How to Grow Your Agency

Business Growth Hurts

Business growth, like any kind of personal or professional growth is painful. Yes, it can be incredibly rewarding, but there are no shortcuts to bypass the painful stuff. In fact, avoidance causes more pain in the long run. And so leaders are tasked with choosing one painful thing or another painful thing and it’s not always clear which is best. There is a bit of pain to be faced in every decision a leader makes. And there is pain in enduring. There is pain in avoiding. There is pain in self-induced doubt and insecurities.

But struggling and suffering does not always equal growth or moving forward. In fact, it could very well be the opposite. Not to belittle endurance. “Just surviving” can take tremendous effort.

Growth Versus Endurance

Most of us seem to prefer growth, at least in the abstract, over the simply enduring. There are more upsides anyway. There are mountains to summit and new landscapes to take in. But knowing the difference between “growth” and “endurance” is not always easy to determine.

Fear can be a good scent to follow. Growth takes facing the monolith of our fear, while endurance is often a reactive state. When we are in reactive mode, we solve the problems that come at us and avoid looking in the direction of the monolith because it produces anxiety as it looms above.

And our brains are masters of avoiding fear. It’s like our prime directive. So business growth, like all growth, means transcending our base instincts.

Our Fears Disguise The Path to Growth

Our deepest fears are masters of misdirection. The monolith whispers, “I’m too grand, too dangerous. Don’t bother. But do not dispair, there are easier battles you can win. You are strong. Tackle this smaller fear, and show the world how strong you are!”

And so we feed our egos on small triumphs and try to forget that we live in the shadow of the monolith. We tell our friends and co-workers about our mighty battles, and we feel good when we are celebrated.

Growing an Agency by Facing Our Fears

I was recently chatting with Brad Farris, of Anchor Advisors who consults with agency leaders. He told me that when agency owners come to him, they always have a problem they want to solve—but it’s rarely the real problem holding them back. And he admitted how frustrating it was to see the deeper problem, and then encounter so much avoidance and resistance to the notion of addressing it.

These agency owners were intent on battleing their small fears, but this is incredibly inefficient. It’s like treating a knife wound without removing the knife.

This conversation with Brad resonated with me. One, because I’d been working with a business coach recently who had the annoying habit of pointing out how my fears are working against me. And two, because this pattern describes almost every agency client I’ve ever worked with.

Clients, especially business owners and leaders, come to agencies looking for a new marketing strategy or a brand refresh, but it often becomes quite clear that what they really need is to fix a deeper issue or belief. Maybe it’s their perception of what marketing or branding can or can’t do or maybe it’s a festering issue in their product, operations, or core value proposition.

When working with Marketing managers, one of the first things you will often learn is what fears are holding leaders at their company back (Yes, it’s usually quite obvious). A marketing director will often admit to us privately that they know they’re avoiding the real issue—but it’s too sensitive to bring up with the CEO or owner. Instead, they ask us to work around it. And so, we end up working around a pretty major flaw in a less-than-ideal way and this always hurts the end product. It also mutes the potential of our collaberation.

The sad thing about some of these instances is the leader’s fear has actually gotten so big that his employees are actively trying to shield them from it. A leader may even install a narrative into his or her business that protects them from what they don’t want to do or face.

For Example:

“Costco will never stock our products” (Fear of rejection)
“The logo is flawed but our customers love it.” (Fear of change and judgement)
“We would love to, but we can’t afford the investment” (Fear of making the wrong decision.)
“He’s not delivering, but you know Dillon. He’s been with us forever” (Fear of hard conversations)

The Cost of Avoidance

The truth is, fear runs the show more than we’d like to admit. W are wired to avoid what scares us—and business leaders are no exception. The problem is, avoiding fear doesn’t just slow business growth, it actively damages organizations.

There’s a common misconception that starting an agency (or any business) requires a lot of bravery up front, but less so once things are running. The truth? You have to take big risks over and over to grow. And you can only get by for a small while by letting your employees take the big risks before trust in your leadership begins to erode.

The Agency Trap: Putting Out Fires

What happens too often is that agencies become addicted to solving client problems because that’s easier than solving the big problems that are holding them back. After-all, facing someone else’s problems is easier than facing your own. This avoidance, unfortunately, only makes the problems worse and creates more suffering in the long run.

Let’s Step Into Our Fears

I don’t think any of this is particularly new territory. But I find it’s always valuable to revisit. The monolith of fear bends reality around it so we can justify living in it’s shadow. Fear asks us to set our bar lower. It tells us to revise our goals and lower our expectations. It tells us that problems are not problems, they are impossibilities.

So how does one grow an agency?

Well, you need to step into your fear as often as you can. Like a cold plunge when you’d much rather sit beside the fire. Don’t let avoiding your fears shape your strategies. And be sure to listen.

Regularly discuss fear and avoidance with your leadership team
Set aside dedicated time to work specifically on the tasks you’re avoiding. Start with just 30 minutes.

Name your fears explicitly
Write down what you’re actually afraid of. Often, seeing it on paper reduces its power.

Find accountability
Practice sharing your fears. Get a coach. Join a community. Share your growth goals with someone who will check in on your progress and call you out on avoidance.

Take incremental steps
Break down intimidating challenges into smaller, more manageable actions.

Celebrate discomfort
When you feel that resistance, recognize it as a sign you’re moving in the right direction. Create a culture that allows for open discussion about how fear can help or hinder growth.

And don’t be ashamed or embarrassed about being afraid or making mistakes. Making mistakes and being afraid means you on the right path.

This is how to grow an agency.