In a couple of recent newsletters, I talked about my 99 Percent Manifesto and Serving Your 1 Percent.
The tl;dr is that I believe you should help 99 percent of your audience for free, while working with the other 1 percent to pay the bills.
One of the arguments I made was this:
That means you need to educate them about how you can help beyond all of those free resources and advice. You need to zero in on those things that you provide above and beyond the public insights.
A reader pointed out that they hadn’t seen me do this myself. So I’m going to correct the error in this week’s edition and explain what exactly SAGA does beyond all of the free resources we share.
I’ll get to that a bit later, but first let’s take a look at Jen’s roundup of useful content and resources. (And it is a bit longer than usual this week because as we were getting set to publish last week our well pump failed and so we had the pleasure of dealing with getting that fixed instead!)
— Chip Griffin, SAGA Founder
Upcoming Events
- Office hours: Open Office Hours for Agency Owners (May 23)
- Roundtable: Growing your agency as a reluctant self-promoter (June 6)
- Webinar: Don’t repeat my biggest mistakes as an agency owner (June 12)
Latest podcasts from SAGA
- What new rules on overtime and non-competes mean for agencies
- Should your small agency hire senior-level pros?
- Practical HR advice on new overtime and non-compete rules (featuring Patrick Rogan)
Weekly Roundup
Below are some articles, blog posts, podcasts, and videos that we came across during the past week or so that provide useful perspective and information for PR and marketing agency owners. While we don’t necessarily endorse all of the views expressed in these links, we think they are worth your time.
— Jen Griffin, SAGA Community Manager
Articles & Blog Posts
- This just in: New FTC rule bans non-competes (Legal + Creative)
- What Does the FTC Non-Compete Ban Mean for You? (Bureau of Digital)
- Why Business Development Efforts Fail For Ad Agencies (RSW/US)
- The Power of Personal Branding for PR Professionals (Solo PR Pro)
- How people change (Anchor Advisors)
- Be Gracious When Employees Leave (Punctuation)
- 4 Considerations for Crisis Management (Spin Sucks)
- 6 Strategies to Champion Working Moms at Your Agency (AgencyAnalytics)
Podcast Episodes
- Using Our PR Powers for Good (Spin Sucks)
- The New Balancing Act of Communication (That Solo Life)
- Revolutionizing Leadership Through Trauma Healing with Kelly Campbell (The Agency Profit Podcast)
- Turning Your Delivery Team Into a Sales Team (2Bobs)
- Drew McLellan on Building Trust and Scaling Through Thought Leadership (The Digital Agency Growth Podcast)
- Nurturing Legacy & Lasting Impact, with Mike Young (The Personal Brand Business Show)
- Building The Right Team: Taking Advantage of The Largest Untapped Talent Pool with Sara Jensen (Smart Agency Master Class)
Videos
- What Tone Do I Bring To Sales Conversations? (Win Without Pitching)
- Should you fire a small client? (Sakas and Company)
- The Bureau Rebranded(ish) Webinar (Bureau of Digital)
- How can I help my client (Agency Management Institute)
AI in Focus
- Embracing AI and Brand Integrity, with Deirdre McGlashan (The Innovative Agency Podcast)
- Does marketing need a separate ethics standard for AI? (For Immediate Release)
- Your Teams Should Drive AI Adoption — Not Senior Leadership (Harvard Business Review)
How we help PR and marketing agencies
While I am a big believer in sharing lots of insights and resources for free — and encourage you to do the same — most of us can’t afford to do everything at no cost.
If I’m going to tell you that you need to get past your reluctance to be a bit of a self-promoter from time-to-time, I need to be willing to do the same.
So let me briefly explain what SAGA does for PR and marketing agencies.
In a nutshell, I advise owners on the business aspects of their agencies. Everything from identity & positioning to staffing & management.
I do this in two ways: short-term engagements and ongoing coaching & consulting.
The flagship short-term engagement is the Agency Business Checkup that uses the AIM-GET Framework I created to examine all of the key aspects of an agency’s business to establish a plan for taking it to the next level — whether that means getting back on track or accelerating existing growth.
For those owners who are primarily concerned about business development, I provide a Positioning & Pricing Review. It helps to provide clarity around finding ideal clients that get great results and produce profits for the agency.
Finally, most small agency owners don’t have someone to talk to about new ideas and thorny challenges. My Coaching & Consulting clients have regular calls with me where we touch on strategic issues as well as the daily challenges of running an agency business. I share my own experiences — both good and bad — so that they can learn from them, while also asking questions and challenging assumptions.
If you want to learn more about becoming one of my 1 Percenters, I’d love to have a conversation. But if you prefer to be part of the 99 Percent that leverages my free resources and insights, that’s great, too.
P.S. If you want to explore this topic some more, I would encourage you to join SAGA’s Roundtable with Kami Huyse of Zoetica Media on June 6 (details below).
Roundtable: Growing your agency as a reluctant self-promoter
If you find self-promotion feels a bit icky and you have a hard time tooting your own horn, you may wonder how to grow your agency most effectively.
In this SAGA Roundtable with Kami Huyse of Zoetica Media, we will tap into her experience and have an interactive conversation about how she has succeeded as a reluctant self-promoter.
Kami has been writing and speaking about personal branding for nearly 20 years, and she explains why you may be thinking about self-promotion in the wrong way. By flipping it around to see it as serving your community, you can overcome your own reluctance and establish yourself and your agency as the experts that you are.
Come to this Roundtable prepared to engage directly with Kami, asking questions and sharing your own experiences.
This event will be on Thursday June 6 from 12-1 PM ET, and you can register here.
