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.
How to Build an Agency That Doesn’t Depend on You with Ted Harrison | Ep #897
Are you struggling to scale your agency or are you unknowingly the thing holding it back?
At what point does your growth stop being a systems problem and start becoming a leadership one?
Today’s guest shares what it to break through those ceilings.
After scaling quickly off the back of a strong network, he made the critical decision to systemize everything before growth turned him into the bottleneck. By leveraging documentation in a smart, intentional way, he built a foundation that allowed the agency to grow without everything running through him.
In this conversation, he unpacks the realities of working with enterprise clients, the often uncomfortable shift from operator to CEO, and why—despite all the noise, AI is actually increasing the need for human judgment, taste, and leadership, not replacing 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 to Keep an Agency Partnership from Blowing Up with Andy Crestodina | Ep #865
What do you do when a business partnership fails? Do you try to engineer the perfect agreement so the exit is clean, or focus on alignment long before anyone signs anything? The truth is, most agency partnerships fail because owners rush into them without slowing down to see the cracks. Preparing for the worst is not pessimistic. It is how you protect the business you are trying to build.
Why Agency Leaders Should Coach, Not Manage with Kriston Sellier | Ep #844
What do you do when your career takes an unexpected left turn? And how do you know when it’s time to stop hustling like a freelancer and start leading like a CEO? Today’s featured guest found herself in that situation and made the bold choice to go from career misstep to becoming an agency owner. She'll dive into what it really takes to go from a one-woman shop in a basement with dial-up internet to leading a team with vision, systems, and staying power. From handwritten letters that landed a 15% close rate, to breaking free from client dependency, to leveraging AI without losing the human touch, she shares the hard-earned lessons every agency owner needs to hear.
Why Do Agency Owners Feel Trapped in Their Own Business? And How To Break Free with Dan Fisher | Ep #837
Ever feel like running your agency is just one long grind of “good enough” projects, endless deadlines, and late-night work sessions? Most agency owners start out chasing freedom, only to find themselves trapped by clients, culture struggles, and their own workaholic habits. Today’s featured guest is certainly familiar with this cycle, so how was he able to build a business that works for him instead of the other way around? By focusing on clarity, culture, and constant evolution.
How Do You Scale Your Agency Without Being the Bottleneck? With Kevin Miller | Ep #823
Are you a CEO still caught in the weeds of day-to-day operations? If so, you're not building a truly scalable business. Today’s episode is here to help you shift that mindset. Our featured guest is a CEO who has grown his agency by focusing on smart leadership—prioritizing culture, developing strong management structures, and intentionally making himself less essential to every meeting.
Like many agency owners, he once believed he had to outwork everyone to prove his worth. But over time, he discovered that the agency performs better when he leads with vision instead of constant presence and that CEOs don’t need to be grinding to be effective. In this conversation, he shares how he came to that realization, what it’s meant for his agency’s growth and client success, how he built a trusted A-team, and more.
How to Step Out of Day-to-Day Client Work Without Breaking the Agency with Brent Weaver | Ep #822
Are you still you agency’s “product”? Maybe you’ve thought about stepping back from the day-to-day but feel terrified you’ll break what’s working. Out featured guest is the newly appointed CEO of E2M Solutions and he shares what it’s been like going from being the main “product” at an agency he built and grew, to stepping in to run a 300-person white-label agency.
From losing the fear of breaking what already worked to accepting it’s better if he’s usually not in client call, he shares how he’s become comfortable with his new role: coaching the core leadership team, amplifying culture, and making sure hundreds of projects and thousands of tasks get executed well. Brent’s journey is packed with lessons on what real leadership looks like when you’re ready to grow.
Building a $30M Agency with the Right KPIs, AI Hacks & Client Moves with Chris Dreyer | Ep #808
Ever wonder what separates a $1M agency from a $30M agency? It’s not just better SEO or more employees. It’s how you run the business behind the scenes. We sat down with today’s featured guest to dig into what’s powered his insane growth from barely crossing seven figures back when we first met… to now staring down $35–40 million in pure service revenue and got some great advice on the evolution of his role as CEO, his new-found love for podcasting, and all kind of golden nuggets for agency urrently in the “no man’s land”.
Growing the Right Agency Team to Win Back Your Time with Jacob Baadsgaard | Ep #782
Do you have the right team in place to remove yourself from fulfillment and sales? What about a partner that may no longer be aligned with the agency’s vision or culture? Today’s featured guest figured out a perfect niche for his abilities in data analytics and went on to create his agency. Along the road, he was met with unexpected challenges, like finding out the right employees are not necessarily the ones with the most expertise, ending partnerships that turned out to be fundamentally misaligned, and the best way to ensure he’s always working with his ideal audience. Learn about the lessons he’s learned with each bump on the road, and the most important lesson about losing clients to a price increase.
Make Better Decisions for Your Agency with George Arabian | Ep #776
Does your emotional attachment to your agency makes it difficult to make growth decisions? When you remove emotion from the mix and make decisions objectively, your realize more growth. After 21 years of running his business, today’s guest realized he needed emotional distance and accomplished this by creating an alter ego who could assess the agency from an impartial point of view. This experiment proved remarkably successful. He’s come to realize his true role in the agency and that much of it means working for his team, rather than the other way around.
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.
