Agency Bytes

Ep 037 – Owen Williams, Founder, Managing Partner of Outside Lines

Featuring: Owen Williams, Founder, Managing Partner of Outside Lines

In this episode, I got to speak with Owen Williams from Outside Lines, a creative industry talent strategy and recruitment company. We spent time talking about how Outside Lines helps transform agencies with their experience in building solid and nimble teams. Owen shares how important it is to focus on roles that develop skills in rising stars and how lessons can be learned from all experiences, no matter how good or bad they seem to be. He breaks down how vital it is to approach recruitment from a strategy standpoint, to dig under the hood of the shop, and to get a deeper understanding of the day-to-day and long-term goals and how recruitment can help accomplish them. We also dug into the need for more diverse leadership in the industry and how we’re already seeing a shift in the lower third of the teams being developed now.

Owen has led global organizations in attracting, hiring, and retaining talent. He has restructured and opened new offices in the United States, EMEA, LATAM and APAC regions, and has built recruiting departments from the ground up.

His career has been driven by his passion for cultivating great teams who go on to make things that affect and change the modern culture. Before founding Outside Lines, Owen had the privilege of working for some of the world’s best creative agencies, including TBWA\Media Arts Lab, Mother, and 72andSunny.

It was in those leading organizations that he honed his craft for identifying unique, divergent talent, in and out of the advertising industry, shaping teams that would go on to create world-class work.

When not working, you can find him spending time with family and friends, introducing his son to art and design, golfing (whenever possible…), and eating his way through cities across the globe.

Contact Own on his website or on Instagram.

Ep 036 – Matt Wolach, Ringbot.io

Featuring: Matt Wolach, Ringbot.io

In this episode, I got to speak to Matt Wolach from Ringbot. We dug into the benefits of SMS marketing and outreach and how it dovetails into bigger picture marketing strategies. Matt breaksdown how consumers interact with SMS vs. email, web chats, and other communication tools that brands are using. He leans into conversational vendor lead generation for building funnels and how to continue the one-to-one conversation.

Meet Matt, CEO of RingBot (a texting tool that helps agencies get better results for their clients), and personal Coach to business owners.

With 3 startup exits, he has a lot of experience to share. His focus is primarily on growth including sales, marketing, and specific tactics for increasing revenues quickly.

Contact Matt on his website or on Twitter.

Ep 035 – Sherri and Reuben Johnson from Fly Media Productions – Two of Two

Featuring: Sherri and Reuben Johnson from Fly Media Productions

In this first-ever two-part episode, Sherri, Reuben, and I talked about how they paved the way into their niche by following a passion that took their marriage to the next level. How implementing EOS lead to a rebrand and informed their overall agency messaging and niche targeting. They shared some of the secret sauce on how they successfully navigate running an agency as a married couple who both have chronic illnesses and ADD. The Fly Duo shared about a few of their side passion projects and how the ambition of eliminating stigma and having sex-positive conversations happen to also be fueling their agency growth. Tune into both episodes to hear the full conversation!

Reuben and Sherri Johnson, affectionately known as the FlyDuo®, are partners in life, love, crime, and everything in between. They are co-founders of Atlanta’s premier award-winning, sex-positive brand agency Fly Media Productions®; co-founders of SexTech n’ Chill™, a handpicked selection of news, products, and experiences thoughtfully curated by the couple for pleasure seekers; and co-hosts of the podcast-style web show The FlyDuo Sex Project™.

In addition to their own projects, Reuben and Sherri currently serve as official ambassadors for The Bureau of Digital and Erika Lust’s “The Porn Conversation”.

Contact the FlyDuo on their websites, FlyMediaProductions.com and ST&C Special Project Website, on LinkedIn for FlyDuo, LinkedIn for FLy Media, Instagram for FlyyMedia, Instagram for ST&C, and on X.

Ep 035 – Sherri and Reuben Johnson, Fly Media Productions – One of Two

Featuring: Sherri and Reuben Johnson from Fly Media Productions

In this first-ever two-part episode, Sherri, Reuben, and I talked about how they paved the way into their niche by following a passion that took their marriage to the next level. How implementing EOS lead to a rebrand and informed their overall agency messaging and niche targeting. They shared some of the secret sauce on how they successfully navigate running an agency as a married couple who both have chronic illnesses and ADD. The Fly Duo shared about a few of their side passion projects and how the ambition of eliminating stigma and having sex-positive conversations happen to also be fueling their agency growth. Tune into both episodes to hear the full conversation!

Reuben and Sherri Johnson, affectionately known as the FlyDuo®, are partners in life, love, crime, and everything in between. They are co-founders of Atlanta’s premier award-winning, sex-positive brand agency Fly Media Productions®; co-founders of SexTech n’ Chill™, a handpicked selection of news, products, and experiences thoughtfully curated by the couple for pleasure seekers; and co-hosts of the podcast-style web show The FlyDuo Sex Project™.

In addition to their own projects, Reuben and Sherri currently serve as official ambassadors for The Bureau of Digital and Erika Lust’s “The Porn Conversation”.

Contact the FlyDuo on their websites, FlyMediaProductions.com and ST&C Special Project Website, on LinkedIn for FlyDuo, LinkedIn for FLy Media, Instagram for FlyyMedia, Instagram for ST&C, and on X.

Ep 034 – Melissa Morris, Agency Authority

Featuring: Melissa Morris, Agency Authority

In this episode, I got to speak to Melissa Morris from Agency Authority where she works with agencies on process and system optimization. Melissa and I talk about how agencies can leverage the proper systems, tools, and processes to grow healthily and use these tools to optimize agency availability and profitability. Melissa shares some of the benchmarks and areas that agency owners and operations managers should watch for in a growth stage in order to avoid some of the pitfalls that come with scaling.

As the founder of Agency Authority, a project management and operations consultancy for agency owners, I use my 10 years of agency experience to help business owners maximize their teams, increase their productivity, and grow their profits. Firmly committed to breaking the ‘long hours and bad pay’ stigma that plagues the agency world, my team and I help business owners and their team members do the work they love without sacrificing client satisfaction, the bottom line, or their own sanity.

Connect with Melissa on their website, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Facebook.

Ep 033 – Ryan Watson, Upsourced Accounting

Featuring: Ryan Watson, Upsourced Accounting

In this episode, Ryan Watson from Upsourced Accounting delivers an exciting talk about agency numbers, accounting, benchmarking, and things to watch for in agency growth. He and his team are deeply niched as an agency accounting firm and he shares some of their viewpoints on how they help agencies monitor the “right numbers” at the right stage of their lifecycle. These lifecycle stages bring forth the hierarchy of financial needs for agencies and how they differentiate from stage to stage.

Ryan is an experienced operations and finance leader for creative agencies and venture-funded startups. As a partner at Upsourced, he helps scaling agencies build better plans, see the future, and drive profits. Prior to Upsourced, Ryan led operations and finance for a large influencer marketing and ad agency, Ahalogy, where they built the team to over 50 people and $10M in annual AGI before selling to Quotient Technology (NYSE: QUOT) in June 2018.

Connect with Ryan on their website, YouTube Podcast, and blog.

Ep 032 - Chris Puma and Steph Hastings, The Inturnship

Featuring: Chris Puma and Steph Hastings, The Inturnship

For the first time in the history of this podcast, I got to have two guests on board when I spoke to Chris Puma and Steph Hasting of the Inturnship. The Inturnship is their response to the impact of covid on student internships and how they're flipping this part of the industry on its head. Acting as an agency, led by seasoned agency veterans, The Inturnship is pulling in talented interns who are mentored to do real-world client work – for pay. Competing with the “mock-up world” of most ad schools, their teams handle creative assignments ranging from full brand strategy and identity to ongoing social content to interactive websites and content strategy. To date, The Inturnship has a placement rate of nearly 90%, delivering well-trained interns into their first “grown-up” jobs in the industry.

Chris Puma is Associate Creative Director at BASIC/DEPT® the most webby-awarded agency of the past decade. In 2020, he Co-Founded The Inturnship to help create a new process and pipeline for emerging talent. When he’s not working on his own career, or helping others begin theirs, you can find him tending to his indoor plant collection or snowboarding at Mt. Hood.

Steph Hastings is a Senior Web Designer at prAna Living, a small active clothing brand based in Southern California. The right mix of good storytelling and functional design is a beloved daily practice and one that we focus closely on at The Inturnship. When not leading the charge with design projects, Steph is walking her corgi jasper, or hitting the trails for distance runs.

Connect with The Inturnship here.

Ep 031 – Khalil Stultz, Lima Partners

Featuring: Khalil Stultz, Lima Partners

In this episode, I spoke with Khalil Stults from Lima Partners and I Know a Guy about his career path that lead to him discovering his entrepreneurial bug and how he leaned into it. He shares some of his experience in growing a digital marketing agency by 240% after buying into it as an equity partner. He also talks about how he leverages capital through liquidity events for growth strategies. Khalil is an M&A advisor and expert and shared his insights on the ideal DNA of a sellable agency and how to get to that stature. He shares how owners can put their company through the “vacation test” to see how the business will collapse or thrive in their absence, and what those results mean for the growth and possible acquisition of the company.

Khalil Stultz is an Investor | Growth Consultant | Actively Acquiring & Growing Small to Medium-Sized Businesses If You're In Need of an Exit or Expansion...I'm the Guy.

Connect with Khalil on LinkedIn or his website.