Why Becoming the Agency CEO is a Marathon, Not a Sprint

<p>Are you looking to start your transition to the role of agency CEO? David Anderson started living the entrepreneurial dream more than twenty years ago when he started <a href= "https://www.offmadisonave.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Off Madison Ave</a>, a full-service marketing agency he founded with his partner after getting fired from his agency job. After two decades as a business owner, David has experienced success and failure. Having learned from many successes and the hard knocks of business and life. In his conversation with Jason, he talks about the many challenges and mistakes that helped him learn, why taking a step back from day-to-day operations is a marathon, not a sprint, the importance of building your leadership team and letting them make their own mistakes, and what he has learned after many agency acquisitions.</p> <h2>3 Golden Nuggets</h2> <ol> <li><strong>Taking a step back is a process.</strong> After many years in the business and finally being able to take a step back to <a href="https://jasonswenk.com/5-roles-of-an-agency-owner/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">being his agency’s CEO</a>, David admits that he made many mistakes along the way. The first time, he recalls, he hired someone from the outside and did not have a solid onboarding process for that person. That fell apart quickly and they even ended up losing clients. Later, he had a leadership team implement EOS, which he highly recommends, but he chose not to be the innovator and integrator. It fell apart and he had to step in to fix the situation. Finally, he brought somebody up through the ranks, worked on a transition plan, clearly defined authority, and is holding that person accountable. “It’s a process,” he says, “and you will have your failures in it.”</li> <li><strong>Allow leaders to learn from mistakes.</strong> David has figured out a <a href= "https://jasonswenk.com/investing-in-leadership/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">leadership team</a> system that works for his agency. There were mistakes along the way,