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 10 years old and covers everything from starting a successful agency to selling your agency.

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We host some of the smartest minds in business…

Building The Right Team: Taking Advantage of The Largest Untapped Talent Pool with Sara Jensen | Ep #694
Scale Your Agency Jason Swenk Scale Your Agency Jason Swenk

Building The Right Team: Taking Advantage of The Largest Untapped Talent Pool with Sara Jensen | Ep #694

Is your agency work affecting your family life? Have you created the necessary boundaries in order to let go and enjoy life while also grow your agency? Today’s guest thought she’d always be a solopreneur but as her workload mounted, she realized she needed reinforcements to maintain her level of service and keep clients coming back. Getting the right talent to balance all that was not easy, but she relied on a large untapped talent pool: moms looking to keep their careers thriving while raising their families. Join the conversation as Sarah discusses her experiences in scaling her business and balancing motherhood with a creative career.

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Losing Money as a Business Plan? Forging Long-Term Client Relationships with Kim Lawton | Ep #693
Scale Your Agency Jason Swenk Scale Your Agency Jason Swenk

Losing Money as a Business Plan? Forging Long-Term Client Relationships with Kim Lawton | Ep #693

Do you prioritize new clients or building lasting relationships? Would you be willing to lose money on a client in order to build a long-lasting relationship? Today’s guest has built two successful agencies banking on the power of planning for the long term instead of focusing just on the numbers. She’ll explain how she and her partner formed their vision of an agency where people could do their best work, clients felt heard, and it would all translate into business. Tune in to learn all about the visionary approach that led her and her partner to success.

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Waze Co-Founder, Uri Levine, Falling in Love With The Problem Not the Solution | Ep #691
Selling Your Agency Jason Swenk Selling Your Agency Jason Swenk

Waze Co-Founder, Uri Levine, Falling in Love With The Problem Not the Solution | Ep #691

What would you do if you sold your agency tomorrow? Are you clear enough on your purpose that you could keep on creating value? Today’s guest is the founder or a beloved app that changed the way people drive nowadays. He eventually sold that company but hasn’t stopped looking for ways to improve people’s lives through his startups. He’ll share what he’s learned from failure, why he was out of the company as soon as he sold, and why you should always look to understand users to create real value. Tune in to learn valuable insights into building successful startups.

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Pat Flynn on Whether You Should Start a Podcast in 2024. Insights from Smart Passive Income Podcast Host | Ep #689
Scale Your Agency Jason Swenk Scale Your Agency Jason Swenk

Pat Flynn on Whether You Should Start a Podcast in 2024. Insights from Smart Passive Income Podcast Host | Ep #689

Is the fear of failure holding you back from taking the first steps to establish your brand? Are you hesitating to start a podcast because you believe it would only be worthwhile if it garners millions of downloads? Our guest today is a true trailblazer in the podcast industry, having successfully built a thriving agency around his initial decision to create a show dedicated to entrepreneurs. Tune in for an insightful conversation on the power of pushing boundaries and the value of trying new things in the ever-evolving world of podcasting and entrepreneurship.

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Let Go to Grow: Hire the Right People & Achieve Work-Life Balance with Brendan Chard | Ep #686
Scale Your Agency Jason Swenk Scale Your Agency Jason Swenk

Let Go to Grow: Hire the Right People & Achieve Work-Life Balance with Brendan Chard | Ep #686

Do you find it challenging to carve out your niche or turn away less-than-ideal prospects, fearing missed opportunities? Today’s guest started his agency as a college student and pivoted to digital services as the internet was barely becoming a thing. One of the biggest shifts and struggles in his journey has been overcoming the fear of tuning down revenue and letting go of the notion that his way was the only approach clients would respond to. Tune in to learn valuable insights on navigating the agency landscape, committing to a niche, and maintaining a thriving business while prioritizing well-being.

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Knowing When to Let Go is the Key to Agency Growth with Suken Shah | Ep #684
Scale Your Agency Jason Swenk Scale Your Agency Jason Swenk

Knowing When to Let Go is the Key to Agency Growth with Suken Shah | Ep #684

Would you say your agency is like your baby? Could you be so emotionally attached to your business that you may be stifling its growth? Today’s guest will share his experience growing an agency and the turning points that allowed him to make real progress in its growth. From learning to communicate his agency's vision in a way that inspired buy-in to the surprising struggle of carving out space for a personal life amidst the chaos of entrepreneurship, his biggest challenge was letting go of the belief that he alone was the driving force behind its success. Tune in to learn his valuable lessons and tips for agency success.

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How Strategy Can SAVE Small Businesses with Jimmy Newson | Ep #681
Scale Your Agency Jason Swenk Scale Your Agency Jason Swenk

How Strategy Can SAVE Small Businesses with Jimmy Newson | Ep #681

When did you last take a step back to evaluate whether your agency's strategy is truly aligned with your core mission and values? Is your team buying into the overall vision? Are they motivated and understand their role in the overall vision? If not, it’s time you start integrating vision and strategy for more effective results. Today’s guest has set himself the mission of saving small businesses from failure by teaching them how to combine their vision with effective strategy. He thinks agency owners should be thinking about strategy a lot sooner to avoid moving blindly with no particular purpose in sight. Tune in to learn how having a clear vision statement can motivate your team and drive growth.

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Maximize Your Agency’s CRM for World-Class Relationship Building with Steve Holm | Ep #680
Scale Your Agency Jason Swenk Scale Your Agency Jason Swenk

Maximize Your Agency’s CRM for World-Class Relationship Building with Steve Holm | Ep #680

Is your agency leveraging CRMs to tailor personalized client experiences and nurture long-term client relationships? Are you tracking customer interactions from first message to delivery? In the dynamic world of agency-client interactions, CRM tools play a pivotal role in streamlining operations and enhancing customer experiences. Today’s guest has made customer satisfaction his focus even since his start as a graphic designer and now offers a CRM system designed specifically with agencies in mind. Tune in to learn valuable insights on client management and relationship-building strategies for agencies.

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Building a ‘Sellable’ Agency By Branding Your Processes with John Warrillow | Ep #678
Selling Your Agency Jason Swenk Selling Your Agency Jason Swenk

Building a ‘Sellable’ Agency By Branding Your Processes with John Warrillow | Ep #678

Gary Vaynerchuk and Steve Jobs both became the face of their brand, but could this marketing strategy cost you when it’s time to sell your agency? How can you avoid becoming the brand to build a ‘sellable’ agency? Today’s guest is an entrepreneur who has successfully started and sold four businesses. He discusses the value of personal brands in relation to company success and delves into the challenges faced by service companies in building assets compared to tech or SaaS startups. Tune in to learn about common mistakes made by agency owners when considering selling their businesses and the pitfalls of an obsession with scale.

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How Alex Rossman 8xed his Agency in 2 Years | Ep #677
Scale Your Agency Jason Swenk Scale Your Agency Jason Swenk

How Alex Rossman 8xed his Agency in 2 Years | Ep #677

Do you have enough of an appetite for risk to trigger exponential agency growth? Have you considered strategic partnerships as a growth strategy? Today’s guest changed the music scene for entrepreneurship and managed to grow his agency from $2 million to $16 million in just two years. How’d he do it? After getting past common initial struggles like developing sales and hiring the right people, he focused on strategic partnerships and found the right formula to scale his marketing agency. Tune in to learn from his incredible growth story and strategic approach to agency success.

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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.