The In-Demand Agency Podcast

Stephen Woessner
  • 5.0 (3)
  • Marketing

For the last four years, the Sell with Authority podcast focused on one core idea…how to help agencies earn trust before asking for the sale. And it worked. Agencies that chose a niche, committed to a point of view, and taught what they know in service of the right audience became recognized. Their thinking traveled. And prospects began to show up more prepared, more confident, and more aligned. But over time, a pattern emerged inside the Predictive Lab. Agencies that had built an authority position no longer struggled to be seen. They struggled with creating and activating demand. Prospects knew them. Respected them. Even believed they were the right agency to choose. And still…they waited. Authority earns attention. But demand…demand is what turns that attention into action. The In-Demand Agency Podcast picks up exactly where that realization begins. Each episode of the In-Demand Agency Podcast deconstructs the science of demand…from behavioral psychology, decision-making research, and the cross-industry strategies behind why B2B buyers make decisions. We interview the world's leading behavioral scientists, global agency network leaders, and strategists from industries far beyond ours…voices you may have never heard but who are reshaping how demand works. Then we translate their insights directly into the agency world. Think of it as the "Harvard Business Review" for agency owners who are done with guesswork and ready for growth. The In-Demand Agency Podcast is hosted by Stephen Woessner, CEO of Predictive ROI. If the conversation around how to create intrigue, curiosity, and desire with intention so you activate demand, choose the clients you want to work with, and so you can reach your biz dev goals faster resonates with where you are and where you're headed…we'd love for you to join us here.

  1. 1d ago

    EP 15: Agency Exit Insider Taylor McMaster Teaches Why Building an Agency to Sell Makes It Worth Acquiring

    Many agency owners say they want to sell the agency someday. Most never get the chance. There is no succession plan, no buyer, and no version of the business that runs without the owner in the room. Taylor McMaster did the thing. She built DOT & Company into the account management partner for dozens of marketing agencies, sold it to E2M Solutions, and stayed on as a consultant because she chose to, not because she had to. In this conversation, Taylor and Stephen Woessner deconstruct the roles she stopped playing, the order she handed them off, and what the acquirer evaluated before saying yes. Quick answer: Building an agency to sell makes it worth acquiring because a buyer can see the business running without its founder. Taylor McMaster, founder of DOT & Company, explains how she handed off sales calls, management, operations, content, and being the face of the brand, then showed E2M Solutions clear numbers on client and team churn and acquisition costs. Stephen Woessner calls a prospective acquirer the ultimate right-fit prospect. Stephen frames the episode this way: a prospective acquirer of your agency is the ultimate right-fit prospect. The buyer asks the same questions your next new client should be asking. Will this agency deliver without the founder or the owner in the room? Will the clients stay? Is there a predictable biz dev pipeline already in place? If the agency's demand lives inside the owner's personal relationships, inbox, and head, prospects hesitate to say yes and the probability of an acquisition goes down. An In-Demand Agency™ is an agency whose right-fit prospects prefer it, choose it, and say "I cannot lose them," and whose team is ready to deliver the experience that Demand promises. Taylor's story shows what that readiness looks like from the buyer's side of the table. Why does building an agency to sell make it worth acquiring? Building an agency to sell means putting other people in every seat the owner holds today and keeping the numbers that prove the business runs without the owner. Taylor McMaster's account breaks into four parts: the endgame she set, the roles she handed off, what E2M Solutions evaluated, and the operating system that made due diligence fast. Decide the endgame first: exit the business or exit the org chart Taylor McMaster knew the endgame before she built the business. In her words: "The endgame was an exit, whether that meant a full exit of the business or an exit from the org chart." She also knew what the end would not include: "I knew that the endgame did not involve me having a job." That decision shaped everything after it. Taylor stayed on as a consultant for a year after the sale to help the transition, and she is clear about the difference: "I had options when it came to my exit. They still would've bought the business if I said I'm leaving the day after the acquisition." Stephen Woessner draws out the second path for owners who do not want to sell. Exiting the org chart means the owner moves on to other work and is no longer functionally tied to the business. Both paths require the same preparation. Taylor also describes what the exit felt like after three years of conversations that did not close: "I think everyone in business, their biggest fear is failure. Their biggest fear is having to close the door and go get a job." Reaching the goal she set felt like crossing a finish line. Decide the endgame, then build backward from it. Hand off the roles a buyer needs to see you out of, sales and pipeline last Taylor McMaster sorted her roles into two groups: the ones she was not good at, which had to go early, and the ones a buyer would want her out of so she would not have a job after the sale. "There was roles that I knew a buyer would want to see me out of so that I didn't have to have a job, and those were sales." Management and recruitment went first, each to a dedicated team member. The operations seat, which oversees finances, growth targets, and the leadership team, took six to nine months to hand off. Taylor calls it "a big unlock for me." Sales calls took about six months. The process was repeatable, so she documented it and trained a team member through shadowing and coaching: "I got it to a point where every call was the same." Content and pipeline went last, six to eight months before the acquisition. Taylor hired a fractional CMO to own content and send leads to the closer. The final piece was being the face of the brand. During an extended leave, she sent team members to an event and a webinar in her place and could then tell the buyer what each one closed. Her advice to owners who do everything: send a senior team member to speak at an event, host a webinar, or host a podcast episode, because "it will stress test how needed you are in that seat." Every seat the owner still holds is a question the buyer will ask. Show the buyer the business runs without you E2M Solutions first talked with Taylor McMaster in October 2024, and both sides agreed the timing was not right. When conversations resumed a year later, Taylor had been fully away from the business for more than six months. "They could see that the business was fine without me." The proof was simple: "I have built this team. I have been gone, everything's okay." Stephen Woessner's observation: the changes were made before an acquirer asked for them. Taylor had already put capable people in the seats, so the second round of conversations was different from the first. In Stephen's opinion, that added value to the business. Taylor describes what E2M evaluated. "Any buyer is going to come in and want to know, how do I take this current business and grow it?" The buyer looked at revenue, client acquisition costs, team acquisition costs, and churn for both clients and account managers, with three to four years of history. They asked where the gaps were that they would need to fix. Taylor summarizes the buyer's question as "where are the opportunities and where are the risks?" E2M cared less about marketing because it already had a marketing team and an audience to sell into. Stephen connects that to owning an addressable market. E2M and DOT & Company shared an audience, so the acquisition let a proven model reach people who did not yet know it. Taylor's takeaway from sitting on the seller's side of the table: "It really is just business." A buyer pays for what keeps working after the owner leaves. Keep the numbers ready before anyone asks Taylor McMaster's closing advice is two words: "Have really good numbers." She means the operating numbers, not only the accounting numbers. "Have a structured operating system in your business that has backdated years, so that you can show a potential buyer that you are organized." DOT & Company tracked the levers that mattered: new clients, sales call conversion, time from sale to working with a client, client churn, and account manager churn. During due diligence, the team turned around a full folder of requested documents within 24 hours. Taylor's explanation: "That was because we built it to sell it." Built to sell means the numbers are ready at any time, for any buyer, and for the owner first. The roles Taylor McMaster handed off, in order Role How it was handed off Time it took Management A dedicated manager for the team; Taylor says management was never her strength. Early Recruitment A dedicated team member who owned recruiting. Early Sales calls Documented a repeatable call, then trained a team member through shadowing and coaching. About 6 months Operations seat Someone to oversee finances, growth targets, and the leadership team. 6 to 9 months Content and pipeline Hired a fractional CMO to own content and send leads to the closer. Handed off 6 to 8 months before the acquisition Face of the brand Sent team members to an event and a webinar in her place, then kept the results as proof. Tested during her extended leave What did the exit feel like on the other side? When Taylor McMaster and Stephen Woessner first talked about the sale, Taylor described it as the weighted blanket coming off. Stephen asked whether the exit felt the way she and her family hoped it would. Taylor's answer was yes, 100 percent. She expected to feel less excited than she did. Instead: "I've lost enough sleep and enough of my soul over this business that I was just very happy to not own it anymore." She also offers a contrast. A family member sold a business of about 30 years around the same time and did not have the same full-body reaction. Taylor's own theory is that she built the business to sell it, spent three years believing the sale could happen any day, and finally reached the goal she set. Stephen's theory is that she architected the exit with precision, so the feeling downstream matched the plan. What you will learn in this episode Why a prospective acquirer is the ultimate right-fit prospect, and the three questions a buyer and a new client both ask The difference between exiting the business and exiting the org chart Which roles a buyer wants the owner out of, and why sales and pipeline go last How a repeatable sales call can be documented and handed to a team member How to test whether anyone besides the owner can be the face of the brand What E2M Solutions evaluated: churn, acquisition costs, and where the gaps were Why a structured operating system with backdated numbers makes due diligence fast Start working yourself out of one seat this quarter Name the endgame. Decide whether you want to exit the business or exit the org chart, and write down what you will not be doing on the other side. List the seats you still hold. Mark the ones a buyer would want you out of. Sales calls, pipeline, and face of the brand usually top the list. Document one repeatable process. Start with the role where every instance already looks the same, such as the first sales conversation, and train one person to run it. Run one low-risk test. Send a senior team member to a webi

  2. Oct 28

    EP 14: Predictive ROI CEO Stephen Woessner Maps How Intentional Experiences Help Prospects Across Your Trust Bridge

    Your agency creates experiences for your prospects and clients every single day. Your content. Your first email. Your meeting invitation. Your first conversation. Your proposal. Your follow-up. Your onboarding. Your delivery. Some of those moments your team designed on purpose. Some of them simply happened. In this solocast, Stephen Woessner walks back through the seven conversations in The Experiences Series, Episodes 7 through 13, and pulls out what your agency and your team can put into practice right away. Quick answer: Intentional experiences help a right-fit prospect cross your agency's Trust Bridge from Authority to Demand. Stephen Woessner draws on seven expert conversations to show that every moment a prospect has with your agency, from content to the first meeting invitation to the proposal, creates intrigue, curiosity, and desire when your team designs it on purpose. The experience a prospect has before the yes is the proof of what working with you will feel like after it. The series ties back to Episode 1 and Episode 6. The Authority-Demand Ecosystem™ is Predictive ROI's model for how an agency moves right-fit prospects from Authority, where expertise earns attention, across a Trust Bridge, to Demand, where prospects choose to act. Stephen sketched it in Episode 1, and in Episode 6(opens in new tab) he asked what causes a prospect who already trusts an agency to finally act. The Trust Bridge is the intentional set of proof and experiences that connects an agency's Authority to Demand, giving right-fit prospects a visible pattern of evidence that the agency can solve their problem. Stephen's thesis for the series is direct. When you and your team architect the experiences your prospects and clients have with your agency intentionally, those experiences create intrigue, curiosity, and desire. Intrigue, curiosity, and desire help a right-fit prospect accept your invitation, take your hand, and walk across your Trust Bridge to become your agency's next new client. That is how an agency becomes In-Demand. How do intentional experiences help a prospect cross your Trust Bridge? Stephen walks the Ecosystem left to right, the same path a prospect walks. Each stop has three guests, and each stop ends with a three-word summary your team can carry into its next meeting. On the Authority side, design the attention, the path, and the invitation Authority is where an agency earns attention. Three guests show how to give that attention a job. Terry Seitz (Episode 13(opens in new tab)) opened with three words: "Attention is fleeting." He teaches that an agency needs to stand for something, a shorthand memory and association that people carry about the agency, compounded over time. Stephen connects that to Scott McKain's line from Episode 7, "It's not just about standing out anymore. It's about what do we stand for." In Stephen's opinion, the Savannah Bananas make the point in practice. The spectacle earns attention, and the Fans First experience around it gives fans something to tell other people. Guillermo Orellana (Episode 11(opens in new tab)) looks at content as a customer journey. "I look at everything about content in sort of a customer journey." His sequence is a sip, a glass, and then the fire hose: a YouTube Short, a focused compilation, and a full-length conversation, each step keeping the promise it made before inviting the next. Every title is a promise, and the opening has to keep it. That applies to an email subject line, a webinar title, and the name of a meeting invitation on a prospect's calendar. Don Yaeger (Episode 8(opens in new tab)) shows how to bring the listener inside the story. His Thanksgiving opening, "I don't know what Thanksgiving looked like at your house growing up," pauses so that the listener starts thinking about their own table. Don teaches three practices. Reverse the I-to-you ratio. Decide what you want the listener to do, think, and feel before you tell the story. Prepare through three concentric circles: research, connection, and breakthrough. His Michael Jordan interview on Jordan's fiftieth birthday shows the result of that preparation. Don puts the principle this way: "nothing makes someone more interested in you than when they find that you've taken time to be interested in them." Stephen's application: your research before a Help Me Understand conversation is part of the experience, and your prospect feels it the moment you ask a question that proves you did your homework. Attention. Path. Invitation. On the Trust Bridge, let the prospect experience your thinking, feel the difference, and be known The Trust Bridge is where a prospect stops observing your agency from a distance and starts experiencing how your agency thinks. Simon Bowen (Episode 10(opens in new tab)) gave the direct challenge: "Your thinking is your product." In the role play, Simon drew an iceberg and asked Stephen, playing the prospect, questions until the surface problem, the hidden problem, and the ache at the base of the iceberg were visible. His instruction: "Stop selling. And start facilitating." Simon says what every buyer is looking for underneath it all is "Make me safe. And help me win." He adds that "Trust gets you in the door. Believability gets you sold," and his Futures Model shows two paths: "The difference between winning and losing is the difference between drift and decision." Scott McKain (Episode 7(opens in new tab)) teaches that "People are gonna buy based upon the feeling that you create." His point about structure is that "Your customers experience you horizontally." An agency is built vertically, with strategy, creative, account management, and finance in separate lanes, and the client experiences one agency, one series of moments, and one feeling. Scott also says "Tasks are for technology. And the experiences are for humans," and Stephen adds that AI can help a team do more tasks while the experience a prospect has with your people remains the agency's to architect. Neen James (Episode 12(opens in new tab)) says "Luxury is about the human connection," and her work asks how to make people feel seen, heard, and valued. She describes the difference between a bellhop and a concierge. The bellhop moves bags efficiently and reliably, and both matter. The concierge "is creating moments." For Neen, "Delight is where you show someone you know them." She says that when you can speak to the concerns a client has not voiced yet, people are "blown away." Thinking. Feeling. Being known. On the Demand side, deliver the promise, keep it, and turn clients into advocates Demand is where a right-fit prospect prefers your agency, chooses your agency, and becomes your next client. It is also where the promise made at the front of the stage has to be kept at the back of the stage. Brett Gilliland (Episode 9(opens in new tab)) says "Our agency cannot outgrow our leadership." He shares the principle he learned from Arthur Jones, "All organizations are perfectly designed to get the results they get," and calls the tendency of people to wander and forget the law of drift. Stephen shares, in full transparency, that a newer Predictive team member asked why the company's values had not been part of onboarding, which showed him that Predictive had drifted on the experience it creates for its own team. Brett also shares a line from Simon Sinek: "When people invest financially, they want a return. When people invest emotionally, they want to contribute." Scott McKain adds the promise-and-performance lesson. He reports that research into what makes the difference for a business came back with a simple answer: "Do what you said you would do when you said you would do it." Terry Seitz adds "We are in the probabilistic business," which means an agency can explain the outcome it believes is possible, the evidence behind it, and the risks, and it cannot guarantee an outcome it does not control. Stephen's point is that the expectations conversation belongs upstream, before the proposal and before the kickoff, and that credible expectations build a stronger Trust Bridge than promises an agency cannot support. Neen James closes the loop with advocacy: "I believe the money's in advocacy." Her five Luxury Levers are Entice, Invite, Excite, Delight, and Ignite, and Ignite is where a client becomes an advocate because there is an experience they can describe to someone else. Her rug-cleaning example shows what that looks like in practice. The company gave a clear quote, moved the furniture, explained what would happen next, sent a video of the work, and returned the rug exactly when promised. Her practice of systemized thoughtfulness, a spreadsheet of names and months reviewed on the first Monday of every month, keeps the follow-through consistent while each gesture stays personal. Deliver. Keep. Ignite. The Experiences Series at a glance Ecosystem side Guest and episode Teaching Agency application Authority Terry Seitz, Episode 13 Attention is fleeting, so give attention a job through something your agency stands for. Ask what a right-fit prospect remembers about your agency after your newsletter, podcast, or video. Authority Guillermo Orellana, Episode 11 Treat content as a customer journey: a sip, a glass, then the fire hose. Make every title, subject line, and meeting invitation a promise your opening keeps. Authority Don Yaeger, Episode 8 Intentional storytelling invites the listener inside the story. Reverse the I-to-you ratio and let your research show in the first question you ask. Trust Bridge Simon Bowen, Episode 10 Your thinking is your product, so build the model with the prospect. Facilitate a conversation where the prospect helps shape the model of their own business issue. Trust Bridge Scott McKain, Episode 7 Customers buy on the feeling you create and experience you horizontally. Smooth the handoff from biz dev to kickoff so the prospect meets one agency. Trust Bridge Neen James, Episode 12 Make people

  3. Oct 21

    EP 13: Former Visa Marketing Leader Terry Seitz Reframes How Agencies Turn Attention Into Demand

    Your agency's content can earn a prospect's attention. Your team can create work the prospect admires. And the prospect can still choose someone else. The missing connection may be between what the person notices…what the person needs…and what your agency can credibly help the business accomplish. Terry Seitz joins Stephen Woessner to examine that connection. Terry is Partner and Chief Operating Officer of The Nuance Collective(opens in new tab) and a former Visa marketing leader. His experience on both sides of the agency-client relationship informs a direct question: what does the attention make possible for the business? Terry puts the starting point plainly: "Attention is fleeting." A view, a click, or a compliment can tell you something. It still leaves the agency with work to do: understand the need, make its thinking relevant, and give the prospect a credible reason to consider a next step. Quick answer: Agencies give attention a stronger path toward Demand by connecting it to a customer need, a recognizable reason to consider the agency, and a credible business outcome. Terry Seitz recommends combining creativity with the discipline of a Mad Scientist: form hypotheses, challenge assumptions, test the thinking, and improve from evidence. Build relevant memories rather than publishing disconnected claims. Explain what the work is intended to change, what supports that expectation, and what risks remain. For agency owners, begin with one prospect's need…then examine whether your content and conversations make the connection between your expertise and that need clear. In this episode, Terry shares his customer-first and business-value perspective. Stephen connects that teaching to Predictive ROI's Authority-Demand Ecosystem: Authority earns attention, the Trust Bridge supplies relevant evidence, and an intentional invitation helps a right-fit prospect act. That agency application belongs to Predictive ROI. Terry's contribution is the discipline of connecting attention, customer understanding, and credible expectations. How do agencies turn attention into Demand? 1. Begin with the prospect's need…then make your agency's value recognizable Terry asks agencies to invert a familiar habit. Instead of beginning with a capabilities list and hoping the prospect sees the relevance, begin with what the customer needs. What is the person trying to accomplish? What functional problem needs solving? What emotional concerns sit behind the decision? Then examine whether the agency can deliver against those needs and explain how its thinking helps. This changes the content assignment. A piece of content should give a right-fit prospect more than a reminder that the agency exists. It should reinforce a useful association between the agency and a problem the prospect recognizes. Terry describes these as shorthand memories and associations. He consistently connects his own firm's work to enterprise value…the business's growth, profitability, pricing power, and risk. His point is to stand for something the audience can recognize and connect to its priorities. That conversation also touches mental availability. Byron Sharp and the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute distinguish it from general awareness: it concerns whether a brand comes to mind in relevant buying situations. Recognition without a useful connection to the situation is a different achievement. For an agency, the practical question is whether a prospect remembers the team for a reason that matters when a need arises. Being known is useful. Being associated with relevant expertise gives the buyer more to work with. Start with the need. Make the connection to your expertise specific enough to remember. 2. Combine creative judgment with the discipline of a Mad Scientist Terry's career led him from the agency side of the table into a client-side environment where marketing investment had to be justified to business leadership. The assignment expanded beyond making compelling work. He also needed to explain what the work was intended to change and how the organization would evaluate that effect. His commercial artist-to-Mad Scientist framing preserves creativity while adding discipline. The marketer forms a hypothesis, challenges bias, tests the thinking, evaluates the evidence, and retests as understanding improves. Terry develops the same point in his own writing on marketing as a search for truth. For an agency, a hypothesis is a clear statement of what the team believes will change and why. It is something the team can investigate…rather than a favorite idea it repeats because the founder likes it. Views, clicks, and engagement can help diagnose whether people notice and interact with the work. Terry asks the agency to continue the reasoning: how does that activity connect to the business outcome the client values? The client may need stronger growth, better margins, more ability to sustain its pricing, or less risk. The agency should understand that priority before selecting the evidence it will report. Creative judgment supplies the idea. Disciplined testing helps the team decide what the idea is worth. 3. Build confidence through credible expectations…not certainty you cannot control Terry draws an important distinction between deterministic and probabilistic thinking. A deterministic promise treats an input as though it guarantees a particular output. Probabilistic thinking explains the outcome the team believes is possible, the evidence behind that expectation, and the uncertainty that remains. Terry says: "We are in the probabilistic business." His warning is that agencies can damage their credibility by guaranteeing outcomes they cannot reliably measure, control, or deliver. The stronger conversation is accountable and transparent. Explain the business outcome, the reasoning, the assumptions, the risks, and how the team will evaluate progress. When evidence changes, explain what the agency will reconsider. Terry also asks marketers to understand the person responsible for defending that investment inside the organization. A CMO may need to explain the recommendation to the CFO, CEO, and board. Attention metrics do not answer every question those people will ask. Stephen's agency-world application is to teach that thinking upstream. Demonstrate how your agency evaluates a business problem before the prospect requests a proposal. Help the person see the judgment behind the recommendation…and align around expectations before prescribing the work. The episode ends on that point. An uncomfortable expectations conversation avoided today can become a more difficult conversation after the engagement begins. Give the prospect a business case they can understand…and expectations your agency can stand behind. What the Savannah Bananas example reveals about attention with a purpose Stephen brings the conversation back to Jesse Cole and the Savannah Bananas. The performances and spectacle are easy to notice. But Stephen's account of his earlier conversation with Jesse centers on their "Fans First" philosophy and the experience the organization designs around it. Terry connects that example to customer understanding. His interpretation is that the team examined what people enjoyed about baseball, what frustrated them, and what would make the experience more resonant. The memorable activity served a human need. That is a useful agency distinction. A surprising piece of content can earn attention. A relevant piece of content can also help the prospect feel understood and recognize a reason to consider the agency. The question is what the creativity is doing for the person…not simply how noticeable it is. This is an illustrative discussion, not a controlled study of the Bananas' growth. Stephen recounts his own interview, and Terry interprets the example. No numerical result is attributed to their analysis. Stephen also recalls visiting VaynerMedia and seeing a message connecting social media activity to its commercial purpose. His recollection reinforces the same principle: understand what the attention is meant to accomplish. For your agency, the translation is practical. Put the right-fit prospect's need at the center of the experience, then make your expertise helpful in that person's world. What you will learn in this episode How to recognize when content earns attention without creating a clear reason to consider your agency How customer needs change the way an agency explains its services and strategic value Why relevant memories and associations matter beyond general awareness How the Mad Scientist mindset combines creativity, hypotheses, testing, and accountability Why the Savannah Bananas' fans-first example offers more than a lesson in spectacle How to discuss business outcomes, assumptions, and risk without promising certainty Why teaching your business reasoning upstream helps a prospect evaluate the agency before a proposal Put one piece of content through a buyer-first test Name the need. Choose one recent article, video, or biz dev recommendation. State the business problem and the functional or emotional need it serves for a right-fit prospect. Make the association clear. What should the person remember about your agency after encountering this work? Connect that memory to a recognizable problem and a relevant outcome. Test the reasoning. Name the evidence that would support or challenge the recommendation. Explain the assumptions, the risk, and what the team will reconsider when it learns more. These are Predictive ROI's discussion questions drawn from the interview, not a named three-step framework owned by Terry. Continue the Authority-to-Demand conversation In Hannah Roth's episode on the gap between being admired and being chosen(opens in new tab), Hannah explains why being respected for smart thinking does not automatically create Demand. Terry adds the requirement to connect that thinking to a customer's need and business priorities. In

  4. Oct 14

    EP 12: Client Experience Expert Neen James Illuminates How Exceptional Experiences Make Your Agency the Preferred Choice

    Your agency's expertise may be exceptional. But what does a right-fit prospect experience before deciding to work with you? The first helpful piece of content. The invitation. The conversation. The proposal. Every one of those moments gives the prospect something to judge…long before your team begins delivering the work. Neen James joins Stephen Woessner to explore how an agency makes that experience worth choosing. Neen is a client experience expert, keynote speaker, leadership strategist, and the author of Exceptional Experiences: 5 Luxury Levers to Elevate Every Aspect of Your Business(opens in new tab). Her work applies principles from luxury and service businesses to the everyday moments that shape trust, preference, and advocacy. Her central point is direct: "Luxury is about the human connection." The opportunity is to make a person feel seen, heard, and valued…without requiring a luxury product or an extravagant gesture. Quick answer: Agencies become the preferred choice when prospects and clients can experience the care and judgment behind the expertise. Neen James teaches five Luxury Levers: Entice, Invite, Excite, Delight, and Ignite. Use a relevant story to earn attention, make the invitation feel personal, create a memorable moment, demonstrate that you understand the person, and equip advocates to share the experience. A concierge mindset helps the agency anticipate needs and remove friction. Systemized thoughtfulness makes that care repeatable. Start with one touchpoint and design the experience deliberately, rather than depending on someone to remember a thoughtful gesture. In this conversation, Neen maps the path from attention to advocacy. Stephen connects her teaching to Predictive ROI's Authority-to-Demand Ecosystem: expertise earns attention, an experience of that expertise can strengthen the Trust Bridge, and a relevant invitation gives the prospect a next step. That agency application belongs to Predictive ROI. Neen's contribution is the experience standard and the systems that help a team carry it. How do exceptional experiences make your agency the preferred choice? 1. Use the five Luxury Levers to create a path from attention to advocacy Neen's Experience Elevation Model™ moves beyond earning attention and securing the first commitment. The relationship should keep developing until the person has something meaningful to share with others. Her five Luxury Levers name different opportunities to improve that relationship: Luxury Lever Neen's teaching Agency application Entice Capture attention through a story that gives someone a reason to lean in. Make your expertise relevant to the prospect's world. Help the person understand the values and thinking behind your agency. Invite Welcome the person into an experience where they feel they belong and can recognize the expertise available to them. Make the next conversation specific. Show that you understand whom it serves and why it is worth their time. Excite Elevate an ordinary interaction into a memorable moment that creates curiosity about what else is possible. Design a useful moment in your teaching, meeting, or onboarding that the person will remember and want to describe. Delight Demonstrate that you know the person through personalization, customization, and anticipation. Do the research, ask purposeful questions, and follow through in a way that reflects the person's priorities rather than a generic template. Ignite Deepen relationships and make advocacy easier through a meaningful experience and a specific way to share it. Give advocates a story they can repeat and a clear description of the people your agency can help. Those agency applications are translations of Neen's teaching, not additional steps in her model. A strong invitation depends on what came before it. Neen explains that an origin story can help someone understand the people, values, and expertise behind a business. The story should create connection rather than become a recital of credentials. She shares her own beginning: a childhood in a small Australian town and a mother who brought a flower home after work. The gesture made an ordinary space feel special. That experience helped shape Neen's view of luxury as attention and care…not simply expensive things. For an agency, the useful question is whether its story helps the prospect understand why the work matters and what the relationship will feel like. The experience should give a prospect a reason to take the next step…and eventually give a client a story worth sharing. 2. Think like a concierge while keeping the operational work seamless Neen uses a hotel metaphor to make the difference memorable. A bellhop performs an essential role: welcome the guest, move the bags, and help the stay begin smoothly. A concierge adds another kind of value. The concierge learns what matters to the person, makes informed recommendations, and creates possibilities the guest may not have known to request. Neen is clear that both roles matter. The lesson is to combine reliable execution with thoughtful judgment. For an agency, this is the difference between completing a handoff and helping a client feel prepared for what comes next. It is the difference between sending a standard meeting invitation and demonstrating that the team understands the situation worth discussing. Neen also emphasizes removing friction. A thoughtful experience should make life easier. Personalization loses its value when the client must repeat information, work out the next step alone, or interpret a recommendation that has not been connected to the business problem. The agency application starts with understanding. Research can help your team arrive prepared, but purposeful questions and alignment still need to come before prescription. Anticipating a need does not mean assuming the prospect's priorities or recommending work before the team has understood them. A concierge experience lets the person feel the agency's judgment…not simply observe its task list. 3. Build systemized thoughtfulness so care survives a full calendar Neen calls her practice systemized thoughtfulness. The starting point is simple: choose a group of advocates whose relationships you want to deepen. Put their names down the left side of a spreadsheet and the months across the top. Then schedule an appointment with yourself to decide what would be useful or meaningful to each person. Neen shares her own rhythm: the first Monday of each month. The spreadsheet records what she has done so the next interaction can reflect the relationship rather than repeat the same gesture. A thoughtful touch might be a handwritten note, a personal video, an introduction, a relevant article, or a book selected for that person's interests. The value comes from the relevance and the care behind it, not a requirement to send expensive gifts. The same principle applies to the team's client experience. When the agency knows what matters, it can make the follow-through easier to deliver: assign an owner, keep the useful information accessible, and build the action into the calendar. Neen recommends beginning with one system. A list, an appointment, and a record of what happened can be enough to start. In our opinion…that is an important connection to becoming an in-demand agency. The agency's expertise may already be trusted. A consistent, thoughtful experience gives prospects, clients, and advocates more opportunity to recognize the value of the relationship and choose a relevant next step. Systemize the follow-through. Keep the choice of gesture personal. What a rug-cleaning service taught Neen about a share-worthy experience Neen illustrates the lesson with an everyday service experience. After her kitten needed a procedure, she needed a rug cleaned. The provider gave a clear quote, moved the furniture, collected the rug, and communicated what would happen. The team then sent video showing the cleaning and returned the rug at the promised time. Neen reports that the experience made the provider easy to recommend. She could describe what the team did and how the process felt. This is Neen's personal account, not a measured agency case study. Its usefulness is in the details: the service made the work visible, kept the person informed, and followed through. For an agency, those same questions are worth asking. Does the client know what is happening? Can the client see the thinking and progress behind the work? Does each handoff reinforce the standard the agency promised? A share-worthy experience can begin with those ordinary moments delivered with excellence. What you will learn in this episode How the five Luxury Levers connect attention, belonging, memorable moments, personalized care, and advocacy Why an origin story can create connection when it reveals values and relevant expertise How to use a metaphor to make the agency's role easier to understand and describe Why the concierge mindset combines anticipation and judgment with reliable operational execution How removing friction changes the experience before and after a client says yes How a monthly advocate calendar turns thoughtful intentions into consistent follow-through Why a useful experience gives clients and advocates something specific to share about your agency Put one agency touchpoint through an experience test Choose the moment. Bring one invitation, onboarding handoff, or client follow-up into your next team meeting. Name what the person needs at that moment and what your agency wants them to understand. Find the generic part. Where does the interaction fail to reflect the person's situation? What question, explanation, or thoughtful action would make the experience more useful? Make the care repeatable. Assign an owner, record what matters, and schedule the follow-through. Then ask the person whether the change helped them feel more understood. Neen's framework is a way to inspect the experience, not permission to add

  5. Oct 7

    EP 11: YouTube Strategist Guillermo Orellana Explains How Agencies Build Buyer Trust With Video

    Your agency may have years of useful teaching in podcast episodes, webinars, workshops, and client conversations. But a right-fit prospect arriving on your YouTube channel should not have to dig through an archive to find the answer to one question: Can this agency help us solve the problem in front of us? Guillermo Orellana joins Stephen Woessner to show what changes when that archive becomes an intentional viewing experience. Guillermo founded Glitch Media Group(opens in new tab) and works as a strategic content partner to Don Yaeger. His production work includes YouTube and podcast strategy for Don's Corporate Competitor Podcast. Quick answer: Agencies build buyer trust with video when a right-fit viewer can find a relevant answer, see how the agency thinks, and decide where to go next. Guillermo Orellana's approach begins before recording: know the viewer and the question they want answered. Give the video an accurate title and thumbnail; use the opening to fulfill that promise. Then organize existing interviews, workshops, and lessons into a library with useful pathways from a Short to a focused compilation or a full conversation. Review how viewers respond, but do not confuse views or subscriptions with a prospect's decision to work with your agency. In this episode, Guillermo and Stephen map the choices a viewer makes…from finding and choosing a video, to staying with it, to exploring a deeper lesson. Stephen then connects those choices to Predictive ROI's Authority-to-Demand Ecosystem: visible expertise can earn attention, useful proof can strengthen the Trust Bridge, and the right invitation can help a prospect act. A YouTube view alone is not Demand. How can an agency use YouTube to build buyer trust? 1. Make a promise the viewer can recognize…and keep it Guillermo first looks at whom a channel is attracting and how those people respond. Subscriber totals and view counts can raise useful questions, but they do not settle whether the audience is a right fit. He asks where viewers arrive, what they choose, where they leave, and whether different groups respond differently. His next move is to understand what the video teaches before packaging it. He uses the transcript to identify the subject, writes a description that makes the lesson clear, and then works toward the title and thumbnail. The two should complement each other rather than repeat the same words. Most important, they should make a promise the video can fulfill. YouTube's own guidance on titles and thumbnails(opens in new tab) emphasizes accuracy, brevity, and making the most important words visible early. Its content-performance guidance(opens in new tab) separates appeal from engagement and satisfaction: did someone choose to watch, stay, and find the experience worthwhile? For an agency, the test is practical. When a prospect clicks a video titled around a specific business problem, does the opening begin helping with that problem…or does it make the viewer wait through an introduction that has nothing to do with the promise? A title can earn the first decision. The teaching has to earn the next one. 2. Turn an archive into a route through your expertise Guillermo does not tell agency owners to discard their existing work and start from zero. He begins by cataloging it. Transcripts make past interviews, presentations, and workshops searchable so a team can find a strong lesson without rewatching every recording. Next comes editorial judgment. Which older idea still matters? Which audience question does it answer? Could several short segments from different conversations become one useful, focused compilation? Guillermo describes assembling clips around a shared subject, watching the result as a whole, and asking whether the sequence works for the viewer…not simply whether it was easy to edit. Then he gives the viewer a path. A Short can introduce one idea. A related video can point to a focused compilation. An end screen on that compilation can offer a full conversation. YouTube documents the related-video feature for Shorts(opens in new tab) and end screens for eligible videos(opens in new tab). Those features make the route possible; they do not guarantee that viewers will take it. Guillermo's question is whether each step earns a deeper one. A person who wants one answer should receive that answer before being asked for an hour of attention. The library becomes more valuable when a prospect can follow an idea…and see more of the agency's judgment at each step. 3. Build a channel your team can sustain and your business can evaluate At the end of the conversation, Stephen asks Guillermo what an agency should do if it commits to a year on YouTube. Guillermo begins with agreement inside the business. Decide whom the channel is meant to serve, what the team can produce, who owns the work, and which results leadership will use to evaluate it. A producer reporting views while the owner expects qualified conversations is a problem to solve before the publishing calendar fills up. His recommended sequence is to establish the goals and production logistics first, publish and learn from the response, then build enough of a content backlog to keep the commitment the team has made. Start with a cadence the agency can keep. Review what viewers choose, how long they stay, which subjects bring people back, and what happens after they watch. YouTube's recommendation guidance(opens in new tab) encourages creators to follow audience response, prioritize sustainable quality, and help viewers discover related content. For an agency, that platform evidence is only part of the scorecard. The business also needs to notice when a right-fit prospect mentions a video in a biz dev conversation, uses a resource, requests a meeting, or brings a clearer understanding of the agency's expertise into the room. A sustainable channel makes the work repeatable. Buyer evidence tells you whether that work is moving in the right direction. What Guillermo's work with Don Yaeger illustrates Guillermo and Stephen discuss Don Yaeger's Corporate Competitor Podcast as a working example of an existing interview library with more than one entry point. A known guest or timely subject can introduce new viewers to a conversation. Guillermo then considers what else the viewer might find useful…another lesson, a thematic compilation, or a full-length episode. That is a production example, not a promise that a particular guest, collaboration, or Short will deliver the same result for another agency. Guillermo also cautions that an unexpectedly popular video may owe its reach to several factors. The right response is to inspect what happened rather than declare a universal tactic. For an agency owner, the application is to choose a recurring problem that right-fit prospects recognize. Gather existing teachings about it. Put the best insight first. Build one honest invitation from the short version into the deeper explanation. Then ask whether prospects understand your agency's thinking more clearly after taking that path. What you will learn in this episode How Guillermo diagnoses a channel before recommending another format or publishing schedule Why a title, thumbnail, opening, and video must make and fulfill the same promise How transcripts can turn older webinars, podcast interviews, and workshops into a searchable library How a Short, a focused compilation, and a full conversation can serve different viewer needs What YouTube's related-video and end-screen tools can do…and what they cannot promise Why a channel needs a production cadence the agency can maintain How to distinguish viewer activity from evidence that a right-fit prospect is moving toward a conversation Put one prospect question through a video-path test Choose the question. What does a right-fit prospect ask before deciding whether your agency understands the business problem? Show your thinking. Which existing recording, example, or teaching answers that question with enough depth to demonstrate your team's judgment? Map the next step. What shorter introduction would help the viewer find that lesson…and what useful invitation belongs at the end of it? Before your team produces something new, see what already exists under your digital bed. Guillermo's suggestion is to catalog it, test the viewer path, and make the next useful decision visible. Continue the Authority-to-Demand conversation In Erik Jensen's episode on how proof activates Demand(opens in new tab), Erik explains why specific proof helps a right-fit prospect recognize a relevant pattern. Guillermo shows how a video library can give the prospect time to examine that proof. In Don Yaeger's episode on business stories that move people to act(opens in new tab), Don makes the listener central to the story. Guillermo carries that listener-first principle into the title, opening, edit, and viewing path. In Simon Bowen's episode on showing your agency's thinking(opens in new tab), Simon makes specialized expertise visible through models. Guillermo explores how to make expertise watchable and discoverable through a coherent YouTube library. Explore The In-Demand Agency Podcast archive(opens in new tab). Research notes and sources 1. Guillermo Orellana's work Glitch Media Group's official site(opens in new tab) identifies Guillermo Orellana as its founder and describes his work across strategy, storytelling, YouTube channels, podcasts, and content systems. Don Yaeger's official Corporate Competitor Podcast page(opens in new tab) credits Guillermo as an editor. Guillermo describes his broader role and method in this recorded interview. 2. What YouTube says about discovery and viewer response YouTube's title and thumbnail guidance(opens in new tab) recommends accurate, succinct titles that put important words early. Its content-performance guidance(opens in new tab) distinguishes appeal, engagement, and satisfaction. Its recommendation-system explana

  6. Sep 30

    EP 10: Visual Models Expert Simon Bowen Illustrates How Showing Your Thinking Makes Your Agency Easier to Choose

    Your agency may have spent years developing specialized expertise. You recognize patterns faster. You see around corners. You understand why a problem is happening…and what needs to change. But if a right-fit prospect cannot see that thinking, the prospect is left with your words, your deliverables, and a process diagram that may look very similar to what every other agency presents. Simon Bowen offers a direct challenge: "Your thinking is your product." Simon is the Founder and CEO of The Models Method®(opens in new tab) and the creator of The Genius Model®(opens in new tab). For nearly three decades, he has helped leaders across government, Fortune 500 companies, startups, nonprofits, the military, and complex service businesses turn sophisticated thinking into visual models people can understand and use. The Models Method is now used in more than 30 countries, and The Genius Model has been delivered in more than eight languages. Quick answer: An agency makes its specialized expertise easier to choose when a right-fit prospect can see the thinking behind the recommendation…not merely hear a description of the process. Simon Bowen uses three visual models to show how. The Quadrant creates visual and structural access, helping the prospect move from "I hear you" to "I see it" and "I get it." The Iceberg moves the conversation beneath the known problem to the hidden challenge and deeper outcome. The Futures Model connects today's decision to the cost of drift, the value of action, and a path the buyer can believe. The goal is not to present a clever diagram. It is to facilitate a conversation that creates clarity, believability, and buyer safety. In this conversation, Stephen Woessner and Simon draw the models in real time, role-play an agency conversation, and expose a mistake many agencies make during biz dev: they show the prospect what they do without showing the depth of thinking that makes the work valuable. How does showing your thinking make your agency easier to choose? 1. The Quadrant helps a prospect see it and get it Simon begins with a two-by-two Quadrant built around visual access and structural access. Words by themselves may create more noise. A prospect can hear an agency's explanation without developing a clear picture of the idea or understanding how the pieces fit together. Visual access changes the first part of that experience. The prospect can say, "Now I can see it." Structural access adds the relationships, hierarchy, and logic that help the prospect say, "Now I get it." When both are strong, the agency's thinking becomes easier to understand and more believable. Simon describes this as the green zone. The choreography surrounding the model…what the agency reveals, in what order, and how the agency brings the prospect into the explanation…helps turn desirability into a viable decision path. Simon summarizes the distinction this way: "Trust gets you in the door. Believability gets you sold." For an agency, this does not mean adding a polished graphic to a proposal. The model must expose the logic beneath the recommendation. A right-fit prospect should be able to see the problem, understand the relationships, and recognize why the proposed path makes sense. A decorative diagram shows the prospect a picture. A useful model shows the prospect how your agency thinks. 2. The Iceberg takes the conversation beneath the deliverable The top of Simon's Iceberg represents the visible, transactional problem. That is where a prospect asks for a website, a campaign, a new brand, more reach, or help with sales. It is also where the agency can be compared most easily by deliverables, process, and price. The middle of the Iceberg contains the hidden problem. The prospect may recognize it but feel uncomfortable saying it plainly. Or the buyer may understand the symptoms without seeing the relationships beneath them. The base contains what Simon calls the ache…the deeper issue the prospect feels but may not yet be able to name. It also contains the larger outcome the buyer is trying to create. Simon demonstrates the model first through a ferry-builder example. The surface conversation is about investing in a ferry. Beneath that are the operating outcomes…passenger comfort, fuel performance, and speed to destination. Deeper still is the capital required to acquire the vessel and the competitive advantage the operator is trying to build. Then Simon and Stephen build an agency Iceberg in real time. The surface request is more marketing reach. Beneath it are internal alignment, distributor understanding, and a better end-customer experience. At the base is something more valuable than a marketing plan: helping a mission-driven company put its brilliance on show throughout the entire path to market. The model does not force the prospect into the agency's conclusion. Simon asks questions, listens to Stephen's answers, and builds the model with him. "Stop selling. And start facilitating." The deeper the conversation goes, the harder it becomes to compare the agency as a list of deliverables. 3. The Futures Model connects today's decision to buyer safety and winning Simon places the buyer's current state in the center of the Futures Model. From there, one curve moves downward toward a red future. Simon frames this as drift. The buyer does not remain in a neutral, flat status quo. The existing problems continue, compound, and pull the organization farther away from the result it wants. The other curve moves upward toward a green future. That path requires decisions and action. The agency's role is to help the prospect see both futures…then determine whether the agency's mechanism can move the buyer onto the green path. Gates along the path represent the decisions, conditions, and commitments required to keep the work moving in the right direction. Simon reduces the buyer's desired outcome to two needs: Make me safe. Protect me from the red future. Help me win. Give me a credible path to a better-than-average result. This is where the model becomes part of the Trust Bridge. It gives the buyer a way to examine the recommendation, question it, and test whether the proposed path connects today's challenge to the desired future. In Stephen's language…the agency aligns before it prescribes. A right-fit prospect is more likely to act when the path forward feels visible, credible, and safer than continued drift. How Simon built an agency's Iceberg in real time The live role-play is one of the most useful sections of the episode because Simon does not begin with the agency's services. He begins with the buyer's business. Stephen plays the leader of a product manufacturer trying to create stronger alignment across the internal team, distribution partners, and end customers. Simon listens for the words carrying the most meaning…then organizes them into the Iceberg. At the top, he places reach. In the middle, he maps three outcomes: Create the internal sale before taking the message to the market Help the distribution network understand and carry the message Build a stronger experience for the end customer At the base, he connects the commercial work to the company's mission and reframes the agency's value as helping the client put its brilliance on show at every level. The important lesson is not the exact words Simon places on the page. The important lesson is how he gets there. He asks. He listens. He reflects the buyer's language. He tests the relationship between ideas. He gives the prospect room to correct the model. Then he uses the completed picture to clarify the deeper value of the work. The prospect is not watching the agency present a framework from the outside. The prospect is helping build the framework from the inside. What you will learn in this episode Why Simon says an agency's thinking…not merely its deliverables…is its real product How visual access and structural access help a prospect move from hearing the idea to understanding it Why simplification is different from dumbing down sophisticated expertise How the Iceberg moves a biz dev conversation from the known problem to the hidden problem and deeper ache Why the model should facilitate a conversation instead of becoming another presentation How the Futures Model makes the cost of drift and the value of action visible Why completeness of thinking can create more buyer confidence than another claim of uniqueness Put one prospect conversation through a three-model test Can the prospect see it and get it? Choose one idea your agency explains frequently. Identify what would give the buyer visual access to the idea and what structure would make the relationships clear. How deep does the conversation go? Write the prospect's visible request at the top of a page. Beneath it, identify the hidden business problem. At the base, identify the ache or larger outcome the prospect may feel but has not named. What future are you helping the prospect choose? Map today's state, the consequences of drift, the desired future, and the decisions required to move onto the better path. Do not begin by making the model attractive. Begin by making the thinking complete. Then practice drawing and facilitating the model until your team can use it without turning the conversation into a performance delivered at the prospect. Continue the Authority-to-Demand conversation In Don Yaeger's episode on telling business stories that move people to act(opens in new tab), Don explains how a listener-centered story helps a prospect see themselves inside an outcome. Simon extends that teaching by showing how a visual model lets the prospect see the agency's thinking and participate in building the path. In Scott McKain's conversation on how agencies become unmistakably valuable(opens in new tab), Scott explains why difference keeps an agency inside a comparison. Simon shows how depth, visible thinking, and completeness can move the prospect beyond surface-level com

  7. Sep 23

    EP 9: Elite Entrepreneurs CEO Brett Gilliland Maps Out How Leadership Capacity Turns Demand Into Predictable Agency Growth

    Demand creates opportunity for your agency. It also creates expectations. A right-fit prospect may experience the agency owner leading the strategy, building the trust, and protecting the standard during biz dev. Then the prospect says yes…and the work moves from the front of the stage to the back. The entire team must now deliver an experience consistent with the promise that won the opportunity. Brett Gilliland is the Founder and CEO of Elite Entrepreneurs(opens in new tab). He spent ten years helping Infusionsoft grow from $7 million to more than $100 million in annual revenue. Today, Brett and his team help owners of seven-figure businesses develop the leadership capacity and company-building systems required to grow beyond the founder. Quick answer: Leadership capacity turns Demand into predictable agency growth when the agency can fulfill its promise without depending on the founder to make every decision, protect every standard, or rescue every client relationship. Brett Gilliland explains that the next stage requires company-building work: a clear and continuously reinforced vision, early-warning systems, weekly one-on-ones, defined decision lanes, leadership development, and deliberate transfer of learning across the team. Demand may create the opportunity, but predictable growth depends on whether the entire agency can deliver the expected experience consistently. In this conversation, Stephen Woessner and Brett connect the agency's front-stage promise to its back-stage capability. They examine why founder hustle eventually becomes a constraint, how leaders build future capability in other people, and why a valuable experience must travel beyond the few people who were in the room. How does leadership capacity turn Demand into predictable agency growth? 1. Build the company required for the next stage The grit, tenacity, and personal effort that helped an agency owner get the business off the ground deserve to be honored. But Brett makes an important distinction: the playbook that starts the agency is not the same playbook that scales it. The next stage requires the founder to move from hustling for every result to building a company that can produce results repeatedly. That begins with vision…then extends into strategy, performance, people, and leadership systems. Brett recalls a principle he learned from Arthur Jones during graduate school: organizations are designed to produce the results they currently produce. In practical terms, the agency's structure, decision rights, leadership rhythms, and team capability are generating its current revenue, margin, retention, and client experience. Raising the goals without changing that design is like asking a cyclist to travel faster while staying in the same gear. The rider can pedal harder for a while. Eventually, the gear becomes the constraint. For an agency owner, changing the gear means doing the company-building work before growth makes the weakness more expensive. Demand does not remove the need for company building. Demand makes that work more urgent. 2. Develop leaders before the pressure reaches the client Brett's central warning is direct: "Your agency is not going to outgrow your team's capability, period." Leadership capacity is not built by waiting until the wheels fall off. It is built by creating several ways to detect strain while the warning signs are still manageable. Brett recommends watching the indicators that reveal whether the agency is beginning to outgrow its current capability. Those signals may include a production team feeling stretched, deadlines slipping, scope becoming less accurate, margin leaking from engagements, client concerns becoming more frequent, or retention weakening. A useful dashboard makes those signals visible. Weekly one-on-ones create a safe place for team members to say, "Something is off here." Direct client relationships provide another source of early feedback. Those same one-on-ones also help build decision-makers. When a decision belongs to a teammate's role and the founder takes it back, the agency loses an opportunity to strengthen judgment and confidence. Brett explains: "Anytime you decide for them, you are taking away future capability in your business." The founder still needs to make decisions that belong to the CEO. But when the decision belongs inside another leader's lane, the founder's role is to provide context, coaching, boundaries, and support…then let that leader carry the decision. Every stronger decision builds capacity the agency can use again. 3. Transfer the experience across the team Leadership development does not happen through information alone. Brett explains that a well-designed experience can move someone beyond interesting content and into transformation. That is one reason Elite Entrepreneurs brings owners and key leaders into the same room. Company building is a team sport. The work is more likely to continue when several people experience the lesson together and help translate it back into the business. The same principle applies when one or two agency leaders attend an event, read a book, complete a planning session, or hear an episode like this one. Do not return to the team with a list of directives that simply happens to everyone else. Share what you learned. Explain why the investment mattered. Invite the team into the conversation. Choose the few ideas that connect most directly to the agency's objectives. Then decide together what will change. Brett also warns that vision is not a one-time exercise. People wander, become distracted, and forget. The agency therefore needs to reinforce its vision and values through onboarding, weekly conversations, planning sessions, team meetings, and daily decisions. The experience creates value only when it changes how the team thinks, decides, and delivers. When Predictive ROI allowed its values to drift During the conversation, Stephen shares an example from inside Predictive ROI. A newer teammate had seen the company's values…but asked why those values had not been part of the onboarding process. The question exposed a gap. Predictive had done the work to define its vision, mission, and values, but the team had not been reinforcing them as consistently as it once had. Brett describes this as the natural law of drift. Leaders set the course, daily demands pull the agency away from it, and the organization requires repeated course correction. The lesson is not that a strong agency never drifts. The lesson is that strong leadership builds the rhythms required to recognize the drift and return the team to true north. That may mean adding the values to onboarding. It may mean discussing one value during a weekly meeting. It may mean using the vision to evaluate a difficult decision instead of treating it as language painted on the wall. A small correction, repeated consistently, can protect the experience the agency has promised its clients. What you will learn in this episode Why Demand creates expectations that leadership capacity must be ready to fulfill How a mismatch between front-stage promise and back-stage delivery limits predictable agency growth Why the founder's original hustle becomes the wrong playbook for company building How dashboards, client feedback, and weekly one-on-ones reveal strain before the wheels fall off Why deciding for a teammate can reduce the agency's future capability How shared experiences help leadership lessons travel into the rest of the agency Why vision and values must be reinforced continuously to prevent organizational drift Put your agency through a 30-day leadership-capacity test Score the agency independently. Ask each member of the leadership team to complete The Leadership Capacity Scorecard(opens in new tab) before the next meeting. Compare answers only after everyone has finished. Find the lowest-scoring dimension. Identify whether the primary gap is carrying the promise, detecting strain, building decision-makers, reinforcing the vision, or transferring the experience. Install one change for 30 days. Clarify one decision lane, reinstate one weekly one-on-one, add one early-warning metric to the dashboard, or bring one value back into onboarding and team conversations. One gap. One decision. One 30-day installation. Then score the agency again. Continue the Authority-to-Demand conversation In Scott McKain's conversation on how agencies become unmistakably valuable(opens in new tab), Scott explains why the client experiences the agency horizontally…across every interaction and handoff. Brett's leadership lesson extends that idea by showing what the team must build internally to deliver that experience consistently. In Don Yaeger's episode on telling business stories that move people to act(opens in new tab), Don shows how an intentional story helps a prospect experience the agency's thinking before hiring it. Brett shows why the agency's team must be ready to fulfill the expectations that experience creates. In Stephen Woessner's solocast on what turns trust into Demand(opens in new tab), Stephen connects visible expertise, meaningful curiosity, credible proof, and barrier removal to the moment a trusting prospect acts. This episode continues the path by examining what the agency must be ready to deliver after the prospect says yes. Explore the complete In-Demand Agency Podcast archive(opens in new tab). Research notes and sources 1. Brett Gilliland's current role and experience Brett Gilliland's official Elite Entrepreneurs biography(opens in new tab) identifies him as Founder and CEO of Elite Entrepreneurs and an expert in organization development, leadership, and strategy. The biography states that he spent ten years helping Infusionsoft grow from $7 million to more than $100 million in revenue, contributed to the company's purpose, values, mission, strategic planning, and leadership model, and has helped hundreds of seven-figure business owners address growth challenge

  8. Sep 16

    EP 8: 13-Time New York Times Bestselling Author Don Yaeger Demonstrates How to Tell Business Stories That Move People to Act

    Most agencies have stories. The problem is not the absence of stories. The problem is that agencies often tell them from the agency's point of view…then hope the prospect reaches the intended conclusion. Don Yaeger raises the standard. A business story is not finished when the storyteller reaches the last sentence. It has done its job when the listener can see themselves inside the experience, understand what changed, and recognize a clear path forward. Don is a thirteen-time New York Times bestselling author, Hall of Fame keynote speaker, executive coach, longtime Associate Editor of Sports Illustrated, and host of the Corporate Competitor Podcast. His official website reports more than seven million books sold worldwide, and Don recently shared that his books have spent a combined 115 weeks on The New York Times bestseller list. Quick answer: An agency tells a business story that moves a right-fit prospect to act by starting with the listener…not the agency. Research what matters to that person, establish an authentic point of connection, and decide what the listener should do, think, or feel before constructing the story. Then reverse the I-to-you ratio so the prospect can participate in the experience instead of merely hearing the agency describe itself. The strongest story makes the challenge recognizable, the changed outcome believable, and the next step clear. In this conversation, Stephen Woessner and Hannah Roth ask Don to translate the principles in his new book, The Business of Storytelling, into practical lessons agency owners can apply in content, biz dev conversations, case studies, presentations, and client relationships. The book was published by Forbes Books on September 15, 2026. How can an agency tell business stories that move right-fit prospects to act? 1. Know the listener before choosing the story Don identifies the most common storytelling failure point plainly: the storyteller has not taken time to understand the listener. He uses the Three Concentric Circles for Knowing Your Audience to explain the preparation. The outside circle is Research. Learn what the listener cares about, what they have experienced, and what may matter in the conversation. The second circle is Connection. Find an authentic point where the listener's story and your story intersect. The center is Breakthrough. Research and connection earn the right to ask a better question…and to be heard differently. For an agency, that means the same case story should not be delivered the same way to every prospect. The client result may remain unchanged, but the part of the story you emphasize should reflect the buyer's situation, priorities, and unanswered questions. You cannot make a story relevant to the listener if you have not taken time to understand the listener. 2. Turn the listener into a participant Don calls this reversing the I-to-you ratio. A story filled with "I," "me," and "my" may document the agency's work accurately. But it can still leave the prospect standing outside the experience, watching the agency describe how impressive it is. The assignment is not to remove the agency from its own story. It is to help the listener locate their place inside it. Don demonstrates the difference by contrasting "there I was" with "you can only imagine." The event has not changed. The perspective has. This matters in agency content because a prospect is rarely looking for another agency biography. The prospect is trying to answer a more personal question: Can these people understand our situation…and help us create the outcome we need? When the listener can see themselves inside the story, the story becomes an experience they help create. 3. Decide what movement the story should create Before Don tells a business story, he asks three questions: What do I want the listener to do? What do I want the listener to think? What do I want the listener to feel? The "do" does not always need to be an immediate sales action. The right movement may be that the prospect thinks differently about the problem, feels understood, becomes curious about the agency's expertise, or chooses to continue the conversation. In our opinion…that is the bridge from storytelling to Demand. Authority may earn the prospect's attention. A purposeful story can make the agency's expertise and proof easier to recognize, reduce uncertainty, and help the prospect see an appropriate next step. Don's standard is direct: a business story should contain a challenge, show how solving that challenge changed the outcome, and provide a clear path forward for the listener. A business story is not told merely to entertain. It is constructed to move the listener from where they are to where they need to be. How research earned Don the right to ask Michael Jordan a deeper question During the episode, Don shares a personal experience from an interview conducted around Michael Jordan's fiftieth birthday. Don had interviewed Jordan before, but he did not treat the opportunity as another routine conversation. He researched Jordan's relationship with his father, then shared a point of connection from his own life. Only after doing that work did Don ask whether his father had ever said something that left a scar Jordan still remembered. Don reports that Jordan answered with a childhood story he had not shared previously…a memory that helped Don understand Jordan's drive with greater depth. The agency lesson is not that every conversation should become intensely personal. It is that familiarity is not permission to stop being curious. Whether the person is a new prospect or a longtime client, thoughtful research and authentic connection can create a different conversation. What you will learn in this episode Why a business story must create movement instead of merely holding attention How Research, Connection, and Breakthrough help a storyteller understand the listener Why familiarity with a client does not eliminate the need for curiosity and preparation How the I-to-you ratio changes a story from self-description into listener participation How to decide what the listener should do, think, and feel before constructing the story Why the correct next step may be deeper thought, greater trust, or continued conversation rather than an immediate sale How purposeful storytelling helps make expertise, proof, and a path forward easier to recognize Put one agency story through Don's movement test Name the listener. Choose one right-fit prospect or client audience. Write down what matters to them now and what they need to understand. Define the movement. Decide what you want that listener to do, think, and feel when the story ends. Reverse the ratio. Review every use of "I," "me," "we," and "our." Revise the story so the listener can see their challenge, their desired outcome, and their next step inside it. Then ask Hannah's closing question from the episode: If this story were removed, would the business outcome suffer? If the answer is no…the story may be interesting, but it is not yet doing meaningful business work. Continue the Authority-to-Demand conversation In Libby Stinson's episode on how purposeful questions build trust and Demand, Libby shows how to prepare thoughtful questions, listen for clues, and avoid wasting a prospect's answer. In Scott McKain's conversation on how agencies become unmistakably valuable, Scott explains how specific stories make a standard visible, teachable, and repeatable. In Stephen Woessner's solocast on what turns trust into Demand, Stephen connects visible expertise, meaningful curiosity, credible proof, and barrier removal to the moment a trusting prospect acts. Explore the complete In-Demand Agency Podcast archive. Research notes and sources 1. Don Yaeger's current work and credentials Don Yaeger's official website identifies him as the author of 13 New York Times bestselling books with more than seven million copies sold worldwide. Simon & Schuster's official author profile identifies him as a Hall of Fame keynote speaker, executive coach, Publisher at Advantage Media, longtime Associate Editor of Sports Illustrated, National Geographic Storyteller in Residence, and host of the Corporate Competitor Podcast. 2. Don Yaeger's 115 weeks on the bestseller list In an August 2026 first-party LinkedIn post, Don states that his books have spent 115 weeks on The New York Times bestseller list. This figure is attributed to Don's account rather than represented as an independent audit of the newspaper's archive. 3. The Business of Storytelling Don Yaeger, The Business of Storytelling: Inspire Action, Build Trust, and Drive Results Through Story, Forbes Books, September 15, 2026. The publisher describes the book as a practical, research-backed guide that teaches ten storytelling elements, explains why stories influence decisions, and helps leaders turn everyday experiences into stories that build trust and move people to act. 4. Storytelling as a learnable business discipline Don's official storytelling page says effective storytelling includes understanding the audience, having a clear purpose, using a relatable protagonist, and involving the audience in the narrative journey. It also describes storytelling as a learnable skill rather than an innate gift. 5. The Significant Objects project Rob Walker and Joshua Glenn's original Significant Objects project paired inexpensive thrift-store and garage-sale objects with clearly labeled fictional stories, then sold the objects on eBay. The first 100 objects cost $128.74 in total and sold for $3,612.51. The project's experimental data reports a 2,706 percent increase in sale value for that first group. The project offers a memorable demonstration of how narrative can influence perceived and trade value, but it should be read as a literary and quasi-anthropological experiment rather than a controlled consumer-behavior study. Resources Order The Business of Storytelling from Don Yaeger's official we

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For the last four years, the Sell with Authority podcast focused on one core idea…how to help agencies earn trust before asking for the sale. And it worked. Agencies that chose a niche, committed to a point of view, and taught what they know in service of the right audience became recognized. Their thinking traveled. And prospects began to show up more prepared, more confident, and more aligned. But over time, a pattern emerged inside the Predictive Lab. Agencies that had built an authority position no longer struggled to be seen. They struggled with creating and activating demand. Prospects knew them. Respected them. Even believed they were the right agency to choose. And still…they waited. Authority earns attention. But demand…demand is what turns that attention into action. The In-Demand Agency Podcast picks up exactly where that realization begins. Each episode of the In-Demand Agency Podcast deconstructs the science of demand…from behavioral psychology, decision-making research, and the cross-industry strategies behind why B2B buyers make decisions. We interview the world's leading behavioral scientists, global agency network leaders, and strategists from industries far beyond ours…voices you may have never heard but who are reshaping how demand works. Then we translate their insights directly into the agency world. Think of it as the "Harvard Business Review" for agency owners who are done with guesswork and ready for growth. The In-Demand Agency Podcast is hosted by Stephen Woessner, CEO of Predictive ROI. If the conversation around how to create intrigue, curiosity, and desire with intention so you activate demand, choose the clients you want to work with, and so you can reach your biz dev goals faster resonates with where you are and where you're headed…we'd love for you to join us here.

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