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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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
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Dan Martell
Author of Buy Back Your Time. Influential coach in SaaS startups.
Why Project-Based Agencies Feel Profitable But Aren’t Sustainable with Michael Boychuk | Ep #887
Are you winning exciting projects but still feeling exhausted at the end of every quarter? Does your agency look successful from the outside, yet feel fragile or chaotic behind the scenes?
For most agency owners, the real struggle isn’t creativity. It’s sustainability. Landing big projects isn’t usually the hardest part. The real challenge begins after the win, when you have to deliver consistently, protect your margins, manage your team, and somehow still have the energy to lead.
How to Raise Your Agency Prices From $2,500 to $45,000/Month (Without Changing Deliverables) With Eli Rubel | Ep #885
Most agency owners don’t fail because they’re bad at delivery.
They fail because they underprice, overcomplicate, and build businesses that trap them instead of freeing them.
Today’s featured guest unpacks the type of life he envisioned when he set out to start an agency, it took to scale from charging $2,500 a month to closing $45,000/month retainers, surviving a market collapse, and making the counterintuitive decision to split one agency into two.
Built for Freedom. How to Create a Lifestyle Agency That Doesn’t Burn You Out with Marissa Rosen | Ep #883
Most agency owners start out chasing freedom and then wake up one day realizing they’ve built a job they can’t escape. Today’s featured guest will unpack what it actually looks like to build a lifestyle-first agency that protects your time, adapts to AI, and still pays the bills without burning you out. She has run a small profitable agency for over a decade without a bloated team, nonstop chaos, or ego-driven “scale at all costs” thinking, and she breaks down how designing your agency backward from your life (not an exit slide) changes everything.
Stop Building a Job: How to Build an Agency That Supports Your Life with Brian Franks | Ep #881
Most agencies are one bad month, or one health scare, away from chaos. In this episode, Brian Franks shares how his agency survived a sudden medical emergency because it was built on trust, relationships, and the right level of involvement (not bloated systems or massive teams). If your agency can’t run without you, this conversation will hit close to home.
Surviving a 70% Loss In Agency Revenue. From Panic to Purpose with Melany Robinson | Ep #880
When Melanie Robinson lost 70% of her agency’s revenue overnight during COVID, she didn’t just “cut costs.” She rebuilt her team around trust, ownership, and shared sacrifice and learned why keeping C players is one of the most expensive mistakes agency owners make. This episode is a masterclass in leadership, culture, and making hard decisions without losing your soul.
#1 Overlooked Exit Strategy: Selling Your Agency to a Team Member with Natalie Henley | Ep #878
If you're an agency owner fantasizing about walking away with a payout and your legacy intact but dread the PE sharks or culture-killing acquirers, this is your playbook.
Natalie Henley didn’t just survive buying out her boss. She turned it into the best thing that ever happened to her and her agency.
Pricing Should Scare You: How to Stop Clients from Undervaluing Your Agency’s Work with Alicia Disantis | Ep #877
Do you feel underpaid, misunderstood, or stuck explaining why your work costs what it costs? Most agency owners don’t wake up one day and decide, “You know what sounds fun? Running an agency.” They stumble into it, usually because the job market fails them.
That’s exactly how today’s featured guest got her start. In this episode, she’ll unpack her how slowly building her confidence as she gained more experienced changed her perspective on pricing and why most “thought leadership” content does more harm than good.
From Burnout to Boundaries. Designing an Agency That Energizes You with Ingrid Schneider | Ep #876
Do you feel you’re giving everything to your agency and only getting exhaustion as a result? Agencies grow best when they’re built around clarity, empathy, and self-awareness. Whether it’s pricing, boundaries, team management, or AI, the common thread is intention. Today’s featured guest understands that you don’t need to hustle harder. You need to design smarter, around who you are, how you work best, and what kind of business you actually want to run.
She’ll share her perspective on agency growth, self-awareness, leadership, and how AI should actually be used inside a modern agency and provide a real look at what it takes to build an agency that’s profitable, human, and sustainable without losing yourself in the process.
Why Most Agencies Sound the Same and How Yours Can Be Different with David Brier | Ep #874
Most agencies don’t have a marketing problem. They have a sameness problem.
Their websites, their services, their “award-winning team” language. It’s all the same. They even have the same promises that sound impressive but mean absolutely nothing to a prospect who’s heard it 50 times this week.
Today’s featured guest has a pretty good idea of why agencies are blending into the background and how the ones that win are doing the opposite. He’ll get into differentiation, AI, pricing confidence, RFPs, and why playing it safe is the fastest way to disappear.
David Brier is the the branding expert CEOs call when their marketing hits a wall. He calls himself “rehab for brands” to help get them profitable.
How to Adapt When Your Agency Niche Stops Working with Laryssa Wirstiuk | Ep #872
Running an agency today looks nothing like it did even a few years ago. What used to work: SEO-driven inbound leads, tight vertical niches, and predictable platforms, has shifted fast.
Today’s featured guest has learned to adapt to these changes and went from having a clear and defined niche to letting clients’ needs guide the next steps for her business. She’ll talk about navigating those changes, evolving your positioning, and deciding whether you’re actually willing to do what adaptation requires.
Laryssa Wirstiuk is the owner of Joy Joya, a boutique email and SMS marketing agency that serves women-focused, product-based e-commerce brands. With more than 15 years in marketing and over a decade running her own agency, Laryssa has lived through multiple shifts in platforms, buyer behavior, and agency models.
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.
