---
title: "Building, Running, & Selling An Agency"
canonical: https://www.ianlurie.com/writing/agency-life/
date: 2022-02-23
updated: 2026-05-20
category: "Randomness"
description: "I’ve given this talk a couple of times now. Building and running an agency is all about controlled chaos. These are a few lessons I learned (or failed to learn) along the way.…"
---
I prattle on about my experiences building, running, and then selling my first agency, [Portent](https://www.portent.com). OK, to be fair, it’s the **only** agency I’ve built, run, and sold. Saying “my first agency” future-proofs this post and sounds cool.

Here’s the deck:

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## Books & Links

If you’re building an agency, these are all worth a look:

-   [Lost & Founder](https://www.amazon.com/Lost-Founder-Painfully-Honest-Startup-ebook/dp/B074DGYVD5/ref=sr_1_1?crid=N0765751HXC6&keywords=lost+and+founder&qid=1649784467&s=books&sprefix=lost+and+founder%2Cstripbooks%2C119&sr=1-1) is Rand Fishkin’s very-honest look at starting and running a startup. Read it to bust some serious myths about startup culture
-   [One-Trick Ponies Get Shot: How To Succeed In The Business Of Consulting](https://url.ianlurie.com/one-trick): Some random guy wrote this. Cough
-   [Radical Candor](https://www.amazon.com/Radical-Candor-Revised-Kim-Scott/dp/1250235375) is all about being a great-but-direct boss
-   I stole the Why/How/What concept from [Start With Why](https://www.amazon.com/Start-Why-Leaders-Inspire-Everyone-ebook/dp/B002Q6XUE4/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2ZN05IWJOU7ZG&keywords=start+with+why&qid=1649784527&s=books&sprefix=start+with+why%2Cstripbooks%2C120&sr=1-1)
-   [You MUST read EVERYTHING by this guy](https://www.amazon.com/s?k=four+obsessions+of+an+extraordinary+executive&i=stripbooks&sprefix=four+obsess%2Cstripbooks%2C111&ref=nb_sb_ss_ts-doa-p_1_11) but start with “The Four Obsessions Of An Extraordinary Executive”