We've got some exciting news to share: My role is changing here at MKG.
Over the past 10 years as CEO, my responsibilities and obligations spanned across sales, business strategy, finance and overall business operations (to name a few of the many I can recall 🙂).
And like any business owner, getting this agency off the ground required me to wear many hats.
What I didn't realize until earlier this year is that some of those hats are energy vampires to me.
Have I become proficient at leading the financial operations of this business? Absolutely!
But that kind of work absolutely drains all my mojo. All my mental momentum goes "adios" after a day buried in financial analysis and planning.
Like many business owners I have read and am a fan of the Jim Collin's concept of 'seats on the bus'. It took us 10 years in business to realize that I have been sitting in the wrong seat. Better late than never, amirite?
What I need to be doing is focusing on where the digital marketing industry is going in order to build an agency that will support our clients needs as well as the future needs of our employees. That takes the form of activities like:
- Analyze industry research and trends
- Speak with clients, partners and other industry leaders in order to provide value directly back to their professional interests (give, give and give some more!)
- Develop product or service offerings that meet client needs
- Think through M&A opportunities as they come up
- Develop and nurture huge external relationships
...to name a few things 🙂
Now, I'm able to focus my energy on those activities. Because Kerry Guard is stepping into the role of CEO here at MKG Marketing.
Kerry gets charged up when acting as a strategic thinker. She enjoys building and optimizing systems around Operations, Sales, Marketing and Finance. This is the seat Kerry should have been in for quite some time now.
We will slowly roll out this transition. It may take a month or a year to fully pass the CEO hat from myself to Kerry. And that's ok! This will take as long as it needs to take for us, our awesome MKG-units, and our clients to be confident to take on these new seats.
The only effect our clients might feel is a streamlined agency/client working experience as Kerry has the bandwidth and authority to improve on the systems across Marketing, Sales, Finance, and Operations. You will still have the full support of your same service line experts and Account Director with Jenna, our Managing Director, supporting the entire group. In the event you'd like to escalate something past Jenna, you will now escalate to Kerry instead of Mike.
With that news being shared, I'd like to end this update on a note of gratitude:
Mike: I am blessed to have a business partner with the unique superpowers of deduction, empathy and systems building to help build a people first palace here at MKG Marketing (say that 3 times fast). And she's doing it from a quarter of the way around the world! I am grateful that she has the expertise and energy - she's got rocket fuel in her veins - to take on this challenge to allow me to fly higher doing what I do best. Onward!
Kerry: I'm grateful for the opportunity to take what Mike has built in Sales and Finance these last 10 years, pull that together with Marketing and HR then streamline it for our existing team members and clients to give them an even better experience. It's an honor to fill Mike's very big CEO shoes and I can't wait to take his new ideas and integrate them, propelling our clients and their brands forward.
