As agency owners, we all want to be different. We don’t want to be the boss who is a stickler for punctuality or to feel like we’re micromanaging our employees. But HR issues will inevitably arise, and that’s when the reality check sets in.

HR issues aren’t always as intense as the term may imply. They could be as small as someone being late to a couple of meetings or an employee missing a deadline one too many times. They’re often small things that build up over time and can balloon into bigger issues — like souring client-agency relationships or diluting the agency’s core values.

In this week’s episode, Allyns Melendez shares lots of great tips and tricks to help prevent minor HR issues from getting out of control. From leading by example to being a chameleon leader who can shift based on who you’re talking to and what tone is needed, she knows exactly how to help agency owners and leaders resolve nearly any conflict an agency might face.

Tune in to learn tons of valuable tactics that will make you feel like no employee problem is too big for you to handle.

A big thank you to our podcast’s presenting sponsor, White Label IQ. They’re an amazing resource for agencies who want to outsource their design, dev, or PPC work at wholesale prices. Check out their special offer (10 free hours!) for podcast listeners here.

• How HR has stayed surprisingly the same over 100 years
• How to show up as an agency leader to everybody vs. with individual employees
• Handling first-time HR issues with an employee
• What happens when we don’t address bad habits immediately
• Preparing for difficult one-on-one conversations with agency employees
• Conflict resolution with agency employees and how to follow up with your plan
• Why chameleon leadership will help you communicate better
• Get to know your communication style and how you show up in a room
• How to ask for candid feedback and make your employees feel safe to do so

Online communities are quickly becoming one of the most powerful biz dev tools out there, but there’s etiquette to starting and maintaining one. It’s not for everyone, but for those who are ready, an online community could be your ticket to selling without ever having to actually sell.

This week, we’re continuing the conversation about online communities vs. online audiences, and the vast benefits they can offer to agency owners. Now that we’ve established the differences between an audience and a community, it’s time to ask ourselves deeper questions about why and how we should start one.

The main purpose of starting an online community shouldn’t be selling or profiting from its members. But if you’re in it to genuinely help others and create an avenue for collective thought leadership and connection, increased sales are just part of the benefits.

If you think starting an online community could be the right move for your agency, tune in to this week’s episode of Build a Better Agency.

For 30+ years, Drew McLellan has been in the advertising industry. He started his career at Y&R, worked in boutique-sized agencies, and then started his own (which he still owns and runs) agency in 1995. Additionally, Drew owns and leads the Agency Management Institute, which advises hundreds of small to mid-sized agencies on how to grow their agency and its profitability through agency owner peer groups, consulting, coaching, workshops and more.

A big thank you to our podcast’s presenting sponsor, White Label IQ. They’re an amazing resource for agencies who want to outsource their design, dev, or PPC work at wholesale prices. Check out their special offer (10 free hours!) for podcast listeners here.

• How to start an online community (who, what, where, why)
• Are you starting a community for the right reasons?
• Why you should expect nothing in return from online communities
• Identifying your target audience
• What a community leader should provide to community members, and vice versa
• The main difference between a community and an audience
• 3 questions to ask yourself before creating a community
• Consistency wins over complexity in online community building
• How to benefit from a community without starting one yourself
• Using online communities as a powerful biz dev tool
• Qualifying your community members

Everybody has a story they’re trying to tell, and brands play a massive role in people’s stories, whether they realize it or not. Most of the time, the stories consumers associate with a brand aren’t what we think they are. This is where behavioral economics becomes vital to creating an effective marketing strategy.

Behavioral economics is a study that attempts to make sense of people’s behavior around spending. We don’t always make spending decisions in our best interest and often base purchasing decisions on our emotions. In fact, people usually connect and interact with brands the same way they connect with people.

This leaves brands with a lot of pressure on their backs. If you ignore your loyal customers’ needs and wants, they will feel deeply betrayed. But if you listen to their stories and get to the core of what they’re looking for, you’ll build a trust that feels like a close friendship.

The psychology behind consumer behavior is complicated but fascinating. Join us this week to discover how brands can use behavioral economics to build an effective marketing strategy that fosters deep trust from your customers.

A big thank you to our podcast’s presenting sponsor, White Label IQ. They’re an amazing resource for agencies who want to outsource their design, dev, or PPC work at wholesale prices. Check out their special offer (10 free hours!) for podcast listeners here.

• What is behavioral economics?
• Why people build human-like relationships with brands
• How narrative psychology can improve our relationships with our customers
• Clues that a brand uses narrative psychology well
• Convincing clients that a strategy based on behavioral psychology is worth investing in
• How strategic changes ripple throughout a whole organization
• Getting to the bottom of your customer story
• What brands get wrong about customer stories
• Why feelings of betrayal run deep when brands miss the mark