093: Building a package design agency with Richard Shear

I have an awesome interview for you today with Richard Shear from Invōk Brands.

Richard’s company is pretty incredible. They are a package design agency that has been around for many, many years in different names and iterations. Invōk Brands has an impressive resume of clients, starting off with Johnson & Johnson.

I sat down with Richard at the HOW Design Live Conference and we discussed his story of kicking off his agency with Procter & Gamble and how he’s been able to maintain his business through challenging times like the recession.

If you’re in the early stages of your creative agency, you are going to get a ton of value out of this episode.

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092: Narrowing your focus with Jeremy Loyd

On this week’s episode of the Working Without Pants Podcast, I sit down with the Jeremy Loyd, Creative Director at Sparkbox. Sparkbox is an Ohio based web design and development agency with about 30 team members on board.

In this interview, I got to talk to Jeremy about how Sparkbox got started out, the unique approach they took to niching down, and the ways they get new clients.

I had a great time talking with Jeremy, and I hope you get a ton of value out of this episode.

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091: Using content as a form of outreach with Ryan Robinson

I got the pleasure of catching up with Ryan Robinson at the HOW Design Live conference.

Ryan runs a content marketing consultancy and has some big clients like LinkedIn and Zendesk. In addition to that, Ryan is a contributor at Inc., Forbes, and Entrepreneur Magazine.

Not only does he have a ton of experience in writing great content, Ryan really stands apart because of his ability to get that content in front of as many people as possible.

In this episode, Ryan talks about how he landed some of these huge clients and contributorships. He lays out some great strategies to help others get their content noticed, pitch guest posts, and become contributors.

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090: Better clients with bigger budgets with Ilise Benun

Ilise has been on the show before, and I had the opportunity to catch up with her at the HOW Design Live conference to see what she is up to these days.

Ilise runs Marketing Mentor, a company focused on helping creative clients get better clients with bigger budgets.

In this episode with Ilise, we dive into her story, how she got started, some of the biggest mistakes she’s seen creatives make, and some of the best growth tactics she’s seen as well.

Ilise shares a ton of great insights in this episode, and I absolutely love having her on.

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089: Building a boutique 2-person consultancy with Bright Umbrella

I recently attended the HOW Design Live Conference and had the opportunity to meet up with Lea and Emily from Bright Umbrella. Bright Umbrella is a 2-person design and development agency that focuses on the education sector.

In our interview, I got to talk to Lea and Emily about how they started out, what they have learned, and some of the things they are doing to grow their business today.

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088: Win clients with speaking engagements with Gene Hammett

My guest on this week’s podcast, Gene Hammett, is an expert at growing business through speaking. He is also host of the Leaders in the Trenches podcast, which is focused on building authority through speaking engagements.

I had a great time talking with Gene. He has tons of knowledge and ideas to help you avoid the typical marketing “funnel frenzy” as he calls it. I learned a lot from this episode, and I hope you get a lot out of it as well.

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087: Growing your business through podcasting with Craig Hewitt

Over the past few years, I’ve found that about 60% of new business I get comes from my podcast in one way or another. This inspired me to write a blog post on growing your agency through podcast networking.

In addition, it also inspired me to reach out to Craig Hewitt of Podcast Motor to talk on the show about the service he offers and about how to be a successful podcaster.

Podcast Motor currently runs 30 different podcasts, so Craig has a ton of insight on creating an amazing podcast.

I hope you enjoy this episode and take some of Craig’s advice back to your own podcast. Or, I hope this episode helps you in starting a new podcast for your business.

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086: Making millions through Dribbble with Erik Reagan

In this week’s episode of the Working Without Pants Podcast, I had the awesome opportunity to talk with Erik Reagan of Focus Lab.

This week was a response to a listener request from someone interested in generating revenue on Dribbble. What came out of the interview weren’t just keys to success in Dribbble, but tips for getting new clients from any online community in your line of work.

Also, be sure to check out the articles linked below that describe in detail the success Focus Lab has seen from communities like Dribbble and ExpressionEngine.

High fives: A toast to Dribbble
How showing our work intentionally has led to making millions

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085: Cold calling to win clients with Olivier Lambert of TactikMedia

On the show this week, I had the pleasure of talking with Olivier Lambert of TactikMedia. Olivier is one of a rare breed who actually enjoys cold calling.

In this interview with him, he talks about how he approaches cold calling and how beneficial it has been for winning new clients for TactikMedia.

I had a great time talking to Olivier. He is an awesome guy with a great story. I hope you get a ton of value out of this interview and find ways to utilize cold calling in your agency.

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084: Business development for agencies with Drew McLellan

On the podcast this week, I had Drew McLellan of the Agency Management Institute.

If you are an agency, and you haven’t heard of the Agency Management Institute, you should definitely check them out. They come alongside small to mid-sized agencies to help them run their businesses better.

Drew has been an agency owner for over 20 years now, and has a lot of experience with what makes agencies work well. In this episode, we talk about getting new clients and keeping current clients happy.

I hope you enjoy this interview as much as I do and that you can walk away with some ideas of how to keep your sales pipeline steady.

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083: New inbound clients in 30 days with Michael Gass

On this episode of the Working Without Pants Podcast, I had the pleasure of talking with Michael Gass. Michael runs the Fuel Lines Business Development blog, which is one of the top 100 marketing blogs according to Ad Age.

In this episode, Michael goes in depth on a lot of the tactics he uses when helping companies with their inbound marketing strategies.

A ton of companies have a hard time seeing the results of inbound, or the results take forever. Michael shows us some ways that inbound can be creating impact in about 30 days.

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082: Mistakes to avoid when building your agency with Matt Inglot

On this episode of the Working Without Podcast, I had the great pleasure of talking with Matt Inglot. Matt is the founder of Tilted Pixel, and he also runs the Freelance Transformation podcast.

I loved sitting down to talk with Matt about his story of how he ended up where he is today. It is a story much like my own, and it is great to hear about all he has learned from the mistakes made along the journey.

There is a lot you can take away from this week’s episode on things to do and not do when starting an agency.

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081: Strategic Partnerships with Michael Sacca of Crew

On this episode of Working Without Pants, I had the pleasure of interviewing the former President of Crew, Michael Sacca. When Michael came to Crew, he was the head of partnerships, and we get to talk a lot about how he worked on creating valuable partnerships in that role.

We also get an in-depth look at some of his outbound campaigns and how he crafted these to best reach his audience.

This was a fun interview with a ton of insight, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

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080: Badass branding and packaging services with Pia Silva

Pia Silva and her partner are the owners of Worstofall Design, an agency that builds badass brands without the bullshit.

Pia's model is extremely unique. Instead of being a traditional branding agency, her and her partner work in a unique way. They do 1-2 day intensive branding sessions with their clients called "BrandUps" where they build the client’s entire brand and strategy right there in person.

They charge $10k per Brandup and regularly schedule 3 of these per month. That means in roughly 6 working days per month, Pia and her partner generate $30k in revenue!

In this interview, we dive into how Pia created this model, and how others can use elements of this in their own business.

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079: Using podcasting as sales outreach with Jonathan Green

I’m a huge proponent of using podcasts to grow your business, but I know a lot of people find the idea of creating and maintaining a podcast to be daunting.

This week, I got to talk to Jonathan Green from Sweet Fish Media, and their whole company is built around the idea of using podcasts as a means to interview your potential clients and win them over as clients for your business. They produce niche podcasts for B2B companies and take all of the pain and hassle out of managing your own.

In this episode, we talk about how podcasts can be used to reach beyond just content creation and into creating meaningful connections with your target audience.

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077: Building a rock solid culture with Arnie Malham

On this episode of the Working Without Pants Podcast, I talk to Arnie Malham about the success he has had in building multiple companies with rock solid cultures.

One of the things that I love about Arnie is that he is a big reader, and he attributes much of his success to what he calls R&D, ripping off and duplicating from the authors that he follows. And with a team of around 30 members and annual revenue over $10 million, I’d say he’s doing a great job.

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074: Tim Conley on scaling a consulting practice

Tim Conley is a business coach, was the host of the Foolish Adventure podcast, and is a high-level consultant, helping B2B entrepreneurs, agencies and consultants (from $0.5 - 5M) scale their businesses. 

In the first half of this episode, we discuss the businesses Tim works with, which range from $500K - 5M, and what it takes for them to grow and level up. 

In the second part, we discuss Tim's business model, which is quite similar to my own business, Outbound Creative, doing high-level consulting and selling group training programs. Find out how to scale your own solo consulting practice, making upwards of $200-500K a year, while only working 9 months a year.

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