Why do you keep hiring the same problem?
Why do you keep hiring the same problem? You’re frustrated with agencies, I get it. But what if the ‘problem agency’ isn’t who you think it is? There’s a subtle root cause. I’ve watched this cycle repeat until I’m blue in the face. A founder sits across from me, totally drained, explaining how their last three partners failed to deliver. The stories always sound different on the surface, but the mechanics are identical. “They didn’t get the vision” or “The execution was off.” Here is what I’ve learned from being on both sides of the table: Usually, the agency wasn’t the problem. The problem was sitting in the chair telling me about the agency. See, we have a blind spot. A massive one. There’s this data from the BetterBriefs Project that stopped me cold. They found that 80% of marketers believe they write clear, effective briefs. But only 10% of agencies agree. That isn’t a small disconnect. That is a canyon. And in that canyon, 33% of marketing budgets just evaporate. Poof. Gone before the work even starts. Why? Because you’re asking outsiders to read your mind. You write a brief that feels complete because you’ve been living inside your business for a decade. The context is obvious to you. The constraints are intuitive. But to them, it’s just words on a page without the texture of your experience. So they do what any rational human does when they lack information → they guess. They interpolate. They assume. And they get it wrong. This is the hard part to swallow. You aren’t hiring agencies to solve a communication problem. You are likely hiring them to solve a systems problem you haven’t diagnosed yet. Your business has outgrown your instincts. The hands-on control that made you successful in year one is…
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