Struggle to find the work-life balance for you and your agency? As an agency owner, it’s so easy to become a prisoner within your business as you strive to make it the best digital agency out there.

In this episode, we’ll cover:

• How to build your agency around your life, to find a work-life balance instead of being a prisoner.
• 3 ways to build your agency around your personality.
• How to brand your agency and be the leader in your category.

Today’s podcast guest is Re Perez, founder of Branding For The People, a branding agency for entrepreneurs and small businesses. Re has worked for some pretty huge agencies working on some major Fortune 500 clients. He talks to us about leaving all that behind in order to build an agency around his personality and lifestyle finding the best work-life balance.

Re had a pretty interesting journey that led him to starting his agency.  His highly successful career took him from New York to Dubai and back to New York. Yet despite a successful career he wasn’t fulfilled with the work he was doing. He says that feeling coupled with a negative personal experience left him deeply questioning his next steps in life.

He took 6 months off to travel, meditate, practice yoga and figure out what was next… In his travels, he learned about a yoga studio called “Yoga For The People” and later a restaurant, “Food For The People”. Coincidence or fate?? 🙂 Re took these signs, coupled with his gut instinct to become an entrepreneur, and started his agency Branding For The People – an agency that brings Fortune 500 branding solutions to small businesses.

Branding Your Agency

Re says logos and slogans do not make a brand. Those things support a brand but are only marketing tools for identifying a brand.

Branding is a desired perception. In order to create a desired perception you must first have a desirable perception of yourself.

As a small business, if you want to be perceived as the leader in your category you have to behave like the leader in your category by:

• Practice what you preach. Agency owners are famous for giving great advice to clients and NOT following it themselves. Start taking your own best advice!
• Be genuine. People can smell BS a mile away and they will call you out on it. Be who you are and be willing to let go of clients who aren’t OK with the real you.
• Don’t “act” like the big agencies by copying their behavior. Find your own unique position, while still behaving like a big agency.
• Don’t force a square peg in a round hole. Always align yourself with the projects and brands that excite you. Allow agency’s brand to be determined by your own core values.

Work-Life Balance: How To Build Your Agency Around Your Lifestyle

Re has one key motivator which determined how he would structure his business while staying true to himself:  He didn’t want a traditional office job. Meaning, he didn’t want to work for anyone else or spend a bunch of time in board rooms. He wants to travel and connect with people outside of the office walls. He is very clear on his goals and values. Are you?

3 Ways to Build Your Agency Around Your Personality

1. Change the terminology. Re doesn’t refer to them as “clients” or “projects”, they are “relationships” or “engagements”. He’s a people person and treats each opportunity with care. A change in terminology also changes the perceived value of the experience. Check out my previous post about how changing terminology can even help you increase your prices! {BONUS!}
2. Be self aware. Know how you are (and who you aren’t). You can’t get real clarity on leading your business until you know who you are… Ask yourself: “Is this agency fulfilling?” or “Does the work I’m doing really matter to me?” and “Does my agency support my desired lifestyle?” If not – you can take a sabbatical like Re, or find another way to quiet the noise and distractions that are standing in your way. Here are the 4 common things that could be standing in the way of your clarity.
3. Don’t make decisions based on money. We all take on clients or projects because we need the money. And, you have to have some bad experiences so you know what you don’t want to do. But at some point you also have to realize though that not every person with a credit card was meant to be your client. Instead, think and act like a millionaire, even if you’re not… yet.

Best advice:  Be true to yourself and let the rest unfold.

What’s holding as a prisoner to your agency? Comment below and tell me your biggest challenges.

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Building Your Authority

Finding a work-life balance for you as an agency owner will not only benefit your agency but your team as you are establishing a healthy work relationship. But in order to build authority as a business owner and your digital agency, you need to be able to recognise other issues within your agency that needs your attention. No matter what challenge your agency is facing, I can help you get through all of it.

There are many topics I can offer guidance from what the different phases of growth of your business will look like to how working with freelancers can benefit your team.

Growing your agency can be a major struggle for any agency owner and I can show from knowing when it’s time to hire a sales manager or expand your sales team, creating a process for performance based pricing which can be the best pricing strategy for your business and learning how to keep your big name clients happy.

Are you ready to create something cool and want more advice? Learn about my career and different experiences as well as tips, tricks and insights by checking out my blogs that cover a wide variety of topics.

Check out more from my Ask Swenk series and more of my videos on my Youtube channel. There you will find advice from myself and other agency experts.