Agencies That Build

Michael Kelly is the Managing Partner at Developer Town that works with established companies to create software aimed at key business problems or opportunities. 
Michael helps corporate leaders and founders craft a vision for new products by working with them to put together strategies, teams, and funding to help launch, validate, and grow those products and businesses.
Discussion Points:
What myth or bogus strategy do you want to bust?  2:27
How do you find outlets for energy on harder days: 8:00
Agencies talk about impacting society with their culture and environment. What does this mean to you? 22:25
 How has the experience been working with contractors? 35:58
How does the open book concept work and how does the finance work when you work with other agencies? 45:42
What's exciting you about the future? 51:44
Takeaways:
If you're not deeply energized by the work that you're doing, and it's not the thing that's fulfilling you, then maybe that's more of a sign of a problem than a sign that you need to take time away and recharge.
In the total human experience, this concept of leisure, that we're very focused on right now in today's world, is such a small part of the human experience. Leisure is a very, very new idea.
We're made to work, we're made to produce and we're made to take care of each other and we're made to challenge one another.
Our clients are only successful to the extent that we're successful.
What I want to be the best in the world at is helping companies build and launch new digital products.
To build a product, you need to understand a market, you need to understand your customer, you need to understand the competition, you need to understand the context in which you're building and deploying this thing. 
Product launch engages every element of what we do as a business, design, marketing, software development, engineering, data, science, all the DevOps.
We want to make sure everybody in the business knows how we make money. We want to make sure they know how much we're making or how little their mate we're making, unless it's a global pandemic. And we want to make sure that they know, we win as a firm, that everybody wins through profit sharing.
So when you have an unhappy client, it's not about that client, this is a seed that has been planted, is this seed going to bear fruit? Or is this seed going to bear weeds, you do not want weeds if you're an agency owner.
From a market perspective, as an agency, we are choosing to lean into financial services and healthcare as two industries that we want to do more in, we're going through high trust certification right now, we're trying to get the regulatory house in order.
Links 
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/developertown/
Personal LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaeldkelly/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/developertown
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/developertown
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/developertown/
Company website: https://developertown.com/
 
Busted Myths:
Self Care is all about Leisure.

Julia Becker Collins is the Chief Operating Officer at Vision Advertising that specializes in inbound marketing programs.Vision advertising is a woman-owned, women-run organization that aims to build an economy of equal wealth and opportunity.
 
Discussion Points:
What myth or bogus strategy do you want to bust? 2:28
What do sales and marketing people need to do to make them work together as a team? 4:28
What are those things that you recommend people to do as a part of the nurturing program to move the leads forward in the pipeline? 12:48
How do you keep the team motivated? How do you guys function? 18:05
Tell us more about your hiring process. 25:52
What is the biggest mistake you made as an agency owner? 30:08
Tell us a little bit about how you got into this business. 38:20
What keeps you up at night? 44:42
 
Takeaways 
Sales and marketing teams need to understand that in order to succeed, they need to be holding hands.
We have two things that are superpowers. One is how we communicate. And it's both internally with the team and externally with our clients. And the other is being transparent, honest, and open.
The best way to understand working for Julia and vision advertising is to get comfortable with being uncomfortable.
You should always say what you're thinking, but you're always gonna get feedback!
Setting employees and clients up for success is the goal and to do that you need to communicate clearly.
When you have a new hire, the biggest challenge is to make sure they know what they're supposed to do.
I don't like being the smartest person in the room. I don't want to know everything. I want to hire people that know more than I do. So I might know the most about leadership, but somebody on my team is gonna know way more than me about graphic design, SEO or presenting a live webinar for that matter.
If you are a marketing agency, and you're not doing your own marketing, create a marketing plan like we did for our own agency, and start marketing yourself and prioritizing yourself as a client.
 
Links 
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/julia-becker-collins/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/JuliaRivka
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/juliarivka/
Company LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/vision-advertising/
Website: https://www.vision-advertising.com/
Busted Myths:
The relationship between sales and marketing should be siloed.

Brett Snyder is the founder and CEO of Knucklepuck. Brett built Knucklepuck with a holistic digital philosophy, assembling a team of experts in SEO, Paid Media, Content Marketing, and Web Development that is uniquely positioned to adapt to clients’ evolving business needs.
 
Discussion Points:
What myth or bogus strategy do you want to bust?  1:53
How did you get into this business? 5:56
Tell us more about your experience with customers. 11:48
How do you keep the team motivated? 18:38
Tell us more about your hiring process. 25:18
What's your favorite interview question? 41:40
What is your understanding of success? 48:07
What is Brettgammon? 52:40
 
Takeaways 
A lot of people, in the startup world, or running a company, spend so much time putting agreements in place because we want to adhere to those agreements forever and forever.
If you're in a leadership position you have to make the best decision, given the circumstances that you have. And then as those circumstances change, you have to be willing to reassess your decisions.
Every decision is the right decision when you make it - Jessie
There's always an option! Nobody is here in a prison state that has to continue working for a client that abuses them or their team.
Everybody tries to accumulate leverage, I would argue, but it's kind of like playing a video game and stashing a whole bunch of inventory and then getting to the final boss and not using any of it! And so if you're going to collect this leverage, you have to apply it.
“And I think that's where leverage really comes into play, where you just have to be willing and able to go out there and say, This is what I need for me and for my team. And I think that's the big part about leadership and a CEO role in particular”. - Brett
“And I think it's one thing to say we don't require a college degree, it's another to look at the majority of the people on the team stating a college degree in their bio. Um, but we really want to be able to look at our roles as a digital company and say, does a college degree help here? I'm not sure it helps for most roles or as required for most roles. But can we at least give people the opportunity to apply, knowing that their lack of a college degree is not going to be something that will hold them back?”- Brett
Success is a very individualized metric. It's defined very differently for every individual. And I think I'm no exception to that.
 
Links 
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brettasnyder/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/KnucklepuckDC
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/knucklepuckdc/
Company Website: https://www.knucklepuckmedia.com/
 
Busted Myths:
You don’t have to honor your agreements.

JC Grubbs founder and CEO of Tandem, formerly known as DevMynd. Tandem is an end-to-end product development and innovation firm with services including business strategy, user research, UX/UI design, product management, software development, hardware design, and managed services.
 
Discussion Points:
What myth or bogus strategy do you want to bust?  2:42
How do you generate the leads? 9:20
What are some of the marketing tactics that you guys have found? 12:05
What percentage of time do you usually spend on building networks and connections? 16:53
Give us a little rundown on your hiring model. 28:55
Do you have any tricks and tips for cultural building within an agency? 35:19
What is the best part of running a business? 43:52
How did you get into this business? 46:40
Can you tell us the story of where you started to get into the agency world? 52:00
What keeps you up at night? 57:42
 
Takeaways 
We choose to compete against the client as opposed to competing against a competitor. In fact, we're choosing to compete against the client's understanding of how we would solve their problem. And that's the challenge for us in the process of closing a deal.
You can get a lot of bang for your buck, if you're just giving people a little bit of attention, here and there.
My goal always was, Can I meet one new person a week? Yeah, you know, one new person a week and one person I haven't talked to for a while and re-engage with them - Jessie
It might sound harsh, but if somebody really isn't valuable, don't just move on. There are people out there that end up really just being time thieves. And you spend a lot of time that is just not valid. 
There are people out there that end up really just being time thieves. And you spend a lot of time that is just not valid. And as you progress through your career, you build this sixth sense of like, Oh, I've met this person and they're a nice human being, but in the context of business, they're not going to be helpful but they're going to keep wanting to take. And you need to move on to another relationship where there's both give and take.
If somebody is at the company, and isn't the right fit for our clients, for our values, for the way that we want to work, we're both doing each other a disservice by not disengaging from that relationship.
The kindest thing to do sometimes is to disengage. 
 
Links 
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jcgrubbs/
Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/thegrubbsian/
Company website: https://madeintandem.com/
 
Busted Myths:
Sales is Overrated and Marketing is underrated

Haley Stracher is the CEO of Iris Design Collaborative, and an expert designer and marketing strategist. With more than 8 years of experience in graphic design and UI/UX, she has led creative teams at major publications and companies including the Chicago Tribune, American Osteopathic Association, and the University of Florida.
 
Discussion Points:
What myth or bogus strategy do you want to bust?  2:20
Tell us more about your experience and process. 3:41
How do you facilitate the collaboration? 12:06
 Do you have any tricks, tips, and tricks for maintaining the bonding between employees? 14:20
How did you get into this business? 16:10
What's the theme strength? 19:42
How do you guys find clients? 21:10
How did you overcome the fear of saying no to your clients? 25:12
What are the best practices that have given you more accurate estimates in the beginning? 27:25
How does your pricing model work? 30:22
What would you say was kind of one mistake that you made. 37:07
What keeps you up at night? 40:06
 
Takeaways 
Platforms are always changing. There are new design softwares rolling out all the time. But, the eagerness to learn, the excitement and passion is really what makes most amazing team members.
Hiring is hard, finding great team members is as hard; As an agency owner, you know, your team members are a huge part of what you do.
Everything that you say yes to, you're saying no to something else. 
Having the power to say ‘NO’ to your sales lead, having that strength to say, “No, I don't think we are the right fit” is a huge thing. It can help you win bigger deals, but not everyone thinks like that. - Varun
With the pricing of the contract versus the hourly component of it, the best way to manage that is to know how long a project takes with some of the standards. And then the upcharge is the nice way to say that for when they want to add on things. 
Set realistic goals for yourself because your team learns from you as a leader. 
 
Links 
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/haley-s-04b29939/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/irisdesigncollab/ 
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/irisdesigncollab/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/iris-design-collaborative/ 
Company website: https://www.irisdesigncollaborative.com/
 
Busted Myths:
The most technically skilled person may not be the best person to hire onto your team.

Bob Armbrister is the President and CEO of SPARK Business Works. Bob has led SPARK to serve hundreds of clients using a business-first approach to custom software. He leans on his experience as CIO at a national construction management firm to implement "The SPARK Way" – an approach of practical innovation that helps business leaders build tech that gets adopted (and brings ROI).
Discussion Points:
What myth or bogus strategy do you want to bust?  2:22
Tell us more about your experience with the SAAS products. 3:21
How does your billing model work? 6:20
What were your exit plans to shape your decisions? 9:20
Tell us more about your statement developers are winning.13:40
How is your business set up now? 18:00
Tell us about some of the experiences that you had, during the process of buying other agencies. 21:30
What would you say was kind of one mistake that you made. 24:00
Tell us about how you got into this business. 23:32
Is there any tip or trick that you use to keep your employee's stay? 28:00
How have things changed w/COVID? 30:50
How do you manage your team? 34:20
How have you kept the team connected? 36:31
Tell us about your experience with offshoring? 39:13
What keeps you up at night? 49:00
 
Takeaways 
You don't have to make sure that your idea is going to be the winner, if you're the one, servicing the entrepreneur and so.
The biggest thing in a SaaS business is churn. You're constantly trying to figure out churn, why are people leaving? What aren't you doing? What features do you need, you're trying to guess.
Not everybody has the same exit plan or the same strategy in terms of what growth looks like. - Jessie
The pressure on software-based markets is also the same as the service-based markets.
Entrepreneurs get it right one in a million.
The more experience you have, the more value you can add to the customer.
The more failures we have made in the past, make us able to not repeat them with future customers.
The Discovery of a problem is absolutely important. But at the same time, the person who is making that discovery also plays a huge role. - Varun
Links 
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bobarmbrister/
Company website: https://www.sparkbusinessworks.com/
 
Busted Myths:
Custom software is going to be needed for a long time.

Managing Partner at Lift Digital Marketing, a Full-Service Digital Marketing Agency specializing in generating leads for businesses. 
Discussion Points:
What myth or bogus strategy do you want to bust? (Myth 1) 1:44
What type of marketing services that you offer that do not require long-term agreements and How do you define your success metrics? 3:30
(Myth 2) 12:22
How does your billing model work? 21:20
Tell us about how you got into this business. 23:32
Is there any tip or trick that you can share? 32:50
How is your business set up now? 35:19
Tell us more about success and failures on working with freelancers and contractors model. 37:35
How do you manage your team? 41:59
What keeps you up at night? 47:03
How do you see the future of your agency? 49:04
Takeaways 
It can be a leap of faith to sign a contract, a six-month contract, or a year-long contract for somebody you have just interviewed
80% of client service is managing expectations.
Explaining somebody, teaching something to somebody, and then seeing that light bulb come on for them, that's an awesome feeling!
Everybody wants to hire somebody that's already baked. And that's why there are fewer jobs at the top and a dearth of jobs at the bottom.
With the willingness to develop people, there's a never-ending potential for talent.
When somebody says ‘yes’, it means that they're hearing you but not necessarily understanding you. You got to be real clear on conveying that understanding and being on the same page.
 
Links 
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aaronwelch/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/aaronmwelch
Company website: https://lift-digital.net/
Personal website: https://aaronmwelch.com/
Busted Myths:
The need for long-term contracts.
You don’t need to collect payment upfront.

Tamara is the Owner and Head of Operations at Studio Simpatico. Simpatico is a creative agency based out of Manhattan, providing a variety of services from user experience (UX) design & research, branding and identity, to mobile and web design, WordPress development and maintenance, and packaging/print collateral. 
 
Discussion Points:
What myth or bogus strategy do you want to bust? 1:25
What type of system and processes have you adopted? 4:50
Are there tools that you use specifically to manage your projects? 6:55
When you started a business, what was your vision? How is turning down the clients and projects helping you grow and scale? 8:52
How has your small-sized firm helped you and differentiate from other people or competitors? 15:50
What's the seniority level on your team? 17:30
What made you quit your corporate job and then start an agency and how did it all start? 19:38
What is the biggest mistake you made as an agency owner? 20:41
How have things changed w/COVID? 22:14
How do you maintain the culture in the team? How do you keep them motivated? 23:10
What's your favorite kind of sandwich? 25:30
What's the one thing that clients do that drives you bananas? 28:10
If you were going to identify a superpower for your agency, what would you say is your superpower amongst you? 33:27
As a small child, what did you want to be when you grew up? 36:09
What keeps you up at night? 37:45
What are you looking at for the future for your agency for growth? 41:11
Takeaways 
Design and development are not separate disciplines. The design affects how you're going to approach development, so is development affected by design.
Introducing people who aren't on the same page about how that process flow is going to go, can introduce a lot of inefficiencies.
Saying no, when we don't feel that we can provide, is the name of the game in a lot of respects.
There are different purposes for why we do what we do, and the way that we do it. -Jessie
Most things can be sorted out if the clients are asking for something, and maybe they don't quite understand something, that's where a little bit of mentorship goes a long way.
Links
 
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tamaraolson/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/tolsondesigns
Company LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/studio-simpatico/
Company website: https://studiosimpati.co/
Busted Myths:
 When you have a problem, throwing people at the problem will fix the problem.
 

Co-CEO at Atomic Object, where he works at the intersection of business and technology. Michael’s firm helps clients to research, identify, and create the right software products to suit their unique business needs. Atomic Object designs and builds web, desktop, mobile and embedded software products for clients ranging from Large scale businesses to SMEs and Startups, in diverse markets spanning automotive, healthcare, financial services, education, distribution and entertainment.
 
Discussion Points:
What myth or bogus strategy do you want to bust? 2:59
How has your strategy helped you build your company? 7:09
What are your thoughts on the misconception in the market around the word sales? 10:47
Can you give us a quick rundown on your career accelerator program? 21:30
What did you do to make your  career accelerator program work? 26:00
How have things changed w/COVID? :32:25
How do you do your pricing with your customers? 38:33
How successfully or unsuccessfully have you been able to implement EOS in your team? 40:30
What is one of the biggest mistakes that you've ever made? 51:30
What keeps you up at night? 1:00:53
Takeaways 
Buyers don't want to be sold, they want someone to solve their problem.
Process the information on what other people are saying and react to it in a thoughtful manner. 
Listening is a big part of selling. We have one mouth, but two ears, so we should definitely be listening more than we're talking.
It's a challenge finding the right person, it's finding the right person, that's the right fit for the company. 
“What if I can hire really smart, hungry people now and build a program that can very quickly, accelerate their career?” That was the premise behind the career accelerator program. - Michael Marsiglia
“Teach and learn”- this is my favorite value mantra. - Michael Marsiglia
Communicate clearly and effectively and know when and how.
 
Links
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-marsiglia-0726736/
Company website: https://atomicobject.com/
Company LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/atomic-object/
 
Busted Myths:
Designers and developers cannot sell.

Founder, CEO, and Chief Strategist for Alpha/Echo Agency, is a boutique marketing firm that helps exceptional companies grow, launch, and build. Alpha/Echo Agency is a group of smartisans—an unagency, fighting the good fight against unawesome work. 
 
Discussion Points:
What myth or bogus strategy do you want to bust? 1:39
What type of work agencies don't think that they can do for themselves? 4:19
How do you spend time on your own brand?  7:33 and 48:19
Tell us about how you got into this business. 28:16
What was the idea behind going after startups? How did that go? And where are you now? 30:00
How have things changed w/COVID? 37:25
How do you do your pricing with your customers? 41:30
What frustrates you the most with the clients? 49:52
What is one of the biggest mistakes that you've ever made? 54:40
What keeps you up at night? 58: 22
Takeaways 
 
There are two ways to be a product based agency; one is to create your own product and the other is to have a revenue share or partner based model.
The problem with applying yourself to your own marketing is there's a farther distance between revenue generation.
If your efforts aren't tied to compensation, or employee success metrics, then they're going to fail miserably.
The success metrics are really tied to two things: 1: Manageable, achievable goals that you're setting for yourself.2: The overall success of the company (in each budget).
The system is only as good as the execution. - Marc Acton
There's two things that make a system successful:1: Are people actually looking at it like that's the value of the system?2: If you make it punitive, you're almost assured of not having success.
The Great work would speak for itself.- Marc Acton
One of the tricks with clients is giving them two options, give them the one you like, and give them the one they asked for. - Jessie
Links
 
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/fastacton/
Company website: https://alphaechoagency.com/
Company LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/alpha-echo-agency/
Largest independent RV magazine by Marc Acton: https://iheartrving.com/
Busted Myths:
Agencies can't work for themselves.