Podcasts about do you want

Would you like access to our advanced agency training for FREE? https://www.agencymastery360.com/training We've been talking about AI on this podcast for years — not just as the next shiny tool, but as the biggest shift agencies will face this decade. Yet most agencies still haven't done more than dabble. Meanwhile, their competitors (or even their clients) are using AI to move faster, make sharper decisions, and drive results that leave everyone else scrambling to catch up. If you're still on the sidelines, you're already behind. Today's guest is clear about the game-changing role of AI in the agency world. He argues it's not just about making your shop more efficient — it's about driving better client results, delivering faster, deeper insights, and adding to your bottom line. Agencies that fail to embrace AI risk being outpaced by clients who bring it in-house or by competitors already using it to gain an edge. To stay competitive, you have to take a forward-thinking approach that uses AI to scale operations, increase client value, and keep your best people. Phil Parrish is the co-founder & President of PrograMetrix, a boutique programmatic advertising agency that also crushes it in paid search and paid social. Celebrating their 10-year anniversary this past April, Phil's team has stayed nimble, focused, and mighty — helping clients dominate their digital paid media while driving real, measurable results. He'll discuss his vision on AI, how he's using it as a multiplier, and why that are not already adapting their processes to include this technology, will be exposed. In this episode, we'll discuss: Navigating pipeline churn anxiety. Delivering quick wins with AI. Why agencies that don't adapt will get exposed. Focus on the wins, not just the tasks. Subscribe Apple | Spotify | iHeart Radio Sponsors and Resources E2M Solutions: Today's episode of the Smart Agency Masterclass is sponsored by E2M Solutions, a web design, and development agency that has provided white-label services for the past 10 years to agencies all over the world. Check out e2msolutions.com/smartagency and get 10% off for the first three months of service. Betting on Yourself (And Getting Clients to Bet on You Too) Phil didn't stumble into agency ownership by accident, but he didn't overcomplicate it either. He built strong client relationships over the years, recognized the moment when he thought, “I can do what this company does — why not do it for myself?” and took the leap. With clients ready to follow, he launched PrograMetrix and started generating revenue quickly, sidestepping much of the risk that keeps many would-be agency owners stuck. The takeaway? If you've built trust and consistently delivered, clients will follow when you launch your own shop. Relationships and results are your best startup capital. Navigating Uncertainty Without Panic Every agency owner hits moments of chaos—those “Are we going under?” nightmares that keep you up at 3 AM. So far, Phil's journey hasn't quite hit the “we can't make payroll” panic, but pipeline uncertainty and client churn anxiety were very real, especially during COVID-19. Ironically, the pandemic ended up being a huge growth driver. As trade shows and in-person events vanished, clients who were spending six figures on live events had to redeploy budgets digitally. PrograMetrix was perfectly positioned to catch that wave. “You've got to have a good business plan, offer strategic value, make smart bets, and stay laser-focused when your back's against the wall.” It's a solid reminder: when chaos hits, the cream rises. The agencies that pivot fast come out stronger.   AI: Beyond Social Posts and Rocket Emojis Let's get real: most agencies are looking at AI like it's a shortcut to crank out social posts and blog content (and yes, that's part of it). But Phil's approach is a level above—he's integrating AI deeply into PrograMetrix's operations to enhance speed, insights, and performance, not just save a few hours per week. In his view, agencies that have depended on time as their inventory and work on the basis that the more time they can utilize the more revenue they can drive will struggle unless they modernize operations using AI. For its part, Phil's agency is building a proprietary product using a licensed data warehouse, pulling data from all their platforms (The Trade Desk, Meta, Google, TikTok, LinkedIn, etc.), and using AI to run advanced queries and develop unique optimization techniques. The end goal would be to deliver faster, clearer, and more impactful insights that clients can't get by simply logging into their ad accounts. The bottom line: If your agency isn't embedding AI into how you operate and deliver, not just as a tool to “save time,” clients will either bring it in-house or go with an agency that does. The market is moving, and speed and value are non-negotiables if you want to win and retain serious clients. Delivering Quick Wins and Story-Driven Insights Mid-market and enterprise clients dropping six to seven figures on ad spend need to feel your authority and your velocity from day one. They need to breathe easier knowing your agency has it handled, and they need to see progress fast, or they'll be out. Using AI, Phil's agency uncovers insights like: Path to conversion (impressions and touchpoints before a sale) Channel impact across the funnel Audience segment insights Messaging that drives real ROI They're not just sending reports but turning complex data into actionable stories for their clients. If you're still measuring your agency's success by how much time you can bill rather than how much impact you can deliver, it's time to rethink your model before your clients rethink you. Why Agencies That Don't Adapt Will Get Exposed Look, AI isn't going to wipe out agencies. But it will wipe out agencies that are stuck operating like it's 2015, coasting on outdated processes, and sending the same recycled reports clients can pull themselves. AI is like the giant scoreboard in baseball, showing every advanced stat in real-time. Agencies that are half-assing delivery can't hide anymore. If you're running bad ads, AI will show your client you suck, and you'll get fired. (Like the agency I just fired.) AI won't kill the agency model, but it will expose agencies not using best-of-breed tools to deliver value faster. AI as a Multiplier, Not a Threat — and Saves Him $200K Phil is using AI as a force multiplier to: Deliver faster, clearer insights for clients Optimize campaigns for even a 2-3% lift that compounds over time And they're doing this without having to invest in new talent at the rate they otherwise would have. As Phil says, “if we can skip hiring one or two traders, that's a $200K swing to the bottom line.” And it's not because he doesn't value his team—he's investing in making his team better. AI helps smart people do better work, get better results, and actually enjoy their jobs. Clients see more value, your agency scales efficiently, and your team sticks around longer, reducing churn and recruitment costs. It's About Buying Wins, Not Just Doing Tasks If you've seen Moneyball, know Billy Beane reinvented baseball by focusing on “getting on base,” not vanity stats. Agencies should think the same way: What are your “get on base” moves that drive client results? Are you outcome-driven and problem-solving, or are you a task rabbit waiting to be replaced by AI? When clients have big challenges, do they come to you first, or are you stuck doing low-value production work? If it's the latter, it's a sign to reposition your agency now. If you don't, you're writing your own exit letter from the industry. Make AI Use Mandatory, Not Optional As an agency leader, it's time to go all-in on integrating AI across all SOPs, not just as an add-on for the leadership team. Why? Because this tech: Makes employees more valuable in the marketplace Makes them happier by removing annoying, low-leverage tasks Keeps your team aligned with your agency's growth goals Before they started using AI prompts to understand how to optimize a campaign or improve performance, their campaign managers were conducting huge Excel exports. Now they can focus on strategy. If you're the only one using AI in your agency, you're toast. You need to lead, train, and require your team to use these tools to become outcome-focused problem solvers rather than task executors. Stop Being Fearful. Start Doing If you're feeling fear around AI, that's normal. But you'll stay scared if you don't start using it. Phil's team didn't wait for a perfect moment; they're actively building, testing, and refining AI use across their delivery and ops. The agencies that will win over the next 3-5 years aren't the ones worrying about AI—they're the ones using it to solve bigger problems faster for their clients. Do You Want to Transform Your Agency from a Liability to an Asset? Looking to dig deeper into your agency's potential? Check out our Agency Blueprint. Designed for agency owners like you, our Agency Blueprint helps you uncover growth opportunities, tackle obstacles, and craft a customized blueprint for your agency's success.

On today's episode of the podcast, they break down the true story of Sacco and Vanzetti and why it still matters today. From historical controversy to writing satire and finally getting to perform in NYC, this one covers it all.Timecodes (Episode #130):0:00 - Intro1:06 - Should You Keep It in the Fridge?7:09 - Who Were Sacco and Vanzetti?14:03 - Why They Came to America18:44 - Do You Want to Hear a Joke?22:33 - “They Were Acting!!”27:30 - Why They Wrote This Script1:03:53 - OutroFollow The John Rondi ShowTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@johnrondipodcastInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/johnrondipodcast/Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7xuYMlfFAXUfReoHKGHjb6?si=e13220a9830e4463Apple Music: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-john-rondi-show/id1670365515Get Your Tickets: https://saccoandvanzettiaredead.com/Follow Joey DeFilippisInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/joeydeef/?hl=enWebsite: https://saccoandvanzettiaredead.com/Follow Matt FerraraInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/matty_ferrara/?hl=enWebsite: https://saccoandvanzettiaredead.com/Follow John RondiInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/johnrondiTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@johnnyrondi#podcast #johnrondi

Are you waking up tired, even after the 'right' amount of sleep? You’re not alone, and you’re not doing anything wrong. In this episode of Healthy Her, host Amelia Phillips sits down with sleep expert Lisa Maltman to unpack why good sleep isn’t just about more hours, but better ones. Discover the surprising factors that might be draining your rest, and learn simple shifts to help you wake up feeling truly refreshed, energised and ready for your day. About the guest: Lisa Maltman is a Sydney-based sleep wellness educator and founder of The Sleep Connection, a leading Australian initiative focused on transforming lives through better sleep . Drawing from her personal journey overcoming chronic insomnia and her background working in sleep clinics, Lisa combines empathy and evidence-based strategies to help thousands of students, parents, teachers, and corporate teams to reclaim energy, mental clarity, and overall well-being . Through her workshops, school programs, and media appearances, she passionately champions sleep as an essential pillar of health and performance. https://thesleepconnection.com.au/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/lisa-maltman/ Woolcock sleep institute: https://www.woolcock.org.au/ About the host: Amelia Phillips is an exercise scientist, nutritionist, and published researcher (BSc, MNut) with a career spanning 26 years in health. She is the co-founder of Vitality360, a functional health platform that helps people gain deep insights into their health and make targeted changes for lasting vitality.A respected media presenter, Amelia has been featured on Channel 9’s hit show Do You Want to Live Forever? and is dedicated to helping people build a life of energy, connection, and purpose at any age or stage of life.Instagram: @_amelia_phillipsHave a question? Email: ap@ameliaphillips.com.auFind out more at: www.ameliaphillips.com.auDiscover Vitality360: https://v360.health CREDITSHost: Amelia Phillips Guest: Lisa Maltman Audio Producer: Darren RothMusic: Matt Nicholich Production Partner: Nova Entertainment Pty Ltd Healthy Her acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the Land we have recorded this podcast on, the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. We pay our respects to their Elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What if strength training could actually make you a better—and more durable—mountain biker? In this episode, I chat with Jessie Duppler, a physical therapist and fellow rider from Chain Reaction Physical Therapy in Prescott, AZ. We talk about how strength training improves performance on the bike, how to make it work even if you hate the gym, and what to prioritize if you're short on time. Whether you're chasing podiums or just want to ride pain-free longer, this one's for you. To learn more about Jessie or to follow her, check out these links here: Website: https://www.chainreactionpt.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chainreactionpt YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@chainreactionPT To learn more about strength training, check out these episodes: 197. The Surprising Side Effect of Strength Training 191. How to Create a Strength Workout 170. 7 Things to do to Reduce Soreness from Biking + Strength Training #ShredStrong Starts a New Cycle Every Month - Our Next Cycle Starts on Monday, July 7, 2025! #ShredStrong is my signature year-round strength and conditioning training program for mountain bikers and gravel cyclists, but you can join any time you want! Every week, it includes: 3 strength workouts (1 is optional), including some cardio finishers for some fun! A bike intervals session + advice on what other rides or cardio sessions to fit in. A comprehensive mobility plan to help you relax and stabilize your biking muscles. You get personalized coaching feedback and guidance from me on your exercises that you record and send me via video - it's like having a personal trainer in your pocket so you can feel confident in your movement! Every 3 months, you also get a new yoga flow from our in-house yogi, the MTB Yogi! A community video chat where we meet every 4-6 weeks to go over nutrition, training, and other tips that help you in your fitness and wellness journey. All of this is only $49 a month! Or, pay $39 a month if you pay for six months in-full (totaling $234). You can join us every month - each cycle starts around the beginning of every month, depending on the cycle! Learn more of the details of the program and sign-up HERE!  You can also join my email list here to get the latest news on future cycles of the program that start every month (I only email an average of 1-2 times a month and will never spam you). Do You Want a Coach to Help Make Training or Nutrition Easier and Simpler for You? Hi, it's me.

Would you like access to our advanced agency training for FREE? https://www.agencymastery360.com/training Is churn currently a problem with your agency clients? Are you aware of the reasons they decide to leave? It may be time to think hard about your onboarding process, client communication, and generally the ways you're ensuring client satisfaction. The difference often comes down to positioning: are you operating as a trusted advisor or simply completing tasks? Today's special guest knows that agencies that prioritize client satisfaction, embrace accountability, and focus on becoming trusted advisors rather than mere task completers are the ones that create truly loyal clients. As our Agency Scale Specialist, Darby Copenhaver, has closely observed the growth trajectories of numerous mastermind members and constantly communicates with them in their journeys. In this conversation, he and Jason get into the importance of strong communication and transparent onboarding processes to combat buyer's remorse and build trust. They also address the strategic use of AI to enhance efficiency and results, stressing that while AI can automate tasks, human connection and understanding clients' evolving needs remain paramount for long-term partnerships. In this episode, we'll discuss: How to prevent your clients' buyer's remorse. Your onboarding might be the problem. Stop ignoring current clients. Your secret retention weapon: ongoing discovery. Subscribe Apple | Spotify | iHeart Radio Sponsors and Resources This episode is brought to you by Wix Studio: If you're leveling up your team and your client experience, your site builder should keep up too. That's why successful agencies use Wix Studio — built to adapt the way your agency does: AI-powered site mapping, responsive design, flexible workflows, and scalable CMS tools so you spend less on plugins and more on growth. Ready to design faster and smarter? Go to wix.com/studio to get started. Why Your Clients Might Not Love You (Even if You're Getting Results) Ever feel like you're crushing it for clients, but then they ghost you or churn unexpectedly? There are several reasons why this could be happening and ways to stop it before it kills your momentum. Here's the truth: buyers remorse sets in immediately after a client signs. It's your job to kill that remorse with rock-solid communication and a frictionless onboarding experience. Most agencies think they're good communicators because they answer emails. But clients want more than tasks checked off. They want to feel seen, understood, and confident they made the right decision. If you're not proactively communicating wins (and misses), or if you let your PMs control the narrative without your oversight, you're setting yourself up for churn, no matter how “good” your delivery is. Your Onboarding Might Be Pushing Clients Away As Jason knows from recent experiences as a client, most agencies' onboarding is just an exhausting homework dump on clients who already told you their goals in the sales calls you recorded. Why are you making them repeat themselves, fill out giant forms, or wait for your scattered follow-ups? Your clients didn't hire you to do more work. They hired you to get results while saving them time. Break your onboarding into clear, easy phases, Reset expectations, Use the data you already have (like call transcripts and AI sorting) to fill in the blanks yourself. If you set clear timelines, communication rhythms, and how success will be measured in that first meeting, you'll position yourself as a trusted advisor, not another vendor barking for “assets” they've already shared. This is what makes clients relieved to work with you instead of stressed. Communication: Simple, But Rarely Done Right It's so important for any business to show that you're trustworthy, and you'll show that by doing what you say you'll do, when you say you'll do it. Too many agencies fail to communicate delays, let tasks slip, and think a monthly dashboard is enough. It's not. Dashboards alone mean nothing to most clients. Some need a quick Loom, some need Slack check-ins, others need a simple “Here's what we did, what's next, and why it matters.” Customizing your communication style shows your clients you're paying attention to them, not just copy-pasting your agency SOPs onto their business. This is how you become a trusted advisor, the person they call with challenges (not just tasks). That's how you become irreplaceable. So, which measures are you implementing at your agency to ensure - not just assume - that you know your clients are happy, not only with the results presented but also the overall experience? Want Clients to Stick Around? Be Human When was the last time you called a client you didn't personally sell or deliver on, just to check in and say, “Hey, I'm the CEO, here's my number if you need anything”? Most agencies never do this, but it's one of the simplest ways to build relationships that survive budget cuts and economic slowdowns. If clients only see you as a transaction, you're the first thing to get cut. If they see you as a partner, they'll fight to keep you. Want to take it further? Fly out and have dinner with your top clients once a year. Exchange stories, show them you care, and watch how your retention and upsells climb. Stop Leaving Money on the Table by Ignoring Current Clients Agencies love to yell, “We need more leads!” But often, your easiest growth is sitting right in front of you. If your clients trust you, they'll come to you with new problems—many of which you can solve or connect them with someone who can. This positions you as a problem solver, not an order taker. Instances like this are a great opportunity to be strategic, guide them, and reinforce how much you value the relationship. Results are awesome, but that value is what will take from being transactional to being a value relationship they'll fight to keep in times of economic uncertainty. Why Ongoing Discovery Is Your Secret Retention Weapon If you're selling to clients you can't grow with, you're setting yourself up for frustration. Too many agencies say “yes” to clients who aren't ready, don't want help, or can't commit to scaling. It's like hiring a personal trainer while refusing to stop eating cake every night. They might pay you, but they won't get results—and they'll blame you when they don't. And what about after you've found the right clients? Darby believes too many agencies forget that discovery isn't just for the sales process. Every client interaction should be a sort of ongoing discovery. Agencies that retain and grow accounts are constantly in ongoing discovery mode. As you bring success to clients their needs will evolve, their businesses shift, and what worked four months ago might be irrelevant today. If you're not in tune with those shifts, your agency becomes stale, and you'll get replaced. A challenge for agency owners: How are you staying aware of what's changing in your clients' businesses? Are you proactively checking in, asking about priorities, and aligning your services to what's happening right now? Or are you stuck on autopilot, delivering what they hired you for while missing what they actually need today? Stay curious, stay in discovery, and you'll stay essential. Communication Clarity: 411 vs. 911 To prevent the typical disconnect when clients are unsure of who to reach out to and for what, Darby and Jason recommend this simple but powerful tactic brought by Agency Mastery member, Travis. He tells clients exactly who to reach out to for “411” (info & updates) vs. “911” (emergencies). This eliminates confusion, speeds up communication, and prevents small issues from turning into big frustrations. And when you mess up—and you will—own it fast. Clients don't want spin or silence. They want the truth — fast. One agency Jason used messed up an ad so badly it was embarrassing, and instead of calling to own it, they hid behind Slack messages. Don't be that agency. Mistakes happen. What matters is how quickly and humanly you fix them. Be Human. Clients Crave It. At the heart of retention and growth is human connection. If your agency relationships feel like sterile transactions, you're replaceable. Clients want to feel seen and understood. If everything you share sounds like sugarcoated wins while their results lag, they'll start doubting you. Long-term, high-value clients come from humanizing your interactions—having real conversations, admitting mistakes, sharing wins, and being upfront about challenges. Clients don't want perfect robots; they want partners they trust. Don't Fear AI - Use It to Win Do clients want their agencies to use AI? Overwhelmingly, yes. They just don't what you to use it just to write articles and create crappy images, brands want their agencies using AI to get better results. According to a survey conducted by Audience Audit, 77% of brands are more likely to hire an agency seen as an AI expert, yet only 32% think their current agency is. This is a massive opportunity. But here's the key: don't use AI as a crutch to replace human strategy. Use it to collect, analyze, and interpret data faster so you can bring clients valuable insights and make micro-adjustments that drive real results. Clients want done-for-you solutions that leverage AI under the hood while preserving a human relationship on the front end. Just remember that clients don't care about your systems, your dashboards, or your internal processes if they don't lead to results. They want outcomes with as little friction as possible. AI can help you cut busywork, speed up insights, and refine strategy—but it's your human understanding and relationship that keeps clients paying, referring, and expanding their contracts. Do You Want to Transform Your Agency from a Liability to an Asset? Looking to dig deeper into your agency's potential? Check out our Agency Blueprint. Designed for agency owners like you, our Agency Blueprint helps you uncover growth opportunities, tackle obstacles, and craft a customized blueprint for your agency's success.

Would you like access to our advanced agency training for FREE? https://www.agencymastery360.com/training Do you invest in training high-potential employees to grow into leadership roles—or do you prefer to hire seasoned pros from the start? There's no one-size-fits-all approach to building a great team, but today's featured guest has a clear philosophy: when it comes to agency growth, he prefers to develop A-players from within. For him, building the bench is just as important as building the business. Hamlet Azarian is the founder and CEO of Azarian Growth Agency, an agency that works with mid-market venture-backed startups helping them build their go-to-market strategies. He discusses his agency's "build them up" strategy, focusing on continual learning and curiosity through an academy, webinars, and internships, rather than solely hiring seasoned professionals. He'll address the common agency challenge of talent retention, noting that positive experiences can still lead to future referrals and positive word-of-mouth, even if employees eventually move on. It's an interesting episode where we dive into the importance of human capital and fostering a supportive, value-driven environment for agency success. In this episode, we'll discuss: Growing talent from scratch. Promote those who are ready to shine. The secret to employee retention.  Subscribe Apple | Spotify | iHeart Radio Sponsors and Resources E2M Solutions: Today's episode of the Smart Agency Masterclass is sponsored by E2M Solutions, a web design, and development agency that has provided white-label services for the past 10 years to agencies all over the world. Check out e2msolutions.com/smartagency and get 10% off for the first three months of service. From Go-to Fixer to Full Agency Before he was running his own growth agency, Hamlet was the go-to fixer for venture-backed startups in the trenches of pre-product chaos. VCs brought him in as a high-paid consultant to help fragile startups figure out product validation and go-to-market traction — a risky sandbox where there's barely a product and hardly any money. As the companies he touched turned into multi-million-dollar powerhouses, word got around, more VCs lined up, and the Azarian Growth Agency was born. So as he recalls, it wasn't exactly an accidental start, but considering he was helping startups that could barely write a check, he could not see it turning into a full agency in the beginning. A Culture of Relentless Learning One thing Hamlet doesn't compromise on is curiosity. If you run an agency, you know yesterday's marketing tactic is today's LinkedIn meme. So instead of hiring only ‘seasoned experts,' He invests in creating lifelong learners. How? He built Azarian Growth Academy, which trains up-and-coming marketers on the exact growth strategies his agency deploys for high-stakes startups. Add to that a monthly Growth Lab webinar, Udemy courses (4,000+ students and counting), and a robust internship pipeline — and you get a team that knows not just what to do, but why it works. Education is really central for Hamlet so his people don't just follow checklists — they evolve with the market because they understand the principles behind the tactics. Growing Talent from Scratch (and Letting Them Fly) Does it work? Hamlet shares a story that answers that better than any hiring manifesto. One intern joined as a college senior, left, and rejoined when Hamlet officially hung out his agency shingle. When he saw her application, Hamlet immediately hired her, as she knew her aptitude, passion, and even her weaknesses. Within 6 months, she was running paid ads. By year one, she was pitching clients solo. By year two, she was leading teams and today she's a senior department head. The lesson here is drive and curiosity should be backed with training, opportunity, and real trust. The payoff is massive loyalty and in-house expertise that's molded to your agency's playbook — not someone else's. Promotion by Performance, Not the Calendar Forget annual reviews and rigid promotion ladders. Hamlet's approach is simple: Learn fast, deliver results, get rewarded. To him, some people shine faster than others and, as the agency owners, you don't to limit that potential. Of course, you want to prepare them for the new role, so he tests emerging talent on internal agency projects before putting them on client accounts. If they mess up, the agency learns — not the client's bank account. It's a safe sandbox for risk-taking and skill-building, with performance as the only true gatekeeper to moving up. Flexibility: The Secret Sauce to Keeping Good People How can you keep that talent from jumping ship the second they hit senior level? You don't always. And Hamlet says that's perfectly fine. Even with AI evolving daily, Hamlet's clear that an agency's real moat is people — smart, motivated, curious people who feel trusted and supported to do their best work. Tools change. Channels come and go. But the humans who run them? That's your agency's real asset. In his view, the agency's success is predicated on the owner's ability to bring in talented people on to the team and provide a great environment that encourages them to stay. And the definition of “great” in this case may vary from individual to individual, but Hamlet finds that more than  perks or a foosball table or free LaCroix, it's about freedom. People need room to live their lives — whether that's hopping on a plane to Italy with the kids, or working flexible hours so family time doesn't clash with client deadlines. When people feel understood and trusted, they stay longer. And if they do leave? They become allies, not competitors. Many send referrals back. Some boomerang and return. And nearly all say, “That's where I learned how to do great work.” That reputation becomes your best recruiting tool — a self-feeding loop of great people wanting in. Experience vs. Fresh Eyes: A Never-Ending Balancing Act There's a million ways to grow an agency and there are no easy answers when it comes to hiring. Even if you hire the “experienced pro,” they can become rigid and slow to adapt — a death knell for early-stage growth marketing where experimentation rules. Hamlet's advice is don't bet the farm on resumes alone. Bet on mindset. Surround yourself with good people who share the same values. Look for curiosity, a love of learning, and the ability to fail, recover, and share lessons. Skills can be taught. Hunger can't. Define what you believe. Hire for it relentlessly. Train for skill, reward growth, and build an environment people don't want to leave — and if they do, they still sing your praises. Do You Want to Transform Your Agency from a Liability to an Asset? Looking to dig deeper into your agency's potential? Check out our Agency Blueprint. Designed for agency owners like you, our Agency Blueprint helps you uncover growth opportunities, tackle obstacles, and craft a customized blueprint for your agency's success.

What is the Bible, really, and how do we read it? How can we say that the Bible is both the Word of God and the work of human authors? What should we do when we come across a tricky passage that we don't know how to interpret? Welcome to our next deep dive! In these next few episodes, we'll unpack some of the most common questions about the Bible, and lay a foundation for how to approach it as Catholics. ⁠Donate via PayPal⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Support us on Patreon!⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Contact the podcast: crashcoursecatholicism@gmail.com.Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/crashcoursecatholicism/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠References and further reading/listening/viewing:Catechism of the Catholic Church, pts. 101-141Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation, Dei VerbumBenedict XVI, Verbum DominiThe Catholic Encyclopedia, "Bible"Scott Hahn, ⁠Tools for Bible StudyMark Shea, The Catholic Weekly: The Four Senses of Scripture: The Literal SenseThe Four Senses of Scripture: The Allegorical SenseThe Four Senses of Scripture: Part 3 The Moral Sense of ScriptureThe Four Senses of Scripture: Part 4 The Anagogical Sense of ScriptureCatholic Answers:We're Not a ‘Religion of the Book'One Text, Four SensesHow to Read the BibleHow to Read the Bible as a CatholicFiguring out the Bible?United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Understanding the BibleAscension Presents:Ways to Read the BibleHow to Start Reading the Bible in 10 StepsPeter Kreeft, ⁠You Can Understand the Bible⁠The St Paul CentreBishop Barron, Bishop Barron on How to Read the BibleThe Great Adventure BibleIgnatius Study BibleThe Navarre BibleLife Teen, Do You Want to Start Reading the Bible? Here's How to Begin.

Would you like access to our advanced agency training for FREE? https://www.agencymastery360.com/training How are you positioning your services as essential rather than optional, and accurately measuring growth and profitability to sustain long-term success? How are you measuring your agency's growth and profitability? Today's featured guests unpack how they scaled their PR shop past the million-dollar mark in under four years — and their journey offers valuable insights that any agency owner can apply immediately. Learn why they prefer growing the agency as partners, as opposed to sticking to being solopreneurs, how they've been tracking their growth, and how to over-communicate with clients openly so that choosing you is the easiest decision. Caitlin Copple and Holly Conti are the co-partners of Full Swing PR, an agency that offers senior-level PR services to help amplify clients' story or cause and takes pride in creating authentic, lasting relationships with clients. They discuss their unique partnership dynamics, their approach to quarterly planning and KPIs, and their philosophy on "practicing what you preach" in the agency world. They also emphasize the importance of understanding client needs, demonstrating value, and the shift from focusing merely on publicity to generating tangible client pipelines. In this episode, we'll discuss: Breaking the visionary and integrator partner mold. Making sure to walk the walk in your own business. How to make your business a ‘must-have'  Subscribe Apple | Spotify | iHeart Radio Sponsors and Resources This episode is brought to you by Wix Studio: If you're leveling up your team and your client experience, your site builder should keep up too. That's why successful agencies use Wix Studio — built to adapt the way your agency does: AI-powered site mapping, responsive design, flexible workflows, and scalable CMS tools so you spend less on plugins and more on growth. Ready to design faster and smarter? Go to wix.com/studio to get started. Breaking the Visionary-Integrator Mold Caitlin started Full Swing solo, but always kept Holly in mind as the ideal partner for her business after they met working at an agency. It took some time, though, since Holly was first pregnant when Caitlin started the agency and then busy being a mom to a newborn. However, her involvement progressed, first as a moonlighter, then the agency's first employee, and eventually becoming the co-pilot Caitlin had always envisioned. Founder duos often get asked about who identifies as the “visionary” or the “integrator.” In their case, Caitlin and Holly both think big and get in the weeds. They take turns in both roles, which makes it complicated, but it works with a dose of brutally clear communication and mutual respect. Why work like this? It all comes from their beginnings as working moms in the business. As they explain, they initially treated it like a job share tagging each other in and out in the early days so they could both keep the wheels turning — and the babies fed. Partner Up or Burn Out Some agency owners do prefer to fly solo, but for the ones stuck doing it all alone — losing sleep over payroll, client churn, or the next contract that might vaporize overnight — Caitlin and Holly are living proof that a solid partner is worth their weight in gold. Having someone to say “we got this” when a contract gets pulled from underneath you is priceless. Sure, partnerships are basically work marriages (with all the ups and downs). But good ones make the tough days survivable — and the big wins that much sweeter. Walk Your Talk or Get Called Out Do you make sure your agency is practicing what you preach? Or are you one of the agencies that just “can't find the time” to work on their own website or marketing? Too many agencies hide behind ‘we're too busy with client work' while their own site looks like it was built in 1997 by a drunk intern. In their specific case as a PR agency, Caitlin and Holly practice the tenacity they teach their clients to have. “PR is about tenacity. It's not enough to do good work. People need to see you doing it.” Just like they tell clients to show up consistently, be visible, and ask for what they want. They make sure to do the same. Furthermore, putting yourself in your clients' shoes as small business owners will help you intimately understand the challenges they face and understand the investment they're making on your agency and how much they're betting on the results you can bring. For Caitlin, this means taking people “from publicity to pipeline,” because she understands as a small business owner how important it is to have four time the sales you need to meet your annual budget. In other words, treat your own agency like your most important client — or watch it slowly bleed opportunities. Quarterly Planning, KPIs, and the Secret Sauce So much can change in just one year (as we all have seen with the last couple of years). In the six years they've been in business, Caitlin and Holly have been through a pandemic, an AI revolution, and the economy doing somersaults. At this point, planning once a year and forgetting about it seems like a rookie move. They still set annual goals, of course. But quarterly check-ins are essential to running the day-to-day behind their million-dollar PR engine. Their leadership team meets every week to ensure that quarterly plan is still reality-proof. Revenue is Cool, But Calls Are King Although they do have a topline revenue goal and a profit margin goals for the agency, their north star isn't revenue — it's discovery calls. After realizing there was much more to building a profitable business than hitting the $1 million mark, Caitlin and Holly have been focusing more on pipeline and conversion rates. They know that if they keep discovery calls flowing, the revenue follows. Right now, if they book 10 calls with good fits, five become paying clients. That's a predictable pipeline. Pro tip: Track leading indicators religiously — site visits, key page hits, opt-ins, booked calls, and conversion rates at each step. If something's off (like calls dropping off, or deals stalling), they fix that exact leak before it kills the next quarter. So, if you're still flying blind, eyeballing topline revenue in your QuickBooks and calling it planning —you're normal… but you're leaving money on the table. How to Make PR (or Any Service) a Must-Have In this economy, how to get clients to see your work more as a must-have than a “nice-to-have”? In down markets, budgets get slashed — but essentials don't. So how do you become an essential? You don't chase anyone who's just looking for a PR vanity headline. You focus on clients who want a pipeline, not just press. If you're having a hard time to get clients to see you as an essential, you may be talking to the wrong people. Think about your ideal clients. What do they believe? What are their challenges? If you define your ideal client and start targeting them, you'll attract people who truly see the value you can bring to their business. Over-Communicate. Then Double It Caitlin and Holly share their process openly with prospects. Step by step. No secrets. Some agencies worry they're giving away the farm. Newsflash: they're not. Clients want to trust you know what you're doing — but they don't want to do it themselves. Everyone loves steak but no one wants to butcher a cow. Their transparency means no confusion, no scope drama, and no “you didn't say that” fights later. It's all upfront. And they even turned this transparency into a smart private podcast: “How to Hire a PR Agency” — a brilliant piece of sales enablement they send to prospects to handle all the FAQs before a call. That way, discovery calls stay focused where they should be: the client's business. Do You Want to Transform Your Agency from a Liability to an Asset? Looking to dig deeper into your agency's potential? Check out our Agency Blueprint. Designed for agency owners like you, our Agency Blueprint helps you uncover growth opportunities, tackle obstacles, and craft a customized blueprint for your agency's success.

In this powerful solo episode of Heart Snuggles, love embodiment coach Lexy Davis explores one of the most common blocks to healthy relationships: control. Specifically, Lexy dives into how control often shows up in romantic dynamics - especially between women and their partners and why it erodes intimacy, trust, and respect over time.With deep compassion and relatable insights, Lexy shares how many women unknowingly operate from survival-based patterns, using control as a subconscious way to create safety in uncertain emotional environments. Whether it's the urge to correct your partner, take over tasks, or constantly micromanage - these habits often stem from fear, not love.You'll learn:✨Why controlling behavior destroys attraction and creates a mother-son dynamic✨How to shift from control to trust using real-life tools and embodiment practices✨The power of a "no control date" and how it can transform your relationship dynamic✨Phrases that help communicate trust and respect, not criticism✨The role of nervous system regulation in creating secure, loving connection✨A healing prayer for surrendering control and embracing emotional intimacyLexy offers gentle but firm guidance for those ready to release control, take ownership of their emotions, and experience a deeper form of love. If you're a devoted woman craving a relationship that feels like home, this episode will inspire you to trade control for connection and create space for your partner to show up fully.

Do You Want the Truth.. Well You Can't Handle the Truth Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Would you like access to our advanced agency training for FREE? https://www.agencymastery360.com/training Ever thought about niching down, then bailed because it sounded too painful? Or maybe you tried, but ditched it when things got awkward? Today's guest proves why sticking it out is worth the initial pain — not just to find your niche, but to find the perfect business partner too. Meet Daniel Moscovitch, founder of Flooring Pros Marketing, a digital marketing agency focused on helping established flooring businesses throughout the US & Canada cement their position as the best in their market. He started as a generalist - doing SEO for pretty much anyone with a website and a pulse. However, unsatisfied staying just another “me too” shop competing on price and freebies he doubled down on a single, very specific industry. If you're thinking “That sounds brutally hard…” you're right. And that's exactly why his story is worth paying attention to. In this episode, we'll discuss: Moving beyond simple SEO to offer comprehensive solutions. How clarity helped him find perfect alignment with his second business partner. Leveraging AI for strategic decision-making and process improvement.  Subscribe Apple | Spotify | iHeart Radio Sponsors and Resources E2M Solutions: Today's episode of the Smart Agency Masterclass is sponsored by E2M Solutions, a web design, and development agency that has provided white-label services for the past 10 years to agencies all over the world. Check out e2msolutions.com/smartagency and get 10% off for the first three months of service. Picking a Hard Niche is One Thing. Surviving It is Another. Daniel didn't just decide to niche down overnight. He did what most agency owners do: listened to advice on the matter, got inspired, and then slammed into reality. The first big obstacle he did not expect was letting go of “easy money” and legacy clients to go all-in on a focused market. He knew it was the right call but dropping old accounts and income streams wasn't fun. Next, it was building trust in a market that didn't trust marketers. Turns out, flooring companies aren't like your typical trades. They're often run more like retail stores than contractors. Multiple locations. Bigger payroll. Savvier buyers. And they've been burned by bad marketing agencies before. So just ranking them on page one of Google was not enough. Daniel learned fast that his new niche didn't just want leads they wanted the whole system: branding, follow-up, sales process, outreach, repeat business. In other words: the actual solution not just SEO. Because the real lesson here is about getting under the hood of your client's real pain points, not just selling your “service of the month.” Authority is Earned One Small Win at a Time If you're wondering why Daniel didn't quit (although he did consider it many times), it wasn't because niching was easy. He stuck with it because he saw the momentum stacking up: A podcast appearance got him in front of flooring pros. A trade show speaking gig landed him more eyes. He sponsored a Facebook group. He kept learning exactly what flooring clients actually needed and then built the solutions, piece by piece. One client turned into two. Then five. Then fifteen. Today Daniel's agency is firmly planted as the go-to marketer for flooring pros. He now has the authority, pricing power, and clarity he didn't have as a generalist. Key Takeaway: Don't Quit When it Gets Awkward Daniel didn't win because flooring was “easy money.” He won because he stuck with it long enough to know more about flooring marketing than any other agency out there. Most agency owners quit when it gets awkward - or flip niches too fast. Bottom line: the best niche isn't the easiest — it's the one you hang with long enough to become the undeniable authority. Clarity First, Everything Else Second When he started his SEO agency, Daniel was living in Tel Aviv, working at an SEO agency. Since not a lot of people knew about Search Engine Optimization there, it seemed like an opportunity to go on business on his own, which he did alongside another American friend who also wanted to start his own business. That partnership worked fine for the first couple of years, until it didn't. After Daniel moved back to the US, the relationship felt like playing Tug-of-War. They lived on different time zones, had competing interests and visions and the best call was for each to continue on their own path. It wasn't easy. Daniel has spent the last two years picking up the pieces and setting a new vision for his business. Who are we? Who should we not serve? What kind of agency do we actually want to be? That search for a new stage attracted a new partner — someone who brought the exact pieces Daniel needed, at a moment when he finally had the clarity that's so hard (and so damn profitable) to get right. Only after that did he attract a new partner - someone who brought missing business expertise and industry knowledge. That alignment supercharged sales and positioned them to charge more and work with better clients. AI as an Unexpected Business Therapist Daniel admits: he's a strategist, not a “numbers guy.” But instead of hiring an expensive consultant, he leaned heavily on AI tools like ChatGPT to interrogate his processes, nail down his goals, and even fix onboarding gaps that caused early-client headaches. Great owners use AI not to replace people, but to think better and move faster - especially when you can't see your own blind spots. Pro tip: Have AI interview you about your agency goals. It forces clarity you might avoid on your own. Rebuild Processes Before You Scale With ChatGPT as a voice he can bounce business ideas off of, Daniel has been working on developing clearer processes. While he used to shy away from these conversations, afraid to uncover huge flaws in the business, he now happily dives into deep strategy work to improve client communication and expectations. For instance, the first 100 days with a new client can feel like a ghost town and that can spook even the best-fit clients. Daniel's fix? Using AI and team workshops to tighten internal and external communication, so clients stay engaged while you work. This is crucial for avoiding churn and turning strategy into execution faster. There's No One-Size-Fits-All Path Daniel's advice for agency owners is to avoid comparing themselves to peers at all cost. Everyone is on their own path and success is better defined individually. Had he followed common advice, he would've never gotten into a second partnership, which has really helped the agency's growth. Furthermore, his growth was slower by choice, but deeper because he focused on getting the right clients and the right team before chasing pure revenue. As Jason says: “There's no silver bullet - only silver pieces you combine into your own version of success.” Do You Want to Transform Your Agency from a Liability to an Asset? Looking to dig deeper into your agency's potential? Check out our Agency Blueprint. Designed for agency owners like you, our Agency Blueprint helps you uncover growth opportunities, tackle obstacles, and craft a customized blueprint for your agency's success.

EP 58. Do You Want to Have Health in Your Life? From the perspective of Family Constellations, maintaining health in our lives requires respecting our parents, acknowledging the place of each member in the Family System, facing and appreciating challenges, working with our emotions, and cultivating self-love. To learn more, we invite you to watch this episode.   Where to find Liza: *Website - www.coachingandconstellations.com *Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/lizamironcoaching/ *YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/c/LizaMiron *Appointments: https://appointmentlizamiron.as.me/schedule.php *Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/newfamilyconstellations

What if we told you there was a way to reduce your cancer risk by 61%, lower your biological age, AND reduce pre-frailty by 39%. In this episode, host Amelia Phillips and the lead researcher from this trial Prof. Heike Bischoff-Ferrari are going to journey through this clinical trial, called the DO-HEALTH trial. They will help us understand what the researchers uncovered and how we can take their learnings and apply them to our own everyday lives. If you are wanting simple, proven strategies to increase not just your lifespan but your healthspan, then todays episode is for you. About the guest: Professor Heike Bischoff-Ferrari is an expert in aging medicine and aging research from the University of Basel Switzerland. She did her training in Switzerland and the US at Harvard Medical School. She is serving as a board member of the Clinical Consortium on Healthy Aging of the World Health Organisation and coordinates the “Global Consortium in Health Span Extension”. She is also the principal investigator of the DO-HEALTH trial. About Prof. Heike Bischoff-Ferrari: https://do-health.eu/user/heike/ DO HEALTH Trial: https://do-health.eu/ VITAL Study: https://www.vitalstudy.org/ About the host: Amelia Phillips is an exercise scientist, nutritionist, and published researcher (BSc, MNut) with a career spanning 26 years in health. She is the co-founder of Vitality360, a functional health platform that helps people gain deep insights into their health and make targeted changes for lasting vitality.A respected media presenter, Amelia has been featured on Channel 9’s hit show Do You Want to Live Forever? and is dedicated to helping people build a life of energy, connection, and purpose at any age or stage of life.Instagram: @_amelia_phillipsHave a question? Email: ap@ameliaphillips.com.auFind out more at: www.ameliaphillips.com.auDiscover Vitality360: https://v360.health CREDITSHost: Amelia Phillips Guest: Audio Producer: Darren RothMusic: Matt Nicholich Production Partner: Nova Entertainment Pty Ltd Healthy Her acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the Land we have recorded this podcast on, the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. We pay our respects to their Elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy informationSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Would you like access to our advanced agency training for FREE? https://www.agencymastery360.com/training Ever wonder what separates a $1M agency from a $30M agency? It's not just better SEO or more employees. It's how you run the business behind the scenes. We sat down with today's featured guest to dig into what's powered his insane growth from barely crossing seven figures back when we first met… to now staring down $35–$40 million in pure service revenue. He's sharing some great advice on the evolution of his role as CEO, his new-found love for podcasting, and all kinds of golden nuggets for agency currently in the “no man's land”. Chris Dreyer is the CEO of Rankings.io, a law firm marketing services agency that delivers exceptional results for attorneys without compromising on customer service. He'll discuss his agency's substantial growth from under a million to over $30 million in revenue, his reliance on data and key performance indicators (KPIs), the transformative role of AI in various aspects of his operations, the importance of in-person client meetings for building relationships, and much more. If you're still guessing your numbers or putting off tracking your team's time — you'll want to pay attention. In this episode, we'll discuss: The CEO's true job. Hidden agency growing pains. The key to client happiness. In-person hustle and outbound sales. Subscribe Apple | Spotify | iHeart Radio Sponsors and Resources This episode is brought to you by Wix Studio: If you're leveling up your team and your client experience, your site builder should keep up too. That's why successful agencies use Wix Studio — built to adapt the way your agency does: AI-powered site mapping, responsive design, flexible workflows, and scalable CMS tools so you spend less on plugins and more on growth. Ready to design faster and smarter? Go to wix.com/studio to get started. Why Data Became Like a Religion Back when Chris and I first locked ourselves in a tiny Atlanta room for a workshop, Rankings.io was barely peeking over the $1M mark. He was still deciding who to serve and how. Fast forward about 8-9 years to today, and he says there's no bigger reason for his success than his top-to-bottom data obsession. Most agency owners track just enough to feel busy: a few pipeline numbers, maybe close rates if they're fancy. But Chris tracks everything. He knows the lifetime value of a client paying $5K a month versus $10K a month. He knows exactly how each account manager's retention rate impacts revenue. He even scores sales reps like a fantasy football league. And it's not just vanity metrics. If an account manager is great at keeping clients but terrible at preserving the original retainer size, they fix it. If time tracking shows poor utilization? They fix it. It's relentless. The big unlock for him was getting a real CFO to build this machine — and shifting from QuickBooks to more robust systems like Sage. No more flying blind or hoping for the best. If you don't know your LTV, churn, win rates, and retention by the exact dollar, you're leaving growth up to luck. How AI Became His Secret Weapon (and Why You Should Care) Most agency owners dabble in AI: a blog here, a few prompts there. Chris has gone full cyborg. Every single month, his team uploads their entire reporting package into ChatGPT. They don't just glance at dashboards — they get an AI board of advisors that points out trends, flags issues, and even suggests campaigns based on sales funnel leaks. If they have clients applying but not booking, the AI says: launch a re-engagement sequence. If they're not sure why the expense spike looks off, the AI will cross-check it with your event calendar. Chris used to hate looking at financials — now AI does the heavy lifting. When it comes to AI agents, they're not doing as much and prefer to use AI assistants for content, link building, and optimization. He even has an AI board of advisers with different personalities. This isn't replacing people. It's leveling them up. It's like strapping a rocket to every role — so you can do more without burning out your team. If you're not leaning on AI for context and next steps, you're probably making slower (and worse) decisions than your competitors. The CEO's True Job: Gotta Catch ‘em All Now that he's running an agency pushing $40M in service revenue (not pass-through, real revenue) Chris defines his role as: “Playing people Pokemon. Gotta catch ‘em all. I get the clients, and my president keeps them.” He sets the vision, runs point on marketing and sales, hosts the podcast, and stays the face of Rankings.io. Meanwhile, his right-hand man, Stephen, owns retention and delivery. This split lets Chris hunt big opportunities without getting bogged down in fulfillment fires. It's the perfect example of how an owner's role must evolve. If you're still stuck in the weeds, wearing every hat, and calling that “leadership” — you're capping your agency's growth. The goal isn't to do everything. It's to build a team that does everything better than you ever could alone. And Chris's story is living proof. The Hidden Growing Pains Nobody Warns You About Ever heard of the dreaded “no man's land” for agencies? For Chris, it began after he crossed the $8M to $10M mark and things got painfully awkward fast. In this stage, you're forced to hire the roles that don't directly bring in revenue: HR, finance, middle managers. Suddenly, your once-scrappy margins start leaking everywhere. It feels counterintuitive, all these new salaries, and yet no extra billables. But here's the catch: this is the awkward but necessary step that'll set you up with the infrastructure to move from $10M to $15M, $20M or beyond. This is generally the zone where you feel like an imposter CEO — one foot in the hustle, one foot in the corporate world you swore you'd never build. The truth is, every growing agency owner faces this inflection point. And if you get it right, you build a structure that can handle scale. If you get it wrong, you risk staying stuck at the same revenue ceiling year after year. You Can't Turn It Off — And Maybe That's Okay Most founders agree they find it difficult to turn their business brain off, and honestly, they don't want to. Business is the hobby. While their kids are at soccer practice, their brain is rewriting the service agreement or tweaking a proposal. Sure, there's a cost. Vacations come with podcast episodes in the car. Weekends sometimes mean scanning P&L spreadsheets. But, as Jason and Chris admit: the key to staying sane isn't to “balance it perfectly” — it's to have the right partner who gets the obsession. Because when you're building a business that supports dozens, even hundreds of families, switching it off just isn't realistic. So you find the support system that lets you go all in and come home for dinner. Why Core Values Actually Matter Early on, you might roll your eyes at “company core values.” Chris admits he did and saw it as just a lot of fluff. But once you're managing 50, 100, or more people, vague values don't cut it — you need a shared language to protect the culture. His agency now runs on three non-negotiables: Excellence (do great work, always) Execution (don't just talk, get it done) Grit (stick with hard things for the long haul) While he used to rely on platitudes like “team player” — he sees now that the wrong person will be weeded out fast as long as the core values are clear. He also bails at the mention of “work-life balance” in an interview. Because for this team, the culture is built for people who like working hard. The Surprising Key to Client Happiness Think your killer case studies will keep clients happy forever? Think again. Client happiness is very subjective and your biggest churn risk isn't bad work — it's bad relationships. Sure, you can track Net Promoter Scores all day. But real retention comes from catching early warning signs, which Chris calls “saves”. A client going quiet, missing calls, or hinting they're not vibing with an account manager should be signs to take action, if you start tracking them, as he has. And here's the overlooked move more agencies need to revive: visit your clients in person. Everyone's got Zoom fatigue. Booking a flight and breaking bread goes a long way toward making you not just a vendor, but a trusted partner. How In-Person Hustle and Outbound Hunting Keep You on Top Even with all the fancy dashboards, AI copilots, and mega forecasting tools, Chris and his president still jump on planes to shake hands with clients. They even budget for it. When you're running a high-ticket service where each client can be worth $125,000 or more over their lifetime, dropping a couple grand to show up in person is a no-brainer. It's how you show you care more than the next guy who's sending templated emails and hiding behind Slack. Chris's take is simple: Want to stand out? Do what you say you're going to do. Show up. Make your clients look like heroes. When a big-name CEO flies out to see you — even if you didn't sell them the deal — you remember that. Big relationships should get the handshake treatment. Using AI for Confidence in an Agency Acquisition Chris didn't buy another agency until he was already pushing $30 million, while most owners pull that trigger way earlier to leapfrog plateaus. Why wait? According to Chris, he didn't have the confidence to do it. Until AI changed that. He used ChatGPT to run diligence questions, draft the LOI, check for financial holes, and sanity-check the entire earnout structure. Sure, he has a great CFO — but that AI second brain made the whole thing faster and way less intimidating. Now that he's got the first deal under his belt, he's hungry for more. That's how scale works: get clarity, take the shot, rinse and repeat. Pro tip: If you're scared to buy, partner, or hire, dump your numbers into AI. Ask it what it would worry about if it were buying you. It'll show you every skeleton in the closet — so you can fix them now. Why Outbound Sales is Your Insurance Policy Chris used to be very resistant to doing outbound but now it is saving him from the Google rollercoaster. Inbound is sexy when it works. But we all know it can be feast or famine. Algorithms change. Referrals dry up. And you're stuck hoping this month's pipeline looks like last month's. After getting tired of hoping, Chris built an outbound team that's now about 30 people deep. He's got BDRs making 50 high-quality calls a day, sending out handwritten notes with books, running multi-channel outreach, and gifting prospects to cut through the noise. Each practice area has its own sales enablement rep feeding lists, building sequences, and arming the closers with context. It's consistent and it means Rankings.io can hunt, not just fish. Big lesson: if you don't control at least three lead sources (inbound, outbound, and strategic partners), your agency's growth is on borrowed time. Don't put all your eggs in Google's basket. Outbound is insurance. Do You Want to Transform Your Agency from a Liability to an Asset? Looking to dig deeper into your agency's potential? Check out our Agency Blueprint. Designed for agency owners like you, our Agency Blueprint helps you uncover growth opportunities, tackle obstacles, and craft a customized blueprint for your agency's success.

In this Mini Motivation episode host Amelia Phillips chats to Brooke Campbell Bayes about how we can support someone going through a tough time. Brooke is going through her own MS journey, navigating a recent diagnosis along with having three young daughters, a busy life and being so young herself. Brooke gives her honest take on what helped her feel truly supported (and what didn't!), and sheds light on how to support someone going through a tough time, particularly right after a diagnosis. This can be such a sensitive time, with many of us not feeling equipped to ask the right questions yet wanting to show up in a way that is most helpful for our loved one. About the guest: Brooke Campbell Bayes is the cohost of iChronic, where she and Monty Dimond offer a refreshingly honest and humorous look at life with chronic illness (If you don't laugh you'll cry, they say). The podcast explores the daily realities of living with ongoing health conditions, aiming to help listeners feel seen, supported, and a little less alone. Follow Brooke on instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brookecampbellbayes/ Listen to Ichronic on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/show-and-tell/id957291724?i=1000699346220 Listen to Ichronic on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/4rTxBX2oj7q2Y0F2IIQzSW?si=c145253822ec4985 About the host: Amelia Phillips is an exercise scientist, nutritionist, and published researcher (BSc, MNut) with a career spanning 26 years in health. She is the co-founder of Vitality360, a functional health platform that helps people gain deep insights into their health and make targeted changes for lasting vitality.A respected media presenter, Amelia has been featured on Channel 9’s hit show Do You Want to Live Forever? and is dedicated to helping people build a life of energy, connection, and purpose at any age or stage of life.Instagram: @_amelia_phillipsHave a question? Email: ap@ameliaphillips.com.auFind out more at: www.ameliaphillips.com.auDiscover Vitality360: https://v360.health CREDITSHost: Amelia Phillips Guest: Brooke Campbell Bayes Audio Producer: Darren RothMusic: Matt Nicholich Production Partner: Nova Entertainment Pty Ltd Healthy Her acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the Land we have recorded this podcast on, the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. We pay our respects to their Elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy informationSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this Mini Motivation episode, host Amelia Phillips and two-time Olympian Elka Whalan navigate a conundrum we often face as mothers; whether to step out of our comfort zone and think big in our lives. Before children this was a bit of a no-brainer, but now with kids, the stakes are higher. There may sometimes be a cost that our family has to bare, or the cost may be our sanity! Listen to Elka's other episode: https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/healthy-her/id1477160157?i=1000709141521 About the guest: Elka Whalan is a two-time Olympic swimmer, representing Australia at the Sydney and Athens Olympic Games. Elka has then gone onto have a stellar career beyond the pool as a TV presenter, journalist, keynote speaker and more recently founding the QUEENhood, a community of ladies who embrace, and celebrate each other. www.queenhood.com.au www.elkawhalan.com About the host: Amelia Phillips is an exercise scientist, nutritionist, and published researcher (BSc, MNut) with a career spanning 26 years in health. She is the co-founder of Vitality360, a functional health platform that helps people gain deep insights into their health and make targeted changes for lasting vitality.A respected media presenter, Amelia has been featured on Channel 9’s hit show Do You Want to Live Forever? and is dedicated to helping people build a life of energy, connection, and purpose at any age or stage of life.Instagram: @_amelia_phillipsHave a question? Email: ap@ameliaphillips.com.auFind out more at: www.ameliaphillips.com.auDiscover Vitality360: https://v360.health CREDITSHost: Amelia Phillips Guest: Elka Whalan. Audio Producer: Darren RothMusic: Matt Nicholich Production Partner: Nova Entertainment Pty Ltd Healthy Her acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the Land we have recorded this podcast on, the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. We pay our respects to their Elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Would you like access to our advanced agency training for FREE? https://www.agencymastery360.com/training Have you ever found yourself grinding endlessly, only to pause and think, “Is this really what I signed up for?” Maybe you started your business chasing freedom—only to end up feeling trapped by the very thing you built. It's a common trap: the belief that working harder and enduring more pressure will eventually earn you the right to enjoy life after a big exit. But as today's guest discovered, you don't need to wait 10 more years to start living. What you really need is a clearer why, a stronger structure, and the right people around you—people who understand your vision and support your growth. Blake Denman is the president and founder of Rickety Roo, a remote agency specializing in SEO and paid search marketing. He'll discuss his unconventional path into entrepreneurship, which was influenced by a personal injury, and the importance of designing your business and life around personal values, not just growth for growth's sake. He also shares his time management strategies, how he uses AI for self-reflection, and his perspective on the mental load of entrepreneurship. If you're an agency owner still doing everything—from ops to admin to taxes—you'll relate to his story. In this episode, we'll discuss: Strategic hires that might results in your identity crisis. Designing your life before it designs you. Time audits, energy filters & the “$5K task” rule. Figuring out what you actually want. Do you thrive in chaos? Manufacture some healthy pressure. Subscribe Apple | Spotify | iHeart Radio Sponsors and Resources Wix: Today's episode of the Smart Agency Masterclass is sponsored by Wix Studio, the all-in-one platform designed to help agencies scale without the headaches. With intuitive tools, robust native business solutions, and low maintenance, Wix Studio lets your team focus on what matters most—delivering exceptional value to your clients. Ready to take your agency to the next level? Visit wix.com/studio and discover how Wix Studio can transform your workflow, boost profits, and strengthen client relationships. The Moment that Forced Him to Slow Down Blake didn't set out to build an agency. Like a lot of agency owners, he fell into it. What started as freelancing to pay the bills while he finished school and pursued a different career path took a hard left turn—literally—when a serious bike accident landed him with a traumatic brain injury. That moment forced Blake to slow down. Rebuild. Rethink. And when he got back into client work, he realized something: just because you can do it all doesn't mean you should. Like many agency owners, he hit the familiar ceiling of capacity. So he started hiring. First contractors. Then a coach in 2019. That's when the game really changed. The Pivot Point: Strategic Hires (and the Identity Crisis That Follows) When you've built your agency from the ground up, letting go isn't just hard—it can mess with your head. One of the pivots that really made a difference in Blake's agency was the strategic hires that required him to let go of some areas of the business. For instance, when he finally handed over operations. “I was like that John Travolta meme—just looking around wondering what to do with myself.” And that's the truth no one talks about: letting go of operations isn't just a tactical decision. It's emotional. You've tied your identity to being the guy who does everything. And suddenly… you're not. That shift sparked something deeper—what Blake calls “identity paralysis.” Not a crisis, but a freeze. A moment of, “If I'm not the operator, who am I now?” Spoiler: that question is the start of real CEO-level growth. Designing Your Life (Before It Designs You) Most agency owners plan every quarter like a military op: KPIs, OKRs, revenue targets. But how many plan their life that way? Blake started mapping his ideal year: the trips, the purchases, the experiences. Then he calculated what income he actually needed to live that life. We're mostly led to believe those goals are too far away, but the first time he did this he was just $1,500/month off. So many agency owners think they need to sell their business to finally live the life they want. But often, you don't need to sell—you just need to restructure. What if the business could serve your life now instead of being the thing you have to escape? Time Audits, Energy Filters & the “$5K Task” Rule Most people say they value their time but let it slip through their fingers, which is why you need a time tracking method that works for you. After trying a few, Blake got a framework from one of his early coaches. He categorizes his weekly tasks into four buckets: $5, $50, $500, and $5,000/hour value. If you think your time is worth $5,000 but the time audit shows its mostly spent in the $5 or $50 buckets, congrats—you've just diagnosed why your growth is stuck and your energy's tanked. To his surprise, this is what happened to Blake, who was spending way more time than he thought on the $5 and $50 columns. You don't scale by doing more. You scale by doing less of the wrong things. What Do You Actually Want? If your agency isn't giving you time, freedom, and joy… what the hell are you building it for? Blake now runs his agency with zero calls on Mondays. Focus time is blocked. The calendar is color-coded. And most importantly, the business doesn't need him 60 hours a week to grow. He also has the whole team on Brain.fm, a tool that uses science-backed audio to get you in the zone faster. Some would call that a lifestyle business, but so what? Lifestyle business can be extremely profitable too. Why not build your business around what you like and don't like? People who  struggle for 20 years to then sell their agency find that after all their work they have maybe ten years left to do the things they want to do. Lessons for the Owner-Operator Ready to Evolve If you're reading this and feeling that twinge—that mix of burnout and “I want more” clarity—take these cues from Blake: -Let go of the identity that your agency is you. -Map your ideal life, then build your business to fund it. -Hire for elevation, not just delegation. -Your value isn't in the tasks you do. It's in the vision you hold. From the Hustle Hamster Wheel to the Hedonic Treadmill You want the 8-figure agency, right? So did Blake. Until he realized that every time he hit a new goal, he'd feel good for a week… maybe five days. Then it was back to baseline. This is what's called the Hedonic Treadmill—and agency owners live on it without realizing it. We chase growth for growth's sake. Or worse, for external validation—from peers, clients, even family. Blake stopped to think about what was next after he had the money. Was he supposed to save it? Spend it? Did he even need that much? Define what you want your life to look like, and build your agency to support that. Don't fall into the trap of chasing growth for validation more than for yourself. If you let go of the idea of just hitting a number, surround yourself with the best team and clients, and set your priorities, you'll be able to go after what you really want and live your best life. Agency Owners & the Calm in the Chaos Most agency owners have had the type of upbringing that's them great under pressure. Calm in chaos. Laser-focused when everything's on fire. Of course, this can also become a trap if you start creating chaos just to feel normal. For instance, you may seek pressure to push you into action. In his case, after years of needing the chaos, Blake turned to Claude to figure out a way to manufacture chaos without the disastrous consequences. His AI coach creates a “painful penalty” for missing a goal. For instance, donate $1,000 to a political group you can't stand if you miss a revenue target. That'll light a fire. Point is: for some people motivation isn't just about dreaming big. If you need some added pressure to get working engineer consequences that make staying small more painful than pushing forward. Do You Want to Transform Your Agency from a Liability to an Asset? Looking to dig deeper into your agency's potential? Check out our Agency Blueprint. Designed for agency owners like you, our Agency Blueprint helps you uncover growth opportunities, tackle obstacles, and craft a customized blueprint for your agency's success.

Feeling stuck in the “intermediate” zone with your MTB skills on the trails? Do you want to ride more confidently, tackle tougher features, or maybe (finally!) try racing? This episode is your guide to making BIG gains in your mountain biking skills—without the overwhelm.

Would you like access to our advanced agency training for FREE? https://www.agencymastery360.com/training What really happens after you sell your agency? Brent Weaver, founder of UGURUS, knows firsthand — and it wasn't the beach-and-cocktails story most agency owners imagine. In this second half of our conversation, Brent opens up about what really happens after you sell a business, why his team stuck around (when they had every reason to bolt), navigating the shift from entrepreneur to executive within a corporate machine. He also lays down a fresh perspective on where agencies are headed in the AI era — and why human advantage is still your biggest asset. If you missed Part One, go back — it sets the emotional stage. This one dives into the raw aftermath. Brent Weaver is a veteran digital agency founder who scaled UGURUS, sold it not once, but twice, and is now charting a new course inside a larger ecosystem. But behind the polished LinkedIn update is a journey filled with doubt, identity shifts, and deep loyalty to team and customers. In this episode, we'll discuss: What no one tells you about life after a big exit How Brent is using AI at scale inside E2M Why “human advantage” still wins in an AI-driven world The risk agencies face if they treat AI like a gimmick How to protect clients from the “accountability gap” AI creates Subscribe Apple | Spotify | iHeart Radio Sponsors and Resources E2M Solutions: Today's episode of the Smart Agency Masterclass is sponsored by E2M Solutions, a web design, and development agency that has provided white-label services for the past 10 years to agencies all over the world. Check out e2msolutions.com/smartagency and get 10% off for the first three months of service. What Really Happens After the Deal Closes When most agency owners fantasize about the big exit, they think freedom, cash, maybe a beach. But Brent paints a more nuanced picture: “Selling is one of the most emotional business events you can go through. You feel every end of the spectrum — excitement, fear, uncertainty.” And no, he didn't tell the team beforehand because he wasn't even sure himself. Looking back, he remembers asking himself: ‘Is this what I want? What's going to happen to our customers? Our team?' Spoiler: Nobody left. Because Brent didn't cash out and disappear. He pushed hard to give people incentives to stay, rolled up his sleeves, and stayed to help 10x the next chapter. Brent's first acquisition with Cloudways was scrappy, entrepreneurial, and chaotic in a good way. But once DigitalOcean came into the picture everything changed. Some of the team joined a small company where they had a voice — then suddenly, it was all process, approvals, structure. And not everyone loves that. More recently, after staying at the newly-acquired agency, Brent took a step back from a direct client-facing role. At the same time, he had a bigger role in the back office, so despite people not seeing him as much, they also knew he was still around working on the business. To his knowledge, no one left because of the acquisition. The agency saw the normal amount of churn for the business but all clients and team members knew that Brent was trying to provide a sense of continuity after the sale. Why the Learning Curve is Shorter — and Scarier BBack when Brent started learning about the business, he had no idea how to write a proposal. He didn't know anyone in the industry who could orient him, and ended up writing one in the only format he knew: a high school essay. It was bad. It talked about his interests, why he was trustworthy and why they should hire him. Comparing that experience from the early 2000s to now, where kids are doing triple backflips on BMX bikes at age 12 because they can watch the trick 10 minutes after it's invented on Instagram, the speed at which someone can learn anything now is incredible. And even overwhelming. For agency owners, this means two things: There's never been a better time to start. There's never been a harder time to stand out. AI, Meta, and the Future of Agencies Ever since WordPress came out, everyone thought agencies were dead. To Brent, all it did was create more demand for people who knew how to use it. Same with Meta's new tools or any AI platform. Brent's take is clear: The tools will make advertising more accessible. But that will actually increase demand for agencies who know how to go deeper. In his view, there's no world where his old restaurant client — who had a flip phone and a fifth-grade education — was ever going to run his own ads. He just wants to cook. Translation: AI doesn't replace relationships. It just raises the bar on what value you're bringing to that relationship. Infusing AI Horizontally Across a Business: Brent's New Role at E2M The reality is, even in the AI era people still crave trust and connection. Even in a world where AI is analyzing spreadsheets and diagnosing ad performance better than most marketers, the decision to act still comes down to a human being. “I look at a spreadsheet,” Jason says, “and I want to throw up. But I put it into AI, and suddenly I get clarity.” That's the shift—AI can sift through the noise, but humans still make the call. Business owners aren't about to turn over their bank accounts to a voice assistant. There's always going to be a place for a trusted advisor—someone who knows the game, who gets results, and who's got skin in it with you. For agencies, that's the edge. If you can interpret the data and turn it into action, you're still wildly valuable. This isn't about one person nerding out on ChatGPT after hours. AI isn't a tool for the top—it's a mindset for the whole team. At E2M, he's stepping into a leadership role to help infuse AI horizontally across the company. That means operations, creative, sales—everyone using AI not as a crutch, but as a co-pilot. The agencies that survive the next wave will be the ones who stop treating AI like a gimmick and start treating it like a business partner. Brent's advice: don't wait. Start now, even if it's nights and weekends. Fire yourself from every job you're not elite at. And that now includes jobs that AI can do faster, better, and at scale. "Leverage these tools to gut-check your deliverables,” he says. “You owe it to your clients.” The Legal Line and the Accountability Gap But it's not all upside. Brent drops a crucial warning about accountability. AI might be amazing at cranking out contracts, pitch decks, and even deal structures—but if it screws up, who takes the hit? If chat tells you to jump off a bridge, and it goes south, you're not suing OpenAI,” Brent jokes. You're just canceling your $20 subscription. And that's where real coaches, consultants, and experts still matter. There's a human soul to leadership, and a layer of accountability AI can't (and maybe shouldn't) touch. The smart play? Start with AI to generate, then apply your judgment to validate. Do You Want to Transform Your Agency from a Liability to an Asset? Looking to dig deeper into your agency's potential? Check out our Agency Blueprint. Designed for agency owners like you, our Agency Blueprint helps you uncover growth opportunities, tackle obstacles, and craft a customized blueprint for your agency's success.

When the weather cools down, getting those exercise sessions in becomes a whole lot harder for many. Host Amelia Phillips and neuroscientist Paul Taylor discuss the proven strategies to hack your brain into feeling more motivated. These strategies are based on research around the neuroscience of behaviour change, and when done correctly will make exercise (or at least getting out the door TO exercise) feel a whole lot easier. Marcus Pearce episode (with Exceptional Life Quiz): https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/healthy-her/id1477160157?i=1000701729309 Previous episode with Paul: Is Mummy Brain a real thing? https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/healthy-her/id1477160157?i=1000463803138 Discover your values online assessment: https://personalvalu.es/ About the guest: Paul Taylor is a sought after neuroscientist, keynote speaker, exercise physiologist, author of the book Death By Comfort. He is also about to be awarded his PhD in Psychology. Book: https://www.booktopia.com.au/death-by-comfort-paul-taylor/book/9781922611505.html Website: https://www.paultaylor.biz/ LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/paultaylor1971/ Instagram: @paultaylor.biz About the host: Amelia Phillips is an exercise scientist, nutritionist, and published researcher (BSc, MNut) with a career spanning 26 years in health. She is the co-founder of Vitality360, a functional health platform that helps people gain deep insights into their health and make targeted changes for lasting vitality.A respected media presenter, Amelia has been featured on Channel 9’s hit show Do You Want to Live Forever? and is dedicated to helping people build a life of energy, connection, and purpose at any age or stage of life.Instagram: @_amelia_phillipsHave a question? Email: ap@ameliaphillips.com.auFind out more at: www.ameliaphillips.com.auDiscover Vitality360: https://v360.health CREDITSHost: Amelia Phillips Guest: Paul Taylor Audio Producer: Darren RothMusic: Matt Nicholich Production Partner: Nova Entertainment Pty Ltd Healthy Her acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the Land we have recorded this podcast on, the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. We pay our respects to their Elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today, I'm talking about protein supplements, amino acids, surgery, and recovering from injury.

Would you like access to our advanced agency training for FREE? https://www.agencymastery360.com/training What if one bad hire wrecked your agency? What if the red flag you're dismissing tanked your margins? Most agency owners learn these lessons the hard way. But you don't have to. In this episode, Collin Slattery shares the red flags, hiring mistakes, and leadership shifts that helped him build an agency that's not just growing—but growing sane. He's here to share stories that can help you shortcut the pain and build smarter, sooner. From pricing hesitations to over-hiring juniors to waiting too long to fire a bad hire, he brings great insights about what not to do—and what to fix fast. At the end of the day, the goal isn't just growth—it's sane growth. Collin Slattery is the founder of Taikun Digital, an agency that primarily focuses on the e-commerce space, doing Facebook ads, Google ads, and creative landing pages for clients. He'll share his scrappy beginnings, the mistakes that cost him (and taught him), and the non-negotiables he's learned about red flags and respecting your own time as an agency owner. His strategy now is simple: only do the work that's uniquely his. Delegate the rest. And when hiring, pay for people who love the stuff you hate. In this episode, we'll discuss: How to spot sales-process red flags before they cost you. Why hiring friends usually fails—and how to do it right if you must. What to do before a big client leaves—so you're not scrambling. The hiring mindset that leads to faster, saner growth.Subscribe Apple | Spotify | iHeart Radio Sponsors and Resources E2M Solutions: Today's episode of the Smart Agency Masterclass is sponsored by E2M Solutions, a web design, and development agency that has provided white-label services for the past 10 years to agencies all over the world. Check out e2msolutions.com/smartagency and get 10% off for the first three months of service. Starting with $300 and a Canadian Pharmacy Right out of high school—class of '07—Collin started making money online during what he calls the "Wild West" days of digital marketing. Think bootleg Canadian pharmacies, early Google Ads, and cracked versions of Adobe software. One of his first official clients was a skincare brand called Spa Technologies, which he charged $300 a month to handle “all the web stuff”—from email and SEO to advertising and site updates. He even landed a local government gig in New York early (back when procurement was a little less formal). It wasn't glamorous, but it was enough to plant the seed for what would eventually become his agency. Eventually, Collin took the boutique route. He leaned into complex client problems and bespoke solutions, found his zone of genius, and grew from there. Hiring Red Flags During the Sales Process One of the most expensive lessons agency owners learn, and one Collin has relearned, is ignoring red flags during the sales process. It's amazing how anyone can forget to trust their gut when they need the money, but Collin has learned this lesson by now. From clients with unreasonable expectations who ghost meetings to those who show up late or treat your time like it's optional, he has learned to put a limit. Today, he waits five minutes—max—for a prospect to join a call. If they don't show, he's out. Because if someone doesn't respect your time on the sales call, they're definitely not going to respect your process, boundaries, or team later on. The biggest red flag for Collin is clients who offload all responsibility. If they're promising to be your “best client ever” or insisting they'll deliver everything you need “right away,” it's worth digging deeper. Of course, clients who are too involved can also be a problem. However, the agency can't be more invested than they are in their own success. To prevent this, establish a pricing structure where at least 50% of the project is paid upfront, with clear dates for the remaining payments.. This can help irresponsible clients get moving on what they're supposed to deliver, although Jason shares a story about a client who paid 100% upfront (before kickoff!) but delayed the project by not providing what was promised. That's why process and payment timelines matter. If you don't control scope and expectations from day one, you'll pay for it in time, profit, and sanity. When One Bad Hire Derails Everything Collin's been on both ends of the hiring spectrum—over-prioritizing skill and under-prioritizing culture fit… then swinging the other way and hiring people he liked without checking if they actually had the skills. Spoiler: Neither approach worked. On top of that, he's been guilty of stubbornly keeping people too long, thinking he could “fix” them. However, he's now confident that owners can usually know on Day 1 if they made the wrong hire. Week 1 if you're generous. People usually start with their best foot forward, so if that's shaky, it's a red flag. The real game-changer was learning to trust his gut early and cut things off quickly—for everyone's sake. Hiring Friends? Set Very Clear Expectations Should you hire friends or family? Most agency owners will say no—and Collin would've agreed… until one friend hire actually worked out. There were many factors that contributed to this, including expectations, where the agency is at, and the person's character. The first time he hired his best friend, it was a disaster. The second time, it was a former mentee who had already sold his own agency, knew the ropes, and was a perfect culture fit. They were open, direct, and mutually respectful—and it worked. The lesson? If you do go down the friend/family road, set clear expectations, give both parties an exit ramp, and value the friendship above the business if things go sideways. The Secret to Real Growth: Do Less of What You Hate According to Collin, delegation and self-awareness are the great drivers of his agency's success. He focused on hiring people to do the things he was either bad at or dreaded doing—even if he was good at them, because chances are someone else loves the stuff you hate doing. That mindset shift allowed Collin to get laser-focused on what he does best—sales, marketing, and solving complex “math problems” for e-commerce clients. Now he wakes up looking forward to work instead of dreading it. When a Big Client Bails, Your Margins Matter More Than Ever Recently, Collin's agency lost its biggest client temporarily due to the pressures of the new tariffs. Instead of panic, his response was grounded and strategic. He's built his agency to survive losses like this and encourages agency owners to do the same, by thinking about pricing, hiring, and not sabotaging your own sales engine. Thanks to this mindset, the agency had healthy profit margins baked in. If losing one client sends you into a tailspin, you're probably not charging enough. You need to build your business in a way that you can survive losses without cutting down. That's not just about pricing—it's about operating with margin as a mindset. One of the biggest mistakes agency owners make is hitting pause on sales because things feel good. Collin's advice is to always be selling. And if capacity is tight, don't pause—raise your prices. Pro tip: Implement a sliding scale strategy. Every few clients, bump your pricing and track retention. You might find that you're working less for more. Want to Grow Fast? Hire Ahead of the Demand Let's talk about one of the hardest lessons agency owners learn: hiring too late. Collin admitted he brought on clients he couldn't serve well—and paid the price in churn and stress. This year, he's trying a different strategy by hiring ahead of the demand. And not just anyone—hire senior people. Yes, it's a luxury. But it's also how you buy back your time and protect your client relationships. Junior hires sound good on paper—cheap, trainable, full of potential. But they require time and energy you may not have. As Collin explains, the real value of a senior hire is autonomy because they can own it from day one. ”At the end of the day, if you don't build margin into your agency, one bad month can wipe you out.” Do You Want to Transform Your Agency from a Liability to an Asset? Looking to dig deeper into your agency's potential? Check out our Agency Blueprint. Designed for agency owners like you, our Agency Blueprint helps you uncover growth opportunities, tackle obstacles, and craft a customized blueprint for your agency's success.

Would you like access to our advanced agency training for FREE? https://www.agencymastery360.com/training Is your agency falling behind in the AI revolution—while competitors pull ahead? If you've handed off AI adaptation to your team and progress still feels sluggish, you're not alone. The uncomfortable truth? Delegating AI could be the biggest threat to your agency's future. Today's guest, Brandon Na, has seen firsthand how agencies rise—or fall—in the face of disruption. From early SEO days to the AI era, he's learned what it really takes to lead through change. And it starts with not outsourcing the future. Many employees feel more fear than excitement about AI—worried it could signal the end of their careers. Instead, agency owners should be very involved in this process and actively try to identify team members who are excited to learn about AI and already experiment with it on their own time. The agencies that will thrive aren't the ones that delegate AI innovation down the chain of command but the ones that build transformation strategies around those natural innovators.    Brandon Na is the founder of Seattle Organic SEO, as well as a venture capital pro and acting CMO. His path into agency life started with a simple desire to never have to do cold sales. So instead, he hacked his way into visibility through SEO. This path took Brandon to South Korea, where he helped scale an education company by 1,400%. He eventually returned to the U.S., launched his agency, and dominated the search rankings in a matter of months—all from a handshake mentorship deal with a guy exiting the space. In this episode, we'll discuss: How you can avoid losing your way after ‘making it'. Will SEO survive AI? Why you shouldn't delegate AI adoption.  Subscribe Apple | Spotify | iHeart Radio Sponsors and Resources Wix: Today's episode of the Smart Agency Masterclass is sponsored by Wix Studio, the all-in-one platform designed to help agencies scale without the headaches. With intuitive tools, robust native business solutions, and low maintenance, Wix Studio lets your team focus on what matters most—delivering exceptional value to your clients. Ready to take your agency to the next level? Visit wix.com/studio and discover how Wix Studio can transform your workflow, boost profits, and strengthen client relationships. From Amazon to Agency Life (And What Jeff Bezos Taught Him About Leadership) Brandon started out working at future giants like Amazon and Expedia and could've had a very different career had he stayed. Working at tech giants like Amazon and Expedia might sound glamorous today—but back then, it wasn't. Low pay, stock options that seemed worthless, and a corporate culture that left him unimpressed taught Brandon an early lesson: big titles don't equal strong leadership. From his experience with Bezos, he learned that big titles don't always mean big character and that leadership—true leadership—isn't about prestige, but about clarity, adaptation, and purpose. Next, Brandon had his first try at entrepreneurship with a real estate practice before he ever touched agency work. Knowing by experience that sales was just not for him, he wondered how to get people to find him, which naturally led him to find SEO. In the early days of SEO, Brandon decided to master the craft before launching his agency. He took a few years to learn, test his skills, and leverage some contacts before starting his agency. Why So Many Leaders Lose Their Drive After Hitting Big Milestones Seeing how big CEOs started and how they've evolved, one wonders how they manage to turn it all around. How do they get to a point in their leadership where the stories go from being terrible at managing employees to making history? For Brandon, it's about never getting too comfortable once they have the money. These trailblazers who have managed to conquer the world will not just retire and live a quiet life, they'll just choose other ways to create and make an impact. Many of them eventually move into venture capital or find other passions. It's an advisable path for agency owners who end up selling their businesses, because otherwise they can end up losing their sense of purpose. If you're chasing the next milestone remember that if you don't define your purpose beyond the hustle, the success will feel hollow. Growth Comes from Pressure - So Turn It Up Although living through the pressure of working in tech during those early years was not easy, Brandon now looks back and can see it with different eyes. As he has learned from his work as CMO: “If you're stuck on a problem—make the problem bigger.” Because being too comfortable, you can lose your edge. It may take time, since with AI, market shifts, and internal team chaos pulling us in every direction, it's easy to lose clarity, but if you focus on finding that problem you'll grow. It can sound counterintuitive, but in his experience bigger problems force bigger focus, more urgency, and better thinking. It's easy to spin your wheels when you're “fine”—but when the pressure's real, you find out what you're made of. Can SEO Still Win in an AI World? When a friend of Brandon told him he barely used Google anymore, he assumed it was because as a computer engineer, he was just ahead of everyone else in these trends. However, just five weeks later he realized he also was now using AI. After years in SEO, even he finds himself turning to AI tools like ChatGPT instead of even opening Google. So is Google still relevant, or has AI already taken the crown? The bottom line is the way people find information is changing. And that has massive implications for how your agency helps clients get found. Whether you're creating blog content, developing ad strategies, or running full-scale marketing campaigns—AI is in the mix now. Platforms like Gemini, Claude, Perplexity, and even custom-trained agents are already out in the wild. And they're fast. Ultimately, the game is changing fast, and agencies that aren't adapting might already be falling behind. If your agency is still running fully human-powered workflows while other teams are using agents to ideate, write, design, test, and iterate faster than you can blink, you're already behind. But don't panic. The solution isn't panic—it's leadership. Don't Delegate the Future—Own It One of the biggest traps agency owners fall into is just telling their team to “Figure out how to use AI,” and walking away. The reality is your team may not be motivated to lean in. Many employees view AI as a threat to their job—not a tool to make them better. Instead, try: Identifying the team members already experimenting with AI tools. Giving those people the mandate and the resources to go deeper. Investing in training and testing to see what works—and what doesn't. And most importantly, lead the charge yourself. The agencies that survive the next 3–5 years won't just be the ones doing better creative—they'll be the ones moving faster, thinking smarter, and leading with tech. Do You Want to Transform Your Agency from a Liability to an Asset? Looking to dig deeper into your agency's potential? Check out our Agency Blueprint. Designed for agency owners like you, our Agency Blueprint helps you uncover growth opportunities, tackle obstacles, and craft a customized blueprint for your agency's success.

This week, we share a For the Journey exclusive conversation between Bill Haley (Coracle Executive Director) and Ekemini Uwan. Ekemini is an author, speaker, and consultant widely known for her work advocating for human rights around the world from a Christian theological perspective. Bill offers a deeper dive into Ekemini's work before turning the conversation to the present moment in America—the places to weep with Christ and the places where partnership in Christ's work of healing and reconciliation is most needed.Keep Journeying with Ekemini at The Truth's Table & Get in the Word PodcastsMore From Coracle:Resources for Racial Healing & Justice"Do You Want to Be Well: Diagnosis, Treatment & Healing for the Church in America"Justice, Mercy & Humility SeriesSupport the show

Today, we're diving into something everyone is talking about without even realizing it… but few actually understand: metabolic flexibility. Think of it as your body's ability to shift gears efficiently, burning fat when it makes sense, using carbs when it's time to perform, and doing it all without crashing or constantly needing a snack. If you've ever hit a wall in your workouts, struggled with energy crashes, or felt like your “clean eating” isn't working anymore, then this episode is for you. Let's make shift happen. To learn more about nutrition tips for cyclists, check out these episodes: 106. Why Zone 2 Endurance is Crucial in Your Training 109. Q+A on Zone 2 Endurance #Fit + Fed to Shred Interest List - Starts June 9, 2025! Interested in learning more about how to fuel yourself for your adventures and your energy and performance (or physique) goals? Then my new group coaching program, Fit + Fed to Shred is the answer! It will be an 8-week program that will help you: Learn how to fuel yourself effectively in your day-to-day life. Learn how to power your bike rides and help you avoid the dreadful "bonking" on rides and runs - or any adventure outside! Learn how and when to eat more or less food, and what foods are best for active people like you! Become a meal prepping pro, without spending hours in the kitchen. Optimize your sleep and recovery routines, so you can feel more refreshed after hard training sessions, once and for all. Regular video chats with the group to build community and learn from one another! Fill out the interest form here, and you will be the first to learn about the program and join! Again, here's the link: https://forms.gle/ZW7KLmEMmahSeZRV9. Let's get fit + fed to shred, together! #ShredStrong Starts a New Cycle Every Month - Our Next Cycle Starts on Monday, July 7, 2025! #ShredStrong is my signature year-round strength and conditioning training program for mountain bikers and gravel cyclists, but you can join any time you want! Every week, it includes: 3 strength workouts (1 is optional), including some cardio finishers for some fun! A bike intervals session + advice on what other rides or cardio sessions to fit in. A comprehensive mobility plan to help you relax and stabilize your biking muscles. You get personalized coaching feedback and guidance from me on your exercises that you record and send me via video - it's like having a personal trainer in your pocket so you can feel confident in your movement! Every 3 months, you also get a new yoga flow from our in-house yogi, the MTB Yogi! A community video chat where we meet every 4-6 weeks to go over nutrition, training, and other tips that help you in your fitness and wellness journey. All of this is only $49 a month! Or, pay $39 a month if you pay for six months in-full (totaling $234). You can join us every month - each cycle starts around the beginning of every month, depending on the cycle! Learn more of the details of the program and sign-up HERE!  You can also join my email list here to get the latest news on future cycles of the program that start every month (I only email an average of 1-2 times a month and will never spam you). Do You Want a Coach to Help Make Training or Nutrition Easier and Simpler for You? Hi, it's me.

Have you ever received a diagnosis that has rocked your world? Or maybe you have a loved one who’s experienced this? If so, this episode is for you. Host Amelia Phillips and Mum of two Brooke Campbell Bayes have a raw and candid conversation about how to reimagine your life after a medical diagnosis. Brooke generously shares her story from a busy working Mum, to the day she woke up, knowing something was very wrong. How she navigated those first few months, and now a few years on, how she manages the ups and downs of her health challenges, whilst also being a Mum, wife, friend, sister (and all those hats we wear!). She shares the strategies that has helped her, but also the realities that can't be ignored. A valuable lesson for all of us, no matter our health challenges. About the guest: Brooke Campbell Bayes is the cohost of iChronic, where she and Monty Dimond offer a refreshingly honest and humorous look at life with chronic illness (If you don't laugh you'll cry, they say). The podcast explores the daily realities of living with ongoing health conditions, aiming to help listeners feel seen, supported, and a little less alone. Follow Brooke on instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brookecampbellbayes/ Listen to Ichronic on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/show-and-tell/id957291724?i=1000699346220 Listen to Ichronic on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/4rTxBX2oj7q2Y0F2IIQzSW?si=c145253822ec4985 About the host: Amelia Phillips is an exercise scientist, nutritionist, and published researcher (BSc, MNut) with a career spanning 26 years in health. She is the co-founder of Vitality360, a functional health platform that helps people gain deep insights into their health and make targeted changes for lasting vitality.A respected media presenter, Amelia has been featured on Channel 9’s hit show Do You Want to Live Forever? and is dedicated to helping people build a life of energy, connection, and purpose at any age or stage of life.Instagram: @_amelia_phillipsHave a question? Email: ap@ameliaphillips.com.auFind out more at: www.ameliaphillips.com.auDiscover Vitality360: https://v360.health CREDITSHost: Amelia Phillips Guest: Brooke Campbell Bayes Audio Producer: Darren RothMusic: Matt Nicholich Production Partner: Nova Entertainment Pty Ltd Healthy Her acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the Land we have recorded this podcast on, the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. We pay our respects to their Elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Would you like access to our advanced agency training for FREE? https://www.agencymastery360.com/training If you're the visionary still stuck doing the work, you're not scaling—you're surviving. Joaby Parker knows that loop well. From launching his agency straight out of college to nearly burning out and walking away, his story is a masterclass in doing too much, too long. In this episode, you'll hear how Joaby broke free from the grind, stopped bottlenecking his team, and built a business that scales without him. He shares his journey from founding his first agency right out of college to walking away and returning to agency life with a new approach and mindset. He reveals what caused his early plateau, why he left to work client-side, and how returning to the agency world taught him how to lead, grow, and eventually let go of the creative and account management roles that were holding him back. Joaby Parker is the founder and CEO of Cover 3 Growth Partners, a strategy-first agency based in Logan, Utah, focused on food and CPG brands. With a background in creative marketing and brand development, Joaby's approach combines practical business strategy with creative execution. He discusses how his passion for marketing and working closely with various agencies inspired him to start his own and reflects on the challenges of the early years, the gradual momentum they built, and how he learned that building a successful agency isn't about doing more. It's about doing less of the wrong things—and putting the right people, values, and systems in place so you can grow without burning out. In this episode, we'll discuss: The turning point that made him leave his first agency and come back stronger. How his mindset around delegation and trust evolved. Why being a visionary means you're probably a bad manager—and that's okay. Subscribe Apple | Spotify | iHeart Radio Sponsors and Resources Wix: Today's episode of the Smart Agency Masterclass is sponsored by Wix Studio, the all-in-one platform designed to help agencies scale without the headaches. With intuitive tools, robust native business solutions, and low maintenance, Wix Studio lets your team focus on what matters most—delivering exceptional value to your clients. Ready to take your agency to the next level? Visit wix.com/studio and discover how Wix Studio can transform your workflow, boost profits, and strengthen client relationships. Why Joaby Chose the Agency Path: Early Missteps & Major Momentum Joaby had a purposeful entry into the agency space, after developing a passion for marketing working with several agencies on the client side at Health & Fitness. He had the opportunity to work hand in hand with many agencies and knew he would someday want to run one himself. After a few years of learning experience, he and his partner made the jump to start their own agency. Being quite young, their first few years with the agency were marked by a lack of direction. Their first big turning point came after securing a contact with Chemdry that led to a complete rebrand of this company. Soon after, when HomeDepot acquired the carpet cleaning business, Joaby and his partner had the opportunity to assist in this transition period, helping all Chemdry franchisees take advantage of this new HomeDepot partnership. This is really when the business took off and Joaby and his partner started to deal with other aspects of scaling. The Breaking Point That Made Him Go Back to His Roots Growth flatlined. Burnout crept in. Joaby's agency hit the ceiling—and he couldn't figure out why. Turns out, it wasn't a marketing problem. It was a management problem. Initially, Joaby attributed this stagnation to geography—living in a small town seemed to be limiting their growth potential, especially during a time when digital outreach was much more challenging than it is today. Around this same time, an existing client presented Joaby with an opportunity to join their internal team. It was a great opportunity and a needed break from the agency life so he accepted, after securing another partner that could take over his contributions at the agency. It felt like going back to basics for him and gave him the time and space to think about what went wrong at that agency. Looking back, he sees the reason for that first agency's plateau was a lack of processes. While referrals from existing clients provided a steady stream of work, they were insufficient for sustained growth, which ultimately led to a plateau in growth. Ultimately, they struggled to find opportunities to get in front of people to do more work. This scenario is all too familiar for agency owners. They typically reach a breaking point where their small founding teams can no longer handle the client load. The natural response is to hire more staff, which increases revenue but often decreases profit margins—leaving owners feeling trapped and pressured. The key differentiator between agencies that remain stuck and those that break through to the next level is making the strategic decision to raise prices rather than simply adding more bodies to the team. You Don't Need to Do It All—You Need the Right People Looking back, Joaby now realizes he could have pushed the agency to that next stage of growth, but at the time, the pressure felt overwhelming. He still wasn't good at running an agency, just good at working in one, and although it seemed like the business was evolving, the reality was that Joaby had more costs than ever and was working more hours than he ever had before. At that moment, the opportunity to go back to work on the client side seemed like an escape. Joaby admits that, for most of his career, he was a bad business manager. If you're reading this as a visionary-minded agency owner—which many are—you might recognize yourself in his story. Rather than forcing yourself into an ill-fitting management role, the solution is to build a team that amplifies your natural strengths. This means hiring self-managing professionals or dedicated operations managers who can handle the day-to-day business mechanics, freeing you to focus your energy where it creates the most impact. The common objection to this approach is cost: "I can't afford to hire that level of talent."If this is your case, then the easiest solution will always be to raise your prices. How to justify that raise? Narrow your focus. When you become the go-to expert for a particular niche, you'll discover clients who are willing to pay for your true value rather than treating your services as a commodity. Stop Running the Mouse—Start Leading the Team These days, Joaby's creative involvement is way down from what it used to be. For many years, most of the agency's creative work still needed his approval in some way or another. However, at one point he and his partner realized that, whenever he wasn't stuck doing the creative work the agency grew and once he did go back to it, the agency stagnated. Agency growth is often limited by the founder, not the market, not the clients, and not even the team. When he focused on building and leading—growth resumed. If you're still running the mouse, reviewing every piece of creative, or handling every big client call, you're not leading—you're doing. And that's the bottleneck. It took Joaby some time to learn this. In fact, other than overseeing creative, he was also main account manager, where he didn't do the best job, since he couldn't fully focus on that area. In the end, client complaints about lack of focus helped Joaby recognize that it was time to hire account managers and start delegating. Scaling an agency isn't about doing more—it's about doing less yourself. By embracing your role as a leader, not a doer, hiring smarter, and building a team around your vision, you create the space for sustainable growth. Whether you're stuck in the grind or unsure how to let go, the answer isn't working harder—it's building better. Do You Want to Transform Your Agency from a Liability to an Asset? Looking to dig deeper into your agency's potential? Check out our Agency Blueprint. Designed for agency owners like you, our Agency Blueprint helps you uncover growth opportunities, tackle obstacles, and craft a customized blueprint for your agency's success.

Knowing how to fuel for early morning training can help you maintain performance and power on and off the bike and in and out of the gym. It can also help you learn how to recover properly since you aren't under-fueling before harder training efforts. Give this episode a listen to learn about the 3 things you can focus on when time is crunched in the morning before your bike rides and/or training. To learn more about nutrition tips for cyclists, check out these episodes: Part 1: How to Fuel Before Bike Rides Part 2: How to Fuel During Bike Rides Part 3: How to Fuel After Bike Rides #Fit + Fed to Shred Interest List - Start June 9, 2025! Interested in learning more about how to fuel yourself for your adventures and your energy and performance (or physique) goals? Then my new group coaching program, Fit + Fed to Shred is the answer! It will be an 8-week program that will help you: Learn how to fuel yourself effectively in your day-to-day life. Learn how to power your bike rides and help you avoid the dreadful "bonking" on rides and runs - or any adventure outside! Learn how and when to eat more or less food, and what foods are best for active people like you! Become a meal prepping pro, without spending hours in the kitchen. Optimize your sleep and recovery routines, so you can feel more refreshed after hard training sessions, once and for all. Regular video chats with the group to build community and learn from one another! Fill out the interest form here, and you will be the first to learn about the program and join! Again, here's the link: https://forms.gle/ZW7KLmEMmahSeZRV9. Let's get fit + fed to shred, together! #ShredStrong Starts a New Cycle Every Month - Our Next Cycle Starts on Monday, June 2, 2025! #ShredStrong is my signature year-round strength and conditioning training program for mountain bikers and gravel cyclists, but you can join any time you want! Every week, it includes: 3 strength workouts (1 is optional), including some cardio finishers for some fun! A bike intervals session + advice on what other rides or cardio sessions to fit in. A comprehensive mobility plan to help you relax and stabilize your biking muscles. You get personalized coaching feedback and guidance from me on your exercises that you record and send me via video - it's like having a personal trainer in your pocket so you can feel confident in your movement! Every 3 months, you also get a new yoga flow from our in-house yogi, the MTB Yogi! A community video chat where we meet every 4-6 weeks to go over nutrition, training, and other tips that help you in your fitness and wellness journey. All of this is only $49 a month! Or, pay $39 a month if you pay for six months in-full (totaling $234). You can join us every month - each cycle starts around the beginning of every month, depending on the cycle! Learn more of the details of the program and sign-up HERE!  You can also join my email list here to get the latest news on future cycles of the program that start every month (I only email an average of 1-2 times a month and will never spam you). Do You Want a Coach to Help Make Training or Nutrition Easier and Simpler for You? Hi, it's me.

Would you like access to our advanced agency training for FREE? https://www.agencymastery360.com/training Most agency owners screw up their first sales hire. Why? Because they either hire the wrong person, or refuse to let go of control. Travis Hoechlin used to think building a sales team was a waste of time—until he realized he was the bottleneck. In this episode, you'll hear how he went from solo closer to leading a performance-driven team that fuels his agency's growth. Travis Hoechlin is the CEO of Rise Up Media, a marketing company specializing in law firm services. He shares insights into his journey from working at a large agency to starting his own and discusses the challenges of stepping out of a comfortable position and the motivations that ultimately led him and his business partner to take the leap into entrepreneurship. Travis also shared his experience building a top sales team, his logic behind hiring experienced seller instead of going for junior salespeople he could train, and how he keeps his team motivated and competitive. In this episode, we'll discuss: What most owners get wrong when building sales teams. The hidden cost of overlooking your top performers. How to hire competitive closers who don't need babysitting. Incentives that actually work (even with a remote team). Subscribe Apple | Spotify | iHeart Radio Sponsors and Resources E2M Solutions: Today's episode of the Smart Agency Masterclass is sponsored by E2M Solutions, a web design, and development agency that has provided white-label services for the past 10 years to agencies all over the world. Check out e2msolutions.com/smartagency and get 10% off for the first three months of service. The True Cost of Overlooking Top Performers Travis began his career working for one of the largest agencies in the industry. Despite previously owning a mortgage company, he and his current business partner found themselves settling into the comfort of corporate life—big paychecks, steady accolades, and a sense of stability. But deep down, Travis always knew he wanted to build something of his own again. It wasn't until a disagreement with his former boss that he finally made the leap. Looking back, he wishes he'd made the move sooner. Still, the way it unfolded taught him an important lesson. As one of the agency's top sellers, Travis had earned a spot in their elite President's Club—or so he thought. When he was unexpectedly passed over, it became clear that his contributions weren't truly valued. That moment of frustration became the catalyst for change. Sometimes, it takes a setback to shake us out of complacency. Travis's story is a powerful reminder: comfort can be deceiving, and top performers often leave not because of the work, but because their impact isn't fully recognized. For agency owners, it's a call to action—acknowledge your best people, or risk losing them. The Journey from Seller to Sales Leader As one of the top salespeople at his former agency, Travis was a natural fit to lead sales at his own. But like many high-performing sellers, he was hesitant about building a sales team. Great salespeople don't always make great managers—and Travis wasn't sure he could find others who would match the drive and success he brought to the table. His competitive nature added another layer of resistance. The idea of hiring someone who might rival his performance didn't sit well with him at first. But over time, realized that no matter how strong he was on his own, two or three skilled salespeople giving their all would far outperform his solo efforts. That mindset shift changed everything. Once he found the right people—sales pros who believed in the agency's mission—Travis stepped back. He moved out of the day-to-day sales role, choosing instead to support the team and help them succeed. After all, they had taken a chance on a growing agency, and he felt a responsibility to help them thrive. Many agency owners struggle with this transition. It's hard to let go of what you're great at. But as Travis discovered, tying your value to a single role—especially one you refuse to let go—can turn you into your agency's biggest bottleneck. Growth requires trust, delegation, and a willingness to lead from the side, not just the front. Strategy for Building a Premium Agency Sales Force Once Travis fully committed to building a sales team, he hit the ground running—bringing on two salespeople to start, then two more just a few months later. Since then, he's made it a habit to hire two to three new sales reps each year, fueling the agency's continued growth. While many agencies try to save money by hiring junior reps, Travis believes that route often costs more in the long run. He only recruits experienced, high-performing sales talent since inexperienced hires need extensive training, close management, and time to ramp up—resources many growing agencies simply can't afford to spare. Instead, Travis looks for people who are naturally competitive, hungry to earn, and confident in their ability to close. In his view, a good salesperson can sell anything. If a new hire hasn't sold agency services before, he keeps their focus simple for the first 30 days: just book him meetings. From there, he leads the calls while they shadow, learn, and build the confidence to eventually run the sales process on their own. Additionally, rather than hiring one rep at a time, he prefers onboarding two or three at once. Sure, not all of them will work out—but with multiple hires, at least one or two typically stick, and you're not back at square one. Plus, the healthy competition that comes from a group ramping together drives performance. When top salespeople are surrounded by peers who are also gunning for results, it pushes everyone to level up. For Travis, building a sales team isn't just about offloading calls—it's about creating a high-performance culture that multiplies results and drives the agency forward. Incentives That Actually Build Culture—Even Remotely Travis understands that great salespeople are driven by more than just commission—they thrive on competition, recognition, and rewards. In corporate environments, these high performers are often motivated by bonuses, contests, and incentive trips—and Travis knew his agency needed to offer the same kind of energy to attract and retain top talent. Having been the top seller at his previous job, he experienced firsthand how powerful the right incentives can be. So, he implemented a clear and compelling incentive structure for his team: hit an annual sales target of $850,000, and you qualify for an all-expenses-paid trip to a luxury destination, such as their recent five-day retreat at the Four Seasons in Costa Rica. But it's more than just a reward—it's a shared goal that unites the team. With about a third of his salesforce working remotely from across the globe, these trips serve as a rallying point, fostering camaraderie, motivation, and culture. This blend of healthy competition and team connection is critical in sales. By setting ambitious but achievable goals—and celebrating those who reach them—Travis has built a culture where individuals are motivated to win, and the entire team moves forward together. Do You Want to Transform Your Agency from a Liability to an Asset? Looking to dig deeper into your agency's potential? Check out our Agency Blueprint. Designed for agency owners like you, our Agency Blueprint helps you uncover growth opportunities, tackle obstacles, and craft a customized blueprint for your agency's success.  

Welcome to another Mini Motivation Episode, these are shorter, bite sized episodes for when you’ve only got a moment to yourself and you’re looking for some health motivation. Today host Amelia Phillips and Women's Health advocate Jennalea McInnes discuss the importance of tracking blood pressure. They look at both high and low blood pressure, the causes, impacts and how to manage them, also how it changes with age and life stage. About the guest: Jennalea McInnes is a leading Clinical Nutritionist specialising in women’s health, gut health, and holistic well-being. She offers 1:1, group coaching and public speaking. https://www.jennaleamcinnes.com/ https://www.instagram.com/jennaleamcinnes/ About the host: Amelia Phillips is an exercise scientist, nutritionist, and published researcher (BSc, MNut) with a career spanning 26 years in health. She is the co-founder of Vitality360, a functional health platform that helps people gain deep insights into their health and make targeted changes for lasting vitality.A respected media presenter, Amelia has been featured on Channel 9’s hit show Do You Want to Live Forever? and is dedicated to helping people build a life of energy, connection, and purpose at any age or stage of life.Instagram: @_amelia_phillipsHave a question? Email: ap@ameliaphillips.com.auFind out more at: www.ameliaphillips.com.auDiscover Vitality360: https://v360.health CREDITSHost: Amelia Phillips Guest: Audio Producer: Darren RothMusic: Matt Nicholich Production Partner: Nova Entertainment Pty Ltd Healthy Her acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the Land we have recorded this podcast on, the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. We pay our respects to their Elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Would you like access to our advanced agency training for FREE? https://www.agencymastery360.com/training Ever build a business that “looked” successful—but left you feeling empty? Jeff Hilimire sure did and then he did something about it. In this episode, we unpack how he turned a successful agency career into a mission-driven movement—building purpose-led businesses, launching a global volunteer initiative, and writing books that challenge how we think about impact. Today's featured guest always genuinely enjoyed agency life—something he quickly realized was the exception, not the norm. That realization led him to a mission: helping others discover greater meaning in their business journey. Whether it's through his books, his leadership, or his venture that unites developers to build websites for nonprofits in just 24 hours, he is all about turning intention into action. We have the pleasure of welcoming back Jeff Hilimire, the podcast's very first guest, nearly eleven years ago. He shares what drives him to help business owners build purpose-driven companies, why he started writing books, and how he carved his own path in the publishing world. You'll also hear about his latest work with Purpose Group, his thoughts on operationalizing purpose, and how to lead with clarity through times of crisis. In this episode, we'll discuss: Why he made it his mission to help entrepreneurs build purpose-driven businesses. Using the concept of ‘Dream Small' to build a network of volunteers to help non-profits. How he embedded his books with his unique vision.  Subscribe Apple | Spotify | iHeart Radio Sponsors and Resources Wix: Today's episode of the Smart Agency Masterclass is sponsored by Wix Studio, the all-in-one platform designed to help agencies scale without the headaches. With intuitive tools, robust native business solutions, and low maintenance, Wix Studio lets your team focus on what matters most—delivering exceptional value to your clients. Ready to take your agency to the next level? Visit wix.com/studio and discover how Wix Studio can transform your workflow, boost profits, and strengthen client relationships. From Joke Websites to Purpose-Driven Business Empire Jeff's journey in the agency world began with simple curiosity in 1996 when, as a college student, he built joke websites with a friend. Eventually, they figured if they made it a business, they could keep doing what they loved, which led to building several sites for free and a humble start with their first paying client, Jeff's aunt, who paid them $250 to build her business' website. Jeff has done a lot since being on the podcast's first episode talking about that first agency. He's been founding, growing, and selling businesses over the last 25 years. He has also been a board member of several initiatives and written six books just since 2019. His latest venture is the Purpose Group, where he and his team acquire and reinvigorate small businesses by training more inspired and engaged employees through their Purpose Playbook™ methodology — which is very much linked to the knowledge Jeff has been sharing through his books, teaching entrepreneurs to build purpose-driven businesses, and helping them find that same joy he's always found in his different businesses. Start with One: How Dreaming Small Can Change Everything In Jeff's experience, many people never go after their dream projects because it feels too big and daunting to start. Instead, he believes it's best to start small and give that first step. If your goal is to help people, then help at least one person. This is the premise behind Jeff's book Dream Small, which helped him grow his venture 48in48, an initiative born out of the idea of getting his team to help non-profits build websites. It would give them the satisfaction of helping someone while giving two selected non-profits a functional website in 48 hours. The plan gradually grew to include thousands of volunteers who offered time and expertise to help these non-profits for one weekend. Since developing this idea, Jeff has held 35 events with 7,500 volunteers around the world pitching in to help build 1,300 websites for non-profits. And while these numbers are great, he knows that had he started with that in mind, the project would've probably never taken off. People needed to see it was possible at a small scale before committing to do more. Tired of Boring Business Books? So Was Jeff Back when Jeff wrote his first book, he wanted to bridge the gap between traditional business thinking and entrepreneurial mindset. Having repeatedly encountered CMOs who resisted innovation with claims that they "couldn't take that chance," Jeff wanted to share his conviction that business was all about taking risks. Initially, he intended to deliver a straightforward business manual and approached the writing process as such. However, he has personally never enjoyed those books, which became apparent as he navigated through the content and found that the rigidity of a traditional format stifled his creativity. Hence, he tried a different approach and embraced storytelling—creating characters and scenarios that embodied the entrepreneurial spirit. This is when Jeff found joy in the writing process and he's continued developing stories within the same fictional universe. Furthermore, after facing multiple rejections from traditional publishers, Jeff applied his risk-taking philosophy to launch his own small publishing house. Today, this venture works with approximately 25 authors and actively seeks innovative approaches to business storytelling. Becoming a Better Leader by Setting a Purpose Beyond Profit In his case, Jeff started out as the programmer in his partnership and oversaw that aspect of his agency's operations for some time. The moment he hired someone else to help him with that task, he immediately recognized there were much better-qualified developers and that his own time would be better spent growing the agency. In fact, he believes agency owners who have limited capacities and require help from the start can actually scale faster since they won't get caught up working in the agency and can focus on growth. When founders recognize their limitations and delegate from the beginning, they avoid becoming trapped in day-to-day operations to focus exclusively on strategic growth opportunities. Despite this operational insight, Jeff initially lacked a sophisticated vision beyond the vague goal of "eventually selling." It took time and experience for him to develop a more nuanced understanding of valuations and how different exit timings would affect the agency's ultimate value. His strategic thinking evolved only after navigating through multiple mergers and sales. The most profound transformation in Jeff's approach came years into his business journey when he began thinking about purpose beyond profit. While he had always wanted to create a workplace where people enjoyed their work and developed professionally, he eventually expanded this intuition into a deliberate focus on organizational culture and consciously building values into the business foundation. Do You Want to Transform Your Agency from a Liability to an Asset? Looking to dig deeper into your agency's potential? Check out our Agency Blueprint. Designed for agency owners like you, our Agency Blueprint helps you uncover growth opportunities, tackle obstacles, and craft a customized blueprint for your agency's success.

We talk a lot about what to eat before, during, and after your bikes rides… but we don't talk enough about what NOT to eat before bike rides.

Here are today's sponsors:Worldsmith - Easy D&D Prep - Start a Free 7 Day Trial: https://session0studios.com/worldsmith-podcastRoll and Play Press - Easier D&D: https://session0studios.com/rollandplayStudio Fantasms: https://session0studios.com/fantasmsOur Patreon: https://session0studios.com/patreonJustin and Tanner are joined for this episode by an amazing DM, London Carlisle! While he's known for being an impressive DM at events such as "D&D In A Castle", his acting experience becomes especially useful for our discussion on NPCs. We discuss where to pull inspiration from for creating characters and voices, how to create depth in NPCs without overriding your players, and many more ideas to drill further into NPC creation!Follow London on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/londoncarlisleAnd learn more about his role at "D&D In A Castle" here: https://www.dndinacastle.com/dungeon-masters/london-carlisleSpecial thanks to:Benj Weyland for Graphic Design (https://www.instagram.com/benjweydesign/)TJ Max, Juka, and TechSenpai for being amazing moderatorsFoxy Beard, Kyle Wilson, Nick Ammann and Professor Nobody for being our patrons.Mentioned in this episode:Do You Want to Earn some Money?

Eno, DVR, and Jed discuss the new tools and leaderboards at Baseball Savant offering more public-facing data than ever for bat paths and attack angles. Plus, they talk about the eventual arrival of ABS for regular season games, and their 2025 predictions they want to use a mulligan on. Rundown1:02 New Toys at Baseball Savant -- Swing Path & Attack Angle Leaderboards9:12 Looking for Ideal & Unusual Combinations16:00 Is Swing Path Tilt the Most Difficult Thing to Change?25:09 Do Flatter Swing Path Hitters Have Higher Floors?34:40 ABS Getting Closer to Become a Reality in MLB Games Beyond Spring?52:03 Which 2025 Prediction(s) Do You Want a Mulligan On?Baseball Savant's Swing Path & Attack Angle Leaderboards: https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/leaderboard/bat-tracking/swing-path-attack-angleFollow Eno on Bluesky: @enosarris.bsky.socialFollow DVR on Bluesky: @dvr.bsky.sociale-mail: ratesandbarrels@gmail.comJoin our Discord: https://discord.gg/FyBa9f3wFeSubscribe to The Athletic: theathletic.com/ratesandbarrelsHosts: Derek VanRiper & Eno SarrisWith: Jed LowrieExecutive Producer: Derek VanRiper Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Would you like access to our advanced agency training for FREE? https://www.agencymastery360.com/training Are you doing great work but still feel like your agency's stuck in neutral? The truth is, talent alone doesn't scale a business. In this episode our guest, Stephen Woessner—author, agency growth strategist, and founder of Predictive ROI—reveals why most agencies hit a ceiling... and how to break through with a smarter, more strategic approach. From developing a true methodology to showing up with content that teaches, we dive into what's working now (and what's not) when it comes to agency growth, client expectations, and scaling with intention. If you've ever relied a little too heavily on referrals, be unsure of your niche, or found yourself winging it without a real system—this one's for you. Tune in to learn how to enhance your agency's approach to attracting clients and scaling your business! Stephen Woessner is the founder of Predictive ROI, an agency that helps clients build predictable and repeatable ROI so they can focus on doing the work they love alongside clients they choose. With over 30 years of experience, including a six-year stint in academia, Stephen discusses what's working right now to get more leads, why getting specific is vital for agencies, and why the journey to scaling your journey requires patience, as well as methodology. Stephen also hosts the "Onward Nation" and "Sell with Authority" podcasts and is the bestselling author of five books, including his latest, “Sell With Authority". In this episode, we'll discuss: Why you should be ridiculously specific. Developing a true methodology to showcase your process. How a softer approach can lead to bigger wins. Subscribe Apple | Spotify | iHeart Radio Sponsors and Resources E2M Solutions: Today's episode of the Smart Agency Masterclass is sponsored by E2M Solutions, a web design, and development agency that has provided white-label services for the past 10 years to agencies all over the world. Check out e2msolutions.com/smartagency and get 10% off for the first three months of service. The Power of Specificity (and Content That Teaches) Stephen has had a long career in the agency world, starting thirty years ago, before ROI was a thing, and working alongside agencies and consultants — teaching them how to build their authority within the markets they serve. He worked six-years in academia while also sharing his knowledge in his first books on Viral Social Networking and SEO. The expertise shared in these books got him requests to work as a consultant for different businesses, which led to him starting his own agency in 2009. At his agency, Stephen commonly works with agencies and consultants that are going about sales and new business development in the least effective, most painful way possible. In fifteen years, he's seen a lot in the business and now brings his own perspective on what's currently working in the agency space. According to him, success comes from being ridiculously specific—about who you serve, what you offer, and how you market it. It's not about flashy gimmicks or one-size-fits-all strategies. Agencies that clearly communicate their expertise and share their knowledge generously (even for free!) are the ones building long-term trust. With the many AI tools available for marketers nowadays, there just isn't a valid excuse for not putting your own content out there to attract clients with valuable tips that show your expertise. These should be small, actionable pieces that solve real problems. That kind of generosity leads to high-quality leads who already trust you by the time they reach out. While the tools might not be polished yet, they show just how easy it is now to create content and show up consistently. The key is that agencies need to be intentional, have a point of view, know their clients' real pain points and speak to them clearly. Raise the Bar or Get Left Behind Today's clients are smart. They're looking for specialized, strategic partners—not generalists who throw spaghetti at the wall. Agencies that develop a true methodology, a real system for delivering results, stand out. It's not just about the work—it's about the process behind it. Simply put, a solid methodology builds trust. It shows prospects that you know what you're doing and that you've done it before. And yes, it's a big part of what makes an agency sellable down the road. If you're familiar with games like “Age of Empires,” the process of building your methodology will be a lot like starting scrappy in the stone age—just you, maybe a freelancer or two. But as you gather resources (aka leads, a team, and tools) and build systems (onboarding, sales, and delivery processes), you level up. The methodology evolves as you grow—and mastering each stage is what gets you to the next one. The path to growth requires structure, clarity, and an intentional approach. If you're still winging it with no repeatable system in place it might be time to rethink the game plan. How a Softer Approach Can Lead to Bigger Wins Other than a methodology, the journey to the top will also require patience. Scaling an agency is rarely instantaneous and each stage of development comes with its own challenges and learning experiences. Agencies at various levels of growth face unique challenges, and the aspiration to leap from a level two to level thirty-seven—is just unrealistic. You need to experience the wins and losses that truly gives you the expertise to sustain growth and learn to appreciate that they've prepared you for the next challenges and goals. Jason was actually confronted with this lesson while preparing for his latest event, which although did eventually sell out, but did so much more slowly than he would've liked. In the end, the team made the decision to stop being pushy about promoting the event and instead try to be more inviting. A pushy attitude will likely be met with resistance. Instead, a gentle nudge or an invitation to explore creates a sense of curiosity and openness. By reframing the conversation from one of pressure to one of invitation, he was able to build trust and rapport. People are more likely to engage when they feel they have the autonomy to make choices without feeling coerced. This is the same principle that drives successful business generation. Instead of being pushy, make sure you're sharing case studies, insights, or even hosting webinars that allow prospects to learn and engage with the agency's expertise. Trust that you're offering great value that resonates with the target audience, encouraging your audience to lean in and explore further, rather than overwhelming them with hard sells. Creating Content That Draws the Right Clients In So what is the type of content agencies should be creating to get prospects to lean in? The first thing that may make you feel like you're screaming into the void is trying to attract just any client who can sign a check. Successful companies have shown that focusing on a select group of high-performing clients can lead to tremendous success. This does not mean that if you start to work with plumbers you'll have to work with that niche in perpetuity. A niche can also be a specific problem you solve or an area you serve, not just an industry. When you focus on "right fit" clients, you'll attract people you genuinely enjoy working with who choose to stay with your business long-term. When agency owners narrow their focus, they can tailor their offerings to meet the unique needs of their chosen niche. This not only enhances the quality of service but also simplifies the content creation process. Once the target audience is identified, agencies can generate relevant and engaging content that addresses the specific problems and pain points of their clients. At this point, you can focus on sharing content that makes a lasting impression. By providing valuable information upfront, you'll no doubt capture the attention of potential clients and build credibility. Do You Want to Transform Your Agency from a Liability to an Asset? Looking to dig deeper into your agency's potential? Check out our Agency Blueprint. Designed for agency owners like you, our Agency Blueprint helps you uncover growth opportunities, tackle obstacles, and craft a customized blueprint for your agency's success.

Would you like access to our advanced agency training for FREE? https://www.agencymastery360.com/training AI isn't coming for your agency—it's already here. And if you haven't set clear guidelines for how your team (and your clients) engage with it, you're already behind. In this episode, one agency founder shares how he went from AI skeptic to strategic adopter—rewriting his workflows, client communications, and pricing strategy to future-proof his business. Join us as we explore how to move beyond simply offering AI-enhanced services—and start leveraging AI to boost profitability, streamline operations, and establish your agency as a leader in this new era. Paolo Vidali is the founder of Hidden Gears, an agency specializing in e-commerce and Shopify. With over a decade of experience in design, development, and digital marketing, Paolo shares his journey into agency ownership and discusses the challenges and rewards of building a small, distributed team across the US and Europe, as well as the factors that are informing his evolving policies on AI use. In this episode, we'll discuss: Why expertise will still set you apart in the era of AI. How Paolo went from AI skeptic to viewing it as mission-critical. How you can change your agency's game by integrating AI into your operations.  Subscribe Apple | Spotify | iHeart Radio Sponsors and Resources Wix: Today's episode of the Smart Agency Masterclass is sponsored by Wix Studio, the all-in-one platform designed to help agencies scale without the headaches. With intuitive tools, robust native business solutions, and low maintenance, Wix Studio lets your team focus on what matters most—delivering exceptional value to your clients. Ready to take your agency to the next level? Visit wix.com/studio and discover how Wix Studio can transform your workflow, boost profits, and strengthen client relationships. Making a Low-Risk Jump to Entrepreneurship Paolo sees his road to owning an agency as accidental, in the sense that it was never the plan to do it full time. Initially working for a digital marketing agency focused on B2B and lead generation, he began freelancing on the side. A couple of years into this, however, he realized the work he was doing on the nights and weekends was scalable and something he could ultimately grow. Back then, the jump to entrepreneurship seemed like a move he could realistically make without risking much of the low-cost lifestyle he led at the time. If anything went wrong, he'd just go back to working for an agency. He ended up building a successful organization he has intentionally kept small to maintain the close client relationships and team cohesion that have become hallmarks of his business model. How AI Went from “Maybe” to Mission-Critical After being in the world of e-commerce for over a decade, Paolo has witnessed firsthand the evolution of digital marketing and the rise of platforms like Shopify. And although he initially didn't believe the AI hype, it soon became apparent that the landscape was shifting dramatically. It was time to establish policies that dictated how staff and contractors would interact with this technology, so the agency would always be involved in how they experimented with it. The team's approach to AI evolved in two parallel tracks: externally, they carefully calibrated AI integration based on individual client preferences, while internally conducting tests to identify operational efficiencies. Years later, what Paolo originally envisioned as merely a future service offering has instead become fundamental to the agency's internal operations, with AI tools now dramatically reducing time spent on previously labor-intensive tasks like content creation, customer support, and data analysis. Why Expertise Will Still Set You Apart & How This Can Affect Your Pricing Predictably, one of the concerns around AI as its usage spread was around agencies becoming obsolete. In reality, Paolo can clearly see the difference between his team using AI, with many hours dedicated to understanding the technology and using it effectively, and any random person using the same tools. Now the challenge becomes how much value to place on that knowledge when it comes to their overall prices. Should they charge based on the time saved through automation, or should they consider the expertise required to generate quality outputs? Much like Paolo's mother can still out-Google him thanks to her deep understanding of information retrieval as a librarian, professionals in the field now possess the knowledge to input data effectively and assess the quality of the results produced by AI. This is why agencies should be charging on a value-based model instead of hourly rates. The technology certainly aids in finishing the tasks a lot sooner, but it's the agency's knowledge of the tools that helps complete the task efficiently. ChatGPT Changed the Game—Now Agencies Have to Raise Theirs Paolo's team is conducting systematic A/B testing to evaluate AI's potential impact on their agency workflows, quantifying time savings and process optimizations to determine where technology genuinely enhances value. To foster innovation while maintaining control, Paolo encourages staff to explore diverse AI tools during personal time and share promising discoveries, while implementing strict data protection protocols. Client information can only be processed in secure, isolated environments that prevent data from being incorporated into learning models, which led to his specific ban on Deepseek. AI has already found practical applications throughout the agency. Paolo personally leverages it for copywriting and proposal refinement, appreciating how it enhances professionalism and improves success rates. His team is also using AI for drafting content, something clients are notified about and an area where they are aware the AI results will still need to be fact-checked and revised. In his view, the use of AI has to be justified as being something that adds to the process to save time, cut costs, and improve results, rather than simply being a crutch. Overall, Paolo does think that the way people now shop for and consider content services and content marketing has forever been changed. He's already seen a decline in companies' investment in SEO, since clients feel there's no need if they can just ask ChatGPT to write that content. Despite this shift, he remains confident that agency expertise produces superior results. The challenge facing agency owners now is strategic adaptation—integrating AI capabilities while demonstrating their distinctive value in an evolving digital landscape. Do You Want to Transform Your Agency from a Liability to an Asset? Looking to dig deeper into your agency's potential? Check out our Agency Blueprint. Designed for agency owners like you, our Agency Blueprint helps you uncover growth opportunities, tackle obstacles, and craft a customized blueprint for your agency's success.

"Do You Want to Be Set Free?" - Daniel Self - 5:18:2025 by Orchard Audio Ministry

As riding season ramps up, mountain bikers and gravel cyclists need to rethink their nutrition. Learn how to fuel longer rides, recover better, and keep energy steady with smart seasonal strategies with these nutrition tips for cyclists.  Also, if you're you feeling fatigued, having difficulty sleeping, and getting moody AF? Those could be signs that you're not fueling enough for the added hours in the saddle. Give this episode a listen to make sure you are fueling enough - and effectively - for your increased riding this season!

Here are today's sponsors:Worldsmith - Easy D&D Prep - Start a Free 7 Day Trial: https://session0studios.com/worldsmith-podcastRoll and Play Press - Easier D&D: https://session0studios.com/rollandplayStudio Fantasms: https://session0studios.com/fantasmsOur Patreon: https://session0studios.com/patreonFeeling stuck or burned out as a Dungeon Master? You're not alone—and you're not out of options. In this episode, Justin and Tanner break down the Four Core Skills that every great DM needs to master:1️⃣ People Management2️⃣ Showmanship & Performance3️⃣ Game Design4️⃣ StorytellingAnd yes... there's a secret fifth pillar

Would you like access to our advanced agency training for FREE? https://www.agencymastery360.com/training Is remote agency life really the dream? While many chase the freedom of working from anywhere, the reality is far more complex. In this episode, Lisa Larson-Kelley shares how she built a high-performing remote team—without sacrificing culture, communication, or control. Today's featured guest decided long ago that she prefers the remote option and shares what really makes remote work actually succeed. For her, it comes down to two crucial elements: Creating a solid structure for clear communication and aligned goals Hiring people who thrive in self-led, remote environments Tune in to hear how she built these systems into her agency—and how she still prioritizes meaningful, in-person connection to strengthen team culture. Lisa Larson-Kelley is the CEO and founder of Quantious, a marketing enablement agency specializing in B2B tech companies. Her agency has worked with some of the biggest tech companies in the world, starting with Adobe and building relationships that would later take them to work with Google and Meta. Currently, she's looking forward to leveraging this experience working with big companies to create lasting relationships with smaller startups and mid-market companies as well. She talks about the challenges and benefits of running a remote agency, how she finds talent suited for remote work, and how implementing EOS in her agency operations improved her business' structure, communications, and employees accountability. In this episode, we'll discuss: How EOS gives structure and accountability. The traits she looks for when hiring remote talent How she keeps team culture strong with in-person retreats Why remote work isn't “easier”—but can be better with the right systems.  Subscribe Apple | Spotify | iHeart Radio Sponsors and Resources E2M Solutions: Today's episode of the Smart Agency Masterclass is sponsored by E2M Solutions, a web design, and development agency that has provided white-label services for the past 10 years to agencies all over the world. Check out e2msolutions.com/smartagency and get 10% off for the first three months of service. A Pivot Fueled by Adversity Lisa began her professional journey as a developer, then transitioned to freelance consulting. Seeing she had a knack for explaining technical processes, she took some writing courses and expanded her abilities into content writing. Lisa's freelance work soon attracted several major tech companies. The growing demand for her services prompted her to hire her first intern through Craigslist, initially viewing this expansion as an extension of her freelance business. However, when her husband fell seriously ill, Lisa's need to provide financial stability for her family motivated her to formalize and grow her operation into a proper agency. What had started as individual consulting work had evolved into a full-fledged business born of both opportunity and necessity. Why Lisa's Agency Thrives Remotely—And How Yours Can Too Since founding her agency, Lisa has maintained a primarily remote operation. She did try to run the team from an office a little before Covid restrictions came to send everyone home again, but was finding it tedious, with common complaints about people's choice of food or annoying habits. It seemed as though petty distractions disappeared once they returned to remote work. As the owner of a remote agency, Lisa admits this modality isn't easier—it's just a different kind of hard. To truly succeed, agency owners who want a remote team must take care to carefully choose people suited for this type of work. Some people really do need the presence of someone keeping them accountable. These people find that on-site work provides them a sense of structure and that the interaction with teammates helps improve their performance. Lisa looks for workers who are able to self-manage and are results-oriented. Her team always has access to managers through Slack, of course, but they mostly prefer to manage their work and their time to better fit their lifestyles. Remote teams can leverage technology to enhance collaboration and communication, using tools like video conferencing, project management software, and instant messaging platforms allow team members to work together seamlessly, regardless of their geographical location. Assessing Candidates' Adaptability to Remote Work Not everyone is suited for remote work, so after assessing a candidate's suitability for the role based on their skills and experience, Lisa also looks to identify whether or not they are suited to work in this modality. If you have struggled finding workers who thrive in a remote setting, try to use assessments and structured interview questions to gauge a candidate's suitability. For instance, asking about their strategies for maintaining accountability can reveal much about their potential success in a remote setting. Furthermore, candidates who have previously navigated remote roles often have the skills and mindset necessary to thrive in similar environments. This experience can translate into a more seamless integration into a remote team, as these individuals are likely already familiar with the challenges and best practices associated with this working style. How EOS Can Transform Your Remote Agency Operations The Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS) has helped many agencies create the sense of structure that some remote teams may be missing. In it, every worker has their goals, so they know what they're working towards, as well the agency's goals for the quarter, so everyone can grow in the same direction. It wasn't immediately easy or intuitive for Lisa to implement EOS into her agency processes. She read the book and tried to self-implement it unsuccessfully. It wasn't until she was introduced to an implementer who could help her with the process and keep her accountable that she felt she was on the right path with this system. With expert guidance, structured meetings became the cornerstone of Lisa's agency operations. These non-negotiable, regularly scheduled sessions ensure team alignment and individual accountability. Using Ninety software, Lisa's team conducts highly organized meetings with clear agendas and built-in timers that keep discussions focused on measurable outcomes and actionable tasks. This systematic approach eliminates wasted time while fostering a culture where team members understand their specific responsibilities. This framework helps Lisa establish high-level objectives aligned with her agency's vision, then break these down into manageable steps by working backward from desired outcomes. For instance, if an agency aims to achieve $20 million in top-line revenue and $10 million in net profit, how does this cascade down to individual team members? This clear linkage between daily activities and long-term objectives helps create a culture of accountability and proactive engagement. Structuring Professional Growth in Remote Agencies Part of the changes introduced with the use of EOS was establishing clear pathways for employee growth, something that employees themselves asked for. While tenure still influences senior positions, the agency's COO developed a three-stage framework that provides visual clarity for professional development. Seed: Your ground-level tasks for any particular role. Blossom: Demonstrating confident competence and Independence in that role. Bloom: Preparing for advancement to the next position. Interestingly, this framework is not necessarily linear recognizing that personal circumstances may cause employees to move between stages. If an employee shifts from "Blossom" back to "Seed," management initiates supportive conversations to discuss their situation and explore potential paths forward based on the employee's choices. This is an important initiative that all agency owners hoping to scale their agency should consider as it forces you to think about ways to scale your team and locate the leaders that will help take the pressure off you as you start to delegate responsibility to them. Furthermore, you'll be taking action to help your team take ownership of their roles, thus increasing retention as you motivate individuals who could get frustrated if they don't see growth opportunities. How In-Person Retreats Build Camaraderie in a Distributed Workforce Running a remote agency takes a lot of organization, structure, and also an appreciation for in-person connection. Lisa understands that while tech keeps teams connected, it can't replace the depth of real, in-person connection.. Hence, to encourage team bonding, she organizes a team retreat, that most recently took the team to Puerto Rico, for a few days of team building activities, but mostly to just be together in the same space. This is a great lesson for agency owners who want to run a remote agency. Building camaraderie through in-person connections will also have practical implications for agency growth. In-person retreats and gatherings can serve as platforms for discussing career aspirations, setting goals, and mapping out pathways for professional growth, as well as fostering stronger relationships, enhanced communication, and a more cohesive work environment. Do You Want to Transform Your Agency from a Liability to an Asset? Looking to dig deeper into your agency's potential? Check out our Agency Blueprint. Designed for agency owners like you, our Agency Blueprint helps you uncover growth opportunities, tackle obstacles, and craft a customized blueprint for your agency's success.

It's Lance Roberts' 60th birthday, and the birthday faery made an early visit to the studio. Markets will be boosted today by news of an agreement between the US and China over tariffs. Is the recent market rebound a sign of recovery—or just a classic bear market trap? Lance Roberts breaks down what defines a bear market rally, why investors often get whipsawed by false hope, and how to position your portfolio amid short-term optimism and long-term uncertainty. With earnings season in full swing and rate cuts still in question, we'll explore whether this bounce has legs or is setting up for another leg lower. Lance is looking for a classic truck and has his eye on a '71 International Scout; interestingly, commentary on valuations, and the prices people are willing to pay. A history lesson on market corrections, recessions, and bottoms (with charts); why it's important to not ignore bear market signs. SEG-1: 60th Birthday, Mother's Day & Bear Market Rally SEG-2a: Bidding on a '71 Scout SEG-2b: Valuations Are What People Are Willing to Pay SEG-3: Bear Market Rallies and Market Bottoms SEG-4: Do Not Ignore Bear Market Signs Hosted by RIA Advisors Chief Investment Strategist Lance Roberts, CIO Produced by Brent Clanton, Executive Producer ------- Watch today's video on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTZmVaVMzpg&list=PLVT8LcWPeAugpcGzM8hHyEP11lE87RYPe&index=1 ------- Articles mention in this show: "A Bear Market Rally?" https://realinvestmentadvice.com/resources/blog/a-bear-market-rally/ ------- The latest installment of our new feature, Before the Bell, "S5-12-25 Do You Want to Make Some Money?" is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngmFyV6B9TY&list=PLwNgo56zE4RAbkqxgdj-8GOvjZTp9_Zlz&index=1 ------- Our previous show is here: "Will Tax Reform Stall?" and "Money Advice for Single Moms on Mother's Day:" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_0Zpmbtb-I&list=PLVT8LcWPeAugpcGzM8hHyEP11lE87RYPe&index=2&t=2s Watch the first-hour of the show here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kwfW2yddsWI&list=PLVT8LcWPeAugpcGzM8hHyEP11lE87RYPe&index=1&t=9s ------- Get more info & commentary: https://realinvestmentadvice.com/newsletter/ -------- REGISTER FOR OUR NEXT CANDID COFFEE (5/3/25) HERE: https://realinvestmentadvice.com/resources/events/live-chat/ ------- SUBSCRIBE to The Real Investment Show here: http://www.youtube.com/c/TheRealInvestmentShow -------- Visit our Site: https://www.realinvestmentadvice.com Contact Us: 1-855-RIA-PLAN -------- Subscribe to SimpleVisor: https://www.simplevisor.com/register-new -------- Connect with us on social: https://twitter.com/RealInvAdvice https://twitter.com/LanceRoberts https://www.facebook.com/RealInvestmentAdvice/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/realinvestmentadvice/ #MarketRally #MarketConsolidation #100DMA #50DMA #200DMA #BearMarketRally #StockMarketUpdate #MarketVolatility #InvestmentStrategies #EconomicForecast #LanceRobertsBirthday #InternationalScout #RayDaleo #JohnHuntsman #PEterSchiff #InvestingAdvice #Money #Investing

It's Lance Roberts' 60th birthday, and the birthday faery made an early visit to the studio. Markets will be boosted today by news of an agreement between the US and China over tariffs. Is the recent market rebound a sign of recovery—or just a classic bear market trap?  Lance Roberts breaks down what defines a bear market rally, why investors often get whipsawed by false hope, and how to position your portfolio amid short-term optimism and long-term uncertainty. With earnings season in full swing and rate cuts still in question, we'll explore whether this bounce has legs or is setting up for another leg lower. Lance is looking for a classic truck and has his eye on a '71 International Scout; interestingly, commentary on valuations, and the prices people are willing to pay. A history lesson on market corrections, recessions, and bottoms (with charts); why it's important to not ignore bear market signs. SEG-1: 60th Birthday, Mother's Day & Bear Market Rally SEG-2a: Bidding on a '71 Scout SEG-2b: Valuations Are What People Are Willing to Pay SEG-3: Bear Market Rallies and Market Bottoms SEG-4: Do Not Ignore Bear Market Signs Hosted by RIA Advisors Chief Investment Strategist Lance Roberts, CIO Produced by Brent Clanton, Executive Producer ------- Watch today's video on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTZmVaVMzpg&list=PLVT8LcWPeAugpcGzM8hHyEP11lE87RYPe&index=1 ------- Articles mention in this show: "A Bear Market Rally?" https://realinvestmentadvice.com/resources/blog/a-bear-market-rally/ ------- The latest installment of our new feature, Before the Bell, "S5-12-25 Do You Want to Make Some Money?" is here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngmFyV6B9TY&list=PLwNgo56zE4RAbkqxgdj-8GOvjZTp9_Zlz&index=1 ------- Our previous show is here: "Will Tax Reform Stall?" and "Money Advice for Single Moms on Mother's Day:" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_0Zpmbtb-I&list=PLVT8LcWPeAugpcGzM8hHyEP11lE87RYPe&index=2&t=2s Watch the first-hour of the show here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kwfW2yddsWI&list=PLVT8LcWPeAugpcGzM8hHyEP11lE87RYPe&index=1&t=9s ------- Get more info & commentary:  https://realinvestmentadvice.com/newsletter/ -------- REGISTER FOR OUR NEXT CANDID COFFEE (5/3/25) HERE: https://realinvestmentadvice.com/resources/events/live-chat/  ------- SUBSCRIBE to The Real Investment Show here: http://www.youtube.com/c/TheRealInvestmentShow -------- Visit our Site: https://www.realinvestmentadvice.com Contact Us: 1-855-RIA-PLAN -------- Subscribe to SimpleVisor: https://www.simplevisor.com/register-new -------- Connect with us on social: https://twitter.com/RealInvAdvice https://twitter.com/LanceRoberts https://www.facebook.com/RealInvestmentAdvice/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/realinvestmentadvice/ #MarketRally #MarketConsolidation #100DMA #50DMA #200DMA #BearMarketRally #StockMarketUpdate #MarketVolatility #InvestmentStrategies #EconomicForecast #LanceRobertsBirthday #InternationalScout #RayDaleo #JohnHuntsman #PEterSchiff #InvestingAdvice #Money #Investing

Would you like access to our advanced agency training for FREE? https://www.agencymastery360.com/training What if scaling your agency didn't mean more stress, but less? Discover how Devon Hayes and Amanda Joyce turned partnership into freedom—and how you can, too. If you're an agency owner ready to stop grinding and start growing, this episode is for you. These two entrepreneurs joined forces as partners specifically to navigate this growth journey together—and witnessed how this strategic decision created the growth, impact, and freedom they had always envisioned. Tune in to discover their realization that scaling represented not an additional burden but rather the crucial shift from merely sustaining their businesses to expanding them intentionally and the ongoing challenges they continue to face as they adapt to this exciting new chapter in their entrepreneurial journey. Devon Hayes and Amanda Joyce aren't just agency owners—they're proof that collaboration can unlock freedom. With deep experience in PR, construction, and financial services, they share the lessons they learned the hard way—so you don't have to. They are co-founders of Elevation Marketing, a company specializing in the home services niche, including roofing, custom home building, and plumbing. They share their journey of coming together after running their own agencies and what inspired them to start their first businesses. Additionally, they'll share what drove them to choosing their current niche and the lessons they're still learning about building their client pipeline and going beyond being referral-based. In this episode, we'll discuss: Joining forces to unlock freedom. Finding the winning niche. Why scaling is worth the fear.  Subscribe Apple | Spotify | iHeart Radio Sponsors and Resources Wix: Today's episode of the Smart Agency Masterclass is sponsored by Wix Studio, the all-in-one platform designed to help agencies scale without the headaches. With intuitive tools, robust native business solutions, and low maintenance, Wix Studio lets your team focus on what matters most—delivering exceptional value to your clients. Ready to take your agency to the next level? Visit wix.com/studio and discover how Wix Studio can transform your workflow, boost profits, and strengthen client relationships. Joining Forces to go From Solo Struggles to Shared Success Before meeting, Devon and Amanda were forging separate paths as agency owners, both yearning for greater freedom and support in their professional lives. Devon worked some time doing marketing for companies in engineering and construction and moved on to the financial industry thinking the bigger paycheck would be enough to make her happy.  However, just nine months later she felt like a prisoner of the corporate world, while her husband – a business owner – enjoy the flexibility to pursue passions like snowboarding. Inspired by his freedom, she leveraged her corporate contacts and industry knowledge to launch her own business, determined to reclaim control of her time. For her part, Amanda started working for an agency right out of college. Armed with a degree in PR and journalism and zero knowledge about the digital marketing world, she quickly developed expertise and built her own client relationships. As her confidence grew, she realized she didn't want the constraints of office-based work. Since it was the early 2000s, the thought of working remote was unimaginable and something she would have to pursue on her own. Finally, she started her own small niche agency in 2007. Of course, both women soon discovered that entrepreneurship wasn't the straightforward path to freedom they'd envisioned. Their businesses brought stress, sleepless nights, and the weighty responsibility of delivering results for clients. The service-based nature of their work meant constantly seeking ways to improve outcomes, often making it difficult to maintain focus amid competing priorities. When Devon and Amanda finally joined forces in 2019, they brought together the valuable lessons each had learned about the industry and business ownership—creating a partnership built on shared experience and complementary strengths. A Collaboration to Unlock Freedom and Have a Higher Impact Even before joining forces, Devon and Amanda were working together in several projects and found they complemented each other very well. In fact, Amanda felt their projects together were the ones causing her less stress. While working with Devon meant she had someone covering for her while she was on vacation, for instance, the clients from projects she was handling by herself wanted her attention 24/7. Both women had achieved a level of success that allowed them to pay their bills and maintain a comfortable lifestyle but realized that to truly thrive, they needed to shift their focus from merely sustaining their businesses to scaling them. More than just a desire for more revenue they understood the benefits that would come from collaboration. Wearing multiple hats and managing every aspect of their businesses was unsustainable. Instead, merging their strengths and resources, would allow them to create a more efficient operation that allowed them to focus on their core competencies. Furthermore, Amanda liked the idea of having someone to discuss her ideas with, something she missed from her days of corporate work and that can be invaluable for agency owners who constantly feel isolated and burdened by their responsibilities. The Pivot that Paid Off: Finding Their Winning Niche Even though Devon and Amanda initially targeted the roofing industry, they quickly lost focus and found themselves working with an eclectic mix of clients across dog training, cannabis, IT, and other unrelated sectors. This scattered approach, while diverse, undermined their ability to establish a distinctive brand identity. Thankfully, they later found their footing through their engagement with the Breakthrough Academy, a contractor coaching group. By connecting with contractors in various trades, including electricians and landscapers, they discovered a niche that aligned with their strengths and expertise. Soon they were delivering exceptional results for clients in plumbing, electrical, and landscaping businesses and – even though they hesitated to make it official – they had a niche. Furthermore, coming together proved to be the best decision once they realized that the home services market was saturated with subpar providers, and hence scaling their business was also an opportunity to reach a broader audience and amplify their message as credible thought leaders. This mission directly inspired their podcast as a platform to spread their message and positively impact an industry often plagued by questionable practices. The next challenge they face is expanding beyond referral-based growth to develop a sustainable client acquisition pipeline. Why Scaling Your Agency Is Worth the Fear Although Devon and Amanda ultimately decided to scale their business to reach a wider audience, many agency owners initially resist growth, fearing it will only increase their workload and responsibilities. While expanding and managing a larger team may seem daunting, the ability to focus on the aspects you love while delegating tasks that others could handle more effectively proves tremendously rewarding. Amanda, for instance, was excited to find people who excelled in areas where she struggled and empowering them to thrive. Once she did, she was able to delegate all the content creation work she had been handling and focus her time on different areas. This is a step that agency owners will get to enjoy not only when they find the right talent but specifically when they find self-managing professionals who take ownership of their work. It's a move that will take you to a remarkable milestone —the moment when new clients are successfully onboarded without requiring any involvement from the founder. Do You Want to Transform Your Agency from a Liability to an Asset? Looking to dig deeper into your agency's potential? Check out our Agency Blueprint. Designed for agency owners like you, our Agency Blueprint helps you uncover growth opportunities, tackle obstacles, and craft a customized blueprint for your agency's success.

So, you've decided you're ready to change - that's awesome! But are you WILLING to make the change? (It'll get uncomfortable and not many people love to be uncomfortable.) Are you ABLE to make the change? Or do you need a little support from someone - like a coach - to make it happen?

Would you like access to our advanced agency training for FREE? https://www.agencymastery360.com/training How are you adapting to the many changes in the industry and economy? For many agency owners this is a golden era for the business. Of course, not everyone will thrive—success depends largely on your ability to adapt. In this episode learn how our guest has mastered adaptation through several economic downturns over the years, emerging from each crisis as a more prepared and confident leader. Today, he shares the pivotal moments when his agency could have joined countless others in closing their doors, but instead discovered pathways to emerge stronger than ever. Tune in to learn how he navigated each crisis, how embracing remote work has enhanced nearly every aspect of his agency's culture and operations, and why he firmly believes that despite—or perhaps because of—today's challenges, there has never been a better time to be in the agency business. Dan Kahn is the founder of Kahn Media, an integrated marketing agency specializing in automotive and luxury brands. He shares insights into his journey in the marketing world, starting with public relations and evolving into a diverse agency model. Dan also looks back at the different ways he handles times of economic downturns in his agency, and how his leadership was shaped by these times of turmoil. Additionally, he introduces his newer venture, TRED, an outdoor recreation-focused agency emphasizing experiential marketing. In this episode, we'll discuss: 3 ways to weather economic downturns. Learning to be a better leader for a remote team.  Focus on the media, not the message. Subscribe Apple | Spotify | iHeart Radio Sponsors and Resources E2M Solutions: Today's episode of the Smart Agency Masterclass is sponsored by E2M Solutions, a web design, and development agency that has provided white-label services for the past 10 years to agencies all over the world. Check out e2msolutions.com/smartagency and get 10% off for the first three months of service. Sometimes Bigger Clients Doesn't Equate to Big Success Dan grew up watching his father weather the volatile nature of business ownership and promised himself he'd never subject himself to such instability. However, his passion for automobiles guided him along a path from automotive journalism to PR work, and ultimately to founding his own agency. Hence, his entrepreneurial journey began with a strong foundation in the automotive industry, where he built a solid reputation working with notable clients like Lotus and Maserati, and handling high-profile events such as the SEMA automotive trade show. However, his ability to adapt was truly put to the test during the pandemic. When the world came to a standstill in 2020, many businesses found themselves grappling with significant revenue declines and uncertainty about the future and his agency was no exception. Dan found that while most of his corporate clients were pulling back, smaller clients like Lotus were easier to innovate with and willing to test new approaches. This is how he came up with the idea of handling car delivery services directly to journalists. With automotive press fleets locked down and journalists confined to their homes, Dan and his team were gaining lots of attention with this stunt, to the point that they achieved greater media exposure than larger competitors like Porsche. 3 Ways to Face Times of Economic Crisis 1. Grow stronger as a leader According to Dan, he was a different type of leader back when he faced his first economic downturn in 2013 and, as a result, defaulted to putting everything on his shoulders. Having experienced consistent 50% growth for several years, he felt the agency was doing well enough and he could lay back on doing new business development. Unfortunately, this decision coincided with some critical financial decisions. They had relocate to a more expensive town while taking on higher office rent and lost two big clients in one week. His world came crushing down, he burned through his savings, and it took a lot to get through that situation. With no delegation strategy in place, Dan shouldered the entire burden of recovery himself. His dreams of reducing his workload vanished as he struggled to lead the team through this crisis. While the agency eventually recovered and emerged stronger than before, the experience took a toll on his health. 2. Innovate and pivot quickly When the global shutdown of 2020 threatened Dan's agency with another economic disaster—particularly since events accounted for 30% of their revenue were canceled in rapid succession, Dan found himself in a better position to face the situation this time. He had a good leadership team, excellent client relationships and the agency was overall better prepared to figure out how to stay afloat during lockdowns. Rather than shouldering the burden individually, Dan and his leadership team collaborated closely with clients to develop innovative alternatives and pivoted quickly to create virtual experiences that maintained audience engagement despite physical restrictions. 3. Execute the highest levels of service Finally, the agency's latest critical moment happened last year, during economic shifts that hit many industries. Clients were pulling back on expenses as Dan had just launched a second agency, which requires a huge amount of capital. In part, it was the result of normal economic cycles during an election year but Dan admits it was also the result of poor planning on his part. After spending much of 2023 investing the first agency's profits into the launch of the second agency, it hit him in December that clients' annual contract renewals weren't going as smoothly as he'd hope. He started to see just how bad Q1 of 2024 could be if he didn't course correct. Once again, he relied on his team, who were tasked with continuing to execute at the highest level while he focused on business development. He also started focusing more on growing existing clients, after years with a laser focus on new business development, and invested some of his own savings into pulling the agency back up. Dan was also honest about the agency's situation with some key clients, who agreed to pay the year in full with a discount. Finally he put a heavy focus on delivering the best customer experience – aiming to become undeniable – following the teachings of Unreasonable Hospitality, by Will Guidara. The team all read the book and were instructed to apply those principles with each client. The result? Q1 was still a mess but things turned up by Q2 and by the end of the year they had record revenue and profits. Choosing Results Over Proximity Like many agencies, Dan's business runs most operations on remote, with only five to six team members coming into the office on a regular basis and some coming in once or twice a week. Although this shift does make it harder to get everyone on the same page and focused on the same target – and it does make training harder –, Dan admits it's better in almost every other aspect. Most critically, the remote structure grants access to an elite talent pool—a priority Dan values far above physical proximity. Whether team members work part-time from Alaska or elsewhere, his focus is on results rather than location. With a leadership philosophy that has changed from micromanaging to inspiring, he understands you need to trust your team to work remote. This comes after a lot of personal development work as he learned to listen more effectively and improve as a leader by taking guidance from his own team. This then led to identifying some necessary changes in the agency's culture, including replacing senior staff members who lacked leadership qualities. Now, instead of managing his team and overworking himself, he takes the time to enjoy his life. Finally, coaching and therapy have also help Dan open his eyes to the importance of diverse personality types within a leadership team. While he used to expect his team to tackle any situation exactly as he would, he now appreciates that this kind of mindset can lead to chaos in the team. Instead, varied perspectives in decision-making processes can lead to much better results. Why this is a Great Time to be an Agency Owner With traditional media on its deathbed, Dan believes this is actually the golden age for agency business, positioning communication professionals at the forefront of media evolution. He sees this as the optimal moment to launch podcasts and establish dominance in emerging media channels. Not everyone will adapt to these changes, and some agencies are struggling because of this. However, if you can adapt and make the best of this unbelievable moment in time with innovations like AI and much more freedom to be creative and innovative, you stand poised to thrive. Furthermore, nowadays people are much more willing to work with smaller agencies, relieving agency owners from the expectations of having a huge team or a fancy office. Instead, you get to focus on the ideas and building the best team possible with people from all over the world, which makes it a great time to be in this business. Do You Want to Transform Your Agency from a Liability to an Asset? Looking to dig deeper into your agency's potential? Check out our Agency Blueprint. Designed for agency owners like you, our Agency Blueprint helps you uncover growth opportunities, tackle obstacles, and craft a customized blueprint for your agency's success.

Would you like access to our advanced agency training for FREE? https://www.agencymastery360.com/training Do you feel stuck in your agency journey? Are you trying to figure out the next step to grow? Don't know what you don't know but you DO know something is holding you back? These can be hard questions to figure out when you feel you have little to no support to help you identify areas of improvement and make necessary changes. This featured guest felt her agency was doing well with their defined niche, and capabilities. However, something was missing — as an owner, she felt isolated. This all changed when she joined an agency owner community where she could openly share her doubts and struggles while receiving actionable feedback and support. This pivotal decision transformed not only how she operated her business but also accelerated her personal development as a leader. Discover her experience building a business, the defining moment when she first identified as a true entrepreneur, and the two critical pivots that marked significant milestones in her agency's growth trajectory. Jennifer McPherson is the owner of Chickenango Marketing Solutions, a specialized marketing agency focusing on public involvement and marketing for engineering, construction, oil and gas utility clients. She shares her journey from spending 27 years in marketing roles within engineering firms to launching her own agency seven years ago. She discusses the motivation behind her transition and the challenges of building a business from the ground up. Jennifer reflects on the moment she realized her agency had truly become a real business and why the mastermind community has meant so much in the growth and self-improvement she's experienced in recent years. In this episode, we'll discuss: Community as the solution to agency owner isolation. Stop relying on project-based work. Finding fulfillment in the agency journey.  Subscribe Apple | Spotify | iHeart Radio Sponsors and Resources Wix: Today's episode of the Smart Agency Masterclass is sponsored by Wix Studio, the all-in-one platform designed to help agencies scale without the headaches. With intuitive tools, robust native business solutions, and low maintenance, Wix Studio lets your team focus on what matters most—delivering exceptional value to your clients. Ready to take your agency to the next level? Visit wix.com/studio and discover how Wix Studio can transform your workflow, boost profits, and strengthen client relationships. The Leap from Corporate Marketing to Agency Founder Jennifer spent most of her career working on marketing roles within engineering firms, taking the step to venture on her own just seven years ago. Feeling a need for a change in direction, she set out to create an agency that would focus more on the engineering, construction, and oil & gas niche. Building her business, Jennifer quickly discovered that agency ownership extended far beyond simply practicing her marketing expertise independently. It demanded she master numerous aspects of running a company and navigate countless unexpected challenges. Despite these hurdles, she didn't fully perceive her venture as a legitimate business until she began hiring employees. Suddenly, her agency was no longer just a personal side hustle but an enterprise supporting other people's livelihoods, adding a profound layer of responsibility to her role as founder. 2 Pivots That Changed the Agency's Growth Trajectory In the years following her agency's launch, Jennifer achieved notable success and growth. Despite her professional achievement, she felt increasingly isolated in her role as an agency owner. Without connections to peers facing similar challenges, she lacked a support network of individuals who truly understood her unique experiences. Looking back, two important shifts got her out of that place: Community. Discovering Agency Mastery was a complete game changer for Jennifer. (This isn't just a shameless plug — but if not us, then find your people!) In addition to being the support she needed, this agency owner community also completely changed the way she ran her agency. With the mastermind's support, she went from figuring things out on her own to hiring a Chief Operating Officer, implementing efficient systems, and shifting her focus from being an operator to a true leader. The community also helped Jennifer get over the need to compare her success to others. The inherently competitive nature of the agency world often fosters unhealthy comparisons based on incomplete information about others' successes. Through her mastermind involvement, Jennifer gained insight into fellow owners' challenges, recognizing most face similar obstacles. She's also learned that community, a laser focus, and the right systems are the only things that will help you get by during rough patches. Predictable Cash Flow. Another pivotal moment was restructuring her business model to reduce dependency on project-based work. Her agency's focus on public involvement had previously meant operating on a project-by-project basis, a very difficult model to sustain since you're always choosing a next project and not building recurring revenue. With this pivot, her agency can now focus more on growth and building a pipeline to secure recurring revenue. This way, she is finally stepping out of being in the business to working on the business and focusing on its future. She is able to see that the future of her agency is beyond just her involvement. Finding Fulfillment in the Agency Journey Entrepreneurs often become fixated on end goals—whether it's selling a business, achieving financial independence, or reaching a certain level of market dominance. However, to make your business journey a truly fulfilling one, you'll need to do more. The journey of entrepreneurship is not just about hard work and determination. Luck and having the right team and community all play a role in what you enjoy doing and what you come to know as your agency's success. Many agency owners may feel frustrated by the daily grind and dream of selling their agency to feel free, but come to miss team work and sense of accomplishment after selling. Recognizing that the journey involves both struggle and triumph allows entrepreneurs to appreciate their efforts and find value in the process. In her experience, Jennifer loves the relationship building and connections as much as she loves winning. This is why she has come to define success as a journey is rich with learning opportunities, personal growth, and meaningful connections that contribute to a fulfilling entrepreneurial life. Do You Want to Transform Your Agency from a Liability to an Asset? Looking to dig deeper into your agency's potential? Check out our Agency Blueprint. Designed for agency owners like you, our Agency Blueprint helps you uncover growth opportunities, tackle obstacles, and craft a customized blueprint for your agency's success.

With the snow melting and the weather cooperating more for some more riding, let's get your bike ready for some more miles! Give this episode a listen to learn the simple steps you can take to check your bike to make sure it's ready to shred with you.

Would you like access to our advanced agency training for FREE? https://www.agencymastery360.com/training Have you ever turned to freelancers to grow your agency's capabilities? What about using fractional support once you realized you couldn't do everything as the founder and face of the agency? What if the key to sustainable growth isn't building a massive in-house team, but leveraging the right fractional support at the right time? Today's guests are two agency owners who turned a modest freelance setup into a thriving multimillion-dollar business—largely through referrals and the strength of their personal networks. They share how a flexible team of contractors became their secret weapon, offering the agility to scale without the overhead of a traditional agency structure. Tune in to learn how former competitors found a way to build a successful collaboration and why fractional support was a big part of their operation from the start. Sydney Mulligan and Lauren Aquilino are the co-founders of Emmie Collective, a for-hire network of elite independent & freelance marketing, sales, and revops consultants with big tech energy. They share their journey of entrepreneurship, reflect on their backgrounds as former competitors in the marketing industry, and the bond that brought them together. Sydney also recounts her experience of being laid off while on maternity leave, which sparked the idea for Emmie Collective while Lauren discusses her transition from freelancing to building a business as demand for her services grew. In this episode, we'll discuss: Why the fractional model was the best option for bootstrapping an agency. When should the agency owners stop being the face of the agency? External funding vs. control in agency growth.  Subscribe Apple | Spotify | iHeart Radio Sponsors and Resources E2M Solutions: Today's episode of the Smart Agency Masterclass is sponsored by E2M Solutions, a web design, and development agency that has provided white-label services for the past 10 years to agencies all over the world. Check out e2msolutions.com/smartagency and get 10% off for the first three months of service. When Competitors Become Co-Founders Before forming their partnership, Sydney and Lauren worked at competing agencies while also participating in Marketo's customer champion program. Their paths diverged when both eventually left their respective agencies—Lauren to pursue freelance work, initially planning for just 10 hours weekly during summer to rest after quitting her job. However, her freelance business quickly expanded beyond expectations, growing to 20 hours weekly and requiring additional contractor support. Meanwhile, Sydney had taken an in-house position but faced an unexpected setback when she was laid off during her maternity leave. As she navigated the job interview process, she began conversations with Lauren, who was contemplating transforming her freelance operation into a formal business. Lauren recognized Sydney as a valuable potential partner—in fact, the only person she would consider building a business with. After discussing their business vision, they decided it was time to meet face-to-face. Their first in-person meeting in Florida became what they jokingly refer to as their "speed dating" session. During this three-day encounter, they exchanged ideas and developed business plans while Sydney cared for her six-week-old baby. The meeting proved decisive—by the time they both landed back home, they had confirmed their mutual desire to build an agency together. Why the Fractional Model Is Best for Bootstraping an Agency Their participation in the customer champion program helped Sydney and Lauren establish strong reputations within a specialized niche market. With this foundation, they were able to launch their agency business with a strong base of referral clients. One unexpected advantage they discovered was the relative ease of attracting consultants eager to work with their new agency. Anticipating potential staffing challenges typical for startups, they had proactively designed their business model around freelancers and contractors. This strategy allowed them to sidestep the common industry pressure of requiring employees to meet specific billable hour quotas. Instead, freelancers had the flexibility to determine their own workload and schedules. To this day they continue to work with consultants, firmly believing that fractional support provides clients with optimal access to senior specialized expertise. By leveraging fractional experts, their agency effectively addresses specific client challenges, enhances operational efficiency, and frees internal resources to focus on strategic growth initiatives. When Should the Founders Stop Being the Face of the Agency? Balancing Growth and Client Relationships Sydney and Lauren's agency growth eventually confronted them with the challenge of hitting the limit on what they could do by themselves. With the agency growing, more and more clients and consultants coming in, and traveling for events, it just got to be too much. Sydney recalls a particularly stressful period when she felt overwhelmed, unable to keep track of their growing client base and the myriad responsibilities that came with it. They recognized they could no longer manage everything alone. When an agency owner clings to control it causes issues with bottlenecking, even become an operational issue and their agency's biggest profit leak. For Sydney and Lauren, was time for a change and the first crucial step was hiring a fractional account manager to ensure there was someone else keeping track of every client. This not only alleviated some of the burdens on Sydney but also allowed them to focus on strategic growth rather than getting bogged down in day-to-day operations. It's not an easy shift to make, and quite tricky for Sydney and Lauren, who built the agency on the back of their own networks and therefore are still the face of it. They continue to wrestle with how much to pull back, risking that clients feel they no longer interact with them. For those facing similar challenges, it's worth noting that even prominent agency leaders like Gary Vaynerchuk maintain their status as organizational figureheads while having minimal involvement in daily operations. This successful transition typically requires thoroughly training team members in core agency values to ensure consistent decision-making and actively promoting team capabilities to clients—emphasizing that a dedicated team provides superior service compared to founder-only support. External Funding vs. Control in Agency Growth After bootstrapping their business, Sydney and Lauren now face the question of whether or not to take on funding to continue to scale. While they recognize the potential advantages that investment capital could bring—accelerated expansion and resources for recruiting top talent—they also remain cautious about the significant tradeoffs involved. Most of all, they worry about the fundamental shift from being independent business owners to essentially working for investors since "once you start raising money, you'll always be raising money"—with a continuous cycle of accountability to external stakeholders. For the time being, they continue to prioritize maintaining complete control over their growth trajectory, preferring the stability and autonomy of their current approach even if it means potentially slower expansion. Do You Want to Transform Your Agency from a Liability to an Asset? Looking to dig deeper into your agency's potential? Check out our Agency Blueprint. Designed for agency owners like you, our Agency Blueprint helps you uncover growth opportunities, tackle obstacles, and craft a customized blueprint for your agency's success.

Go to KushyDreams.com and use Promo Code JOMBOY420 for 30% off and enter to win free stuff!Enjoy baseball around the clock! Download and play MLB 9 Innings 25 https://bit.ly/Play_MLB_9Innings_2025++++Timestamps:0:00 Do You Want to See Skip Bayless on This Show?3:40 The NL is Nuts  4:20 New York Yankees13:00 Texas Rangers16:05 Boston Red Sox  20:55 Toronto Blue Jays  25:25 Baltimore Orioles  29:50 The AL Central is Hard to Believe In  34:00 Houston Astros  36:00 Seattle Mariners39:45 NFL Draft is Coming!

Stories in this episode:  The Man on the Train | h3xgoth (0:40) "Do You Want a Lift?" | SlyEnemy (9:37) Unsure of This Woman's Intentions... | thousandsofworms (16:34) I Had A Stalker | jordyn_skye (22:02) Creepy Encounter on Long Haul Train | Maria-Olsen23 (29:20) My Coworker Became My Worst Nightmare | StalkedInTennessee (38:30) Extended Patreon Content: Hotel Nightmare | Sunshine2020 The Old, Drunk Man | Felix My Old Friend Daniel | Eri "There Are Magnets in the Walls!" | Liv Due to periodic changes in ad placement, time stamps are estimates and are not always accurate. Join the Discord: https://discord.gg/84WXQud4gE Follow: - Twitch - https://twitch.tv/crypticcounty - Website - https://letsnotmeetpodcast.com/ - Patreon - https://patreon.com/letsnotmeetpodcast - Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/letsnotmeetcast/ - TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@crypticcounty Check out the other Cryptic County podcasts like Odd Trails, Cryptic Encounters, and the Old Time Radiocast at CrypticCountyPodcasts.com or wherever you get your podcasts!    Get access to extended, ad-free episodes of Let's Not Meet: A True Horror Podcast with bonus stories every week at a higher bitrate along with a bunch of other great exclusive material and merch at patreon.com/letsnotmeetpodcast. This podcast would not be possible to continue at this rate without the help of the support of the legendary LNM Patrons. Come join the family! Start your hair growth journey with Nutrafol. For a limited time, Nutrafol is offering our listeners $10 off your first month's subscription and free shipping when you go to Nutrafol.com and enter the promo code MEET.  Get more done with Grammarly. Download Grammarly for FREE at grammarly.com/podcast.  All of the stories you've heard this week were narrated and produced with the permission of their respective authors. Let's Not Meet: A True Horror Podcast is not associated with Reddit or any other message boards online. To submit your story to the show, send it to letsnotmeetstories@gmail.com.