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.

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Make Better Decisions for Your Agency with George Arabian | Ep #776
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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.

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Sell Your Agency & Get the Best Deal By Checking Your Ego at the Door with Jordan Choo | Ep #771
Selling Your Agency Jason Swenk Selling Your Agency Jason Swenk

Sell Your Agency & Get the Best Deal By Checking Your Ego at the Door with Jordan Choo | Ep #771

Are you prepared to sell your agency if the right opportunity presents itself? Making your business sale-ready requires more than just financial preparation—it demands emotional readiness and the ability to set ego aside.

With pleasure, we are featuring a long time mastermind member on the show who, after recently selling his agency, now describes himself as a “recovering agency owner”. It was an unexpected opportunity that turned into an amazing deal for the seller and buyer. Jordan discusses the way he took control of his agency’s future by pursuing the sale, what he’d change about the process, and the importance of having a plan for post-sale integration.

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Insights on Agency Hiring: Finding the Right Fit and Knowing When It’s Not with Justin Hall | Ep #767
Scale Your Agency Jason Swenk Scale Your Agency Jason Swenk

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.

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Growing 5x in Four Years: Selling and Reclaiming the Agency with Alex Polamero | Ep #766
Selling Your Agency Jason Swenk Selling Your Agency Jason Swenk

Growing 5x in Four Years: Selling and Reclaiming the Agency with Alex Polamero | Ep #766

Have overwhelm or frustration ever made you want to sell your agency? When you’re burned out, the grass might look greener — but one agency owner learned that it’s not. Discover why he sold after just two years plus why the acquisition was dissolved and he grew his original business back to 5X within the next four years.

Learn more about his reflections on why his initial burnout came to be, the reasons that partnership failed, and how he managed to rebuild his agency even stronger by surrounding himself with the right people.

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A Year of Smart Agency Masterclass Wisdom: Best of 2024 | Ep #752
Scale Your Agency Jason Swenk Scale Your Agency Jason Swenk

A Year of Smart Agency Masterclass Wisdom: Best of 2024 | Ep #752

The Smart Agency Masterclass podcast reached new heights in 2024, delivering game-changing insights from entrepreneurs who transformed their challenges into triumphs.

From battling impostor syndrome to scaling revenue and reclaiming personal freedom, our guests didn't just share their success stories—they offered a blueprint for agency owners walking the same path they once traveled. Industry titans like Guy Kawasaki and Gino Wickman brought their hard-earned wisdom to our listeners, creating moments that resonated deeply with our community.

As we reflect on this remarkable year, I'm excited to share some of the most powerful conversations that shaped our 2024 season.

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Leveraging Collaboration to Unlock the Secrets of Effective Branding with David Frederick | Ep #745
Scale Your Agency Jason Swenk Scale Your Agency Jason Swenk

Leveraging Collaboration to Unlock the Secrets of Effective Branding with David Frederick | Ep #745

Do you cultivate a collaborative culture? Does everyone on your team feel empowered to contribute and share? That is the secret sauce that this guest has learned over the course of his time in the industry. He is on the show sharing common branding mistakes as well as how brand with longevity in mind. His approach challenges common misconceptions about branding, revealing why many businesses falter from the start in their brand-building efforts. To him, the journey to building a successful brand hinges on the ability to validate ideas, fostering a culture of experimentation, and embracing the lessons learned from both successes and failures to navigate the complexities of the market with greater agility. Tune in for an enlightening conversation on the art of branding and fostering a collaborative culture.

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Break Free from the Grind to Build an Agency that RUNS WITHOUT YOU with Jim Matuga | Ep #742
Scale Your Agency Jason Swenk Scale Your Agency Jason Swenk

Break Free from the Grind to Build an Agency that RUNS WITHOUT YOU with Jim Matuga | Ep #742

Are you trapped in the exhausting cycle of "monthly chases," constantly pursuing short-term goals at the expense of long-term vision? Today’s featured guest stood on the brink of giving up, worn down by the relentless pursuit of monthly numbers and decided to shift focus with a ten-year plan to start building an agency that could run without him. marketing.

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The Myth About Niching Down and How to Be Solution-Focused with Daniel Lofaso | Ep #738
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The Myth About Niching Down and How to Be Solution-Focused with Daniel Lofaso | Ep #738

Has your agency reached a growth plateau? Have you thought about narrowing your focus to enhance your marketing efforts? In this interview, you'll hear from an agency owner who relied on referrals for years until the post-pandemic landscape shifted. While his business thrived during the early pandemic, it faced challenges as larger clients began consolidating. In response, he strategically pivoted to specialize in the biotech sector. Tune in to explore his initial hiring challenges, the transformative effects of niching down, and his ongoing refinement of the sales process to secure more clients.

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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.