Agency Bytes

Ep 058 – Mary Ann Pruitt, Mosaic Agency – Media for the Ages

Featuring: Mary Ann Pruitt, Mosaic Agency

In this episode I got to sit with Mary Ann Pruitt, CEO and president of Mosaic Media, and discuss the need for specialized media buying expertise in the agency space. She explains how Mosaic Media helps agencies by providing media buying services without the high overhead costs. Mary Ann emphasizes the importance of collaboration and partnership between agencies and specialized service providers. She also discusses the evolution of media consumption and the impact of COVID-19 on media habits. Mary Ann recommends the book 'Miracle Morning' and advises listeners to trust their gut instincts in business.

Key Takeaways

• Specialized media buying expertise is crucial in the agency space to optimize return on investment.

• Collaboration and partnership between agencies and specialized service providers can lead to stronger client outcomes.

• The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated changes in media consumption habits, with older generations embracing online platforms and younger generations rediscovering traditional media.

• The book 'Miracle Morning' offers valuable insights on establishing morning routines for personal and professional growth.

• Trusting your gut instincts is important in business decision-making.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction and Background

07:01 The High Overhead Costs of Media

13:04 The Impact of Data and Micro-Targeting

27:24 Hobbies, Tools, and Business Advice

Mary Ann Pruitt is the CEO and President at Mosaic Media, a collection of media-buying experts and creative strategists who negotiate, purchase, and monitor advertising space and airtime. Mary Ann started her career in media by working as a senior sales executive for some of the nation’s largest media outlets. After discovering her talent and love for all things media strategy, she founded Mosaic as a way to provide niche expert experience to agencies and marketing departments across the country.

Her hard work and savvy strategy skills have led Mosaic to year-over-year growth, and have expanded her impact as an industry leader in all things traditional, digital, and everything in between. Reflecting this is a 2020 award from Cynopsis Media naming her as a Top Woman in Media.

Mary Ann has helped develop effective marketing strategies for agencies of all sizes, small businesses, service businesses, private educational institutions, and legal and professional services businesses along

with many others. She is passionate about passing on the experience that she has gained to eager professionals looking for actionable marketing tips.

Contact Mary Ann on her website.

Ep 057 – Emily Cohen & Hunter Vargas, Casa Davka – Nailing the Client Relationship

Featuring: Emily Cohen & Hunter Vargas, Casa Davka

In Episode 57, I had the privilege of sitting down with the dynamic duo behind Casa Davka – Emily Cohen and Hunter Vargas. This episode is jam-packed with valuable insights for agency owners looking to master their positioning, niching, and client relationships. We dive deep into strategic approaches for expanding expertise and fostering stronger client connections. From navigating business development to addressing harmful industry practices, we cover it all. We also explore the evolving landscape of remote work and its impact on team effectiveness, while emphasizing the importance of fair compensation and trust-building in remote agencies. Plus, we discuss the advantages of global talent, vertical niching strategies, achieving work-life balance, and fostering a culture of trust. As always, expect a no-nonsense conversation that cuts through the noise. Don't miss out on this episode!

Key Takeaways

• Clients are taking longer to close deals, so patience is key.

• Strategy is becoming increasingly important in the design industry.

• Ethical business practices, such as fair contracts and pricing, are crucial.

Work-life balance and setting boundaries are essential for personal and professional well-being.

• Capturing metrics is important to measure success and prove the value of design.

• Take action and don't wait for perfection.Chapters

Emily Cohen, Founder & Partner at Casa Davka, is a no-nonsense business consultant who has partnered with 500+ leading creative firms worldwide. At Casa Davka, Emily offers customized business solutions to creative businesses so they are able to: envision and plan for their future, position themselves to stay competitive, attract and qualify new business prospects and talent, refine, evolve, and elevate their organizational structure and reimagine existing processes to increase efficiency and effectiveness.

Emily is a frequently requested main stage speaker within the creative industry and has spoken at hundreds of international, national, and local conferences and events for organizations such as Creative Mornings, AIGA, Association of Registered Graphic Designers (RGD), and Creative South.

In 2018, she self-published her business book for creatives, Brutally Honest: No-bullshit business strategies to evolve your creative business. Brutally Honest has become a go-to business book for creative industry professionals worldwide and several universities use it as a teaching tool.

Emily is a designer by degree, an avid reader, a dog-lover, a trend-spotter, a connection-builder, and an industry advocate.

After working with multiple creative firms, Hunter officially joined Emily’s practice in Summer 2022 to grow our practice, elevate our offerings, and provide a fresh perspective to our clients. Her experience as a marketer, project manager, client partner, and business development manager paired with her on-the-ground insight and unique, younger perspective is a huge asset to our consulting practice. Hunter truly knows our industry inside and out.

She also happens to be Emily’s daughter and can read her mind so they work together seamlessly, complementing each other in many ways.

Contact Casa Davka on their website, or Emily or Hunter’s LinkedIn pages.

Ep 056 – Wayne Pelletier, Resonant Pixel Company – Selling Productization

Featuring: Wayne Pelletier, Resonant Pixel Company

In this episode, Wayne Pelletier, founder of Resonant Pixel Co, discusses the process of productizing agency services and the benefits it brings. He shares his journey from being a marketing assistant to launching his own agency and explains why he chose to focus on Squarespace as the platform for his services. Wayne emphasizes the importance of niching down and serving a specific audience, as well as the mindset shift required to transition from a project-based model to a subscription-based model. He also highlights the challenges and rewards of productization and the potential for scalability and growth.

Key Takeaways

• Productizing agency services involves niching down and focusing on a specific audience or platform.

• A subscription-based model can provide more predictable revenue and eliminate the feast and famine cycle of project-based work.

• Choosing the right platform, such as Squarespace, can offer stability, scalability, and the ability to hire predictably for talent.

• Productization requires a mindset shift from being a designer to being a business owner, focusing on access to expertise and lifetime value.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction and Pronunciation
08:10 Transitioning to a Subscription-Based Model
12:54 The Benefits of Productization and Lifetime Value
23:04 Serving Small Businesses and Providing Relief

Wayne came up working at world-renowned digital agencies as a designer, art director, and creative director. He has helped some of the world's best brands with award-winning strategic design and customer experiences. After 24 years of agency life, he founded Resonant Pixel Company in 2020 and is helping small businesses go beyond brochure-ware websites. And he's doing it with a productized subscription business model.

Contact Wayne on his website or on LinkedIn.

Ep 055 – Jacob Cass, JUST Creative – How to Stand Out Like a Flamingo

Featuring: Jacob Cass, Founder of JUST Creative

In this episode, I had the pleasure of chatting with Jacob Cass from JUST Creative about his remarkable journey from digital nomad and designer to his current roles as an agency owner, educator, and blogger. We delve into how Jacob manages to juggle multiple ventures while maintaining focus and standing out in the industry. His pursuit of creative freedom drives him to embrace new technologies and innovative ideas, such as the AI bots he's developed to support branding efforts for agencies. We also explore topics like affiliate marketing, value-based pricing, marketplace positioning, and more. Tune in for the full conversation and gain insights from Jacob's wealth of experience!

Key Takeaways

• Embrace AI in design and see how it can improve your process and productivity.

• Diversify your revenue streams to create a more stable and sustainable business.

• Consider value-based pricing to reflect the value you bring to clients rather than charging by the hour.

• Reflect, recalibrate, and refocus regularly to adapt to changes in the market and set new goals.

• Try new tools and don't be afraid to experiment and find what works best for you.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction and Background

08:24 The Role of Design in Jacob's Business

23:55 Experimenting with Tools and Embracing Change

Jacob Cass is a brand designer, strategist, educator, podcaster, business coach, community builder, and the founder of JUST Creative, a branding & design consultancy that doubles as an industry-leading blog and community.

Jacob helps grow brands strategically and has worked for clients such as Disney, Nintendo, and Jerry Seinfeld however he is now focused on bringing this global brand experience to smaller businesses.

For Jacob, design is a lifelong journey of continuously honing his craft, as well as empowering other fellow designers & entrepreneurs to build on theirs, which has allowed him to build a large and loyal following, including his JUST Creative website which has been viewed over 70 million times.

Jacob has spoken at TEDx and been featured in Entrepreneur, Forbes, and a number of high-profile design books including The Best of Logo Lounge Master Series.

Jacob holds a Bachelor of Visual Communication (Graphic Design Major) from The University of Newcastle, Sydney, Australia, and a Brand Master Certification from Brand Master Academy, and over 17 years of experience in the industry with multiple awards on his belt.

Jacob co-hosts the JUST Branding Podcast which helps designers & entrepreneurs grow brands.

He also coaches creatives in his Inner Triangle Coaching Program, either 1:1 or in a group mastermind setting. Yahoo! recently declared him as the “Best Brand Coach”.

Jacob also runs the membership community Exponential Creatives which helps creatives grow exponentially.

Jacob is a digital nomad and travels the world now isolated in Sydney with his family of four while running JUST Creative.

He has visited 88 countries thus far with travel guides most of them available at his travel blog, JUST Globetrotting.

Contact Justin on his website, listen to his podcast, download his Branding Briefcase Freebie, and subscribe to his newsletter.

Ep 054 – Mark Riggs – Secrets to Organic Account Growth

Featuring: Mark Riggs, CEO of Pemberton

In this episode, I got to sit with Mark Riggs from Pemberton, a consultant and coach for agencies. He shares his insights on shifting from the RFP rat race to building organic growth of existing and new clients. He emphasizes the importance of solving client problems and being proactive in account growth. Mark discusses the need to set expectations with clients from the beginning and continuously communicate and collaborate with them. He also highlights the value of focusing on organic growth and investing the same energy and innovation into existing clients as in winning new business. Mark advises agency owners to start out with defined principles and have patience in their journey. Tune in to hear his top secrets on nailing organic account growth.

Key Takeaways

• Focus on solving client problems and being proactive in account growth.

• Set expectations with clients from the beginning and continuously communicate and collaborate with them.

• Invest the same energy and innovation into existing clients as in winning new business.

• Start out with defined principles and have patience in your agency journey.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction and Background

01:04 Shift in Biz Dev and Account Growth

09:36 Setting Expectations and Scoping

14:21 Operational Scoping and Profitability

23:08 Lessons from Marketing During Downturns

25:49 Invaluable Business Advice

Mark is the founder and CEO of Pemberton which is a management consultancy that exists to be the go-to resource for marketing/communications agencies to discover and reveal pathways to organic growth while changing the mindset of an RFP-obsessed industry.

Before starting Pemberton, Mark spent 20-plus years in the agency world working for IPG’s Mullen Lowe, an Ad Age A-List Agency, Taylor, the Holmes Report’s Consumer Agency of the Decade, MWWPR and French/West/Vaughan, the Southeast’s largest independent agency.

Mark has spent a career learning the art of integrated communication developing and executing award-winning consumer programs for brands and companies like Allstate, Honda, Ford, Kimberly-Clark, Polaris, Coke, Diageo, RJ Reynolds, SunTrust Banks, the U.S. Navy, the Atlantic Coast Conference and ESPN, to name a few.

Mark has a reputation as a business-builder and a strategic counselor and has experience in leading client services, insights and planning functions, as well as developing talent. A creative thinker and problem-solver, Mark believes that great thinking can “come from anywhere,” it’s the ability to harness it and leverage it for clients that makes the intellectual property of the agency valuable and an integral part of the marketing mix.

Contact Mark on his website, his personal LinkedIn, or his company LinkedIn.

Ep 053 – Nicholas Petroski, Promethean Research – Repeatable Revgen

Featuring: Nicholas Petroski, Promethean Research

In this episode, I got to speak to Nick Pretroski from Promethean Research and we dig into the topic of recurring revenue generation for agencies. Nick breaks down some Revgen strategies and talks about how essential it is to build a machine (AKA a system that works for YOU) that companies can use to repeatedly generate new leads, converting them into sales, bringing them through delightful delivery processes, and turning them into evangelists. We talk about the four key areas of Revgen and the owners’ role in these areas, and ways to shift some of those responsibilities off of the owner's plate to expand the efforts of the team. Nick also lays out some of the key metrics to keep your eye on to measure the results of your RevGen efforts.

Key Takeaways

• Having a system in place for repeatable revenue generation (RevGen) is crucial for digital agencies to grow reliably and with higher margins.
• Transitioning from a practitioner role to a business development leadership role is essential for agency owners to focus on strategic growth.
• The RevGen system consists of four roles: biz dev, sales, account management, and marketing, each responsible for specific stages of the client lifecycle.
• Avoiding bloated spending and tracking key metrics are important for the success of the RevGen system.
• Being methodical in building a RevGen system can help alleviate stress and make running a business easier.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction and Background
03:44 Understanding Repeatable RevGen
09:14 Transitioning from Practitioner to Biz Dev Leadership
13:49 The Four Roles in the RevGen System
16:18 Implementing the RevGen System
20:16 Key Metrics for RevGen Success
24:16 Hobbies and New Tools
26:01 Valuable Business Advice

I’m Nick. I run Promethean. A boutique consultancy that helps digital agencies grow more reliably with higher margins and simpler operations.

Since 2015, I’ve been helping digital firms better understand their industry and chart more effective paths to success.

Prior to co-founding Promethean, I worked as an equity analyst at a Wall St. firm where I covered the enterprise software and semiconductor industries. Before that, I spent a bit of time in corporate finance.

When I’m not in the office, you can find me backpacking around the Midwest or making fancy firewood in my woodshop.

Contact Nick on his website, on LinkedIn, or learn about repeatable RevGen for Digital Agencies here.

Ep 052 – Tracy Goodheart, The PR Accelerator – Standing Out in the Crowd

Featuring: Tracy Goodheart, The PR Accelerator

In this episode, I got to talk to Tracy Goodheart from The PR Accelerator about her journey from being a journalist to helping individuals and brands attract sustained media attention without a publicist. She discusses the evolution of social media and its impact on journalism, emphasizing the importance of earned media over social media for brand credibility. Tracy also highlights the value of creating a messaging system and leveraging ghostwriting to elevate thought leadership within agencies. She advises agency owners to seek external validation and shares her insights on standout strategies in the marketplace.

Key Takeaways

• Earned media is more valuable than social media for brand credibility.
• Creating a messaging system can help streamline communication and ensure consistency.
• Ghostwriting can elevate thought leadership within agencies and humanize senior leadership.
• Seeking external validation can boost self-confidence and protect against workplace bullying.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction and Background
03:16 The Evolution of Social Media and Journalism
06:46 Leveraging Social Media and Earned Media
09:21 Creating a Messaging System
10:59 Ghostwriting and Thought Leadership
13:30 The Impact of Ghostwriting on Agency Culture
20:36 Random Rapid-Fire Questions
24:06 Invaluable Business Advice

Tracy Samantha Goodheart is the founder of The PR Accelerator, a different kind of PR company. Simply put, she helps individuals and brands nail their messaging and attract positive, sustained media attention without a publicist. She also teaches marketing globally for the University of Chicago and has advised more than 75 brands on their marketing and communications.

A journalist by training, Tracy has 15 years of media experience working in every type of newsroom. She began her career as a reporter at TIME Magazine, where she covered the rise of Facebook and developed new methods for reporting breaking news. She also created a blog network for the Chicago Tribune, led global social media strategy for Crain Communications – the publisher of titles like Ad Age, InvestmentNews, and Modern Healthcare – and has trained hundreds of working journalists how to find original story ideas. Tracy has also been a frequent TV commentator and taught graduate journalism school.

A Chicago native, she now lives in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, where she and her husband are renovating a historic general store and starting a lavender farm.

Contact Tracy through her website or on LinkedIn.

Ep 051 – Debra Rizzi, Rizco Design – WBENC Agency Tips

Featuring: Debra Rizzi, Rizco Design

In episode 051, I had the great privilege of speaking with my long-time friend, Debra Rizzi, partner and president of Rizco, a women-owned brand-led marketing agency. We got to discuss the launch and evolution of her agency nearly 25 years ago, the benefits of becoming a certified woman-owned business, and the integration of new tools and processes like EOS. She emphasizes the importance of community involvement and maintaining core values and culture in her agency. She also talks about her day-to-day responsibilities and offers business advice, including the significance of gratitude and self-acknowledgment.

Key Takeaways

• Launching a business can arise from unexpected circumstances and opportunities.
• Becoming a certified woman-owned business can open doors and provide access to funding and resources.
• Integrating new tools and processes can enhance efficiency and effectiveness.
• Community involvement and maintaining core values and culture are essential for long-term success.
• Expressing gratitude and acknowledging personal achievements are important for personal and professional growth.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction and Background
01:08 The Launch of Rizco
05:47 Certification as a Women-Owned Business
07:04 Benefits of Women-Owned Business Certification
09:34 Integration of New Tools and Processes
10:17 Business Development Opportunities
12:40 Involvement in the Community
20:53 Day-to-Day Responsibilities
25:23 Binging and New Tools
27:15 Business Advice
29:36 Gratitude and Self-Acknowledgment
29:59 Closing Remarks

Debra Rizzi has over 25 years of experience in developing brand strategies for local, national, and international companies. She is a partner and president of Rizco, a woman-owned, brand-led marketing agency, which she co-founded in 2000.

Upon graduating from Bucknell University, Debra worked in the finance department of corporate Lord & Taylor. Later, she managed the creative department of the global public relations firm, Porter Novelli.

Debra is a past NJ Biz “40 Under 40” recipient and 2020 NJBIZ’s “50 Best Women in Business” Award. She is a member of many business organizations, currently serves on Wall High School’s Business and Finance Academy’s Advisory Board, and served 8 years on Bucknell University’s Alumni Association Board of Directors.

On a personal level, Debra’s partner in life and in business is her husband, Keith, and together they balance the lives of their three daughters, Mia, Marley, and Monroe.

Contact Debra through her agency website, Facebook, Instagram, or on Linkedin.