How To Create Agency as An Agency Owner

When you have a sense of agency, you have the feeling that you’re in control of your actions and their consequences - you know what you want and you’re responsible for your own decisions.

We like to think we call the shots in our lives and businesses, yet, in my recent work,, I’ve encountered agency owners who feel a bit helpless or frustrated about the lack of agency they have over their agencies.

As an agency owner, you likely still wear a lot of different hats, resulting in too little time to focus on the things that will help you grow faster. 

After all, if you can’t get beyond putting out the fires and dealing with the day-to-day management of client work and managing your people it can feel like you have no agency.

When I talk to agency owners that feel this way, I often get told they would love to focus on more growth activities . . . but when?

I get it. I’m a business owner just like you. 

I’ve worked in the marketing space for nearly a decade, and I know the struggles of finding time and trying to figure out how to move yourself into more of a CEO role so you can grow your business. I used to feel that daily frustration - not sure how I was going to get everything done for my clients and have time to work on my business.

Not to mention the constant financial pressure to provide for my family and ensure those who worked for me could also thrive.

It was the constant time/money exchange that kept me from seeing how I might get agency over my business, and frankly my life.

Agency owners are in that constant conundrum and the truth is that the answer to getting agency over your business might be easier than you think.

First, it begins with understanding that doing more doesn’t work.

In fact, doing more has likely left you with fewer reserves and constant frustration. When I work with clients, I tell them the first step is understanding that you have to truly embrace the fact that while you are often responsible for the quality of your product - your job is actually to do less so that you can grow and get incredible work for the people on your team.

Agency for an agency owner begins with a commitment to no longer being the bottleneck of your business. It begins with a commitment to letting go of the good in exchange for the great.

That means you have to learn to set a clear vision, understand your non-negotiables and set clear boundaries. Not just with others, but with yourself.

To get out of the constant cycle you’re in, begin by anchoring yourself into a picture of what it looks like to have true agency in your agency. Ask yourself: What will your day-to-day look like? What needs to change  to make that happen?

Having a vision will help you say no to things that derail business growth such as scope creep, saying yes to clients who aren’t your ideal, and inserting yourself into every project when you have a team that could easily complete it without you!

The second step is one that is equally important.

To have true agency and create next-level growth, you have to look at the people you have in your business and understand them, their motivations, their strengths, and challenges. Most agency owners I work with believe they know their team, but often struggle to know how to keep them. This is why the work I do with agency owners is about digging deeper.

Just because one of your team members is good at managing a certain type of project, doesn’t mean they’re motivated to do so. And that can spell trouble for an agency owner trying to build a team that is committed to your vision and wants to stay in your organization.

As an agency owner, you already know you’re only as good as the people you’ve hired, but the key to really growing a team that thrives is understanding them.

For example, you may be motivated by the projects you have and solving complex problems for your clients, but the rest of your team members may not be. They may be motivated by finding better ways, contributing to a mission or even finding the right way to do things. Understanding this can be critical to communication, effective execution, and team growth . . . which ultimately allows you to do less.

The truth is you may be the one who sets the tone, value, and mission of your company, but if your team isn’t motivated by the same things as you are, they’ll move on - and that can be costly. 

And while you can’t live in your team members’ heads, you can begin to understand them. Because when you do, you can position your team in a more effective way and take things off your plate in a more sustainable way. This isn’t about just finding bodies to do things, it’s about finding the right bodies and putting them into the right place.

I work with a tool called the WHY.os. 

It’s a simple tool that delivers powerful results because it allows you and your team to see individual and group strengths in a whole new way. And that is really what I encourage you to do (even without the tool). Look always at each individual and what motivates them and how they show up - but also look at how that contributes to the whole.

What that will likely do is give you the opportunity to identify those areas where your team - especially your managing directors or management team - can step up and start to remove the unnecessary work from your plate..

You see, ultimately your job as an agency owner is to get new business, create authority for your business through visibility, and ensure that every product you deliver is top quality. That doesn’t mean you should be involved in everything  - instead, it means understanding who belongs where.

So, today I invite you to think about this. 

Take a look at your team members and decide if you can pinpoint what is important to them, their strengths, and what they shouldn’t be involved in. It will help you assess if you have the right people in the right place, and how you can become poised to create next-level business growth and boost your revenue.

If you’re interested in learning more about how I use the WHY.os with agencies to help them grow and become poised to increase revenue, improve team efficiency and communication, and develop stronger leadership, schedule a consultation call for free here! I’d love to show you how quickly you can build a stronger foundation for your business growth.

-Linda

About Linda Perry:  Linda a mindset coach & business strategist, speaker and recovering attorney who has helped hundreds of people crack their own success code and find greater freedom, make more money and find balance.

She spent 17 years as a federal criminal defense attorney in Chicago, and left only to to pursue her passion in coaching and business strategy (particularly with a focus on marketing and copy) after witnessing how much it impacted her life and helped her redefine success. 

With certifications from the esteemed Ford Institute, established by best selling author and teacher Debbie Ford, and from the Levin Life Coach Academy, where she is the lead business instructor guiding life coaches how to build a profitable life coach business -  Linda works with business owners & agencies looking to develop a team poised to grow to $3-5M in revenue..

She is the host of the Higher Ground Roundtable and regularly is a guest speaker on a variety of podcasts and stages focused on using mindset tools to get further. Linda currently lives in Lisbon, Portugal but frequently returns to the US to work with clients and their teams.