How to Find a Mentor as a Digital Agency Owner: A Complete Guide

Being a digital agency owner is tough.

Markets are crowded, clients expect more than ever (how many times did you hear “we want to go viral” last month?), and juggling working in your business with working on your business can feel next to impossible.

But if you’re singing the agency owner blues, there is a solution.

Like every hero faced with a difficult challenge, you need a mentor to guide you.

The Main Challenge with Finding an Agency Mentor and How to Avoid It

To get the best advice from a mentor, you need someone who is a match for both industry experience and your target customer.

But for digital agency owners, that comes with one major problem:

Most of those potential mentors are also probably your competition.

Awkward.

So, you have a choice.

1. You can go to agency owners who don’t have the same target customer or agency experience. This comes with the major disadvantage that they may not be able to offer as targeted advice. But, you can then explore options like owners in your network or cold-contacting.
2. You find individuals who have previous agency experience or are specifically working to help agency owners.

In this case, we suggest the latter option. It’s not worth the potential advice mismatch to go after current owners who are not in your industry or have worked with your target audience.

So, let’s look at the different paths you can take to go down that second route:

Cold Contacting Former Agency Owners

This method is for both the brave and the patient, as it’s quite like searching for a specific diameter of needle in a very large haystack.

Because while LinkedIn does a fantastic job of searching for current roles, searching past companies by generic terms like “agency owner” isn’t as easy as a simple search.

So it’s time to dig through your network to narrow the search radius. Ask your connections if they know anyone who owned an agency in the past. Put calls out via social media if you’re comfortable doing so. Join communities directed at agency owners to see if any mentors or former agency leaders are conducting classes. With enough searching, you’re bound to stumble across folks who will be the right fit.

But, if you’re not quite as patient, there are faster routes.

Agency Owner Consultants and Coaches

That phrase “if there’s a will, there’s a way,” should have a parallel variant: “if there’s a niche, there’s a consultant for it.”

While agency coaches and consultants are definitely a niche market, there are plenty of options. Parkeeto compiled a list of over 30 agency coaches and a quick search for “digital agency coach” on LinkedIn pulls up about 1,500,000 results.

But, you probably already know the downside: consultants and coaches are expensive.

If you’re just getting your agency off the ground or working on a tight budget, a consultant’s fees may prove too expensive to be a feasible option.

But fortunately, there’s another option that doesn’t put such a wallop on your wallet.

Joining A Mentorship Platform

Your final option is to join a mentorship platform. This will probably be the fastest and least expensive way to access a mentor.

And since these mentors are ready and willing to help agency owners, it’ll also minimize the hair-tearing-out-frustration that comes with trying to find a mentor who isn’t also a competitor

But the trick here is finding the right platform. You need plenty of mentors who have agency experience.

So here are some of your options:

Mentorcruise

• Pricing Model: per session pricing + monthly fee and per session pricing for continuous mentorship, price range varies per expert and session type, starting at $39 for 20 minute intro call.
• Mentor Vetting Process: Unknown. Mentors are referred to as “highly vetted”, but the site does not outline their vetting process.
• Good fit for agency owners? Somewhat. 19 mentors appear in a search for “agency.”

Official Website

Intro.co

• Price: per session pricing, price range varies widely per expert, but is upwards of $100 per session for most marketing experts listed under a “marketing” search.
• Mentor Vetting Process: Unknown. Experts are referred to as “in-demand”, but the site does not outline their vetting process.
• Good fit for agency owners? Fairly. The numbers fall anywhere between 26-76 experts listed, depending on the search term around “agency,” “agency owner,” or “digital agency.”

Official Website

Mentor.cam

• Price: per session pricing, price range varies per expert, starting prices not outlined on the site
• Mentor Vetting Process: Unknown. An application is required and mentors are referred to as “otherwise inaccessible”, but the vetting process is not outlined on the site.
• Good fit for agency owners? Somewhat. Only 8 mentors are listed under a search for “agency.”

Official Website

GrowthMentor

• Price: $99 per month for 3 calls a month, $199 a month for unlimited calls per month, mentors who charge session fees are encouraged to set “startup friendly” prices.
• Mentor Vetting Process: Yes, and you can read all about it.
• Good fit for agency owners? Yes, definitely. 225 mentors list agency experience in their profiles under a search for the term “agency.”

At GrowthMentor, our agency owner mentors come from all over the map and a variety of industry backgrounds, so you’ll always have options for fresh perspectives.

Want to see the variety for yourself? Check out some of our featured mentors who have founded agencies:

Tomek Duda

One of Tomek’s rave reviews:

Tomek has a lot of experience on what it is like to build, run, and grow a marketing agency. I reached out to him for guidance on how to improve my writing (you can read his articles on blog.ladder.io) He was very friendly, gave me feedback about an article I wrote, and even suggested a list of resources to continue my journey. Thank you Tomek!

Nicholas Scalice

One of Nicholas’s rave reviews:

It was great connecting with Nicholas. He is super friendly and warm. He was kind enough to spend an hour as opposed to scheduled 30 mins. He guided with very important pointers and his reasoning based on his previous experience as agency owner. His knowledge of cold email + outbound outreach is amazing. He shared some amazing things on the fly. Highly recommended.

Jacob Brain

One of Jacob’s rave reviews:

Awesome call with Jacob. He asked a lot of questions about my situation and walked me through the different agency pricing models. We also talked about the importance of being creative in how you niche yourself, how to manage margins, how to categorise your work as an agency owner and hiring. Thanks!

Olga Mykhoparkina

One of Olga’s rave reviews:

Olga is friendly and so knowledgeable. She was able to quell a lot of doubts and fears I had about my current path! Plus, she did an audit of my website, and gave me some amazing, actionable advice on things I was doing right, and more importantly, doing wrong! Thanks a lot for your time and insights Olga. Really appreciate it, and hope to be in touch when I implement your suggestions and see results! 🙂

Mark Colgan

One of Mark’s rave reviews:

Had a really great session with Mark – he helped me get a much better view on defining my niche, and provided some resources + actionable tips that were extremely useful for my prospecting and lead generation. Recommended!

Dave Schneider

One of Dave’s rave reviews:

Dave was able to give really good, empathetic advice on balancing spend on business vs. spend on self. He was able to share his own past experiences and provided some key insights on how to find the best way to invest in growth while still making sure individual needs are met.

Justyna Ciecierska

One of Justyna’s rave reviews:

I am really impressed by how many new ideas and perspectives Justyna was able to give me in just 30 minutes. I am so grateful that I had the opportunity to call with her. I really appreciate that she gives me the opportunity to follow up with her, even after our call. Thank you so much!

So if you’re considering finding a mentor for your agency through a platform, we think the answer is easy. But don’t just take our word for it, look at the reviews from agency owners Hal Zeitlin, Brandon Horvatić, or even this gem from Ayhan K. Isaacs:

For access to the biggest pool of agency mentors without the crazy price tag attached, join GrowthMentor.

Regardless of how you find your agency mentor, you’ll be closer to unlocking massive growth for your business.

All you have to do is take the first step.