Optimism among marketing agency leaders in these uncertain economic times has cratered since 2023. This was the sobering assessment from research released at the Agency Management Institute’s fifth annual Build A Better Agency (BABA) Summit in Denver on May 19-21, 2025.
According to a survey of 788 agency leaders presented by AgencyCore.org, in just two years the share of agency leaders who say finding new clients is more difficult than ever has nearly tripled.
Business development pipeline pain now outranks all other challenges across all agency sizes and segments, making it the most widely shared struggle of 2025.
Addressing that pain, keynote speaker Jenn Colella, a Tony Award nominee known for her Broadway roles in productions like Come From Away, encouraged agency leaders that to improve, “you don’t have to be perfect, you just need to be present.”
“Presence is awareness of how you are taking up space,” the stage and TV actor and executive coach advised the 325 agency leaders in attendance. “Presence is magnetic and is something that can be taught on how to be powerful and effective.”
Colella was one of dozens of experts and authors brought in to assist the BABA Summit agency leaders. In addition to being in the spotlight as a stage and TV actor, Colella is an executive presence coach for emerging leaders and C-suite executives. Based on her theatrical training (including an MFA degree from UC Irvine), she teaches how inner awareness can create outer impact.
How should agency owners respond? Connection and collaboration are the way forward. AMI CEO Drew McLellan summed up the mood of the agencies in his keynote address, dubbing it “the uncertainty maelstrom that is not going away soon.” He encouraged the BABA attendees to “help your clients and each other get through this together.”
Regardless of your politics, McLellan pointed out most businesspeople would agree the first 100 days of the second President Donald Trump administration has created uncertainty in the economy.
Publications like Time magazine note Trump has triggered “a trade war by unleashing a sweeping array of tariffs that sent markets plummeting.”
This uncertainty is only adding to the challenges for agency leaders and the clients they serve, says McLellan.
Megan Braverman, an agency owner from Berbay Marketing and PR in Los Angeles, particularly liked the “Disrupt Your Marketing” advice from author Mark Schaefer. “He said we are in the ‘pandemic of dull’ and we need to ‘get out of vanilla valley.’”
Melinda Byerley of Fiddlehead Marketing, a San Francisco-based agency, appreciates the collaborative spirit of the BABA summits. “People are honest here about what is working and not working,” says Byerley. “This reminds me of the early days in Silicon Valley when we were all working together.”
“It is refreshing to get real qualitative data on what clients really want and expect on topics like AI,” said Rachel Manke, an agency leader with Sagent in Sacramento, a first timer at the BABA Summit.
San Luis Obispo agency owner Mary Verdin came to this, her second BABA Summit, for a different reason. “I came to make connections with other agencies we can form alliances with,” said Verdin.
McLellan said one of AMI’s values is: “We get better faster by learning with and from each other.”
The next BABA Summit will be May 18-20, 2026, in Denver.