Podcast
Agency Forward
Hosted by Chris DuBois · EN
Agency Forward explores the future of agencies as tech and AI drive down the cost of tactical deliverables. Topics include building competent teams, developing strategic offers, systemizing your business, and more.
New episodes delivered every Tuesday.
10episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
110 Jonathan Stark: Why Hourly Billing Is Costing You a Fortune
1w ago00:39:05Tap to summarizeHey everyone, today I'm joined by Jonathan Stark.Jonathan is an author, speaker, and consultant who has spent over 20 years helping agencies and consultants escape the trap of hourly billing. He hosts the Ditching Hourly podcast, has published over 500 episodes on the subject, and runs the Ditcherville community. I wanted Jonathan on because pricing is one of the most underlevered moves in any agency owner's toolkit. Most people know hourly billing isn't ideal, but very few know how to actually make the switch without panicking.In this episode, we discuss:Why fixed-price quotes feel risky and how to price them correctlyThe real source of scope creep in value-priced engagementsThe first productized service every agency should buildAnd more...You can learn more about Jonathan on LinkedIn and at JonathanStark.com-----------Lead Gen is the hardest part of running an agency.For most, it's unpredictable, it's slow, and it's usually expensive.Gia flips that.It's the all-in-one growth platform that turns your existing relationships and client work into a steady pipeline.Gia automates lead gen follow-up and content, and it's all from the work you're already doing.You can check it out and get some free bonuses at getgia.ai/dynamicagency-----------No one was asking for another community. But I've made one anyway.So what's different?The Dynamic Agency Community is designed around access rather than content.Access to peers who've done it before.Access to experts who've designed solutions.Access to resources that have been battle-tested.And right now, the price for founding members is only $97/year.Join today so your agency has immediate access to everything you need to grow.You can join at DynamicAgencyOS.com/Community.-----------Subscribe to the Agency Forward blog on Substack.We have weekly blog content with practical advice to help you advance your agency.-----------And if you're ready for 1-on-1 help to create some mind-blowing offers for your agency, visit DynamicAgencyOS.com to schedule a free consultation. Running an agency is tough, but you don't need to go it alone.
Transcribe →109 Speed to Informed: The Hidden Lever in Agency Ownership
2w ago00:18:22Tap to summarizeMost agency owners think their problem is workload. It isn't. It's latency, the gap between the moment a question lands and the moment you have an answer good enough to act on.In this solocast, I break down a metric I've been optimizing my life around for two years: Speed to Informed. The fix has two arms, and most owners only ever build one.In this episode:Why workload isn't actually the problemThe three patterns that keep agency owners slow to informedOne starting move you can make this week to reclaim 6-10 hoursand more...-----------Lead Gen is the hardest part of running an agency.For most, it's unpredictable, it's slow, and it's usually expensive.Gia flips that.It's the all-in-one growth platform that turns your existing relationships and client work into a steady pipeline.Gia automates lead gen follow-up and content, and it's all from the work you're already doing.You can check it out and get some free bonuses at getgia.ai/dynamicagency-----------No one was asking for another community. But I've made one anyway.So what's different?The Dynamic Agency Community is designed around access rather than content.Access to peers who've done it before.Access to experts who've designed solutions.Access to resources that have been battle-tested.And right now, the price for founding members is only $97/year.Join today so your agency has immediate access to everything you need to grow.You can join at DynamicAgencyOS.com/Community.-----------Subscribe to the Agency Forward blog on Substack.We have weekly blog content with practical advice to help you advance your agency.-----------And if you're ready for 1-on-1 help to create some mind-blowing offers for your agency, visit DynamicAgencyOS.com to schedule a free consultation. Running an agency is tough, but you don't need to go it alone.
Transcribe →108 Garrett Jestice: Your Best Client Is Already Your GTM Strategy
3w ago00:33:13Tap to summarizeHey everyone, today I'm joined by Garrett Jestice.Garrett is a GTM consultant and advisor who helps agencies, solo consultants, and fractionals build the foundations that make marketing and sales actually work. I wanted Garrett on because he's someone I talk to regularly, and every conversation surfaces something practical. His take on leverage levers for agencies goes well beyond the usual "niche down" advice, and his perspective on the rise of micro-agencies and what's dying in the traditional model is something every agency owner needs to hear right now.In this episode, we discuss:Why your best client should become your entire go-to-market strategyWhy the full-service agency model is dying and what the micro-agency model looks like insteadWhy partnerships and co-marketing are the most overlooked growth lever for agenciesAnd more...You can find Garrett on LinkedIn and on Substack at 10xsolo.substack.com.-----------Lead Gen is the hardest part of running an agency.For most, it's unpredictable, it's slow, and it's usually expensive.Gia flips that.It's the all-in-one growth platform that turns your existing relationships and client work into a steady pipeline.Gia automates lead gen follow-up and content, and it's all from the work you're already doing.You can check it out and get some free bonuses at getgia.ai/dynamicagency-----------No one was asking for another community. But I've made one anyway.So what's different?The Dynamic Agency Community is designed around access rather than content.Access to peers who've done it before.Access to experts who've designed solutions.Access to resources that have been battle-tested.And right now, the price for founding members is only $97/year.Join today so your agency has immediate access to everything you need to grow.You can join at DynamicAgencyOS.com/Community.-----------Subscribe to the Agency Forward blog on Substack.We have weekly blog content with practical advice to help you advance your agency.-----------And if you're ready for 1-on-1 help to create some mind-blowing offers for your agency, visit DynamicAgencyOS.com to schedule a free consultation. Running an agency is tough, but you don't need to go it alone.
Transcribe →107 Mike Grinberg: Why Positioning Is Really a De-Risking Problem
4w ago00:31:45Tap to summarizeHey everyone, today I'm joined by Mike Grinberg.Mike is the founder of Proofpoint Marketing, a positioning consultancy that works primarily with boutique firms in regulated industries like life sciences, financial services, and med tech. I wanted to have Mike on because, selfishly, we think about positioning very similarly. Mike's take on positioning is that he doesn't treat it as a messaging problem. He treats it as a business design problem. But in addition, he also has a great way of viewing positioning through the lens of derisking the buying decision, and it's incredibly helpful. In this episode, we discuss:Why positioning is an operations problem, not a marketing problemThe four-box risk matrix agencies can use to understand how buyers evaluate themWhy personal risk matters more than organizational risk in most dealsAnd more...You can learn more about Mike on LinkedIn.-----------Lead Gen is the hardest part of running an agency.For most, it's unpredictable, it's slow, and it's usually expensive.Gia flips that.It's the all-in-one growth platform that turns your existing relationships and client work into a steady pipeline.Gia automates lead gen follow-up and content, and it's all from the work you're already doing.You can check it out and get some free bonuses at getgia.ai/dynamicagency-----------No one was asking for another community. But I've made one anyway.So what's different?The Dynamic Agency Community is designed around access rather than content.Access to peers who've done it before.Access to experts who've designed solutions.Access to resources that have been battle-tested.And right now, the price for founding members is only $97/year.Join today so your agency has immediate access to everything you need to grow.You can join at DynamicAgencyOS.com/Community.-----------Subscribe to the Agency Forward blog on Substack.We have weekly blog content with practical advice to help you advance your agency.-----------And if you're ready for 1-on-1 help to create some mind-blowing offers for your agency, visit DynamicAgencyOS.com to schedule a free consultation. Running an agency is tough, but you don't need to go it alone.
Transcribe →106 The So That Gap: Why Your Positioning Stops at the Homepage
May 500:18:46Tap to summarizePositioning that doesn't change how you hire, price, deliver, sell, and operate is just a writing exercise. In this solocast, Chris DuBois introduces the "So That Gap" — the distance between the sentence on your homepage and the operating decisions underneath it.You get a three-minute diagnostic you can run on yourself right now, a map of the five specific places this gap shows up in every agency, and one concrete move you can make this week to start closing it.In this episode, I cover:Why most positioning work stops at the messaging layer and never reaches operationsA diagnostic for finding exactly where your positioning runs outWhy the 5 gaps compound and feed each other (and why fixing just one never sticks)And more...Full companion article with frameworks for each gap is on Substack.-----------Lead Gen is the hardest part of running an agency.For most, it's unpredictable, it's slow, and it's usually expensive.Gia flips that.It's the all-in-one growth platform that turns your existing relationships and client work into a steady pipeline.Gia automates lead gen follow-up and content, and it's all from the work you're already doing.You can check it out and get some free bonuses at getgia.ai/dynamicagency-----------No one was asking for another community. But I've made one anyway.So what's different?The Dynamic Agency Community is designed around access rather than content.Access to peers who've done it before.Access to experts who've designed solutions.Access to resources that have been battle-tested.And right now, the price for founding members is only $97/year.Join today so your agency has immediate access to everything you need to grow.You can join at DynamicAgencyOS.com/Community.-----------Subscribe to the Agency Forward blog on Substack.We have weekly blog content with practical advice to help you advance your agency.-----------And if you're ready for 1-on-1 help to create some mind-blowing offers for your agency, visit DynamicAgencyOS.com to schedule a free consultation. Running an agency is tough, but you don't need to go it alone.
Transcribe →105 Joseph Fioramonti: How Visual Perception Data Ends Creative Guesswork
Apr 2800:31:51Tap to summarizeHey everyone, today I'm joined by Joseph Fioramonti.Joseph is the founder of Dark Square, a branding agency, and the creator of Constellations, a visual perception tool that replaces stakeholder guesswork with real audience data.He spent over a decade doing large corporate rebrands for tech companies before building Constellations internally to solve his own approval problem. The tool now has two patents pending and is being opened up to other agencies.I wanted to have Joe on because most agency owners have been burned by revision cycles and last-minute stakeholder changes. Joseph built a system that eliminates that dynamic by collecting visual data from hundreds of people before any creative direction is locked in — and the results are remarkable.In this episode, we discuss:Why including more stakeholders upfront eliminates revision cyclesHow visual perception data replaces guesswork in brand approvalBuilding a SaaS product inside your agency for two revenue streamsAnd more...You can learn more about Joseph on LinkedIn and check out Constellations to help get confirm brand direction with real audience insights. -----------Lead Gen is the hardest part of running an agency.For most, it's unpredictable, it's slow, and it's usually expensive.Gia flips that.It's the all-in-one growth platform that turns your existing relationships and client work into a steady pipeline.Gia automates lead gen follow-up and content, and it's all from the work you're already doing.You can check it out and get some free bonuses at getgia.ai/dynamicagency-----------No one was asking for another community. But I've made one anyway.So what's different?The Dynamic Agency Community is designed around access rather than content.Access to peers who've done it before.Access to experts who've designed solutions.Access to resources that have been battle-tested.And right now, the price for founding members is only $97/year.Join today so your agency has immediate access to everything you need to grow.You can join at DynamicAgencyOS.com/Community.-----------Subscribe to the Agency Forward blog on Substack.We have weekly blog content with practical advice to help you advance your agency.-----------And if you're ready for 1-on-1 help to create some mind-blowing offers for your agency, visit DynamicAgencyOS.com to schedule a free consultation. Running an agency is tough, but you don't need to go it alone.
Transcribe →104 Barrett King: How Agencies Win with Strategic SaaS Partnerships
Apr 2100:40:04Tap to summarizeHey everyone, today I'm joined by Barrett King.Barrett has spent most of his career building agency-facing partnership programs at some of the biggest names in SaaS — HubSpot, Ramp, and now Close CRM, where he serves as Head of Partnerships.What drew me to Barrett is that he thinks about partnerships the way most agency owners never do: as a deeply intentional relationship that should be defined clearly before a single deal is signed. He's seen agencies build $100M businesses through smart ecosystem alignment — and he's watched others stall out at $250K because they lost themselves chasing what a bigger vendor wanted.In this episode, we discuss:Why most agencies enter partnerships without ever defining what they actually want from themThe two biggest mistakes agencies make when partnering with SaaS companiesWhy MCP and AI connectivity is changing what it means to be a strong agency partner right nowAnd more...You can learn more about Barrett King on LinkedIn. If you want to try to Close and get some added perks. Sign up through our affiliate link. -----------Lead Gen is the hardest part of running an agency.For most, it's unpredictable, it's slow, and it's usually expensive.Gia flips that.It's the all-in-one growth platform that turns your existing relationships and client work into a steady pipeline.Gia automates lead gen follow-up and content, and it's all from the work you're already doing.You can check it out and get some free bonuses at getgia.ai/dynamicagency-----------No one was asking for another community. But I've made one anyway.So what's different?The Dynamic Agency Community is designed around access rather than content.Access to peers who've done it before.Access to experts who've designed solutions.Access to resources that have been battle-tested.And right now, the price for founding members is only $97/year.Join today so your agency has immediate access to everything you need to grow.You can join at DynamicAgencyOS.com/Community.-----------Subscribe to the Agency Forward blog on Substack.We have weekly blog content with practical advice to help you advance your agency.-----------And if you're ready for 1-on-1 help to create some mind-blowing offers for your agency, visit DynamicAgencyOS.com to schedule a free consultation. Running an agency is tough, but you don't need to go it alone.
Transcribe →103 Velocity Pricing: Why Your Tiers Should Sell Speed, Not Scope
Apr 1400:13:28Tap to summarizeMost agency pricing tiers are built wrong.They're based on scope. More deliverables. More hours. More stuff.But here's what your clients actually want: results, faster.In this solocast, I break down velocity pricing, a model where every tier delivers the same outcome but at different speeds and intensity levels. Instead of selling labor by the pound, you sell time-to-value.In this episode, I cover:Why scope-based tiers train clients to negotiate you downThe velocity pricing model: same destination, different speeds, different pricesWhy the urgency premium is justified (and an easy yes for the right client)And more...-----------Lead Gen is the hardest part of running an agency.For most, it's unpredictable, it's slow, and it's usually expensive.Gia flips that.It's the all-in-one growth platform that turns your existing relationships and client work into a steady pipeline.Gia automates lead gen follow-up and content, and it's all from the work you're already doing.You can check it out and get some free bonuses at getgia.ai/dynamicagency-----------No one was asking for another community. But I've made one anyway.So what's different?The Dynamic Agency Community is designed around access rather than content.Access to peers who've done it before.Access to experts who've designed solutions.Access to resources that have been battle-tested.And right now, the price for founding members is only $97/year.Join today so your agency has immediate access to everything you need to grow.You can join at DynamicAgencyOS.com/Community.-----------Subscribe to the Agency Forward blog on Substack.We have weekly blog content with practical advice to help you advance your agency.-----------And if you're ready for 1-on-1 help to create some mind-blowing offers for your agency, visit DynamicAgencyOS.com to schedule a free consultation. Running an agency is tough, but you don't need to go it alone.
Transcribe →102 Alex James: Why a Niche Is No Longer Enough to Stand Out
Apr 700:46:53Tap to summarizeHey everyone, today I'm joined by Alex James — and this is a return visit.Alex is a positioning strategist who works with B2B agencies and founders to help them develop a clear, differentiated perspective that goes beyond just niching down. His core belief: your perspective is your product.I brought Alex back because the conversation we had last time sparked a ton of response, and I wanted to go deeper on something that's becoming urgent in 2026: AI is making "good enough" output the default, which means a niche alone won't protect you anymore. Alex has a strong take on what does.In this episode, we discuss:Why a niche is now the floor, not the differentiatorHow to enroll your market in a new way of thinking about your categoryWhat it looks like when perspective is baked into the DNA of an agencyAnd more...You can learn more about Alex James on LinkedIn or at MinimalistMarketing.co.-----------Lead Gen is the hardest part of running an agency.For most, it's unpredictable, it's slow, and it's usually expensive.Gia flips that.It's the all-in-one growth platform that turns your existing relationships and client work into a steady pipeline.Gia automates lead gen follow-up and content, and it's all from the work you're already doing.You can check it out and get some free bonuses at getgia.ai/dynamicagency-----------No one was asking for another community. But I've made one anyway.So what's different?The Dynamic Agency Community is designed around access rather than content.Access to peers who've done it before.Access to experts who've designed solutions.Access to resources that have been battle-tested.And right now, the price for founding members is only $97/year.Join today so your agency has immediate access to everything you need to grow.You can join at DynamicAgencyOS.com/Community.-----------Subscribe to the Agency Forward blog on Substack.We have weekly blog content with practical advice to help you advance your agency.-----------And if you're ready for 1-on-1 help to create some mind-blowing offers for your agency, visit DynamicAgencyOS.com to schedule a free consultation. Running an agency is tough, but you don't need to go it alone.
Transcribe →101 Adam Weil: Why Agencies Should Stop Owning Everything In-House
Mar 3100:35:38Tap to summarizeHey everyone, today I'm joined by Adam Weil, a partner at White Rabbit Group.White Rabbit Group partners with creative and branding agencies to handle the web development and technical work that those agencies can't — or shouldn't — do themselves. They've built a model around white-label dev partnerships that help agencies deliver more value without stretching beyond their strengths.I wanted to have Adam on because too many agencies are still trying to own everything — and it's costing them quality, client trust, and revenue. Adam has seen this pattern play out hundreds of times and has a clear-eyed perspective on when to partner, when to refer, and how to make your clients stickier in the process.In this episode, we discuss:What breaks first when agencies try to do everything in-houseWhy saying "we don't do that" can actually be a competitive advantageHow to use partnerships to make your existing clients more stickyAnd more...You can learn more about Adam Weil on LinkedIn.-----------Lead Gen is the hardest part of running an agency.For most, it's unpredictable, it's slow, and it's usually expensive.Gia flips that.It's the all-in-one growth platform that turns your existing relationships and client work into a steady pipeline.Gia automates lead gen follow-up and content, and it's all from the work you're already doing.You can check it out and get some free bonuses at getgia.ai/dynamicagency-----------No one was asking for another community. But I've made one anyway.So what's different?The Dynamic Agency Community is designed around access rather than content.Access to peers who've done it before.Access to experts who've designed solutions.Access to resources that have been battle-tested.And right now, the price for founding members is only $97/year.Join today so your agency has immediate access to everything you need to grow.You can join at DynamicAgencyOS.com/Community.-----------Subscribe to the Agency Forward blog on Substack.We have weekly blog content with practical advice to help you advance your agency.-----------And if you're ready for 1-on-1 help to create some mind-blowing offers for your agency, visit DynamicAgencyOS.com to schedule a free consultation. Running an agency is tough, but you don't need to go it alone.
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