum, Amy oversees a working, profitable and award-winning student-run PR agency. In addition, Amy teaches courses on media relations, principles of public relations, and crisis communications.

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Most agency owners find value in talking with their peers and understanding the challenges that they share in running PR firms. The PRSA Counselors Academy is a special interest group within the Public Relations Society of America that brings together agency entrepreneurs through events and other programming.

The Immediate Past Chair of Counselors Academy, Chuck Norman, joined Chip to talk about the group and how it brings benefits to agency owners. In addition to his volunteer role, Chuck is also the owner of S&A Communications.

In this episode, you will learn more about Chuck’s journey, as well as specific examples of the work that Counselors Academy does to bring together agency principals and experts.

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Agencies have a constant need to “feed the beast” when it comes to content creation. Public relations and marketing firms have always had a strong reliance on the written word, but as clients become publishers and social media places increasing demands on scribes, the challenge of finding and managing writers only grows.

On this episode, Gideon Stein of Write Label explains how his team has built a roster of writers to help meet that need. There are lessons and ideas for anyone who is looking to outsource writing responsibilities or build their own network.

Gideon discusses a wide range of topics including:

You will also get to hear the funny story of how Write Label came to be what it is today.

Gideon serves as the CEO of Write Label. Previously, he was founder and CEO of LightSail Education, prior to its sale to an international private equity fund. A leader in the national education landscape, Gideon serves on boards of several nonprofit organizations including New Classrooms, Narrative 4 and Chalkbeat. He is also the President of the Moriah Fund. Prior to LightSail, Gideon co-founded and served as President of Future Is Now Schools, and he was Founder, Chairman, and CEO of the enterprise messaging company Omnipod, Inc. (now a division of Symantec).

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It’s one thing to believe you need to improve profitability at your agency, but where do you go for the metrics and benchmarks that help you grow your profits smartly?

One resource is Marcel Petitpas and The Agency Profit Podcast. He’s also the CEO and Co-Founder of Parakeeto, a software company that helps agencies improve their service — and their margins.

On this episode of Chats with Chip, Marcel explains some of the numbers that every agency owner should be watching, including why each is important. He also has some suggested guidelines for how to benchmark yourself against your peers.

[read the transcript]

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Agencies evolve over time — and so do their team cultures. But they are always a reflection of the founder and key leaders.

Keith Scandone of O3 World joins Chip to talk about his experience and evolution over 15 years of running his own agency based in Philadelphia. He explains why he has prioritized culture — and hired help to focus on it. He talks about some of the challenges he has faced, including growing out of their existing space and managing team members in two locations.

The conversation also touches upon a difficult subject for many agency owners: what to do when an employee wants to leave. He explains the concept of a “graceful exit” and why it benefits both the individual and the organization.

As agencies grow, it becomes more difficult for the founder to stay in touch with every employee, but Keith has come up with a system that encourages open dialogue between himself and any team member.

In a business that is fueled by talent, this is an episode that you don’t want to miss to build an environment to get the most out of your team.

Keith Scandone is partner and CEO of O3 World. He guides the agency’s strategic direction and focuses on strengthening and expanding the company’s overall impact. From spearheading the Forge Conference and 1682 to co-founding the Philadelphia chapter of the Awesome Foundation, Keith looks for unique ways to differentiate the company and bring the industry and community together. His efforts to consistently craft and curate O3 World’s culture have lead to the agency being recognized as Entrepreneur’s “Top Company Cultures” and “Best Entrepreneurial Companies.” Keith is also working with the leadership team on building out O3 World’s Ventures program, which is a separate entity that takes an equity stake in digital product ideas.

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Is your agency doing a good job of marketing itself? If you’re like most agencies, the chances are that you aren’t taking enough of the advice you give your own clients.

On this episode, Aaron Strout, CMO of W2O Group, shares his experience as an agency marketer. He talks about how you get more out of the whole team, and why marketing matters beyond new business — including recruiting, M&A, and more.

Topics covered include:

Aaron has 25+ years of integrated marketing, social media, mobile, event marketing, advertising experience, CRM and thought leadership with a strong history of building high performance teams. Prior to joining W2O, Aaron spent time as the CMO of Powered Inc. (now part of Dachis Group), VP of Social Media at online community provider, Mzinga, and as Director of Digital Marketing at Fidelity Investments.

Aaron is the coauthor of Location Based Marketing for Dummies (Wiley) and writes a monthly mobile/location-based marketing column on Marketingland.com. He is the host of the award-winning What2Know podcast (iTunes) which features industry leaders talking about innovation and best practices.

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The post CWC 53: Eating your own dog food and marketing your agency (featuring Aaron Strout) appeared first on FIR Podcast Network.

For the past decade, Rohit Bhargava has written about non-obvious trends in an annual book series. He recently capped it off with a final volume: Non-Obvious Mega Trends. A self-described “reluctant futurist,” Rohit went from working in agencies to examining the trends that impact business and society.

In this episode, he and Chip discuss some of the observations, as well as an approach to looking at trends that may help agency leaders be more effective. One of the best pieces of advice he offers is this: “being more observant really is about paying attention to detail.” Sometimes it takes the realization of the obvious to discover the non-obvious.

Rohit Bhargava is a leading authority on marketing, trends and innovation. He is the Founder of the Non-Obvious Company and previously spent over 15 years advising large organizations on digital and marketing at two respected global agencies: Leo Burnett and Ogilvy. Rohit is widely considered one of the most entertaining and original keynote speakers on marketing disruption and innovation in the world. He is the Wall Street Journal bestselling author of six books on topics as wide ranging as the future of business, building a human brand with personality, and why leaders always eat left handed. He has been invited to deliver sold-out keynotes and workshops to change the way teams and leaders think at the World Bank, NASA, Intel, LinkedIn, MetLife, Under Armour, Univision, Disney and hundreds of other well-known organizations. Rohit also teaches a popular course on marketing and storytelling at Georgetown University in Washington DC and writes a monthly column on trends for GQ magazine in Brazil.

[read the transcript]

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Nobody likes to think about lawyers until they need one. Agency owners are no different, but planning ahead can make a world of difference in the outcome when it comes to legal matters.

Sharon Toerek, founder of Toerek Law and host of The Innovative Agency podcast brings a wealth of knowledge and experience on agency legal issues to the latest episode of Chats with Chip. She shares her experience and insight with listeners to help avoid common mistakes.

Among the topics that Chip and Sharon discuss:

[read the transcript]

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