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Smart Agency Masterclass with Jason Swenk: Podcast for Digital Marketing Agencies: Daily Summaries Delivered
by Jason Swenk
Growing an agency is very difficult, and you might feel unclear what to do next in order to grow and scale your agency. The Smart Agency Masterclass is a weekly podcast for agencies that are wanting to grow faster. We interview amazing guests from all over the world that have the experience of running successful businesses, and will provide you the insights you need. Our podcast is just over 3 years old, and have reached more than a half million listeners in 42 countries.
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- 6 days ago23 min
The Secret to Running an Agency for 30 Years Without Ever Wanting to Walk Away with Arne Hurty | Ep #930
Would you like to learn how to accelerate your agency growth? https://www.agencymastery360.com/training Arne Hurty is the founder and Chief Creative Officer of BayCreative, a San Francisco Bay Area B2B technology marketing agency he has been running for 30 years. What started as a $500 illustration job has grown into a full-service agency serving brands like Cisco and ServiceNow — with Arne's son and daughter now working alongside him. In this episode, Arne and Jason dig into what actually sustains an agency owner over three decades: two business partner buyouts, a full pivot to remote work, and a philosophy of building the agency around life rather than the other way around. 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. Key Takeaways: The pursuit of quality is a bottomless pit — and that's why it works.** Arne says he has never seriously wanted to walk away from the business in 30 years. His reason: improving communication is an endless craft. If work feels boring, he says, "you're just not looking at it enough." The pursuit itself keeps going. Design your agency around your life from the beginning.** Arne made deliberate choices to keep BayCreative at a size that fit how he wanted to live. When COVID hit, going fully virtual wasn't a crisis — it was a natural next step that also opened the door to more diverse talent. Plan every business partner transition before you need to.** Arne has bought out two business partners over 30 years. In both cases, the transitions were manageable because expectations were clear. If you have a business partner, get the valuation method and exit terms in writing before either of you ever considers leaving. Let family earn their seat — don't create one for them. Both Arne's son and daughter joined BayCreative casually while in college and needing money. Their work quality is what made them permanent. Arne didn't build a role to justify hiring them; their capability justified itself. Arne also shares how meeting someone in person at least once — even with a team that is otherwise fully remote — changes the texture of every Zoom call that follows. That first handshake, he says, carries more weight than any amount of video history. 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.
- 1 weeks ago23 min
From Getting Fired to Running a Thriving SEO Agency with Leo Poitevin | Ep #929
Would you like to learn how to accelerate your agency growth? https://www.agencymastery360.com/training Leo Poitevin is the founder of Astrak, a fast-growing SEO agency based in Chiang Mai, Thailand, specializing in the French-speaking market. In just a year and a half, Leo grew his team from one to ten people — a journey that started not with a bold entrepreneurial vision, but with getting let go from a job during his probation period. In this episode, Leo and Jason get into what it really takes to go from freelancer to agency owner, how to reclaim your time as you scale, and the hard lessons of hiring your first salesperson. Sponsors and ResourcesE2M 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. Key Takeaways: Build for enterprise value, not freelance income.** The first year and a half of running an agency often means making less money than you would going solo. Leo reframed that trade-off by focusing on what he was actually building: a sellable company with real enterprise value, not just a higher hourly rate. Get your time back by compressing from the top down.** Leo's approach: start at maximum workload, then delegate piece by piece and block more time back into your schedule. If you start at 12 hours a day, there's only one direction to go. Every six months, something that used to live on his plate no longer does. Know what role you're actually hiring for before you post a job.** Leo discovered that "sales guy" isn't one job — it's a closer, an SDR, a full-cycle rep, and more. He and Jason break down why small agencies need someone who can do everything, and why matching your hire to your ICP matters more than industry experience. YouTube builds trust and leads even at small scale.** Without a large following or high-end production, Leo generates consistent inbound leads through long-form screen share videos. If you're struggling with lead generation, he says this is the most underused channel for agency owners. Leo also shares how he built his sales process from scratch using a $7 online course, competitor proposal decks, and conversations with other agency owners — and why he believes you can't survive this industry long-term if you don't genuinely like people. 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](https://flatworm-caterpillar-3mha.squarespace.com/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.
- 2 weeks ago22 min
How to Remove Yourself as the Bottleneck and Build a Scalable Agency with John Jantsch | Ep #928
Would you like to learn how to accelerate your agency growth? https://www.agencymastery360.com/training John Jantsch is the founder of Duct Tape Marketing, a marketing agency he built over 30 years and the author of the bestselling book Duct Tape Marketing. He has since licensed his systematic marketing methodology to more than 400 agencies, consultants, and fractional CMOs around the world. In this episode, John joins Jason to talk about the hard lessons of removing yourself from the center of your agency, why smaller agencies have a real competitive edge when they lean into being human, and why the fundamentals of marketing haven't changed; even as AI reshapes the tools we use. 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. Key Takeaways: The team is the result, not you. If clients believe you are the product, that's exactly what they'll demand. John shifted the dynamic by bringing team members into discovery calls early, showing clients they were getting a team — and a better outcome — not just one expert. Stop answering, start asking. John stopped giving his team the answers and started turning questions back on them. It felt uncomfortable at first, but over time it built a team that thinks independently and holds him accountable to staying in his lane. Scaling a methodology requires radical simplification. When John began licensing Duct Tape Marketing, he discovered that what lived in his head was 90% too complicated to transfer. It took 5 to 7 years of documentation, iteration, and simplification before the system was truly teachable by others. Marketing fundamentals don't change — delivery does. After 30 years, John's north star is the same: get someone who has a need to know, like, and trust you enough to buy. AI changes how you reach that outcome; it doesn't change what you're trying to accomplish. John and Jason also dig into why trying to look bigger is often the wrong play for smaller agencies, how John grew key team members internally over 10 to 13 years rather than through traditional hiring, and why agency owners need to own a leadership seat with their clients — not just a tactical one. Want a quick overview of John's system? Grab his free ebook at dtm.world/7steps. 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 <a href= "https://flatworm-caterpillar-3mha.
- 3 weeks ago26 min
Why Managing to Strengths Beats Managing to Tasks with Laura Lee Jones | Ep #927
Would you like to learn how to accelerate your agency growth ? https://www.agencymastery360.com/training What if your biggest growth bottleneck isn't your team—but how you're leading them? Laura Lee Jones built Lion Share Marketing into a 45-person healthcare agency with an extraordinary retention record by focusing on people before processes. Rather than forcing employees into predefined roles, she learned to build roles around their natural strengths, creating an environment where team members stay for decades, leaders stay in their zone of genius, and the business continues to grow profitably. In this episode, Laura shares how shifting from task management to strength-based leadership transformed her culture, why founder role clarity drives long-term growth, and why profit—not revenue—is the metric that ultimately matters. What You'll Learn Why treating employees the way you want to be treated creates long-term retention. How managing people around their strengths outperforms assigning work based on organizational charts. The leadership shift from directing every task to building complementary teams. Why founders should protect the work only they can do—and delegate everything else. How staying focused on profit instead of revenue leads to healthier decisions. The connection between founder role clarity, team stability, and sustainable agency growth. Key Takeaways Great retention isn't created through perks—it's built through consistent leadership and genuine care for your team. Stop trying to make people fit every role. Build roles around the strengths your people naturally bring. Founders become bottlenecks when they refuse to let go of work outside their highest-value contribution. Revenue growth means very little if profit, team health, and founder fulfillment are declining. Long-term agency success comes from designing a business where the right people are doing the right work—and the founder stays focused on the responsibilities only they can own. Have you been losing good people and telling yourself it is the market, the economy, or bad luck? Maybe you've been watching revenue numbers so closely that you forgot to ask whether the profit and the life underneath them were actually working. Today's featured guest runs a 45-person data-driven healthcare marketing agency she starting building just four days after being fired from an agency job. She'll get into why she intentionally built her agency thinking about employee happiness and fulfillment, how she evolved from drill sergeant to leader who plays to people's strengths, and what she has learned about staying profitable and mentally steady across three decades of business cycles. Laura Lee Jones is the CEO of Lion Share Marketing, a Kansas City-based agency specializing in data-driven marketing for the healthcare industry. They build large patient and prospect databases, layers proprietary software on top of them, and uses front-end analytics and back-end ROI measurement to drive healthcare marketing decisions. Laura Lee started the agency in 1995 after being let go from a firm she had run for ten years. She has grown Lion Share to 45 people with a retention rate that is genuinely unusual: some team members have been with her for close to 30 years, and several who could not join immediately due to non-compete agreements came over as soon as they could. In this episode, we'll discuss: The standard that makes people want to stay 30 years <p class="MsoNormal" data-r
- Aug 19, 202628 min
They Ran the Same Agency for 8 Years Without Knowing Who Did What with John Scheer | Ep #926
Would you like to learn how to accelerate your agency growth ? https://www.agencymastery360.com/training What happens when two founders build a successful marketing agency without ever clearly defining who owns what? In this episode, John Scheer shares how eight years of overlapping responsibilities created hidden friction inside Herman-Scheer, and how a simple role clarification transformed the business. He explains why moving upmarket after the 2022 downturn required a completely different level of strategy, why bringing in a third partner accelerated growth instead of creating complexity, and how his agency is approaching AI as an amplifier of expertise rather than a replacement for it. If you're leading an agency that's outgrown founder improvisation, this conversation is a masterclass in evolving your leadership before it becomes your biggest bottleneck. What You'll Learn Why undefined founder roles create invisible bottlenecks, even when there's no conflict. How a 360° leadership review helped two co-founders finally divide ownership and improve decision-making. What it really takes to move a digital marketing agency from startup clients into Series A and enterprise engagements. Why adding a third partner succeeded after previous senior hires failed. How to evaluate executive talent beyond impressive resumes. Why AI should accelerate strategic thinking, not replace it. The 10-80-10 framework for using AI without sacrificing creativity or expertise. Key Takeaways Clear ownership creates leverage. When founders stop sharing every responsibility, the team gains clarity, decisions move faster, and each leader can operate at a higher level. Market changes often demand business model changes. Herman-Scheer's shift upmarket after 2022 wasn't just about larger clients; it required stronger strategy, operational discipline, and deeper industry expertise. The right partner fills capability gaps, not title gaps. Their third partner succeeded because she wanted to build alongside the digital agency team instead of managing from above. Great branding is driven by judgment, not just creativity. AI can accelerate execution, but differentiation still comes from human insight and strategic thinking. Founder evolution is less about doing more and more about creating the structure that allows others to lead with confidence. Have you and your co-founder been stepping on each other's toes for years, not because of conflict, but because nobody ever drew the line between your roles? Today's featured guest moved across the country to Santa Monica after his current partner called him and asked him to take a chance on building something of their own instead of "working for the man". It took eight years of figuring out what not to do, a 360 review that finally split their roles, a niche into healthcare and wellness, and eventually a third partner to unlock what the agency is today. He'll walk through how the role division changed everything, why going upmarket after 2022 forced a more rigorous kind of work, and what he actually thinks AI is doing to branding. John Scheer is the co-founder and chief creative officer of Herman-Scheer, a branding agency based in Los Angeles focused on healthcare, self-care, and well-being. They work with clients at three inflection points: zero to one startups, high-growth companies around Series A and beyond, and enterprise legacy businesses looking to regain relevance. Two and a half years ago they brought on a third partner with 20 years of operational and insights experience, which shifted the agency's growth traject
- Aug 12, 202627 min
What Happens When You Build a Team Around Projects Instead of a Vision with Victor Huynh | Ep #925
Would you like access to our advanced agency training for FREE? https://www.agencymastery360.com/training Have you been hiring people and growing your team without a real plan, only to find yourself with a bigger payroll and a business that still runs through you? Today's featured guest and his partner started out as graphic designers doing packaging work and then pivoted to web when the real estate crash wiped out their client base overnight. After years of taking on everything, they're still figuring out how to build the right team underneath them. He walks through what it looked like to grow to 25 people without a plan, how the co-founder dynamic actually works after two decades, and why he's found that, in a partnership, the disagreements are actually the thing keeping the business alive. Victor Huynh is the co-founder of Ready Artwork, a website-first industrial B2B digital marketing agency. He and his business partner Emily met in graphic design school and started freelancing together, with Victor handling sales and Emily anchoring production. Over 22 years, they pivoted from packaging design to web, grew to 25 people at peak, scaled back down, and have since committed fully to the industrial B2B niche. In this episode, we'll discuss: Learning that clarity outperforms craft in sales The cost of growing without a plan Still dealing with imposter syndrome? Most owners are Subscribe Apple | Spotify | iHeart Radio Sponsors and Resources E2M Solutions:Today's episode of the Smart Agency Masterclass is sponsored by E2M Solutions, a web design and development agency that has provided white-label services for the past 10 years to agencies all over the world. Check out e2msolutions.com/smartagency and get 10% off for the first three months of service. The Black and White Sign That Rewrote Their Positioning <p class="MsoNormal" da
- Aug 5, 202628 min
Is AI Convincing Your Agency Clients They Don't Need You? with Devon MacDonald | Ep #924
Would you like access to our advanced agency training for FREE? https://www.agencymastery360.com/training Do your clients show up to calls with AI-generated strategies that are mostly wrong, and you then spend half the engagement correcting their assumptions instead of doing the work? Have you had clients who used to trust your expertise now question everything, armed with a chatbot and a YouTube video? Today's featured guest is an agency owner who came up through programming, crossed into digital strategy, ran creative and media operations inside major holding company networks, and eventually went independent in search of the entrepreneurial freedom that corporate agency life could not offer. He goes into what AI is actually doing to the client relationship and what it means to train a team that can think rather than one that just produces faster. Devon MacDonald is the president of Cairns Oneil, a Canadian media agency serving clients across North America. His career began in computer programming in the 1990s, working in HTML and SQL for clients in sales and marketing before moving into digital strategy and eventually running a creative agency and then a media agency network inside major holding company structures. Five years ago, he went independent. He built a cross-functional AI team at his agency that includes both technical and non-technical members, operating from the belief that consumer insight and cultural understanding matter as much as data fluency in how AI gets applied. In this episode, we'll discuss: Clients who have decided AI makes them the expert Is the funnel dead because of AI? Will this skill disappear once we've completely stopped using it? Subscribe Apple | Spotify | iHeart Radio Sponsors and Resources E2M Solutions: Today's episode of the Smart Agency Masterclass is sponsored by E2M Solutions, a web design and development agency that has provided white-label services for the past 10 years to agencies all over the world. Check out e2msolutions.com/smartagency and get 10% off for the first three months of service. The Problem With Clients Who Have Decided AI Makes Them the Expert Devon knows there was already an education deficit in marketing before AI arrived. A generation of performance marketers came into positions of influence having skipped foundational thinking around brand, audience, and strategy. AI compounded that gap by giving them the ability to produce high volumes of output that look credible but are built on faulty premises. As a result, clients now show up with hundred-question emails generated by a chatbot, convince
- Jul 29, 202628 min
Is Your Best Skill Actually Squashing Your Agency's Growth? with Brett Singer | Ep #923
Would you like access to our advanced agency training for FREE? https://www.agencymastery360.com/training Are you willing to give up the work you built the agency around in order to build the agency itself? Today's featured guest recounts how he and his partner built their agency after a decade working together at the Oprah Winfrey Show. Fifteen years in, they are still figuring out what the founder job actually is versus what they have always been good at. He talks through how the transition from doing to leading actually happened, what it cost him creatively and personally to step out of directing, and what he means when he says that making the video was always the easy part. Brett Singer is a co-founder and principal at Bottle Rocket Media, a digital agency based in Chicago specializing in video production, motion graphics, SEO, paid media, and AI search optimization. He and his business partner Dan Fisher both worked at Harpo Studios on the Oprah Winfrey Show for over a decade before launching Bottle Rocket in 2011. The agency built its initial client base entirely from the network that came out of Harpo when the show ended, then invested heavily in their own SEO to shift from outbound to inbound. Brett is now focused on business development, vision, and team culture. In this episode, we'll discuss: Letting go of the work you love for the future of the agency When the business no longer needs you The hardest part of running an agency Subscribe Apple | Spotify | iHeart Radio Sponsors and Resources E2M Solutions: Today's episode of the Smart Agency Masterclass is sponsored by E2M Solutions, a web design and development agency that has provided white-label services for the past 10 years to agencies all over the world. Check out e2msolutions.com/smartagency and get 10% off for the first three months of service. The Work You Love Is Not the Work the Business Needs From You Brett spent years at Harpo perfecting motion design and later started Bottle Rocket partly because he wanted to keep doing it. It was work he greatly enjoyed. Unfortunately, he realized that was the wrong job for him, not from a strategic decision but from simple math: when he was in the edit suite, no one was finding the next client. The business did not care how good he was with a camera. It needed someone holding the relationship and the vision. Letting go of the work he was trained fo
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About Smart Agency Masterclass with Jason Swenk: Podcast for Digital Marketing Agencies
Growing an agency is very difficult, and you might feel unclear what to do next in order to grow and scale your agency. The Smart Agency Masterclass is a weekly podcast for agencies that are wanting to grow faster. We interview amazing guests from all over the world that have the experience of running successful businesses, and will provide you the insights you need. Our podcast is just over 3 years old, and have reached more than a half million listeners in 42 countries.
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