The Digital Agency Show | Helping Agency Owners Transform Their Business Mindset to Increase Prices, Work Less, and Grow Profits

Marama Carmichael is the founder of an award-winning marketing and brand agency, Oracle Tree, and she’s also the author of Amazon best-seller, Fixing Frankenstein: How to Take the Monster Out of Running Your Small Business. Oracle Tree helps SMBs to fix their “Frankenstein”, also known as grow and scale. She’s been a mentor with UGURUS since almost the beginning, and has helped around 300 agencies change their business through our program.

Howard Tiersky is a successful entrepreneur who has been named by IDG as one of the 10 Digital Transformation Influencers to Follow, and by Enterprise Management 360° as “One of the Top 10 Digital Transformation Influencers That Will Change Your World.” He is also the author of the WSJ bestselling book, Winning Digital Customers. This interview includes the fascinating story of working on Blockbuster’s digital transformation toward the end of their business.

Marc Gutman is the founder of Wildstory, a brand strategy and design studio agency. He’s done a lot of amazing work in the outdoor and adventure space, and recently a lot of B2B tech, including his recent client, Cold Quanta. Marc is a storyteller, entrepreneur, adventurer, and idealist. Marc has held several positions in the story business. He served as Story Editor for Oliver Stone’s Illusion Entertainment and wrote stories and screenplays for Oliver Stone, Warner Bros., and 20th Century Fox. He has worked on movies with Sean Penn, Jennifer Lopez, Al Pacino, Jamie Foxx, the Farrelly Bros, Bill Murray, Chris Rock, Mark Whalberg, and Jennifer Aniston. In addition to his time in Hollywood, Marc itched the entrepreneurial scratch by founding a multimillion-dollar tech company in Boulder, Colorado.

Barbara Carneiro is a mentor and senior strategist. She is the founder of Word Revolution, a communication and branding agency for Christian ministries. She’s worked with over 250 clients in her niche. She’s launched a conference and a course in her niche as well. She has a 5-person agency and only works 10-15 hours per week in the business. She also is a UGURUS mentor and has been working with us for many years now. She’s helped over 200 agency owners in our programs.

Amy Hanlon, president of Blue Meta Design, visually showcases the impactful stories of startups through graphic design, partnering with VC's on cutting-edge investments. A small branding agency located in the Mid-South, Blue Meta Design is client-focused, servicing companies that are changing the world and their communities.

Yvonne Heimann is the CEO & founder of AskYvi.com and the leading ClickUp evangelist, as well as a passionate Business Efficiency & Scalability Consultant, Mindset Coach, NLP Master Practitioner, & Speaker.

Colby Flood founded Brighter Click to create an education-first agency that focuses not just on performance but on proactive communication led by education. Brighter Click helps eCommerce companies 2-3x their current Facebook marketing performance. They’re the only agency that leads all communications through education.

Dave Fink thinks the best kept secret in marketing is hiding where you least expect it—your mailbox. Over a 20-year career he’s generated hundreds of millions of dollars in ad revenue, powered viral sensations like Dollar Shave Club, and helped launch celebrity startups for Jessica Simpson, Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, and Kate Bosworth. Now as founder and CEO of Postie, he’s out to reinvent direct mail marketing for a digital world.

Alex Birkett is a co-founder at Omniscient Digital, a content marketing and SEO agency focused on growing B2B SaaS companies. Previously, he worked on growth and experimentation at HubSpot, Workato, and CXL. Today we’ll get into how Alex was able to grow a 7-figure agency while working full time.

Will Perry has run over $65M+ in paid social and paid search ads. He’s obsessed with direct response marketing and is the owner of 3 different businesses: REASON - A DFY Ad Agency for 6 & 7-figure spenders, Future Kontent - A DFY UGC Content agency for Tiktok Advertisers, and Elite Media Buyers Academy - A DWY coaching program that helps agencies get their media buyers to an elite level.

Gina Michnowicz is CEO and Executive Creative Director of The Craftsman Agency, where she focuses on creating magical moments through custom experiential marketing and immersive storytelling for B2B and B2C brands. With clients including Cisco, Disney, Paramount, and Microsoft, Gina has led projects from concept to delivery of immersive digital experiences, experiential installations, websites, and bespoke advertising campaigns.

Paul Bellows is the President and co-founder of Yellow Pencil. Since 1996, his team has designed and built digital platforms and worked alongside public sector clients to develop the operational maturity and cloud infrastructure that power exceptional experiences and service journeys. Clients include the Cities of Toronto, Edmonton, and Manitoba, as well as the Government of Alberta, and more. Before starting Yellow Pencil, Paul was an award-winning folk-rock singer and songwriter. One of the first musicians to use the Internet for music promotion and sales, he has released four albums that have hit college top-10 lists across North America.

Kaila O’Connor - After a decade-long PR career filled with panic attacks, burnout, and low worth, Kaila stumbled across something that changed her life immediately: affiliate marketing. Kaila quickly became a self-taught pioneer in this new age of Affiliate PR. With a Rolodex of key editor relationships and intuitive decision-making guided by her Human Design chart, Kaila’s proven ability to generate high-revenue media coverage has disrupted the PR industry and its “always on the grind” mentality.

Mickie Kennedy started eReleases over 23 years ago to help small businesses increase their visibility through press release marketing. He lives in the Baltimore area. eReleases represents about a third of businesses or pitches that go on Shark Tank.

Richard Handler is the CEO of alan. Agency, one of the fastest growing B2B Marketing agencies in Europe. He’s the author of Markeing. The Bottom Line and the host of the podcast, B2B Marketing: The Provocative Truth. Richard is passionate about bridging the gap between Sales and Marketing and wants to challenge B2B marketers to think more creatively.

Meredith Kallaher helps online businesses expand their reach and explode their sales with digital ads. Meredith spent the beginning of her career as an internationally based CPA with PricewaterhouseCoopers but found herself wanting to use her creativity more in her work life. Creating and managing a successful digital ads strategy has allowed her to use both her expertise in numbers and social media to create big value for small businesses and her own company.

Manish Dudharejia is the founder and president of E2M Solutions, which is the fastest growing digital marketing agency in India that offers the full range of digital marketing services across the globe. He is passionate about technology, marketing, and startups.

Noel Andrews bought JobRack in 2018 after 10 years of building and leading large teams in the corporate tech world. Since then, he has increased revenue by 4,000x and helped businesses all over the world hire more than 1,000 remote team members from Eastern Europe.

Andrew Lee Miller is the founder of AndrewStartups, which is a 15+ year early-stage startup marketing expert that has driven over $400 million in startup exits. He's the founder of GrowthExpertz, an award-winning SF-based startup marketing agency, and the author of The Startup Growth book. He teaches startup teams the growth hacking mindset, zero-dollar growth hacking strategies, and how to NOT fail as an early-stage startup.

Aidan Foster is a UX Designer and Front-End Web Architect. He is the owner of Foster Interactive, which is a web design agency in Toronto, Canada. Aidan describes himself as being obsessive about processes (in a good way) and uses tools and processes to improve the quality of both a website’s design & code, all while maintaining a careful balance between the needs of stakeholders and a site’s end-user audience. He is actively involved in the open-source community, the president of the local non-profit Drupal Toronto organization, and vice president of Drupal North, which hosts Canada’s largest annual Drupal Conference.

Dan Englander is the CEO and Founder of Sales Schema, which is a fractional new business team for marketing agencies and B2B service companies. He is also the host of The Digital Agency Growth Podcast and author of Relationship Sales At Scale and Mastering Account Management. Previously, Dan was the first employee Head of New Business at the animation studio IdeaRocket. He lives in New York and in his spare time he enjoys hurting himself via Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.

Wes McDowell is a website strategist and very successful YouTuber who helps business owners make the most of their websites for automated client generation.

Rich Brooks is the founder and president of flyte new media, a digital agency in Portland, Maine, that’s been in business for 25 years. He is a nationally recognized speaker on entrepreneurship, digital marketing, and social media. Rich founded The Agents of Change, an annual conference and weekly podcast that focuses on search, social, and mobile marketing. He is the author of The Lead Machine: The Small Business Guide to Digital Marketing, a popular and well-received book that helps entrepreneurs and marketers reach more of their ideal customers online. He appears regularly as the “tech guru” on the evening news show, 207, which airs on the NBC affiliates in Maine. He has also appeared in Inc. Magazine, The Huffington Post, FastCompany.com, CNN.com, the Social Media Examiner, and many other news sources for stories on digital marketing.

Jon Morris is the founder and CEO of Ramsay Innovations, a Finance Management and Strategic Planning company that is focused on helping marketing communication firms grow faster. Previous to starting Ramsay Innovations, Morris was the founder and CEO of Rise Interactive. Under Morris’ leadership, Rise received recognition for excellence in client service, innovative marketing campaigns, and commitment to culture, including acknowledgment from Inc. 500|5000 Fastest Growing Companies (nine-time winner), Ad Age (Best Places to Work in Advertising), Fortune Magazine, Forrester, and more. Morris has been personally recognized as a leader in technology and innovation on the Techweek100 list and Crain’s Chicago Tech 50 list. As a leader in the digital marketing community, Morris has mentored several entrepreneurs, with a significant focus on the University of Chicago’s New Venture Challenge, a renowned business plan competition where Rise itself got its start. Morris has shared his expertise as a guest speaker, presenting on main stages and at workshops and webinars for organizations such as Search Marketing Expo, Search Engine Strategies, American Marketing Association, The University of Chicago Booth School of Business, Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, Forrester Research, Online Marketing Summit, iStrategy, and Vistage. Morris earned an MBA with high honors, graduating first in his class from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and a bachelor's degree from Kenyon College.

Alkimie was founded in 2020 by Gili Wolf, Vanessa Louis-Woolley, Georgina Miller, and Diane Pauley. Alkimie is a strategy-first brand and marketing collective that includes brand strategy, art direction, marketing strategy, and content strategy services. They believe that people connect with brands that are connected to themselves. Their vision is that every business operates from a place of self-awareness and self-regard as the catalyst for their decisions, actions, and words.

Naomi Tepper and Tre’ Grisby are the co-hosts and co-creators of the podcast Hop to It: Our Digital Nomad Journey. They are married empty-nesters who are slow-traveling through the Southwestern United States in search of home. Tre’ is a software developer and tech support dude; he is also a Shaman, light energy worker, and yoga hobbyist. Naomi, who also goes by Na (nay), is a creative solopreneur, author, and alchemist.

Tom Hunt starts and grows B2B businesses. Before this, he studied Chemistry at Imperial College London and followed the herd to a management consulting job in London. Tom got bored, built a marketplace connecting online entrepreneurs and virtual assistants from scratch, and sold 90% of it– all while traveling the world. He now starts and grows the world's most profitable podcasts for B2B businesses at Fame and builds the podcast host for high-growth businesses at bCast.

Jabez Lebret is a best-selling author, a Forbes journalist, and a successful entrepreneur who sold his award-winning agency in 2018 to open a high school for underserved youth. Today, he is partnering on a project to help female entrepreneurs take their companies from $200K to $1M in revenue. He has delivered over 1,200 presentations, written four books, launched multiple million-dollar companies, and he is an advisor to several Fortune 500 companies.

Jay Jay is the founder of Ace of Spades Agency, which is a PR and social media agency that helps high-level CEOs, entrepreneurs, businesses, coaches, and personal brands become known as credible experts in their industry. With clients in 12 different countries, Jay and his team assist businesses and individuals get seen as the number one in their space, by placing them in tier-1 publications, high-end podcasts, morning TV shows, and getting them verified on Instagram. As an expert in content creation, social media marketing, building brands, and sourcing PR opportunities, Jay has grown his own social media following to over a million. He has over 57 million views on YouTube and is verified on Facebook and Instagram. He coaches others to do the same and achieve similar results. Jay has also spoken in over 30 countries.

Andrea Fryrear is the CEO and Co-founder of AgileSherpas, a bootstrapped multi-million dollar business that teaches marketers how to apply the Agile methodology to their unique profession. She is a leading authority on optimizing customer acquisition and retention processes. Andrea is also the author of two books on organizational agility and is an international speaker and trainer.

Jennifer Spivak is the CEO of The AdGirls Agency, which is an all-female Facebook Ads agency. Jennifer has helped hundreds of businesses generate millions of dollars on Facebook and Instagram, with many seeing a 1000%+ return on their ad campaigns. Her all-female team enjoys crunching data, helping women-owned businesses make tons of money, and breaking the rules when it comes to Facebook ads. Jennifer has been featured in Forbes & The New York Times, listed as a Top Facebook Ads Manager to Watch in 2019, and is an adjunct professor of digital marketing at The City College of New York.

Phil Case is the President of Max Connect Digital where he oversees agency growth, client relationship, strategy, and brand. Previously, he was the Managing Partner of Fluid Advertising where he grew the agency from four to 35+ full-time employees in a 6-year period. In 2018, Phil helped launch The Utah Outdoor Association to support the outdoor industry in Utah. He has worked in just about every industry and with hundreds of brands, and even took an international biotech company public on the NASDAQ in 2020. Phil is an outdoor and adventure travel enthusiast, passionate mountain biker, and backcountry skier.

Matt Seltzer is the owner of S2 Research, which is a market research and strategy partner for ad agencies and marketing teams. Matt spent four years as the Senior Research Analyst for the What Happens in Vegas campaign. Today, he partners with agencies to deliver surveys, focus groups, and overall insights when their clients need it.

Lindsay Shearer runs a large Pinterest ads/SEO/traffic generation community and is the CEO of two digital marketing agencies called Pins 4 Profit and BrandRanx Media. She is a private equity investor in e-com brands, a software developer, a frequent speaker, and a host of masterminds all around the world. Lindsay has been featured in/on Entrepreneur, The Washington Post, Fox News, Social Media Explorer, Market Watch, just to name a few.

Emily Cohen is a brutally honest consultant who has worked with many leading design firms across the country. She speaks on stages all across the world (about 12-15 times per year) to audiences of creative and agency professionals. Through these experiences, she has developed, tested, and curated key business insights and strategies that have helped firms become more effective, profitable, and more fun to work at. Cohen provides strategic business planning, confidential best practices, insights, advice to staff, process management strategies, culture, and more.

Will Bagnall is the CEO and founder of SUSO Digital, a mentor on tech incubator programs in London, and a digital marketing speaker for a number of UK universities. SUSO Digital is a fast-growing UK specialist technical SEO agency that helps fellow digital marketing agencies specialize in high-tier white-label, outsource SEO, solve the problem of internal hiring, handle resource limitations, and explore new revenue channels by adding SEO service capabilities. In just five years, the SUSO Digital team has grown to 35 employees across Europe, working on over 100 active campaigns.

Damien Zamora is the CEO of GoMobile Solutions, which was founded in 2010. He helps business owners and marketing agencies scale their businesses with done-for-you mobile app development. When he isn’t reinventing and repurposing new technologies, he works with young and hopeful entrepreneurs and is also a coach and speaker. Zamora has been an entrepreneur for 30 years and is an internet 1.0 pioneer. He has started and developed several million-dollar enterprises.

Cathy Olson has been beautifying brands and designing experiences of digital delight for over 22 years, working with multi-billion dollar brands like Costco, Best Buy, and Disney. She is the co-founder of the wildly popular brand Funnel Gorgeous®, alongside Julie Stoian. Together they teach (and equip) Creative Entrepreneurs and Digital Marketers. They offer a Master Marketer Certification called FG Society that focuses on Offer Strategy, Compelling Copywriting, and Gorgeous Design – creating triple-threat marketers. As Cathy’s love for gorgeous funnels grew, so did her dreams for a better way to make them. In the Fall of 2020, she and Julie founded the first and only Female-Run funnel builder software, FG Funnels. Her heart’s mission: to breathe new life, integrity, and beauty into the world of marketing, one gorgeous funnel at a time.

Geoffrey Colon is a compelling voice in marketing at the intersection of marketing, tech, media, and popular culture. He has been quoted in dozens of media outlets and has appeared on numerous television programs to share his expertise. Geoffrey works as the Head of Brand Studio for Microsoft Advertising. He is a published author and was the creator, producer, and host of the DISRUPTIVE FM podcast. Geoffrey was also the creator and co-executive producer of the web video series The Download for two seasons.

David C. Baker is an author, speaker, and advisor to entrepreneurial creatives worldwide. He has written five books, including his latest book titled The Business of Expertise. Baker has advised over 900 firms, was the keynote speaker at conferences in 30 countries, and his work has been discussed in dozens of international publications. The New York Times referred to him as the “expert’s expert”. He is also the co-host of the 2Bobs podcast.

Craig and Scott have led more than 150 workshops teaching organizations that help people with disabilities how to find and keep more of the staff they need. After a recent workshop series, an HR Recruiter reported that she had gone from 20 open positions to only 6! Together they co-authored the new book, "Heart, Hope & Honesty – How I/DD Providers Can Attract & Retain Amazing Direct Support Professionals & Thrive Despite the DSP Crisis." Craig and Scott are father and son, as well as business partners with a personal connection to the work they do.

Daniel DiPiazza is a martial artist, bestselling author, and serial entrepreneur with success in the media, marketing, and ecommerce industries. Lately, he’s been getting into web3.0, crypto, psychology, history, science, jiu-jitsu, and psychedelics. (This episode is not intended for investment advice - please seek a professional.)

David Rendall, of The Freak Factor, has spoken to audiences on every inhabited continent. His clients include the US Air Force, Australian Government, Microsoft, AT&T, United Health Group, Fannie Mae, and State Farm. He has written four books - The Four Factors of Effective Leadership, The Freak Factor, The Freak Factor for Kids, and Pink Goldfish. David was recently a keynote speaker at our USUMMIT Virtual event.

Sarah Moe started her career in Sleep Medicine in 2006 and is the Founder and CEO of Sleep Health Specialists, which provides sleep education to local businesses and corporations. She was also an Adjunct Professor in the Polysomnography (Sleep) Program at Minneapolis College. Sarah sat on the Board of Directors for the Minnesota Sleep Society and the Educational Products Committee for the American Association of Sleep Technologists. For her role in Sleep Education in our workforce, Sarah has been named to the Minnesota Business Magazine's "35 Under 35" 2016, "Most Likely to Succeed- Healthcare Division" finalist in 2017, "Women Who Lead" 2018, the Minneapolis St. Paul Business Journal's "Women In Business" 2019, and the TeamWomen's "WaveMaker Award- Uncharted Territory" finalist, 2019.

Brooklyn-based Douglas Davis enjoys being one of the variety of voices needed in front of and behind the concept. As principal of The Davis Group, Douglas offers strategic solutions to client branding, design, and communications problems. As author of Creative Strategy and the Business of Design, Douglas regularly contributes to the design discourse in The European Business Review, RGD Design Thinkers, and the OneClub Educators Summit. Douglas is an Emmy Award-winning strategist who serves on the advisory boards of the Poster House Museum CMYK council, The Type Director’s Club, The University of Oregon’s Masters in Advertising and Brand Responsibility, and City College’s Masters in Branding and Integrated Communications.

Alyson Caffrey is an SOP and process and operations expert. Her company has created over 1,000 SOPs for agencies and other types of businesses just in 2021 alone. She has a 13-person team at Operations Agency and many people call her The Wolf (a nod to Pulp Fiction). She works with dozens of agencies and helps them build out SOPs and operations processes for their business. We’ve been fortunate to have her as a guest expert/mentor in our UCACDEMY community.

Aaron Carpenter runs the agency Legendary Lion, which he founded in 2011, and is also a UGURUS mentor. He has over 300 clients in his niche, has completed over 500 projects, and also created a directory website that sold for nearly 7 figures.

Cody Getchell is the man behind the high-ticket coaching program GSD and is a senior partner in L.A’s top-rated marketing agency Custom Creatives. His mission is to help entrepreneurs get out of their own way by moving from an unsustainable “do it all“ mentality to building a rockstar team that gives them the ability to create an assembly line in their business to create growth and freedom.

Bennie Fowler offers executive and leadership coaching. He played in the NFL for eight years and was part of Super Bowl 50 for the Denver Broncos. He had a chance to play with greats such as Peyton Manning, Eli Manning, Tom Brady, and Drew Brees.

Jan Koch is the owner of Virtual Summit Mastery and a passionate virtual summit host, connecting with people and building an audience globally. He has been organizing summits since 2015 and enjoys connecting with his attendees through live video streams. Jan's mission is to help entrepreneurs grow their businesses through the power of virtual events.