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.
The CEO Trap: Why Founders Either Check Out or Can't Let Go with Matt Nelson | Ep #899
Does growth break agencies or does it expose underlying issues? It’s a common thing. Even with momentum, scrappy decisions, loose roles, and unspoken agreements eventually become the very thing that holds the business back. And by the time it’s visible, it’s no longer a small fix. It’s structural.
Today’s featured guest pulls back the curtain on that transition.
The Invisible Ceiling Most Agency Owners Never See Coming with Brandon Harrar | Ep #898
What if growth isn’t actually about more clients, more hires, or even more revenue? What if the very thing driving your success right now is also the reason you’ll eventually stall?
Agency owners tend to chase the usual milestones: bigger deals, a growing team, rising top-line numbers. And for a while, that works. But there’s a breaking point most founders don’t see coming when the business can’t grow any further because everything still runs through them.
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.
How to Build the Leadership Layer Your Agency Needs to Scale with Brandon Rost | Ep #855
Is your agency growing fast but still running without the right structure or leadership team to sustain that growth? If too many people are reporting directly to you, it’s a clear sign you’ve outgrown your current setup. But building that next layer of leadership isn’t as simple as promoting your top performers. Without a clear strategy, those well-intentioned promotions can backfire, causing confusion, turnover, and setbacks that stall your agency’s momentum.
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.