7 Mistakes To AVOID When Starting Your Agency w/Tim Brown

In this livestream Tim Brown shares the 7 mistakes he made while going from a freelancer to an agency. Tim is the founder of Hook Agency, content strategy evangelist, and has been featured on Forbes, Neil Patel & NBC, Fast Company.

Check out Tim here:

00:00 - start
01:00 - who is Tim Brown
04:00 - The first mistake he made Tim made when starting his agency
09:00 - Mistake #2: Charging for hours on bigger projects
11:27 - Mistake #3: not filtering clients to ensure you can exceed expectations
17:00 - Mistake #4: stop pushing marketing when you have a good amount of business
22:00 - Questions you can ask to filter clients**
33:00 - Mistake #5: not prioritizing a highly motivating work environment for employees, and significance in mission
38:00 - Ask yourself these questions to help improve company culture
39:00 - Mistake #6: Being the lynchpin, building the agency around his uniqueness and personality. Being scared of more talented employees
45:00 - Mistake #7: depending on only a couple of avenues for new business
50:00 - What can you do to improve your SEO
56:00 - The pros/cons of working with family and friends
1:02:00 - One the best decisions Tim has made
1:08:00 - How Tim coaches someone out
1:11:00 - How Chris fires someone
1:22:00 - What Tim would do if he got let go*
1:24:00 - What kind of insurance considerations would you strongly recommend for a startup company? Insurance companies and policies to be specific.
1:28:00 - Price high and justify

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—
Host: Chris Do
Content Director: Matthew Encina
Producer: Mark Contreras
Cinematographers/Editors: Jona Garcia
Social Team: Elle Money, Alex Burlui
Typefaces: Futura, DIN, Helvetica Now, Calibre, Knockout, Champion Gothic

[dylanmartinez]

To Chris's point of "failure to manage client expectations". One of my best clients has a coaching group for Chiropractors all over the country and they told me at dinner one night "Always underpromise and overdeliver" and that to me was gold. It's a philosophy I use in my sales process and while I give a slightly above average expectation for my clients I know deep down I can hit way above the weight class. And when I do, the feedback from them is electric. It's a philosophy that works great for me and in a world full of over-promising I believe it actually stands out when you can be real with a client and not feed them a bunch of bs. Love this video and the convo. Amazing as always.

[garyclaven]

Of all the 1000s of hours spent on YT this rates as some of the best content I've ever watched, insightful, honest and 100% appliable. Thank you.

[kwp]

man I love how calm / quiet you are and how that pulls more out of your guests.

[alistairholmes]

Yo, these past few videos about freelance to agency have been fire. Been getting a lot of value from these. Keep em coming and keep up the great work

[sharonepple]

I’ve had business coaching twice over my long-time tenure as a current owner of two businesses. I have to say, the content you share on The Futur is on target and incredibly useful. Thank you for taking the leap to focus on educating business owners this way. Absolutely excellent!!

[laurenwilliamson]

love the split screen!! super cool to see the interviewee + their presentation at the same time! :D

[brightonblogger]

Really enjoyable, relaxed and fun conversation to watch. Thanks Tim for sharing your "Five things your website is doing wrong and why it is costing you money!" What a super useful idea format for all sorts of business areas. I'm going to use a version for mine. Thanks Tim and Chris

[RodrigoTasca]

So many gems in this video, great follow up on the white board.

[MediaMental]

Great value! Much info! Love the Futur team! Awesome!

[amronsilva-digitalmarketin]

Mistake not do do is the best video to learn from others experiences, it really helps all of the beginners

[allanjonathan]

Really enjoyed this
Learned a lot
Thank you 🙏🏼

[JadeTrading]

I like these “Don’t make these mistakes that I made” videos

[josemartinezalkimiaproyect]

Shoot! 11:30, just my current predicament. Top motivation and satisfaction for me: helping the small businesses. What is "better" for my business: bigger ticket clients. What's in for the small ones (at a lower monetary retribution to me, although a MUCH higher satisfaction): staying in business, and growth. What's in for the bigger ticket ones: increasign their already deep pockets. I don't say one is "more honorable" than the other, but to me it just feels right to go with the low ones. It might happen this changes when the pandemic situation is sorted out, and I believe that helping them will be more emotionally rewarding, and better for the story of my brand. Of course, as long as I get enough to keep going. Otherwise a change of approach would be a must for me.

[mikeptsmkr]

1:17:20 Best pregnant pause. Loved the honesty and fun you brought, Tim!

[BrantK]

I think #5 is a BIG topic and I would love to see Chris expanding on this. How to motivate employees? BTW Tim is great, very likeable and approachable.

[Flowtothewest]

I am a freelance filmmaker and this live stream is super helpful for me! Keep em coming

[markb.]

how to fire: Hey, you are promoted to customer

[munezstudio]

Chris, you're looking spotless. The lighting is amazing, the video is so high quality and you look amazing when you wear the hat.

[jmacuna]

Hey Chris! Your videos are really informative and helpful. I am a freelancer, working remotely for a digital agency in LA and I really want to make my own creative agency/studio for branding. I hope I can do well!

[EauClaireSkater]

Hey this is crazy, Tim works 2 blocks away from my office. Shout out from Sussner Design Company, TIm!