Agencies Must Pivot Upmarket to Avoid AI Commoditization

Key Quotes

"My start in business was actually going door-to-door, doing marketing and sales for an outsourced sales and marketing company. I didn't really stumble upon what a marketing agency was until the beginning of Nichen Control. Nichen Control is my fourth business. My first three were more based around my skills, where Nichen Control is actually more based around helping others."

Jesse P. Gilmore explains that his initial ventures were skill-based, meaning his income was directly tied to his personal output. This led to burnout, prompting him to pivot to Nichen Control, a business focused on assisting others, which became his fourth and most impactful endeavor.

"I got to a place where I was working in those businesses about 60-80 hour weeks for years, and I actually dissolved businesses as they were becoming more successful. Talk about being real, right? It's hard to manage all that. You get to a place where the part of entrepreneurship is actually based around the freedom, and if you create a business that actually takes away that freedom, you start to lose the vision and the passion for what you've built."

Jesse P. Gilmore reflects on the paradox of his earlier businesses: success led to more work, diminishing the very freedom he sought through entrepreneurship. He highlights that a business that consumes more of one's time and freedom, rather than providing it, can lead to a loss of passion and vision.

"My epiphany was actually when the business unit I was working in, a $4 billion global corporation, and one of the business units that we were building the systems in, led towards an acquisition for $180 million, and half of what was actually sellable was the systems that we were building. I was like, 'Holy crap, this is actually way more valuable than I thought.'"

Jesse P. Gilmore describes his realization about the immense value of well-developed systems. He witnessed firsthand how robust systems contributed significantly to a multi-million dollar acquisition, sparking his understanding that structured processes are a critical asset in business.

"I think from a trend standpoint, AI and its impact on agencies is obviously the biggest kind of topic. More efficiency, basically, from the agency, right? And then they're wondering whether or not they can bring it in-house and whether or not there's a need for an agency. That's a fear, that is their fear."

Jesse P. Gilmore identifies Artificial Intelligence as a major concern for agencies, noting that while AI promises increased efficiency, it also fuels a fear among agency owners about their future relevance and the potential for in-house solutions to replace their services.

"The offer triangle is basically taking those right-fit clients and then figuring out what are those three main problems that hold them back from achieving whatever they want, and then what are the three solutions that you offer, or like a certain process that it allows them to get to from their undesirable state to their desirable state."

Jesse P. Gilmore explains his "offer triangle" methodology, which involves identifying ideal clients and then pinpointing their core problems and the specific solutions or processes an agency provides to move clients from their current unsatisfactory state to their desired outcome. This framework is designed to clarify an agency's value proposition.

"The first one is at the end of each day, do what's called a 'plan tomorrow today.' And so where you write down three accomplishments of the day, and they have to be something, if you had a really crappy day, surviving could literally be an accomplishment. Awesome, yeah. And then the top three accomplishments of tomorrow, it doesn't necessarily mean it's like a to-do list, but it's just like what you're going to kind of forecast your milestones."

Jesse P. Gilmore advocates for a daily habit of "planning tomorrow today," which involves listing three accomplishments from the current day, even if they are as simple as survival, and then forecasting the top three milestones for the following day. He emphasizes this practice as a way to maintain focus and forecast progress.