I’ve just celebrated a year of hosting The Innovative Agency Podcast.

In 2018, after our first six months, I noticed some common themes around innovation, and captured in it in our post Safe To Innovate: How To Position Your Agency For Growth While Protecting Your People And Ideas. The concept “decisions delayed, or made out of fear, hold agencies back,” still rings true in nearly all of our podcasts, but I’ve uncovered a few more lessons inspired by our more recent episodes this year.

Risking it all for agency owners often means a change in identity. Nothing illustrates this better than the stories recanting the major pivots of many of my guests this year. 

From the agency owner who searched for office space and discovered his inner barista, to the magician who decided to leave nothing behind the curtain for its agency clients, to the principal who encourages her top employees to get out of the office (and be all the more productive for it). 

Agency leaders who don’t just challenge the status quo but basically disregard old industry convention, are rewriting the rules of the industry, and breeding a new generation of top talent and loyal clients.

But the only easy day was yesterday, as they say. These people are still running business that need to stay sustainable. Many of my guests also shared their challenges and struggles as leaders and entrepreneurs.

If you haven’t yet caught up on the 2019 episodes check out the following below and check in anytime via our site and iTunes. 

Some that were really impactful conversations for me:

AFTER MY OWN HEART

EPISODE 28: Why You Should Stop Giving Clients Your Brilliant New Ideas With Ian Lurie

Ian Lurie is a “recovering” lawyer who, a few years out of law school, founded Portent, a Seattle internet marketing agency and today is the executive vice president of ClearLink, which acquired Portent several years ago.

Lessons Learned:

Having made the move myself  (well not out of law, but into a focus on agency industry clients), I immediately connected to Ian. In the episode he shares 20 years of lessons about when to push forward, and when to hold back, on sharing “brilliant ideas” with clients.

FLEXING A MOBILE WORKFORCE

EPISODE 33: How One Agency is Embracing the Future of Work — And Managing a 100% Client Retention Rate With Stephanie Nadi Olson

Stephanie Nadi Olson is the Founder of We are Rosie, the advertising marketplace of the future connecting brands and agencies with exceptional talent wanting, or needing, to work in flexible ways (and with a 100% client retention rate). Rosie is at the forefront of showing agencies and brands new ways to work with talent.

Lessons Learned:

The future of work is flexible, mobile, remote, and virtual. Want to solve your agency’s talent attraction problem? Understand the ways that work styles and arrangements have changed, and understand, too, that you have access to world class talent to serve world class clients using a more evolved work model at your agency.

NO ILLUSIONS

41: 4 Ways to Create Experiential Marketing That’s Pure Magic With Justin Lefkovitch

Justin Lefkovitch, a magician, owns a marketing agency that specializes in experiential marketing, and shared how two big rules of magic apply to the everyday execution of client work: Illusion & details.

Lessons Learned:

Great marketing is a perfect blend of art, science, commerce, and data. While consumers (and award shows) focus on the illusion, it’s the marriage of this illusion with the details – like your clients’ business goals – that makes it truly magic.

GOING THE DISTANCE

25: Facing the Challenges That Create Successful Independent Agencies With Nancy Hill

Nancy Hill, former President and CEO of The 4 A’s turned Consultancy Founder, is one of the most influential marketers in the country. But it didn’t happen overnight. Nancy gave us a tour through the agency industry in all its forms, and talked about how the industry has evolved to address social issues and shifting economic realities.

Lessons Learned: 

While most tend to focus on the economic dynamics of the ad industry, it’s sometimes lost on us that marketing and advertising can be forces for economic and social change. This creates exciting potential. It also means social responsibility. I loved this conversation with Nancy about what that all means.

INSURING HIS FUTURE

22: Marketing Agencies Are Educators With Dennis Carlson

Before Dennis Carlson became an agency owner, he owned his own insurance brokerage. Talk about knowing risk inside and out. As his brokerage grew through marketing, he realized his talents in that area, and combined his expertise to create a niche marketing agency that works specifically with the highly regulated insurance industry.

Lessons Learned:

Dennis had the inside track, having owned the kind of business that his marketing agency now assists – so a built-in knowledge of the industry catapulted the agency.

For the rest of us, the takeaway is how important it is to take time to really dig in to our clients’ work and industry to truly understand their goals.

These are just a sample of the incredible guests we’ve hosted in 2019 and couldn’t be more grateful for the time and insight shared. 

I’m looking forward to my next 50 lessons!