It feels like there’s so much advice in the online business and marketing universe that isn’t actually applicable to small businesses and solopreneurs. Really big businesses try to sell their strategies and templates to small businesses, when what they actually need is more individualized advice about scaling their businesses and making growth less chaotic.

Our guest today, Maggie Patterson, has carved out a niche to mentor solopreneurs and budding agency owners without all of the world’s online marketing BS.

Maggie is a communications strategist who’s obsessed with small business growth strategies. She loves mashing up offline “old school” marketing and sales tactics with proven online best practices and has worked in and run small businesses for more than 20 years.

Maggie also owns a content marketing agency, Scoop Studios, where she and her team work with small to mid-sized companies to help them reach business goals through compelling content. 

We had an awesome and wide-ranging conversation about everything from why she has two businesses, to how she manages them, to common mistakes that new and growing agency owners tend to make. Maggie also tells us why it’s better for small business owners to learn from each other and stay plugged into the development of their industry rather than take cookie-cutter advice from big-A marketing agencies. 

Maggie also talks about how she’s taken a measured approach to growth with her business and team and what she’s had to learn about leadership on the way. Maggie has a really refreshing approach to content, marketing, and business ownership - this is definitely one of my favorite episodes this year.

What You’ll Learn from this Episode:

• Why Maggie decided to start and run two businesses instead of just one. 
• How she helps agency owners and other service-based business owners learn to build businesses that are sustainable and valuable.
• Why Maggie feels like a lot of the marketing advice being sold by big businesses isn’t applicable to smaller businesses and agencies.
• Why you have to market in a way that aligns with your business and your target market, rather than copying the strategies of businesses that seem similar to yours. 
• How Maggie balances her two businesses, gets clients for each, and manages them day-to-day.
• Why she’s glad her growth has been measured and slower rather than a rapid increase in clients, work, and team members. 
• How Maggie has stepped up her leadership education to fit with her personality, support her team, and get really clear about her role in each of her businesses.