Featuring: Sam Shepler, StorySnap In episode 157, I sit down with Sam Shepler, founder and CEO of StorySnap, the holding company behind Testimonial Hero and Product Type. Sam has spent over a decade building B2B video agencies, growing largely through strong operations and strategic acquisitions to a team of more than 50. We get into why Sam has never chased retainers, even though the B2B video world often pressures agencies to convert project work into recurring revenue. He walks through the real math behind lifetime value versus monthly billing, why unpredictability isn't something to be cured, and how his acquisition strategy is built around adding capability rather than just adding revenue. Sam also breaks down the gross margin mistakes he sees in nearly every agency P&L he reviews, and why he considers 60% the new 50% in an AI-driven world. Agency owners will walk away rethinking how they calculate gross margin, why cash accounting hides the truth about project-based businesses, and why pulling revenue forward matters more than the comfort of predictable monthly billing. Key Bytes • Sam doesn't chase retainers in video production because he believes lifetime value, not billing predictability, is the metric that matters. • Unpredictability isn't a problem to solve. For Sam, feast or famine is usually a symptom of insufficient lead flow, which is a marketing problem, not a billing problem. • Sam's best acquisitions have added new capabilities, not just new revenue. StorySnap acquired case study specialists to expand from video into written testimonials. • He calls it "co-opetition": your competitors are often your best referral partners, your best acquisition targets, or your eventual buyers. • A healthy agency needs at least 50% gross margin, calculated in a vacuum. Sam says 60% is the new 50% in the AI era. • In 16-plus agency P&Ls he's reviewed, not one had gross margin calculated correctly. Most owners confuse it with net margin. • Sam pulls revenue forward whenever possible, even quarterly in advance, because liquidating customer acquisition cost quickly lets him keep reinvesting in marketing. • Cash accounting tells you nothing about how a project-based agency is actually performing. Sam runs StorySnap on accrual to see the real picture. Chapters 00:00 Welcome and introducing Sam Shepler 01:07 From film school to first agency: the 2012 origin story 03:53 Turning an acquihire into an acquisition strategy 08:03 Why Sam never forced video production into a retainer model 12:11 Why founders get stuck at the $1-3M plateau, and how Sam got out of the day-to-day 18:03 The 50% gross margin rule, and why 60 is the new 50 20:30 What StorySnap looks for when vetting acquisitions 28:34 The gross margin mistake almost every agency P&L gets wrong 35:24 Cash vs. accrual accounting, and pulling revenue forward 39:42 Rapid fire: books, watches, and Sam's best business advice Sam Shepler is the founder and CEO of Storysnap.com, a holding company that owns Testimonial Hero and Product Hype. A longtime agency entrepreneur, Sam has been building and operating agencies since 2012, with deep expertise in the B2B video marketing space. He has grown primarily through a combination of strong operations and strategic M&A, acquiring multiple agencies to scale Testimonial Hero before launching his second agency, Product Hype, and bringing both under the Storysnap umbrella. Today, Sam leads a team of 50+ and is focused on starting, scaling, and acquiring agencies in the B2B content and creative space. He’s passionate about entrepreneurship, B2B marketing, and helping agency founders build businesses that are both highly profitable and operationally independent — with strong leadership teams that don’t rely entirely on the founder. Contact Sam on the StorySnap website, the Testimonial Hero website, or on LinkedIn.

Featuring: Zack Rosenberg, Qortex In episode 156, I sit down with Zack Rosenberg, founder and CEO of Cortex, a video intelligence company decoding the connection between what people watch and what they actually buy. We get into how Zack discovered that buying intent shows up in the content people watch long before it ever reaches a search bar, why nearly 90% of video content is miscategorized, and why he's betting on "data-supported" creative over blind data-driven formulas. We also talk about what AI means for ad production costs, the future of agency workforces, and why smaller shops now have a real shot at business that used to belong exclusively to the hold-cos. If you've ever wondered whether your audience is telling you something your gut instincts haven't caught up to yet, this conversation will change how you think about targeting, creative, and where your next best client might already be looking. Key Bytes • Nike ads perform four times better in cooking content than in basketball content — proof that buying intent rarely follows the obvious audience. • Nearly 90% of video content is miscategorized, which means most "data-driven" targeting is built on garbage. • Buying intent starts long before the search bar — inspiration comes from the content people watch, not what they type into Google. • AI can be random, but it can't be creative — data should inform the work, not replace it. • The industry's obsession with "data-driven" thinking should give way to "data-supported" thinking, where human hunches still lead. • Cheaper AI-driven production doesn't shrink agency costs to zero — human costs are capped, but AI costs scale with every single use. • Smaller, nimble agencies now have a real shot at winning business that used to be locked up by the big hold-cos. • Relationships built through community outlast any single job or client. Chapters 00:00 Intro and welcome to Zack Rosenberg 01:46 The origin story of Cortex and the Nike-in-cooking-content discovery 03:46 Who Cortex actually serves: data teams, brands, and agencies 04:41 From small sports leagues to solving the mis-categorization problem 06:58 Why buying intent starts long before the search bar 08:41 Broad reach vs. micro-targeted creative, and AI-generated ad variations 10:52 Data-driven vs. data-supported, and why identical ads keep winning 16:20 What AI means for creative costs, agency workforce, and hold-cos 22:08 Building the Montclair Media Group community 27:08 Rapid-fire questions and closing thoughts Zack Rosenberg is the Founder & CEO of Qortex, an advanced video intelligence company helping brands identify intent based on what people watch. Qortex analyzes millions of videos to uncover real-time signals that connect content consumption to purchase behavior—powering smarter planning, activation, and performance across digital media. A lifelong entrepreneur from a family of founders, Zack is passionate about building enduring companies and shifting the advertising industry from audience assumptions to content intelligence. He also co-founded Montclair Media Group, a fast-growing community for marketers and founders in New Jersey. Contact Zack on LinkedIn or on their website.

Featuring: Jessica Rhodes, Interview Connections In episode 155, I sit down with Jessica Rhodes, founder of Interview Connections and the entrepreneur who launched the world's first podcast booking agency back in 2013—long before podcast guesting was on anyone's radar. Jessica shares how a door-to-door canvassing job and a virtual assistant gig for her dad turned into a company that's booked more than 50,000 interviews for over a thousand coaches and business owners. We get into her recent return to the CEO seat, why she eliminated the sales role entirely, and the uncomfortable truth that not everything in your agency needs to be scalable. For agency owners, this one is a practical look at guesting as a growth channel: how to pitch without sounding like AI spam, why being a guest beats launching your own show (at first), and how to turn a single interview into referrals, repurposed content, and the occasional short-cycle six-figure client. Key Bytes • The best pitches aren't scalable—AI blasts fill spots but burn bridges with the hosts worth knowing. • Podcast guesting moves buyers past price-comparison paralysis by letting them hear your story and personality. • Nobody else has your story, your values, or your personality—that's what makes you a category of one. • Be a guest for a few months before launching your own show; they're two different strategies with different payoffs. • The shortest sales cycle comes from listeners who show up already ready to hand over their money. • Not everything has to be scalable—know your goal and your timeline before you optimize for growth. • Get outside your own industry, and you'll be the only marketing agency on that HVAC or manufacturing podcast. • People hire agencies they're referred to, and podcast hosts make powerful referral partners. Chapters 00:00 Meet Jessica Rhodes and the first podcast booking agency 00:54 Right place, right time: from stay-at-home mom to founder 05:11 Stepping back into the CEO seat after eight years 07:34 Why she eliminated the sales role (and why not everything scales) 09:40 What makes a great podcast guest in the age of AI pitching 11:56 Turning guesting into education, authority, and new business 15:27 Own show vs. guesting: which to start with and why 19:32 Keeping a podcast fresh 12 years in 23:22 A final guesting strategy for agency owners 25:06 Rapid fire: ChatGPT, thriller novels, and "follow the money" Jessica Rhodes founded Interview Connections, the world’s first and leading podcast booking agency in 2013, back when no other agencies like it existed. Since its founding, Interview Connections has booked over 50,000 podcast interviews for over 1000 coaches! Jessica is passionate about helping coaches who feel like the best-kept secret grow their business online through genuine, human-to-human connection. The podcast interviews Jessica and her team have booked have helped their clients generate millions of dollars in sales, sell thousands of books, and transform countless lives. Contact Jessica on LinkedIn or on their website.

Featuring: Mike Bodkin, Talent Scout In episode 154, I sit down with Mike Bodkin, former co-founder of the full-service digital agency Giant Propeller and now co-founder of Talent Scout, a niche recruiting firm placing full-time remote senior marketing, creative, and operations talent across Latin America. Mike walks me through nearly a decade running Giant Propeller — the doubling years, the partnership friction that eventually led to a buyout, and the acquisition that landed in his lap and pulled him onto a corporate executive team. We get honest about what a real exit feels like, why post-acquisition integration is never a clean puzzle piece, and the lessons he'd carry into any future partnership. Then we dig into the near-shore talent model he built out of necessity and now offers to other agencies: why time-zone alignment changed everything, why he hires virtual specialists instead of VAs, and how AI-fluent talent is reshaping who actually gets hired. If you're thinking about your team, your exit, or both, this one's worth the listen. Key Bytes • If there's smoke, there's probably fire — Mike let partnership friction drag on far longer than it should have. • Once you stop doubling revenue, stagnation can quietly turn a great partnership into a tense one. • Most agencies aren't sellable, so the ones that exit usually built something worth buying on purpose. • Post-acquisition integration is never a perfect puzzle piece, and expecting friction is half the battle. • Networking isn't soft — a single relationship is what put Mike's entire exit in motion. • Time-zone alignment, not just cost savings, is what makes distributed teams actually feel cohesive. • Mike places virtual specialists, not VAs — senior people fully embedded into the agency like W-2 employees. • The most valuable hire isn't AI, it's the specialist who knows how to use AI to enhance real craft. Chapters 00:00 From blockbuster films to founding Giant Propeller 01:10 Becoming a full-service agency by saying yes 06:30 Partnership friction and the structured buyout 10:26 Hindsight lessons on choosing the right partner 12:14 What film production taught him about running teams 15:10 The exit that landed in his lap 17:44 The messy reality of post-acquisition integration 21:20 Discovering the Latin American talent model 26:00 Why he hires specialists, not VAs 27:25 AI-fluent talent and who actually gets hired now 34:59 Rapid-fire questions and closing thoughts Mike Bodkin is a former agency co-founder and operator who built and successfully exited Giant Propeller, a full-service digital marketing agency, after nearly a decade of growth. His journey included navigating a partner split and closing a last-minute acquisition just days before payroll would not have cleared — a defining moment in his entrepreneurial career. Prior to agency ownership, Mike worked in film production on major studio projects, developing a unique blend of creative vision and operational discipline that would later shape his approach to building and scaling an agency. Today, Mike is the co-founder of Talent Scout, a hyper-niche recruiting company focused on placing full-time, remote senior marketing, creative, and operations professionals in Latin America. He helps agencies rethink team structure by prioritizing high-quality talent, meaningful cost savings, and timezone alignment — ensuring distributed teams still feel integrated and collaborative. Learn more about Mike and Talent Scout on their website.

Featuring: Juliana Marulanda, Scaletime In episode 153, I sit down with Juliana Marulanda, founder of ScaleTime, who's helped over 1,000 agencies turn themselves into lean, profitable businesses that don't depend on the owner being in every room. We get into what "scale" actually means once you strip away the buzzword — her SCALE framework for seeing what's happening, building a baseline, amplifying with systems and AI, leading and delegating, and designing an exit on your own terms. Juliana shares why so many agencies stall at the same revenue marks, why managers without systems can't move the needle, and how to bookend AI with human strategy and human review. If you've ever felt chained to a business you started because you loved the work, this one's about getting your choice back. Juliana makes a grounded case that freedom isn't a vague promise — it's the ability to decide what you do with your day, and to build a business that runs whether you're there or not. Key Bytes • Scale isn't a vanity word — it's the ability to choose what you do with your day instead of being chained to the work you started. • Most owners stall around $1.2–1.3M because they overthink instead of just doing the sales and getting cash in the door. • Crossing $3M takes managers, but managers can't manage without systems to run and performance to measure. • Reaching eight figures takes leaders who can set direction without you — which means delegating strategy, the scariest handoff of all. • AI isn't set-it-and-forget-it; it's create, manage, and iterate, with a human bookending both the strategy and the quality check. • Build to sell even if you never sell — because the exit isn't always your choice, and a sellable business is a well-run one. • Running on guesswork and gut catches up with you; visibility and metrics are what let managers manage and owners step back. • Freedom of choice beats "freedom" as a slogan — design the business around the life you want, not the other way around. Chapters 00:00 The ScaleTime origin story 01:13 From Wall Street to running million-dollar event ops 04:30 Why nobody wants to manage 05:43 The trends reshaping agencies right now 10:23 The four levels of AI adoption 13:00 Bookending AI with human strategy and review 14:02 Defining scale and the SCALE framework 19:09 Optionality and designing freedom of choice 22:18 The inflection points where agencies get stuck 28:30 Rapid-fire questions and closing thoughts   With over 20 years of experience across Wall Street, the nonprofit sector, technology startups, and family-owned businesses, Juliana Marulanda, founder at ScaleTime, has served over1k+ digital agencies. Featured by Forbes and Entrepreneur, Juliana helps uplevel businesses into lean, mean, profitable machines. On average, she and her team create ways to free up at least 30 hours per week for her clients so they can have successful agencies that run without them. Founders can find themselves saying “I do what I want, how I want, whenever I want” - Now that is freedom. Juliana is passionate about providing audiences with invaluable tools that they can use instantly to start improving their business. Her wealth of agency growth secrets and expertise in growth management will put agency owners and marketers on the path to scaling a business. Connect with Juliana on LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, her website, or get her Scale Map here.

Featuring: Michael Perry, Tavern In episode 152, I sit down with Mike Perry, founder and Chief Creative Officer of Tavern, a Brooklyn-based creative shop building brands in food, beverage, hospitality, and sports. We get into the philosophy that drives everything Tavern does — what Mike calls "modern heritage," the practice of mining a brand's past for its real equity and modernizing it for today's consumer without falling into retro, nostalgia, or flash-in-the-pan rebrands. He shares why he's writing a how-to book on it, how Tavern embeds with clients like a fractional chief creative officer, and the story behind HyperBlast, the high-octane drink brand he's launching as his own client. For agency owners, this one is a clinic on real niching — Mike argues expertise isn't your portfolio, it's whether you actually care about the category your clients live in. We also land on the thing he wishes he'd leaned into earlier: this is a relationship business, full stop, and the deepest relationships make the best work. Key Bytes • Real niching isn't about your portfolio — it's whether you genuinely care about the category your clients live in. • Modern heritage means mining a brand's past for its equity and modernizing it for today, not slapping a retro filter on it. • Timelessness is impossible to fully achieve and fragile to keep, which is exactly why brand guardianship matters. • The founder who launched the agency to design should still be moving pixels — leadership and hands-on craft aren't mutually exclusive. • Being your own client removes the convincing, the stakeholders, and the sell — every answer is just yes. • Internal practice work stops being a luxury when you funnel it into real brand-building that levels up the whole team. • The biggest fallacy of Mike's career: that "nobody's drinking" — the numbers tell a very different story. • This is a relationship business — the deepest, longest client relationships are the ones that produce the best work. Chapters 00:00 Welcome and introducing Mike Perry and Tavern 00:47 Failing fast: the agencies Mike tried to start too early 02:06 Big agency vs. small agency and the 40-person sweet spot 03:46 Tavern's trajectory and the client roster 06:27 Why deep category expertise is really empathy 09:01 Staying hands-on as a founder and CCO 12:54 What "modern heritage" actually means 16:59 Writing the book and killing the gatekeeping 23:22 Launching HyperBlast and becoming his own client 32:16 The freedom and discipline of self-client work 35:51 Rapid fire and closing thoughts Mike Perry is founder and chief creative officer of Tavern, a Brooklyn-based global creative agency crafting timeless brands across food, beverage, hospitality, and beyond. With more than 15 years at the forefront of brand building, Mike’s earned a reputation as a certified creative powerhouse. His career includes leadership roles at top global studios such as Stranger & Stranger, Design Bridge, JKR, and Quaker City Mercantile, as well as media giants NBC Sports and TikTok. He is the creative mind behind some of the industry’s most recognizable rebrands for clients including Burger King, Budweiser, and Diageo. Driven by Tavern’s Modern Heritage philosophy, Mike blends legacy and innovation to create dynamic brands that flex with the lightning-fast pace of culture. In a world of trend-chasing, Tavern focuses on what lasts: commercially powerful, future-ready brands and ambitious experiences that resonate at every touchpoint. Tavern is behind the rebrand and restaurant design that reignited the American steakhouse Sizzler, as well as the custom-built bar for Beam Suntory’s Old Overholt. Other collaborators include Chick-fil-A, Old Grand-Dad, and New York City FC. Contact Mike at their agency website or @tavern.agency on the socials.

Featuring: Mark Homer, Grandin Holdings In episode 151, I sit down with Mark Homer, founder of Grandin Holdings and a serial technology and marketing entrepreneur who's scaled and exited multiple agencies over more than 30 years at the intersection of marketing and tech. Mark and I demystify the world of M&A for agency owners — the headspace blockages, the myths about needing piles of cash, and the surprisingly creative ways deals actually get structured. We talk through his own exit in the legal marketing space, why your network is your richest source of deal flow, and how building real systems (including handing off sales) is what makes a business both sellable and worth keeping. If you've ever assumed M&A is too expensive, too complex, or only for the people making headlines, this conversation will change how you think. Mark shows that most deals are quiet, creative, and life-changing in ways that have nothing to do with a Forbes cover. Key Bytes • Buying out a partner is an M&A transaction — most owners have already done a deal without realizing it. • Your network is a bigger source of deal flow than any sourcing system; just tell people what you're looking for. • A lot of owners want to sell for reasons that have nothing to do with how your business is running. • Building systems and handing off sales is what makes a business both sellable and worth keeping. • Optionality means a profitable, well-run business you can sell — or happily hold onto. • Removing discount factors like client concentration and founder-led sales is how you capture maximum value. • Most deals are creative structures with little cash down, not the headline-grabbing windfalls everyone trumpets. • Time at your desk never equaled success — and now that everyone's virtual, the numbers are all that matter. Chapters 00:00 Welcome and Mark's M&A journey 01:34 Why buying out a partner is already an M&A deal 03:48 Inside Mark's legal marketing agency exit 05:30 Two LOIs and how the deals took shape 07:00 Your network is your real source of deal flow 10:45 Why owners sell for reasons that surprise you 11:25 Handing off sales by building a real process 15:38 Optionality: building a business you can sell or keep 19:51 Demystifying the mindset walls around M&A 22:19 Creative deal structures and the acqui-hire 27:10 Rapid-fire questions and closing thoughts Mark Homer is a Serial Technologist and Marketing Entrepreneur. He scaled and exited two agencies. On top of my agency experience, I have been at the intersection of marketing and technology for over 30 years. I was fortunate enough to be a consultant at IBM in 1995 when this little thing called the “World Wide Web” was starting out. This put me on projects building not just basic websites, but full online applications connecting to back-end systems for some of the largest brands. From there, my career included running R&D for a VC-backed company in San Francisco, Product Marketing Manager for a software company(with an exit), to helping start a company that upended the event-based marketing industry by introducing technology that helped drive people from live events to online properties that has now become an industry standard. I also wrote a couple of books along the way. The last agency I sold was in the Legal Marketing industry. Contact Mark on LinkedIn, his HoldCo website, or his agency

Featuring Guest Host: Todd Giannattasio, Tresnic Media In episode 150, I flipped the mic. To kick off Season 4, I handed the host chair to my friend Todd Giannattasio of Tresnic Media — a returning guest from episode 10, and the guy who helped me name Agency Outsight in the first place. This one's more personal than most. Todd walks me through my journey from screw-off art kid to graphic designer to accidental agency owner, the acquisition that should have been the first of many, selling my agency, and the grief that ultimately reshaped how I think about purpose, work, and what a business is really for. We get into the asset mindset, programmatic M&A as a growth lever, why most founders pay themselves last (and shouldn't), and the copycat goals that keep agency owners chasing someone else's dream. If you've ever wondered what's actually on the other side of an exit — or whether you're building a business or just a really demanding job — this is the conversation. Key Bytes • Most agency founders accidentally build a job, not an asset — and the difference shows up the day you try to sell. • Programmatic M&A unlocks exponential growth that organic effort simply can't match. • Buying talent is faster, safer, and more predictable than hiring it. • You don't need a truckload of cash to acquire — SBA loans, earnouts, and seller financing make deals possible at almost any size. • Paying yourself last isn't noble — it's a habit that quietly devalues the business you built. • Copycat revenue goals pull founders into chasing numbers that mean nothing to their actual life. • Grief, burnout, and life events have a way of forcing the clarity most founders avoid. • Creative empathy — not tactics — is still the most underrated edge agency owners have. Chapters 00:00 Flipping the mic: why Todd is interviewing me 02:47 From screw-off art kid to graphic designer 05:30 Starting the agency with ego and no business plan 08:25 The acquisition I should have repeated four times 11:00 Selling the agency and what came after 14:30 Grief, COVID, and finding purpose in the garden 17:10 Launching Agency Outsight and pricing it on instinct 21:40 The asset mindset: building enterprise value 26:00 Programmatic M&A as the real growth lever 30:15 Why founders pay themselves last (and shouldn't) 33:00 Copycat goals and chasing someone else's dream 36:00 Rapid-fire questions and closing thoughts Steve Guberman is the founder of Agency Outsight and the host of Agency Bytes, the podcast for agency owners who want real conversations about building, growing, and eventually selling the business they've worked so hard to create. A former agency founder who successfully exited his own firm, Steve now coaches creative, marketing, and digital leaders through the challenges of growth, positioning, and the complex decisions that come with scaling or selling an agency. As both a coach and M&A advisor, he helps owners see what truly drives long-term value — financially and personally — and through Agency Bytes, he brings that same lens to every conversation, pulling honest stories and hard-won lessons from the agency world's most respected leaders. Todd Giannattasio is the founder of Tresnic Media, where he helps brands grow online through systems built on what he calls Helpful and Humanized marketing — a combination of fundamental principles and modern strategy that's earned him features in Entrepreneur, Forbes, and Huffington Post. A veteran marketer with more than two decades in digital communications, Todd has worked with brands ranging from Universal Records and BASF to growing startups and small businesses, giving him a rare perspective on what actually moves the needle at every stage of growth. Certified through DigitalMarketer, HubSpot, and the Jordan Belfort Straight Line Sales and Persuasion System, he's also a sought-after speaker at top events for entrepreneurs and innovators across the country — and a longtime friend of the show, retu

Featuring: David Wain-Heapy, Prodigi In episode 149, I sit down with David Wain-Heapy, founder of Prodigy, a company that helps agencies and digital businesses build flexible, scalable remote teams through global talent sourcing. David spent 14 years building and running a Magento-focused e-commerce agency out of central London before selling it to Brave Bison PLC. We talk through what that exit process actually looked like, why the right acquirer matters as much as the right offer, and how building systems independent of the founders made the transition possible. From there, we get into the real substance of what David does now: helping agencies shift from an outsourcing mindset to an offshore hiring mindset. There's a difference, and it matters. Agency owners will come away with a clearer framework for when and how to integrate global talent, how to think about time zones, which roles translate well offshore, and what AI is actually doing — and not yet doing — to development teams in agencies right now. Key Bytes • Outsourcing and offshore hiring are not the same thing — one is a handoff, the other is a hire.• The fix for a failed first attempt wasn't better talent, it was better integration — sprints, tools, and cadence.• Building a business that runs independently of you isn't just good leadership, it's what makes you acquirable.• The right acquirer matters as much as the right offer — alignment on team and culture is what made a six-month handoff possible.• East Coast agencies fit well with Eastern European talent; West Coast agencies are better served by South and Central America.• AI handles contained tasks well, but it still can't hold the context of an enterprise-scale project.• The people who will thrive in an AI-augmented world are the ones who bring real creativity — the architects and problem-solvers, not just the executors. Chapters 00:00 Why this conversation matters for agency owners right now01:45 David's 14-year agency journey and building in a competitive London market05:10 The first attempt at offshore talent and why it failed08:30 Selling to Brave Bison: what the exit process actually looked like13:15 Choosing the right acquirer and making a clean handoff17:00 Outsourcing vs. offshore hiring: why the mindset shift changes everything21:30 How to think about time zones when sourcing global talent24:45 What systems agencies need before hiring offshore28:00 Where AI is actually helping agency dev teams right now33:20 Which roles work well offshore and which don't37:50 Rapid fire: surfing in Bristol, letting go of control, and a risky bet that paid off David Wain-Heapy is an experienced founder currently focused on building remote teams for digital businesses with Prodigi. Having sold my digital agency to Brave Bison PLC, I am now working to provide a flexible and scalable solution that enables companies to take control of hiring by looking at a global talent pool. I have many years experience building globally distributed teams of digital professionals and leading them to help great businesses win in the race for attention and accelerate their digital growth. Contact David on LinkedIn or the Prodigi website.

Featuring: Cameron Herold, COO Alliance In episode 148, I sit down with Cameron Herold, founder of COO Alliance and one of the most recognized voices in operational leadership, to talk about the mindset shift agency owners desperately need right now: stepping into the role of CEO and building a true COO mindset inside their business. Cameron has helped scale companies like 1-800-GOT-JUNK and advised hundreds of growth-stage businesses, and in this conversation, we unpack what it really means to work on the business instead of being trapped inside it. We talk about the operator’s lens, how founders accidentally become bottlenecks, and why operational maturity is often the difference between a lifestyle business and a scalable asset. If you’re an agency owner who feels stretched thin, stuck in delivery, or unsure how to elevate your leadership team, this one is a masterclass in stepping up and leveling up. Key Bytes • The CEO’s job is vision. The COO’s job is execution. Most agency owners are trying to do both — and burning out.• Operational discipline isn’t about bureaucracy — it’s about freeing the founder from the day-to-day.• If you’re still the glue holding everything together, you don’t have a scalable business — you have a dependency.• Working on the business requires intentional systems, delegation maturity, and the courage to step back.• Strong operators build companies that can grow, sell, or run without the founder in the weeds. Chapters 00:00 Welcome & Cameron’s Scaling Background04:12 The Difference Between a Founder and a CEO09:48 Why Most Agencies Don’t Truly Work “On” the Business16:35 The COO Mindset Explained23:10 Founders as Bottlenecks31:42 Building Operational Discipline Without Red Tape40:18 Hiring & Developing Strong Operators49:03 Scaling vs. Lifestyle Businesses57:25 Final Advice for Agency Owners Cameron Herold is the mastermind behind the exponential growth of hundreds of companies globally. Founder of the COO Alliance and Invest In Your Leaders training. Cameron is known as the "CEO Whisperer" and is also the former COO of 1-800-GOT-JUNK?, where he engineered the company's spectacular growth from $2 million to $106 million in revenue in just six years. The publisher of Forbes magazine, Rich Karlgaard, stated, "Cameron Herold is the best speaker I've ever heard...he hits grand slams”. Cameron is the host of the Second In Command podcast, author of 6 bestselling books, including The Second In Command, Vivid Vision, Meetings Suck, Free PR, Double Double, and The Miracle Morning for Entrepreneurs. Cameron is a top-rated international speaker and has been paid to speak in 26 countries and on all 7 continents, including Antarctica in early 2022. Contact Cameron:www.cooalliance.comwww.cameronherold.comhttps://www.instagram.com/cameron_herold_cooalliancehttps://www.facebook.com/COOAlliance/https://www.linkedin.com/in/cameronheroldhttps://www.linkedin.com/company/coo-alliance/https://twitter.com/cooalliancehttps://www.youtube.com/@CameronHerold?sub_confirmation=1https://cooalliance.com/vivid-vision/