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A real week inside a Grand Rapids marketing agency. Client meetings, new team members, ClickUp content systems, and one networking move generating $9K per month in revenue.
All right, new week. Same mission. I want to give you a real look at what it actually looks like to build a marketing agency from the ground up in 2026. Not the highlight reel. Not the polished version. The actual week. Pulse meetings, networking, new clients, new hires, a community I've been scared to launch for months, and the systems quietly holding all of it together.
If you're a business owner, agency owner, or someone building something from scratch, this one's for you.
Launch Kit is five years in. We do websites, SEO, photo and video content, social media management, and paid ads for small and mid-sized businesses here in Grand Rapids and beyond.
This year our goal is $750,000 in sales. Last year we did $667,000. We're not trying to triple overnight. I genuinely believe in slow, practical, intentional growth and building a team that actually loves showing up.
Right now we have seven full-time team members. This week I announced we're bringing on our eighth, Lucy, who will be working in an ads and website seat. She'll help service clients on Facebook ads, Instagram ads, Google ads, and website design and development. We currently work with around 80 website clients and 14 monthly marketing clients. January closed out at $74,000 in revenue which puts us right on pace.
Things are good. Feeling grateful.
One of the most common questions I get is how we keep clients happy and retained. A big part of the answer is what we call the pulse meeting.
Here's how it works:
The key insight here is that most business owners are really good at running their business. They are not always the best marketing brain, and that is exactly why they hired us. So instead of asking them to come up with content ideas, we ask them what is going on in their business and we take it from there.
"We found that monthly cadence is the sweet spot. It keeps our team in the loop without becoming a burden for the client."
We manage all ongoing communication in ClickUp. Every client has their own dedicated list where tasks, social posts, ad campaigns, and approvals all live. So by the time the monthly call rolls around, we are already deep in the work together. The meeting is just the check-in layer on top of that.
This week I sat in on three pulse meetings: Wolverine Building Group, Hopcat, and Immersive Homes, a brand new client building modular prefab homes here in Michigan. Super cool company with a big content story to tell.
Every first Wednesday of the month I go to a business owner roundtable at the Chamber of Commerce. It is a 90-minute meeting and I genuinely look forward to it every single time.
Here is what I want you to know about this group: I do not solicit. I do not hand out business cards. I just show up, participate, answer marketing questions when they come up naturally, and build real relationships with other local business owners.
From those relationships alone, we have added $9,000 per month in recurring revenue to Launch Kit.
If you are a local business owner or agency owner and you are not plugged into an in-person networking group, this is your reminder to find one. The ROI is real.
Okay, this one is personal. For the past few months I have been sitting on an idea for an online community called the Launch Kit Mastermind and I have been terrified to actually build it.
My fear was simple: what if nobody joins?
I had this idea in my head that it needed to be big to be valuable. And then I flipped the switch. I thought about it differently. If only two people join, I now have an intimate, high-value call with three people who are genuinely invested in building their businesses. That is actually premium. That is what people pay a lot of money for.
Once I got over that mental barrier, I blocked two hours on the calendar and started building.
Here is what the mastermind includes:
The in-person Chamber group is great for local clients. The mastermind is built for a broader support network of entrepreneurs across the country who are figuring out the same things I am figuring out in real time.
You can join with a 7-day free trial and attend this week's Q&A call for free right here: https://get.launchkitdesign.com/home
For my fellow content creators and agency owners, here is a look at the exact ClickUp template we use to run our weekly vlog.
Each week a new task gets created using a template that includes:
The posting day workflow starts with pulling the video transcript generated by Gemini inside Google Drive. That transcript goes into GPT and becomes the source of truth for all the supporting copy. Everything stays in my voice because it starts from my actual words.
"I want to spend all my time on the creative and storytelling side. Zero percent of my time on the admin. Basic technology handles the rest."
Anytime we do something on a recurring basis at Launch Kit, we build a template or recurring checklist for it. It sounds simple because it is. And it works every single time.
New hire incoming. Pulse meetings locked in. Mastermind finally off the ground. Training plan started for the Riverbank 25K. And the systems are running smooth.
That is what building a marketing agency in Michigan actually looks like in 2026.
If you want to go behind the scenes every week, make sure you are subscribed. And if you want to go deeper, whether that is accessing our ClickUp templates, SOPs, GPT prompts, or just getting on a call with me, the Launch Kit Mastermind is the place to do it.
Join free for 7 days: https://get.launchkitdesign.com/home
Keywords: marketing agency Grand Rapids Michigan, week in the life agency owner, how to run a marketing agency, client retention strategy, ClickUp for agencies, agency owner content system, business networking for agency growth, building a marketing agency in 2026, Launch Kit Kevin Kamis, founder vlog Michigan, monthly client meeting strategy, mastermind for business owners
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