Working Without Pants - Creative Entrepreneurship

After growing Solar Velocity from nothing to an 8-figure agency, selling it and getting bored on the beach, Jason Swenk began helping other agency owners. He now teaches the lessons he’s learned along the way at JasonSwenk.com. 

Jason shares his incredible insights in this episode, oozing with his spunky personality. 

[4:10] It all started with a NSync parody site, then he started making $500 websites, quit his job at Arthur Andersen before they destroyed the world, and in 2-3 years was making $200K websites. So thanks Justin Timberlake!

[6:00] The company really took off once he started examining what we didn’t want to do (working with clients), and put systems in place so the business could go on without him.

[7:20] He kept upgrading the offerings based on what clients needed. As your price increases, so too does the need to communicate how you are unique.

[8:40] To really scale, the Agency Owner (does everything) needs to transition to the Agency CEO (focuses on vision, strategy, coaching). The first step is hiring a project manager!

[11:50] Assume you’re project manager will screw up. If you’re scared of that, get out of business. Jason encourages (one-time) failures for learning purposes. Systems>>Talent.

[14:30] Everyone on his team took personality tests, and they tried to find people to fill in the gaps. It’s more important that a new hire shares the company’s core values, then technical know-how. Value-based hiring led to Solar Velocity’s becoming the Best Place to Work in Atlanta, which snowballed into better & better people applying.

[16:20] He replaced Quarterly Reviews with Quarterly Coaching, because employers are your #1 asset, so management’s job is not to condemn, but to help make employees better and achieve their goals. Your office environment should reflect your personality. Be yourself. He made a fun environment, and those that didn’t like it could leave.

[19:20] Growth revolved around generating the pipeline through 1) strategic partnerships (not just trading leads, but building practice areas to specialize in), 1) outbound strategy, and 2) inbound strategy (gotta capture that info!) and 3) strategic partnerships- which is not just trading leads, but actually building practice areas to specialize in. They specialized in Sitefinity.

[22:00] Partner with an up-and-coming technology (not Wordpress or Facebook). Help them out before expecting anything in return. That’s what they did with Sitefinity- when they had success with it for a client, they made a case study to help Sitefinity communicate their value better. So Finity sent them Hitachi, Legalzoom, and other amazing clients.

[24:35] Successful people make money, but significant people affect other people/businesses by helping, not just taking...Helping>>Selling

[25:40] Don’t reach out to everyone. Go after a select few. Do extensive research. Think about who would need your service (ie, companies spending $10K+ on AdWords)? Provide value in the initial touch, and make a foot-in-the-door offer. DO NOT SEND A PROPOSAL!

[31:40] Chances of making money are 20X after they buy the foot-in-the-door offer, and you can qualify them. There is no bad agency client...only a bad prospect or a bad process.

[32:20] Building processes is about diving deep after a project is completed, to see what went right and what went wrong. Map it out and make adjustments. It takes a lot of f**k-ups.

[33:45] “If something were to happen to me, would this company survive?” worried Jason. Employees are like family, so it’s not just about you.

[35:15] Jason assisted with sales, just to bring in his colorful personality and make sure everyone was doing their job.

[36:10] They sold the business to a strategic partner who wanted to get into what Solar Velocity was doing. Only 0.25% of agencies get sold, so don’t feel like that is what it takes to “make it.” Money doesn’t ensure happiness.

[37:00] When considering selling, if they ask you questions, ask the same questions to them. And if people start asking to buy on the low, go through the process and learn from it. It won’t hurt, as long as you don’t give up valuable secrets. ​

[38:55] If you don’t like the offer, stop there or waste your time. And he explains how to tell if the buyers are serious, or they just want to steal your secret sauce. And don’t get too excited during the due diligence phase--that’s when most agencies go out of business, so assume it won’t go through.

[40:45] After selling, Jason was out in 9 months. He never got his earn out (losing millions), but he learned a valuable lesson and has made that money back by teaching other agency owners through his mistakes.

[41:40] Earnouts are based on growth rate and profit margin. Agencies between $2-10M are hard to sell. Don’t sell if you’re making bank.

[44:10] So why did Jason sell? The business outgrew his partner, and he got bored and wanted something new.

[44:40] Nowadays, he helps agency owners scale, teaching them how we started, grew and sold his agency. His goal is to be the #1 resource in the world for agency owners. Check out his podcast, video show, and the Agency Playbook (12 systems to scale and grow your agency).

[47:15] Jason doesn't read. He learns from doing & failing. Just wing it.

• Jasonswenk.com/wahoo
• Agency playbook 
• Smart Agency Masterclass (podcast)
• Ask Swenk Show 

Outbound Creative helps agencies and consultancies win their dream clients through eye-catching outreach campaigns. Learn more at OutboundCreative.com. 

David Reske is the founder and CEO of digital marketing agency Nowspeed.

He’s built a phenomenal business over the last 10-15 years. David is incredibly clearheaded and sophisticated about Nowspeed. But the journey has not been without challenges.

In this episode, we discuss his business, what's works, and what hasn't.

[3:15] The kind of people you hire creates the kind of atmosphere and culture your company will have.

[3:50] Nowspeed has evolved over the years to use whatever tools are available to drive engagement, traffic and leads.

[5:00] Dave started the company with his wife, which offers great flexibility for her as a working mother. But, leave business outside the shower!

[7:20] The digital marketing landscape has grown much more sophisticated, and it’s much harder now to land the big boys as clients.

[9:00] Nowspeed differentiates itself through platinum level service and expertise that goes beyond the capabilities of most internal marketing teams.

[12:30] In his business, Dave works primarily as strategist, accountability partner, business developer, management coach, and process/service tweaker.

[14:10] It’s risky for a service business to have one customer account for a large portion of the business.

[15:25] The way Nowspeed is structured, account leads communicate and work with clients and strategy, and they manage a team of experts who work in their particular expertise to execute the campaigns.

[17:10] There’s no magic bullet to getting work. They do the stuff they offer- inbound/content marketing,  SEO, PPC, social media- to drive leads. But they are also very active in partnering with other agencies/consultants to drive referrals.

[19:20] Dave spends half of his time doing strategic sales/business development. They only reach out locally, but they have leads/clients from all over the US/world.

[20:45] Dave loves integrating all the pieces of the puzzle.

[22:18] Hiring when desperate = Big Mistake! Instead, Nowspeed hires (mainly fresh college grads) and trains in classes.

[26:30] You don’t know what systems/process you need, until you really NEED them. So it’s a continuous evolution, discovering new challenges/things that need fixing. It helps to get your team involved in this.

•      Nowspeed.com
•       @Nowspeed
•       Good to Great by Jim Collins
•       Traction by Gino Wickman

Outbound Creative helps agencies and consultancies win their dream clients through eye-catching outreach campaigns. Learn more at OutboundCreative.com. 

Dan Englander is the founder of SalesSchema.com, and the author of Mastering Account Management and The B2B Sales Blueprint.

Dan is an expert on growing sales, and specifically, getting the most value out of existing clients, which is often ignored in sales.

We dive into his experiences in ramping up sales at one of the first video explainer companies and winning massive Fortune 500 accounts (like Verizon, Showtime, Bank of America, Venmo), before he started his own consultancy.

[1:44] In the blistering New York summer, Dan wears shorts to work from home, and will often stroll over to a coffee shop- it gets him in a different mindset and is helpful for separating tasks.

[2:20] Before he was the braggadocious founder of SalesSchema.com, Dan knew nothing about sales. As the first employee of Idea Rocket, he learned sales and made it work.

[3:50] His initial sales process was not cutting it.

[4:20] Things started to turn around. PPC and PR was effective, but winning the show opening for the Showtime Series Weeds help establish them as an authority.

[4:50] Fortune 500 companies find vendors the same way startups do. They won those initial big accounts by becoming a safe bet.

[5:45] The initial big wins gave them validation, and created a snowball effect.

[5:55] The main challenge for their first big sales was convincing them that something so unorthodox (at the time) as investing five figures in cartoon was a safe investment.

[8:15] As the market grew, the game changed from “buy a car not a horse” to “buy a Mercedes not a Honda.”

[8:55] Eventually, they got to a point (which most agencies get to) where the struggle was qualifying and prioritizing.

[9:35] How Dan goes about qualifying and prioritizing for better clients.

[11:18] Dan’s got different arrows in the quiver, that is 2 or 3 different sales processes for the different levels of clients.

[13:10] Establish immediate value by giving prospects a taste of what it’s like to worth with you.

[13:40] The biggest stopping point for many creative agencies is prep work. In order to overcome this, they would offer scripts to their videos, to get in the door and prepare the client.

[15:55] Account management is basically a role that combines client services and sales.

[17:04] Selling to existing customers should be easier than selling to new people, but its potential goes untapped, because most go about it the wrong, awkward way.

[18:25] Start with a partnership mindset. Don’t just randomly hit them up for new business. Build the next steps into your initial process. Be relevant. Find ways to help.

[20:00] Jake has found that quarterly reviews are a great way to reconnect and gauge the impact your work has had.

[20:55] Don’t send donuts.

[21:15] Partnerships are a long game- there’s more ways to pull value from an account than just selling the same product again.

[22:25] Dan discusses his approach to getting referrals from clients.

[24:10] What to look for in hiring a salesperson / account manager: if they could write well, they’re halfway there.

[25:34] Asking the right questions is the most important part of sales. Subject matter expertise is overrated.

[26:44] Aaron Ross stands out as useful to any company trying to implement a sales process.

[27:23] Neil Rackham was ahead of his time.

[28:55] While many young entrepreneurs want a step-by-step guide to succeeding, it’s more about the mindsets that enable success.

[29:35] Dan’s first book is the Chicken Soup for the Soul of account management. Check out the link below for a free copy.

[30:42] By the hard questions early on, you will save time and find more opportunities.

• SalesSchema.com/WorkingWithoutPants for a free copy of Dan's book
• Predictablerevenue.com - Aaron Ross’s site
• Spin Selling by Neil Rackham
• Seth Godin

Outbound Creative helps agencies and consultancies win their dream clients through eye-catching outreach campaigns. Learn more at OutboundCreative.com. 

Ben Lee is the founder and CEO of Neon Roots, an award-winning agile development agency.

Interestingly, the majority Neon Roots’ revenue does not come from actual developing, but rather from their discovery program, called Rootstrap, which guides entrepreneurs from the vaguest idea of an app, to a development-ready prototype.

Ben dives into how Rootstrap took on a life of it’s own, why discovery is so important, his untraditional sales team and other insights into how he’s built his business.

[2:20] Ben has to wear pants at work now, but he did work with Snoop Dogg’s management company before moving to his new location in West Hollywood, and he talks about random run-ins with celebrities

[4:55] He and his co-founder started Neon Roots to challenge the traditional agency model, and actually practice what is preached about agile methods, lean startup, etc.

[6:00] He discusses the bloated, risk-avoidant and unhappy lifestyle common in the service industry, and how he ditched it to start something new- pioneering AR/VR before the market was ready

[7:15] Story carding and discovery was a way to qualify clients, manage expectations, and truly aligned interests- and was incredibly successful

[10:27] How the Rootstrap offer evolved, and how it was influenced by Ben’s background in hospitality

[13:50] He discusses the psychology that goes into the Rootstrap customer experience

[16:00] The Rootstrap Swag Box is a powerful component of the whole experience, triggering positive emotions, and taking on a life of its own as a storytelling mechanism- whether it’s for a 23 year-old first time entrepreneur or Tony Robbins

[19:10] Competitors talk about the Swag Box

[19:37] Discovery and other engagement activities after kickoff are all about providing value to the customer

[21:45] Rootstrap has built a reputation among VCs, from whom they get a lot of deal flow

[22:13] Brand grows in thought-leadership

[23:30] He doesn’t hire sales people, but many former participants sell for him by simply sharing their stories

[25:10] Offering free advice over the phone for young entrepreneurs who aren’t yet a good fit is great for building relationships, which have resulted in referrals several years later

[29:20] Embarrassing sleazy sales guy vs the former participants who aren’t sure their confident enough for sales

[30:39] The sales cycle involves less commitment, or going on dates before you get engaged

[32:35] They (over)deliver so much value that other agencies resell Rootstrap

[33:05] Rootstrap vs ongoing consulting, and why many Rootstrap participants don’t convert because they don’t have an internal dev team or they need help fundraising

[35:18] The solution to a hybrid agency is proper siloing. Going forward, Neon Roots will be doing more creative stuff, which can happen because the service side is completely separate- plus Rootstrap Studios in Uruguay

[40:40] Ben gives his words of wisdom to agency owners to build their way up and increase sales

[42:25] You can reformulate lean/agile methods to any industry/business

Mentioned in this episode:

• The Lean Startup by Eric Ries
• The Agile Startup by Jeff Scheinrock and Matt Richter-Sand
• Writing your first story using Arbor
• Crew.co
• Neonroots.com
• Rootstrap.it
• Twitter- @NeonRoots
• Twitter- @BenLeeNR
• Instagram- @NeonRoots
• Facebook- @NeonRoots

Since I last brought Brian Casel onto the podcast over a year ago, he has sold his first productized business and launched his second. Brian is truly leading the way in terms of productized services and in this interview he gives a great context as to how agency owners can begin to transition from personalized consulting to a productized service.

Currently I am mid-way through productizing my own services at Outbound Creative, so in this interview I delve deep into some of the biggest challenges and setbacks that I have had along my journey and tap into Brian's expertise to overcome them.

This is a gold nugget episode for anyone who is trying to build and scale a productized service!

Also, be sure to check out Brian's new Productize Podcast.

In this episode, Damian Thompson of Salesability shares his insights into the pitfalls that most software development companies hit in their sales process and how to overcome them.

If your agency targets CMO’s as potential customers, then listen up because this interview is for you.

Drew Neisser is the CEO of the agency Renegade and author of The CMO’s Periodic Table.

When I came across Drew’s book, I was blown away. In The CMO’s Periodic Table, he has interviews with 64 high level CMO’s of very big companies. A majority of which are the CMO’s from Fortune 500 companies.

Each interview focuses on one key insight or topic that these CMO’s deal with on a regular basis. The end result of all of these interviews is an incredible book that covers the wide spectrum of issues these CMO’s face.

In this interview, Drew talks about his strategy for creating this book, how he got interviews with such high level CMO’s, and how this book has had a profound impact on his business.

He also discusses the challenges agencies face when trying to sell their services to CMO’s and why many fail when reaching out to them.

This interview is jam packed with incredible insights that can drastically change your agency.

After over 14 years of running his agency, Matt Schwartz has recently took his agency through an entire process of rebranding.

With his rebrand, they have focused on a specific target market and niched their business down to their key core clients.

Matt’s agency, Constructive, focuses on working with social causes and brands.

In this interview, Matt talks about the process of rebranding his agency, and how other agencies should look at positioning themselves in the market.

He also points to a few great resources that helped him through the rebrandng process.

Positioning for Professionals by Tim Williams

Zag by Marty Neumeir