June 15, 2025 • 37 mins
From Seatmate Stranger to Business Catalyst
Launching a business while raising twins? That’s just the start of Michelle Abdow’s remarkable journey. In this episode, she shares how a chance encounter on a flight led to a game-changing client and why building a resilient, feedback-driven culture has helped her agency thrive through decades of change.
Inside this episode:
- The bold moment she launched her agency with newborn twins
- How a stranger on a plane became a major turning point in her business
- Why “automate the ordinary and humanize the extraordinary” drives her AI adoption
- The feedback philosophy that keeps her team aligned and evolving
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:02):
Welcome to An Agency Storypodcast where we share real
stories of marketing agencyowners from around the world.
From the excitement of startingup the first big sale, passion,
doubt, fear, freedom, and theemotional rollercoaster of
growth, hear it all on An AgencyStory podcast.
(00:24):
An Agency Story podcast ishosted by Russel Dubree,
successful agency owner with aneight figure exit turned
business coach.
Enjoy the next agency story.
Russel (00:41):
What happens when you meet a stranger on a plane and
it changes your businessforever?
Welcome to an Agency Storypodcast, I'm your host Russel.
In this episode of an agencystory, you'll meet Michelle
Abdow with Market Mentors, afull service marketing agency
based in Springfield,Massachusetts, and West Palm
Beach, Florida.
From launching her agency withnewborn and twins in tow to
(01:02):
landing a game changing clientmid-flight, michelle's story is
an inspiring story of risk,grit, and intentional growth.
We talk about what it reallytakes to build a sustainable
agency over the course of twodecades, from evolving out of
traditional media to integratedmarketing, to shaping a team
culture where feedback is agift, and AI is embraced as a
tool for freeing up humancreativity.
(01:25):
Michelle brings wisdom, warmth,and over two decades of hard won
insight to this conversation,Enjoy the story.
Welcome to the show todayeveryone.
I have Michelle Abdow withMarket Mentors with us here
today.
Thank you so much for joining ustoday, Michelle.
Michelle (01:40):
Thank you so much for having me today, Russ.
Russel (01:42):
I'm excited to have a wonderful conversation, but
right before we get into themeat of everything, tell us what
Market Mentor does and who doyou do it for?
Michelle (01:50):
We consider ourselves to be a full service, fully
integrated marketing agency.
We have specialties withmanufacturing, healthcare, and
then financial services, sobanking, uh, credit unions, and
other types of financial, uh,planning and such.
We have some retail clients aswell.
Russel (02:06):
Lovely.
Well put.
Sounds like you've been doingthis a while and gotten that
down to a nice, succinctstatement.
Michelle (02:13):
Just a little bit.
23 years, a little bit.
Russel (02:15):
And where are you coming from today, by the way?
Where are you located at?
Michelle (02:17):
We have offices, our corporate is in Springfield,
Massachusetts, and then we havea second location in West Palm
Beach, Florida.
And I am in Massachusetts today.
Russel (02:26):
That sounds like a very convenient second location.
Is that strategic?
Michelle (02:30):
They're calling Palm Beach or West Palm Beach, the,
um, they're calling it WallStreet South.
So it's a, it's a good place tobe.
Russel (02:37):
I can imagine.
Just to bring up something wewere briefly chatting about
before, you've had aninteresting week.
You said you were talking to theWhite House.
Is that what I hear?
Tell us what's good.
Give us the scoop there.
Michelle (02:47):
Yeah.
We have, uh, severalmanufacturing clients, one who
is proudly made in America, uh,made in USA certified.
The tariff movement is in someregard working in their favor,
um, at least domestically.
We decided to kind of change themedia's narrative and, and, um,
kind of, uh, challenged theirthinking a little bit.
We started pitching national andinternational media outlets
(03:11):
about our client and their madein the USA story.
The Washington Post, uh, endedup doing a really nice full page
ad that launched this weekend,and I walked into work Monday
morning yesterday, this pastMonday, and sure enough, uh, our
client had reached out, hadgotten reached out by the White
House.
We ended up having someconversations with, uh, some of
(03:31):
their public relations peoplethis week.
It was a interesting week to saythe least.
Russel (03:35):
That doesn't happen every day, I'm guessing.
Michelle (03:36):
No, pretty fun.
Pretty fun.
Russel (03:38):
Very cool.
Imagine we'll find out a lotmore about some interesting and
fascinating agency stories youhave, but as, as we do with most
guests, I'd love to go back intime and I want to hear about
young Michelle.
Who did she want to be when shegrew up?
What was she thinking?
Tell us the details there.
Michelle (03:53):
I like to still think of myself as young Michelle.
Might be a little bit older, butI'm still a kid at heart.
Russel (03:58):
Younger Michelle, how about that?
Michelle (03:59):
I always wanted to be an entrepreneur.
I loved that word as a youngkid.
I knew that it meant to haveyour own business, to be your
own boss.
Having a father who had his ownbusiness and then growing up
and, you know, then starteddating my husband who comes from
a family business.
I don't know.
The whole notion of having andrunning my own business was
definitely something that Iaspire to do.
(04:20):
Here we are 23 years later.
Russel (04:22):
I imagine you had to have been more than just the
Kool-Aid stand.
There had to be like some youngbusiness endeavor the way you're
making this sound.
Michelle (04:28):
I don't really know if there was a young business
endeavor in as much as I, I liketo call the shots.
It started in the media I workedfor in media sales, and that was
back when radio and TV weretraditional radio and TV.
Saw a lot of things change overthe years, but I loved helping
our clients, uh, get results.
When you're working in radio andtv, you're very limited in what
(04:49):
you can offer.
You are offering one product,one service.
They started asking questionslike, can you help me with a
press release?
Can you help me with TVproduction?
Can you help me with an ad andcreative concepts and, you know,
strategic planning?
You start getting into the foldand realize, you know, gosh, I,
there's so much more out there Ireally can help them with.
Russel (05:08):
How long were you into your career before you, it
sounds like you have planted theseeds that you're gonna go do
your own thing.
Michelle (05:14):
I would say I was about, let's see, 30, 30 when I
started Market Mentors.
A little older than most, Iguess.
Maybe younger than most.
Russel (05:22):
I definitely have seen it take all kinds.
I was pretty young myself.
I think I was 25.
I didn't know what the heck wasgoing on, to be honest.
But, uh, you know, just, justlike you, I wanted to do
something entrepreneurial.
I don't know if there's a rightage, good age or whatever, but
it sounds like you did it at theperfect time.
Michelle (05:37):
When you look at the, the composition of most
agencies, most of them have comefrom an agency background.
They work for an agency, whetherit was a larger shop or, um,
they cut their teeth with asmaller shop and decided they
wanna do it on their own.
I guess I was kind of a, not thesmartest tool in the shed.
I started an agency never havingworked at one.
I worked with them, I sold tothem, but I had never worked at
(05:58):
an agency.
It was kind of a self-taught,um, jumping in with both feet.
Russel (06:04):
Pop quiz though, for you.
Interesting question to see ifyou know the answer to this, or
have an idea or guess Idefinitely come across folks of
all different types ofbackgrounds and experience and
education and stuff.
But if you were to think of aprofession that really isn't in
the marketing space that, that Ihear the most as a origin of
profession that starts anagency, what do you think that
would be?
Michelle (06:23):
Oh, good question.
I'd like to ask you thatquestion and have you answer the
question first.
Russel (06:27):
I'm always just curious to people's guess, people's
guesses about that because it,it is, it, it's been surprising
to me, but I've just seen enoughof it.
I'd probably say number one ismusic.
Someone from a music backgroundhad a band or something along
those lines.
Does that seem crazy to you oris that like, oh, that makes
sense?
Michelle (06:42):
No, that seems really fun.
Live vicariously throughsomebody.
Russel (06:46):
Then number two.
I actually asked my brother onetime, you know, why, why he's a
big musician.
I don't have a musician's bonein my body.
Are you a musician?
Do you, do you play anyinstruments?
Michelle (06:53):
Not at all.
Russel (06:54):
Singer?
Michelle (06:55):
No.
In the shower, and only when I'mhome alone.
Russel (06:58):
Hey, that's the best time I hear.
but, uh, yeah, and So I askedhim, why is this?
He thinks, one I hear a lot orthis is what other people, he
didn't say this one about that,you know, if you have a band,
you've gotta do your ownmarketing and you're you've
gotta be your own promotionpiece or whatever.
You learn how to build websitesand that, and you learn how to
do ads and just all thingsbranding and promotion.
But then he had an interestingtake of more of like, well also
(07:20):
in a band you just have to learnto go with the flow.
Kind of a natural chaos that Ithink is pretty indicative in
the agency space.
That was his take anyway.
Michelle (07:27):
Interesting.
It's a good one.
Russel (07:28):
The number two is, is someone, someone in the faith
community, which I think a lotof the same PR principles that
they had to do a lot ofmarketing and promotion and
stuff within, you know, smallchurch organizations and things
like that.
There you go.
Michelle (07:39):
There we go.
Perfect.
Russel (07:40):
You learned something today about agency.
Untypical agency origin.
I want to get, get back to yourstory.
Did you just wake up one day andsay, I'm going out on my own,
you know, um, take this job andshove it?
Or did you, uh, have a, a littlebit more and what's, I don't
know, planned path?
How did you actually start yourbusiness?
Michelle (07:58):
It was right in the middle.
I wasn't completely happy withwhere the industry, the media
industry was going.
I worked for regional groups, inregional media groups and they
were all selling to Wall Street,and so things were starting to
change.
The internet was born, we'restarting to see a lot more
things, news stories goingonline.
AOL was, was booming.
(08:18):
Google hadn't even been bornyet.
I wouldn't say it was take thisjob and shove it.
It was, I think I can providebigger impact for my clients and
do more, and feel more rewardedby being able to move the needle
for their companies.
I didn't have a whole heck of alot of time to get it up and
running.
I had just delivered twins.
I was working in the media and,um, decided, I said to my
(08:42):
husband, like, you know, ifthere isn't a time to do it,
it's now.
Let's do it.
Hung the shingle on my door,started it at home.
I had hired a nanny.
I had little babies at home.
It was a interesting time of mylife for sure.
Challenge and fun all at once.
Russel (08:55):
I can't even imagine.
One kid, right, first experiencein life is hard enough.
Twins, and starting a business,I mean, sounds near impossible
to me.
Like how, how in the world?
Michelle (09:06):
I know, it's funny.
I don't think anything of it,and I would never think that it
was anything crazy, but I lookat other people who have done
things 10 times as moredifficult, so with, with ease.
And it's like you aspire to belike those folks.
Russel (09:20):
I don't know.
I think you're short sellingyourself on that.
So, what did you do?
It sounds like maybe you broughtclients with you or some
relationships that you knew, ordid you just have to go start
from scratch as far as beingyour own business in the early
days?
Michelle (09:33):
A little bit of both.
I think if I had thought throughwhen I was going to start and
had an actual plan, I probablywould've been a lot more
strategic in making sure I had asolid portfolio of business to
bring with me.
But I had a small handful ofvery small clients where I had
to do everything.
I was a chief cook and bottlewasher.
I had corporate socialresponsibility clients.
(09:54):
I had sales consulting clients,and I had some that just needed
production work.
They needed an ad, they neededsome creative, they needed, um,
their media placed.
Of course, media being mybackground, I found a little
niche that I carved out, whichwas placing TV in, in radio, and
all traditional means back then.
It was before Facebook.
It was before MySpace.
(10:15):
I'm really dating myself in, interms of, uh, how much has
changed in the industry since Istarted.
Russel (10:21):
A true pioneer.
Obviously so many differenttechnologies, eras that you've,
you've navigated at this point.
Did you always think you weregonna grow something more than
just you or was it just aboutpersonal fulfillment and you
hadn't really thought that far?
Michelle (10:35):
I wanted to grow the business and I wanted it to be
more than me.
I think my goal was to survivethe first three years.
You've read books, you see it inthe news, you read the Wall
Street Journal and the successrates of businesses, you know,
first year's excitement, you'vegot nowhere to go but up'cause
you're building.
Year two, you, you start to getsome, some footing.
Year three is like the make orbreak year.
(10:56):
Fortunately for me it was, wewere getting busier and I,
realizing that I couldn't do, Icouldn't be the chief, chief
cook and bottle washer.
I had to bring on some peopleto, to give me a hand.
I knew we were onto something atthat point.
It was that, that light switchkind of, that, that went off and
you realize, okay, we got, we'rebuilding something good here.
Russel (11:14):
Nice.
And I know that's always it's abig transition to go, right?
Imagine you're, you were anambitious person and, and very
adept at your career, but thesecond you hire someone, you're
now a manager and leader and,and essentially caretaker of
others.
Was that very easy for you tokind of step into that role in
that path?
Or is there, what was that likefor you?
Michelle (11:32):
I had managed others in the past, um, so that part of
it was fine.
It's just when it's your name onthe door and your reputation, it
takes on a whole new meaning.
I think there's that momentwhere you wanna, you wanna be
their friend, right?
They're working for you.
They're working for your cause,your, your own beliefs, and to
help grow your company, but atthe same time, you have to hold
(11:53):
them accountable.
I think along the way you learnthose rough lessons where you
have to put your foot down andshare the feedback and make sure
that everyone's aligned andmoving in the right direction.
Russel (12:03):
Definitely a trial by fire, school of hard knocks type
education.
Michelle (12:07):
Just a little bit.
Russel (12:08):
When was the first time you feel like in your journey
where you're like, and maybe,maybe you still haven't gotten
there yet, where you're like,you know what?
I made it.
Any fears or concerns I had inearly on, I don't have those
anymore.
Michelle (12:19):
The term imposter syndrome didn't exist back then,
but I think I had impostersyndrome.
I wanted so badly to grow thebusiness.
I wanted so badly to berespected.
I wanted to do right bycustomers.
Having worked in the media, youknow, I was worried, you know,
are the media folks gonna sayill things of, of me because
they might be threatened?
(12:40):
You have all these fears thatyou instill upon yourself, and
it's the insecurities ofstarting a business.
I think over time, you know, youstart building and you start
getting referrals, you getresults for some more folks, you
get more referrals and, andthat's really where the rubber
meets the road.
we were working in my home and Ihad two folks working in this
tiny little office, and nextthing you know, we're, we need,
(13:01):
we need space.
When I moved out of my homeoffice was when I had this holy
cow, this is really happening.
Been at it for three years, butall, all of a sudden I felt a
sense of accomplishment.
Russel (13:12):
That's awesome.
That is something I, I hearquite a bit.
Folks say, it's like when I getmy first office, it's like
really official.
'cause I think, I think a lot ofit's such a.
Agency is really kind of an easybusiness to start in some
respects, is you can do it outtayour home.
All you need is a computer andan idea and some experience, a
little bit of experience and,and you can kind of run with
that a little bit, but there issomething about that office.
Michelle (13:32):
And back then, a car.
You had to have a car back thenbecause you produce radio and TV
dubs and you had to literally goand pick them up and deliver
them to the stations.
That's how things have changed.
Russel (13:42):
That is true.
I mean, I do remember, um, Iimagine what we probably started
a little, little bit later thanyou, it sounds like, so we were
'06, but we did most all of ourearly stage leads, business
development.
We had to drive, run aroundtown, versus, later on in the
agency to be clients we nevereven met in person.
It's different.
Very different.
Michelle (13:59):
It's humbling.
Very humbling.
Russel (14:01):
Because I'm guessing too, like right, I'm trying to
think what did, what did theyhave before?
What did they have back in theday before Zoom was like, was it
GoToMeeting or what?
What did you do?
What were the early day videocalls?
Michelle (14:10):
It was, uh, GoToMeeting, Skype.
Skype.
Russel (14:12):
Oh, Skype.
Yes.
I forgot about Skype.
Michelle (14:14):
And then what was, uh, WebEx?
WebEx was a big one too.
Russel (14:17):
Oh, WebEx.
That's the one.
Yes, I remember.
I remember WebEx.
It's really crazy when I thinkabout that, how long that took
to really take on.
Michelle (14:24):
We couldn't on a cell phone back then, I think I had a
Blackberry.
I didn't even, couldn't evenvideo conference on my phone.
It was a Blackberry.
Russel (14:30):
Oh man.
Wow.
Technology.
What a difference.
I always am fascinated, likeeven go back way before our time
or whatever and, and the folksthat, like, there was not even a
computer.
What was design and advertisingbefore there was even a
computer?
That'd be wild to me.
Michelle (14:44):
My husband's family had a restaurant business and
they, you know, started in thefifties.
I have a freight at home withall the old mockups from the
ads.
It was literally, you know,pasted onto paper with templates
and wild stuff.
The way in which they did layoutback then, they didn't have
graphics.
Crazy for sure.
Russel (15:03):
And how do you turn that into a billboard?
Like you can't just digitallyprint all that.
I don't know, man.
Real craftspeople, I guess.
Very fascinating.
When you think of how youragency started from a service
perspective and to where it istoday, how would you describe, I
mean, you know, is it similar,very different?
I know we got all differentkinds of tools in how we do the
(15:24):
work, but just from a, whatyou're positioning and selling
yourself as, how has thatevolved?
Michelle (15:29):
It's transformational.
I think back when I started, itwas really media heavy.
Really media, heavy, TV andradio and cable, um, and then
producing the ads.
Then over time, you know, youreally develop that whole suite
of services.
You kind of take the peso model,paid, earned, shared, and owned,
and kind of master that holisticapproach to someone's marketing.
(15:51):
I think that is really where youcan actually impact the
campaigns and the results andthe client's satisfaction, when
you kind of bring it alltogether.
Russel (16:00):
What'd you call it?
The PESO model.
Michelle (16:02):
The PESO model, paid, earned, shared, and owned.
Paid media, you're buying an ad,and the earned piece is the PR
and the publicity and, uh, theshared media, of course, in
today's day and age is socialmedia.
Then owned media, what are theassets?
Is it brochures, is it a manual?
Is it a white paper, a casestudy?
Is it a video website?
What are the assets that theclient has?
You can create one thing in asilo, but if you don't have that
(16:24):
holistic approach, you're notgonna, you're never, never gonna
reach the level of success thatyou, you can do by just doing
one tactic.
Russel (16:31):
That seems more true than ever today.
I think historically you couldhave more one channel success,
but now that there's just somuch noise in the world,
everything seems to have to beso cohesive.
You have to be in multipleplaces.
Clients, right, there's, youknow, we don't have this kind of
linear buy path that I think wemaybe were once taught or, or
thought about, but it looks morelike a, you know, ball of yarn a
(16:53):
little bit in terms of howcustomers interact with brands
and make decisions.
But I mean, it sounds, it soundslike what, what you've kind of
adopted or adapted to in, inyour business.
Michelle (17:02):
Back in the day you could hire people with skills.
They may have went and learneddesign, or they may have learned
production, or they may havelearned copywriting.
Now you can hire people whomight have those skill sets, but
the technology and the worldaround us is changing that we
literally have to carve out, Idon't know, three to five hours
per person for new learningsevery week because they have to
(17:23):
do research.
The way digital ads are donetoday, it's constantly evolving
the algorithms.
You look at the, the launch ofAI this past year, what that's
doing to the industry.
We like to consider ourselvesearlier adopters of that, and we
wanna make sure that we'retraining and coaching our people
on how to properly use tools.
Russel (17:42):
Three to five hours a week.
Is that like a measured resultor is that like, I mean, because
I, I don't, I'm sure that'sabsolutely true.
It just, it, when I just hearthat it's like, man, that does
sound like a lot.
Michelle (17:51):
It's crazy.
I know my client services teammay not do exactly three to five
hours, but our digital folks areour, our developers.
Absolutely.
They're either taking a webinarand then they're doing some
things for research.
Maybe we're putting'em through alittle course.
We've hired a consultant to helpus kind of navigate the, the the
AI world in terms of how we canmake it more efficient.
(18:14):
I've taken some courses myself,you know, I don't wanna sit back
and ignore that it's there.
We wanna adopt it, you know,launch a policy wrapped around
it and how we approach it, haveour own point of view, make sure
we share it with clients andthey understand, teach our
clients about it.
Wanna be able to be that subjectmatter expert.
In order to be that way, we'vegotta educate ourselves.
Russel (18:33):
I'm just curious how you, how do you manifest that or
how do you really facilitatethat culturally?
What does that look like in yourbusiness?
Michelle (18:40):
It was hard at first.
They hate when I say this, butI, we, we have a stable of
really amazing talent.
Stable is probably not the mostappropriate word, but I've
always said stable of talent.
They're unbelievable creativesthat work in our organization.
I think at first it was really achallenge.
There's that fear.
I think it's the fear of theunknown, first of all.
Then it is more of, is thisgonna replace my job?
(19:03):
It's like, no, we're alreadydoing excellent work.
We're only gonna make it better.
We're gonna automate theordinary and we're gonna
humanize the extraordinary.
We're gonna use it for ideationor to save time.
I set out a goal for the agencyfor this year that we wanna have
better efficiencies.
I want people being able to savetwo hours a day because they're
using AI for their meetingrecaps, or you know, maybe
(19:25):
helping them assemble theirproposal a little bit better or,
or heck, having a difficultconversation with a colleague or
a client.
Pop it in there, see how youmight wanna improve how you talk
to people.
Use it as a tool.
Russel (19:37):
I think the word is out now at this point.
If you're afraid of AI andyou're not using it, you're
gonna be in trouble.
You're gonna be behind.
Michelle (19:43):
Exactly.
You gotta embrace it for sure.
Russel (19:45):
There's so many great concepts that you've, you've
shared already today.
What was that other phrase youwere saying?
Automate the ordinary and isthat right?
Michelle (19:52):
Automate the ordinary and humanize the extraordinary.
That's part of our motto and howwhere we have it published and
our point of view about usingAI.
Russel (20:00):
I love that.
Do you get to trademark that?
Is that a, a coined term?
Michelle (20:03):
We're doing that right here.
Your listeners are gonna hearthat and say, we can't copy
that.
Russel (20:07):
Yes.
Okay.
Copyrighted for all purposesintended, or whatever that
statement is.
Um, I, I mean, Obviously, Imean, I have to imagine just
even before AI, it sounds likeyou have a culture of learning,
um, or that's been important toyou as you've approached your
business.
You've got a pretty decent teamsize now that you know, just,
it, it, those things don't justhappen vicariously.
(20:27):
You have to have intentionalsupport, budget resourcing to do
that.
What have you specifically setup in your business to create
such a good culture?
Michelle (20:34):
That's a really good question.
We've always done assessments,the behavioral personality
assessments, um, that has been apivotal part of our culture.
Then we started working with anorganization that happens to be
here in Massachusetts, uh,G-Embedded and Associates, and
they, they have a specialprogram, the performance
dynamics program.
And it doesn't just tell you howyou're wired or how a person's
(20:56):
wired.
It goes into why they're wiredthe way that they are.
It's just helped us be able, andwe share all of our results with
each other, and we make surethat everybody knows, you know
how, like Michelle's got highenergy and she is facts and
data, so when you're gonna go toher, don't pitch her.
Give her the data, give her thefacts.
Be really short, she's gonnamake a quick decision.
(21:17):
But if you pontificate or if youtalk in circles around her,
she's gonna get frustrated realquickly.
So we have this culture ofcuriosity with how we're all
hardwired.
You've been in the business, youknow what it's like.
You take a bunch of creativesand you put them in the room
with the sales folks or theclient service people.
You've got two totally differenttypes of people.
it allows us to really have opendialogue with each other and
(21:40):
provide feedback with eachother.
I would say that would be one ofthe tools in our toolbox.
Having our core values, but thenarticulating them in really
common sense ways has alsoreally helped us.
We say here, feedback is a giftboth given and received, so
you've gotta be able to sharefeedback with a colleague.
You've got to be able to behonest with them and you also
(22:01):
need to be receptive to hearingfeedback in return.
Feedback is a big part of ourculture.
Instead of having that corporatebureaucracy where people are
passive aggressive and stabbingeach other in the back and you
know, it's not my job, it's hisjob, or it's her job.
We just don't tolerate that.
we all take oar, or put our oarin the water and we row.
You know when someone's gottheir oar out of the water
(22:23):
because things just don't feelright.
Russel (22:25):
We had a very similar approach.
You know, I'm always about whatare simple solutions that solve
a lot of problems and came tothe same conclusion of if we can
just get really, really good atfeedback with each other, we can
solve a lot of problems we canmake work, move faster, et
cetera.
Get to the heart of thingsquicker.
So yeah, We actually um,mandatory training and we'd have
lots of sessions conversationsthroughout the year.
(22:46):
Radical Candor, have you readthat by chance?
Michelle (22:48):
It's a great book.
Russel (22:49):
Everybody got it, they got hired, uh, day one at our
company.
We do talking sessions on it.
There's her trademark.
Care personally, challengedirectly.
Michelle (22:57):
It's a great book and those are also part of those
three to five hours, or youknow, two to three hours
depending on the person that arewoven in there.
We put together a small bookclub recently, and, and I had a
couple of people here, maybe oneperson from each department
reading the book's book AtomicHabits, because I was in one of
our staff meetings talking aboutwhen you think you're done with
(23:18):
your work for the day, butyou're getting ready to leave
for work, make sure you makeyour bed, put the dishes away
before you go to bed at night.
Make sure the dishes are putaway.
Do one more thing to makeyourself better the next day.
It might be taking your clothesout of the closet or doing that
extra load of laundry, whateverthat looks like.
It's the same thing in your worklife.
You feel so much better and moreaccomplished.
When I was talking about that,one of our people mentioned that
(23:40):
she was reading the book AtomicHabits and how I was speaking
the same way and I'm like, well,maybe we should get a group of
us to, to read the book andwe're gonna do a work session on
it.
Typical things that we all canbenefit from, both in our
personal lives and ourprofessional lives.
Russel (23:55):
That sounds like a concept, again, I, I think,
sounds like similar esque on, onour end, that we, we care, cared
much, very much cared about thetotal person, uh, aspect that
it, you know, yes, we wanted tolearn and get engrossed in, in
our work, but that it's, it'salso about we want people to
live full lives and, and be goodinside and outside of work.
I love that approach.
(24:15):
I'm such a reader.
You can see the books behind mehere, and I, I never did the
book club thing and I'm so madat myself that, that I never
instituted that in the businessbecause I think it's, it's a
great way to have fun and learnand grow and just have really
good conversations.
Michelle (24:30):
I'll let you know how this, this is our beta run, so
I'll let you know how themeeting goes.
Russel (24:33):
Oh, this is your beta run.
Okay.
Michelle (24:35):
Mm-hmm.
This one is, so I'll let youknow how it goes next week, but
always looking to reinvent, comeup with ideas, uh, you know,
make it part and parcel of, ofwhat we do, the culture.
Russel (24:45):
Another thing that sounds kind of indicative of
just how you approach sayingyou've already name dropped new
things that you're encounteringor doing, is a business of
bringing in a consultant orbringing in an expert to help
guide you through that.
Is that a core philosophy andbelief of which has guided you
through the business as well?
Michelle (24:59):
I think it's something I've learned over time.
That whole mentality of when youstart, you have that, you feel a
little bit more insecure, butyou wanna come across that you
know what you're doing, so youdon't wanna ask for help.
I think you learn over time whenyou work on yourself and when
you're working on your businesssimultaneously, you start to
realize that you don't know itall.
It's okay to be vulnerable,admit where you're weak at, you
(25:20):
know?
Sure, I took a couple courses inAI and sure, I feel really
confident in my ability to useit, but now how do I take that
and teach my team, and do Iwanna be spending all day doing
that?
The answer is no.
I wanna be around our clients.
I wanna be ideating, I wannatalk to new customers.
I wanna do the things that Ienjoy doing, and I love training
(25:42):
our people, but by no means am Igonna be a good trainer at
something that's so damn newthat I don't know all the
nuances of it yet.
So bring in an expert that canhelp you do it.
Makes all the sense.
Russel (25:52):
It does so much and I, and I think of in business, I'm
sitting here like reflecting onmyself as you're sharing this in
business.
I, you know, always was apt tobring in a consultant coach or
something.
Pretty much mainstay.
Now I'm sitting here thinking mypersonal life, how much time I'm
wasting by, why don't I have apersonal trainer?
I work out, I spend so much timeworkout.
I'm sure I could get to theresults 10 times quicker if I
just spend the money and hire apersonal trainer or take
(26:14):
anything that I don't know howto do well, and why?
Why am I beating my head againstthe wall trying to figure out
something?
That's just not my forte.
Michelle (26:23):
Did you ever have regrets when you were like knee
deep in your business and wishyou did things different from
the beginning?
Russel (26:29):
How many days do you have?
Do you want to talk about, uh,something along those lines?
Absolutely.
Michelle (26:35):
Yeah, it's like, you know, do you go for the, the
slow nickel or do you go for thequick buck?
I've never been a quick buckperson, but then I look around
me at, you know, the impostersyndrome of, oh my God, they
grew so fast.
But it's like, do they have agood reputation?
Do they do things the right way?
Sometimes I look and go, I, Iwish I had just stepped on the
gas pedal a little bit faster inthe beginning, um, and maybe
(26:57):
expedited some things a littlequicker.
But we're here for a reason.
We're where we're at for areason.
And uh, I still feel like everyday I am starting over.
I come in with the same attitudeand the excitement that I had
when I first started thebusiness.
Russel (27:09):
That's amazing.
I'm a big believer in, I, I hatethe quick buck concept.
I think it's wrought with a lotof things and not to say there's
not some cool things for somecreated by some fast movers in
the world, but there's been alot of messes as well.
I think I'd go back and we werethe other way, we were just
selling and, you know, grow asfast as we possibly can and,
and, you know, out the gate.
The reality was, is we kind ofcrashed and burned, in the early
(27:31):
days and out of the ashes.
I think we did it right and we,we did it in all the ways that
I'm very proud of.
But, um, you know I'm a triedand true, slow and steady guy
all the way.
Michelle (27:41):
Slow and steady wins the race, as they say.
Russel (27:43):
It does and, and it makes sure that, and I think
about, you know, some of thoseearly days when, when we were
moving really fast, there'speople that, you know, paid the
price for that.
I'd say some clients, you know,in, in the scheme of that didn't
get the best that they couldhave gotten for their dollar,
that they, you know, some teammembers that, that didn't work
out well that I think, come onlater, would've been great team
members.
(28:03):
Part of being a little young anddumb I guess, but I can only
hope that on the backside of itthat we, we made a lot of
clients a lot better and madeteam members have really good
lives because we've reallyscrewed it up enough in the
beginning.
Great question though.
Something that I think likejust, I love just kinda the
attitude and energy you bring tothe business, but I'm so curious
by this, you have a pretty coolplane ride story.
Michelle (28:24):
That was in the very beginning, trying to figure out
can we have a niche?
Should we get into being a nichebusiness?
Do we work on healthcare?
Do we work on automotive?
Do we work on banking andfinance?
And the answer was still to beseen.
I traveled down to Florida for aworkshop.
For a seminar that was in thecountry club world in terms of
country club marketing wasbecoming a big thing.
(28:47):
They were getting ready for babyboomers, golf clubs were
building, gated communities werebuilding, and I thought that
there might've been a reallygood opportunity.
I went to this conference inFlorida, got on the airplane,
and this guy sits next to me.
It's on a Saturday.
I'm like dressed to drive tothis conference.
I'm dressed to in a businesscasual kind of business,
professional outfit.
He is like sitting next to meand he is talking to me and I'm
(29:08):
like, I'm just not in the moodto talk.
He's asking me all kinds ofquestions and we just started
talking.
We ended up talking the wholeway down.
I'm used to being the one thatasks all the questions to
people, and not once was I ableto even ask one of those
questions.
Finally I said, enough about me,enough about what I do, enough
about marketing and myphilosophy is on advertising,
but tell me what do you do?
(29:28):
He said he was in the automotivebusiness.
Fast forward to Tuesday he wason his way down to his home and
was supposed to have a meetingand then fly back on Monday.
I was coming home on Tuesday.
Would you know, he changed hisflight, was on my flight home.
Yelled my name on the plane.
Sat next to me and said, you'regonna call my director of
operations tomorrow, you'rehired.
Russel (29:47):
That is unbelievable.
Michelle (29:49):
Unbelievable.
Crazy story, right?
And that was right when we weremaking that first move to, um,
to a small office.
My husband's a contractor then,so incredibly supportive of me,
been a great dad while I wastrying to build this business
with two young kids at home.
And he built out the officespace and I said to him I need
to hire some more people andthere's not gonna be enough room
(30:10):
in that office.
Literally, the day I wassupposed to move in, I took a
vacant space.
It was in the same building thatwas like three times the size.
That really gave us the kickthat we needed all because of a
flight on down to Florida.
Russel (30:22):
All because of a plane flight.
Michelle (30:24):
Mm-hmm.
Russel (30:24):
Wow.
Now, this makes me think, andI'm generally a pretty friendly,
talkative person, but I kind ofdon't like talking on, on a
plane.
But this makes me think I'm, I'mdoing myself a disservice
apparently.
Michelle (30:34):
For sure.
It was a great experience.
Russel (30:36):
Something I'm, I'm just curious about, it sounds like
you, your twins were rightaround the birth of the
business.
What's their perspective thisfar down the line on?
Are they budding entrepreneursor just how do they reflect on,
on your whole businessexperience?
Michelle (30:49):
It's interesting that you say that.
My husband's also anentrepreneur and has a business,
and I think that they've seen usworking our asses off.
Can I say that on this?
Russel (30:58):
You can say that.
Yes.
All good.
Michelle (31:01):
They've seen us working our butts off and, um,
being really dedicated to themas children, whatever it took.
We would make sure we were atall their games and sometimes
wouldn't eat dinner till nineo'clock at night and then put'em
to bed because we were doing somany things.
But I think that, when you talkto them, they'll say that they
respected what we've done.
I have regrets sometimes feelingthat I was away from the house a
(31:21):
little too much, but they don'treally see it that way And to
this day, the guilt comes outand they said mom, what if you
picked us up from school?
We would've wanted to hang outwith our friends anyway, so you
would've been someone who pickedus up.
What difference did it make ifyou hired someone to pick us up?
We had dinner together and thenevery weekend we made sure that
it was family time.
So while my friends who didn'thave businesses and may have
(31:44):
been stay at home moms or had anine to five job they were
looking to get rid of their kidson the weekend.
We were just the opposite.
It was like, it's family time.
We're gonna go skiing, we'regonna go boating, we're gonna do
things together as a family.
We made it work.
My lawyer at the time said tome, you're gonna, as you launch
your business, you've gotta makea decision.
It's either gonna be quantity oftime or quality of time.
(32:05):
You can only pick one, and Ichose for quality.
Russel (32:07):
Just great insight.
That's what I was just kind ofthinking in my head, right?
You might have missed somemoments, but when you were there
you were there for what mattersmost and you were there a
hundred percent.
I do tend to think that, that isimportant and, and I'm, I'm, if
you go back to kind of regretsin business, I think I was a
little too quick to not be therefor certain things when they
were young, but I will sayagain, coming outta the ashes
(32:28):
that allowed me to be therealways, there for coaching and,
and where, when, and wherever Ineeded to be.
I was there later and, and thatquality thing really does ring
so true.
Michelle (32:37):
I think what it has done for my kids at least, is it
has instilled so muchindependence and a really solid
work ethic in both of them.
It's amazing to see because nowthey're gonna be 24 next week,
so you see it happening and it'sdamn, okay, we did all right.
They're good kids.
Russel (32:55):
No need to Monday morning quarterback.
Time has proven you've done agood job there.
Very cool introspection there.
Thank you for sharing that.
As we kind of start to wrap uphere, I'm just curious, what,
what are the next 24 years of,of Market Mentors looks like?
What's the big plan for thefuture?
Michelle (33:09):
We've got what we call the BHAG.
We've got a 10 year plan withthat BHAG goal.
We're getting the right peoplein the seats and making sure
that we are filling the seatswith people that believe and
embody our culture and the careto grow our client base and
those that wanna be on the ridewith us are gonna have a fun, a
fun time and learn a lot alongthe way.
Russel (33:31):
Can't wait to see how that works out for you.
I'll just leave you with onelast other big question here,
Michelle, are entrepreneurs bornor are they made?
Michelle (33:39):
They are born.
How about can I say that?
They're born to be made.
Not everybody comes out of thewomb with that attitude.
You don't have to be a driver,you have to have a vision.
Having a vision and being adriver at the same time is
really what helps you grow.
But artists are not alwaysdrivers.
They're just artistic and theyhave a dream, you know?
I think it's depends on the typeof organization and business
(34:01):
that you're in.
We'll go with born to be made.
Russel (34:03):
I love that.
This is gonna sound like I'm aguy that has a lot of tattoos,
but I only actually have one.
But I'm always inspired bytattoo ideas and that sounds
like a really good tattoo ideaof born to be made.
Someday when I just give up,I'll just have all kinds of
tattoos of all the cool thingspeople say like that, that you
shared today.
Michelle (34:20):
There you go.
You can combine that with your,your brother's philosophy of
musicians, and you can haveBruce Springsteen and be born to
be wild.
Russel (34:27):
Yes.
This is great.
You almost gave me three todaywe got the peso model that's
probably not tattoo-able, butthe, uh, automate the ordinary,
humanize the extraordinary andborn to be made.
Love it.
Michelle (34:37):
And don't forget feedback.
Feedback, honest feedback is agift both given and received.
Russel (34:43):
Oh yeah.
Ah, that's a good one too, man.
All right.
very cool.
If people wanna know more aboutMarket Mentors, where can they
go?
Michelle (34:50):
Marketmentors.com.
Really easy.
Russel (34:52):
Alright, there you have it folks.
Wonderful.
Michelle, thank you so much forsharing so many nuggets of
wisdom, your reflection onnavigating parenthood and
business and the power oflearning and staying on your
feet and agile and taking a verypositive mindset to the
business.
So inspirational.
Really appreciate you taking thetime to share that with us
(35:12):
today.
Michelle (35:13):
Thanks so much for having me.
You made it easy and uh, justfun to talk to, so I really
appreciate the time.
We hope you've enjoyed thisepisode of An Agency Story
podcast where we share realstories of marketing agency
owners from around the world.
Are you interested in being aguest on the show?
(35:33):
Send an email topodcast@performancefaction.com.
An Agency Story is brought toyou by Performance Faction.
Performance Faction offersservices to help agency owners
grow their business to 5 milliondollars and more in revenue.
To learn more, visitperformancefaction.com.
(35:57):
I was traveling a couple of, uh, years ago for
work, going to a, um, one of myforum meetings with some
colleagues across the countrythat also are in the agency
business through the forays.
It just so happened the owner'sconference was happening in, um,
in Phoenix for the NFL.
Being from Massachusetts, we'rebig Patriots fans and I just
(36:18):
have this admiration for BillBelichick just in as much as
people who like him or don'tlike him.
I've always loved Bill Belichickand I said to the person I was
traveling with, we better begoing out to dinner tonight
where all the teams are gonnabe, just making sure that
happens somehow.
I get up to use, go to therestroom or do something.
I'm walking up the stairs andI'm looking down and I banged
(36:40):
right into Bill Belichick.
Russel (36:41):
That's awesome.
Michelle (36:42):
One of my, my highlights of my trip.
I don't think I thought aboutanything else after that trip,
but that one moment and I justdidn't know what to say.
I was completely at a loss ofwords.
Russel (36:53):
Any words exchanged at all?
Or just, uh, just a bump.
Michelle (36:55):
Yeah.
Really corny stuff though.
I'm too embarrassed to, uh, toadmit what I said to him, but
yeah.
Russel (37:01):
Just given his personality, I mean, obviously
never met the guy.
I could just see his reactionwould be interesting no matter
what you said.
Michelle (37:07):
I got a little bit of a side smile like, you idiot,
like you're funny.
Welcome to An Agency Storypodcast where we share real
stories of marketing agencyowners from around the world.
From the excitement of startingup the first big sale, passion,
doubt, fear, freedom, and theemotional rollercoaster of
growth, hear it all on An AgencyStory podcast.
(00:24):
An Agency Story podcast ishosted by Russel Dubree,
successful agency owner with aneight figure exit turned
business coach.
Enjoy the next agency story.
Russel (00:41):
What happens when you meet a stranger on a plane and
it changes your businessforever?
Welcome to an Agency Storypodcast, I'm your host Russel.
In this episode of an agencystory, you'll meet Michelle
Abdow with Market Mentors, afull service marketing agency
based in Springfield,Massachusetts, and West Palm
Beach, Florida.
From launching her agency withnewborn and twins in tow to
(01:02):
landing a game changing clientmid-flight, michelle's story is
an inspiring story of risk,grit, and intentional growth.
We talk about what it reallytakes to build a sustainable
agency over the course of twodecades, from evolving out of
traditional media to integratedmarketing, to shaping a team
culture where feedback is agift, and AI is embraced as a
tool for freeing up humancreativity.
(01:25):
Michelle brings wisdom, warmth,and over two decades of hard won
insight to this conversation,Enjoy the story.
Welcome to the show todayeveryone.
I have Michelle Abdow withMarket Mentors with us here
today.
Thank you so much for joining ustoday, Michelle.
Michelle (01:40):
Thank you so much for having me today, Russ.
Russel (01:42):
I'm excited to have a wonderful conversation, but
right before we get into themeat of everything, tell us what
Market Mentor does and who doyou do it for?
Michelle (01:50):
We consider ourselves to be a full service, fully
integrated marketing agency.
We have specialties withmanufacturing, healthcare, and
then financial services, sobanking, uh, credit unions, and
other types of financial, uh,planning and such.
We have some retail clients aswell.
Russel (02:06):
Lovely.
Well put.
Sounds like you've been doingthis a while and gotten that
down to a nice, succinctstatement.
Michelle (02:13):
Just a little bit.
23 years, a little bit.
Russel (02:15):
And where are you coming from today, by the way?
Where are you located at?
Michelle (02:17):
We have offices, our corporate is in Springfield,
Massachusetts, and then we havea second location in West Palm
Beach, Florida.
And I am in Massachusetts today.
Russel (02:26):
That sounds like a very convenient second location.
Is that strategic?
Michelle (02:30):
They're calling Palm Beach or West Palm Beach, the,
um, they're calling it WallStreet South.
So it's a, it's a good place tobe.
Russel (02:37):
I can imagine.
Just to bring up something wewere briefly chatting about
before, you've had aninteresting week.
You said you were talking to theWhite House.
Is that what I hear?
Tell us what's good.
Give us the scoop there.
Michelle (02:47):
Yeah.
We have, uh, severalmanufacturing clients, one who
is proudly made in America, uh,made in USA certified.
The tariff movement is in someregard working in their favor,
um, at least domestically.
We decided to kind of change themedia's narrative and, and, um,
kind of, uh, challenged theirthinking a little bit.
We started pitching national andinternational media outlets
(03:11):
about our client and their madein the USA story.
The Washington Post, uh, endedup doing a really nice full page
ad that launched this weekend,and I walked into work Monday
morning yesterday, this pastMonday, and sure enough, uh, our
client had reached out, hadgotten reached out by the White
House.
We ended up having someconversations with, uh, some of
(03:31):
their public relations peoplethis week.
It was a interesting week to saythe least.
Russel (03:35):
That doesn't happen every day, I'm guessing.
Michelle (03:36):
No, pretty fun.
Pretty fun.
Russel (03:38):
Very cool.
Imagine we'll find out a lotmore about some interesting and
fascinating agency stories youhave, but as, as we do with most
guests, I'd love to go back intime and I want to hear about
young Michelle.
Who did she want to be when shegrew up?
What was she thinking?
Tell us the details there.
Michelle (03:53):
I like to still think of myself as young Michelle.
Might be a little bit older, butI'm still a kid at heart.
Russel (03:58):
Younger Michelle, how about that?
Michelle (03:59):
I always wanted to be an entrepreneur.
I loved that word as a youngkid.
I knew that it meant to haveyour own business, to be your
own boss.
Having a father who had his ownbusiness and then growing up
and, you know, then starteddating my husband who comes from
a family business.
I don't know.
The whole notion of having andrunning my own business was
definitely something that Iaspire to do.
(04:20):
Here we are 23 years later.
Russel (04:22):
I imagine you had to have been more than just the
Kool-Aid stand.
There had to be like some youngbusiness endeavor the way you're
making this sound.
Michelle (04:28):
I don't really know if there was a young business
endeavor in as much as I, I liketo call the shots.
It started in the media I workedfor in media sales, and that was
back when radio and TV weretraditional radio and TV.
Saw a lot of things change overthe years, but I loved helping
our clients, uh, get results.
When you're working in radio andtv, you're very limited in what
(04:49):
you can offer.
You are offering one product,one service.
They started asking questionslike, can you help me with a
press release?
Can you help me with TVproduction?
Can you help me with an ad andcreative concepts and, you know,
strategic planning?
You start getting into the foldand realize, you know, gosh, I,
there's so much more out there Ireally can help them with.
Russel (05:08):
How long were you into your career before you, it
sounds like you have planted theseeds that you're gonna go do
your own thing.
Michelle (05:14):
I would say I was about, let's see, 30, 30 when I
started Market Mentors.
A little older than most, Iguess.
Maybe younger than most.
Russel (05:22):
I definitely have seen it take all kinds.
I was pretty young myself.
I think I was 25.
I didn't know what the heck wasgoing on, to be honest.
But, uh, you know, just, justlike you, I wanted to do
something entrepreneurial.
I don't know if there's a rightage, good age or whatever, but
it sounds like you did it at theperfect time.
Michelle (05:37):
When you look at the, the composition of most
agencies, most of them have comefrom an agency background.
They work for an agency, whetherit was a larger shop or, um,
they cut their teeth with asmaller shop and decided they
wanna do it on their own.
I guess I was kind of a, not thesmartest tool in the shed.
I started an agency never havingworked at one.
I worked with them, I sold tothem, but I had never worked at
(05:58):
an agency.
It was kind of a self-taught,um, jumping in with both feet.
Russel (06:04):
Pop quiz though, for you.
Interesting question to see ifyou know the answer to this, or
have an idea or guess Idefinitely come across folks of
all different types ofbackgrounds and experience and
education and stuff.
But if you were to think of aprofession that really isn't in
the marketing space that, that Ihear the most as a origin of
profession that starts anagency, what do you think that
would be?
Michelle (06:23):
Oh, good question.
I'd like to ask you thatquestion and have you answer the
question first.
Russel (06:27):
I'm always just curious to people's guess, people's
guesses about that because it,it is, it, it's been surprising
to me, but I've just seen enoughof it.
I'd probably say number one ismusic.
Someone from a music backgroundhad a band or something along
those lines.
Does that seem crazy to you oris that like, oh, that makes
sense?
Michelle (06:42):
No, that seems really fun.
Live vicariously throughsomebody.
Russel (06:46):
Then number two.
I actually asked my brother onetime, you know, why, why he's a
big musician.
I don't have a musician's bonein my body.
Are you a musician?
Do you, do you play anyinstruments?
Michelle (06:53):
Not at all.
Russel (06:54):
Singer?
Michelle (06:55):
No.
In the shower, and only when I'mhome alone.
Russel (06:58):
Hey, that's the best time I hear.
but, uh, yeah, and So I askedhim, why is this?
He thinks, one I hear a lot orthis is what other people, he
didn't say this one about that,you know, if you have a band,
you've gotta do your ownmarketing and you're you've
gotta be your own promotionpiece or whatever.
You learn how to build websitesand that, and you learn how to
do ads and just all thingsbranding and promotion.
But then he had an interestingtake of more of like, well also
(07:20):
in a band you just have to learnto go with the flow.
Kind of a natural chaos that Ithink is pretty indicative in
the agency space.
That was his take anyway.
Michelle (07:27):
Interesting.
It's a good one.
Russel (07:28):
The number two is, is someone, someone in the faith
community, which I think a lotof the same PR principles that
they had to do a lot ofmarketing and promotion and
stuff within, you know, smallchurch organizations and things
like that.
There you go.
Michelle (07:39):
There we go.
Perfect.
Russel (07:40):
You learned something today about agency.
Untypical agency origin.
I want to get, get back to yourstory.
Did you just wake up one day andsay, I'm going out on my own,
you know, um, take this job andshove it?
Or did you, uh, have a, a littlebit more and what's, I don't
know, planned path?
How did you actually start yourbusiness?
Michelle (07:58):
It was right in the middle.
I wasn't completely happy withwhere the industry, the media
industry was going.
I worked for regional groups, inregional media groups and they
were all selling to Wall Street,and so things were starting to
change.
The internet was born, we'restarting to see a lot more
things, news stories goingonline.
AOL was, was booming.
(08:18):
Google hadn't even been bornyet.
I wouldn't say it was take thisjob and shove it.
It was, I think I can providebigger impact for my clients and
do more, and feel more rewardedby being able to move the needle
for their companies.
I didn't have a whole heck of alot of time to get it up and
running.
I had just delivered twins.
I was working in the media and,um, decided, I said to my
(08:42):
husband, like, you know, ifthere isn't a time to do it,
it's now.
Let's do it.
Hung the shingle on my door,started it at home.
I had hired a nanny.
I had little babies at home.
It was a interesting time of mylife for sure.
Challenge and fun all at once.
Russel (08:55):
I can't even imagine.
One kid, right, first experiencein life is hard enough.
Twins, and starting a business,I mean, sounds near impossible
to me.
Like how, how in the world?
Michelle (09:06):
I know, it's funny.
I don't think anything of it,and I would never think that it
was anything crazy, but I lookat other people who have done
things 10 times as moredifficult, so with, with ease.
And it's like you aspire to belike those folks.
Russel (09:20):
I don't know.
I think you're short sellingyourself on that.
So, what did you do?
It sounds like maybe you broughtclients with you or some
relationships that you knew, ordid you just have to go start
from scratch as far as beingyour own business in the early
days?
Michelle (09:33):
A little bit of both.
I think if I had thought throughwhen I was going to start and
had an actual plan, I probablywould've been a lot more
strategic in making sure I had asolid portfolio of business to
bring with me.
But I had a small handful ofvery small clients where I had
to do everything.
I was a chief cook and bottlewasher.
I had corporate socialresponsibility clients.
(09:54):
I had sales consulting clients,and I had some that just needed
production work.
They needed an ad, they neededsome creative, they needed, um,
their media placed.
Of course, media being mybackground, I found a little
niche that I carved out, whichwas placing TV in, in radio, and
all traditional means back then.
It was before Facebook.
It was before MySpace.
(10:15):
I'm really dating myself in, interms of, uh, how much has
changed in the industry since Istarted.
Russel (10:21):
A true pioneer.
Obviously so many differenttechnologies, eras that you've,
you've navigated at this point.
Did you always think you weregonna grow something more than
just you or was it just aboutpersonal fulfillment and you
hadn't really thought that far?
Michelle (10:35):
I wanted to grow the business and I wanted it to be
more than me.
I think my goal was to survivethe first three years.
You've read books, you see it inthe news, you read the Wall
Street Journal and the successrates of businesses, you know,
first year's excitement, you'vegot nowhere to go but up'cause
you're building.
Year two, you, you start to getsome, some footing.
Year three is like the make orbreak year.
(10:56):
Fortunately for me it was, wewere getting busier and I,
realizing that I couldn't do, Icouldn't be the chief, chief
cook and bottle washer.
I had to bring on some peopleto, to give me a hand.
I knew we were onto something atthat point.
It was that, that light switchkind of, that, that went off and
you realize, okay, we got, we'rebuilding something good here.
Russel (11:14):
Nice.
And I know that's always it's abig transition to go, right?
Imagine you're, you were anambitious person and, and very
adept at your career, but thesecond you hire someone, you're
now a manager and leader and,and essentially caretaker of
others.
Was that very easy for you tokind of step into that role in
that path?
Or is there, what was that likefor you?
Michelle (11:32):
I had managed others in the past, um, so that part of
it was fine.
It's just when it's your name onthe door and your reputation, it
takes on a whole new meaning.
I think there's that momentwhere you wanna, you wanna be
their friend, right?
They're working for you.
They're working for your cause,your, your own beliefs, and to
help grow your company, but atthe same time, you have to hold
(11:53):
them accountable.
I think along the way you learnthose rough lessons where you
have to put your foot down andshare the feedback and make sure
that everyone's aligned andmoving in the right direction.
Russel (12:03):
Definitely a trial by fire, school of hard knocks type
education.
Michelle (12:07):
Just a little bit.
Russel (12:08):
When was the first time you feel like in your journey
where you're like, and maybe,maybe you still haven't gotten
there yet, where you're like,you know what?
I made it.
Any fears or concerns I had inearly on, I don't have those
anymore.
Michelle (12:19):
The term imposter syndrome didn't exist back then,
but I think I had impostersyndrome.
I wanted so badly to grow thebusiness.
I wanted so badly to berespected.
I wanted to do right bycustomers.
Having worked in the media, youknow, I was worried, you know,
are the media folks gonna sayill things of, of me because
they might be threatened?
(12:40):
You have all these fears thatyou instill upon yourself, and
it's the insecurities ofstarting a business.
I think over time, you know, youstart building and you start
getting referrals, you getresults for some more folks, you
get more referrals and, andthat's really where the rubber
meets the road.
we were working in my home and Ihad two folks working in this
tiny little office, and nextthing you know, we're, we need,
(13:01):
we need space.
When I moved out of my homeoffice was when I had this holy
cow, this is really happening.
Been at it for three years, butall, all of a sudden I felt a
sense of accomplishment.
Russel (13:12):
That's awesome.
That is something I, I hearquite a bit.
Folks say, it's like when I getmy first office, it's like
really official.
'cause I think, I think a lot ofit's such a.
Agency is really kind of an easybusiness to start in some
respects, is you can do it outtayour home.
All you need is a computer andan idea and some experience, a
little bit of experience and,and you can kind of run with
that a little bit, but there issomething about that office.
Michelle (13:32):
And back then, a car.
You had to have a car back thenbecause you produce radio and TV
dubs and you had to literally goand pick them up and deliver
them to the stations.
That's how things have changed.
Russel (13:42):
That is true.
I mean, I do remember, um, Iimagine what we probably started
a little, little bit later thanyou, it sounds like, so we were
'06, but we did most all of ourearly stage leads, business
development.
We had to drive, run aroundtown, versus, later on in the
agency to be clients we nevereven met in person.
It's different.
Very different.
Michelle (13:59):
It's humbling.
Very humbling.
Russel (14:01):
Because I'm guessing too, like right, I'm trying to
think what did, what did theyhave before?
What did they have back in theday before Zoom was like, was it
GoToMeeting or what?
What did you do?
What were the early day videocalls?
Michelle (14:10):
It was, uh, GoToMeeting, Skype.
Skype.
Russel (14:12):
Oh, Skype.
Yes.
I forgot about Skype.
Michelle (14:14):
And then what was, uh, WebEx?
WebEx was a big one too.
Russel (14:17):
Oh, WebEx.
That's the one.
Yes, I remember.
I remember WebEx.
It's really crazy when I thinkabout that, how long that took
to really take on.
Michelle (14:24):
We couldn't on a cell phone back then, I think I had a
Blackberry.
I didn't even, couldn't evenvideo conference on my phone.
It was a Blackberry.
Russel (14:30):
Oh man.
Wow.
Technology.
What a difference.
I always am fascinated, likeeven go back way before our time
or whatever and, and the folksthat, like, there was not even a
computer.
What was design and advertisingbefore there was even a
computer?
That'd be wild to me.
Michelle (14:44):
My husband's family had a restaurant business and
they, you know, started in thefifties.
I have a freight at home withall the old mockups from the
ads.
It was literally, you know,pasted onto paper with templates
and wild stuff.
The way in which they did layoutback then, they didn't have
graphics.
Crazy for sure.
Russel (15:03):
And how do you turn that into a billboard?
Like you can't just digitallyprint all that.
I don't know, man.
Real craftspeople, I guess.
Very fascinating.
When you think of how youragency started from a service
perspective and to where it istoday, how would you describe, I
mean, you know, is it similar,very different?
I know we got all differentkinds of tools in how we do the
(15:24):
work, but just from a, whatyou're positioning and selling
yourself as, how has thatevolved?
Michelle (15:29):
It's transformational.
I think back when I started, itwas really media heavy.
Really media, heavy, TV andradio and cable, um, and then
producing the ads.
Then over time, you know, youreally develop that whole suite
of services.
You kind of take the peso model,paid, earned, shared, and owned,
and kind of master that holisticapproach to someone's marketing.
(15:51):
I think that is really where youcan actually impact the
campaigns and the results andthe client's satisfaction, when
you kind of bring it alltogether.
Russel (16:00):
What'd you call it?
The PESO model.
Michelle (16:02):
The PESO model, paid, earned, shared, and owned.
Paid media, you're buying an ad,and the earned piece is the PR
and the publicity and, uh, theshared media, of course, in
today's day and age is socialmedia.
Then owned media, what are theassets?
Is it brochures, is it a manual?
Is it a white paper, a casestudy?
Is it a video website?
What are the assets that theclient has?
You can create one thing in asilo, but if you don't have that
(16:24):
holistic approach, you're notgonna, you're never, never gonna
reach the level of success thatyou, you can do by just doing
one tactic.
Russel (16:31):
That seems more true than ever today.
I think historically you couldhave more one channel success,
but now that there's just somuch noise in the world,
everything seems to have to beso cohesive.
You have to be in multipleplaces.
Clients, right, there's, youknow, we don't have this kind of
linear buy path that I think wemaybe were once taught or, or
thought about, but it looks morelike a, you know, ball of yarn a
(16:53):
little bit in terms of howcustomers interact with brands
and make decisions.
But I mean, it sounds, it soundslike what, what you've kind of
adopted or adapted to in, inyour business.
Michelle (17:02):
Back in the day you could hire people with skills.
They may have went and learneddesign, or they may have learned
production, or they may havelearned copywriting.
Now you can hire people whomight have those skill sets, but
the technology and the worldaround us is changing that we
literally have to carve out, Idon't know, three to five hours
per person for new learningsevery week because they have to
(17:23):
do research.
The way digital ads are donetoday, it's constantly evolving
the algorithms.
You look at the, the launch ofAI this past year, what that's
doing to the industry.
We like to consider ourselvesearlier adopters of that, and we
wanna make sure that we'retraining and coaching our people
on how to properly use tools.
Russel (17:42):
Three to five hours a week.
Is that like a measured resultor is that like, I mean, because
I, I don't, I'm sure that'sabsolutely true.
It just, it, when I just hearthat it's like, man, that does
sound like a lot.
Michelle (17:51):
It's crazy.
I know my client services teammay not do exactly three to five
hours, but our digital folks areour, our developers.
Absolutely.
They're either taking a webinarand then they're doing some
things for research.
Maybe we're putting'em through alittle course.
We've hired a consultant to helpus kind of navigate the, the the
AI world in terms of how we canmake it more efficient.
(18:14):
I've taken some courses myself,you know, I don't wanna sit back
and ignore that it's there.
We wanna adopt it, you know,launch a policy wrapped around
it and how we approach it, haveour own point of view, make sure
we share it with clients andthey understand, teach our
clients about it.
Wanna be able to be that subjectmatter expert.
In order to be that way, we'vegotta educate ourselves.
Russel (18:33):
I'm just curious how you, how do you manifest that or
how do you really facilitatethat culturally?
What does that look like in yourbusiness?
Michelle (18:40):
It was hard at first.
They hate when I say this, butI, we, we have a stable of
really amazing talent.
Stable is probably not the mostappropriate word, but I've
always said stable of talent.
They're unbelievable creativesthat work in our organization.
I think at first it was really achallenge.
There's that fear.
I think it's the fear of theunknown, first of all.
Then it is more of, is thisgonna replace my job?
(19:03):
It's like, no, we're alreadydoing excellent work.
We're only gonna make it better.
We're gonna automate theordinary and we're gonna
humanize the extraordinary.
We're gonna use it for ideationor to save time.
I set out a goal for the agencyfor this year that we wanna have
better efficiencies.
I want people being able to savetwo hours a day because they're
using AI for their meetingrecaps, or you know, maybe
(19:25):
helping them assemble theirproposal a little bit better or,
or heck, having a difficultconversation with a colleague or
a client.
Pop it in there, see how youmight wanna improve how you talk
to people.
Use it as a tool.
Russel (19:37):
I think the word is out now at this point.
If you're afraid of AI andyou're not using it, you're
gonna be in trouble.
You're gonna be behind.
Michelle (19:43):
Exactly.
You gotta embrace it for sure.
Russel (19:45):
There's so many great concepts that you've, you've
shared already today.
What was that other phrase youwere saying?
Automate the ordinary and isthat right?
Michelle (19:52):
Automate the ordinary and humanize the extraordinary.
That's part of our motto and howwhere we have it published and
our point of view about usingAI.
Russel (20:00):
I love that.
Do you get to trademark that?
Is that a, a coined term?
Michelle (20:03):
We're doing that right here.
Your listeners are gonna hearthat and say, we can't copy
that.
Russel (20:07):
Yes.
Okay.
Copyrighted for all purposesintended, or whatever that
statement is.
Um, I, I mean, Obviously, Imean, I have to imagine just
even before AI, it sounds likeyou have a culture of learning,
um, or that's been important toyou as you've approached your
business.
You've got a pretty decent teamsize now that you know, just,
it, it, those things don't justhappen vicariously.
(20:27):
You have to have intentionalsupport, budget resourcing to do
that.
What have you specifically setup in your business to create
such a good culture?
Michelle (20:34):
That's a really good question.
We've always done assessments,the behavioral personality
assessments, um, that has been apivotal part of our culture.
Then we started working with anorganization that happens to be
here in Massachusetts, uh,G-Embedded and Associates, and
they, they have a specialprogram, the performance
dynamics program.
And it doesn't just tell you howyou're wired or how a person's
(20:56):
wired.
It goes into why they're wiredthe way that they are.
It's just helped us be able, andwe share all of our results with
each other, and we make surethat everybody knows, you know
how, like Michelle's got highenergy and she is facts and
data, so when you're gonna go toher, don't pitch her.
Give her the data, give her thefacts.
Be really short, she's gonnamake a quick decision.
(21:17):
But if you pontificate or if youtalk in circles around her,
she's gonna get frustrated realquickly.
So we have this culture ofcuriosity with how we're all
hardwired.
You've been in the business, youknow what it's like.
You take a bunch of creativesand you put them in the room
with the sales folks or theclient service people.
You've got two totally differenttypes of people.
it allows us to really have opendialogue with each other and
(21:40):
provide feedback with eachother.
I would say that would be one ofthe tools in our toolbox.
Having our core values, but thenarticulating them in really
common sense ways has alsoreally helped us.
We say here, feedback is a giftboth given and received, so
you've gotta be able to sharefeedback with a colleague.
You've got to be able to behonest with them and you also
(22:01):
need to be receptive to hearingfeedback in return.
Feedback is a big part of ourculture.
Instead of having that corporatebureaucracy where people are
passive aggressive and stabbingeach other in the back and you
know, it's not my job, it's hisjob, or it's her job.
We just don't tolerate that.
we all take oar, or put our oarin the water and we row.
You know when someone's gottheir oar out of the water
(22:23):
because things just don't feelright.
Russel (22:25):
We had a very similar approach.
You know, I'm always about whatare simple solutions that solve
a lot of problems and came tothe same conclusion of if we can
just get really, really good atfeedback with each other, we can
solve a lot of problems we canmake work, move faster, et
cetera.
Get to the heart of thingsquicker.
So yeah, We actually um,mandatory training and we'd have
lots of sessions conversationsthroughout the year.
(22:46):
Radical Candor, have you readthat by chance?
Michelle (22:48):
It's a great book.
Russel (22:49):
Everybody got it, they got hired, uh, day one at our
company.
We do talking sessions on it.
There's her trademark.
Care personally, challengedirectly.
Michelle (22:57):
It's a great book and those are also part of those
three to five hours, or youknow, two to three hours
depending on the person that arewoven in there.
We put together a small bookclub recently, and, and I had a
couple of people here, maybe oneperson from each department
reading the book's book AtomicHabits, because I was in one of
our staff meetings talking aboutwhen you think you're done with
(23:18):
your work for the day, butyou're getting ready to leave
for work, make sure you makeyour bed, put the dishes away
before you go to bed at night.
Make sure the dishes are putaway.
Do one more thing to makeyourself better the next day.
It might be taking your clothesout of the closet or doing that
extra load of laundry, whateverthat looks like.
It's the same thing in your worklife.
You feel so much better and moreaccomplished.
When I was talking about that,one of our people mentioned that
(23:40):
she was reading the book AtomicHabits and how I was speaking
the same way and I'm like, well,maybe we should get a group of
us to, to read the book andwe're gonna do a work session on
it.
Typical things that we all canbenefit from, both in our
personal lives and ourprofessional lives.
Russel (23:55):
That sounds like a concept, again, I, I think,
sounds like similar esque on, onour end, that we, we care, cared
much, very much cared about thetotal person, uh, aspect that
it, you know, yes, we wanted tolearn and get engrossed in, in
our work, but that it's, it'salso about we want people to
live full lives and, and be goodinside and outside of work.
I love that approach.
(24:15):
I'm such a reader.
You can see the books behind mehere, and I, I never did the
book club thing and I'm so madat myself that, that I never
instituted that in the businessbecause I think it's, it's a
great way to have fun and learnand grow and just have really
good conversations.
Michelle (24:30):
I'll let you know how this, this is our beta run, so
I'll let you know how themeeting goes.
Russel (24:33):
Oh, this is your beta run.
Okay.
Michelle (24:35):
Mm-hmm.
This one is, so I'll let youknow how it goes next week, but
always looking to reinvent, comeup with ideas, uh, you know,
make it part and parcel of, ofwhat we do, the culture.
Russel (24:45):
Another thing that sounds kind of indicative of
just how you approach sayingyou've already name dropped new
things that you're encounteringor doing, is a business of
bringing in a consultant orbringing in an expert to help
guide you through that.
Is that a core philosophy andbelief of which has guided you
through the business as well?
Michelle (24:59):
I think it's something I've learned over time.
That whole mentality of when youstart, you have that, you feel a
little bit more insecure, butyou wanna come across that you
know what you're doing, so youdon't wanna ask for help.
I think you learn over time whenyou work on yourself and when
you're working on your businesssimultaneously, you start to
realize that you don't know itall.
It's okay to be vulnerable,admit where you're weak at, you
(25:20):
know?
Sure, I took a couple courses inAI and sure, I feel really
confident in my ability to useit, but now how do I take that
and teach my team, and do Iwanna be spending all day doing
that?
The answer is no.
I wanna be around our clients.
I wanna be ideating, I wannatalk to new customers.
I wanna do the things that Ienjoy doing, and I love training
(25:42):
our people, but by no means am Igonna be a good trainer at
something that's so damn newthat I don't know all the
nuances of it yet.
So bring in an expert that canhelp you do it.
Makes all the sense.
Russel (25:52):
It does so much and I, and I think of in business, I'm
sitting here like reflecting onmyself as you're sharing this in
business.
I, you know, always was apt tobring in a consultant coach or
something.
Pretty much mainstay.
Now I'm sitting here thinking mypersonal life, how much time I'm
wasting by, why don't I have apersonal trainer?
I work out, I spend so much timeworkout.
I'm sure I could get to theresults 10 times quicker if I
just spend the money and hire apersonal trainer or take
(26:14):
anything that I don't know howto do well, and why?
Why am I beating my head againstthe wall trying to figure out
something?
That's just not my forte.
Michelle (26:23):
Did you ever have regrets when you were like knee
deep in your business and wishyou did things different from
the beginning?
Russel (26:29):
How many days do you have?
Do you want to talk about, uh,something along those lines?
Absolutely.
Michelle (26:35):
Yeah, it's like, you know, do you go for the, the
slow nickel or do you go for thequick buck?
I've never been a quick buckperson, but then I look around
me at, you know, the impostersyndrome of, oh my God, they
grew so fast.
But it's like, do they have agood reputation?
Do they do things the right way?
Sometimes I look and go, I, Iwish I had just stepped on the
gas pedal a little bit faster inthe beginning, um, and maybe
(26:57):
expedited some things a littlequicker.
But we're here for a reason.
We're where we're at for areason.
And uh, I still feel like everyday I am starting over.
I come in with the same attitudeand the excitement that I had
when I first started thebusiness.
Russel (27:09):
That's amazing.
I'm a big believer in, I, I hatethe quick buck concept.
I think it's wrought with a lotof things and not to say there's
not some cool things for somecreated by some fast movers in
the world, but there's been alot of messes as well.
I think I'd go back and we werethe other way, we were just
selling and, you know, grow asfast as we possibly can and,
and, you know, out the gate.
The reality was, is we kind ofcrashed and burned, in the early
(27:31):
days and out of the ashes.
I think we did it right and we,we did it in all the ways that
I'm very proud of.
But, um, you know I'm a triedand true, slow and steady guy
all the way.
Michelle (27:41):
Slow and steady wins the race, as they say.
Russel (27:43):
It does and, and it makes sure that, and I think
about, you know, some of thoseearly days when, when we were
moving really fast, there'speople that, you know, paid the
price for that.
I'd say some clients, you know,in, in the scheme of that didn't
get the best that they couldhave gotten for their dollar,
that they, you know, some teammembers that, that didn't work
out well that I think, come onlater, would've been great team
members.
(28:03):
Part of being a little young anddumb I guess, but I can only
hope that on the backside of itthat we, we made a lot of
clients a lot better and madeteam members have really good
lives because we've reallyscrewed it up enough in the
beginning.
Great question though.
Something that I think likejust, I love just kinda the
attitude and energy you bring tothe business, but I'm so curious
by this, you have a pretty coolplane ride story.
Michelle (28:24):
That was in the very beginning, trying to figure out
can we have a niche?
Should we get into being a nichebusiness?
Do we work on healthcare?
Do we work on automotive?
Do we work on banking andfinance?
And the answer was still to beseen.
I traveled down to Florida for aworkshop.
For a seminar that was in thecountry club world in terms of
country club marketing wasbecoming a big thing.
(28:47):
They were getting ready for babyboomers, golf clubs were
building, gated communities werebuilding, and I thought that
there might've been a reallygood opportunity.
I went to this conference inFlorida, got on the airplane,
and this guy sits next to me.
It's on a Saturday.
I'm like dressed to drive tothis conference.
I'm dressed to in a businesscasual kind of business,
professional outfit.
He is like sitting next to meand he is talking to me and I'm
(29:08):
like, I'm just not in the moodto talk.
He's asking me all kinds ofquestions and we just started
talking.
We ended up talking the wholeway down.
I'm used to being the one thatasks all the questions to
people, and not once was I ableto even ask one of those
questions.
Finally I said, enough about me,enough about what I do, enough
about marketing and myphilosophy is on advertising,
but tell me what do you do?
(29:28):
He said he was in the automotivebusiness.
Fast forward to Tuesday he wason his way down to his home and
was supposed to have a meetingand then fly back on Monday.
I was coming home on Tuesday.
Would you know, he changed hisflight, was on my flight home.
Yelled my name on the plane.
Sat next to me and said, you'regonna call my director of
operations tomorrow, you'rehired.
Russel (29:47):
That is unbelievable.
Michelle (29:49):
Unbelievable.
Crazy story, right?
And that was right when we weremaking that first move to, um,
to a small office.
My husband's a contractor then,so incredibly supportive of me,
been a great dad while I wastrying to build this business
with two young kids at home.
And he built out the officespace and I said to him I need
to hire some more people andthere's not gonna be enough room
(30:10):
in that office.
Literally, the day I wassupposed to move in, I took a
vacant space.
It was in the same building thatwas like three times the size.
That really gave us the kickthat we needed all because of a
flight on down to Florida.
Russel (30:22):
All because of a plane flight.
Michelle (30:24):
Mm-hmm.
Russel (30:24):
Wow.
Now, this makes me think, andI'm generally a pretty friendly,
talkative person, but I kind ofdon't like talking on, on a
plane.
But this makes me think I'm, I'mdoing myself a disservice
apparently.
Michelle (30:34):
For sure.
It was a great experience.
Russel (30:36):
Something I'm, I'm just curious about, it sounds like
you, your twins were rightaround the birth of the
business.
What's their perspective thisfar down the line on?
Are they budding entrepreneursor just how do they reflect on,
on your whole businessexperience?
Michelle (30:49):
It's interesting that you say that.
My husband's also anentrepreneur and has a business,
and I think that they've seen usworking our asses off.
Can I say that on this?
Russel (30:58):
You can say that.
Yes.
All good.
Michelle (31:01):
They've seen us working our butts off and, um,
being really dedicated to themas children, whatever it took.
We would make sure we were atall their games and sometimes
wouldn't eat dinner till nineo'clock at night and then put'em
to bed because we were doing somany things.
But I think that, when you talkto them, they'll say that they
respected what we've done.
I have regrets sometimes feelingthat I was away from the house a
(31:21):
little too much, but they don'treally see it that way And to
this day, the guilt comes outand they said mom, what if you
picked us up from school?
We would've wanted to hang outwith our friends anyway, so you
would've been someone who pickedus up.
What difference did it make ifyou hired someone to pick us up?
We had dinner together and thenevery weekend we made sure that
it was family time.
So while my friends who didn'thave businesses and may have
(31:44):
been stay at home moms or had anine to five job they were
looking to get rid of their kidson the weekend.
We were just the opposite.
It was like, it's family time.
We're gonna go skiing, we'regonna go boating, we're gonna do
things together as a family.
We made it work.
My lawyer at the time said tome, you're gonna, as you launch
your business, you've gotta makea decision.
It's either gonna be quantity oftime or quality of time.
(32:05):
You can only pick one, and Ichose for quality.
Russel (32:07):
Just great insight.
That's what I was just kind ofthinking in my head, right?
You might have missed somemoments, but when you were there
you were there for what mattersmost and you were there a
hundred percent.
I do tend to think that, that isimportant and, and I'm, I'm, if
you go back to kind of regretsin business, I think I was a
little too quick to not be therefor certain things when they
were young, but I will sayagain, coming outta the ashes
(32:28):
that allowed me to be therealways, there for coaching and,
and where, when, and wherever Ineeded to be.
I was there later and, and thatquality thing really does ring
so true.
Michelle (32:37):
I think what it has done for my kids at least, is it
has instilled so muchindependence and a really solid
work ethic in both of them.
It's amazing to see because nowthey're gonna be 24 next week,
so you see it happening and it'sdamn, okay, we did all right.
They're good kids.
Russel (32:55):
No need to Monday morning quarterback.
Time has proven you've done agood job there.
Very cool introspection there.
Thank you for sharing that.
As we kind of start to wrap uphere, I'm just curious, what,
what are the next 24 years of,of Market Mentors looks like?
What's the big plan for thefuture?
Michelle (33:09):
We've got what we call the BHAG.
We've got a 10 year plan withthat BHAG goal.
We're getting the right peoplein the seats and making sure
that we are filling the seatswith people that believe and
embody our culture and the careto grow our client base and
those that wanna be on the ridewith us are gonna have a fun, a
fun time and learn a lot alongthe way.
Russel (33:31):
Can't wait to see how that works out for you.
I'll just leave you with onelast other big question here,
Michelle, are entrepreneurs bornor are they made?
Michelle (33:39):
They are born.
How about can I say that?
They're born to be made.
Not everybody comes out of thewomb with that attitude.
You don't have to be a driver,you have to have a vision.
Having a vision and being adriver at the same time is
really what helps you grow.
But artists are not alwaysdrivers.
They're just artistic and theyhave a dream, you know?
I think it's depends on the typeof organization and business
(34:01):
that you're in.
We'll go with born to be made.
Russel (34:03):
I love that.
This is gonna sound like I'm aguy that has a lot of tattoos,
but I only actually have one.
But I'm always inspired bytattoo ideas and that sounds
like a really good tattoo ideaof born to be made.
Someday when I just give up,I'll just have all kinds of
tattoos of all the cool thingspeople say like that, that you
shared today.
Michelle (34:20):
There you go.
You can combine that with your,your brother's philosophy of
musicians, and you can haveBruce Springsteen and be born to
be wild.
Russel (34:27):
Yes.
This is great.
You almost gave me three todaywe got the peso model that's
probably not tattoo-able, butthe, uh, automate the ordinary,
humanize the extraordinary andborn to be made.
Love it.
Michelle (34:37):
And don't forget feedback.
Feedback, honest feedback is agift both given and received.
Russel (34:43):
Oh yeah.
Ah, that's a good one too, man.
All right.
very cool.
If people wanna know more aboutMarket Mentors, where can they
go?
Michelle (34:50):
Marketmentors.com.
Really easy.
Russel (34:52):
Alright, there you have it folks.
Wonderful.
Michelle, thank you so much forsharing so many nuggets of
wisdom, your reflection onnavigating parenthood and
business and the power oflearning and staying on your
feet and agile and taking a verypositive mindset to the
business.
So inspirational.
Really appreciate you taking thetime to share that with us
(35:12):
today.
Michelle (35:13):
Thanks so much for having me.
You made it easy and uh, justfun to talk to, so I really
appreciate the time.
We hope you've enjoyed thisepisode of An Agency Story
podcast where we share realstories of marketing agency
owners from around the world.
Are you interested in being aguest on the show?
(35:33):
Send an email topodcast@performancefaction.com.
An Agency Story is brought toyou by Performance Faction.
Performance Faction offersservices to help agency owners
grow their business to 5 milliondollars and more in revenue.
To learn more, visitperformancefaction.com.
(35:57):
I was traveling a couple of, uh, years ago for
work, going to a, um, one of myforum meetings with some
colleagues across the countrythat also are in the agency
business through the forays.
It just so happened the owner'sconference was happening in, um,
in Phoenix for the NFL.
Being from Massachusetts, we'rebig Patriots fans and I just
(36:18):
have this admiration for BillBelichick just in as much as
people who like him or don'tlike him.
I've always loved Bill Belichickand I said to the person I was
traveling with, we better begoing out to dinner tonight
where all the teams are gonnabe, just making sure that
happens somehow.
I get up to use, go to therestroom or do something.
I'm walking up the stairs andI'm looking down and I banged
(36:40):
right into Bill Belichick.
Russel (36:41):
That's awesome.
Michelle (36:42):
One of my, my highlights of my trip.
I don't think I thought aboutanything else after that trip,
but that one moment and I justdidn't know what to say.
I was completely at a loss ofwords.
Russel (36:53):
Any words exchanged at all?
Or just, uh, just a bump.
Michelle (36:55):
Yeah.
Really corny stuff though.
I'm too embarrassed to, uh, toadmit what I said to him, but
yeah.
Russel (37:01):
Just given his personality, I mean, obviously
never met the guy.
I could just see his reactionwould be interesting no matter
what you said.
Michelle (37:07):
I got a little bit of a side smile like, you idiot,
like you're funny.
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
The Breakfast Club
The World's Most Dangerous Morning Show, The Breakfast Club, With DJ Envy And Charlamagne Tha God!
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.