Insights

A Series On The Marketing Solopreneur: #1 Dan Koe

Peter · March 6, 2023 · 1 Comment

I am doing a series on the world of the solopreneur that offers two things.

1) Insights from a serious thinker/doer that will help you grow your business. I am talking solopreneur.

2) An alternative career path roadmap. No working for the “man”. Even if that man/woman/person is you, as in someone that runs a marketing agency.

Definition…According to Merriam-Webster, a solopreneur is “one who organizes, manages, and assumes the risks of a business or enterprise without the help of a partner.”

#1 solopreneur is the design guru Dan Koe. He delivers courses +

Dan offers courses on writing, productization, and a Modern Mastery system. These range from $150 to $999. He makes a lot of money. I am considering the book course even though I am now completing my fourth book and am outlining my fifth. Never too late to tap into someone else’s experience. Factoid… Dan has 75K followers on LinkedIn. 295K Twitter followers. 223K YouTube subs. 1.2 million Instagram peeps. Yikes!

From Dan’s website – a very cool website by the way:

Hey, I’m Dan.

I’m a brand advisor for 6-7 figure creators and influencers.

I’m the guy they come to when they want to go from starving artist to a highly-paid and authentic creator. No fancy sales funnels and pushy marketing in this household.

I help them systemize their workflow, marketing, and content so they can work for 2 hours a day, charge more, and sell their products & services without manual effort.

As a freelancer turned consultant turned creator, I’ve developed effective systems with time, skin in the game, and experience with 4000+ students and clients.

Four Things For You To Do

Sign up for future newsletters to scope out even more interesting and way active solopreneur thinker/doers.
Pass this newsletter on to your friends.
Tell Dan you love him. -> LinkedIn
Go here to read my series of 850+ blog posts.

What Do You Call Your Advertising Or Digital Agency?

Peter · February 18, 2023 · 2 Comments

Are You Advertising Agency? Branding? Digital? What?

Here’s a list of what today’s advertising agencies call themselves—and things can get confusing, especially given service synergies:

· Advertising agency

· Full-service agency

· Integrated agency

· Marketing agency

· Branding agency

· Digital agency

· Influencer agency

· Storytelling agency

· Media planning and buying agency

· Creative agency

· Branding agency

· Social media agency

· Web design agency

· SEM agency

· SEO agency

· MarTech agency

· TikTok agency

· Direct marketing agency

· eCommerce agency

· Recruitment agency

· CRO agency

· B2B agency

· Challenger brand agency

· Promotion agency

· Out-of-home agency

· Design agency

· Experiential agency

· Strategic consultancy agency

· Performance marketing agency

· AR/VR agency

· Public relations agency

· Strategic consultancy

· AI agency

· In-house agency

To help me position and title of my soon-to-be new book, I turned to Google Trends to see what marketing agency-identifying terms people search for. I’ll admit I was surprised to see that “marketing agency” was the clear search-term winner, followed by “digital agency,” “advertising agency,” and then “ad agency.”

“Marketing agency.” Really? In fact, I was hard-pressed to find even a handful of agencies that called themselves a marketing agency.

More about this coming soon.

Me As A Sherpa Guide

Peter · February 16, 2023 · Leave a Comment

SHERPA The Book Is Almost There

I chose the title SHERPA for my upcoming book because it will soon be the ultimate guide to building and running a kick-ass advertising agency.

I just asked ChatGPT for a definition of Sherpa:

“A Sherpa is a member of an ethnic group of people who primarily live in the Himalayas of Nepal. They are known for their expertise in mountaineering and guiding climbers and trekkers through the mountainous terrain of the region. Sherpas are often employed as guides, porters, and helpers by mountaineering expeditions seeking to climb the many peaks in the region, including Mount Everest, the highest mountain in the world.

The term “Sherpa” has also come to be used more broadly to refer to anyone who serves as a guide or assistant, particularly in a cultural or social context. For example, in business or politics, a “sherpa” may be someone who helps to guide or facilitate negotiations or decision-making processes.”

I’ve guided before via “The Levitan Pitch”.

Yes, I Know.

Calling the book SHERPA and by relationship, me as a sherpa guide might be a bit much. But, hey, it is my book. Stay tuned.

Solo Design Agency Makes More Money Than Ad Agencies

Peter · February 10, 2023 · Leave a Comment

This Solo Design Agency Kicks Ass

The design agency Designjoy, a solo practitioner, has a much higher profit margin than most agencies. A lesson for advertising agencies follows.

I am writing a new book about how to build and run a kick-ass advertising agency. An important chapter discusses how an advertising agency can productize its services. To, yes, make more money at a much higher profit margin. Lots of ideas. But, here is a big one.

A Bold Productization Idea… Subscriptions

The design agency Designjoy offers design as a subscription. A design product. Billing starts at $4,995/m.

This one-man shop has reported annual recurring revenues of over $1.5 million. From Brett Williams’s LinkedIn profile:

Designjoy is a one-person premium design service currently serving 40+ clients with a + $1.5M ARR. One guy.

On his website:

A design agency with a twist.

Apps, websites, logos & more.

From his FAQ:

“Why wouldn’t I just hire a full-time designer?

Good question! For starters, the annual cost of a full-time senior-level designer now exceeds $100,000, plus benefits (and good luck finding one available). Aside from that, you may not always have enough work to keep them busy at all times, so you’re stuck paying for time you aren’t able to utilize.

With the monthly plan, you can pause and resume your subscription as often as you need to ensure you’re only paying your designer when you have work available for them.”

Big + Big Design Agency Numbers

Brett’s solo Instagram has over 74K Followers. 35K Followers on Twitter. The mega-agency VMLY&R has 57K followers and, get this, 16K employees.

Now the very serious stuff. From a 2023 Tweet at @designjoy:

“Just started tracking my spending habits and budgeting. Designjoy now costs less than $400/m to run. That’s it. That’s my overhead. And half of that is a Shutterstock subscription. Agencies are doing it all wrong.”

Yikes.

Wait. Wait. There’s More $.

You can now dive into Brett’s Productize Yourself course for $99. Of course, you should sign up your design agency, or any agency for that matter, for his productized course.

SmarterChild Beat ChatGPT by 22 Years

Peter · January 25, 2023 · Leave a Comment

As BuzzFeed Said About SmarterChild… (way before ChatGPT)

From BuzzFeed 2013: “50 Things That Look Just Like Your Childhood” – “A chat with an online robot”

Did you play with SmarterChild? I was one of the founders and CEO. Was nice to be part of the Internet’s childhood.Who knew then that ChatGPT was coming?

Here is a start-up video … 2000… (Microsoft eventually bought us – ActiveBuddy. And, now they own a chunk of ChatGPT) Yes, that’s me.