
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.
#1 Agency Leadership Podcast. Check Out Our Past Guests.

Build Your Agency’s Dream Team and Land Dream Clients with Jon Rivers | Ep #779
What significant challenges have you encountered while growing your agency? Do you have the right team that aligns with your vision and goals? Are you in a situation where you have dream clients that can pay what you’re worth? Today's featured guest brings valuable perspective from five years of growth with his recent venture in SaaS and a previous social media agency venture. Having navigated the common hurdlesagency owners face, he shares the enduring lessons and effective solutions that have propelled his agency forward. Join us to gain practical insights into overcoming these universal agency challenges with proven strategies that deliver results.

5 Videos You Need Right Now to Boost Prospect Engagement with Carl Kwan | Ep #778
Are you leveraging video to expand your audience reach and better communicate your services? Video remains the most effective medium for showcasing your brand and conveying authenticity, allowing potential clients to feel connected to you before purchasing your services. Today's featured guest began building his brand through video back in 2009 and has since accumulated millions of views.
He shares strategies for developing your approach to video, current effective practices, and the transformative impact of AI on video production. While AI offers significant benefits—reducing both production costs and time investments—he acknowledges that fully AI-generated videos often lack the genuine authenticity that resonates with audiences. Where exactly is the balance between efficiency and authenticity? Join us to discover how to effectively harness video's power to enhance both your business performance and personal fulfillment.

What’s the Right Social Media Strategy for Your Digital Agency? with Elizabeth Stone | Ep #777
Does your digital agency a strong social media presence? Wondering which content types and platforms deliver the best results? Today's featured guest runs a social media agency that focuses on a carefully selected roster of clients. She began her career as a stay-at-home mom with exceptional social media instincts and built a thriving agency in just five years. She views social media as a necessary evil for brands and has successfully guided clients with strategically planned and curated content.
Join us as she shares what's currently working in social media, her proven strategies, valuable advice for agency owners, and why she personally avoids social media in her spare time.

Make Better Decisions for Your Agency with George Arabian | Ep #776
Does your emotional attachment to your agency makes it difficult to make growth decisions? When you remove emotion from the mix and make decisions objectively, your realize more growth. After 21 years of running his business, today’s guest realized he needed emotional distance and accomplished this by creating an alter ego who could assess the agency from an impartial point of view. This experiment proved remarkably successful. He’s come to realize his true role in the agency and that much of it means working for his team, rather than the other way around.

The Secret to Keeping Clients for Over 20 Years with Pinaki Kathiari | Ep #775
It’s always easier to retain existing clients than constantly landing new ones. Do you want to know the secret one agency has that has helped them hold onto clients for over 20 years? This interview highlights an agency owner’s whose client retention philosophy involves a candid, honest, and sincere approach which has helped them retain some clients for over two decades.
In this conversation, we explore his struggle to balance entrepreneurial business development with satisfying his creative instincts. He reveals how he eventually established systems that removed him from being the bottleneck in agency operations while allowing him to choose his involvement in the processes. He also shares the clarity he found that inspired a subscription-based product offering that maintains healthy cashflow.

How to Build an Irreplaceable Agency Through Strong Client Relationships with Charlene Coughlin | Ep #773
Are you focusing your energy on growing existing client relationships or acquiring new ones? Building strong client relationships requires a commitment to proactive communication from the very beginning, as today's featured guest clearly demonstrates.
Our guest runs a brand agency that prioritizes nurturing and growing client relationships through three key strategies: establishing clear expectations, maintaining proactive communication, and implementing careful qualifying processes to ensure they partner only with the right culture fits. This intentional approach has made her agency irreplaceable to clients.

Using Acquisition to Grow Your Agency and Expand Your Client Portfolio with Luke Szkudlarek | Ep #772
Would you consider a merger or acquisition as a growth strategy? What does it look like to acquire another agency? How can you ensure success for the buyer, seller, and existing clients? Today’s featured guest demonstrates how this approach can be highly effective when executed thoughtfully. He started his agency after realizing he would never get the recognition he deserved while working for somebody else, which drove him to establish his own agency where he now thrives.
Recently, he expanded through the strategic acquisition of three agencies, focusing primarily on their client portfolios. His acquisition strategy emphasizes the importance of relationship continuity, specifically seeking arrangements where previous owners remain involved during the transition period, allowing his team to gradually build trust with the inherited client base. Learn from his valuable insights on entrepreneurship and the strategic use of acquisitions for agency growth.

Maintaining a Small Client Roster for Big Agency Success with Nick Francis | Ep #769
How do you measure your agency’s success? Awards and accolade? Top-line revenue and big name clients? What if we told you a more focused and lean approach could be the best path. Today’s featured guest realized the importance of finding a "sweet spot" in the agency world, so he moved to focusing on quality over quantity. He talks about the challenges of maintaining a small client roster and the benefits it brings. In his business model, his agency is providing consistent, high-quality work and building strong partnerships. Learn valuable insights on leadership, innovation, and the importance of a good relationship building.

Boosting Agency Efficiency with the Help of AI Integration with Manish Dudharejia | Ep #768
Are you integrating AI in your agency processes in the most effective ways? What sort of opportunities are you missing by not integrating AI into your agency’s systems and processes? There’s no going back from AI, so you might as well embrace it as it continues to evolve the ever changing agency landscape.
While many agencies have begun incorporating AI tools, numerous opportunities remain unexplored, and the technology's full potential is still emerging. Today's featured guest brings unique insights as an agency owner who has fully embraced AI's transformative power. Through his continuous study and practical implementation of AI solutions, he has gained valuable perspectives on how this technology is fundamentally altering agency operations—from team structures to client expectations. Tune in for practical insights for agency leaders looking to harness AI's potential while adapting to the evolving demands of the digital marketplace.

Insights on Agency Hiring: Finding the Right Fit and Knowing When It’s Not with Justin Hall | Ep #767
Have you defined the who in your agency’s growth journey? What are you using to guiding the type of team that will grow your agency to it's full potential? This guest quickly discovered that attracting the right talent—especially individuals excited to join a small, fledgling agency—was far more challenging than expected.
Learn the valuable lessons he’s learned about hiring, the qualities he looks for in candidates to drive his agency’s success, and why he emphasizes the importance of acting swiftly when a hire isn’t the right fit.
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.








