Curious how to stand out and win more clients in the crowded agency space? Wondering how the big agencies got so big? For starters, stop being a “me too” agency trying to do what everyone else is doing. Stop trying to be what everyone is…  you do you. We are always working on our weaknesses, instead of focusing on our strengths. Instead, we should focus on our strengths, leverage the business weaknesses, and be a little bit of a freak in order to stand out.

In today’s episode, we’ll cover:

• Why your agency needs to be a reflection of you.
• What is your agency’s freak factor?
• 3 reasons you should embrace your business weaknesses.

Today, I talked with David Rendall — professional speaker, author, entrepreneur, and freak-enthusiast. David is incredibly passionate about the big-picture agency stuff. He shares what he calls the Freak Factor and his recipe for entrepreneurial success. This week alone David has traveled around the globe — Dublin, Paris, London, and Egypt talking to businesses and entrepreneurs about one thing — winning through uniqueness.

Why Your Agency Needs To Be a Reflection of You

As digital agency owners, we’re prone to looking around for the best way to do things. It’s part of our DNA. We like to be on top of the latest technologies and hottest trends in digital. But, when it comes to your agency’s culture, outside is the last place you need to look.

David says your agency needs to be a reflection of who you are. We throw the word “culture” around a lot but, culture isn’t a hidden mystery; it just takes a solid look in the mirror. Virgin Mobile started off zany because Richard Branson is definitely zany! Walmart is all about logistics, inventory, and pricing — it’s super practical because Sam Walton was super practical.

Leverage your personality traits to create an agency you would want to work at and that alone will attract the right people. The culture will practically create itself once the vision and tone is set by you.

Don’t just create another “cool agency” — create something that helps you surround yourself with a like-minded team who will be an asset is carrying out your vision.

What Is Your Agency’s Freak Factor?

Too many agency owners want to be like the big kids. They think they need to copy the big agencies in order to be as successful as one.

Listen, Snapchat didn’t just create a mirror copy of Instagram. They decided to do something new. Instagram is for showcasing images, so Snapchat took a different angle and made those images disappear. If the crowd is going one direction don’t follow them. You’ll find more success if you let them lead you toward your own, unique solution.

David’s advice is to find the gap in the market and then attack it. Don’t just offer another solution like everyone else. Put your own twist on it, and offer a unique strategy for getting your clients the results they desire.

3 Reasons You Should Embrace Your Business Weaknesses

If you walk away from this podcast with one lesson, it should be this: work on your strengths, not your business weaknesses.

1. Fixing your weaknesses may destroy your strengths. It’s true! David likes to use the Walmart and Target analogy. Walmart is known for cheap prices and crappy service. Target has great service and a little higher pricing. If Walmart improves its customer service with added training and increased employee pay, it cuts into their margins and costs go up. Ditto for Target. They both eliminate their strength if they focus on improving their weakness.
   

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2. Your weaknesses might be your strengths. Is your agency small? That’s not a weakness! That’s a poorly positioned strength. You’re not small; you’re personal, nimble and agile. You can tell clients, “Yes, we’re small and that means you can talk directly to me and won’t get lost or forgotten.” Think about your weak points and figure out how to leverage them as strong points.
   

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3. Strengths can get even stronger. Even if you can’t find a way to turn your weaknesses into strengths, don’t worry – you don’t need to. Disregard your weaknesses and instead, focus on improving the things you’re great at. Hone your craft and be the best damn {fill in the blank} the market has ever seen.

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Become a Better Owner

In order to become a better agency owner and create a strong agency, you need to know what your business weaknesses are and use them to your advantage or work on them to improve them.

I have experienced many different struggles with my own agency and I can help you deal with bad agency clients, how to build authority for your agency and more.

If it’s challenges growing your business that you are experiencing, I have agency growth hacks, the best ways to improve management of your business as well as why building a remote team can be beneficial in the long run.

Learn more about my career as well as tips, tricks and insights by checking out my blogs that cover a wide variety of topics.

You can hear about all my experiences as well as advice from other successful agency experts in my Ask Swenk series and more of my videos on my Youtube channel.