068 : You Can Have an Agency and Still Grow Your Personal Brand
Are you an agency owner who craves the idea of having a personal brand too? It might be simpler than you think.
In this episode, I am debunking the myth that you have to choose one or the other. You’ll hear about how you can make this work by having a crystal clear focus and the first step you should take if you want to grow your personal brand.
I’ll also share some of the hangups and challenges people face as a done-for-you service provider who is trying to step into the role of agency owner while growing their personal brand.
What’s in this episode:
- Why you have to have a clear focus to make this work
- The first step in growing your personal brand while having an agency
- Challenges people encounter when growing a personal brand
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EPISODE 68 TRANSCRIPT:
Download the Episode 68 Transcript
Welcome to The Scale Your Way podcast episode number 68.
You’re listening to the Scale Your Way podcast, where we share simple, proven strategies just for done for you service based companies. Here, you’ll learn how to scale your business on your own terms so that you can have more time, money, create a bigger impact and a better life. I’m your host, Nicole Jackson Miller. Let’s dive into today’s episode.
Hello there, hello, hello. Good morning. Today, I want to talk about how it is totally possible to grow your agency and also have a personal brand. And I’m going to share with you how I recommend doing this and some proof behind it.
So for those that don’t know me, my name is Nicole. And I help done for you providers step into the role of the agency owner and CEO so that they can lead a team they love and create a bigger and better impact with their people. And when I talk about people, I’m talking about their clients, their team and themselves, too. And the way that I look at this is that we don’t want to put one category before another, that we want to make sure that we have clients that are happy with our services, that we have team members that are happy to work at our company, and that we’re building a business that we love as CEOs. Right. We want all of these things. So that is what I am here to do. That is my mission. And today I want to talk about having an agency and having a personal brand.
So if you’re feeling right now, like you want to grow your services, that you want to agency model where you are delegating client delivery, but you also have wanted to launch a course or a coaching or consulting program. I want you to know that you can do this. Many of my clients have done this, and there is a way to make it successful. However, there is there’s a certain formula that I recommend to people as you move forward in growing your business, especially if you’re someone who is more passionate and wants to have different streams of revenue in the form of done for you services, coaching, consulting courses, whatever that looks like for you could be totally different. So why growing a business and especially scaling a business requires its focus.
And so while it is totally possible to be able to launch multiple revenue streams inside of your business, what I have found from the people who have been the most successful is that first they have focused on one thing and typically that one thing is they’re done for you services because that is how they have started their business. They have clients that they’re working with where they’re providing excellent results for their clients. They know this because they have referrals coming their way. They have clients who want to continue working with them. They have an audience of people who now know them is done for you service providers.
And so the first step is typically to focus on getting your done for you services in a great place before focusing in on other things. And so this does take time. It takes commitment. It takes focus. But if you do this the right way and I hesitate by saying the right way, because there’s not just always one way, but if you do this in a way that’s strategic for you’re really able to focus where you commit to moving from done for your service provider to agency owner and really focus on setting up your business like your foundation so your foundations, your team and your leadership so that you are out of client delivery. Let’s say you’re really only involved in about 20 percent of client delivery and have a clear transition plan to get to like five percent of client delivery. That is a really great place to be in so that you then have the time and the space to ensure that you are actually able to commit to focus. Right. Taking your focus and putting 50 percent of that focus. Right. That you now have back well, starting another revenue stream.
So the reason why it’s so important and I really encourage people to focus in on one thing at a time is because what I often see is that people go from moving from done for you service provider. They want to be an agency owner, but they get stuck in this middle identity of being a done for you service provider, plus having some team members. And I want you to know that that is not the identity and position of an agency owner and CEO.
So when you’re done for your service provider, you’re managing yourself and your client’s right. You’re involved in about probably 80 to 100 percent of client delivery. You’re paying yourself based on being a billable expense for your clients. So basically, like if you get a new client, you know that. You’re going to be able to pay yourself because you’re doing a lot of that client delivery yourself when you move to agency owner instead of managing your clients and yourself, you’re managing contributors and leaders on your team that are running your business, managing your clients. You are probably moving from anywhere from like 20 to 50 percent of being involved in client delivery with a very clear transition plan to get you to about 10 percent, five percent involved in client delivery. But a lot of that percentage is actually like leading your team in doing client delivery and not you doing client delivery yourself. That makes sense. So being an agency owner, you’re really only involved in about five to 20 percent of client delivery. And again, that time is not focused on you being the one to deliver. It’s about you leading the people that are delivering. And so with that, you are then paying yourself based on being an overhead expense. So it’s not like I need to take on another client and work on that account so I can pay myself. That’s not it. Like you are. Your business is actually set up to pay yourself based on being an overhead expense of your business, regardless of how many clients that you have.
And so what happens is that people get stuck in this middle piece of being a done for you service provider like plus having team members. And what happens with this is that instead of transitioning from managing yourself and your clients to managing your team and contributors and leaders on your team, you’re like managing yourself and your clients and your team. And it’s like, wait, why am I managing all of these people? I feel like, oh, this does not feel good, right. You are probably still involved in client delivery, maybe around anywhere from 80 percent to 40 percent, but it’s not like 40 percent. That is consistent. You’re constantly kind of going back and forth, like having to jump in and do a lot of stuff yourself. And the way that you’re paying yourself is still kind of in between. You haven’t fully moved to being an overhead expense in your business. And so there are those times where you’re like, do I need to take on a new client and do this myself in order to pay myself?
And so this is where a lot of people get stuck. And so what happens is that if at this point of getting stuck, you then say, you know what, I’m done focusing on this. I’m ready to go launch a course or I’m ready to go be a coach or whatever. I’ll still have this running. It’s fine as it is right now. What’s happening is that you’re not actually you’re not actually giving your other revenue streams a chance because you know as well as I do that you will always prioritize your done for you clients because that’s where a majority of your business is coming. And if right now you are still you’re not like, you know, a very clear transition plan of how you’re getting out of client delivery and you don’t have that dedicated space to be able to focus on these other revenue streams. And maybe you don’t have marketing in place to continue to bring in your done for your service business or the operational structures to make sure you can continue to support the business, then that is always going to be the default of where you focus your time and this comes up a lot when maybe you’ve said to yourself, like, oh, I keep trying to focus on this course, but my team still has all of these questions or this client is really being demanding right now. And I just am not able to, like, focus on this other thing. And you get stuck, you literally get stuck in the cycle.
And so that’s why I often recommend committing to moving from one free service provider to agency owner and really focusing in, especially when you’re at that point of being a done for your service provider like plus team. There are very specific things that you can do to put into place so that you are actually able to remove yourself more from client delivery and allow your team to support your clients and give your clients a really an even better experience than when you were involved.
And this is exactly what we go through. In my new program called AGENCY, applications are now open for a limited time. I take you step by step through our proven process of how you can delegate at least 50 percent of client delivery in 12 months. And this is a process that I have developed from being an agency owner myself, but then also from coaching and mentoring done for you service providers now for almost five years. So if you are interested in doing this and you’re interested in doing it in a way, again, that really is supportive for all of the people in your business, including yourself, definitely. Check out that program. You can learn more by going to NicoleJacksonMiller.com/apply. All of the information is on that page. If you feel like it’s a great fit, feel free to apply. We can have. I mean, I’ll send you like a little assessment to take so that you can see where you are now and where the potential is for you to go. And just this is a free assessment that you take before we chat. And a lot of people have gotten like huge aha moments just from going through that, which is really cool. So if you have any questions, feel free to DM. If you look at the application page and you have a question before applying, just send me a DM. I’m happy to chat more and I will see you all very soon. I hope you have a great rest of your day.
Everyone, thanks so much for tuning in. If you are ready to stop settling for being a done for your service provider and really fully step into the role of agency owner and CEO and lead a team that you love that just delivers excellent client results, then you have to check out my new program called AGENCY, which is specifically designed to remove you from at least 50 percent of client delivery in 12 months or less, so that you can have the time and the space to be able to run your business and, you know, to take a tech free vacation, too. That’s always nice, right? So if you’re interested in learning more, head over to NicoleJacksonMiller.com/apply. You can learn more about the program. If it looks like a good fit, then apply. And we will send you before our call. We’ll send you a free business assessment that will really explain more about the framework that we use to remove you from client delivery. And it’ll give you an assessment that you can take to really show where you are now and where you’re going. We’ve had so many people get a lot of insight just from taking that assessment, so I can’t wait for you to check it out.
