If you feel like you’re hearing the Rolling Stones in your head when you think about your agency’s clients, you might want to shake things up a bit.
You don’t need to love every one of your clients, but you absolutely need to get satisfaction from the work that you and your team do.
In an ideal world, we would all be doing work that we’re passionate about, and we would only work with the most perfect clients that we love spending time with.
The reality is that most agencies need to make some compromises to operate a sustainable and growing business.
But if you hate what you’re doing, find your clients frustrating to deal with, and aren’t even sure if the work you are doing matters, it’s going to be very difficult to reach your true success.
I’ll discuss this idea a bit more later in this week’s newsletter, but first let’s take a look at what Jen has rounded up for us this week.
— Chip Griffin, SAGA Founder
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
Latest from SAGA
- Mastering Client Staffing for Small Agency Success (Agency Leadership Podcast)
- Ready, Set, Sell (webinar replay)
Articles & Blog Posts
- Finish Strong, Start Stronger! (Legal + Creative)
- How to build trust while leading through uncertainty (Anchor Advisors)
- Revisiting Account Management This Year (Punctuation)
- The Best of the Best from Our December Newsletters (Bureau of Digital)
Podcast Episodes
- Trends, Trust And Technology – What’s Ahead In 2025 (That Solo Life)
- Adapting Hiring Strategies Over Time (2Bobs)
- From Solo to 120 Employees: How to Build a Remote Powerhouse Agency with Zach Boyette (The Digital Agency Show)
- The Problem with Benchmarking and What to Do Instead (The Agency Profit Podcast)
- Navigating the Unexpected Sale of Your Agency by Thoughtful Negotiating with Kelsey Dixon (Smart Agency Master Class)
- The Rise of Experiential Marketing, with Lydia Martinez (The Innovative Agency)
Videos
- What new business metrics should we be focused on? (The Sutter Company)
- I Spy (Agency Management Institute)
AI in focus
- How AI Will Change the PESO Model In 2025 (Spin Sucks)
- A Guide To AI Conversion Rate Optimization: Getting the Highest ROI (AgencyAnalytics)
- Exploring AI’s Future in PR with Martin Waxman (FIR Interviews)
- Embracing AI in your content creation, with Ian Anderson Gray (The Personal Brand Business Show)
You don’t need to love your clients, but…
I don’t know any agency owner who doesn’t have occasional moments of frustration with clients. We all have had clients ignore our advice, and most of us have done work that we don’t really think is all that meaningful or even useful.
We all also take on tasks that don’t excite us or that we wish we could avoid. That’s agency life. Heck, that’s the real world.
But it is important as an agency owner to be able to say that you get satisfaction from the work that you do, the results that you produce, and the people that you do it for.
Otherwise, you will feel like a cog in a machine taking money to pay the bills while you toil away in misery.
If we wanted that, we wouldn’t own our own businesses.
Our teams will also perform better if they feel satisfaction, too. Just like us, they will have some days that are better than others, but there needs to be a match between what they want and what they get from their jobs.
As you refine your agency’s positioning and gain clarity about who you serve and what you do for them, keep this idea of satisfaction in mind.
Avoid the temptation to chase the latest trend or the hottest industries in a blind quest for revenue.
If you’re able to match your passion with your profession, that’s great. But at a minimum you need to feel satisfied at the end of each week with what you have done and who you have done it for.
That satisfaction will fuel your agency’s future success.
