The Agency Growth Podcast

[Cold open [Jake is moving... Again] ends at 10:40.] Google Ads feels weird right now, and we’re trying to figure out what changed. In this episode, we talk about what we’re seeing in real local lead gen accounts. LSAs are getting more attention, standard search ads feel weaker, CPAs are rising, and clients are asking fair questions. We also get into what we’re testing next, including AI Max, targ...

We sat down with Nicklaus Conley to talk about what happens when marketing works faster than the business underneath it. Nick scaled his hardscaping company toward $3 million in contracts before a massive chunk of that revenue vanished in weeks. The crash wasn't a marketing failure; his operations and cash flow simply couldn't absorb the rapid growth. It is a harsh look at how high lead volume can...

This week, we brought on Ezra from Green Frog Web Design to talk about what agency owners usually avoid: competitors, pricing, retention, and what “enough” actually means. Ezra works in the same lawn and landscape space we do, which is exactly why we wanted him on. Most agency owners treat competitors like enemies. We think that’s usually a barrier you made up yourself. We got into his path from l...

[Cold open [Jake turns Iowa’s football stadium into a paintball field] ends at 10:39.] We’re trying to figure out what the next version of our agency actually looks like. SEO and Google Ads are still the foundation, but marketing alone has a ceiling. Adding more lead sources does not help much when clients only see the bad leads, follow-up is inconsistent, and everything gets compared to high-inte...

[Cold open [Jake’s 7,000-word schema study] ends at 11:56] AI is making clients question what they used to pay agencies for. In this episode, we talk about how clients are starting to look at agency work differently now that AI can give them a first draft, a basic design, a legal answer, a finance answer, or a marketing opinion in seconds. It does not have to be perfect to change how they think. T...

[Cold open [Bad shaker bottles. Creatine. Gemini as a personal trainer.] ends at 08:43.] Cody and Jake talk through the weird spot agency owners hit when the business is growing, but the work starts feeling less fulfilling. This episode gets into the reality of running a productized agency at volume. More clients, more accounts, more expectations, and more moments where “just manage expectations b...

[Cold open (Music opinions, Spotify habits, and Mr. Brightside trauma) ends at 09:40.] AI has given clients just enough language to sound confident, but not always enough context to be right. In this episode, we talk about what happens when clients start using ChatGPT, Gemini, or other LLMs to audit the work they already pay an agency to do. Sometimes the questions are fair. Sometimes they are jus...

We sat down with Jackie Studor from Make Model Marketing to talk about the absolute grind of running a niche digital agency in the automotive industry.  The automotive niche isn't built for standard agency plays. Jackie explained how her team navigates massive manufacturer compliance rules and co-op dollar systems where a simple error can cost a client thousands. Because of this intense nuance, th...

We sat down with Dan Gent, who ran his product design agency, Lighthouse London, for 15 years before walking away in 2023 and now writes his own newsletter, Dear Agency Founder. Dan details how Lighthouse reached 20 people and roughly $2 million in revenue before market conditions forced a closure rather than a traditional exit. He explains the dangerous "dip" where profit margins drop as you hire...

[Cold open [Jake’s $700 Caviar Mistake] ends at 13:45.] Technology is moving fast, but that doesn’t mean agency owners need to chase every new tool that shows up in their feed. In this episode, we talk about the pressure agencies feel to keep up with AI, automation, new ad platforms, and all the other tools everyone is suddenly yelling about. Some of it matters. A lot of it is just noise. The real...

[Cold open [A listener feeds Cody’s Panda Express addiction] ends at 9:02.] Giving clients total transparency into their leads sounds like a good idea until they start seeing the garbage that comes with the gold. When you open the black box of lead generation, clients often fixate on the junk instead of the lower lead costs. Moving up the funnel with services like LSAs naturally increases the volu...

Cesar is back on the podcast this week to break down the unsexy reality of acquiring clients for his agency through organic social media. His current lead flow relies heavily on TikTok and high-intent searches from ChatGPT. Building this pipeline wasn't a quick win, as he spent around three years posting content before landing his first real lead. Instead of overproducing videos, he notes daily ag...

[Cold open (People don't own fly swatters anymore) ends at 12:31.] This week, AJ Doppke joins us to talk about the unsexy reality of scaling an agency and why growing too fast can break your operations. AJ grew his gross profit by 70% in a single year. He openly admits it was a terrible experience. His operations struggled to keep pace with sales, forcing his small team to work uncomfortable overt...

Josh Kimmes is back on the podcast to talk about the boring, unsexy work of getting inbound leads without relying on an exhausting outbound sales machine. We break down exactly how his agency gets a steady flow of qualified prospects through highly specific industry service pages. Josh also walks us through his automated referral engine that triggers physical gifts and account credits when clients...

[Cold open (Jake's wife was gifted an at-home lobotomy kit) ends at 03:43.] This week, we sat down with Sharon Toerek, a legal expert who actually understands the agency world because she's been in it for decades. Sharon broke down the "three legs of the stool" for agency protection: intellectual property, solid contracts, and regulatory compliance. We dug into the messy reality of AI risk managem...

[Cold open (Jake Puts the McDonald's CEO to Shame) ends at 08:17.] Starting a marketing agency seems to be the cool thing to do these days. Everyone is doing it, and there is so much noise. How do you cut through it and stand out? We've noticed a trend of people trying to flex an inauthentic, crass personality as their tactic, but cutting through that noise and standing out is much easier, and you...

[Cold open (Jake spills coffee on his keyboard and debates the utility of tablets) ends at 07:49.] Most agency advice treats every client relationship the same, but the reality is that a family-owned local shop and a VC-backed firm require entirely different "languages" to survive. In this episode, we break down how to navigate the power struggles and decision-making hierarchies of different busin...

[Cold open ends at 07:13.] There has been a lot of buzz lately with people mentioning and starting "AI Automation Agencies", yet they have no idea how to sell or position the service. They're all operating under some expectation that businesses just inherently need or want these services, which is absolutely not the case. But that doesn't mean you can't sell it and that there isn't value for it. I...

In our pursuit of having an episode for every niche out there, we ran across Dante Montovano, who owns Seven Circle Media, a restaurant marketing agency. We knew restaurant marketing was unique, but we didn't realize how much we didn't actually know about the industry and what actually makes fast food places, QSRs, and fast-casual restaurants the most amount of money. Dante broke down exactly what...

[Cold open (Cody is back from Hawaii) ends at 05:37.] Most agencies you talk to, as well as the entire internet, will tell you that clients should own their own ad accounts, and you should work inside them. But what if we told you this is the wrong way to do it? What if we told you that you are opening yourself up to potentially huge insurance and legal issues doing it this way? Listen to this epi...

[Cold Open (Professional paintball & 2-star reviews) ends at 16:31] In this episode, we talk about scaling with simple services. We break down why the things that actually grow an agency are often the least exciting to sell, how chasing trendy or “innovative” offers can create complexity instead of leverage, and what has actually worked for us as we’ve grown. We also discuss AI automation, loc...

[Cold Open (Jake's Migraine) ends at 6:07] What if the best PR strategy for your agency has nothing to do with your own website? This week, we talk about how to build massive authority and get clients by leveraging established platforms that already have your target audience. We explain why building an audience from scratch is the slow way around. We share our lessons on using niche publications t...

[Cold open (Cody's in Hawaii and why he's there ) ends at 14:28.] For the 4th year in a row, it's that time of year when we cover our annual finances for our agency. Where we grew, what we're spending more money on, and what challenges we're starting to see at our new stages of growth. ----- RESOURCES: Want the tools and resources we recommend for agencies? Check them out here: https://www.agencyg...

[Cold open (Busy Days, Zapier Debates, and Community Growing Pains) ends at 17:15.] In this episode, we talk through our goals for 2026. We break down what we want to focus on with the agency and the podcast, what’s changed in how we think about growth, and why being selective matters more now than ever. We also touch on audience expectations, visibility, and the trade-offs that come with putting...

[Cold open [Jakes barber shop is obsessed with Peaky Blinders] ends at 08:16.] The Agency Growth Podcast officially has a new website! And it's built on Wix Studio. We kept our promise after our initial conversation with Kobi Gamliel, Head of Wix Studio, 2 years ago in episode 112. We dove in and put our first site on Wix Studio and so far, like it a lot. But... there are still some issues. There...