Matt Essam

I have been meaning to upload some photos from my Japan trip with and his crew earlier this year.

I used to love sharing photography on Instagram but I feel it’s been drowned out by reels and quotes.

These are some of my favourite snaps from Japan taken with my Fujifilm XS20 and 35mm 1.4 prime lens.

For the photography nerds out there:

These are all straight out of camera, no editing. The thing I love about Fujifilm cameras and lenses are the soft, warm, natural tones it produces.

The sensor captures a surprising amount of tonal range and detail in the shadow considering it isn’t full frame.

Please leave a comment if you read the description. I would genuinely like to know what you think and if I should use Instagram for posting more photography

The only obvious disadvantage of using Instagram for photography is the aspect ratio. Many of these photos look a lot better as their originals and Instagram just doesn’t do them justice. There are ways around this though

Do most of your clients treat you like a worker or a partner?

Let me tell you the difference…

A worker is someone who only takes orders from the client and assumes the client knows what’s best for them.

All they do is execute the plan and strategy that the client provides. They lack the skills you have so aren’t able to implement it themselves.

A partner, on the other hand, is someone who helps to diagnose the clients problem and provides a relevant solution. They aren’t afraid to challenge the brief, question assumptions and suggest alternative solutions.

A partner is seen for more than their specific skill set. They are seen as a creative problem solver, a guide and an expert. Without them, the client would be working on the wrong problems and spending money on ineffective solutions.

So how do you shift from worker to partner?

There are two main things you need to do. I am thinking of recording a training about this in more detail. If you would find that valuable drop a comment below and let me know.

How to use free workshops to attract your ideal clients

It’s easy to assume that workshops and webinars only work for coaches and consultants.

We have been testing a strategy with agency owners that has helped them produce similar results.

The key thing is to use the workshop to help your prospects to see the problem, not just give them the solution.

I’ve seen it time and time again. When agency owners use workshops to try and get more clients they give them so many ideas and all of the answers to their problems. Most of the time this just leaves them overwhelmed with a long to do list.

So if you are considering this strategy, make sure you spend the majority of the time focused on uncovering problems, not just presenting solutions.

Don’t underestimate the value of that. Most people are simply working on the wrong problems or asking themselves the wrong questions.

It also opens up a conversation about how you can help solve the problem. Rather than them leaving with a whole bunch of ideas they will probably never do anything with.

This is the biggest mistake I see creative agency owners making when choosing a niche.

Instead of asking who they want to help and what type of problem they want to solve, they ask what kind of work they like doing.

In other words, they are focused too much on the solution and not enough on the problem.

There are a few reasons this isn’t a good idea.

Firstly, you can love the work you do, but if you don’t like who you do it for, you will always be miserable.

Secondly, the solution should be constantly evolving. If you focus too much on the solution instead of the problem, you stagnate. There is no innovation because you enjoy the work and it pays the bills.

If you focus on the problem, you will constantly be asking how you can solve it faster, more effectively and in a way that is more fun. This will ensure that your service is always relevant.

So I think the most important question to ask yourself is NOT “am I passionate about what I do?”

The important questions are…

Am I passionate about the type of clients I work with?

And am I passionate about the type of problem I’m helping them solve?

Are you afraid of upsetting your clients?

Sometimes as creative agency owners we shy away from giving clients our opinions because we worry about them getting offended.

The truth is most clients are always looking for ways to improve their business and it’s our job to show them how our ideas can help them do that.

When I realised this, I stopped thinking of myself as an agency owner and started thinking of myself more as a creative problem solver.

If your clients or prospects aren’t open to hearing your ideas that says more about them than it does about you.

In my experience, high value clients come from high value conversations. A high value conversation is one where you speak your truth, call out assumptions and aren’t afraid to upset your clients.

Are you mainly relying on word of mouth and referrals to grow your creative agency?

If the answer is yes then you are clearly good at what you do. The problem is, this can be quite unpredictable and can often keep us stuck doing the same kind of work for the same kind of clients.

Finding new clients outside of this strategy can feel quite daunting. Where do you even start? Should you be creating more content? Running ads? Sending cold emails?

In my experience, agency owners are simply trying to do too much at once.

Inspired by one of my mentors Taki Moore. We created a simple process that helps agency owners find and attract their ideal clients without getting overwhelmed.

We call it the prospect pathway.

In simple terms, this is what it looks like.

Step 1. Choose one single platform to engage your ideal clients. Don’t try to be on every platform at once (despite Gary V’s advice)

Step 2: Create something valuable for your clients that you can give them for free in exchange for their contact information. This could be a brand audit, a cheat sheet or a workshop. It must help them get clarity on a relevant problem they have in their business right now.

Step 3: Provide a logical next step they can take after they have received value. Ideally, something that’s not high commitment (both time and financially). This could be a 1:1 call to dive deeper into the insights they have gained or the first step in your paid process, such as a branding workshop to determine their tone of voice.

Step 4. Once you have delivered value up front and demonstrated you understand their problem, make sure you have a clear, compelling offer that will solve a bigger problem in their business. This is the time when you present a full solution that will get them from A to B

Step 5. This is the part that most people miss. You need a system in place to follow up and continue to deliver value for people who aren’t ready to move onto the next stage. This way, when they are, it will be clear, compelling and easy.

Once you build the Prospect Pathway into your agency, it will create clients for you every month, come rain or shine.

If you would like help implementing this or are curious to see how it would work for your business, just drop a comment below or send me a DM.

When was the last time you said no to a project?

It’s easy to get into the rhythm of saying yes to anything that comes along even if it’s not a good fit.

The way to break this cycle is to have more people that want to work with you than you have the capacity for.

Most agency owners assume that they should stop trying to find new projects when they are at capacity. This is actually one of the biggest mistakes that you can make.

What this leads to is instability and the temptation to say to projects that aren’t the perfect fit. Or even worse, projects with a lower budget than you want to take on.

If you want to be able to say no to projects that aren’t a perfect fit, you have to constantly have more opportunities than capacity. The only way to do this is to continue pitching for projects even when you are busy.

Only then will you be able to say no with confidence and without the fear of missing out. It’s a simple case of supply and demand.

Never stop pitching, never stop creating opportunities. You can always turn down work, but you can’t say yes to projects you don’t have.

Have you ever felt trapped inside of a project? You want to send the next invoice but the client keeps dragging their heels?

This is all too common in agency land, mostly because bigger projects tend to have specific milestones.

As service providers, we feel we have to make sure the client is happy at every stage before we can continue with the next. But sometimes, the client is just never happy or comes back with countless amends.

When I was running my agency, this used to drive me crazy. I would often feel trapped inside a project. I couldn’t see the light at the end of the tunnel.

So there are 2 things I found that reduce this significantly…

First, it’s way easier to set boundaries before getting a project started than trying to course-correct when the project is already moving.

So be very clear with your scope of work. What are you doing for them? When is it going to be delivered and how?

The second thing is to set very clear payment terms.

Ideally, your payment is due on a specific date and due upon delivery, not approval.

Of course, you will make the adjustments and modifications as needed but make sure it is specified that they’ll be made after payment not before.

Otherwise, you’ll never have control over the cash flow of your agency.

This is the best strategy I have found for raising your prices with existing clients.

It can be an uncomfortable conversation to have but it’s absolutely necessary if you want to grow your business.

The truth is you only have a certain capacity (even if you grow your team). Therefore if clients are paying less than what your average project value needs to be, you will never be able to hit your revenue or profit targets.

Most of us avoid asking our current clients to pay more for our services because we are afraid of how they’ll react or if they’ll be willing to pay.

Let’s be honest, even if you manage to increase the price for the same service and your clients don’t leave they probably won’t be over the moon about it.

The best way to increase your rates for existing services is to have a conversation about a new way of creating their desired outcome.

This means talking about your current work, the results it’s getting and how things can be improved.

The way you did things a few years ago isn’t going to be the same way you do them now. Therefore, you will have become quicker and found more effective ways of getting them results.

Once you help your client to refocus on the overall goal of the project, not just the work itself, you open up the opportunity to add more value and therefore charge more money.

This is the part that most people miss. If there is no perceived value increase, clients will usually begrudge a price increase, even if you justify it by talking about inflation.

Sure, some may say they are happy to pay because they value the work. However, they won’t feel the same as if you get them refocused on the vision and outline how you are going to help them get there.

I’m curious, what do you struggle with the most when it comes to increasing your prices with existing clients?

Isn't it frustrating when clients just don't get your ideas?

People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.

The easiest way to get a client on board with your idea is to clarify WHY they should care.

Forget about why you love it and why it's cool.

Almost every time, your ideas should involve some sort of solution to a particular problem or challenge they're facing.

So next time you want to share an idea with a prospect or anybody for that matter...

Try making sure that idea is about them and not about you.

It’s just as easy to sell something for £10k as it is to sell something for £1000

I used to think that it was easier to scale a business by selling lower-priced services to more people.

My assumption was that there would be less resistance to price.

The truth is, people won’t part with their money unless it solves a specific problem or gets them a desired outcome. Whether it’s £1000 or £10,000.

The other problem with selling lower-priced services is that it’s difficult to reach enough people to make the numbers work.

Let’s say an average project is £1000 and your profit margin is 70%.

You want to grow your business to £500K in revenue. So you need 500 projects per year. Or roughly 40 per month.

An average conversion from the number of leads to a sale is around 10%.

That means you have to get your services in front of 400 people every single month. No matter how busy you are

How do you plan to do that? How do you generate 400 leads per month at a minimum?

The truth is, most agencies struggle to generate 100.

Just know that when you solve a big problem for someone that has the resources to solve it. Selling a service for £10K will be just as easy.

Think about that the next time you take on a small project.

This is why you should sell your most expensive offer first.

I strongly believe that you should fill the bucket with the biggest rocks first.

If you sell your highest-ticket offer first and that's not a good fit.

You can always down-sell them.

Because, of course, we must understand that sometimes businesses need to solve a smaller problem before they commit to working with you long-term.

Even if that's the case, you can still have them agree to solve the smaller problem first and the larger one right after that.

By demonstrating value up front and framing the bigger problem, you have a much higher chance of creating a lifelong client.

What I wouldn't do is just solve small problems.

The fastest way to get your creative agency to 7figures is to find a big enough problem to solve for people who have the resources to solve it.