“I probably need to be a little less precious about bringing my established thinking and ways of working. We must behave this way. We must sound this way. You have to let that go, because it impedes evolution.”
Smart Agency Masterclass with Jason Swenk: Podcast for Digital Marketing Agencies · Agency Business · November 2026
Context
Melissa Bouma on what owners get wrong after a merger. Attachment to how things were done can block the value the deal was meant to create.
Transcript
Yeah. I hear you and I agree. I also think that you can define the role ahead of it, but that still doesn't necessarily change, you know, what it's going to feel like when you get on the other side of it. So to break, you ask, break it down a little bit. Yeah, talk
more about kind of what you're meaning about right, like focus on the outcome and that kind of stuff.
Yeah. You know, I think as an owner, you think about the growth trajectory for the business, which I think is very important. I think as an owner operator, like you're saying, you start thinking about what does integration look like? What does it feel like? What happens to me? What happens to the team? What happens to ways of working or established brands? And I think that's probably where people are the most fearful is just in the unknown of what's on the other side of it. And I think that's more what I was alluding to when I said to be open. It's the integration piece of it and knowing that more often than not, and you know this because you sold, if you're bringing a good either product team. Or capability, or whatever it is that you're bringing, putting the two together is going to create added value. And I think one of the things actually, as I'm saying this, that I would say that you asked, what would you do different? I probably need to be a little less precious about bringing my…
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Right. Like,
I have to, but you know, the older I get now is just like, I'm like, I just don't care anymore. But like, when I was like kind of in that mentality, like, oh, like when I thinking back when I sold, I was like, oh, yeah, I'm still in control. No.
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