There’s a moment in every entrepreneur’s journey when clarity hits like lightning. For me, one of the biggest epiphanies came not from a whiteboard or boardroom but from the chaos of more clients than I could handle and the need to build a team that shared my beliefs and had skills that I did not. It was in the rapid, unrelenting growth of our agency, forged from both opportunity and experience, that the winning strategy revealed itself.
The Starting Point: What we did not want to be
After selling my first agency and experiencing the bureaucratic bottlenecks at WPP, I was invited to help IBM create a world-class search team. Some of the specifics and lessons are mentioned in Epiphany 1 Force Multipliers. At the same time, I was consulting for WebMD in a David vs. Goliath battle against Google Ads. These projects gave birth to our second agency—one we built on our terms.
“Within four months, we were a multi-million dollar agency with just seven people.”
We weren’t just taking on clients—we were redefining how search strategy could scale, integrate into the enterprise, and drive real business impact. And it worked. IBM, WebMD, Yahoo, Intuit, P&G… the logos followed because the results spoke louder than our pitches.
The People: Building the Dream Team
Our strength wasn’t just strategy—it was the team.
When I won Yahoo!, I needed someone on the West Coast who could deliver the strategy in the same way I would. The obvious choice was Jeremy Sanchez. Jeremy is one of the best Digital Strategists I have ever worked with. We had worked together before at Outrider, spending hours strategizing how to elevate search for some of the biggest companies. We did not want to face the same constraints and narrow focus with big media clients, whose naivety about digital limited our effectiveness. Jeremy and I created numerous innovative models to redirect media dollars into search and developed the first co-optimization program. With Jeremy’s strategic thinking, global account management skills, and financial acumen, he was the perfect partner.
As WebMD grew, we needed to collaborate with the content and development teams on training and process changes in a highly competitive environment where some lowly search experts were advising award-winning writers on their writing. This required a person with far more personal skills and patience than I. This called for Andy Weatherwax, Zen Master, Artist, and Musician, whose presence disarmed the most vocal of naysayers. Andy became the third partner, creating a management and strategic thinking dream team.
We all focused on strategy and delivering for clients, but our other jobs played to our strengths:
- I handled primary strategy, client relationships, and business growth.
- Jeremy focused on finance, process optimization, and people.
- Andy led all creative aspects, including documentation, training, and team building.
“We divided responsibilities and stuck to our roles. It worked beautifully.”
Our direct experience with this new approach to scaling search required us to hire differently. We embedded strategists inside client teams—people who could sit at the executive table and speak their language. We hired business strategists laid off from large companies, and then we taught them search. They had consulting, strategy, process, and, most importantly, people skills that are harder to teach and must be honed through experience. Our in-house team members we looked for athletes, problem solvers, and anyone with attention to detail and a competitive spirit. Having an office in Bend, Oregon, was the ideal location for our team. There is no shortage of brilliant people who are there working to live. This made coffee shops and adventure sports stores prime recruiting grounds.
Actionable Takeaway:
- Hire for adaptability and communication, then teach the domain. And clearly define the roles of your founders or leadership team.
Our Mission: Value, Efficiency, and Repeatability
We had a simple yet powerful mantra: deliver value, do it efficiently, and never stop improving. One slide we shared often became a mission statement co-opted by clients:
“Build a search marketing capability that provides a sustained competitive advantage, can scale globally, and contributes significant revenue to business units.”
Everything we did laddered up to that. We didn’t chase visibility—we earned a reputation through results. That was our marketing strategy and approach – to share our strategic approach and results.
Actionable Takeaway:
- Write your agency’s mission in operational terms. How does every client engagement help you grow margin, reputation, and impact?
Process + Automation: Scale Without Bloat
Efficiency wasn’t optional—it was foundational. Every role had a “book of knowledge,” a detailed guide on each task and job written so that anyone could jump in and replicate what needed to be done.
“In a pinch, anyone could step in and do a job—even if not perfectly—because we documented everything.”
Automation was our secret weapon. We hired a process and automation savant, Ken Schultz, who built tools in Excel and Access that would make modern SAAS tools blush. We scaled output without adding headcount by focusing on what was needed, centralizing tasks such as keyword research, report building, and technical audits within a core team. We leveraged multiple internal tools and workflows that enabled each activity to be scalable.
Actionable Takeaway:
- Build internal automation MVPs. Encourage tools that save time and reduce friction. Institutional knowledge always beats heroics.
Client Fit: The Power of Saying No
We weren’t afraid to fire clients or say no to those who weren’t a good fit—not because they weren’t big enough or spent enough money, but because they didn’t align with our growth model or culture.
“If they’re dragging the team, always complaining, or blocking results—they’re not worth the mental effort.”
We developed a scorecard to assess every client:
- Revenue & potential
- Strategic alignment
- Influence and brand value
- Service utilization
- Willingness to evolve
This boiled down into three rules for any new client, which I still use today. We even mentioned this to prospects. When we were being acquired, a few clients asked the Ogilvy acquisition review team if these criteria would continue to apply. They said yes but changed the order. They told us that revenue maximization would always take precedence.
Intellectually Stimulating: It needs to challenge us to think differently and smartly. If it’s just another cookie-cutter approach, we typically aren’t interested. There were a few projects we undertook that were not the most profitable, but they challenged us to solve a new problem or test one of our innovative theories.
- Financially Rewarding – We were not cheap, and we didn’t need to be, because of the differentiation and value we delivered. We were never shy about being expensive because we understood our value.
- Enjoyable to Work With – This was often a deal breaker for us. Not that we expected to be partying weekly with the client, but they needed to be enjoyable to work with. Most of our clients were very demanding taskmasters with high expectations, but they respected our team as partners and collaborators. When we were viewed as just guns for hire with a micromanager who needed to be the smartest in the room, those projects never really worked for us, so we would avoid them.
Actionable Takeaway:
- Design a Client Value Matrix. Score clients on fit, future potential, and friction, and then choose accordingly. Below is an example of the categories and weighting.
Reputational Value Proposition
This is our creative name for a sign that helped remind the team of our focus, why we were successful, and why it was essential to deliver value in everything we did. This mantra begins with the idea that our reputation opens doors for us, and by providing for our clients, it becomes a self-fulfilling mechanism for success.
• Our reputation provides the basis for requesting an initial dialogue with Global 200 companies.
•Our methodology and track record give us the basis to “earn” the business from Global 200 companies
•Our program performance enables us to deliver value to grow clients through the Search Maturity Lifecycle (SML)
•SML phase shifting allows us to increase revenue and margin without increased sales and marketing costs
Actionable Takeaway:
- Your reputation is your biggest asset, and it often precedes you to any meeting. The more others rave about you, the less you need to do it.
Our Growth & Profitability Formula
I am often asked about our “formula for success.” These were our primary agency targets and objectives:
- Increase prospective leads or revenue performance by at least 10% YoY.
- Improve team performance through training, automation, and empowerment.
- Utilize capital efficiently by monitoring receivables and payment terms and maximizing the return on investment (ROI) for projects and tools.
- Uplift margins by moving clients through the Search Maturity Lifecycle (SML).
- Divest low-value clients that dilute focus and drain morale.
- Focus on SML Phase 2 & 3 clients ready for strategic search marketing.
“Our growth strategy allowed us to scale revenue and margin—without increasing sales and marketing costs.”
Final Thoughts
We never aspired to be the largest agency; we aimed to be the best at what we did—lean, effective, and respected. Our agency succeeded not because of the volume but because of the value we delivered to them.
“You succeed if your clients succeed. You grow if you deliver. That’s the game.”
If you’re building an agency today, don’t get distracted by vanity metrics or hype cycles. Define your value proposition, align your methods with it, and continually refine it for improvement.
