Smart Agency Masterclass Podcast with Jason Swenk
Bi-weekly interviews, strategy, and advice for building your marketing agency the smart way.
The popular agency podcast has just turned 12 years old and covers everything from starting a successful agency to selling your agency.
#1 Agency Leadership Podcast. Check Out Our Past Guests.
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Seth Godin
Best selling Author of Purple Cow, This is Marketing, Linchpin, Permission Marketing
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Guy Kawasaki
Guy Kawasaki is the chief evangelist of Canva and former Apple chief evangelist
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Dan Martell
Author of Buy Back Your Time. Influential coach in SaaS startups.
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Gino Wickman
The creator of the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS) and author of Traction.
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Neil Patel
Founder of CrazyEgg, Kissmetrics, and other multimillion dollar companies
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![Uri Levine]()
Uri Levine
Co-founder of Waze
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Joey Coleman
Recognized for his expertise in customer retention & enhancing client loyalty
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Mike Michaelowicz
Best-selling author of Profit First and Clock Work
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Amy Porterfield
Renowned online marketing expert and educator
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Pat Flynn
The leaders in the podcast space
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Jay Baer
Best Selling author of Talk Triggers, Hug Your Haters, and one of the best speakers
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Todd Herman
Coach to Elite pro athletes, leaders, and public figures
About the Show
The popular agency podcast has been around since 2014 and covers everything from starting a successful agency to selling your agency. What makes this podcast a must-listen is Swenk’s background as the founder and CEO of an agency for over a decade. Swenk brings his own experience to the table, besides the expertise of his guests. He mostly covers topics that help growing agencies scale to the next level.
YOUR HOST
JASON SWENK
Smart Agency Masterclass
Jason is a family man who also happens to have created a couple big marketing agencies, helped thousands of agency owners, and had a big agency exit too.
Is the Digital Agency Model Broken, or Are We Just Calling It the Wrong Thing? With Brent Weaver | Ep #920
Are you running an AI-first agency and telling yourself you have made the shift, when what you have actually done is give everyone on your team a faster version of the same job? After months of AI training, are you wondering why the team still works the same way it always did? Today’s featured guest currently serves a CEO of a white label agency serving over 400 partner agencies worldwide. He came into the role specifically to go deep on AI, and what he found was not an upgrade to the existing model. It was a fundamentally different model.
The Iron Man Model for Agency AI: Why the Suit Does Nothing Without the Operator with Kevin McGrew | Ep #918
Have you gotten mediocre output from AI and blamed the tool? Are you running a marketing team that is still activity-based when the clients who trust you need you to own outcomes? Today’s featured guest came up through the Navy, where he learned that calm in chaos comes from frameworks, not confidence. In this episode, Kevin walks through SMAC, the military-derived operating framework he uses with clients, employees, and his own agency. He also gets into the Iron Man model for AI usage, how he cut a two-day research process to eight minutes, and what his Red Lens tool does before any campaign goes out the door.
The Agency Incubator Model: How to Fund SaaS Products Through Clients Instead of Investors with David Carnes | Ep #904
Are you running multiple things at once and wondering why none of them are moving as fast as they should? Are you still the one every project, every client, and every decision routes through, no matter how many people you have on your team?
Over nearly three decades, today’s featured guest didn’t just run an agency. He turned it into an incubator, spinning up multiple SaaS companies, a mobile app, and an accessibility tool, all funded and validated through a model most founders have never tried. In this episode, he’ll get into how he built products without outside investors, why the bottleneck is always at the top of the bottle, and what it actually took to step out of the operator seat after 28 years in it.
AI Is Reshaping Agencies. Staying Average Will Kill Yours with Brian Hansen | Ep #891
Artificial intelligence is rapidly changing how agencies operate. However, the real shift isn’t just about tools. It’s about structure, mindset, and leadership.
Today’s featured guest has taken the time to explore how agencies are adapting to AI, why many agencies will struggle to survive the shift, and how founders must evolve alongside the technology.
From building AI-native workflows to maintaining authentic brand connections in an automated world, the conversation highlights a central theme: agencies that stay curious and adaptable will win. Those that cling to “the way we’ve always done it” won’t.
How Forward-Thinking Agencies Win with SEO, GEO, & LLMs with Terry Zelen | Ep #886
AI is either the end of agencies… or the biggest opportunity we’ve had since the internet. Most agree it’s the second one.
Agencies that are winning right now are combining SEO, GEO, AEO, and LLM optimization so they show up everywhere decisions are being made. They’re using AI to increase leverage, not replace thinking. And they’re restructuring their teams around strategy, insight, and proprietary data instead of repetitive task work.
Today’s featured guest will discuss why SEO isn’t dead (it just grew up), the biggest mistake agencies are making with AI, how to 10x output without adding headcount, and why your unique data is the unfair advantage that separates you from every other agency prompting ChatGPT and hoping for magic.
Can AI Help Your Agency Win Fortune 10 Clients Instead of Replacing Your Team? With Gilad Bechar | Ep #884
Most agencies are asking the wrong question about AI.
They’re asking, “How many people can this replace?” when the better question is, “What could my team do if all the busywork disappeared?”
Today’s featured guest unpacks how he’s embedded AI across a 12-year-old agency, why it’s increased hiring instead of reducing it, and what it actually takes to make AI stick culturally, not just technically.
Is AI Bad for SEO Agencies or Their Biggest Advantage? With David Arato | Ep #882
AI didn’t wipe out SEO; it just exposed who was phoning it in. While some agencies are panicking about AI “stealing their jobs” or racing to the bottom on price, the smart ones are quietly using it to get sharper, more profitable, and more strategic. Today’s featured guest has been in the SEO trenches for 15+ years and runs an agency producing millions of words of content every month.
He’ll break down his perspective on what’s actually happening right now, why generic AI content is worthless, how agencies should really be pricing in an AI world, and why this shift is an opportunity to move up-market instead of becoming a commodity. If you run an agency and don’t want to be replaced by a robot (or undercut by one), this conversation is for you.
Can You Trust AI With Your Marketing Data or Is It Lying to You? With Scott Desgrosseilliers | Ep #875
Are you feeding your data into AI and assuming the insights it gives you are accurate? What if those confident-sounding answers are quietly steering you in the wrong direction?
More agency owners are turning to AI to analyze and interpret performance data, and for good reason. Used correctly, it can save massive amounts of time and move teams beyond using AI to crank out blog posts, ads, or emails faster. But when it comes to attribution, performance analysis, and real decision-making, AI has a dangerous flaw: it’s often wrong with absolute confidence.
Today’s featured guest understands where most agencies go wrong with AI-driven data analysis. He’ll break down why large language models frequently misinterpret marketing data, how flawed inputs and assumptions lead to misleading insights, and what it actually takes to get reliable answers from AI without burning budget or making bad strategic calls.
If AI Can Do the Work Faster, What Should Agencies Be Selling? With Eric Weidner | Ep #871
If AI can now write, design, and build faster than your team, what does a profitable agency actually sell next? Most agency owners have experienced a weird mix of excitement and anxiety about AI. On the surface, it feels like everything is changing overnight, including websites, content, search, development, and even how clients perceive value. Underneath that panic, though, there’s a calmer truth: the fundamentals of running a great agency haven’t changed at all. The tools have.
Today’s featured guest talks candidly about where AI actually helps agencies, where it’s wildly overhyped, and why agency owners who focus on systems, relationships, and leverage will win while everyone else burns out chasing shiny tools.
SEO Is Over. AEO Is Here: How Agencies Stay Visible When AI Chooses the Answers with Kasim Aslam | Ep #863
As a user, do you still use search engines or have completely defaulted to AI? How will this shift reshape the agency world? How will ads work when people are only getting the one answer they need? Most agency owners are still treating SEO like it’s 2012 — optimizing keywords, buying backlinks, and praying to the Google gods. But search has already changed.
People are asking AI for answers, not Googling for links. And if you want your agency or your personal brand to stay visible in this new era, the rules are completely different. Today’s featured guest will unpack the shift from SEO to AEO and why most businesses are invisible to AI without even realizing it.