Welcome to Agency Thinking, conversations around all things creative and marketing agency: working in them, working for them, leaving them to do your own thing, starting or rebooting an agency ... and more.
In Season 1 we talked through the areas that co-host Dave needed to address, to launch his content consultancy.
Season 2 sees me chat with compadres who work with agencies: e.g creative, tech, pm, planning partners: how does the ecosystem work and what can that teach agencies?
Agency Thinking is brought to you by agency growth coach Mark Kelly.
Season 1 was produced by Word and Mouth.
Strategies for Building Effective Agency Services and Systems
Note this is another AI-generated review of some of my written guides.
In this case, 2 separate guides that are linked but I'd never tried to synthesize them, until I used NotebookLM to do that.
AI does a pretty good job here IMHO and I got some interesting insights listening to the 'hosts' talk through my 2 guides.
(1. "Effective agency systems" - which focused on establishing efficient operational systems, encompassing processes, platforms, and people management within a digital agency.
2. "Avoiding The Pitfalls of launching new services" - which provided a roadmap for launching and growing successful digital services, highlighting common pitfalls and strategies for overcoming them.)
Agency Owner or Account Handler?
Let me know what you think!
23 Sept 2024
Account Growth - The AI review special
This one-off episode of Agency Thinking brings NotebookLM's nascent abilities to bear on a review of one of my agency guides - 'Account growth for savvy Account Handlers'.
Created as a way of test-driving NotebookLM, it actually worked out to be a useful and engaging 'podcast' - have a listen.
8 Jun 2021
Agency Thinking S2 E6 - Peter Cobley from FOUNDUS
Season 2 of Agency Thinking sees me talking to compadres who work WITH not IN agencies:
Guests include creative, planning, wellbeing, data and recruitment specialists.
It's about what the experience of working with an agency is like from the outside: the good stuff, the not so good, lessons learned, warts and all.
Episode 6: Mark talks to Peter Cobley.
Peter runs FoundUs, a Headhunting and business strategy consultancy.
FoundUs finds roles for senior people who want to grow their careers or develop themselves. Before setting up FoundUs, Peter spent many years at a senior level within agencies and has an authoritative point of view on the wider agency ecosystem.
Peter is a straight talker and with the guiding principle of 'do no harm' - he has been known to turn engagements down if he thinks the fit isn't right between him and an agency or brand client.
Peter can be found at https://www.foundus.co.uk/
1 Jun 2021
Agency Thinking S2 E5 - Dave Thackeray from WORD AND MOUTH
Season 2 of Agency Thinking sees me talking to compadres who work WITH not IN agencies:
Guests include creative, planning, tech and pm specialists.
It's about what the experience of working with an agency is like from the outside, the good stuff, the not so good, lessons learned, warts and all.
Episode 5 features Dave Thackeray.
Dave has spent 25 years working with organisations of all shapes and sizes to create clear, captivating content to convert them.
His new communications company Word And Mouth (wordandmouth.com (http://wordandmouth.com/)) is working with clients on a pay-for-performance basis - and Dave is seeking agencies for no-risk project partnerships.“it's fundamental to my values. And how others can take a cue.”
We talk about that approach as well as around agency structures and how agencies can thrive in the years ahead.
24 May 2021
Agency Thinking S2 E4 - Sarah Knight from MIND THE GAP
Season 2 of Agency Thinking sees me talking to compadres who work WITH not IN agencies:
Guests include creative, planning, tech and pm specialists.
It's about what the experience of working with an agency is like from the outside, the good stuff, the not so good, lessons learned, warts and all.
Episode 4: Sarah Knight runs Mind the Gap (https://www.mindthegap.academy/ (https://www.mindthegap.academy/)).
Sarah Knight is a trainer in human skills. A leadership and management trainer. A business coach. She is passionate about Wellbeing in the Workplace, providing a range of training programmes placing people and their well-being at the heart.
She is a qualified NLP practitioner utilising science-based techniques to develop skills, strengths and emotional intelligence to help people thrive in the workplace.
Sarah has spent the best part of the last 25 years working in businesses building teams, developing staff and helping people reach their potential.
Mind The Gap is her training academy providing a range of different training programmes suited to different levels of experience and expertise – from coaching-led leadership modules to up-skilling staff, business owners, freelance consultants and also helping in-house teams develop and learn.
24 May 2021
Agency Thinking S2 E3 - Raj Randhawa from WORDUP
Season 2 of Agency Thinking sees me talking to compadres who work WITH not IN agencies:
Guests include creative, planning, tech and pm specialists.
It's about what the experience of working with an agency is like from the outside, the good stuff, the not so good, lessons learned, warts and all.
Episode 3:
Raj Randhawa runs WordUp, a specialist content marketing agency that helps agencies and brands tell their story, by helping them get real clarity around their marketing messages.
We talk about how agencies can get the best from Raj and his years of experience, agencies models, the impact on of technology on content creation, pricing models and more.
Raj can be found at http://www.wordup.agency/ (http://www.wordup.agency/)
Season 2 of Agency Thinking sees me talking to compadres who work WITH not IN agencies:
Guests include creative, planning, tech and pm specialists.
It's about what the experience of working with an agency is like from the outside. The good stuff, the not so good, lessons learned, warts and all.
Episode 2:
Gemma Teed has spent the last 20 years in dedicated planning/strategic roles working for and with northern agencies, including roles at Poulters, Brahm/Brass and Bloom/Jaywing as Head of Planning.
Gemma is a long-term freelance working with agencies (and the occasional direct client) in Leeds, Manchester and London.
She is a Visiting Professional on Leeds Arts University's Creative Advertising degree course and deliverer of strategic thinking and creative brief writing training to agency account handlers.
Gemma can be found at https://almostalwaysthinking.com/ (https://almostalwaysthinking.com/).
FUN FACT: Gemma Teed is the only Gemma Teed on the web / possibly in the world.
23 May 2021
Agency Thinking S2 E1 - Jim Woodhead - JAYWOOD
Season 2 of Agency Thinking sees me talking to compadres who work WITH not IN agencies:
Guests include creative, planning, tech and pm specialists.
It's about what the experience of working with an agency is like from the outside, the good stuff, the not so good, lessons learned, warts and all.
Episode 1: Jim Woodhead from JAYWOOD,
Jim is a specialist in all things optimisation, analytics and fettling (Jim explains more as we chat). We talked about how agencies get the best from him, collaboration, agency confidence, account handler support and more.
More details about Jim's business can be found at http://jaywood.agency/ (http://jaywood.agency/)
JAYWOOD: A digital marketing and content agency for brands with annoyingly complex audiences
2 Sept 2019
Season 1 Episode 6: What Price Awesome?
You provide great services and offer an evidenced difference to your clients.. but how do you put a price on that? Mark walks Dave through some thoughts on how to price your services. Including the perennial agency world discussion around 'Value' versus time-based fees.
2 Sept 2019
Season 1 Episode 5: Focus your New Business efforts for maximum effect.
Dave had fairly fixed ideas on how to attract new business to his startup, which Mark (constructively!) challenges and lays out a workshop approach he uses, based on the Traction / Bullseye book from Gabriel Weinberg.
2 Sept 2019
Season 1 Episode 4: Creating Value Propositions - put in the work and reap the rewards.
In this episode Mark talks Dave through Value Propositions: what they are and why you need one. And explains how Dave can then 'unpack' them in his marketing collateral. VPs are as useful (and important!) to a startup as an agency looking to reboot.
2 Sept 2019
Season 1 Episode 3: Are you talking to me? The power of Buyer Personas.
Being (really) clear about who your ideal client is will put you in great shape, as you grow your creative business / agency. Mark talks to Dave about a practical approach to defining and visualising his ideal clients: his Buyer Personas.
2 Sept 2019
Season 1 Episode 2: What's the plan, Dave? A goals framework for your business.
Dave is about to launch his content consultancy - and potentially a fledgling agency - so Mark talks him through structuring his ambition for that, using a goals framework.
1 Sept 2019
Season 1 Episode 1: Introduction to the Agency Thinking podcast
Mark and Dave talk through where Dave is looking to take his soon to be launched content consultancy. Mark introduces the areas that he thinks Dave should be focussing on.
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