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.
We host some of the smartest minds in business…
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Seth Godin
Best selling Author of Purple Cow, This is Marketing, Linchpin, Permission Marketing
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Gino Wickman
The creator of the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS) and author of Traction.
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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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Jay Baer
Best Selling author of Talk Triggers, Hug Your Haters, and one of the best speakers
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Pat Flynn
The leaders in the podcast space
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Joey Coleman
Recognized for his expertise in customer retention & enhancing client loyalty
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Neil Patel
Founder of CrazyEgg, Kissmetrics, and other multimillion dollar companies
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Dan Martell
Author of Buy Back Your Time. Influential coach in SaaS startups.
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Todd Herman
Coach to Elite pro athletes, leaders, and public figures
Enhancing Client Connections and Evolving Your Personal Brand with Jason Barnard | Ep #698
Are you debating the value of building your brand? Perhaps you're wary of the effort needed to establish your identity, only to feel confined to your business once you become the face of the agency. Our guest today specializes in helping clients effectively brand themselves and elevate their agencies.
He understands the common fears and reservations surrounding personal branding and offers valuable insights into its benefits. Above all, he wants entrepreneurs to understand that personal brands should evolve continually, ensuring that they don't limit your growth. Tune in for expert advice on cultivating trust and credibility in the industry through consistent branding efforts.
Selling Strategy and Building Long-Term Client Relationships with Molly Baker | Ep #697
Are you striving to refine your selling strategy and cultivate enduring client relationships that stand the test of time? How can you elevate your approach to not just closing deals but fostering long-term partnerships that drive mutual growth and success? Today's guest started her business with the idea of embodying a strategic dance of trust, value creation, and genuine connection. Tune in to learn how leading with strategy can lead to success in the agency world.
Why Firing Their Biggest Client was the BEST Decision with Miles Marmo | Ep #696
Do you treat your team like employees or like people? Every agency owner should recognize the immense value of their team and ensure they are treated with the utmost respect. Our guest today faced challenging times during the pandemic when they had to terminate their agency's largest client to prevent the team from burning out entirely. It was a difficult decision, but it ultimately demonstrated how much he valued his employees. Tune in to discover how he faced the loss of a big client to choose the team that was making his dream a reality and how celebrating the small wins helps keep everyone sane and focused.
Raising the Standards: The Importance of SOPs with Robert Brill | Ep #695
Are you prepared to elevate your agency team and pave the path to success? As your agency expands, the need to grow your team becomes inevitable, and having standard operating procedures (SOPs) in place beforehand can save you a lot of headaches.
Today’s guest went through a rapid growth phase with his agency and found he was ill-prepared to delegate responsibilities and clearly define tasks. As a result, he lost employees and clients but has since learned that SOPs should be in place before hiring and that a good SOP takes him out of the process as quickly as possible. Tune in to gain valuable insights on navigating the complexities of scaling an agency effectively.
Build the Confidence and Agency Team Needed to Succeed with Torey Azure | Ep #687
Do you trust yourself to lead your agency to success? Does your team follow your lead on the decisions you make to get there? Today’s agency owner has successfully grown his business over the years, gaining more and more trust in his decisions as he accumulated more experience. Although he doesn’t regret past decisions, he realizes he could have retained a majority stake in his company and made it on his own had he trusted himself like he does now. Tune in to learn about his experience in growing his agency and how he built the confidence to succeed.
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.
Evolving Your Content Strategy to Adapt and Innovate Using AI with Scott Gillum | Ep #683
As an agency owner, have you explored the possibilities of content creation? Has it proven effective in building an audience or generating leads? Today’s guest is an agency owner who has been writing books and collaborating with different publications for years. However, he finds that, for marketers, content doesn’t really bring a lot of leads. For him, it’s all about the credibility and trust you build through that content. He’ll discuss why content creation nowadays is all about credibility and learning to adapt to leverage new tools. He’ll also share why he chose an agency model that veered away from the more common use of RFPs and how it helped him tap into a well of talent waiting to find a meaningful job. Tune in to hear his thoughts regarding RFPs vs, referrals and the tools you should be leveraging in your content creation.
Balancing Motherhood and Being an Agency CEO with Audra Brehm | Ep #679
How do you prioritize between family time and business responsibilities as an entrepreneur and parent? How is that balancing act working out for you? Being an agency owners and a parent can be a bit of a mess and there’s no magic formula to balancing parenthood and being an agency CEO. For parents, this means a lot of guilt about not spending enough quality time with your kids or not being 100% focused during family hours. Today’s guest started her entrepreneurship journey while eight months pregnant and has been on a constant learning journey ever since. She’ll share some of the boundaries she’s learned to uphold to protect her family and rest time and why hiring was a daunting but key step towards improving both her personal and business life.
How Matt Shields Built A $400K/mo SMMA | Ep #673
Are you looking for motivation to get your agency off the ground? How has your client acquisition strategy evolved since you started? Have you tried building client communities to foster a competitive spirit that will lead to client wins? Today’s guest is a young entrepreneur who turned to marketing as a teen knowing college just wasn’t for him. He focused on learning and building a solid base and now has an agency getting close to 500K in revenue and has purchased and is working on growing another two agencies. He and his partner understand their strengths lie on getting businesses off the ground and recognizing potential for growth in partnerships. However, they’re still figuring out how to scale to eight figures. Tune in to learn from his inspiring journey and gain insights for your own agency growth.
How to Stand Out on LinkedIn with Nicole Osborne | Ep #672
Do you find it hard to stand out on LinkedIn? Have you tried making connections there only to feel bombarded by spam? Our guest today is here to rescue your LinkedIn presence from obscurity. She specializes in coaching agency owners to transform their profiles into irresistible client magnets. During this chat, she’ll go over some of the most common misconceptions about LinkedIn, her concept of writing a “love letter” to your target audience, and why trying to be overly professional won’t work on this platform. Tune in to learn how to make the most of LinkedIn and differentiate yourself in this crowded digital platform.
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.
