An Agency Story
An Agency Story
The Seatmate Stranger Who Propelled Her Business - Market Mentors
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
Welcome to An Agency Story podcast where we share real stories of marketing agency owners from around the world. From the excitement of starting up the first big sale, passion, doubt, fear, freedom, and the emotional rollercoaster of growth, hear it all on An Agency Story podcast. An Agency Story podcast is hosted by Russel Dubree, successful agency owner with an eight figure exit turned business coach. Enjoy the next agency story.
Russel:What happens when you meet a stranger on a plane and it changes your business forever? Welcome to an Agency Story podcast, I'm your host Russel. In this episode of an agency story, you'll meet Michelle Abdow with Market Mentors, a full service marketing agency based in Springfield, Massachusetts, and West Palm Beach, Florida. From launching her agency with newborn and twins in tow to landing a game changing client mid-flight, michelle's story is an inspiring story of risk, grit, and intentional growth. We talk about what it really takes to build a sustainable agency over the course of two decades, from evolving out of traditional media to integrated marketing, to shaping a team culture where feedback is a gift, and AI is embraced as a tool for freeing up human creativity. Michelle brings wisdom, warmth, and over two decades of hard won insight to this conversation, Enjoy the story. Welcome to the show today everyone. I have Michelle Abdow with Market Mentors with us here today. Thank you so much for joining us today, Michelle.
Michelle:Thank you so much for having me today, Russ.
Russel:I'm excited to have a wonderful conversation, but right before we get into the meat of everything, tell us what Market Mentor does and who do you do it for?
Michelle:We consider ourselves to be a full service, fully integrated marketing agency. We have specialties with manufacturing, healthcare, and then financial services, so banking, uh, credit unions, and other types of financial, uh, planning and such. We have some retail clients as well.
Russel:Lovely. Well put. Sounds like you've been doing this a while and gotten that down to a nice, succinct statement.
Michelle:Just a little bit. 23 years, a little bit.
Russel:And where are you coming from today, by the way? Where are you located at?
Michelle:We have offices, our corporate is in Springfield, Massachusetts, and then we have a second location in West Palm Beach, Florida. And I am in Massachusetts today.
Russel:That sounds like a very convenient second location. Is that strategic?
Michelle:They're calling Palm Beach or West Palm Beach, the, um, they're calling it Wall Street South. So it's a, it's a good place to be.
Russel:I can imagine. Just to bring up something we were briefly chatting about before, you've had an interesting week. You said you were talking to the White House. Is that what I hear? Tell us what's good. Give us the scoop there.
Michelle:Yeah. We have, uh, several manufacturing clients, one who is proudly made in America, uh, made in USA certified. The tariff movement is in some regard working in their favor, um, at least domestically. We decided to kind of change the media's narrative and, and, um, kind of, uh, challenged their thinking a little bit. We started pitching national and international media outlets about our client and their made in the USA story. The Washington Post, uh, ended up doing a really nice full page ad that launched this weekend, and I walked into work Monday morning yesterday, this past Monday, and sure enough, uh, our client had reached out, had gotten reached out by the White House. We ended up having some conversations with, uh, some of their public relations people this week. It was a interesting week to say the least.
Russel:That doesn't happen every day, I'm guessing.
Michelle:No, pretty fun. Pretty fun.
Russel:Very cool. Imagine we'll find out a lot more about some interesting and fascinating agency stories you have, but as, as we do with most guests, I'd love to go back in time and I want to hear about young Michelle. Who did she want to be when she grew up? What was she thinking? Tell us the details there.
Michelle:I like to still think of myself as young Michelle. Might be a little bit older, but I'm still a kid at heart.
Russel:Younger Michelle, how about that?
Michelle:I always wanted to be an entrepreneur. I loved that word as a young kid. I knew that it meant to have your own business, to be your own boss. Having a father who had his own business and then growing up and, you know, then started dating my husband who comes from a family business. I don't know. The whole notion of having and running my own business was definitely something that I aspire to do. Here we are 23 years later.
Russel:I imagine you had to have been more than just the Kool-Aid stand. There had to be like some young business endeavor the way you're making this sound.
Michelle:I don't really know if there was a young business endeavor in as much as I, I like to call the shots. It started in the media I worked for in media sales, and that was back when radio and TV were traditional radio and TV. Saw a lot of things change over the years, but I loved helping our clients, uh, get results. When you're working in radio and tv, you're very limited in what you can offer. You are offering one product, one service. They started asking questions like, can you help me with a press release? Can you help me with TV production? Can you help me with an ad and creative concepts and, you know, strategic planning? You start getting into the fold and realize, you know, gosh, I, there's so much more out there I really can help them with.
Russel:How long were you into your career before you, it sounds like you have planted the seeds that you're gonna go do your own thing.
Michelle:I would say I was about, let's see, 30, 30 when I started Market Mentors. A little older than most, I guess. Maybe younger than most.
Russel: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 was going on, to be honest. But, uh, you know, just, just like you, I wanted to do something entrepreneurial. I don't know if there's a right age, good age or whatever, but it sounds like you did it at the perfect time.
Michelle:When you look at the, the composition of most agencies, most of them have come from an agency background. They work for an agency, whether it was a larger shop or, um, they cut their teeth with a smaller shop and decided they wanna do it on their own. I guess I was kind of a, not the smartest tool in the shed. I started an agency never having worked at one. I worked with them, I sold to them, but I had never worked at an agency. It was kind of a self-taught, um, jumping in with both feet.
Russel:Pop quiz though, for you. Interesting question to see if you know the answer to this, or have an idea or guess I definitely come across folks of all different types of backgrounds and experience and education and stuff. But if you were to think of a profession that really isn't in the marketing space that, that I hear the most as a origin of profession that starts an agency, what do you think that would be?
Michelle:Oh, good question. I'd like to ask you that question and have you answer the question first.
Russel: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 enough of it. I'd probably say number one is music. Someone from a music background had a band or something along those lines. Does that seem crazy to you or is that like, oh, that makes sense?
Michelle:No, that seems really fun. Live vicariously through somebody.
Russel:Then number two. I actually asked my brother one time, you know, why, why he's a big musician. I don't have a musician's bone in my body. Are you a musician? Do you, do you play any instruments?
Michelle:Not at all.
Russel:Singer?
Michelle:No. In the shower, and only when I'm home alone.
Russel:Hey, that's the best time I hear. but, uh, yeah, and So I asked him, why is this? He thinks, one I hear a lot or this is what other people, he didn't say this one about that, you know, if you have a band, you've gotta do your own marketing and you're you've gotta be your own promotion piece or whatever. You learn how to build websites and that, and you learn how to do ads and just all things branding and promotion. But then he had an interesting take of more of like, well also in a band you just have to learn to go with the flow. Kind of a natural chaos that I think is pretty indicative in the agency space. That was his take anyway.
Michelle:Interesting. It's a good one.
Russel:The number two is, is someone, someone in the faith community, which I think a lot of the same PR principles that they had to do a lot of marketing and promotion and stuff within, you know, small church organizations and things like that. There you go.
Michelle:There we go. Perfect.
Russel:You learned something today about agency. Untypical agency origin. I want to get, get back to your story. Did you just wake up one day and say, I'm going out on my own, you know, um, take this job and shove it? Or did you, uh, have a, a little bit more and what's, I don't know, planned path? How did you actually start your business?
Michelle:It was right in the middle. I wasn't completely happy with where the industry, the media industry was going. I worked for regional groups, in regional media groups and they were all selling to Wall Street, and so things were starting to change. The internet was born, we're starting to see a lot more things, news stories going online. AOL was, was booming. Google hadn't even been born yet. I wouldn't say it was take this job and shove it. It was, I think I can provide bigger impact for my clients and do more, and feel more rewarded by being able to move the needle for their companies. I didn't have a whole heck of a lot 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 husband, like, you know, if there 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 my life for sure. Challenge and fun all at once.
Russel:I can't even imagine. One kid, right, first experience in life is hard enough. Twins, and starting a business, I mean, sounds near impossible to me. Like how, how in the world?
Michelle:I know, it's funny. I don't think anything of it, and I would never think that it was anything crazy, but I look at other people who have done things 10 times as more difficult, so with, with ease. And it's like you aspire to be like those folks.
Russel:I don't know. I think you're short selling yourself on that. So, what did you do? It sounds like maybe you brought clients with you or some relationships that you knew, or did you just have to go start from scratch as far as being your own business in the early days?
Michelle:A little bit of both. I think if I had thought through when I was going to start and had an actual plan, I probably would've been a lot more strategic in making sure I had a solid portfolio of business to bring with me. But I had a small handful of very small clients where I had to do everything. I was a chief cook and bottle washer. I had corporate social responsibility clients. I had sales consulting clients, and I had some that just needed production work. They needed an ad, they needed some creative, they needed, um, their media placed. Of course, media being my background, I found a little niche that I carved out, which was placing TV in, in radio, and all traditional means back then. It was before Facebook. It was before MySpace. I'm really dating myself in, in terms of, uh, how much has changed in the industry since I started.
Russel:A true pioneer. Obviously so many different technologies, eras that you've, you've navigated at this point. Did you always think you were gonna grow something more than just you or was it just about personal fulfillment and you hadn't really thought that far?
Michelle:I wanted to grow the business and I wanted it to be more than me. I think my goal was to survive the first three years. You've read books, you see it in the news, you read the Wall Street Journal and the success rates of businesses, you know, first year's excitement, you've got nowhere to go but up'cause you're building. Year two, you, you start to get some, some footing. Year three is like the make or break year. Fortunately for me it was, we were getting busier and I, realizing that I couldn't do, I couldn't be the chief, chief cook and bottle washer. I had to bring on some people to, to give me a hand. I knew we were onto something at that point. It was that, that light switch kind of, that, that went off and you realize, okay, we got, we're building something good here.
Russel:Nice. And I know that's always it's a big transition to go, right? Imagine you're, you were an ambitious person and, and very adept at your career, but the second you hire someone, you're now a manager and leader and, and essentially caretaker of others. Was that very easy for you to kind of step into that role in that path? Or is there, what was that like for you?
Michelle:I had managed others in the past, um, so that part of it was fine. It's just when it's your name on the door and your reputation, it takes on a whole new meaning. I think there's that moment where 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 at the same time, you have to hold them accountable. I think along the way you learn those rough lessons where you have to put your foot down and share the feedback and make sure that everyone's aligned and moving in the right direction.
Russel:Definitely a trial by fire, school of hard knocks type education.
Michelle:Just a little bit.
Russel: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 in early on, I don't have those anymore.
Michelle:The term imposter syndrome didn't exist back then, but I think I had imposter syndrome. I wanted so badly to grow the business. I wanted so badly to be respected. I wanted to do right by customers. Having worked in the media, you know, I was worried, you know, are the media folks gonna say ill things of, of me because they might be threatened? You have all these fears that you instill upon yourself, and it's the insecurities of starting a business. I think over time, you know, you start building and you start getting referrals, you get results for some more folks, you get more referrals and, and that's really where the rubber meets the road. we were working in my home and I had two folks working in this tiny little office, and next thing you know, we're, we need, we need space. When I moved out of my home office was when I had this holy cow, this is really happening. Been at it for three years, but all, all of a sudden I felt a sense of accomplishment.
Russel:That's awesome. That is something I, I hear quite a bit. Folks say, it's like when I get my first office, it's like really official.'cause I think, I think a lot of it's such a. Agency is really kind of an easy business to start in some respects, is you can do it outta your home. All you need is a computer and an idea and some experience, a little bit of experience and, and you can kind of run with that a little bit, but there is something about that office.
Michelle:And back then, a car. You had to have a car back then because you produce radio and TV dubs and you had to literally go and pick them up and deliver them to the stations. That's how things have changed.
Russel:That is true. I mean, I do remember, um, I imagine what we probably started a little, little bit later than you, it sounds like, so we were'06, but we did most all of our early stage leads, business development. We had to drive, run around town, versus, later on in the agency to be clients we never even met in person. It's different. Very different.
Michelle:It's humbling. Very humbling.
Russel:Because I'm guessing too, like right, I'm trying to think what did, what did they have before? What did they have back in the day before Zoom was like, was it GoToMeeting or what? What did you do? What were the early day video calls?
Michelle:It was, uh, GoToMeeting, Skype. Skype.
Russel:Oh, Skype. Yes. I forgot about Skype.
Michelle:And then what was, uh, WebEx? WebEx was a big one too.
Russel:Oh, WebEx. That's the one. Yes, I remember. I remember WebEx. It's really crazy when I think about that, how long that took to really take on.
Michelle:We couldn't on a cell phone back then, I think I had a Blackberry. I didn't even, couldn't even video conference on my phone. It was a Blackberry.
Russel:Oh man. Wow. Technology. What a difference. I always am fascinated, like even go back way before our time or whatever and, and the folks that, like, there was not even a computer. What was design and advertising before there was even a computer? That'd be wild to me.
Michelle:My husband's family had a restaurant business and they, you know, started in the fifties. I have a freight at home with all 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 layout back then, they didn't have graphics. Crazy for sure.
Russel:And how do you turn that into a billboard? Like you can't just digitally print all that. I don't know, man. Real craftspeople, I guess. Very fascinating. When you think of how your agency started from a service perspective and to where it is today, how would you describe, I mean, you know, is it similar, very different? I know we got all different kinds of tools in how we do the work, but just from a, what you're positioning and selling yourself as, how has that evolved?
Michelle:It's transformational. I think back when I started, it was really media heavy. Really media, heavy, TV and radio and cable, um, and then producing the ads. Then over time, you know, you really develop that whole suite of services. You kind of take the peso model, paid, earned, shared, and owned, and kind of master that holistic approach to someone's marketing. I think that is really where you can actually impact the campaigns and the results and the client's satisfaction, when you kind of bring it all together.
Russel:What'd you call it? The PESO model.
Michelle: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, the shared media, of course, in today's day and age is social media. Then owned media, what are the assets? Is it brochures, is it a manual? Is it a white paper, a case study? Is it a video website? What are the assets that the client has? You can create one thing in a silo, but if you don't have that holistic approach, you're not gonna, you're never, never gonna reach the level of success that you, you can do by just doing one tactic.
Russel:That seems more true than ever today. I think historically you could have more one channel success, but now that there's just so much noise in the world, everything seems to have to be so cohesive. You have to be in multiple places. Clients, right, there's, you know, we don't have this kind of linear buy path that I think we maybe were once taught or, or thought about, but it looks more like a, you know, ball of yarn a little bit in terms of how customers interact with brands and make decisions. But I mean, it sounds, it sounds like what, what you've kind of adopted or adapted to in, in your business.
Michelle:Back in the day you could hire people with skills. They may have went and learned design, or they may have learned production, or they may have learned copywriting. Now you can hire people who might have those skill sets, but the technology and the world around us is changing that we literally have to carve out, I don't know, three to five hours per person for new learnings every week because they have to do research. The way digital ads are done today, it's constantly evolving the algorithms. You look at the, the launch of AI this past year, what that's doing to the industry. We like to consider ourselves earlier adopters of that, and we wanna make sure that we're training and coaching our people on how to properly use tools.
Russel:Three to five hours a week. Is that like a measured result or is that like, I mean, because I, I don't, I'm sure that's absolutely true. It just, it, when I just hear that it's like, man, that does sound like a lot.
Michelle:It's crazy. I know my client services team may not do exactly three to five hours, but our digital folks are our, our developers. Absolutely. They're either taking a webinar and then they're doing some things for research. Maybe we're putting'em through a little course. We've hired a consultant to help us kind of navigate the, the the AI world in terms of how we can make it more efficient. 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, have our own point of view, make sure we share it with clients and they understand, teach our clients about it. Wanna be able to be that subject matter expert. In order to be that way, we've gotta educate ourselves.
Russel:I'm just curious how you, how do you manifest that or how do you really facilitate that culturally? What does that look like in your business?
Michelle:It was hard at first. They hate when I say this, but I, we, we have a stable of really amazing talent. Stable is probably not the most appropriate word, but I've always said stable of talent. They're unbelievable creatives that work in our organization. I think at first it was really a challenge. There's that fear. I think it's the fear of the unknown, first of all. Then it is more of, is this gonna replace my job? It's like, no, we're already doing excellent work. We're only gonna make it better. We're gonna automate the ordinary and we're gonna humanize the extraordinary. We're gonna use it for ideation or to save time. I set out a goal for the agency for this year that we wanna have better efficiencies. I want people being able to save two hours a day because they're using AI for their meeting recaps, or you know, maybe helping them assemble their proposal a little bit better or, or heck, having a difficult conversation with a colleague or a client. Pop it in there, see how you might wanna improve how you talk to people. Use it as a tool.
Russel:I think the word is out now at this point. If you're afraid of AI and you're not using it, you're gonna be in trouble. You're gonna be behind.
Michelle:Exactly. You gotta embrace it for sure.
Russel:There's so many great concepts that you've, you've shared already today. What was that other phrase you were saying? Automate the ordinary and is that right?
Michelle:Automate the ordinary and humanize the extraordinary. That's part of our motto and how where we have it published and our point of view about using AI.
Russel:I love that. Do you get to trademark that? Is that a, a coined term?
Michelle:We're doing that right here. Your listeners are gonna hear that and say, we can't copy that.
Russel:Yes. Okay. Copyrighted for all purposes intended, or whatever that statement is. Um, I, I mean, Obviously, I mean, I have to imagine just even before AI, it sounds like you have a culture of learning, um, or that's been important to you as you've approached your business. You've got a pretty decent team size now that you know, just, it, it, those things don't just happen vicariously. You have to have intentional support, budget resourcing to do that. What have you specifically set up in your business to create such a good culture?
Michelle:That's a really good question. We've always done assessments, the behavioral personality assessments, um, that has been a pivotal part of our culture. Then we started working with an organization that happens to be here in Massachusetts, uh, G-Embedded and Associates, and they, they have a special program, the performance dynamics program. And it doesn't just tell you how you're wired or how a person's wired. It goes into why they're wired the way that they are. It's just helped us be able, and we share all of our results with each other, and we make sure that everybody knows, you know how, like Michelle's got high energy and she is facts and data, so when you're gonna go to her, don't pitch her. Give her the data, give her the facts. Be really short, she's gonna make a quick decision. But if you pontificate or if you talk in circles around her, she's gonna get frustrated real quickly. So we have this culture of curiosity with how we're all hardwired. You've been in the business, you know what it's like. You take a bunch of creatives and you put them in the room with the sales folks or the client service people. You've got two totally different types of people. it allows us to really have open dialogue with each other and provide feedback with each other. I would say that would be one of the tools in our toolbox. Having our core values, but then articulating them in really common sense ways has also really helped us. We say here, feedback is a gift both given and received, so you've gotta be able to share feedback with a colleague. You've got to be able to be honest with them and you also need to be receptive to hearing feedback in return. Feedback is a big part of our culture. Instead of having that corporate bureaucracy where people are passive aggressive and stabbing each other in the back and you know, it's not my job, it's his job, or it's her job. We just don't tolerate that. we all take oar, or put our oar in the water and we row. You know when someone's got their oar out of the water because things just don't feel right.
Russel:We had a very similar approach. You know, I'm always about what are simple solutions that solve a lot of problems and came to the same conclusion of if we can just get really, really good at feedback with each other, we can solve a lot of problems we can make work, move faster, et cetera. Get to the heart of things quicker. So yeah, We actually um, mandatory training and we'd have lots of sessions conversations throughout the year. Radical Candor, have you read that by chance?
Michelle:It's a great book.
Russel:Everybody got it, they got hired, uh, day one at our company. We do talking sessions on it. There's her trademark. Care personally, challenge directly.
Michelle:It's a great book and those are also part of those three to five hours, or you know, two to three hours depending on the person that are woven in there. We put together a small book club recently, and, and I had a couple of people here, maybe one person from each department reading the book's book Atomic Habits, because I was in one of our staff meetings talking about when you think you're done with your work for the day, but you're getting ready to leave for work, make sure you make your bed, put the dishes away before you go to bed at night. Make sure the dishes are put away. Do one more thing to make yourself better the next day. It might be taking your clothes out of the closet or doing that extra load of laundry, whatever that looks like. It's the same thing in your work life. You feel so much better and more accomplished. When I was talking about that, one of our people mentioned that she was reading the book Atomic Habits 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 and we're gonna do a work session on it. Typical things that we all can benefit from, both in our personal lives and our professional lives.
Russel:That sounds like a concept, again, I, I think, sounds like similar esque on, on our end, that we, we care, cared much, very much cared about the total person, uh, aspect that it, you know, yes, we wanted to learn and get engrossed in, in our work, but that it's, it's also about we want people to live full lives and, and be good inside and outside of work. I love that approach. I'm such a reader. You can see the books behind me here, and I, I never did the book club thing and I'm so mad at myself that, that I never instituted that in the business because I think it's, it's a great way to have fun and learn and grow and just have really good conversations.
Michelle:I'll let you know how this, this is our beta run, so I'll let you know how the meeting goes.
Russel:Oh, this is your beta run. Okay.
Michelle:Mm-hmm. This one is, so I'll let you know how it goes next week, but always looking to reinvent, come up with ideas, uh, you know, make it part and parcel of, of what we do, the culture.
Russel:Another thing that sounds kind of indicative of just how you approach saying you've already name dropped new things that you're encountering or doing, is a business of bringing in a consultant or bringing in an expert to help guide you through that. Is that a core philosophy and belief of which has guided you through the business as well?
Michelle:I think it's something I've learned over time. That whole mentality of when you start, you have that, you feel a little bit more insecure, but you wanna come across that you know what you're doing, so you don't wanna ask for help. I think you learn over time when you work on yourself and when you're working on your business simultaneously, you start to realize that you don't know it all. It's okay to be vulnerable, admit where you're weak at, you know? Sure, I took a couple courses in AI and sure, I feel really confident in my ability to use it, but now how do I take that and teach my team, and do I wanna be spending all day doing that? The answer is no. I wanna be around our clients. I wanna be ideating, I wanna talk to new customers. I wanna do the things that I enjoy doing, and I love training our people, but by no means am I gonna be a good trainer at something that's so damn new that I don't know all the nuances of it yet. So bring in an expert that can help you do it. Makes all the sense.
Russel:It does so much and I, and I think of in business, I'm sitting here like reflecting on myself as you're sharing this in business. I, you know, always was apt to bring in a consultant coach or something. Pretty much mainstay. Now I'm sitting here thinking my personal life, how much time I'm wasting by, why don't I have a personal trainer? I work out, I spend so much time workout. I'm sure I could get to the results 10 times quicker if I just spend the money and hire a personal trainer or take anything that I don't know how to do well, and why? Why am I beating my head against the wall trying to figure out something? That's just not my forte.
Michelle:Did you ever have regrets when you were like knee deep in your business and wish you did things different from the beginning?
Russel:How many days do you have? Do you want to talk about, uh, something along those lines? Absolutely.
Michelle:Yeah, it's like, you know, do you go for the, the slow nickel or do you go for the quick buck? I've never been a quick buck person, but then I look around me at, you know, the imposter syndrome of, oh my God, they grew so fast. But it's like, do they have a good reputation? Do they do things the right way? Sometimes I look and go, I, I wish I had just stepped on the gas pedal a little bit faster in the beginning, um, and maybe expedited some things a little quicker. But we're here for a reason. We're where we're at for a reason. And uh, I still feel like every day I am starting over. I come in with the same attitude and the excitement that I had when I first started the business.
Russel:That's amazing. I'm a big believer in, I, I hate the quick buck concept. I think it's wrought with a lot of things and not to say there's not some cool things for some created by some fast movers in the world, but there's been a lot of messes as well. I think I'd go back and we were the other way, we were just selling and, you know, grow as fast as we possibly can and, and, you know, out the gate. The reality was, is we kind of crashed and burned, in the early 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 tried and true, slow and steady guy all the way.
Michelle:Slow and steady wins the race, as they say.
Russel:It does and, and it makes sure that, and I think about, you know, some of those early days when, when we were moving really fast, there's people 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 could have gotten for their dollar, that they, you know, some team members that, that didn't work out well that I think, come on later, would've been great team members. Part of being a little young and dumb I guess, but I can only hope that on the backside of it that we, we made a lot of clients a lot better and made team members have really good lives because we've really screwed it up enough in the beginning. Great question though. Something that I think like just, I love just kinda the attitude and energy you bring to the business, but I'm so curious by this, you have a pretty cool plane ride story.
Michelle:That was in the very beginning, trying to figure out can we have a niche? Should we get into being a niche business? Do we work on healthcare? Do we work on automotive? Do we work on banking and finance? And the answer was still to be seen. I traveled down to Florida for a workshop. For a seminar that was in the country club world in terms of country club marketing was becoming a big thing. They were getting ready for baby boomers, golf clubs were building, gated communities were building, and I thought that there might've been a really good opportunity. I went to this conference in Florida, got on the airplane, and this guy sits next to me. It's on a Saturday. I'm like dressed to drive to this conference. I'm dressed to in a business casual kind of business, professional outfit. He is like sitting next to me and he is talking to me and I'm like, I'm just not in the mood to talk. He's asking me all kinds of questions and we just started talking. We ended up talking the whole way down. I'm used to being the one that asks all the questions to people, and not once was I able to even ask one of those questions. Finally I said, enough about me, enough about what I do, enough about marketing and my philosophy is on advertising, but tell me what do you do? He said he was in the automotive business. Fast forward to Tuesday he was on his way down to his home and was supposed to have a meeting and then fly back on Monday. I was coming home on Tuesday. Would you know, he changed his flight, was on my flight home. Yelled my name on the plane. Sat next to me and said, you're gonna call my director of operations tomorrow, you're hired.
Russel:That is unbelievable.
Michelle:Unbelievable. Crazy story, right? And that was right when we were making 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 was trying to build this business with two young kids at home. And he built out the office space and I said to him I need to hire some more people and there's not gonna be enough room in that office. Literally, the day I was supposed to move in, I took a vacant space. It was in the same building that was like three times the size. That really gave us the kick that we needed all because of a flight on down to Florida.
Russel:All because of a plane flight.
Michelle:Mm-hmm.
Russel:Wow. Now, this makes me think, and I'm generally a pretty friendly, talkative person, but I kind of don't like talking on, on a plane. But this makes me think I'm, I'm doing myself a disservice apparently.
Michelle:For sure. It was a great experience.
Russel:Something I'm, I'm just curious about, it sounds like you, your twins were right around the birth of the business. What's their perspective this far down the line on? Are they budding entrepreneurs or just how do they reflect on, on your whole business experience?
Michelle:It's interesting that you say that. My husband's also an entrepreneur and has a business, and I think that they've seen us working our asses off. Can I say that on this?
Russel:You can say that. Yes. All good.
Michelle:They've seen us working our butts off and, um, being really dedicated to them as children, whatever it took. We would make sure we were at all their games and sometimes wouldn't eat dinner till nine o'clock at night and then put'em to bed because we were doing so many things. But I think that, when you talk to them, they'll say that they respected what we've done. I have regrets sometimes feeling that I was away from the house a little too much, but they don't really see it that way And to this day, the guilt comes out and they said mom, what if you picked us up from school? We would've wanted to hang out with our friends anyway, so you would've been someone who picked us up. What difference did it make if you hired someone to pick us up? We had dinner together and then every weekend we made sure that it was family time. So while my friends who didn't have businesses and may have been stay at home moms or had a nine to five job they were looking to get rid of their kids on the weekend. We were just the opposite. It was like, it's family time. We're gonna go skiing, we're gonna go boating, we're gonna do things together as a family. We made it work. My lawyer at the time said to me, you're gonna, as you launch your business, you've gotta make a decision. It's either gonna be quantity of time or quality of time. You can only pick one, and I chose for quality.
Russel:Just great insight. That's what I was just kind of thinking in my head, right? You might have missed some moments, but when you were there you were there for what matters most and you were there a hundred percent. I do tend to think that, that is important and, and I'm, I'm, if you go back to kind of regrets in business, I think I was a little too quick to not be there for certain things when they were young, but I will say again, coming outta the ashes that allowed me to be there always, there for coaching and, and where, when, and wherever I needed to be. I was there later and, and that quality thing really does ring so true.
Michelle:I think what it has done for my kids at least, is it has instilled so much independence and a really solid work ethic in both of them. It's amazing to see because now they're gonna be 24 next week, so you see it happening and it's damn, okay, we did all right. They're good kids.
Russel:No need to Monday morning quarterback. Time has proven you've done a good job there. Very cool introspection there. Thank you for sharing that. As we kind of start to wrap up here, I'm just curious, what, what are the next 24 years of, of Market Mentors looks like? What's the big plan for the future?
Michelle:We've got what we call the BHAG. We've got a 10 year plan with that BHAG goal. We're getting the right people in the seats and making sure that we are filling the seats with people that believe and embody our culture and the care to grow our client base and those that wanna be on the ride with us are gonna have a fun, a fun time and learn a lot along the way.
Russel:Can't wait to see how that works out for you. I'll just leave you with one last other big question here, Michelle, are entrepreneurs born or are they made?
Michelle:They are born. How about can I say that? They're born to be made. Not everybody comes out of the womb with that attitude. You don't have to be a driver, you have to have a vision. Having a vision and being a driver at the same time is really what helps you grow. But artists are not always drivers. They're just artistic and they have a dream, you know? I think it's depends on the type of organization and business that you're in. We'll go with born to be made.
Russel:I love that. This is gonna sound like I'm a guy that has a lot of tattoos, but I only actually have one. But I'm always inspired by tattoo ideas and that sounds like a really good tattoo idea of born to be made. Someday when I just give up, I'll just have all kinds of tattoos of all the cool things people say like that, that you shared today.
Michelle:There you go. You can combine that with your, your brother's philosophy of musicians, and you can have Bruce Springsteen and be born to be wild.
Russel:Yes. This is great. You almost gave me three today we got the peso model that's probably not tattoo-able, but the, uh, automate the ordinary, humanize the extraordinary and born to be made. Love it.
Michelle:And don't forget feedback. Feedback, honest feedback is a gift both given and received.
Russel:Oh yeah. Ah, that's a good one too, man. All right. very cool. If people wanna know more about Market Mentors, where can they go?
Michelle:Marketmentors.com. Really easy.
Russel:Alright, there you have it folks. Wonderful. Michelle, thank you so much for sharing so many nuggets of wisdom, your reflection on navigating parenthood and business and the power of learning and staying on your feet and agile and taking a very positive mindset to the business. So inspirational. Really appreciate you taking the time to share that with us today.
Michelle:Thanks so much for having me. You made it easy and uh, just fun to talk to, so I really appreciate the time.
We hope you've enjoyed this episode of An Agency Story podcast where we share real stories of marketing agency owners from around the world. Are you interested in being a guest on the show? Send an email to podcast@performancefaction.com. An Agency Story is brought to you by Performance Faction. Performance Faction offers services to help agency owners grow their business to 5 million dollars and more in revenue. To learn more, visit performancefaction.com.
Michelle:I was traveling a couple of, uh, years ago for work, going to a, um, one of my forum meetings with some colleagues across the country that also are in the agency business through the forays. It just so happened the owner's conference was happening in, um, in Phoenix for the NFL. Being from Massachusetts, we're big Patriots fans and I just have this admiration for Bill Belichick just in as much as people who like him or don't like him. I've always loved Bill Belichick and I said to the person I was traveling with, we better be going out to dinner tonight where all the teams are gonna be, just making sure that happens somehow. I get up to use, go to the restroom or do something. I'm walking up the stairs and I'm looking down and I banged right into Bill Belichick.
Russel:That's awesome.
Michelle:One of my, my highlights of my trip. I don't think I thought about anything else after that trip, but that one moment and I just didn't know what to say. I was completely at a loss of words.
Russel:Any words exchanged at all? Or just, uh, just a bump.
Michelle:Yeah. Really corny stuff though. I'm too embarrassed to, uh, to admit what I said to him, but yeah.
Russel:Just given his personality, I mean, obviously never met the guy. I could just see his reaction would be interesting no matter what you said.
Michelle:I got a little bit of a side smile like, you idiot, like you're funny.