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Free: build a Claude-powered content engine https://clickhubspot.com/mslb Ep 446 What does it actually take to 5x your solo marketing business in a year using AI? Kipp, Kieran, and guest Barbara Jovanovic (Founder of Startup Cookie) dive into how top solo marketers are scaling agencies with agentic AI systems, and why most automated LinkedIn content totally misses the mark. Learn more on how agentic systems drive efficiency and scale for one-person teams, the difference between building a real content workflow versus relying on prompts, and why authentic insights—not just automation—are the secret to standout founder-led growth on LinkedIn and X. Mentions Loop: Outlearn. Outmarket. Outgrow https://www.hubspot.com/loop-marketing-book Barbara Jovanovic https://www.linkedin.com/in/barbara-startup-cookie StartupCookie https://startupcookie.com/ Claude https://claude.ai/ ChatGPT https://claude.ai/ ChatGPT Codex https://chatgpt.com/codex/ Granola https://www.granola.ai/ Buffer https://buffer.com/ Wispr Flow https://wisprflow.ai/ Get our guide to build your own Custom GPT: https://clickhubspot.com/customgpt Resource [Free] Steal our favorite AI Prompts featured on the show! Grab them here: https://clickhubspot.com/aip We're on Social Media! Follow us for everyday marketing wisdom straight to your feed YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@matgpod Twitter: https://twitter.com/matgpod TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@marketingatg Thank you for tuning into Marketing Against The Grain! Don't forget to hit subscribe and follow us on Apple Podcasts (so you never miss an episode)! https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/marketing-against-the-grain/id1616700934 We really appreciate your support. Host Links: Kipp Bodnar, https://twitter.com/kippbodnar Kieran Flanagan, https://twitter.com/searchbrat ‘Marketing Against The Grain' is a HubSpot Original Podcast // Brought to you by Hubspot Media // Produced by Darren Clarke.
TradeThrive - Sales, Marketing & Automations For Contractors
Facebook Ads for painting contractors can generate consistent painting leads — but only if your ads, marketing message, and follow-up system are built correctly.In this episode of the Contractor Secrets Podcast, Tanner Mullen audits Axel's Facebook Ads and explains why his painting business marketing is getting clicks but failing to turn those clicks into painting leads and booked jobs.Axel spent roughly $350–$400 on Facebook Ads and generated around 700 clicks, but received almost no meaningful leads. Tanner pulls up the actual ad and breaks down exactly what's going wrong.In this episode, you'll learn:• How to run better Facebook Ads for painting contractors• Why painting ads get clicks but no leads• How to generate more painting leads• Why your marketing message must match your ideal customer• How authentic video builds trust with homeowners• Why AI-generated ads can hurt your marketing• How speed-to-lead affects conversions• How a CRM helps turn leads into booked estimates• How to budget for contractor marketing• When to DIY marketing vs. hire a marketing agencyTanner explains that successful painting contractor marketing isn't just about getting clicks. Your ads need to attract the right homeowners, build trust, generate qualified painting leads, and have a system behind them that follows up immediately.If you're a painting contractor trying to grow your painting business with Facebook Ads, Meta Ads, lead generation, contractor marketing, or digital marketing, this episode will show you what to fix.VIDEO CHAPTERS:00:00 Why Painting Ads Fail01:16 Meet Axel & His Painting Business02:17 Building the Foundation04:34 Axel's Facebook Ads Strategy05:03 700 Clicks, Almost No Leads06:17 Tanner Audits the Facebook Ad07:09 What's Wrong With the Ad?09:12 The Cost of DIY Marketing10:05 How to Build Trust With Facebook Ads11:31 Stop Trying to Be Perfect on Camera14:37 Should Contractors Hire a Marketing Agency?15:55 Why Speed-to-Lead Matters17:47 Investing in Your Painting Business19:43 Why You Need a Marketing System21:12 CRM & Follow-Up Systems22:28 Building a Better Estimating System25:12 Why Consistent Marketing Matters27:32 How Much Should You Spend on Marketing?31:42 Systems That Free the Business OwnerCoaching Session Signup: https://calendly.com/dripjobs/breakthroughPurchase the 31 Days of Value and build an EMPIRE: https://www.amazon.com/31-Days-Value-home-service-businesses/dp/B0FQSH32X7Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2v0D0SNSBofqJJE6zApEE1DripJobs Demo: https://calendly.com/dripjobsteam/dripjobsdemoGusto: https://gusto.com/i/tanner269OpenPhone: https://openph.one/referral/8Kc17aqFacebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/173750747824373/?ref=shareFollow me on Instagram: http://Instagram.com/officialtannermullen#roofing #roofingbusiness #contractormarketing #localseo #roofingcontractor #homeservices #businessgrowth
How Alex Danner Grew a Fence & Deck Marketing Agency from $10K to $160K/Month If you've ever wondered what it actually looks like to go from a one-man generalist agency to a focused, systemized, multiple seven-figure operation, Alex Danner's story is the one to study. Alex is the founder of Fence and Deck Marketers, a niche digital marketing agency serving [...] The post How Alex Danner Grew a Fence & Deck Marketing Agency from $10K to $160K/Month appeared first on Seven Figure Agency.
Not all marketing "results" are created equal. In this episode of Builder Funnel Radio, Spencer breaks down the four levels of proof agencies use (or avoid) when reporting their impact from basic deliverables to true ROI. Learn why most agencies stall out reporting on traffic and keyword rankings, what it actually looks like when an agency tracks pipeline and closed revenue, and the key questions to ask any agency (yours or a prospective one) to find out which level they really operate at. If you've ever looked at a marketing report and thought "okay, but is this making me money?" — this one's for you.
Protecting Your Agency: Legal Essentials with Sharon ToerekRunning a marketing agency without proper legal protection is like building a house on sand. One contract dispute, one IP claim, or one AI mistake could cost you everything you've built.In this episode, I sit down with Sharon Toerek, founder of Toerek Law and the leading attorney specializing in legal protection for creative agencies and marketing firms. For over 13 years, Sharon has been the go-to expert helping agencies navigate contracts, intellectual property, employee agreements, and now AI risk management.What You'll Learn:Why 90% of agency contracts fail and the critical elements yours must includeThe IP mistakes that cost agencies millions in lost revenue and legal feesHow to protect your agency from AI-related liability with policies and contractsFair competition covenants that stop clients from poaching your best talentWhy legal should be a profit center, not just risk managementThe "work for hire" myth that undervalues your creative assetsHow to work safely with offshore talent without exposing client dataCreating AI governance that protects you AND educates your clientsKey Takeaways:✅ Never transfer IP ownership until you've been paid in full ✅ Include non-solicitation clauses to prevent client poaching ✅ Require deposits or retainers to protect cash flow ✅ Create written AI policies (internal AND client-facing) ✅ Update contracts regularly for privacy, AI, and accessibility laws ✅ Train your team on platform terms and conditions ✅ Build a network of fellow agency owners who understand the pressureEpisode Timestamps:0:00 Intro to Sharon Toerek and today's topic0:25 How Sharon became an entrepreneur1:17 Early influences from entrepreneurial parents3:03 The realities of entrepreneurship: highs, lows, and resilience6:06 Sharon's journey from big law to founding her niche firm8:17 Why she focused on marketing agencies and creative businesses12:46 Why legal should be a profit center for agencies13:46 Why every agency needs a real contract15:15 Key contract issues agencies often miss16:13 Exclusivity, fair competition, and payment terms18:04 Why clarity in agreements matters in disputes22:30 Why contracts need regular updates for privacy, AI, and accessibility laws24:19 Client responsibilities in agency agreements28:11 The biggest IP mistakes agencies make29:07 Contractor and freelancer IP risks30:33 AI-related legal risks for agencies32:05 Working with offshore freelancers and contractors34:32 How agencies should build AI policies and contract language38:33 Why agencies should help clients understand AI governance40:59 Sharon's podcast and community leadership work44:46 Why relationships matter in business growthAbout Sharon Toerek:Sharon Toerek is the founder of Toerek Law, specializing exclusively in legal protection for marketing agencies and creative service firms. After years in big law, Sharon recognized that nobody was truly serving the unique needs of agencies—from service agreements to IP protection to employee poaching prevention. Today, Toerek Law is the premier legal partner for agencies looking to grow profitably while protecting what they've built.Connect with Sharon:Toerek Law
What happens when you combine digital marketing with real estate investing? Bryan Driscoll started in digital marketing, working in areas like SEO, e-commerce, and health insurance. After buying his first property from a wholesaler, he realized he could potentially generate those real estate leads himself—and that experiment eventually grew into a marketing business focused on real estate investors. In this episode of the Jake & Gino Podcast, Bryan breaks down how real estate investors can use marketing to find better leads, build their brand, raise capital, and ultimately acquire more real estate. Bryan also explains why one of the biggest problems investors face isn't a lack of tools—it's not taking action. And his approach to real estate is simple: use the income you generate today to build assets that can create wealth for your future. If you're a real estate investor looking to generate more leads, find better deals, build your personal brand, or use AI to improve your marketing, this episode is for you. ⏱️ Timestamps 00:00 Intro & Meet Bryan Driscoll 01:07 Bryan's Real Estate Investing Strategy 01:43 From Digital Marketing to Real Estate Lead Generation 02:49 Why Real Estate Investors Struggle With Marketing 03:48 Who Should Handle Your Leads? 05:04 Outbound vs. Inbound Marketing 05:32 Facebook Ads & Lead Quality 06:56 Facebook Native Leads Explained 08:07 Who Should You Target? Finding Your Ideal Avatar 09:38 Why Website Leads Can Be Higher Quality 10:29 What Should a Real Estate Lead Cost? 11:45 Google Ads vs. Facebook Ads 13:02 How to Get Started With Google PPC 14:39 How to Choose the Right Marketing Agency 16:46 What to Look for in a Marketing Company 18:18 The KPIs Every Investor Should Track 19:15 How Much Should a Real Estate Deal Cost? 20:26 Bryan's First Marketing-Generated Leads 21:58 What's Working in Real Estate Marketing Right Now? 23:39 How Often Should You Adjust Your Facebook Ads? 25:35 Don't Fix What Isn't Broken 27:11 When Should You Hire a Marketing Agency? 27:47 Marketing vs. Real Estate: Which Does Bryan Prefer? 28:03 Using Real Estate to Build Long-Term Wealth 29:23 Why Real Estate Investors Need to Build Their Personal Brand 29:36 Sponsor Break 29:52 How Marketing Helped Build Bryan's Real Estate Portfolio 30:18 How Bryan Built 14 Properties Using the BRRRR Strategy 31:27 Bryan's Long-Term Wealth Strategy 33:30 Marketing for Multifamily Real Estate 35:30 Building Relationships With Property Managers 37:18 Phone, Text & Direct Outreach for Multifamily 39:38 Building an Investor List With Facebook & Google 40:13 How to Turn Social Media Followers Into an Email List 42:07 The Biggest Mistake Real Estate Investors Make 43:24 Building Websites With AI 44:40 The CRM Bryan Recommends 45:25 How to Start Your Marketing Strategy 46:59 Using AI to Find Your Ideal Customer 47:32 AI Tools for Creating Marketing Ads 48:05 The Future of Real Estate Marketing 48:56 Why Your Marketing Message Matters 49:21 Where to Find Bryan Driscoll
Marketing agencies must shift from deliverables to strategy as AI continues to commoditize execution, content production, reporting, and other traditional services. Drawing on research from hundreds of agency leaders and clients, Brian Gerstner explains why agencies remain highly relevant while facing growing pressure on fees, retention, positioning, and client relationships. The strongest agencies are responding by developing clear authority, focusing their expertise, and providing the judgment and direction clients cannot get from tools alone. This is a practical look at how agency differentiation, strategic leadership, pricing power, and client expectations are changing in the age of AI. 00:00 Introduction 01:56 What Sets Confident Agencies Apart 05:14 How to Niche Without Losing Revenue 06:35 Why Agency Strategy Fails in the AI Era 08:20 Why Clients Value Agencies but Cut Spending 11:12 From Deliverables to Marketing Leadership 13:06 Why AI Alone Won't Differentiate Your Agency 15:13 How Strategy and Focus Protect Agency Pricing 18:44 Agency Survival and the New Talent Gap Rate, Review, & Follow If you liked this episode, please rate and review the show. Let us know what you loved most about the episode. Struggling with strategy? Unlock your free AI-powered prompts now and start building a winning strategy today!
Thursday 5pm Hour: Jason talks about Mike Lindell possibly being in trouble for giving away campaign pillows. What are we doing?! Plus, what would your negative ad for Jason sound like? Then he talks with Dean Broadhead, founder and CEO of Broadhead, a local marketing agency recently given a big award.
Venture capital is pouring into the agency world because of AI — and Jordan sits down with one of the founders at the front of that curve. Jason Hu (UChicago '22, ex-AI researcher, a16z-backed) built Nexad, an AI-native platform for marketing agencies that wraps every major model and 1,000+ integrations into one command center. They cover the three archetypes of AI adoption in agencies, a live demo of creative generation, account health audits, and bulk campaign operations, how Nexad auto-routes between models like Claude, GPT, and Kimi K3 based on daily benchmark evals — and why Jason believes agencies will thrive, not die, in the AI era.Key TakeawaysThe three AI-adoption archetypes: (1) the unfamiliar — heard the buzzwords, only ever used ChatGPT as a chat; (2) the majority — using point solutions (creative gen, one-off agents) but not chaining them into agentic workspaces; (3) the frontier — operators running 20+ agents simultaneously. Each has different pain points; the platform meets all three where they are.The "impossible to keep up" problem: New models ship weekly. Nexad positions as a wrapper and router — an internal eval system runs each new model against ~30 representative agency tasks (health checks, complex campaign ops, long-running tasks) and auto-selects the best cost/performance option daily.Real routing example: Within an hour of Kimi K3's launch, their evals found performance comparable to Claude Opus 4.8 at roughly half the cost — so mid-tier traffic was rerouted automatically. Users pick a tier (Light / Pro / Max), not a model.The agent = a marketing employee's loop: ingest inputs (client comms, ad platform data from Meta/Google/TikTok/GA4, competitor intel), process (analysis, creative generation), output (campaign changes, uploads, client-ready reports). The demo covered competitor creative teardowns, a shareable account health audit, and bulk-uploading 100 creatives to Meta.Guardrails for sensitive actions: budget or creative changes trigger explicit review-and-approve prompts and batch action review — a contrast Jason draws with running raw agents that can "go rogue" in the backend.Client context is the killer feature: the platform reads Slack, Gmail, meeting transcripts, and Drive to build persistent client context ("no logos in creatives") that agents apply automatically — over 50% of agency hours go to client communication, and this attacks that directly.Chat first, automate second: typical adoption path is playing in the chat interface, then converting proven outputs into scheduled automations (e.g., daily health check → Slack report) in about 10 seconds.The closing thesis: AI commoditizes the execution layer of agency work. What remains — and becomes the whole game — is creativity, client trust, and proprietary market insight. Agencies thrive in the AI era; they don't disappear.Resources & LinksNexad: nex.adJason Hu on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/qitian-huWork with Jordan: 8figureagency.co
AI can now write a marketing recommendation about as well as most marketers can. It'll pull the data, read the account, tell you what it would do, and it'll do it in about three seconds. So here is the question that should be keeping every founder and every agency up at night: if the machine can recommend, what are you actually paying a human for?In this solo episode, I break down four things AI structurally cannot give you, why the value of the right humans goes up as automation gets better, and what I am building at Kynship around it.This is not a doom episode. It is the opposite. But it does require agencies and the brands hiring them to make a real shift in what they are actually paying for.Subscribe for more conversations on DTC strategy, eCommerce growth, and what it really takes to build a brand past eight figures.Key Takeaways:00:00 If AI Can Recommend, What Are You Paying a Human For?01:00 What People Are Actually Paying Kynship For02:08 Done Is Not Always Beautiful02:22 The Cabinet Analogy: Agencies as Strategic Partners03:08 The Cross-Client Edge You Cannot Get In-House03:46 Two Essays Every Brand Operator Should Read05:48 The Generic Recommendation Is Now a Commodity06:44 The 4 Things AI Structurally Cannot Give You09:48 Be the Bread, Not the Middle10:32 How Kynship Is Building Around This12:14 What to Ask in Your Next Agency Pitch13:16 The More Automated Everything Gets, the More Valuable the Framer BecomesGrow your bottom line: https://www.kynship.co/CONNECTGrow your bottom line: https://www.kynship.co/Follow Cody on X: https://x.com/Cody_WittickFollow Taylor on X: https://x.com/TaylorLagaceFollow the podcast: https://pod.link/1631630533The Bottom Line is your go-to podcast for honest ecommerce conversations on profitable growth strategies. Join Cody Wittick and Taylor Lagace, Co-Founders of Kynship, as they dive into the challenges and strategies for growing ecommerce brands to 8-9 figures. They share insights on overcoming ad creative challenges, managing cost caps, scaling Meta ads, unit economics and forecasting, and expanding influencer marketing programs.Their expertise in performance marketing is not just theoretical; with a track record of launching successful campaigns for major brands (M&Ms, Purdy & Figg, Supergut, & AnimalHouse Fitness, to name a few) and generating over $350M in revenue, they offer practical, actionable advice.#TheBottomLine #DTCpodcast #aimarketing #ecommerceagency #dtcstrategy
Truly Significant honors Dr. Michael Suk, third generation orthepedic surgeon, attorney, former White House Fellow, polymath, and leader of MDEnvoy, a Physician agency representing medical doctors. Dr. Suk is a mission driven physician, selfless servant to his patients and is skilled as an eco-system creator. According to recent reports, a growing number of physicians are taking a page from professional sports and are now seeking the kind of agent representation that athletes have long relied on. Learn from MDEnvoy CEO and co-founder with famed sports agent- Leigh Steinberg, about the impact of MDEnvoy as an "intentional architect of significance." With MDEnvoy, Dr. Suk aims to help today's physicians enter into long-lasting and mutually successful relationships with their employers, providing other strategic support such as relocation planning, wealth management, intellectual property protection, branding and marketing. Learn more at www.mdenvoy.com today. Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/success-made-to-last-legends--4302039/support.
Discover why local service brands need to shift from traditional SEO to AI Search Engine Optimization. Learn how AI selects answers, what trust signals matter, and the strategies that drive real visibility in AI-driven search platforms. Traffic9 Media City: NEW RICHMOND Address: 501 MARKET ST Website: https://traffic9media.com Phone: +1 888 803 4427
Rob Belk networked his way to "the most caffeinated guy in town" searching for a local business — then found it online. Register for the webinars:From Working IN the Business to ON the Business: How Owners Make the Transition - TODAY!! - https://bit.ly/4aKP3fYDon't Rush: How to Prepare for a Quality of Earnings Report - Tue, Jul 21 - https://bit.ly/4feY1DPTopics in Rob's interview:Geographic search in the Triad of North CarolinaNetworking with local business ownersFinding a business through AxialBuying a marketing and consumer research agencyHis choice to stay out of the weedsBringing in a consultant (maybe too) earlyHow his agency intersects with the tradesStructuring a 50% earnoutConsensus-based leadership styleFinding clients through SubstackReferences and how to contact Rob:LinkedInSales FactoryAdam Duggins on Acquiring Minds: How to Build a Holdco of 4 Blue Collar Businesses in 10 YearsJoe Soelberg on Acquiring Minds: Buying Small to Then Buy Larger $1m SDEBryan Houck on Acquiring Minds: 4th Time's the Charm: 3 Broken Deals to Buy a Great BusinessScott Alexander on Acquiring Minds: Rebuilding from 80% Collapse to Mid 7 Figures Revenue Rob's 10-page Search LearningsGet a free review of your books & financial ops from System Six (a $500 value):Book a call with Tim or hello@systemsix.com and mention Acquiring MindsDownload the New CEO's Guide to Human Resources from Aspen HR:From this page or contact jenny@aspenhr.comGet complimentary due diligence on your acquisition's insurance & benefits program:Oberle Risk Strategies - Search Fund TeamConnect with Acquiring Minds:See past + future interviews on the YouTube channelConnect with host Will Smith on LinkedInFollow Will on TwitterEdited by Anton Rohozov and produced by Pam Cameron
Marketing insurance agents nationwide sounds like a contradiction, but Uptown Marketing founder Martina Barley built a thirteen person, all female agency doing exactly that. Martina joins Fitz at ROC Vox to talk about her path from an unlicensed State Farm sales assistant to the self described "Michael Jordan of sales," and why the confidence that built her business almost got in the way of leading her team.In this episode, you'll learn how Martina grew Uptown Marketing from three founders to thirteen employees, why she believes sales and leadership are two completely different skill sets, how she convinces insurance agents to actually invest in their online presence, and what she tells clients about AI replacing, or not replacing, their jobs. CHAPTERSCONNECTUptown Marketing → https://uptownmarketing.comThe Marketing Girl (book) → https://www.amazon.com/Marketing-Girl-Trusting-Intuition-Confidence/dp/1956464484ROC Vox → https://rocvox.comSalvatore's → https://salvatores.comNew episodes of Positive Blatherings drop every Tuesday.Recorded at ROC Vox Recording & Production in Bushnell's Basin, NY.Learn more at https://rocvox.com
Almost Illegal Ads is expanding its SEO services to help law firms adapt to AI-driven search. The agency uses targeted digital marketing strategies to help firms attract stronger leads and stay visible across evolving search platforms. Almost Illegal Ads City: Sacramento Address: 2014 Capitol Ave STE 100 Website: https://www.almostillegalads.com/ Phone: +1-888-317-3617 Email: info@almostillegalads.com
Want our guidance to build and run your own marketing engine? Book a call with our team: https://call.contractordynamics.com/yt?utm_source=YouTube&utm_medium=Description&utm_campaign=7.07.26Get our FREE marketing course for contractors here: https://course.contractordynamics.com?utm_source=YouTube&utm_medium=Description&utm_campaign=7.07.26Most roofing agencies won't tell you what you're actually paying for until you're already locked in.In this episode, Joseph Hughes breaks down everything you need to know before hiring a marketing agency: the five pricing models, the red flags that should make you walk away, what actually drives costs up (and what's worth paying for), and the hidden fees nobody mentions until it's too late.If you've ever wondered whether $3,000 a month is reasonable, or gotten burned by an agency that overpromised and underdelivered, this is the video you needed six months ago.Key Takeaways for Contractors✔️ The five pricing models agencies use and what each one really costs you✔️ Five red flags that mean it's time to walk away✔️ What actually drives agency pricing up (and what's worth paying for)✔️ The hidden costs no one tells you about until you're locked in✔️ Why the cheapest agency is almost always the most expensive one✔️ A real case study of a $5-7M roofing company that was burning $18,000/month with no idea what it was gettingKey Timestamps0:00 Why most roofing owners have no idea what they're paying for2:08 The five pricing models, explained3:42 Five red flags that mean walk away5:19 What drives agency costs up and what's actually worth it7:13 The hidden costs nobody tells you about8:38 Case study: the $18,000/month agency that wasn't working10:56 Recap and what to ask before you signIf you want to learn how Contractor Dynamics helps roofing companies build marketing systems that actually connect to revenue, watch this free video that walks through our entire system:https://www.contractordynamics.com/training/?utm_source=YouTube&utm_medium=Description&utm_campaign=7.07.26Ready to find out what's really happening inside your marketing?Schedule a Marketing Demo with our team and we'll show you exactly what's working, what's not, and what it would take to fix it.
Matt Putra runs Eightx, a fractional CFO firm for consumer goods companies. He is not a marketer. He is not technical. And in about 60 days, using Claude, he took his site from roughly 3,000 impressions a day to 76,000 — indexing 20 blog articles a day and beating "old school" SEO agencies who don't even know it's happening.In this episode, Matt screen-shares the exact marketing hub he built and walks Jordan through the whole stack: the DataForSEO audit loop, the 40+ MCP data connections, the parallel-agent writing pipeline, the Pinecone vector database of three years of client calls that clones his voice, and the PR/backlink play he's running next. If you own a marketing agency and you're not doing this yet, consider this your wake-up call.The uncomfortable takeaway for agency owners: a CFO with no marketing background is out-executing full SEO agencies — because he's willing to spend the tokens and do the volume no agency will.What You'll LearnWhy AEO/GEO (answer/generative engine optimization) is a wide-open gold mine right now, and why most SEO agencies are still playing the old gameThe exact starting point: rebuild the site with Claude, hand Claude a DataForSEO key ($200/mo), and knock out the audit listHow to run competitor audits and 45-day SEO sprints that finish in 9 daysThe technical-SEO checklist Claude gave him: llms.txt, llms-full.txt, robots.txt, and schema (FAQ, datasets, breadcrumbs) as "formatting for AIs"How to index 20 articles a day without getting flagged as thin/templated contentThe content pipeline: 40+ MCPs into free data sources (SEC EDGAR, census.gov, World Bank, OECD, national stats) for genuinely valuable postsDynamic workflows / parallel agents — up to 50 agents writing and reviewing at once (~5–6M tokens per 10 articles)The voice engine: a Pinecone vector DB of 3 years of Fireflies call transcripts (~10–12M words), with oversized chunks for richer retrieval, so Claude "interviews" his own past words for every articleWhy PR/backlinks (Forbes, WSJ) are the next authority moat for GEO — and how he's using HARO/Connectively to startThe real economics: ~$400/mo in tokens (Claude Max 20x) against $6–8K CFO retainersChapters / Timestamps — Intro: who is Matt Putra and what is Eightx — The "marketing hub" and why visibility is the whole game now — Two months in: crushing competitors in the LLMs and GEO — Tour of the hub (PR, blog, news signals, trends, Reddit, newsletter, socials) — The #1 ROI channel: the native blog — How a non-technical founder learned SEO from scratch (a Hampton tip + Claude) — DataForSEO for $200/mo, and a 45-day sprint finished in 9 days — The results: April to July, ~3K to 76K impressions/day — Capturing the traffic: RB2B, Apollo, and the NoLeadLost widget — Technical SEO: llms.txt, robots.txt, and schema for AIs — Indexing 20 articles a day (and why it takes ~30 days to start) — Getting Claude to write content Google actually indexes — The writing pipeline and 40+ MCP data sources — Show-and-tell: Claude Code in VS Code — The cost: Claude Max 20x, ~$400/mo in tokens — Building skills and reviewing the early (bad) drafts — Dynamic workflows: up to 50 agents in parallel — CFO retainer economics that justify the spend — The voice engine: a vector DB of 3 years of client calls — Chunking theory and RAG, explained simply — Channel #3: PR and GEO via Connectively (HARO) — The next play: backlinks and a Forbes/WSJ authority moat — Where to find Matt + wrapTools & Resources MentionedClaude Code (in VS Code) — the primary build environment for the whole systemClaude Max 20x — the subscription tier covering ~$400/mo of token usageDataForSEO — pay-per-call SEO data ($200/mo) handed to Claude via APIPinecone — vector database storing 3 years of call transcripts for voice/RAGFireflies — call recording/transcription source for the voice databaseNetlify — site hosting (migrated off WordPress)Connectively (formerly Featured / HARO) — PR question sourcing for backlinksApollo / RB2B — visitor identification and enrichmentNoLeadLost.com — the ~$99 site widget Jordan recommends for booking callsMCP data sources — SEC EDGAR (10-Ks/8-Ks), census.gov, World Bank, OECD, national statistics officesConcepts worth Googling: AEO, GEO, schema markup, chunking, RAG, dynamic workflowsConnect with Matt PutraFirm: Eightx — fractional CFO for consumer goods companiesBlog (called a "gold mine" in the episode, with a chatbot trained on all his content): eightx.co/blogWant help building this or something like it for your agency?Go to 8figureagency.co to book a call
AI and the Future of Digital Marketing Agencies: What You Need to Do Now AI is not a future problem for digital marketing agencies. It is a right now problem. The agencies that are winning are the ones treating AI as the cornerstone of everything they do, not just a tool they use occasionally. In this episode of the Scaling [...] The post AI and the Future of Digital Marketing Agencies: What You Need to Do Now appeared first on Seven Figure Agency.
Why do some marketing agencies thrive while others struggle to survive?In this episode of Beyond Marketing, Maira Genovese sits down with agency growth advisor and expert Ivan Fernandes to unpack the realities of building, scaling and reinventing independent agencies in today's rapidly changing industry.Drawing on more than two decades of experience across global agency groups, challenger networks and independents, Ivan shares why the traditional agency model is under pressure, what clients are really looking for from their partners, and why the future may belong to smaller, more focused and founder-led businesses.Together, they explore the emotional realities of entrepreneurship, the hidden challenges of growth and M&A, why money can fundamentally change a business, and why insight, creativity and human connection remain the true competitive advantage in the age of AI.A must-listen for agency founders, leaders and marketers navigating their next chapter.
Hiring a marketing agency should be the start of a partnership that accelerates growth. But to make the most out of this partnership, there are a few things you should know. In this episode, Emma uses her decade of experience running Ninety Five Media to share the common mistakes and struggle points she's seen so you can proactively avoid them. She covers the solutions to these problems and explains how to optimize the relationship you're building. Whether it's expecting business knowledge to transfer instantly or assuming social media can solve deeper operational issues, this episode will unpack the missteps that impact results. You'll also learn why patience, consistency, and trust are critical to a strong return on investment. So if you're considering hiring a marketing agency or already working with one, this episode will help you avoid roadblocks and create the conditions necessary for massive success. Listen in as Emma explains: Why Clear Context is Essential for Success How Realistic Expectations Influence Results Why Trust Improves Your Return on Investment and Your Results And much, much more! Connect with Ninety Five Media: Check out our website: ninetyfivemedia.co Follow us on Instagram: instagram.com/ninety.five.media Grow your brand's social media presence with us: Tell us about your business goals and explore how our social media management services can help you reach them! ninetyfivemedia.co/stop-scrolling-start-scaling-inquiry FREE AUDIT What if I told you your content isn't converting, your audience isn't engaging, and it feels like too much work - not because you're failing, but because your social media needs a check-up? Take our FREE Social Media Health Check today to: ✅ See where your social media stands today ✅ Identify your growth stage ✅ Discover the next step to level up your results Just because you haven't seen results yet doesn't mean it has to stay that way. We're here to help. Ready to find out how you're doing? Take our free Social Media Health Check: https://courses.ninetyfivemedia.co/social-media-health-check
Hiring an AI marketing agency in 2026 requires understanding red flags and asking the right questions. Learn how Share of Model, entity recognition, and third-party citations determine success in the AI-powered search environment. Traffic9 Media City: NEW RICHMOND Address: 501 MARKET ST Website: https://traffic9media.com Phone: +1 888 803 4427
The start of a launch is exciting. The middle is where most people lose it. Crickets, doubt, the urge to quit early. Kelsey McCormick from Coming Up Roses joins Coley to talk through the mid-launch dip and why your energy is what carries a launch across the finish line. They cover how to set a launch goal that's tied to your real life, how to warm up an audience from cold to ready-to-buy, and why even a launch that flops is full of data worth gold. There's no right way to launch. There's only your way. Connect with Kelsey McCormick: @cominguproses.co https://cominguproses.co/COLEY.* (My affiliate code since I'm a LYOW student!) Find us: Marketing Agency: lifegoalsmarketing.com Content Hub: lifegoalsmag.com Instagram: @itscoleylane @lifegoalsmag
Videos mentioned in this podcast: Oransi Googleheimer
One bold "yes" rerouted Ashley Segura's career from local journalism into digital marketing, eventually leading her to Search Lab after 15 years across agencies, in-house teams, and companies she built along the way.In this episode, we get practical about what actually makes marketing work, why the "one-stop shop" promise breaks agencies, how niching down improves delivery, and what real mentorship looks like beyond just inspiration. Ashley breaks down her tactical approach to ICP and persona development, using marketing audits and sales call transcripts to align stakeholders and prioritize revenue-driving channels. If you're thinking about leading a marketing team in 2026 or building a marketing department from scratch, you'll walk away with frameworks you can apply immediately.Episode Highlights:This episode tells the tale of how saying yes to an insurance agent's website request launched a 15-year career in digital marketing, and why fear is often a signal you're on the right path.Ashley shares the hard-knocks lessons from running four agencies: being a one-stop shop burns you out, and the narrower the focus, the better the results and the happier the clients.Ashley details the ICP development process she uses at SearchLab: pulling real customer language from call transcripts and letting the data replace gut-feeling arguments in stakeholder conversations.The conversation affirms that the best evergreen content serves multiple personas through an accessible, step-by-step structure, rather than trying to be everything to everyone.Ashley explains how to keep the ROI engine running while doing the invisible operational work that takes months but changes everything downstream.Episode Links: Ashley Segura on LinkedInSearchLab Digital Website Send us Fan MailFollow The Digital Marketing Mentor:Website and Blog: thedmmentor.comInstagram: @thedmmentorLinkedin: @thedmmentorYouTube: @thedmmentorInterested in Digital Marketing Services, Careers, or Courses? Check out more from the TDMM Family:Optidge.com - Full Service Digital Marketing Agency specializing in SEO, PPC, Paid Social, and Lead Generation efforts for established B2C and B2B businesses and organizations.ODEOacademy.com - Digital Marketing online education and course platform. ODEO gives you solid digital marketing knowledge to launch/boost your career or understand your business's digital marketing strategy.
https://www.bluoceantsunami.com/Hiring the right marketing agency can make or break your local business. Discover the essential questions to ask, red flags to avoid, and why AI-driven visibility is the new game in town. Blu Ocean Innovations, LLC City: Las Vegas Address: 5940 South Rainbow Boulevard #400 7820 Website: https://bluoceaninnovations.ai
Today I am joined by Katie Harrison! Katie is the President and Founder of KVH, a fast-growing, all-female marketing, public relations, and events agency she built from the ground up. What began as a response to growing demand for her expertise has evolved into a dynamic agency now powered by a team of 18 women, partnering with some of the most notable brands in the Southeast and beyond to deliver strategic PR, social media management, and large-scale event production. Known for its vibrant culture and sales-driven mindset, KVH helps organizations elevate their voice, connect with their audiences, and drive meaningful results.In addition to leading KVH, Katie is the founder of the KVH Women in Business Summit, a full-day experience designed to bring women together for professional development, keynote inspiration, panel discussions, and intentional networking across industries and generations. She also created The KVH Collective, a women's professional development and networking society focused on connection, confidence, and career growth. Through these platforms, Katie is deeply committed to advancing women into leadership and entrepreneurship through action, access, and community. In this episode Katie and I talk about her career in sales, why she started her PR firm, how she has scaled it so quickly, what sets her company apart, and so much more! KVH WebsiteKVH Instagram KVH SummitAmerican Heart Association Front Porch HousingMake a Wish SCKind of the Upstate
Get the Fable 5 Set up guide: https://value.8figureagency.co/fableMost of the agencies you're competing with are already AI-forward. In this solo episode I give you a straight update on where AI actually stands for marketing agencies in summer 2026: what's changed in the last quarter, what's now table stakes, and the new economics it opens up.The headline shift: you no longer need 125 clients and a bloated team to profit $1.5M a year. With skills, cron jobs, and a lean two-person setup, 40 clients can do it, and your life gets better, not worse. I think we're about to see a wave of lifestyle entrepreneurship unlike anything before it.In this episode:Why 50–60% of agencies are already AI-forward, and the real cost of falling behindHarnesses and loops: agents now running 12–30 hours straight with no human interventionAI strategist agents that set benchmarks and pace campaigns (the SEO-for-law-firms example)What a "skill" actually is, and why it went mainstream in Q1 2026Cron jobs and content briefing: running repeatable client work on a scheduleThe new math: $1.5M profit on 40 clients vs. the old $7.5M / 125-client grindMy own story: from a $13M holding company to three lean companies, plus making Lead Whisperer fully autonomousThe domain-expertise goldmine: how a $2M ad agency built 99%-margin software for its own clientsFractional COO + fractional AIO: how I can helpTakeaways:Skills and cron jobs are the floor now, not the ceiling. Turn keyword research, briefing, and on-page into files an agent runs on a schedule.The lifestyle agency is real. One $300K strategist plus one AI-pilled associate can run 40 accounts.Old way to $1.5M profit: ~$7.5M revenue, ~125 clients, a big team. New way: 40 clients and a lean stack.Your domain expertise is the edge. The problems only you can see in your niche become high-margin products.The window is now. AI improves on quarterly cycles, so early movers compound.Links:Work with me (fractional COO + fractional AIO): 8figureagency.coBook a call (I keep very little availability, usually booked ~2 weeks out)Off-market lead syndication: lead-whisperer.comReach me directly: jordan@8figureagency.co (my Hermes agent reads it first, then I do)
Discover how marketing agencies can break free from the hours-for-dollars trap by adding high-margin digital services like lead generation, CRM automation, and email deliverability—scaling revenue without proportional headcount growth. Business Startup Support City: Memphis Address: 2323 Madison Avenue Website: https://businessstartupsupport.com/
What if money didn't have to be this big emotional thing you avoid? In this episode, Coley sits down with Meagan Wall, aka the Hot Girl CFO, to talk about building a relationship with money that lands somewhere neutral instead of swinging between dread and dopamine. Meagan shares how two business breakups became the catalyst for her current business, why she names her bank accounts fun things to trick her brain into showing up, and the disarming practices that helped her get to a place where she can send a $70K proposal without losing her mind. If you're a creative who avoids looking at your numbers, this one's a gentle nudge to start. Connect with Meagan Wall: thehotgirlcfo.com/ @thehotgirlcfo Find us: Marketing Agency: lifegoalsmarketing.com Content Hub: lifegoalsmag.com Instagram: @itscoleylane @lifegoalsmag
He started with zero clients.No team. No ads. Just a phone and a script he was terrified to use.Luke Salela found Charlie's YouTube channel watching hours of free content every week. When he finally had enough saved up, he joined EasyGrow at $1500/mo with no structure, no certainty, just a gut feeling it was the right move.It changed everything.Two years later he'd built a real estate marketing agency to $300K/month and sold it for 7 figures at 22, then he built a second agency and sold that too.From absolutely nothing, he was suddenly sitting in his dream cars, the McLaren Artura and a modified Aston Martin Vantage.In this interview we go through all of it. The cold calling framework that got him to $10K. The offer changes that took him to $100K. The mindset shift that made rejection feel irrelevant. And the competitor email he almost deleted that turned into a 7-figure exit.Now he's joining our client success team to help the next generation of agency owners do the same thing.Full story on YouTube, watch it here: https://youtu.be/T3LXOq_7Pd4
There's a point where doing your own marketing stops being “scrappy” and starts being expensive, not because you're bad at it, but because the business outgrows what one person, or a stretched team, can execute consistently. In this episode, we walk through a clean decision framework to help you choose the right model, DIY, contractors, an agency, in-house, or a hybrid approach, without wasting another quarter guessing.We'll break down the real reasons each approach works, where it tends to break, and what “ready for an agency” actually looks like when you care about pipeline, booked calls, and predictable lead flow. If you've been busy with marketing tasks but you're not seeing momentum, this will help you spot the operational issues behind the scenes, then make a confident decision for the next 90 days.Tired of vague marketing advice? So are we. This podcast brings you real, in-the-trenches conversations about what actually works no scripts, no fluff, just honest strategy and real-time insights.
How much of your life do you actually create, and how much do you just allow to happen? In this episode, Coley and Nina get into the messy question of flow versus creation. Are we little co-creators steering our own lives, or is something bigger calling the shots? They talk type A vs. type B personalities, the TV characters who plan everything until life derails them anyway, and the sales rule that simplified it all: control the controllables, which really come down to your effort and your attitude. If you've ever felt stuck between gripping life tightly and letting it flow, this one's for you. Find us: Marketing Agency: lifegoalsmarketing.com Content Hub: lifegoalsmag.com Instagram: @itscoleylane @itsninasoon @lifegoalsmag
What does it really take to thrive as a first-time fund manager in today's challenging investment landscape, especially when you're building a venture fund from scratch while championing diversity and innovation? This episode delves into the real experiences behind the headlines, inviting listeners to consider the often unseen hurdles and triumphs that define entrepreneurial journeys. Our guest, Laurel Mintz, is the founder of Fabric VC—a new venture capital fund spun out of her extensive 17-year run as the leader of a successful marketing agency. With a background that includes corporate M&A law, entrepreneurship, and marketing, Laurel Mintz brings a unique and practical perspective to the venture capital world. Her approach blends deep sector knowledge with a commitment to supporting underrepresented founders and championing women's health, fintech, and consumer tech sectors. In this update, listeners get an inside look at the nuts and bolts of raising and deploying Fabric VC's first fund—just under $8 million, already largely deployed across 23 portfolio companies. Laurel Mintz shares candid insights on the emotional rollercoaster of fundraising, the critical importance of diversity, and the creative approaches to supporting women-led companies, such as accepting investments via donor-advised funds and retirement accounts. This episode is a must-listen for aspiring investors, founders, or anyone interested in how real change is being made within venture capital. It's raw, motivating, and packed with unfiltered advice on how to show up, take risks, and put capital to work for the next generation. To get the latest from Laurel Mintz, you can follow her below! LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/laurel-mintz/ https://www.fabricvc.com/ Laurel's first appearance on The Angel Next Door Sign up for Marcia's newsletter to receive tips and the latest on Angel Investing! Website: www.marciadawood.com Learn more about the documentary Show Her the Money: www.showherthemoneymovie.com And don't forget to follow us wherever you are! Apple Podcasts: https://pod.link/1586445642.apple Spotify: https://pod.link/1586445642.spotify LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/angel-next-door-podcast/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theangelnextdoorpodcast/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@marciadawood
AI is everywhere right now.From content creation and reporting to ad management and automation, clinic owners are being bombarded with messages telling them to fire their marketing agency and let AI handle everything instead.But is that actually a good idea?In this episode of Walk-Ins Welcome, Nick and Michael unpack the growing trend of AI-powered marketing services and the flood of "fire your agency" ads targeting healthcare businesses. They discuss where AI genuinely adds value, where it falls short, and why urgent care marketing still requires human expertise, strategy, and accountability.The conversation explores how AI is changing agency operations, common mistakes clinics make when relying too heavily on automation, and why marketing success in healthcare depends on much more than content generation. From local SEO and Google Business Profiles to reputation management, patient experience, and front desk performance, they explain why technology should enhance your team, not replace it.If you're wondering whether AI can replace your marketing agency, this episode provides a practical look at what's working today and what urgent care owners should be cautious about moving forward.
Have you hired a marketing agency, waited months for results, and then found yourself back at square one searching for a new partner? You're not alone. In this episode of Builder Funnel Radio, Spencer Powell breaks down the frustrating cycle many remodelers and custom home builders experience with marketing agencies: hope, wait, break, and reset. He shares real stories from contractors who cycled through multiple agencies without seeing meaningful results and explains why this pattern keeps repeating. More importantly, Spencer outlines how to avoid costly mistakes by evaluating agencies differently, focusing on industry specialization, revenue attribution, proactive communication, and long-term marketing infrastructure. If you're currently working with an agency, considering hiring one, or wondering why your marketing investment isn't translating into revenue, this episode will help you ask better questions, make smarter decisions, and build a marketing system that compounds over time instead of constantly starting over.
Start building your own agent with memory and MD files → https://value.8figureagency.co/hermesstartMetaSwarm (open source) — Dave's agentic harness → https://github.com/dsifry/metaswarm18 default agents, each with definitions and rubrics, plus defined workflows for software development. Three ways to use it: build agentic systems with it, point it at your own SOPs to analyze them, or study how it does agentic decomposition. (Fun fact from the episode: search "metaswarm" and it ranks right behind Meta itself.)Dave Sifry has started nine companies. Now he's building a company that builds companies.In this one, he hands agency owners the framework for the thing almost everyone is getting wrong with AI: memory and context. If your agency runs 50, 100, even 600 clients and information keeps falling through the cracks — stakeholders forgotten, context lost, the same questions re-answered — this is the episode.No fluff. Dave breaks down what actually deserves to be remembered, the exact MD files that run an agent (soul.md, agents.md, heartbeat), and how to wire a team of agents that report to each other and improve themselves every single day.What You'll LearnNot all data is information. A JPEG is a mountain of data and almost no information. One sentence from the CEO saying "go do this" carries more than a thousand video keyframes. Store the signal, not the noise.Memory is a compression problem. Save the process — who you talked to, how the deal got done, where it went off the rails — not every artifact you produced.Timeliness is value. Information from 30 days ago usually beats information from 7 years ago. Decide what goes into deep storage and what stays live.Treat every AI agent like a new employee who always needs onboarding. What's the minimum they need to do the job well? That's your context window.Three layers of control: policy, guidelines, gates. Policy = "be nice to the client, don't cuss." Guidelines = your stop-word list. Gates = a deterministic wall, like a credit card with exactly $2,000 on it that rejects $2,001.Run an analysis phase first. Find the 5–6 things a role does 80–90% of the day before you build anything. (An account manager is a farmer, not a hunter.)The MD-file stack that runs an agent:soul.md — who am I, why am I different from every other agent, what I do and what I don't do.agents.md — the bootstrap: read your soul, read your heartbeat, and here are your SOPs as links (loaded only when the situation calls for it, so you never pollute the context window).heartbeat — the recurring loop. The five tasks every hour, the three tasks every four hours. Keep it light or it eats you alive.Great agent systems are an org-design problem, not a super-intelligence problem. You don't need one all-knowing brain. You need agents that each know their job and who to talk to. It works like an anthill.Build a COO agent whose only job is writing and revising SOPs. Feed it a daily retrospective and you've built a self-learning organization
Julius Korfgen, Co-Founder von Uplane, spricht im "Marketing From Zero To One" Podcast über seinen persönlichen Lebensweg vom Fashion-Startup Unternehmer zu Schulzeiten über seine Zeit als Founders Associate bei Enpal bis zur Gründung seines KI-Startups Uplane. Im Mittelpunkt steht die Idee, Performance Marketing durch KI massiv zu automatisieren: von der Erstellung und Optimierung von Ads bis hin zu personalisierten Landingpages und datengetriebenen Kampagnen. Außerdem geht es um die frühen Vertriebserfolge über LinkedIn, die Bewerbung und Aufnahme bei Y Combinator, seinen bevorstehenden Umzug nach San Francisco und um die Frage, wie KI aktuell Marketing-Agenturen, Unternehmensstrukturen und Produktentwicklung verändert. 04:19 - Erste unternehmerische Schritte & FREISCHWIMMER 06:51 - Rocket Startup in Kopenhagen & Responsibly 08:26 - Virales T-Shirt & erster Durchbruch 09:20 - Studium in Maastricht & Nebenprojekte 11:07 - Familie, Kreativität & Unternehmertum 12:03 - Einstieg bei Enpal & Hypergrowth 14:16 - Entstehung der Uplane-Idee bei Enpal 16:38 - Die Grundidee hinter Uplane 19:09 - Erste Ads, KPIs & Marketing-Experimente 20:10 - Erste Kunden & Startphase von Uplane 22:44 - Erste Vertriebserfolge 24:46 - Pilotkunden & Vertrauensaufbau 26:11 - KI, Daten & schnelle Marketingzyklen 28:15 - Bewerbung beim Y Combinator 31:13 - YC-Interview & Zusage 34:05 - Funding & Umzug nach San Francisco 36:07 - Launch-Video & erste große Aufmerksamkeit 37:32 - Zielgruppen, Startups & Enterprise-Kunden 39:55 - Markenführung & Brand-Compliance mit KI 42:07 - Schnelles Wachstum & erste Enterprise-Cases 42:57 - Service Company vs. Software Company 44:19 - Managed Growth & Enterprise Software 47:26 - Vertrieb, LinkedIn & Account-Based-Marketing 49:11 - KI im Unternehmen & interne Prozesse 50:28 - Brand-Compliance & Grenzen generativer KI 51:50 - Daten, Feedback-Loops & Marketing-Optimierung 53:33 - KI-gestützte Produktentwicklung & Coding 55:29 - YC-Mindset & großes Denken 58:23 - Umzug in die USA & neue Wachstumsphase 58:55 - Namensfindung & Entstehung von Uplane 01:00:29 - KI-Agenten, Automatisierung & Zukunft der Arbeit 01:03:22 - Eigene KI-Tools & tägliche Nutzung 01:03:45 - Arbeitsalltag, Produktivität & Routinen 01:05:19 - Abschluss & Ausblick
Here's a business opportunity for 2026 that you should look into if you're not sure where to go!Matt Raadhttps://www.mattandlizraad.com/-----Hosted by Derek VidellWant to Get Interviewed on this Show? Book Here3 Ways to Run Profitable Meta AdsComplimentary Consultation CallDIY Meta Ads: Free Meta Ads Training LibraryDWY Meta Ads: Learn How to Run Profitable Meta Ads CoachingDFY Meta Ads: Let Us Run your Ads Based on PerformanceInstagram | YouTube | SocialBamboo.com
What happens to marketing, consumer culture, and the businesses built around them when AI eliminates 90% of white collar jobs? In this episode, Sean sits down with Zachary Rischitelli to explore how networking, relationship-building, and human connection are becoming the most durable competitive advantages in an increasingly automated world. Zachary shares how his business has sustained client relationships for over sixteen years through genuine personal investment, not transactional card-swapping, and why showing up in person still moves the needle even as LinkedIn floods everyone's inbox. You'll also hear his simple but powerful networking reframe: be interested rather than interesting, a mindset shift that cuts through small talk and builds real trust fast. If you're thinking about how to future-proof your business and your relationships before the landscape shifts beneath you, this conversation will give you a lot to chew on.──────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Learn how to use AI to Buy Agencies:https://value.8figureagency.co/MNASystemized Sales (done-for-you sales teams): systemizedsales.comRevphlo.com (post-call sales attribution — works with GoHighLevel & HubSpot)Dylan on X: @sdrwhispererMost agencies are sitting on a goldmine and treating it like a junk drawer.That was the exact problem on the table. A giveaway funnel pulling 100+ emails a week. 300 to 500 comments a post on X. Newsletter readers. Ad clickers who never book. Five different lists, none of them talking to each other. A great setter could go to work on that data and print money — if anyone had organized it.So Jordan brought in Dylan Rich, founder of Systemized Sales. Dylan runs 10 sales teams at once, end to end — name, email, phone number all the way to contract signed and cash collected. In 15 years of sales and seven years working with agencies, this is the most sophisticated GoHighLevel pipeline either of them has seen. They build it live: UTM attribution per post, the "tattoo" rule for tags vs. custom fields, an action-based lead score that pings a setter the second a lead crosses 6 points, a speed-to-lead workflow with 73 million enrollments, and 57 smart lists ranked P1 through P5 so setters never waste a minute guessing who to call.Then Dylan opens up Revphlow — the post-call attribution tool that kills the EOD form forever and tells you your cash per call by traffic source, by closer, by calendar. If you run organic and paid traffic into a sales team, this is the playbook.What You'll LearnThe "tattoo" rule — when to use a tag (permanent) vs. a custom field (rewrites itself), and why getting this wrong wrecks your dataOne pipeline beats five — why segmented pipelines cap your granularity, and how custom fields + tags + stages stack to do the real workLead scoring that runs itself — assign points to actions (email open = 1, application = 3, call booked = 5), and auto-trigger a setter call at a score of 6Speed-to-lead you can actually measure — a workflow that timestamps every lead and counts only during setter working hours, so a Saturday opt-in doesn't blow up your numbers57 smart lists, ranked P1–P5 — how setters work the right leads in the right order and never run dry between fresh leadsAsk for the phone number — "if you won't give me your phone number, you won't give me your credit card," and why fewer, higher-quality leads winPost-call notes (PCN) — auto-dispositioned call notes pulled from the Zoom transcript that update pipeline stages for you, so closers stop skipping the EOD formCash per call by source — the metric that tells you which ads, threads, and posts to make more of (and which to kill)Chapters— Why scaling SDRs is the hardest (and most profitable) thing an agency can do — Who is Dylan Rich: 15 years in sales, done-for-you teams at Systemized Sales — The real problem: a giveaway funnel pulling 100+ emails a week, five siloed lists — How to organize intent leads so setters book more calls per hour — UTMs per post, the Zap into GoHighLevel, and tagging the first click— Live build: one pipeline + custom fields for granularity — Lead categories that follow a contact all the way down the funnel— Tags vs. custom fields: the "tattoo" concept explained — Lead scoring: assigning points to actions and triggering at 6 — The speed-to-lead workflow with 73 million enrollments— Keeping setters organized so they stop thinking and start dialing — 57 smart lists ranked P1–P5, built on filters, not vibes — Why you should ask for a phone number on every opt-in— "Can we blow your socks off?" — the Revphlow post-call attribution demo — PCN, Zoom + Fathom + Slack: clean dispositions on every call — Cash per call by source, by closer, by calendar — Where to find Revphlow and Systemized SalesGo AI-Native in the Next 90 DaysThis episode is the manual setup. The next level is making it run itself.8 Figure Agency installs AI-native systems into 7- and 8-figure marketing agencies — the kind that add $1M in annualized profit. Attribution that tags itself. Pipelines that update without a human touching them. Setters fed the highest-intent leads automatically. If you want your agency AI-native in the next 90 days, start here:→ 8figureagency.coWork With DylanDylan and the Systemized Sales team run your sales process end to end — they listen to your calls, audit your CRM, review your last 90 days of sales and marketing numbers, find your biggest constraint, and fix it.Systemized Sales (done-for-you sales teams): systemizedsales.comRevphlo.com (post-call sales attribution — works with GoHighLevel & HubSpot)Dylan on X: @sdrwhispererTools & Resources MentionedGoHighLevel — the CRM the whole pipeline is built inRevFlow / revphlo.com — post-call attribution and sales analyticsTypeform — opt-in forms (add a hidden UTM source field)Beehiiv — newsletter platform, with email opens webhooked back to GHL for lead scoringHYROS — marketing attribution into the callZoom + Fathom — call recording and transcripts feeding the PCNSlack — where post-call notes drop for closer confirmationVidalytics — VSL view trackingUTM Builder (utmbuilder.net) — Jordan's no-affiliation pick for building UTMs
In this episode of the DecaMillionaire Decoded podcast, host Justin Goodbread tackles a major statistical contradiction in the financial services industry: while the vast majority of advisors claim to specialize in high-net-worth clients, very few actually narrow their focus enough to achieve rapid scale. He explains to scale an advisory practice successfully, the business model must be designed entirely around a single, highly refined target avatar. Your practice's systems, messaging, and future value depend heavily on this strategic clarity. Avatar Builder: https://relentlessvaluecoaching.com/avatar-builder-page Relentless AI Toolkit: https://tools.relentlessvaluecoaching.com/ Learn more about Relentless Value Coaching: https://www.justingoodbread.com/coaching/ DecaMillionaire Decoded on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@JustinGoodbread
Reece is the founder of Media Matters 317, an Indianapolis-based digital marketing agency he built from the ground up. MM317 exists to bridge the gap between effort and success in marketing, serving small businesses, nonprofits, and churches that know they need marketing but are still figuring out how to make it work for them. Through digital marketing strategy and AI integration, Reece meets clients right where they are and builds the kind of modern marketing that finally gets results.Visit Reece Johnson's Link: mediamatters317.com
What Are You Paying a Marketing Agency For in 2026 (When AI Can Do 60% of Marketing)? | Part 1 On this solo episode of the Beacon Way Podcast, host Adrienne Wilkerson (CEO and co-founder of Beacon Media and Marketing) tackles the question of what businesses are paying for in marketing as AI now handles up to 60% of marketing tasks, citing a 2025 Anthropic study showing roughly 65% observed AI usage in marketing research and production. She argues AI is primarily a production layer, while agencies provide strategy, judgment, specificity, compliance, and cross-discipline coordination—especially critical for mental and behavioral health practices. Adrianne outlines what AI does well (first drafts, SEO/structure, variations, research synthesis, analytics, production scaling, and workflow automation) and where it consistently fails without humans (positioning, audience nuance, clinical accuracy, HIPAA/compliance judgment, brand voice consistency, cross-channel coordination, stakeholder relationships, and strategic prioritization). 00:00 Welcome to Beacon Way00:58 The AI Agency Question01:32 What You Pay For Now03:17 Anthropic Study Findings05:35 AI Wins in Marketing08:29 Where AI Falls Short14:17 Human Judgment Matters15:42 Wrap Up and Part Two
The system was not built for women raising capital, so Melissa Wallace built a new way forward. Melissa is the founder of Fierce Foundry, the first femtech venture studio in the United States. Long before she was reshaping how female founder funding works, she was sorting babysitting money into labeled envelopes and selling handmade greeting cards door-to-door with her dad's old briefcase. The instinct to build was always there, even before she had the language for it. With host Syama Bunten, Melissa shares the personal story behind the mission. She talks about a marriage in her twenties that ended with her ex-husband emptying her bank accounts after she asked for space, and a divorce process where she was willing to give up everything just to walk away clean. She shares how she went on to build a marketing agency, learned to lead instead of carrying every task herself, and kept seeing the same funding gap show up for women in health tech. Investors wanted proof of customers. Founders needed help getting customers. Too many had no early capital to make either happen. That loop is what Fierce Foundry was built to break. As a venture studio for women, it acts as a co-founder from day one, not a short-term program with a graduation date. It brings early capital, skilled operators, and support from idea through exit. This conversation offers a clearer path for any founder trying to understand how to raise pre-seed funding without relying on the usual gatekeepers. Women raising capital in femtech startups should not have to prove they belong before they even get started. Melissa is building the infrastructure to help more women build, fund, and scale what the world has been missing. If this conversation moved you, keep it going. Find a Wealth Catalyst Freedom Tour salon near you, or claim your seat at the Wealth Catalyst Summit in San Francisco on October 16, 2026. Episode Breakdown: 00:00 Meet Melissa Wallace, Founder of Fierce Foundry 02:59 Growing Up With Money: What Her Father Taught Her Without Saying a Word 05:54 Her First Business at Age 10 and the Pricing Lesson That Stuck 09:19 The Exchange Year in Brazil That Changed How She Saw the World 16:40 Early Career, a Bad Marriage, and the Cost of Conformity 18:55 Losing Everything in a Divorce and Choosing Freedom Over Financial Security 23:45 From Employee to Entrepreneur: The Pattern She Finally Broke 29:50 Building a Marketing Agency and Learning to Step Back From the Work 35:04 Women Raising Capital: Why Less Than 2% of VC Funding Goes to Female Founders 38:00 How the Fierce Foundry Venture Studio Model Works From Idea to Exit Find more from Syama Bunten: Attend a Salon near you: wealthcatalyst.com/salons Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/syama.co/ Join Syama's Substack: https://thewealthcatalystwithsyama.substack.com/ Website: https://wealthcatalyst.com Download Syama's Free Resources: https://wealthcatalyst.com/resources Wealth Catalyst Summit: https://wealthcatalyst.com/summits Speaking: https://syamabunten.com Big Delta Capital: www.bigdeltacapital.com Podcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm
Check in 60 seconds if you are due a slice of more than £8.2 billion: http://refundclub.co.uk/eggpodThis weeks rugby news and action. LTBP Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
If you've ever sat in the limbo of "do I keep going with this or change everything," agonized over a choice for weeks, or made a snap decision that somehow turned out to be the right one, this one is for you. Decision-making is having a moment. Between AI making half our smaller choices for us, the wellness world telling us to follow our gut, and the productivity world telling us to optimize everything, we are getting a lot of mixed signals about how to actually choose. So we got into how we both make decisions (badly, sometimes), what we wish we did differently, and the kinds of choices that only feel right in hindsight. We also caught up on life. Nina's Orlando move is officially in motion (apartment applied for, very much happening), and Coley is in the early, slightly chaotic stages of wedding planning. In this episode, we cover: Life updates: Nina's Florida move and Coley's wedding planning era. Why making a big decision from a depleted place is rarely the move, and the case for waiting until you feel neutral or better. Human design, sacral responses, and the case for listening to the part of you that already knows. How AI is slowly eroding our ability to make small decisions, and why treating it like an assistant (not your second brain) matters. What to do when you've already made the wrong call, and the supernova theory that takes the pressure off. Find us: Marketing Agency: lifegoalsmarketing.com Content Hub: lifegoalsmag.com Instagram: @itscoleylane @itsninasoon @lifegoalsmag
We reconnect with Chris Burres to talk about the real mechanics of podcast marketing, brand legacy, and why consistency beats quick wins when you are trying to earn attention. We also zoom out into AI governance and longevity, from building AI-native workflows to the accelerating science behind ESS60 and “longevity escape velocity.” • the origin story behind EWR and what a rebrand really costs • podcast cadence as a growth strategy and a team alignment tool • why interviews build relationships and distribution faster than solo shows • what it can cost to buy a premium podcast appearance and when it pays off • AI governance basics for regulated industries and privacy risk • building an AI-first company with workflows, access and accountability • longevity escape velocity and why medical knowledge is accelerating • ESS60, mitochondria, oxidative stress and why users report focus plus sleep Guest Contact Information: Linkedin: linkedin.com/chrisburresWebsite: myvitalc.comMore from EWR and Matthew:Leave us a review wherever you listen: Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or Amazon PodcastFree SEO Consultation: www.ewrdigital.com/discovery-callWith over 5 million downloads, The Best SEO Podcast has been the go-to show for digital marketers, business owners, and entrepreneurs wanting real-world strategies to grow online. Now, host Matthew Bertram — creator of the LLM Visibility Stack™, and Lead Strategist at EWR Digital — takes the conversation beyond traditional SEO into the AI era of discoverability. Each week, Matthew dives into the tactics, frameworks, and insights that matter most in a world where search engines, large language models, and answer engines are reshaping how people find, trust, and choose businesses. From SEO and AI-driven marketing to executive-level growth strategy, you'll hear expert interviews, deep-dive discussions, and actionable strategies to help you stay ahead of the curve. Find more episodes here: youtube.com/@BestSEOPodcastbestseopodcast.combestseopodcast.buzzsprout.comFollow us on:Facebook: @bestseopodcastInstagram: @thebestseopodcastTiktok: @bestseopodcastLinkedIn: @bestseopodcastConnect With Matthew Bertram: Website: www.matthewbertram.comInstagram: @matt_bertram_liveLinkedIn: @mattbertramlivePowered by: ewrdigital.comSupport the show
Smart Agency Masterclass with Jason Swenk: Podcast for Digital Marketing Agencies
Would you like access to our advanced agency training for FREE? https://www.agencymastery360.com/training What if hiring smart people and getting out of your way was not enough to build a self-managing agency? Today's featured guest will talk through the decisions most agency owners get wrong: when to stay involved, when to let go, and how the absence of rigor compounds into structural problems you won't even notice until you're stuck. He'll talk about how bad hiring decisions led him to become the bottleneck, how he's trying to fix that, as well as why your "number" for how much your agency is worth is probably based on nothing, and the one financial habit that gives you genuine optionality. Scott Leff is the founder of Leff, a B2B content marketing agency serving global professional services firms and nonprofits for over 16 years. His background spans business communications working as a managing director for a big brand, as well as a 22-month stint leading communications for Chicago's bid for the 2016 Olympic Games. When the bid failed in the first round, he found himself in a period of reinvention. With the gig economy just taking off, he decided it was time to hang up his shingle. He started to take freelance work, which eventually led to hiring and forming his own business. This agency grew steadily, exploded during COVID, and is now navigating the reassessment most established agencies are facing in a shifting market. In this episode, we'll discuss: Why becoming the bottleneck isn't always about control The hiring rigor every owner should have Which metrics are you tracking? Why declining revenue doesn't equal failure 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. Toggl: Most agencies are losing 15–30% of their profit every year: lack of time tracking, messy manual timesheets, scope creep, untracked revisions, and all those "quick" client requests that never get billed. Toggl has created a fast, interactive way to uncover exactly where your margins are leaking. Start your investigation now at toggl.com/smartagency and use the code SMARTAGENCY10 at checkout for a 10% off annual plans. Knowing What You Should Never Have Delegated For the first ten-plus years of his agency business, every meaningful decision flowed through Scott or his business partner. That wasn't always a problem, but as the agency grew and decision-making had to push down through a management layer, cracks formed. Not because the team was incapable, but because they were being handed authority without the context, direction, or support to use it well. Hiring is the clearest example Scott points to. He gave department managers the autonomy to bring in their own people, which was a reasonable call on paper. But in a culture-driven organization like an agency, where your people are both your product and 80% of your overhead, that's the one decision you can't outsource and expect to get right. The fix wasn't micromanaging the process. It was figuring out the specific places where the founder's perspective is irreplaceable, and staying in the conversation there, even when it's uncomfortable to be involved. Hiring Rigor Is Not Optional and Most Agencies Are Winging It Scott attended a conference session led by someone who'd overseen hiring at Amazon and other large organizations. The biggest takeaway was a story about Jeff Bezos showing up to a debrief with three to four pages of handwritten notes on candidates, while everyone else showed up with nothing. That level of intentionality is what most agencies are missing entirely. The real problem isn't that agency owners don't care about hiring. It's that they go in underprepared, unclear on exactly what they're looking for, leaning on gut instinct, and writing role descriptions that don't reflect the actual job. To ensure you're getting applications from candidates that truly align with your agency and the required role, every part of the hiring process should be a test. Attention to detail? Bury the real application instructions at the bottom of the job post and see who finds them. Hiring a senior exec? Don't tell them much, give them a week and ask them to come back with a 90-day success plan. If they dive into answers before they ask a single question, that tells you everything. The point isn't the process for its own sake. It's that rigor on the front end reduces the cost of being wrong, and in an agency, being wrong on a hire is expensive for a long time. Watch Who You're Hiring From: Big Agency Talent Doesn't Always Travel Well There's a version of agency hiring that looks like a smart move: pull experienced people from larger, more established shops and let them install what's already working somewhere else. Here's why that doesn't work: You end up with talented people who are skilled at operating inside infrastructure, not building it. When there's no large team to direct, no resource pool to draw from, no SOP baked in for the last decade, they stall. The answer when things aren't cut and dried can be "that's not my job." And then it's nobody's job. Scott saw a version of this play out during the Olympic bid. Big consulting firms had seconded teams into the organization, and the ones who thrived were the ones who could operate in ambiguity. The ones who couldn't were waiting for a structure that was never going to show up. The lesson isn't that experienced people from large agencies are bad hires. It's that the ability to figure things out without a system to lean on is the filter. And you have to test for it explicitly, because someone's resume will not tell you whether they have it. Declining Revenue Doesn't Equal Failure, but You Have to Know What You're Actually Measuring Your revenue may seem like the only metric that felt like it matters when it's going up every year. However, a modest drop of five or ten percent, can be a big psychological blow even though profit improves and client impact is strong. That's a vanity metric doing its job: making growth feel like identity. Scott hit a similar inflection point when a former client asked him a simple question, why are you growing? Scott didn't have a clean answer. He'd been operating on the assumption that growth was inherently the goal, not a means to something else. The conversation points to a structural reality: if revenue is the only number you track, you'll optimize for it even when it costs you margin, leverage, and time. The healthier question is whether the agency is building toward the outcome you actually want, more optionality, a sellable asset, or just more control over your calendar. Revenue is a lagging indicator of that. Not the scoreboard. The Decision to Sell Your Agency Has Nothing to Do With Your Number Most agency owners carry a number in their head of what they want to walk away with when they sell. The problem is that the number is usually arbitrary, the market timing is unpredictable, and nobody warned them about the identity crisis that hits the week after closing. The right time to sell isn't a target revenue year or a specific EBITDA multiple. It's when you know exactly what you're walking toward and when the thought of running the agency has stopped feeling like a challenge and started feeling like a weight you've been carrying for six months straight. On the valuation side, Scott's question about what agency owners get wrong surfaced a hard truth: if your EBITDA is under a million dollars, your multiple takes a significant hit, and the buyer math looks very different than what you've been calculating off top-line revenue. Build the foundation like you intend to sell it. Get rid of what you hate. Make it structurally independent. Then you have real options, whether or not you ever actually sell. 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.
Send us Fan MailIn this episode, Brand Revolt's Camden Bernatz joins host Jason Mudd to discuss why traditional agency pitches often fail, how clients can build better partnerships, and why diagnosis must come before solutions.Tune in to learn more!Meet our guest:Our guest is Camden Bernatz, creative director and strategist at Brand Revolt and author of “Stop Asking for Pitches: 10 Rules to Fix the Client-Agency Relationship.” Once drawn to psychiatry, he now applies that same curiosity to branding, helping organizations diagnose challenges and build stronger brands.Five things you'll learn from this episode:1. Why traditional agency pitches often prioritize performance over real problem-solving2. Why diagnosing the problem must come before prescribing any solution3. How treating agency relationships as strategic investments improves outcomes4. How shifting from vendor transactions to partnerships leads to better results5. What a true client-agency partnership looks like in practiceQuotables“You want that agency that helps you develop the brief [to] help you figure out what we actually need. What are we trying to accomplish? What would success look like?” — Camden Bernatz“The reason you have a need for an RFP or to hire a firm and hire an agency is because you don't totally know what you need.” — Camden Bernatz“It's just having things on the table early, talking about like, ‘We think that you're prescribing something that's going to cost more than you say you have money for.'” — Camden Bernatz“There's a difference in the way it feels to spend money on an agency versus spending the money with the agency.” — Camden Bernatz“Your agency is like an engine to fuel as opposed to a resource to drain. You will treat it differently, and they will perform differently.” — Camden Bernatz“Buying agency services is about buying a creative class of expertise, experience, guidance, and consulting that is much different than buying staples, pencils, and other supplies.” — Jason MuddIf you enjoyed this episode, please take a moment to share it with a colleague or friend. You may also support us through Buy Me a Coffee or by leaving us a quick podcast review.Guest's contact info and resources:Camden Bernatz on LinkedInCamden Bernatz on YouTubeBrand Revolt website“Stop Asking For Pitches: 10 Rules to Fix the Client-Agency Relationship” bookThe Win Without Pitching ManifestoClients behaving badly: Video store, hair salon hagglingAdditional Resources:Support the showOn Top of PR is produced by Axia Public Relations, named by Forbes as one of America's Best PR Agencies. Axia is an expert PR firm for national brands.On Top of PR is sponsored by ReviewMaxer, the platform for monitoring, improving, and promoting online customer reviews.
Stephanie McGirr explains how niching down helped her marketing agency grow faster and deliver stronger results for clients in the direct primary care space. She shares how building repeatable systems, choosing the right tools, and offering fractional CMO leadership can help agencies move from reactive work to strategic impact. The conversation also explores how membership-based healthcare practices require education-driven marketing and long-term relationship building. If you're looking to specialize your agency, strengthen your positioning, and adapt to AI-driven marketing changes, this episode offers practical direction grounded in real experience. Today we discussed: 00:00 Choosing a Healthcare Marketing Niche 02:33 Amplify DPC Platform 06:00 Fractional CMO Strategy for DPC Practices 09:54 AI in Healthcare Marketing 13:00 The Patient Journey in DPC Marketing 15:22 Future Marketing and AI Trends Rate, Review, & Follow If you liked this episode, please rate and review the show. Let us know what you loved most about the episode. Struggling with strategy? Unlock your free AI-powered prompts now and start building a winning strategy today!