Confessions of a Recovering, Retired Digital Marketing Agency Owner

Fifty Lessons I Learned Starting an Agency from Scratch and Selling It

“Kill all the marketing people,” the headline screamed. Actually, I made that up from a headline I read more than twenty years ago that read, “Kill all the brokers.” That was when I worked as a stockbroker. I thought copywriters had it better, then I ended up in marketing. Go figure.

Have you ever hired a marketing person or agency that didn’t work out? Me too. This is why many of us get mad about marketing, especially when we invest our own money as small business owners or leaders who have our paycheck mapped to positive cash flow and an income statement.

Why does marketing have to be so painful? There are many reasons. Looking back as a recovering digital marketing agency who sold out a couple of years ago, I’d like to share in no particular order some of the biggest lessons I learned.

Everything I’m about to tell you is based on a true story. I lived!

Looking back, none of what I did has been easy, but it’s sure been worth it because I get to share what I learned now that I’ve recovered from the whole thing, sort of. I confess that I don’t have all the answers, but I have far more than when I did more than thirty years ago.

Agency Genesis

My agency was a hybrid I created on the fly. I learned by the seat of my pants…