Agency learnings
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Hi Reader You may remember earlier this year I announced I would be starting an agency. After seeing my clients doing so well, I got excited. I wanted in on the action. After all, in the ~12 years before coaching I worked in six different agencies and founded two of my own, one as a co-founder. But as I acted on this urge, something began to surface... Knowing what you want (by doing what you don't want)I came flying out the stalls. I reached out to dozens of people, had multiple Zoom conversations, even pitched a couple of people. But something quickly started to feel "off". The agency's proposition was to help thought leaders in the personal development field reach more people. But each time I spoke about it, the feeling in my gut grew. It was saying to me: why are you doing this? You already have an established coaching practice, stay on course, don't get distracted. And I had to listen to it - I had to recognise that what was a very convincing and exciting idea was just that, an enticing idea. I was then reminded of the old adage if you try to catch two rabbits, they'll both get away. And so with that, I let go of the idea. Where it first made sense to both head and heart, it no longer did to either. I have already gone this route twice, and it just didn't feel right to go again. Nevertheless this short diversion provided some insight:
But perhaps the biggest takeaway of all is to be attuned to your instincts and to listen to them, even if they sometimes take you in the "wrong" direction. In her book Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway, Susan Jeffers says "there is no wrong path", and I'm inclined to agree. I don't regret this foray into the creative space once again, even if it only lasted a couple of months. Because it helped me gain clarity on my next step, which is to help others on the journey I've been on twice. And that is to support freelancers and early-stage agency owners to put the infrastructure in place to move to the agency model themselves. Out of the 50+ freelancers I've coached one on one in the past few years, most of the key problems they've faced could be solved by adopting the agency model.
I implement all these in my previous agency and it led to multiple inbound enquiries each week + triple annual revenue in less than 18 months. Freelance2Founder starts 11th June. It's a 3 month immersion where I'll take a small group through the steps I took to build my previous two agencies. If you'd like to hear more details, please reply with INTERESTED. Thank you, Matt |
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