The Handbook: The Operations Podcast

Is your business growing, but it still feels messy? This solo episode from Harv looks back at one year of The Handbook podcast, and it’s a big one. Harv recaps what he’s learned from a year of speaking with ops leaders across the agency world. He packages it all into one whirlwind tour of the five core pillars of operational maturity: people, process, tools, data, and growth. If you’ve missed a fe...

Ops Leaders, are you unintentionally making life harder for your delivery team? Galen Low, co-founder of The Digital Project Manager and host of The Digital Project Manager podcast, joins us to flip the lens, and spotlight the real impact of operational decisions from the delivery floor up. Galen has spent years helping digital PMs thrive in chaotic environments. In this episode, he shares the sig...

What does it really take to operate more strategically as an agency? Manish Kapur returns to The Handbook to help agency ops leaders shift from firefighting mode to future-focused thinking. If you’ve ever struggled to carve out time for the big picture while juggling the day-to-day, this episode is your playbook. Harv and Manish dig into how to run fast-paced, high-impact workshops that drive mean...

Growth is the goal for many agencies, but as your team hits certain size thresholds, your structure, systems, and workflows can start to break down. Marcel Petitpas, CEO of Parakeeto, has spent years helping agencies around the world clean up their operations, tighten up forecasting, and build financial systems that actually support scale. In this episode, Marcel shares what breaks as agencies gro...

What if you could charge more, and keep your best clients happy? Karl Sakas has spent over 20 years in agency operations and consulting, helping more than 600 agencies shift from reactive to strategic. In this episode, he joins us to break down why pricing isn’t just about numbers – it’s an ops play, and one that can define your agency’s future. Here’s what we get into: • Why time & materials...

Your tech stack might be holding your agency back more than you think. Ryan Pearcy , founder of Digital Transformers and chartered accountant, has helped countless agencies untangle their systems and make smarter, faster decisions. He’s spent nearly 15 years helping service-based businesses clean up their systems, bringing finance, tech, and process together so leaders can make decisions based on...

How do agencies stack up in 2025? The results are in for BenchPress 2025. The UK’s largest benchmarking survey for independent agencies has revealed some surprising (and shocking) trends about the state of the industry. To break it all down, Rory Spence, Head of Commercial at The Wow Company, joins us to unpack the data, trends, and opportunities that agency leaders need to know. In this episode,...

Most agencies add value far beyond execution. They develop methodologies, frameworks, and strategic thinking that help clients make better decisions. But too often, they give that thinking away for free. Only to compete on price when it’s time for execution. Max Traylor has spent years helping agencies break this cycle. He’s an expert in packaging and selling strategy, helping agencies move from o...

Are performance reviews a waste of time—or your agency’s secret weapon? Too often, agencies treat performance management as a checkbox exercise, bogged down with vague feedback and awkward salary conversations. But Zoe Elizabeth Blogg, Operations Director at Reboot Online, has built a system that actually works.  From structured performance reviews to proactive (quarterly!) salary reviews, Zoe’s c...

Your agency’s operations can either fuel creativity, or kill it. And you can focus on the big picture that drives real financial impact, or get stuck in the weeds. Preston Chandler , WPP’s Global Practice Lead of Strategic Operations has a point of view, and the experience to prove it. In fact, Preston’s role at WPP is all about advising agencies in the group on how they can operate in a better, s...

We’ve all had those moments, we land that huge new client – first comes the elation for winning the mandate that will transform our fortunes, and then the mild panic at how we’re going to deliver. There’s also times when what we do is simply just not that well understood across the organization – there might only be one internal expert, which creates a significant amount of risk for the business i...

This year, Gen Z are due to make up over a quarter of the workforce – a huge proportion. But both the negative headlines and moaning around the watercooler have commenced. Claims of entitlement, laziness, and unreasonable expectations abound.  But is any of it true? And is their approach to work really that detrimental to an efficient workplace?  In this episode, Harv speaks with Isobel Camier, fo...

In a tight market, sales become a big concern. Relying on repeat business or referrals no longer cuts it, you have to put in more effort.  Often in agencies, the know-how on how to get this done is missing; few people come from a formal sales background. So a haphazard approach is implemented and we hope for the best. Only that slapdash approach rarely gets the results we want.  Is it time for the...

How do you create a highly efficient agency without losing flexibility or quality? In this episode, Harv Nagra sits down with Jinny Mitchell-Kent, Joint Managing Director at Great State. With nearly 20 years of experience at agencies big and small—including global powerhouse AKQA—Jinny shares how she’s applying lessons from her big-agency days to a 100-person team. Here’s what you’ll hear: How mov...

Are you battling with inconsistent processes, bad practice and poor staff training?  In this episode, Harv Nagra explains the benefits of documenting and embedding best practices – to take your agency one big leap forward in operational maturity. Harv shares his best tips on: Creating an agency handbook – to create a single source of truth for your business, and help your team work consistently Ch...

Hiring and training new employees is a big commitment - and getting it right will have a lasting impact on your agency. Kicking off The Big Agency Club series, we chat with Sarah Brougham, VP of Operations at GenFlow. Sarah’s helped multiple agencies go from start-up to established, having a big hand to play in their growth and maturity journies. Sarah has spent the past six years at GenFlow, help...

Individuals thrive when they’re equipped to handle challenges. Amy Hopper is a former agency owner and now founder of the business consultancy TOA . In this episode, Amy opens up about her journey through some serious challenges. She shares how those experiences helped her create a system that keeps teams (and individuals) focused, engaged, and productive. Amy dives into practical tips on: Plannin...

Which metrics should you track, to run your agency as efficiently as possible? In this episode we speak with Richard Brett. Rich is a seasoned FinOps professional with 15+ years of experience, including a decade in the agency world. Rich has played a key role in scaling agencies, setting up financial processes, and supporting sustainable growth. Rich will take us into a deeper dive of agency finan...

Do you ever get to the end of the working day and wonder, ‘What did I actually get done today?' You’re certainly not alone.  We’re interrupted about every 8 minutes. And it can take up to 20 minutes to get back to what we’re doing. Imagine the impact of that on an 8 hour day. In a recent Agency Hackers webinar, Harv spoke about productivity – including the flow state, trends that have had a n...

Curious about how an agency experimented with new approaches and found their recipe for success? In this episode, we talk with Trenton Moss, a former agency owner who ran his business for 15 years before it was sold. Trenton shares the key decisions that transformed his agency, along with some missteps along the way. Trenton covers three major changes he implemented and explains exactly how he did...

As an Ops person, the role of IT expert is often part of the job. So how can you ensure your agency’s IT infrastructure is set up for scaling?  That's the focus of our discussion with Dan Timmiss, Technical Director at Kaizen IT Solutions. With over two decades of experience, Dan has helped hundreds of creative agencies optimize and manage their IT setups, from audits to complete IT overhauls...

Winning pitches is tough.  Ghosting has become a common challenge, and even when you win, clients may be commissioning smaller pieces of the project rather than the full program. But that’s only part of the struggle - crafting pitch decks takes a lot of time and energy. Surely there’s a better way than packing slides with your best creative ideas.  In this episode we tackle these challenges and in...

Part of the remit of an ops leader is to ensure they’ve got the right people, in the right place.  In many agencies, account managers handle sales, client relationships, AND project management. However, this hybrid role often leads to trade-offs.  Everyone’s got their own strengths and preferences – and these responsibilities seemingly require very different personality types.  A great sales perso...

We’re in the age of remote and hybrid working, and our physical distance from one another is having a huge impact on company culture.  Previously, grabbing lunch or a drink after work was easy. But now, even small talk needs to be consciously brought into our scheduled Slack calls to avoid things becoming too transactional.  This new way of working can lead to serious challenges like feeling disco...

Without financial results, we can’t see the impact of the decisions we make on our agency’s profit. In this episode we’re joined by Alfie Wenegieme, a seasoned chartered accountant with over 17 years of commercial finance experience. Alfie shares important metrics for us to understand, report, and improve on.  We explore the fundamentals of agency finances, common issues agencies face, and tips fo...