5 Characteristics of the Most Successful Agency Owners

Is it just me or can agency life really suck sometimes? Ever wish you could just hit the reset button? Or get a do-over? It’s like we’re always working for our clients, improving their business, and adopting their purpose instead of having our own. In turn, we struggle to grow our agency business because can’t see the forest for the trees. It happens to all of us from time to time. But a turnaround might be easier than you think.

In this episode, we’ll cover:

• How can your digital agency inspire happiness?
• 5 things your agency can do to be more successful.

This is a banner episode for me, guys. It’s my first three-peat guest, Jeff Hilimire. That’s right, he’s been on the show twice before talking about agency growth strategies and mistakes to avoid. He founded and sold his first agency and is now in his sixth year as founder of his agency, Dragon Army. He has also founded a web development non-profit called 48 in 48 and sits on the board for a variety of other 501(c)(3)’s.

Jeff has been in the industry for over 20 years and he’s seen it all. In fact, that’s exactly why he literally wrote the book on how entrepreneurs can change their mindset in order to get out of their own way and turnaround their business.

How Can Your Digital Agency Inspire Happiness?

Jeff founded Dragon Army in 2013 as a gaming startup, after selling his first agency. After one year of chasing success in the game realm, Jeff says he realized his agency did not have a purpose. Jeff’s revelation: agencies are always working for other people and adapting their clients’ purposes. At that moment, he decided to develop a purpose and pivot his agency to carry it out.

Today, Dragon Army focuses on web, mobile, and brand marketing. Their purpose is to inspire happiness with positive relationships. I know what you’re thinking… how in the heck?! But it’s actually really basic. Jeff says they execute this in two ways: creating impactful work and doing good. And what’s even more basic -- they start internally with inspiring happiness among the team.

Think about it this way. When you create a desireable agency culture and actually live your core values, you end up inspiring your team. That inspiration flows over into their work -- and everyone wins.

This purpose-driven business model has won Dragon Army clients like Coca-Cola, Lyft, and Chick-Fil-A, to name a few.

Jeff’s advice to all agency owners is to consider how you can inspire happiness in a way that has a profound effect on your team.

5 Things Your Agency Can Do To Hit the Reset Button

In such a competitive space, it’s natural for agency owners to be constantly focused on the bottom line. But, Jeff says that is exactly what’s causing agencies to bottom-out. Reflecting on his 20+ years of experience as an entrepreneur and agency leader, Jeff considered 5 lessons or core principles that can help other businesses change their mindset and create transformative growth.

In The Five-Day Turnaround, Jeff authored a narrative about a business who adopts these 5 principles to turn around their business amid five client meetings:

1. Adopt a do or die mindset. A lot of businesses get complacent and lose this “do or die mentality.” But when there’s no Plan B, you’re forced to solve problems or find a fix.
2. Find your purpose, vision, tenents, and values. While successful already agencies employ this, it’s important that teams actually do too. Consider your team as your startup and develop team purpose, vision, tenents, and values.
3. Get the right people on the bus. Understanding and defining how to get the right people working with you and building trust among the team.
4. Move at the speed of a startup. Embracing the MVP “minimum viable product” and learning to take action without hesitation.
5. Reward failure. Try new things, embrace failure, and celebrate losses. Get over the threat of “messing up.”

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