The REAL secret to ‘overnight’ success in your branding agency
Long-term, business success. Isn’t that the dream of every entrepreneur?
So how come a bunch of businesses fail in the 1st 2 years, and the majority just stay ‘OK’, just getting by?
And what about all those ‘overnight’ success stories you see all over your news feed? What the hell? I’m over here busting my ass, and they’ve just said they make $100k a month??
Let me set you straight.
I've observed hundreds of branding agency owners who seem trapped in an endless cycle of chasing new ideas without ever fully committing to one.
They're intrigued by shiny objects and quick fixes, but fail to realize that true success stems from unwavering dedication and resilience - essentially, committed business success.
In this post, I’m going to take a deep dive into what ‘overnight’ success is REALLY about, show you how to keep going even when the stuff hits the fan, and the only things you really need to know to stay successful.
Want a hint?
It’s got NOTHING to do with your marketing strategy, and EVERYTHING to do with the mindset of an entrepreneur.
What everyone knows, but won’t tell you
Yes, there’s a real secret to success.
It’s not the latest marketing tool.
It’s not another book by the latest New York Times bestselling author.
It’s not even something you’ll find going up a mountain for 5 days with nothing but the clouds for company.
It’s one thing that no one REALLY talks about, but they know at the back of their minds.
Successful branding agency owners, and entrepreneurs in general are COMMITTED, not just INTERESTED.
In business, being interested means you're only willing to pursue your business idea as long as things are easy.
Reading a lot of business books and watching a lot of training videos or spending all week on your website and saying you worked on getting in more leads is an example of doing what’s easy.
What???
But Pia! I spent days on my website, and hours crafting that perfect blog post so loads of people will know that I’m really great and they should hire me! That all counts, right?
Well, not exactly.
The most beautiful website in the world isn’t going to get you clients, if you’re not actively getting out there in front of them, and consistently marketing yourself.
So what does commitment look like?
Making sure you reach out to 10, 20, 50 people in your chosen market (or whatever your target is) each day, no matter what.
Even if your basement flooded, or your kid had to stay home from school.
Or when you don’t close a sale, even though you think you did everything right, and instead of wallowing in how crap you are, and distracting yourself by going down a YouTube/Ben & Jerry’s rabbit hole for 2 days, you pick yourself up, look back at the sales call to see if there was anything you could have done differently, out it in place for the next one, and then keep going.
A committed entrepreneur understands that achieving financial success requires more than just a great business model or ample financial resources. It's about making commitments and sticking with them no matter what challenges present themselves.
This is where personal commitment helps; it fuels perseverance even when times get tough - something research suggests is common among successful entrepreneurs who tend to thrive amidst adversity.
And personal commitment is really just making some time to figure out why you set up this agency in the first place, having that in your focus all the time (like on a screensaver or popping up on your phone) so it’s there to bring you back when things go off track.
One more thing - if you think owning a branding agency or being an entrepreneur is easy, that’s just one more lie you’re telling yourself.
If you think Warren Buffet's stock market ventures were always smooth sailing or every venture capitalist had an easy start, think again. Most great leaders will tell you their path was paved with discomforts they chose not to simply endure but embrace.
Half-assing your efforts…gets you half-ass results
Operating a branding agency needs diligence, so being half-assed just won’t cut it.
It's like trying to light a fire in the rain - you might get sparks, but lasting success? Unlikely.
What do I mean by half-assed? And would I dare accuse you of that???
It’s OK - nothing personal!
What I mean is that when you go all in, you stick it out despite failures, adversity and other challenges. You know that your big vision or future that you committed to when you started is still there, even if you have to deal with curveballs.
Take Warren Buffet's story - his unwavering focus has made him one of the most influential figures in the stock market today.
When he bought shares in Berkshire Hathaway back in the 1960s, what he had actually planned to do with the New England textile company wasn’t what ended up happening.
He initially wanted to make a quick buck by buying the stock and then selling it back to management at a profit. But this didn’t happen, so he bought more and more shares and ended up owning the company.
So now what?
He was saddled with a struggling textile business, being undercut by cheaper overseas manufacturers, and just getting by on old outdated machinery.
The easy thing would be to dump all his stock and get out. But Buffett rose to the challenge.
He used what cashflow the company generated to invest in other, promising companies, and slowly build an empire. Each new investment could then build up Berkshire Hathaway, which eventually became a conglomerate, spanning everything from insurance, to real estate to utilities, and making Buffett not only one of the richest men in the world, but also one of the most brilliant and sought after investment experts.
If he’d done the ‘easy’ thing, he would have been OK, and you’d probably never know who he is. But if he hadn’t gone all in with what looked like a dud of an investment, not only would he have limited his own wealth, but he also wouldn’t have been able to build up other companies, create hundreds of thousands of jobs and give back to important causes in a big way.
Successful entrepreneurs don't dabble - they dive deep into their projects, leaving no stone unturned. They go all-in to find the best possible solution for their customers and themselves.
Be the Warren Buffett of your branding agency, and see where it takes you.
Set yourself up for long-term growth
Being a successful branding agency owner means facing challenges head-on. Remember, every obstacle is just an opportunity in disguise.
Didn’t close that sale? OK - take a fine tooth comb to your lead generation and sales process, and see where you could improve.
Let down by a contractor so you had to work round the clock to meet a client deadline? OK - did you do your due diligence and follow a process? Or if not, is there one you can set up for next time?
Client ghosted you and hasn’t paid your final invoice? Maybe set up a system so you get paid upfront.
It really doesn’t matter what strategy or tool or tactic you use. It all depends on that old ‘glass half full v. glass half empty’ outlook.
Really!
It’s more than just positive thinking. After all, the entrepreneurial process can be a wild ride, and ‘thinking positive vibes’ won’t get through it.
Instead, to set yourself for long-term growth, you need to have a way of looking at each and every activity in your agency as an opportunity - whether it’s the boring stuff, or the stuff that lights you up.
If you’re struggling - try some of these ideas:
Remember your why: Revisit your original vision to reignite your passion when things get tough.
If you don’t know why you’re in business, it won’t matter what marketing tool or tactic you use. Sure, there’s times when it seems like you’re just going through the motions in your business, but when you get a bad day, week, or month, what’s going to get you through and see the opportunities in all that mess? This is why you have to have a powerful vision that will speak to you, especially when times are tough.Embrace failure: Even great leaders like Warren Buffet made mistakes on their path to financial success. All those ‘overnight’ success stories aren’t really overnight successes - that is clever positioning and clickbait. In reality, highly successful branding agencies spend months or even years failing over and over, and then you see the highlight reel. But that’s good news! Failing doesn’t mean everything keeps going wrong or gets messed up. It just means that the result they got wasn’t the result they had expected - they made the corrections and moved on. Adopting that approach in your branding agency will get you where you want to go much faster.
Stay flexible: Your business model may need adjustments based on market feedback or changing circumstances. This is kind of similar to the previous point - our failures sometimes teach us that we need to switch gears in our marketing or that we maybe need to dial up or dial down a particular process. Maybe we need to go to a different market, or work with different partners who can get us in front of the right audience. It’s that flexibility that not only helps you grow, but keeps the whole entrepreneurial journey interested - especially for us creatives!
The 3 things you need to be successful (yes, it really is just 3)
Feel free to Google this - you’ll probably come across a dozen articles just on Page 1.
And that’s cool.
Except you’re here, reading my No BS advice, so I’m going to give you my take on what I’ve seen and experienced, and what my students tell me really works for them.
Fail Fast.
I’ve already talked about failure, and how to relate to it in a way that gets you moving and growing, instead of staying stuck. The next level to this is to do it quickly - the quicker you fail, the quicker you learn and course correct to get the best strategies that work for growing your agency.
Here’s an example. Let’s say you’re planning to reach out to potential clients through an email campaign. You do your research on how to put it together, get the software set up and maybe even hire someone to run this campaign for you.
Since it’s not something you’ve done before, you’re not going to know what results you’ll get, but you can give yourself a goal based on what you know could be possible.
Then, here’s the ‘failing’ bit. You set up milestones or ‘sprints’ where you run this campaign for short periods of time - long enough to see if this is working, but short enough to course correct. You may set up 3 or 4 sprints of 5-10 days each, and have a break in between so you can review the results and make changes if you need to. Each time you don’t reach the result you planned, you make tweaks, and at the end, you look back and see what you think got you the result or didn’t.
This approach of iterating and failing fast is what successful companies do all the time. They don’t go down a rabbit hole if they didn’t get the result they expected, they keep adjusting and tweaking until they do. There’s no ‘drama’ about a bad result - it’s just feedback.
See what happens when you take that on in your own branding agency. What could be possible?Measure, measure, and keep measuring.
You know what’s a good way of beating ‘impostor syndrome’? Looking at your data.
What data, Pia? I don’t do spreadsheets!
Let’s break this down.
The biggest thing that takes us out of the game of being successful are those nasty, self-sabotaging thoughts we get that say something like “Those guys are making $50k/mo easy - what’s my problem?” or “Holy shit - I just posted a blog and it’s a bunch of garbage” or “I can’t charge that - I don’t have enough experience…”
Trouble is, NONE of those thoughts (or similar ones) are based in any reality, or data.
You don’t have any objective measure or way of tracking any of them, so your brain starts making shit up. Literally.
So when I say ‘look at your data’ - I mean it in the broadest sense possible.
Look at the actual NUMBER of sales calls you’ve done, before you start spouting trash like “I’m crap at sales”.
Look at the actual NUMBER of people liking or commenting on your posts, or saying to you that they read something you wrote/posted and found it valuable, before you yell “I can’t write for crap”.
Look at what your sales, leads, impressions, ad spend etc. are for the past quarter before you decide you need to ditch a marketing tactic and try on a new one just because EVERYONE seems to be doing it. (Hint, they’re not. It’s just the last 3 people you spoke to who told you that they’re thinking of doing it too.)
This is also what I’m talking about when it comes to being resilient and doing what’s uncomfortable.
Adversity and challenges in entrepreneurship don’t just come in the form of a bad economy. Our mindset is the biggest challenge to deal with - and one of the best antidotes to sabotaging ourselves is making sure we measure and track our progress all the time.Have fun!
Not a bumper sticker. I’m dead serious.I’ve talked about having a big vision or purpose and having that being front and center as you go about running your agency.
And it’s super important to have that, especially when things are tough.
But do you actually enjoy running your branding agency?
Is it something that lights you up, gets you excited, makes you feel like ‘I can’t believe I get paid to do this every day’?
Or is it a drag? Is it something you fell into, because you’re really great at graphic design and building websites, and you thought that the natural next step was setting up on your own.
After all - loads of people do it, right?
Thing is, enjoying your work isn’t just a nice thing that self-help books started telling us in the 1990s.
Feel free to Google health studies on the impact of having fun and loving your work, and how it can actually make you live longer.
So if you’re not having fun or having a great time - even with the crappy stuff that all agency owners deal with and bitch about - then maybe you need to take some time and figure out what that is, and go do that.
You’ll be way more attractive to any opportunities for your agency if people can see how much you love what you do, and how much it excites you.
On the flip side, would you want to hang around and do business with someone who was always complaining about their industry?
I can bet you that Buffett wouldn’t trade a day of poring over the movements of the Nasdaq for anything - it’s who he is, and he loves it.
So what lights you up?
Here’s what you need to get…
Committed success in your branding agency is about having more than a fleeting interest. It's about getting uncomfortable and pushing past challenges, even if those challenges are in your head.
Being half-assed will stifle your growth - going all-in is what matters.
It doesn’t matter if you’re as big as Warren Buffett or are one of my students who you probably never heard of till now, it’s the unwavering commitment in the face of adversity that brings those entrepreneurial triumphs.
And don’t, whatever you do, get yourself out of the self-sabotage/impostor syndrome spiral, and deal with the facts and data of what’s really going on in your agency. Your sanity (and your bank account) will thank you.
P.S. You can always jump on a call with my team if you want to fast-track your way to using the best tools and strategies to scale up your agency - just go here to get started!