How Agencies Can Thrive in a Country on Fire

Running an agency right now feels like trying to fix the engine while barreling down the highway at 80 miles an hour.

You’re dodging potholes (client demands), steering through fog (market chaos), and trying not to lose your team out the back window—all while pretending you’re totally in control.

To top it off, you’re contending with economic instability, political chaos, burned-out teams, and clients slashing budgets while asking for twice the output and ten times the results. You’re not just managing a business—you’re holding it together with duct tape, bubblegum, caffeine, and sheer force of will.

And the old agency playbook? It wasn’t built for this kind of turbulence.

The good news? You don’t need to pull over—you just need a smarter way to steer.

You can retrofit this thing mid-freeway. You can evolve. Lead. Even grow.

But it’s going to take more than hustle and hope. It requires a complete shift in how you operate, how you position your agency, and how your team delivers value.

It means acting like a consulting firm, not a vendor. Speaking the language of the C-suite. Using data like a compass. Building thought leadership that turns heads. And leaning on the PESO Model© to bring order to chaos.

Don’t Be an Agency. Be a Business Partner.

If you’re still positioning your agency as a PR firm, it might be time for a little identity crisis.

Most executives aren’t looking for media coverage. They’re looking for someone who can help them solve big, messy, expensive business problems. Someone who gets their pressure to drive revenue, protect the brand, retain customers, and keep shareholders calm—preferably all before lunch.

This is where too many agencies fall flat. They show up with pitches, news releases, media contacts, and impressions when what the client actually needs is perspective. Strategy. Insight. Leadership.

If you want to stay relevant—and billable—you need to stop acting like a vendor and start showing up like a partner. One who understands business levers, not just brand stories. One who can tie your work directly to revenue, reputation, recruitment, and retention.

What That Actually Looks Like

What does it actually look like to act like a business partner instead of a PR vendor? It’s not about buzzwords or adding “strategy” to your LinkedIn headline. It’s about showing up differently in the work, in the room, and in the results.

Here are a few ways to make that shift real:

• Know how your client makes money. If you can’t explain their business model in one minute, you’re not ready to advise them.
• Build business literacy across your team. Everyone—from account managers to media specialists—should understand key concepts such as customer acquisition cost, lifetime value, pipeline health, and operational key performance indicators.
• Shift your reporting from “look what we did” to “look at the business outcomes we influenced.” Connect the dots between activity and actual business outcomes.
• Ask better questions. Instead of “What’s the story here?” try “What’s the business risk if we don’t solve this?” or “How does this initiative help your Q3 priorities?” If you missed our recent three-part series on how to do this, check out here, here, and here.
• Change the room you’re in. If you’re not already meeting with the business leaders, ask for it. If you are, ask to meet with the CFO or the CMO or the CRO or the head of sales. Partners don’t wait to be invited—they make themselves essential.

You don’t need to throw out your media relations chops. But if you want a seat at the table, you’d better show up with more than a coverage report.

You need to speak business. Solve business. Drive business.

Build a Brain, Not Just a Rolodex

The days of winning on relationships alone are over. Yes, who you know still matters—but what you know (and how quickly you can apply it) matters more.

Data is the new differentiator.

Agencies that lead with insights instead of instinct are the ones being invited into strategic conversations. Those who can say, “Here’s what the data is telling us—and here’s how it affects your business,” are the ones who get bigger budgets, longer contracts, and actual influence.

If you’re still reporting vanity metrics like impressions and reach, it’s time for a hard reset.

Make Data Work for You

Building a smart, insight-driven agency doesn’t mean you need to become a data scientist. But it does mean investing in the right tools, asking sharper questions, and training your team to interpret, not just collect.

Here’s where to start:

• Modernize your tech stack. Tools powered by AI and machine learning can do the heavy lifting on media monitoring, message diffusion, and whitespace analysis. Use them to identify what’s gaining traction—and what’s not—before your client even asks.
• Build dashboards that speak CEO. Forget charts full of percentages and pie slices. Show how your PESO efforts affected deal velocity, reduced risk, protected market share, or drove conversions. If your reports can’t be shared on the screen in the boardroom, they’re not strategic enough.
• Forecast instead of recap. Predictive analytics isn’t just for the Silicon Valley crowd. With the right systems, you can identify emerging risks, anticipate issues before they arise, and pinpoint content or channel opportunities based on patterns, rather than relying on guesswork.
• Train your team in data storytelling. It’s not enough to surface metrics. Your team needs to know how to turn numbers into narratives that influence decision-making. That starts with asking: “So what?” and “Now what?” As I mentioned earlier, refer to our recent three-part series on this. 
• Track outcomes, not just activity. Did your earned media contribute to a spike in branded search or web traffic from a key region? Did your LinkedIn campaign warm up leads for sales? Tie your metrics to actual business movement, not just marketing fluff.

Become a Source of Intelligence

When you consistently bring insights that help your clients make better decisions, you become valuable. Not the report. Not the deliverable. You.

You’re no longer the person they call after something launches—you’re the one they bring in before it even hits the whiteboard. You’re the one they can’t imagine living without when the country is on fire.

And that’s the agency position you want to be in.

Get Weird and Try Stuff

If you’re waiting for things to settle down before you try something new… you’ll be waiting forever.

We’re in a permanent state of disruption. AI is reshaping workflows weekly. Social platforms are burning out or rebranding overnight. Media landscapes are splintering into a thousand microchannels. If you’re not actively experimenting, you’re already falling behind.

That’s why innovation isn’t a nice-to-have. It’s your insurance policy. It’s how you stay relevant, resilient, and revenue-generating—especially when the market zigs and you need to zag fast.

Adopt the Experimentation Mindset

You don’t need a massive innovation lab or a 12-month roadmap. What you need is a culture that says, “Let’s test it.”

I’m big about this one in my business—we try things on ourselves first, and then we launch them to a client or two who are also into experimenting. Once we get it right, we take it to the rest of our clients. 

We did that with blogging, then social media, then passive income, and now AI. It works!

There are two things you can start to get yourself into the experimentation mindset: run micro-pilots and set time-bound experiments.

For micro-pilots, try new content formats, influencer partnerships, or campaign hooks on one client or one channel. Keep the risk low and the learnings high.

For time-bound experiments, give yourself or your team two weeks to try something new. Things such as creating short-form vertical video or testing a new AI copywriting assistant. 

Evaluate, tweak, or kill it. Repeat.

Test the Tools 

If you want your agency to be seen as cutting-edge, act like it. A few places to explore:

• Synthetic media tools for voiceovers, spokesperson content, or scalable video updates. We’re currently using AI Gini to explore its potential for broader application among our clients who prefer not to use video or audio. 
• Augmented reality media kits or 3D product demos for experiential storytelling.
• AI-powered media avatars—customized spokespeople that can deliver consistent messaging across channels.
• Low-code automations that reduce time spent on tedious admin tasks like media list hygiene, coverage tracking, or first drafts of boilerplate content.

You don’t need to adopt all of it. But you do need to know what’s out there and how it might give your clients an edge (or your agency one).

Diversify, But Don’t Dilute

Innovation also means evolving your services without becoming a bloated, one-size-fits-all machine. Add offerings that complement your core. Media training, executive visibility programs, content strategy, and/or social listening audits.

At the same time, avoid the temptation to chase shiny objects. If a new service doesn’t align with your expertise, your client’s needs, or long-term demand, it’s not innovation; it’s distraction.

Make Space to Innovate

You can’t experiment if your team is stuck in a hamster wheel of deadlines and client-driven fire drills.

Set aside time—literally put it on the calendar—for creative R&D. Hold a quarterly “failure fair” where your team shares what didn’t work and what they learned. Reward curiosity. Normalize risk-taking. Build innovation into your operating system.

Because the agencies that succeed tomorrow are the ones that try today.

Whew. That’s a lot already, right? But if you’re starting to feel fired up—or maybe just slightly panicked—don’t worry. This is exactly the kind of shift that doesn’t have to happen overnight. It just has to start.

Make Your Agency Famous

As you well know, doing great work doesn’t automatically lead to great visibility. And I’m probably not telling anything you don’t already know, but if you want to attract better-fit clients, grow your influence, and create demand, you have to build your own brand with the same intention you use for your clients. That means turning your agency into a trusted source of insight, not just a vendor of services.

I know, I know. Shoemaker’s children and all of that. And, as someone who works on her business in the wee early hours of the morning, I totally get it. But it works. It’s well worth the time you invest to build your brand and your visibility. 

Treat Your Agency Like a Media Company

The first thing you will do is treat your agency like a media company. You’ll start thinking like a publisher, not a promoter. You’ll create content that builds trust, showcases your thought process, and keeps your agency top-of-mind.

To do that, you’ll first develop a signature point of view. Ask yourself what your agency does better than anyone else. What do you believe about the future of communications? What do you think the industry (mostly) gets wrong? What do you do over and over again for clients that isn’t tactical?

Create your take and repeat it often. 

Own Your Platform

Publish consistently on a channel you control—whether that’s a blog, newsletter, podcast, or YouTube series. Share frameworks, behind-the-scenes thinking, case studies, rants, and learnings.

Turn Team Expertise into Content

Your team is smart—show it off. Host internal AMA sessions, write up Slack debates as blog posts, or turn client questions into content.

Make Your Insights Easy to Spread

Post on LinkedIn, repurpose into short-form content, pitch your ideas to industry pubs, and speak on podcasts or panels. Don’t make people hunt for your brilliance.

Create Events and Experiences

Thought leadership isn’t just about publishing—it’s about building community.

Host client roundtables or invite-only briefings on trends, tools, or regulatory updates.

Launch a webinar or workshop series to help your prospects get smarter (and realize they want your help).

Collaborate with aligned partners—analyst firms, legal experts, tech platforms—to co-host sessions that increase your credibility and reach.

I have a friend who does a monthly social media workshop. Attendees sit with her for four hours, and they create a month’s worth of content. I personally don’t think she charges enough for this, but it sells out months in advance.

The Long Game Wins

Turning your agency into a known, respected, trusted brand won’t happen overnight. But every blog post, podcast episode, LinkedIn rant, or research report you publish moves you one step closer to being the agency that clients come looking for instead of the one chasing RFPs.

Let me tell you from experience, not having to pitch against other agencies, answer RFPs, or do an expensive dog and pony show is worth every second you will spend at odd hours of the day or during the weekend building your own brand.

When the world is loud, unstable, and full of uncertainty? Authority is what cuts through.

Scale Smart with Proven Systems

Let’s talk about the least sexy—but most essential—part of agency growth: how you scale without burning out, breaking down, or billing yourself into a corner.

If the last few years have taught us anything, it’s that chaos will keep coming. You don’t need to outrun it—you need to out-system it.

And that means putting proven frameworks, replicable processes, and training programs in place that help your agency deliver consistently great work without reinventing the wheel every time.

If you need help with this, read Built to Sell. It will help you understand how to create repeatable processes that you can charge a premium for every time.

Start Selling Frameworks

If you’re still pricing based on time or deliverables, you’re leaving value—and margin—on the table.

Clients don’t just want a news release. They want a repeatable way to protect their reputation. They don’t just want social posts. They want a strategic system that grows engagement and trust.

This is where certified methodologies and proprietary processes shine.

Use frameworks like the PESO Model© not only to deliver services, but also to structure conversations, set expectations, and demonstrate value.

Productize your thinking by turning your strategy work into phases. Onboarding is a toolkit. Measurement is a model. The way you do work differently than anyone else is a framework. 

When your work becomes a system, it becomes easier to sell, scale, and delegate.

Invest in Training

If your agency’s growth relies on hiring unicorns, you’re doing it wrong. The secret to scalable growth isn’t talent acquisition—it’s talent development.

• Build an internal learning roadmap. From interns to senior leaders, everyone should know what skills they’re developing—and how those skills relate to business outcomes.
• Certify your team. Programs like the PESO Model Certification© give your agency shared language, sharper thinking, and higher credibility.
• Train for critical thinking, not just task execution. AI can write a headline. Your team should know whether it’s the right one.

Lead the Agency You Want to Work For

You don’t need me to tell you that running an agency today is hard.

The rules keep changing. The tools keep evolving. Clients want more with less. Your team wants clarity and flexibility. And somewhere in there, you’re trying to grow a business, deliver killer work, and maybe—just maybe—get a weekend off.

But here’s the thing: You’re not stuck. You’re at an inflection point.

You have a chance right now to stop reacting and start rebuilding—to evolve your agency into the kind of business that doesn’t just survive disruption but uses it as fuel.

Let’s recap the five moves that get you there:

1. Stop acting like a vendor. Start acting like a business partner. Show your clients how you influence revenue, reputation, retention, and recruitment.
2. Use data to drive strategy, not just reports. Build insight engines that inform decisions, not just dashboards that collect dust.
3. Experiment constantly. Innovation isn’t optional. It’s how you future-proof your agency.
4. Make your agency famous—on purpose. Create thought leadership that earns attention before the pitch even starts. 
5. Systematize everything. Build a business that doesn’t rely on heroics. Use frameworks. Train your people. Scale your brilliance.

This isn’t a quick fix. It’s a shift in how you lead. But it’s also the difference between staying stuck in survival mode… or becoming the agency everyone else wishes they were running.

Take a deep breath. Pick one area to start with. And then lead the heck out of it.

Because this industry doesn’t need more order-takers, it needs more agency owners who are willing to step up and lead.

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