It’s not going to be fun to write today’s newsletter, but I promised I’d keep it real with you guys for as long as I kept this up. There’s been more bad news with Content Army this week. We lost one long-term client (12 months) and another asked for a retainer reduction. To say the business is struggling would be an understatement. It’s been dealing with headwinds that I’m not even sure are solvable at this moment in time, which I’ll explain below. Despite this, I am, of course, going to...
3 months ago • 9 min read
Another wild week is in the books. Lots of challenges this week. Hard conversations - being tough with people you respect and holding them accountable. After talking about momentum and being prepared for tough times in business last week, I got smacked in the face - extremely hard - twice this week. First, a 4-year-old client told me they were taking things in-house. Second, an A-player on our team resigned and found a new opportunity elsewhere. This is the reality of running a business....
3 months ago • 6 min read
It’s been a hell of a week at Magnet Monster. Since the turn of the year, our pipeline has exploded. Surprisingly, January is always busy with lots of movers and shakers. In the last 2 years, these have been our strongest sales months, and this year doesn’t seem to be any different. We’ve signed 3 clients in the last 10 days, and we may finish on another 3 before the month is over. We’re coming to a stage where we’re at the classic agency inflection point of “Should we hire for increased...
4 months ago • 3 min read
I’m writing this late on Friday evening, feeling incredibly relaxed. But it wasn’t always this way. I used to be riddled with anxiety just over a year ago as the weekends approached. I could not help but jump back on the computer “for a few minutes”, before becoming immersed inside the mental prison I had built for myself at my agency. What changed? A couple of things. I reverse-engineered my goals to focus on the type of life I wanted to live from my business, not to be focused on an...
4 months ago • 4 min read
As 2024 draws to a close, I wanted to draft a few quick business & life lessons I’ll be doubling down on in 2025. It took me a long time to learn these. I’m still re-learning them today. If you’re just starting out, these are critical foundations to build not just your business, but life upon. If you’re an established business owner, let these principles realign you toward what’s important (as they do for me). MY PHILOSOPHY I believe that the key to contentment in life is to focus on...
4 months ago • 5 min read
Today’s Newsletter will give you unprecedented insight into Magnet Monster’s year-to-date performance and our marketing plans for 2025. First, a disclaimer: it feels strange to write this Newsletter. I’ve been largely removed from Magnet Monster’s operations for at least 75% of this year, and I feel incredibly grateful and indebted to our team for their contributions to our success. They’re the real winners in this. The reasons for this have been well documented at this point but for those...
5 months ago • 5 min read
“If I stop doing the work, clients will be unhappy and leave. I can’t put my business at risk like that.” In the past two weeks, I’ve heard this three times from young, successful agency owners whom I’ve spoken to in depth. Let me tell this to you straight, as somebody who has lived your pain and embodied what you’re going through for 4 painful years (before I made the jump): If you DON’T stop doing the work, you’ll never build the business or life you probably want to achieve. You’ll stay...
5 months ago • 7 min read
My son turned 1 last weekend. It was one of the best days of my life and the momentum has carried into this week at work. I can’t recall ever feeling so energised and productive. Today, I want to quickly share some wins with you guys (as I’ve had so many L’s recently, so F*ck it - I’m going to gloat lol) as well as some key business learnings. There’s no structure to this newsletter so I’m just going to spitball random points. Try to follow along! Moving back to Magnet Monster already seems...
5 months ago • 4 min read
This year, I boldly claimed that I would scale my B2B thought-leader agency, Content Army, to $500k in less than 2 years. As of today, I’m a million miles away from this target. Here are the top 5 mistakes I’ve made along the way and how I will fix them to hit that target. CONTEXT We launched Content Army as a 3-person company back in late 2023 (myself, Blake, Andy). We immediately gained traction based on our network and grew the company to over $30k per month within 2 months of launch. Then...
6 months ago • 6 min read