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 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.
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.
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.
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.
What 2025 Taught Us: Top Agency Owner Interviews of the Year | Ep # 867
What a year. I sat down with over 100 incredible agency owners and the insights were unreal. From million-dollar breakthroughs to hard-earned lessons, these founders brought the real talk. In this special year-end episode, I’m sharing the top 5 interviews that stood out most.
To everyone who tuned in, shared an episode, or took action from something they heard—thank you. This show is for you, and because of you.
Here’s to a smarter, stronger, more scalable 2026.
Why Clients Keep Asking for Deliverables and What They Actually Need with Niecolas Biggi | Ep #861
Why do clients keep asking for deliverables they don’t actually need? How to get them to focus on the outcome instead of the task list? Every agency owner has had clients show up asking for a website, SEO, or a million social posts, when what they actually need is something much deeper: more leads, more profit, more time back, and a business they’re proud of again.
Today’s featured guest broke down how he built an 11-year-old shop that delivers exactly that. We dig into why small businesses really hire agencies, why “selling SEO” is a trap, and how simplifying complex work can make your agency more profitable, more trusted, and a hell of a lot easier to run.
Why AI-Enhanced Agencies Are Outpacing AI-First Pretenders with Michael Davern | Ep #858
AI is changing the agency landscape faster than most owners can keep up with. Tools are popping up daily, clients are asking if rates should drop, and your team is either fired up or freaked out. Today’s featured guest talks about what it takes to build an agency that thrives in a world obsessed with shiny new tech, where the edge is not more tools. It is better leadership, human connection, and an incubator mindset that keeps them ahead without drowning in the noise.
The Secret to Surviving AI: Why Soft Skills and Real Partnerships Always Win with Ben Childs| Ep #856
If you’re one of the many owners concerned that AI will end the agency model, what are you doing to stay relevant? How are you building lasting relationships that help clients see your value beyond executing tasks? Artificial intelligence, automation, and enterprise-level change have everyone in the agency world wondering what’s next. However, agencies have managed to stay relevant with past technological disruptions and the answer has always been: you need to adapt.
Today’s featured guest has scaled his business through seven business iterations for over fourteen years by being willing to adapt to change, and the AI era is no exception. He’ll unpack how agencies can stay relevant when technology, data, and client expectations are evolving faster than ever and touch on the importance of partnership-based client relationships, and why soft skills—not just smart systems—will be the real differentiator in the next decade.
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.
