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.
What AI Cannot Replicate in Influencer Marketing with Jeanette Okwu | Ep #916
Are you trying to sell a service so specialized that closing new clients feels like it can only come from you? What do you think about how AI is reshaping your industry and where that leaves the human at the center of it? Today’s featured guest came up through luxury automotive and built a niche precise enough that she can spot from two miles away when someone writing about influencer marketing has never actually run a campaign. In this episode, she’ll discuss what makes international influencer work fundamentally different from domestic campaigns and what AI-generated influencers mean for an industry built on human authenticity.
Why Most Agency Acquisitions Fall Apart (And What Buyers Actually Want) with Azim Nagree | Ep #896
Why are more agencies selling right now? If this trend has made you think about selling, is it because the market is hot… or because you’ve outgrown your role?
If you’re seriously thinking about selling your business, you should know that it’ll ultimately come down to whether it can survive without you, and whether you want it to.
Today’s featured guest breaks down what’s really driving the surge in agency acquisitions right now. He goes beyond surface-level multiples and unpacks what buyers actually look for, why most founders sabotage deals during diligence, and how AI is quietly separating premium agencies from the rest.
This conversation will challenge how you think about growth, ownership, and your role in the business.
Burned Out Agency Owner to AI Architect: The Real Shift Founders Must Make With Austin Armstrong | Ep #888
How are you protecting yourself from the real risk of owner burnout?
Agency owners often burn out because they built a business that depends entirely on them.
Today’s featured guest is a former agency owner turned AI SaaS founder. He'll unpack what really caused his agency collapse, what he learned from it, and how he rebuilt from a completely different role.
Want to Sell Your Agency? Start by Firing Yourself with Taylor McMaster | Ep #879
If you want to sell your agency one day, you can’t be the hero in every lane. Taylor built Dot & Co with an exit in mind from year one, systematically removing herself from fulfillment, people management, and eventually sales, so the business could run (and grow) without her. The result: a clean acquisition, a happy team, and zero identity crisis on the other side.