2Bobs—with David C. Baker and Blair Enns

Why Entrepreneurs Are Unemployable

14 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Blair interviews David about a recent article in which he argues that the very traits that make entrepreneurs successful also make it hard for them to...

The Problem of Mechanistic Thinking

31 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

David interviews Blair about his recent article in which he explores how our businesses are not simple machines that can be tuned (or killed) with spe...

Oppositio Singularis: The Positioner's Folly

17 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

David sees too many marketing agencies trying to attract new business by staking claims of specialness on things for which nobody is claiming the oppo...

Dealing With the Ghosting Problem

03 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Are prospects not responding to your follow-up after you submit a proposal? Blair goes through what might be causing their lack of response and then p...

Defending the Castle When the Moats Are Drained

19 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

One characteristic of our industry is disappearing moats. After a brief overview of the fourteen moats we've lost from 1965 to today, we'll look at wh...

The Four Priorities of Winning New Business

05 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

What do we do in those situations where we have to pitch? Blair simplifies some important principles from his books into a sequence of four precepts w...

Understanding Earnouts

22 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

If/when you sell your firm, it'll likely be the largest transaction of your life, and so it makes sense to understand it! In this episode David gives ...

Grow or Die?

08 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Blair recognizes growth opportunities in every area of life and business, yet sees many people chasing metrics while unknowingly resisting genuine pro...

You're Cheating Clients Unless You're Repetitive

24 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

David recognizes that the fear of repeating ourselves in our client work is motivated by the right things: "am I delivering value?"   LINKS "Repeatin...

How to Get $500M to Build a Website

10 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Blair tells the story of recreation.gov and how its performance pay deal has been nothing but wins for every party involved, with plenty of lessons fo...

When a Key Employee Wants Equity

27 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

David provides a framework for one of the most important conversations in a creative agency principal's life.   LINKS "When A Key Employee Wants Equi...

SpamHack Your Way to Growth!

13 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Instead of railing against AI-generated spam, Blair decides to "get in on the action" with his brand new SpamHack AI Growth System™️ in this spoof...

What I Learned From Teaching Motorcycle Racing

30 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

David recognizes more than a few parallels between his passion for motorcycle racing and the work being done in creative and marketing agencies.   LI...

A DIY New Business System

16 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Instead of just relying on the talent of individual sales people, Blair recommends creative agencies identify and invest in six elements as a part of ...

Dealing With Today's Employee

02 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

David finds the courage to address a topic he's been putting off for awhile, as he is seeing more agency principals struggling to maintain both health...

There Is No Credential Meeting

18 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Instead of beginning the relationship with a prospective client by presenting a deck on why your agency is so amazing and why you should be invited to...

The Waterfall of Differentiation

04 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

When it comes to positioning, David is still seeing creative firms failing to answer three essential questions in the proper sequence: category, speci...

Always Be Anchoring

21 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Blair sees high price anchors everywhere—from buying a suit to ordering a burger. So what factors should creative firms keep in mind as they use anc...

What to Ask, Sign, and Share With a Potential Buyer

07 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Following up on the recent episode on whether you should be considering that offer to sell your firm, David provides four questions to get answered, t...

The Power of a Metaphor

23 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The more unexpected the metaphor, the more information it carries. Blair has four less-obvious metaphors to give you access to entire playbooks in jus...

Should You Entertain That Acquisition Offer?

09 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Ignoring any unexpected offers to buy your business that might come your way is not in your best interest. But neither is dating all opportunities in ...

When Your Clients Talk to Each Other

26 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Your clients are far more likely to talk to each other when you have vertical positioning. Blair has observed both good and bad things arising from th...

Facing an Existential Crisis?

12 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

As we are hearing about more firms that are closing during these challenging times, David offers some guidance to help cut through the confusion when ...

Who Should Set Prices?

26 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

As Blair continues to encourage expert practice owners to price the client and not the service, he and David discuss the pros and cons of four levels ...

10 Reasons a Buyer Might Want Your Firm

12 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

David thinks principals should build their firms as if they were going to sell it while Blair's advice is to run it as if you'll never sell it. Being ...

To Standardize or Customize

29 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Through the process of writing his latest book, Blair's thinking has evolved on whether or not firms should resist the urge to productize their servic...

Don't Bother Eating Your Veggies

15 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In Blair's experience, the most common reason a lead generation plan doesn't get executed is it doesn't recognize and leverage the strengths or motiva...

Adapting Hiring Strategies Over Time

01 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

David describes the differences in what kind of people principals should hire during the early stage of their creative firm's development when it's al...

The Barbell of Pricing Risk

18 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Blair borrows a concept from finance and fitness to help creative agencies find the balance between low risk and high risk pricing strategies.

Selling Your Professional Services Firm

04 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Blair interviews David about his new book, Selling Your Professional Services Firm: A Primer.   LINKS Buy a copy of David's new book from him directl...

Questions, Not Answers

20 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Blair interviews David on his recent article about the idea that expertise does involve supplying answers, eventually, but mainly expertise is about a...

Assume an Advantaged Player

06 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Blair shares how to determine whether or not we are the advantaged player the "polite battle for control" within the game of sales, and how we can get...

The Four Conversations: A New Model for Selling Expertise

23 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

David interviews Blair about his new book, which lays out his proven framework B2B service providers can use to increase closing ratios and average pr...

200th Episode Special

09 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Blair and David reminisce about their podcasting journey since Blair first pitched the 2Bobs idea to David back in 2016, sharing what they've learned ...

How Account Managers Deliver Strategy

25 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

David unpacks six principles that can help creative firms benefit from delivering strategic guidance through their account managers.   LINKS "Account...

How to Avoid Commodifying Your Offering

11 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Blair sees four common behaviors when business owners are looking to get deals moving in times of economic decline, stagnation, or uncertainty that en...

Are Email Newsletter Even Viable Anymore?

28 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Every few years we're told that we need to move on from using email newsletters as a part of our marketing platform. And David says that advice has al...

How to Make Horizontal Positioning Work

14 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

David provides some clear examples of what is required for a firm to be successful at offering one service for many different verticals.   Links "Str...

Are You Fishing in the Right Pond?

31 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Given these uncertain economic times we are in right now, Blair is asking if some creative firms might need to rethink the market they serve, looking ...

Leading in a Chaotic World

17 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

David shares his decision-making framework that will help agency principals make better decisions during chaotic times like these.   LINKS "Leading i...

Creating a Premium Pricing Culture

03 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Pricing is a prison cell of our own making. And it's cultural. Blair has come up with a series of prompts as a creative exercise to help us all move i...

Building a Scalable Sales Strategy

19 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

David wants agency principals to develop new business plans which delivers more new leads with less labor so their organizations can have more control...

Have We Hit Peak Strategy?

05 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Blair thinks too many design firms and other service providers are trying too hard to raise prices by presenting themselves as more "strategic." Both ...

What Tech Bros Get Right...and Wrong

22 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

David definitely doesn't want anyone to be like tech bros, but he has recognized a few things creative agencies might be able to learn from them.

Turning Your Delivery Team Into a Sales Team

08 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Blair has five steps creative agency leaders can take to turn their account managers, project managers, developers, engineers, and advisors into a sou...

Advising Clients Ethically

24 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Whether you call yourself an advisor or consultant (or not), David has seven core ethical principles that should govern advisory work.   LINKS "Advis...

Just Stop Talking

10 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The fact that sales people tend to talk too much is nothing new, but Blair has observed in recent client work just how profound of an effect this perv...

Working With a Maverick

27 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

When it comes to qualifications for ideal clients, David doesn't hear anyone talking about how agencies can benefit when the person across the table i...

The Dichotomy of the Expert Salesperson

13 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

As Blair is finishing his new book that drops later this year, he comes to the realization that pretty much everything he does comes down to the funda...

Maximizing Pro Bono Opportunities

28 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

While discussing eight ways creative firms can do pro bono work better based on an article David wrote recently, both he and Blair discover a couple n...

Attending the Way

14 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Blair recognizes how a Confucius quote is really bad business advice, but is still moved by how a highly principled creative firm in New Zealand conti...

A 7-part Theory of Principal Compensation

31 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

David frequently gets hired to help resolve issues at firms between multiple principles when it comes to who does what and how much each should get pa...

The Time Value of Knowledge

17 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

David interviews Blair about his recent article in which he takes a lesson from investing with compound interest to understand the increasing returns ...

Revisiting Remote Work

03 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

David looks at the current data and weighs all the pros and cons of continuing to have staff who work from home in our post-pandemic economy, which ma...

Ditch the (Sales) Script

20 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Blair sees too many creative firms talking at prospective clients using sales scripts instead of having a series of wide ranging conversations on thei...

Constrained by Artificial Boundaries

06 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Blair's latest obsession is bounded rationality, in which he sees too many creative firms failing to make "rational" decisions because they choose to ...

A Theory of Leisure

22 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

David shares his thoughts on some bad advice he hears involving the focus on pursuing personal passions in business.

The Death Throes of the Pitch

08 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Blair weighs in on this year's Forrester report, which shows the ridiculous amount of money agencies have been wasting on pitches.   LINKS "Are These...

How Much Should You Spend on Your Own Marketing?

25 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

David addresses another frequently asked question, looking at what creative firms should budget in terms of both money and time for their website, Saa...

The Conflicting Ethics of Selling and Negotiating

11 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Blair identifies the differences between the ethics of selling expertise and the three schools of bargaining ethics, and what happens when we don't ad...

Doing Employee Orientation Right

27 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In an era of rapid turnover and remote working arrangements, developing a structured onboarding process for new staff is more important than ever. Dav...

The War on Payment Terms

13 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Blair sees non-standard payment terms as a two-sided issue, where agencies should be creatively leveraging terms more to their own benefit as opposed ...

What Your Team Wants From You

30 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

While analyzing data from his Total Business Reset surveys, David has noticed five significant trends which principals should be aware of to run their...

How to Ask for Referrals

16 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

As a follow-up to the discussion in the previous episode, Blair has some criteria for firms that would beneift from prioritizing and codifying an effe...

How to Make Referrals

02 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In part one of a two-part discussion about developing a business referral strategy, Blair is surprised to hear that David wants to cover how and why w...

Do You Even Need New Business People?

19 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Blair runs through one of his constraint driven exercises with David by having us imagine running our business with nobody dedicated to the various fu...

Predictive Traits of Successful Owners

05 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

David has observed six common characteristics of agency principals that can affect whether or not their business succeeds.

Six Barriers to New Business Success

21 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Even after understanding and trying to adopt the philosophies from Win Without Pitching, Blair sees many creative firms struggling to increase profit ...

Ten Questions I Want to Ask You

07 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This is your intervention and David has some tough questions about the important decisions you should be making to manage and grow your creative firm....

Qualities of the World's Best Project Managers

24 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

David feels like project managers get a bad rap and has tried to raise their profile within creative firms. So he's gathered a list of traits from the...

CRM and the Mistakes to Avoid

10 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

A lot has changed since Blair wrote his article about seven mistakes he sees creative firms make with CRM years ago, and David wants to know why Excel...

Why We Suck at Negotiating

26 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Blair has six challenges creative agencies face when it comes to being compensated for the actual value they generate for their clients.

Developing a Client Conflict Strategy

12 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

David addresses how vertically positioned agencies can manage a client roster containing multiple companies who are competitors with each other.

Inbound, Outbound, and In Between

29 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Blair has been getting too much spam lately and sees an opportunity with warm leads that lies between inbound and outbound marketing which is not bein...

The Perils of "Good/Better/Best" Pricing

15 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Blair wants sales people to stop ranking proposal options in a way that assigns judgement for prospective clients without considering the many tradeof...

Reverse Trojan Horse Syndrome

01 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Blair is confused by David's mixed metaphors about creative agencies being able to sell strategy services up front, instead of entering through the im...

Is Your Firm Addicted to New Business?

15 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Blair sees some creative firms as "black holes" where accounts go in and seemingly never come out, and others as "new business development machines," ...

Secret Tradecraft of Elite Advisors

01 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

David has a brand new book, Secret Tradecraft of Elite Advisors: Covert Techniques for a Remarkable Practice. In it he reveals exactly how he manages ...

Innoficiency in Your Agency

18 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Blair has talked many times on the podcast about how innovation and efficiency are mutually opposable goals, and after presenting his first keynote on...

Churn, Baby, Churn

04 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

David gets flack for his contrary perspective on how agencies shouldn't necessarily aim for long-term client relationships. So he clarifies how he's s...

Reboot Your Culture Through New Business

21 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Blair frequently tells his clients, "You reinvent the firm one new client at a time." So looking ahead to the new year, he has five areas where princi...

Who Should Be Promoted?

07 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Have your firm's managers been promoted based on technical proficiency and status, or was it because of their self-awareness and critical thinking? Da...

Maintaining the Expert Position...After the Sale

23 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Without turning everything into a power play, David provides seven sources of leverage that can help agencies maintain the leadership role in client e...

When Your Engagement Level Drops

09 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

David has 16 things for principals to try when they feel the need to do something different from running their firm.   Links Play the Game of Constra...

The Marketing Procurement Problem

26 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Blair talks about his new podcast with Leah Power, 20% - The Marketing Procurement Podcast, in which they are speaking with marketing, procurement, an...

The Agency Gatekeeper

12 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Blair recommends five things firms need to be effective at qualifying new business opportunities in order to prevent the over-allocation of resources ...

Prostitutes and Scope Creep

28 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

David thinks creative firms can learn something from sex workers about how to run their business. Read the transcript and episode notes at http://2bob...

How Would You Prepare for a Downturn?

14 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

David is not an economist so he doesn't have any idea if an economic downturn is imminent, but the signs aren't great. If you decide that a downturn i...

Selling Should Be Fun or You Aren't Doing It Right

31 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Blair had fun on a week of sales calls and came up with four reasons why he thinks most people can learn to have fun selling like he did. Read the epi...

Models Everywhere

17 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Blair and David go into detail about what a model is for a creative firm and how they can be useful in closing new business and improving profitabilit...

How Categories and Positioning Options Might Change

03 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

David and Blair follow up their previous discussion about how marketing firms have evolved, going deeper into how different service categories and pos...

The Evolution of a Marketing Firm

20 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Creative or marketing firms look a lot different today than they did 20 years ago. What happened to the ad agencies and design firms? And what tre...

Shortcomings of the EBITDA Multiplier

06 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

David keeps getting asked: "what multiple are you seeing these days?" As if there's some simple, magic answer that'll lead to a company's value. EBIT...

The Emotional Journey of Buying and Selling

22 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

When someone makes Prospect Theory generalizations—saying that buyers either over-weight gains or over-weight losses—Blair wants us to remember th...

Hard Lines, Soft Lines

08 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Inspired by some observations of what sometimes happens to people on the journey from vendor to expert, Blair sees some newbie Win Without Pitchin...

Designing Your Service Offerings

25 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Does your list of service offerings look like a Cheesecake Factory menu? David identifies five hallmarks of poor service design along with five princi...

Secrets Behind the Killer Website

11 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In a follow-up to the popular "Secrets Behind the Killer Proposal" episode, David unloads everything firms can do to make sure their website is locked...

Why All My Content Is Ungated

27 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

David has seven reasons for removing all barriers on his website for readers and prospects to access what he writes - but admits that it may not be fo...

Selling to Different Buyer Types

13 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Blair details each buyer type (Convenience, Relationship, Price, Value, and Poker Player), and demonstrates how your proposal should do the negotiatin...

The Power of Process

30 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Blair discusses what they mean by having a process, how to develop it, what to avoid, and how your process at its highest level can be turned into va...