Should your agency pivot to a new focus amid economic shifts?

Agency Leadership Podcast

In this episode, Chip and Gini address the topic of pivoting for small agencies in response to changing economic and political climates.

They discuss the importance of evaluating whether to switch niches, cautioning against overreacting to trends.

They highlight the risks of chasing ‘gold rush’ industries like cannabis and AI without true expertise. The conversation includes advice on gradual pivoting, focusing on adjacent industries, and the importance of long-term planning.

Key takeaways

• Chip Griffin: “No industry loses the need for marketing, communications, advertising, digital services, etc. And even back in 2020, even industries like hospitality had new needs that needed to be met. And so if you’re serving that industry, could you adapt to provide what they need today in the current environment?”
• Gini Dietrich: “If you are thinking about pivoting to a new industry, it’s not something that you will do and be successful in 2025. It’s going to take some time.”
• Chip Griffin: “There are lots of places to go and chase revenue. You need to chase profits.”
• Gini Dietrich: “You absolutely can be using AI inside your agency and you could be teaching your clients how to use it effectively. But going all in and saying, “I’m now an AI agency” is not a very smart idea.”

Resources

• “Pivot” scene from Friends
• “Pivot” outtake from Friends

Related

• Rebranding or repositioning your agency
• Evolve your agency to find market fit

View Transcript

The following is a computer-generated transcript. Please listen to the audio to confirm accuracy.

Chip Griffin: Hello and welcome to another episode of the Agency Leadership Podcast. I’m Chip Griffin.

Gini Dietrich: And I’m Gini Dietrich.

Chip Griffin: And we have a special guest today. If you’re watching on video,

Gini Dietrich: Say hi.

Chip Griffin: A very restless canine.

Gini Dietrich: Yes, she wants to play ball and I had to tell her it’s not time to play ball.

Chip Griffin: No, we will. And we’re not going to play ball here on the show either.

Gini Dietrich: No, no, we’re not.

Chip Griffin: No, but to quote Ross from Friends, Pivot!

Gini Dietrich: Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! Pivot!

Chip Griffin: So, for those of you who have not seen Friends, just go watch it, I mean.

Gini Dietrich: Yeah, that one scene, you can Google it.

Chip Griffin: You can Google that one scene. I’m, I’m sure that, you know, Jen will include it in the show notes because she, anytime we make a reference to a movie scene or a TV scene, she likes to actually link it, but we’re going to talk about pivoting, not in the same way that Ross on Friends was, was talking about it.

We don’t have any difficulty moving a sofa around because we’re not going to move a sofa around.

Gini Dietrich: No, we’re not.

Chip Griffin: I will not even try anymore. If I did that, I would definitely hurt myself.

We don’t want to hurt ourselves. We do want to talk about pivoting because, look, the world continues to change day by day. We expect more change in the years ahead. One of the questions that I know you’ve gotten, and that I’ve gotten from some clients, is should their agency be thinking about focusing on different industries, pivoting to a different focus. Because perhaps the industry or industries that they’re serving today don’t have as bright an outlook based on economic conditions, political conditions, other things.

And so I guess, you know, the question is how do you figure out when to pivot and how do you go about it if you choose to do so?

Gini Dietrich: Yeah, it’s a hard one because you mentioned that we have, we both have clients who are thinking about this. Yeah, we, we’ve always said like it’s a really good idea to have an expertise and to have a niche and to really focus in on industries and it is.

There also are cyclical events that happen that can affect certain industries. You know, during 2020, we saw hospitality, travel, tourism, all of those go down. And so if you didn’t have any other industries that you focused on, it was a really rough year for you. You know, that we always, we tend to talk about there are recession proof industries like healthcare, pet care, people always spend money on their pets, things like that, that you could think about.

But there are industries right now that I think are, are going to be struggling in 2025 and beyond, regulatory kinds of things like, environmental, cannabis, you know, there’s some, some industries that are having a tough time. And so thinking about Is that, how do I take that experience and translate it to a new industry, I think is a smart thing to do because you want to have it diversified enough that when one industry is down, your, your whole business isn’t sunk.

Chip Griffin: Yeah, I think it’s, it’s certainly something worth considering. I do, generally speaking, urge caution because it’s very easy to overreact to positive or negative news. Sure. And it is, it is rare that even an industry that may not be as thriving, today as it was a year or two ago, doesn’t still have opportunities.

And in fact, for small agencies, sometimes your opportunities increase in an industry that’s, that’s struggling a bit. Not, not that’s completely down and out. I’m not talking about that, but, but someone that’s, that’s not as thriving because they may not have the budgets for the, the, the mid sized agency, the large agency.

And so someone who is willing to take on smaller projects, be more nimble, might be an option. So before you decide to, to cast your lot in a different direction, I would really take a hard look at the industry you serve and ask, can you just adapt your messaging or adapt the services that you’re providing or package things up a little bit differently in such a way to be competitive in the current environment?

Because no industry loses the need for marketing, communications, advertising, digital services, et cetera. And even back in 2020, even industries like hospitality, most of them had new needs that needed to be met. And so if you’re serving that industry, could you adapt to provide what they need today in the current environment?

Gini Dietrich: Yeah, I think that’s a really good point. Because in 2020, some of the things that we adapted to were the need for CEOs to understand how to communicate values. Because, you know, for so long we’ve been told, CEOs have been told, don’t talk about your values, don’t talk about your beliefs because you’re going to alienate half of your customer base and then 2020 hit with a pandemic and social justice and all of a sudden they were told you have to, you have to do this now.

And oh, by the way, this is how Gen Z makes decisions and they’re coming into the workforce. So we were able to kind of shift toward. education and training of executives on how to do those kinds of things versus, you know, the very tactical stuff that we up to that point had done, like earned media and content marketing and social media.

Right. So there are ways, I think, to your point that you can find new opportunities within the industries that you service. And I would also caution that if you’re. If, if you are thinking about pivoting to a new industry, it’s not something that you will do and be successful in, in 2025, it’s going to take some time.

So if you’re going, if that is a strategy, it’s something that you should be thinking about longer term. And it’s just like your business develop, development plan, your pipeline, you have to keep that full all the time. It’s the same thing here. You have to, you know, be really strategic because it’s a longer term effect than saying, Oh, I think I’m going to go into healthcare now, even though I’ve been doing cannabis for 20 years.

So you have to think about it from that perspective too.

Chip Griffin: And I think it’s important to think of it as pivoting and not throwing in the towel and starting fresh. Are there times you may need to do that? Yes. But that’s a whole lot harder and that’s a much longer timeframe, typically speaking, to get back to where you are today.

And so if you’re, if you are thinking about this, if you have come to the conclusion that you really do need to move beyond the pool that you’re currently fishing in, the more closely adjacent you can remain to it. the more likely you are to be successful. First of all, you and your team have the knowledge that you need to succeed there.

You know the language and those kinds of things and you know how to produce the results for that kind of client. So, my encouragement is to, before you start thinking about a whole new industry, think about how can you maybe expand your definition of the current industry or industries that you serve.

How can you find something that’s immediately adjacent to it that you might be able to move into? Yep. And, and you’re much more likely to have success in the near term in that way than you are saying, okay, you know, I’m, I’ve, I’ve been, you know, in the oil industry. And so now all of a sudden I’m going to go into telecom or,

Gini Dietrich: Right.

Chip Griffin: You know, something like that.

Gini Dietrich: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I actually, last year I did a panel for Notified and one of the, my fellow panelists talked about this a little bit. He said, you know, when, when he was building his agency, instead of going after a whole bunch of different industries, he took his really specific automotive experience and then looked at adjacent industries.

So he was able to go into, electric vehicles and then into tires, I guess, is, is pretty profitable who knew, and other manufacturing types thing, types of things that he had adjacent kinds of experience with. And I think that’s really smart advice. Because it’s not going, it’s not going from cannabis to healthcare, right?

Or hospitality to manufacturing. It’s, it’s creating the opportunity for you to use the experience that you have and help build businesses inside different industries that are affected in the same way.

Chip Griffin: And, and you really want to be thinking about, you know, who can, who can you solve similar problems for?

What industries do you and your team already have knowledge about and around? So that you’re not having to start from square one and understand all of the, the lingo that they’re using. And understand their, their, heir client base and things like that. You really, you want to stick with the things that you know, and you know, you can succeed with.

Because that’s easier to sell to a prospect, but it’s also easier for you to execute profitably. And we always talk about that, that it’s, it’s not just about chasing the revenue. There are lots of places to go and chase revenue. You need to chase profits.

Gini Dietrich: Yes.

Chip Griffin: And if you have to relearn everything, it’s really hard to generate profits, at least in the near term.

Gini Dietrich: Yeah. And also clients don’t want to pay you to learn on their dime. They want to hire agencies that have the experience and the knowledge. Because typically they’re hiring you because you’re the expert. Really hard to be an expert if you’re going into an industry where you don’t have any knowledge.

Chip Griffin: And as you’re thinking about this too, I would also say, don’t chase the next gold rush.

It’s really easy to sit there and say, okay, well, this industry is really hot right now. Everybody’s talking about them. There’s a lot of buzz around it. Those are generally places you don’t want to go unless you already have specific knowledge, expertise, connections, those sorts of things. And this has happened a number of times over the years.

Where you have an agency that says, well, you know, I, I, I remember this very distinctly probably five, ten years ago, agencies left and right wanted to get into cannabis, because It was everybody’s talking about it. It’s starting to get legalized. There’s lots of opportunities. And so it sort of became a gold rush and you looked around and there’s like a million agencies that now claim expertise and focus on cannabis.

Same thing happened a number of years ago with crypto. There’s a lot of these kinds of things. And as we sit here and we look at headlines here in 2025, there are going to be any number of things that you’re going to look at and say, Ooh, they’re going to be doing really well. I need to go chase that. You just need to remember everybody else is chasing it too.

And so now what you’re doing is you’re going into an area that maybe you don’t have a lot of expertise or connections and there’s going to be a lot of other people flooding that market. Is that really where you want to be? You’re creating an uphill battle for yourself in a number of different fashions that is not likely to be helpful.

Gini Dietrich: And I would say to that as well that when it’s not just industry that you should focus like that. You should, I mean, back in the day we had everybody say, Oh, Well, I’m going to be a social media agency now and look how well that’s turned out. And now everybody’s saying, well, I’m an AI, AI agency. You can bring social media into your agency, you can bring AI into your agency, but focusing solely on those things never, we’ve seen historically those, that doesn’t work out.

I remember having a conversation with a really good friend who ran a PR firm and she said, we’re going to go in on all social, go all in on social media and that’s what we’re going to be is a social media agency. And that agency no longer exists. Which sucks, but because she went all in on it, and I remember saying to her, I don’t think this is a good idea, and here’s why, and she thought that I was wrong. And I’m not, not saying it, like, it’s, it was really crappy, she did not pivot like she should have.

But same thing with AI, like you, you absolutely can be using AI inside your agency and you could be teaching your clients how to use it effectively. But going in all in and saying, I’m now an AI agency is not a very smart idea.

Chip Griffin: And look, I think that that one of the things you have to think about anytime you have that kind of a specialization is you first have to start with, is this really an expertise that I have?

Right. Right. So for, for folks like you and me, focusing on social media back in the day kind of made sense because we were sort of, you know, OG social media people, if you will. And, but I saw a lot of people who really knew nothing about social media. But they just, they heard about, and they’re like, so we need to focus on this.

You know, same thing with AI. If you actually understand AI and, and you’re, and you find innovative ways to bring it, it makes more sense to at least integrate it with your practice in a, in a more direct way. Yes. But if you’re just doing it because you heard the term. And you’re like, this is the, this is where to go.

You’re much less likely to have success. And I would also encourage you if you’re thinking about pivoting on your, the services that you offer or the focus from that standpoint, be really careful about hyper specialization. I think about the agencies just a couple of years ago who, we’re creating clubhouse practices and we’re going to focus on Clubhouse.

Oh, right. How’d that work out for you? Or back in the day, I love this one, Second Life. I mean, there were, there were media outlets that had Second Life bureaus. I think Reuters is one of them.

Gini Dietrich: Really? I don’t remember that.

Chip Griffin: Seriously? Yeah. How’d that work out for you? Right. Right. You’ve got to be careful about chasing these things because just because they have headlines for a few weeks or a few months doesn’t mean that it’s something you need to be leaning that heavily into. Yeah. Particularly if it’s not something that you really understand, that you’re passionate about, that you have a way of going about monetizing it.

Just saying it and, and including it in your, your marketing materials, because everybody’s using that term because everybody today claims AI. And they’ve been doing this for, I mean, even before, you know, we had chat GPT out there, you know, what, a year and a half ago or so people were still, they, they sprinkled AI into everything and software companies love to say, we use AI for this.

No, you don’t. Now, today people actually are using at least generative AI for a lot of things legitimately in their, their products and services and that kind of stuff, but even still. It’s a stretch. And so don’t stretch on these things. Lean into what you actually know, where your actual expertise is, where you can actually produce results.

Because if you just do it because of the marketing ability of it, you’re going to be caught out soon enough by your clients and prospects. And that’s not a comfortable place to be.

Gini Dietrich: Yeah. I mean, go back to what I said earlier, which is clients hire agencies because they’re experts at something and it’s going to make their lives easier.

So if you are an expert at it, then by all means, go all in. If it’s something that you’re interested in and want to become an expert, by all means, do that, but you have to do it on your own time, on your own dime. And I like to use our, my agency as the guinea pig, so figure out what works for us first. And then be able to say, you know, three or four years from now, we can help you do this.

And these are the kinds of results we’ve seen. And it, and it’s because we’ve been able to use it, us as a case, my own business as a case study. So by all means, become an expert, but you can’t say that you’re an expert in something if you’re just starting out.

Chip Griffin: Absolutely. And, and, and so this is, this is a good place to also remind you that as you’re thinking about all of these things, you don’t need to go conquer the world all at once.

And so if you’re worried about your, your current focus, whether that’s the service set or the industry that you’re serving, also remind yourself, how many new clients do you really need over the next six or 12 months in order to be successful? And so as you think about that, what you might do is you might have a long term plan for a pivot, but you don’t necessarily need to, to do a dramatic pivot today.

That’s right. You can certainly look on the horizon and say, you know, we really need to be focused more on AI for the future. And so we’re going to, to test it on ourselves. We’re going to test, you know, we’re going to see how we can integrate it more. But for today, I don’t really need to have that pivot.

That’s my long term pivot. Near term, maybe there’s more minor modifications that I can make. In who I’m targeting or what I’m doing in order to achieve the results I’m looking for.

Gini Dietrich: Yeah. And I will, I will say this, leave you with this one piece of advice. They always say that it takes 10 years to have quote unquote overnight success.

And we launched the PESO model in 2014 in Spin Sucks the Book. And it has literally taken 10 years. So, you have to think about it from that perspective. If I’m going to be an expert in something, if I’m going to quote, have overnight success in a new industry, if I’m going to have overnight success with a, a new service, it’s going to take some time and you have to plan for that.

So, you’re not just going to go out and, you know, all of a sudden everybody goes, Oh my gosh, this is amazing. And where did you come from? Because that’s just not how it works. Plan for it. Start your pivot now because it could take a good decade before you get to where you want to be.

Chip Griffin: There’s, there’s no get rich quick scheme out there, no matter how many YouTube videos you watch or, or business books that you buy that tell you here’s the secret to making, you know, 10 million as an agency owner.

It’s, it’s slow, methodical, process driven work that brings you real success.

Gini Dietrich: That’s exactly right.

Chip Griffin: So with that, we’re going to pivot to the end of this show.

Gini Dietrich: Badump bump.

Chip Griffin: I’m Chip Griffin.

Gini Dietrich: I’m Gini Dietrich.

Chip Griffin: And it depends.