What are your goals for agency growth? Would you like to grow your agency to 7- or 8-figures? That is exactly what this agency owner did when he built a highly successful $50 million-dollar agency with a team of 400 people. He did it by staying ahead of the curve with technology and building leaders who evolve with the growing agency.

Robert Henderson is the co-founder and CEO of JumpCrew, an agency that generates demand for 2B2 customers by building a qualified pipeline through fully dedicated sales teams. Robert has built a successful agency by growing in the direction of the market, staying ahead of the curve, and building strong leadership.

In this episode, we’ll discuss:

The future of marketing in the metaverse.
Staying ahead of the curve with technology.
Building a leadership that evolves with your agency.

Sponsors and Resources

E2M Solutions: Today's episode of the Smart Agency Masterclass is sponsored by E2M Solutions, a web design, and development agency that has provided white label services for the past 10 years to agencies all over the world. Check out e2msolutions.com/smartagency and get 10% off for the first three months of service.

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Building a $50 Million Dollar Agency

Many agency owners starting out are interested in “tricks” to get ahead and grow their agency as fast as possible. They seem so interested in growth they don’t stop to think about the value they should be providing. When he started out, Robert saw many businesses shied away from learning how to acquire new clients. Communicating value is something he really leans into with each new client.

He doesn’t sell a one-size-fits-all solution because it's specific enough or aligned with what the client needs. Instead, his team focuses on how to deliver value in a way that aligns with the client’s goals. Also, they are self-aware enough to turn away clients when they feel that they can’t deliver this value. Whatever the reason, they try to be really candid about good and bad fits.

The most important piece of building a successful agency is aligning with the right people. Every business is ultimately about people and when you create an environment where each team member is an expert in their area you don’t need to know everything. Partnering with people who really know about their particular area will you set your agency up for success. The secret is having people that are really good at executing what they know.

The Effect of New Technologies and the Metaverse on the Future of Marketing

Robert and his team learned the power of content marketing while automating content for local businesses. They learned what the market needed by being in the mix. They grew in that direction by adding new products and services based on the feedback from clients.

Robert is a believer in new and emerging tech tools and giving platforms the credit they deserve as they develop. Sometimes we can’t imagine the progress a new technology will represent in our particular space. For instance, 10 years ago no one was interested in being a guest on a podcast and now they have become a very popular marketing vehicle.

Looking ahead, Robert believes in ten years from now the meetings we’re having on video today will all happen on the metaverse. People from all over the world will gather in a space that feels very realistic. The adoption of mediums like the metaverse will come with the technology and infrastructures to support them. At this point, adopting this new technology will maybe shape the way the supporting technologies start to develop.

He believes the possibilities are endless as we still can’t imagine the many ways that we’ll use it. The development of paid search started with the rate of adoption of social media platforms. Similarly, the development of the metaverse as the possible future of paid ads will depend on how people start to adopt this new technology.

These tools are bound to change the way agencies work and advertise and, of course, being the first to adopt them successfully would be a great advantage. We need to continue to study and educate ourselves to be able to see where it is heading.

Staying Ahead of the Curve with Technology

Staying ahead of the curve is mostly about educating yourself and trying to understand what the opportunities look like to capitalize on them as they come. We’re in a learning phase for technologies like the metaverse. We know it will be a part of the future but we don’t know exactly how that will look. Right now it’s about trying to create more connectivity between your team in what is set to be a more sophisticated environment. Robert believes this is the low-hanging fruit available right now for all until we can figure out how to get our partners and clients into it.

However, the technology is still in the very early stages. For instance, no one wants to work 6 to 7 hours with the VR goggles on. There’s still a long way to go before it is adapted to everyday use and usage is what will help shape that.

Evolving Team Member Roles as the Agency Grows

One of the most difficult phases for his agency was at a point when a lot of things were working great but they couldn’t figure out why some others were not working at all. In hindsight, they just didn’t have the right infrastructure and didn’t have all the right people in the right seats.

It’s really fun to be part of so much growth but it can also be a struggle to remain motivated and challenge yourself every single day, month, and year. Robert's leadership team has been with the agency since they were just ten people. This team has helped grow the agency to over 400 people. How did they do it?

First of all, they’ve had to continue growing themselves. Their role in the agency business has changed and they’ve reinvented themselves several times. Being open to the idea of constantly evolving in order to be able to grow has really helped them support the agency’s growth. Each employee remains flexible and open to change for their own growth as well as that of the agency.

Building Leaders Who Help Grow a Strong Agency

Robert built the leadership team in such a way that they've basically been with him since the very beginning. Of course, they were not all prepared for a leadership role from the beginning. Building an agency as a team of just 10 people helped a lot when it came to building camaraderie. They had different titles but were very much equals and shared the same values. It also helped build a level of communication not often seen in a team where they are able to have hard conversations and be very honest with each other.

Robert also encouraged an environment for taking risks. He feels it is important to challenge leaders to take risks without the fear of making mistakes. This doesn’t mean they make mistakes all the time, but in order to go for innovation, the team needs to know that it’s ok if something doesn’t work out as they’d hoped.

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