Advertise on podcast: PROACTIVE Podcast with Chris Hogan

Chris Hogan sits down with Daniel Willis, Chairman and CEO of Claxon agency, to tackle the real challenges facing agencies today—from shrinking budgets to the AI revolution. The State of Agency Land Dan doesn't sugarcoat it: times are tough. Marketing budgets have shrunk to 30-40% of what they were just two years ago, yet boards still expect the same level of growth. The result? Agencies are doing more work for less money, margins are being squeezed, and more agencies are closing their doors than he's seen in his seven years in the industry. AI: Threat or Opportunity? Both Chris and Dan believe AI is a game-changer, but not in the way many fear. Dan's philosophy is simple: "AI won't replace agencies, but agencies that use AI will replace agencies that don't." The key? Let humans do the creative thinking and ideation, then use AI as a tool to execute those ideas more efficiently. Claxon has been using AI to create campaigns for $20-30K that would've cost $80-150K traditionally—properly democratising high-quality creative work. Beyond the Business: Wisdom for Founders The conversation goes deep into what it takes to scale successfully: Advisory boards over business coaches: Dan's not shy about his views here—he reckons most business coaches are a waste of money. Instead, he strongly advocates for building an advisory board of experienced people who genuinely want to give back. Claxon had a six-person advisory board when it had only four staff. Mental health matters: Both blokes open up about their struggles. Dan shares his battle with severe anxiety and panic attacks that led to some dark times, whilst Chris talks about his own challenges with depression. Their message? Sort your mental health first, because without it, nothing else matters. The power of silence: Dan champions taking time away from constant input—no podcasts, no music, just thinking time. Like fasting gives your body time to heal, mental quiet time lets your brain solve problems it couldn't tackle when distracted. Knowing your strengths: Dan's candid about not being the best operator—his strengths are relationships, vision, and commercial strategy. The lesson? Hire people who are brilliant at what you're not. The Bottom Line Despite the challenges, both Chris and Dan reckon it's an incredibly exciting time to be in the agency game. Good humans and great agencies are more important now than ever. The key is embracing change, using AI as a tool (not a replacement), and, most importantly, doing it together rather than competing. Agencies aren't going anywhere—they're just evolving.

In My Book Building Brands on Purpose I described the fundamentals of creating a PROACTIVE marketing strategy. Since releasing this methodology to the world in 2021 I have discovered important improvements which help keep organisations on the same page, speaking the language of the board, c-suite and the marketing team. Keeping this vision and purpose front of mind, simple to understand and speaking the same language between departments and levels of seniority couldn’t be more important which was the problem I saw years ago and now have improved and implemented these changes through consistent pressure testing and innovation of the PROACTIVE methodology. This latest series of videos supersedes the first edition of the book where I describe how the proactive marketing methodology helps you chunk down your strategy into different stages and bring it together into one simple to understand one page PROACTIVE strategy.

Chris sits down with cyber security expert Mike Ouwerkerk to discuss how to best protect your data online.

Step 3. PROACTIVE Internal and Market Research Is it time to determine if yours and your teams personal values and purpose align with your brand? Here’s a little insight into a top down view of how this is achieved when building a brand on purpose using our PROACTIVE methodology. Workshopping with your team on your personal values and purpose can help align your key stake holders to your organisational values and purpose. Performing this task at the beginning of a marketing campaign / brand building exercise, builds a strong foundation from which you can leverage the energy of your organisations culture. Seth Godin said "Culture is Strategy" but what is the origin of culture? Values, inspire purpose, purpose, inspires actions, actions, inspire culture and of course, culture is strategy. Now that you understand the top down view of what's required to build a brand on purpose the next step is to make the workshop happen. But for now. We hope you enjoy this video. #purpose #brand #strategy #marketingstrategy #memedia

Step 2: Proactive Marketing Strategy - Team Planner Working with a team or friends this planner is a simple way to break down each of the components of a marketing strategy into bite sized chunks - albeit there's still work to do beyond this. The reason this is so helpful is because solving a large problem like your marketing strategy needs to go through several processes/iterations and research phases before you reach your conclusion. This same strategic marketing template is how you can keep your one page marketing strategy visible and front of mind in a easily digestible way. This is also a fantastic way to keep you marketing team on the same page :)

Let's begin processing your idea by answering key questions which you would be asked by a friend, colleague or investor. Using the PROACTIVE PROCESS you can process your idea into: Purpose - What is the purpose of this business idea or marketing campaign? Research - What research have you done? What experience do you have? Opportunity - What opportunity exists? Is there any competition? Is this the first of its kind? Audience - Who are you going to sell to? Content - What content are you going to create to sell this idea? Turn-On - What channels are you going to use to market/advertise? Ignite - What are you going to invest for the project/per channel/advertising/marketing? Verification/Validation - How are you going to verify success? Evolve - What could this idea/business/product evolve into? Whats the BHAG?

Chris welcomes Corporate Advisor and Innovation Expert Finbar O'Hanlon to the podcast to discuss human potential in the face of emerging technologies like AI.

SWISH Sales Coaching Founder Ryan Tuckwood shares his perspective on the challenges faced by modern businesses, and reveals the practices that have seen him become so successful.

Entertainment powerhouse Sue Porrett meets with Chris Hogan at the Pink Flamingo Spiegelclub on the Gold Coast to discuss the highs and lows of live performance.

Listen as Sentrika Director Darryl Dyson discusses the finer points of self managed superannuation funds on this episode of the ProActive Podcast.* *This podcast does not constitute financial advice

On this episode of the Proactive Podcast, Chris Hogan sits down with Mindset Coach Jess Cameron to discuss mindfulness, purpose, and being proactive.

I was first introduced to Peter Cox and his method of replacing yourself in your business by my good friend and previous guest on the podcast Theo Vairaktaris. In reading Peter’s book, Your Business Shouldn’t Need You, I discovered that Theo amongst others have given a lot of thanks to Peter Cox for helping them build leadership teams within their business so that those businesses run without them. Having Peter on my show was epic - to say the least - and I can’t wait for the world to hear this podcast and explore more of what Peter - aka Coxey as I now know him - has to share. My number one takeaway from the podcast was that leaders need to be led because how can anyone be expected to be respected as a leader if they’re not being led themselves. I’ve had numerous mentors in my life and business and I can honestly say that those are the times I grew the most.

Theo came from humble beginnings as a child growing up. Flexing his creative talents combined with a passion for a beautiful company P&L Theo has shown that he is a poster child for being a proactive man. I first met Theo at high school. A year ahead of me I’ve watched him for many years. We both then shared the same neighbourhood in Mermaid Beach on the Gold Coast for many years where I saw Theo's clothing business take off and so too his popularity for parties. But those days are behind us now. After celebrating their 20th birthday in 2021 the Usher Group is considered to be the largest painting company in QLD and also provides many other services to the construction industry. Never one to rest on his laurels, Theo has embarked on a number of new business and personal challenges. Training, mentoring and developing a leadership team for Usher Group has allowed Theo to follow his spiritually guided passion to be more philanthropic and in 2021 launched Fund My Challenge. Theo thanks for joining us on the Proactive Podcast

Gaining consumer trust is one of the hardest parts of business, but new research from Trustpilot suggests there is a simple and powerful way to do so - by exhibiting positive company values. The study, released in late 2021, found that “49 per cent of Australians now consider a brand’s stance on social, political and environmental issues before buying products or services.” This trend likely emerged as a response to years of disingenuous messaging from companies, greenwashing, greed, and less than ideal transparency. Compounding public skepticism of brands is the prevalence of online scams. In 2020 alone, Australians filed more than 216,000 reports to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s ‘Scamwatch’ website, reporting around $178 million as lost. So how are your potential customers deciding whether your business is worthy of their patronage? The quick answer is, they’re checking your social media (44%), asking friends and family (43%), and reading user-generated reviews (43%). In Trustpilot’s research they discovered that “89% of global consumers usually check online reviews as part of their online buying journey, and 49% of global consumers consider positive reviews one of their top 3 purchase influences. Depending on the type of business you operate, consumers will often Google your brand or product name accompanied by the word “reviews” or “scam.” Addressing these searches on your own website is great, but having a third party platform that helps reinforce your trustworthiness is a major bonus. Trustpilot is, without a doubt, one of those important third parties. While Google reviews are great, and managing and responding to them can help you improve your Google ranking, even this platform has its limitations. According to Sendgrid Data (2019), 38% of Aussies have a Gmail account which means that potentially 62% of the customers you ask for a Google Review may not be able to complete the task. This presents the opportunity for Trustpilot to be a great alternative or addition to Google Reviews. In light of all this I decided to conduct a podcast with Stephanie Gilliesfrom Trustpilot to ask her some burning questions.

Kasia and I met aboard a yacht whilst sailing in an annual charity race day on the Gold Coast Broadwater and immediately hit it off due to our mutual interest in workplace culture and organisational strategy. Kasia is the founder and director of Mindful Energy, who are specialists in defining or refining an organisation's vision, strategy and goals, aligning team members and business to deliver on strategic objectives. In this podcast, Kasia and I discuss culture, strategy, authenticity, leadership and brand - amongst many other side topics.