Episode Details

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What are you doing to win new agency business? Are you showcasing your best work? Do you have a formal pitch process that works well every time? Today's guest co-founded his agency after realizing he had contributed significantly to another agency's growth without any ownership. So he took the bold step of starting his own agency without knowing how to convince others to believe in his vision. Tune in to learn how he persevered despite facing constraints from his former employer, skepticism about his new venture, and the need for strategic pivots in client acquisition.

Luke Cope is the co-founder of Bottled Imagination a Manchester-based digital PR agency focused on doing good work using unparalleled creativity to outshine the generic, churned-out, recycled ideas the industry has been saturated with. He shares insights into the rapid growth of his agency, discusses his desire for ownership after helping to grow an agency as an employee, and the way his team started to reframe pitches to great success.

In this episode, we'll discuss:

• Why equity matters.

• Get people to rally around your vision.

• 3 ways to change your approach to winning new business.

• Should you reframe pitches or stop doing them altogether?

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Working in SEO, Luke got to be part of an agency's rapid growth as it went from 15 employees to doing $7 million in revenue. Despite feeling that this success stemmed directly from his and his colleagues' efforts, they had no ownership stake in the company or any claim to the value they had helped create—they remained simply employees.

Furthermore, Luke considered he could only sustain this level of commitment for someone else's benefit for about two years. Instead of looking for another agency to move on to, he and his now co-founders decided to create something of their own.

At the time, this decision seemed like their only viable path forward. In retrospect, however, it represents a scenario where forward-thinking agency owners might have retained these valuable team members by offering equity—transforming key employees into shareholders with a genuine stake in the company's success. This way, they keep people who have helped grow the agency since the beginning and don't risk losing clients who would probably follow them to their new venture.

Ultimately, Luke and his co-founders determined launching their own agency was the best option and were validated by getting their first lead the same day their