Episode Details

Blair interviews David on what each of the three levels of success in running a creative firm looks like.

2Bobs Episode 39 - "Replacing Presentations With Conversations"

The Win Without Pitching Manifesto, by Blair Enns

The Business of Expertise: How Entrepreneurial Experts Convert Insight to Impact + Wealth, by David C. Baker

Built to Sell: Creating a Business That Can Thrive Without You,by John Warrillow

Pricing Creativity: A Guide to Profit Beyond the Billable Hour, by Blair Enns

2Bobs Episode 31 - "Mastering the Value Conversation"

BLAIR ENNS: David, it's been a while.

DAVID C. BAKER: Has it? I haven't missed you all that much. Have you missed me?

BLAIR: Since we've last recorded a podcast, I was listening to one that aired recently and it was talking about my first book is in its fourth printing. It's now going into its fifth printing and I realized that it just aired and we recorded that over a year ago. So if Marcus is digging into a backlog that far, that means we haven't been together for a while.

DAVID: Yeah. And it's scary too because imagine how much our thinking has changed in a year? 'Cause you were wrong about so many things.

BLAIR: That's an old joke, you need new material.

DAVID: Okay, sorry.

BLAIR: So since we've last recorded a podcast, I know they keep airing because we've got all this in the can, but you and I did an event in London and then we came home and then you and your wife came up to Kaslo and we celebrated. I was just looking yesterday at a photo of your wife and my wife in a bear den together on her birthday.

DAVID: Right, I didn't want to go in it, it's why I took the picture.

BLAIR: You're too smart. I took it from inside the bear den, you were outside.

DAVID: Right.

BLAIR: And then you went to Chile on vacation and then you've probably been in some other places.

DAVID: Yes, I have. I'm kind of off the road right now. I head back out of the country on Friday but I've been back trying to get our 61 acre farm livable. So just a few minutes ago, if you'd seen a picture of me, I would have been covered in white from head to toe because I am still trying to figure out how to use a paint sprayer and I realized I have a lot of expertise to develop yet.

BLAIR: That's why on a hike I was carrying the bear spray. Okay, so it's been a while since we talked. Today we're going to talk, I want to call it good, better, best but it's really the three levels of success in running a creative firm and I think you've broken it down into the categories of starting, existing and thriving. And you sent me an entire spreadsheet to help navigate this conversation. Things like utilization, positioning, fi