Reset and Reinvention: A Self-Guided TBR Experience
2025-09-08 18:00 - 2025-09-10 16:00 (America/New_York) | Monday Night Grove, 1500 Northside Drive, Atlanta, GA, 30318, United States
The current uncertain times call for a seminar experiment. We still do a combined 25+ Total Business Resets ($25k+) and New Business Audits ($18k) every year, but some of you could probably benefit from a more affordable, self-guided version of the larger of the two programs, and so we’re going to do that! And as a bonus, our friend Karl Sakas will be joining as a guest facilitator and coaching expert.
This will be a two-day intensive for a limited audience. The pros are these:

2 days rather than 3 months+
80% cost savings over the full program
You get to learn from and build relationships with other principals.

The compromises:

Not as personalized
We won’t be able to survey all your people (though we will do personality profiles, for a small extra fee)
The implementation follow-up will be somewhat limited.

But honestly, I can’t imagine another seminar like this. And that’s because there isn’t one.
This will be held in Atlanta in a brand new, intimate facility and will be limited to a small number of firms, so please let us know if you have any questions and then grab a spot if you think it’ll be a fit. To dig a little deeper into what our flagship service looks like, read this.
We’ll have two very full days that look like this:
Sept 8, Monday

6:30p Group dinner, provided.

Sept 9, Tuesday

9:00—Benchmarking your financial performance. We’ll walk you through every important metric and help you understand how they are related and what levers to pull to improve them.
11:00—Positioning your firm to give you leverage in the marketplace and to enable a more efficient and effective marketing plan. Each firm will receive specific feedback on their best options.
1:00—Lunch, provided.
2:00—Positioning Workshop to give you a chance to pitch your idea and get feedback.
3:00—Service Offering Design. Here we’ll look at the best way to start relationships, how you need to lead clients with a Prix Fixe sort of menu rather than a buffet of choices, and how to grow those accounts but also step down to a lesser level of engagement, when appropriate, to be a valued member over a long time, but still stay around to be ready for the next project.
4:00—End/break.
6:00—Group dinner.

Sept 10, Wednesday

9:00—Lead Gen. How to drop opportunity into the drop of the funnel, consistently, but built around your personality, tied to your positioning, and simple enough to execute. We’ll present the options, make specific recommendations, have you build a one-page plan right then, and have you share it with the group.
11:00—Role | Structure | Processes | Staffing. Who should do what. Which role(s) are appropriate for you. What level of staffing do you need for each role. How do the departments work together. Here we present the findings from $300k+ of proprietary research, applied to your firm, weaving in the personality profiles which overlap specific roles.
1:00—Lunch, provided.
2:00—Future Proofing your firm. What are your best options? In addition to crafting an executable list of the things to fix first, and in what order, how do you make the firm both fun to run…and more sellable in the market? What can you expect?
4:00—End/go home with a lot of answers and some lifetime friends.

Cost: $5,000, payable by check or credit card. A second person from the same firm is $3,000. Principals only (or trusted leaders to which there’s full transparency to everything in the firm). If sending multiple people, please email us ahead of time so that we can coordinate discounts.
Personality Profiles: We also highly recommend that your entire team participate in a personality profile exercise ahead of time, which adds $100/person. If you already have a DiSC-like product (or PI), no need to repeat the exercise (just bring them with you). This is not required, but it will make the second section on Wednesday a tad more helpful.
We will have a little preparation work for you to complete ahead of time, and we’ll also get on the phone with you, individually, during the month after the event, to go deeper and answer any questions that you have.

Leading Your Firm's Growth With Account and Project Management
2025-09-23 08:00 - 2025-09-24 12:00 | Monday Night Garage, 933 Lee St, Atlanta, GA, 30310, United States
Group Pricing Available, Just Ask!
Seminar Synopsis
We have further focused and expanded our popular Account and Project Management seminar this year, adding content and bringing in experts Jenny Plant and Brett Harned as speakers. The result is an intensive two-day crash course on all things account and project management. Those just starting to explore the subject and those who have been steeped in it will both benefit greatly.
This seminar is designed for the account management team and the project management team that works alongside them. Strong client and project management is no substitute for great work, but it is key to the success of growing client relationships, and therefore growing a successful practice.
Agenda (subject to change)
Tuesday

9:00: Introduction
9:30: History and Context of the AM/PM World
10:30: Essential Principles of Great Account Management
12:00: Essential Principles of Great Project Management
1:00: Lunch (provided)
1:45: How to Grow Accounts
3:00: Leading Through Project Management
4:00: Networking and Happy Hour

Wednesday

9:00: Interplay of AMs and PMs, and Personality Profile Fits
10:15: How AMs and PMs Work Together Effectively
11:15: Modeling Conversations
12:30: Break

“I went to the seminar with the goal of being able to find where the line is between AM and PM role. What I got out of it was so much more! Most importantly I realized exactly how much money we’re leaving on the table by not continually engaging our clients and actively building those relationships.”

Speakers

Jenny Plant

David C. Baker, Punctuation

Brett Harned

Jenny Plant

Jenny Plant is the owner of Account Management Skills. She has 30 years of experience working mostly in account management, and has worked as a consultant for over 10 years. Jenny now coaches agency account managers to keep and grow business through her account accelerator program, providing a step-by-step process to help them adopt the right mindset and skill to create a client-centric plan to increase revenue. Jenny comes to us from London.
Brett Harned
Brett Harned is a consultant, coach, and author with 20+ years of experience leading digital and creative teams. He helps organizations solve people, process, and culture challenges with a strategic, human-centered approach. A longtime voice in the PM community, Brett founded the Digital PM Summit, wrote Project Management for Humans, and shares practical insights at BrettHarned.com.
David C. Baker

David C. Baker is an author, speaker, and advisor to entrepreneurial creatives worldwide. He has written 5 books, advised 900+ firms, and keynoted conferences in 30+ countries. His work has been discussed in dozens of international publications. The NY Times referred to him as the expert’s expert. He co-hosts the most listened to podcast in the creative services field (2bobs).

Accommodations
Not included, but suggested booking at Bellyard Hotel.
Detail

Savvy firms know that clients are far more likely to notice poor customer service long before they notice subpar effectiveness. It’s no excuse for sloppy work, of course, but if you can wrap great work inside strong client management, you’ll have the best of both worlds.
Here’s a simple three-part test for effective account managers. These three scenarios—if handled well— point to a strong account executive who can effectively do what may be the most difficult in an agency: straddle the fence between advocating for the client and advocating for the agency.

How early can the new business department hand off a warm lead to an account manager to close the first project in a long and prosperous relationship?
How effectively do the account people grow their accounts over time?
How well do account managers manage tense situations with presence and grace?

This two-day seminar will change how you see the account management role. We’ll start with understanding the overall structure of the role and how to interface effectively with other departments, noting the nuances that help build cooperation.

We’ll examine personality profiles and how they map to effective account managers – and project managers. Many firms are leaving hundreds of thousands of dollars and the table and letting things slip through the cracks, simply by not having the right people in the right seats. There are best practices related to this that are helpful to understand.

Then we’ll flip to the other side and review the specific elements of treating clients the way they say that want to be treated. This data is based on thousands of client interviews, compiling the clearest signals for top-performing firms.
Following on that theme, and based against a background of fully satisfied clients, we’ll look at a few key strategies to grow your best accounts. Qualified account people do grow accounts effectively, and that’s part of what makes them so valuable to creative firms.
And as both account and project management roles become increasingly AI-enabled, we’ll also explore how AI can enhance your efficiency, decision-making, and client impact. You’ll leave with fresh ideas and practical ways to apply AI to your day-to-day work – helping you stay ahead in a fast-evolving landscape.

Finally, we’ll look very specifically at how to manage tension—healthy and otherwise—to maneuver personnel roadblocks and enhance your personal effectiveness.
This is a completely reworked seminar only offered once per year. It is also limited to 130 attendees to improve the quality of the interaction and leave as much time for discussion and questions as possible.

Small Acquisitions as a Growth Strategy
2026-03-04 13:00 - 14:00 | https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83386035902
We tend to think of M&A in terms of selling our firms, but there is plenty of opportunity to grow via acquisition as well. The benefits are numerous, and it might not cost as much as you think to bring a small firm into the fold. We’ll talk through the ins and outs of this under-utilized strategy and answer any questions you might have.

Write The Damn Book Already
2026-04-07 18:30 - 2026-04-08 16:30 | Monday Night Grove, 1500 Northside Drive, Atlanta, GA, 30318, United States
I hesitate to use the word “seminar” for this, because it’s not going to be a bunch of lectures, but more of a hands on workshop where I’ll work through:

When and why to write a book.
Developing the concept.
Rounding out the research.
How to write it.
Three options for getting it published.
Technicalities: copyright, cover, design, illustrations, trim size, editing, proofreading, etc.
Print and Kindle and Audible considerations.
What promotion avenues work (and what don’t).
Cost and revenue expectations.
Making sure it impacts your firm and your personal career.

But it’ll be a small group (capped at 20, but probably 12 there), and each of us will help shape every person’s concept, we’ll start a small group to stay in touch, and will move this forward.
Many of you have a book in you, and there’s nothing quite like spending deep time with a subject to learn more than you could ever dream. It’ll change you, first; forget about the rest of it, because that’s all gravy.
Atlanta, 6:30p dinner on Tuesday night, April 7, and then 8:30a-4:00p on Wednesday, April 8. Previous authors welcome.

Build an Ownable Data Model
2026-08-18 18:30 - 2026-08-19 16:30 | Monday Night Grove, 1500 Northside Drive, Atlanta, GA, 30318, United States
This is a combined seminar and workshop where together we’ll work through:

How it relates to your positioning.
Five origin stories: cost, time, impact.
Eleven real life examples from clients
Building your own “Two-Day Data Sprint”.
Individual exercise and group feedback.
Productizing your data in a diagnostic roadmapping.
Critical features: numerical, intern-proof, comparison mapping.
Protecting the IP.

But it’ll be a small group (capped at 12), and each of us will help shape every person’s concept, we’ll start a small group to stay in touch, and will move this forward.
Many of you have had your own inklings of a proprietary data model. Let’s pull on those threads, create a simple framework, and give you a big head start on your competition.
Join us, regardless of where you are on this data journey, but being well-positioned or being open to it will make your experience better, whether it’s a vertical or a horizontal positioning.
Atlanta, 6:30p dinner on Tues night, August 18, and then 8:30a-4:00p on Wed, August 19. $2,500.
