Doesn’t it feel good to be irresponsible sometimes?
It’s not a feeling that we often have as agency owners — nor one that most of us strive to have, if we’re being honest.
So what if instead of being irresponsible we simply became “unresponsible”?
I’ll explain what I mean a bit later in this week’s newsletter, but first let’s see what Jen rounded up for us this week.
— Chip Griffin, SAGA Founder
Upcoming Events
- Open Office Hours for Agency Owners (June 25)
- Webinar: Agency financial basics for owners (July 11)
Latest podcasts from SAGA
- Adapting your agency for risk-averse clients (Agency Leadership Podcast)
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
- Including Addressability in Your Positioning (Punctuation)
- If I can’t manage myself, how can I manage others? (Anchor Advisors)
- What B2B Startups Get Wrong About Marketing (Spin Sucks)
- The Best Approach to Outbound Prospecting for a Small Agency Owner (The Sutter Company)
- Stop Worrying about What Happened Last Time (Bureau of Digital)
- Why Late Payments Are a Massive Problem for Agencies (And What to Do About It!) (Upsourced)
- 7 Agency Leadership Lessons From Famous TV Dads (AgencyAnalytics)
Podcast Episodes
- How to Identify the Right Leadership Style, with Audrey Joy Kwan (The Agency Profit Podcast)
- The PR Measurement Strategy You Need to Grow (That Solo Life)
- Are we unnecessarily panicked about online disinformation? (For Immediate Release)
- Ethan McCarty on Insights into the Evolving Employee Experience and the Importance of Curiosity (The Digital Agency Growth Podcast)
- Brand, Content, and Chill vs. Hustle time – with Rand Fishkin (The Digital Agency Show)
- Mastering CLIENT ACQUISITION for Agency Growth with David Baeza (Smart Agency Master Class)
Videos
- Optimize your lead-gen offer, grow your pipeline, fix your proposals (Sakas and Company)
- Uncover The Wants Beyond Your Client’s Needs (Win Without Pitching)
- “When should we re-engage a client we pitched but didn’t win?” (The Sutter Company)
- Faster! Faster! (Agency Management Institute)
AI in Focus
- AI + Your Agency: Balancing Risks with Reward, with Sharon Toerek (The Innovative Agency)
- Navigating the New Frontier of AI In Public Relations (Spin Sucks)
- How your brand can win the new AI search game, with Jason Barnard (The Personal Brand Business Show)
Is it time to be unresponsible?
As agency owners, we take on responsibility for a lot of things. Whether we expressly subscribe to the notion of “the buck stops here” or not, the reality is that it does in just about any small business.
So wouldn’t it feel good to be irresponsible — or at least “unresponsible” — sometimes?
Here’s the thing. As business owners, we need to learn to let go as we grow.
On at least three occasions this week alone, I have talked with agency owners about the need to relinquish the reins on certain functions or projects.
It doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t retain oversight. You can still offer guidance, provide feedback, and retain ultimate approval authority.
But you shouldn’t be putting yourself in a position to be responsible for everything.
That means that every client should have a team lead that is not you.
It means that when you create a new initiative to grow the business, you should put someone else in charge of compiling ideas and managing the implementation.
If you have a project management system, there’s just about nothing that should have your name listed as the “owner” of the project.
This becomes more urgent as you grow. When you have just 1-2 employees, you probably won’t achieve 100% unresponsibility.
But by the time you hit double digits in headcount, it ought to be something really unusual for it to land on your plate to manage directly.
Becoming unresponsible doesn’t just free up time in your day, it also helps to empower your team.
Of course, that means that you need to embrace their ownership of clients, projects, and tasks. Don’t micromanage, and only contribute to or course-correct their work when it is truly necessary.
It may not be quite the same as the rush some get when they let go and become truly irresponsible, but you will generally see better results for your business and greater satisfaction as an owner when you learn to become properly unresponsible.
Open Office Hours for Agency Owners
Chip hosts regular open office hours for all agency owners.
Sessions last up to 60 minutes, depending on the number of participants. Chip generally takes questions on a first-come, first-serve basis, but if you have something you want to make certain is covered, you can email your question in advance.
This event will be on Tuesday June 25 from 12-1 PM ET, and you can register here.
