Small But Mighty Agency: How to Grow Your Agency

By the time your ideal client asks for a proposal, how much of their decision has already been made?Probably more than most agency owners realize.CMOs are paying attention long before they formally enter the market for an agency. They're looking for signs that a potential partner understands their business, can move quickly, and won't add more risk to an already high-pressure role.So, what makes a small agency feel like the right choice?Christian Banach, founder of Next Big Win, and I dug into that question. He has spent more than 20 years helping agencies win new business, and his CMO Journey interview series keeps him in regular conversation with senior marketing leaders.In this episode, we get into:Why CMOs treat hiring an agency as a risk decisionWhat a specialist signals before the first callWhat CMOs are still outsourcing, and what's moving in-houseWhere to look for early signs a company may need supportWhat to send a CMO once you've spotted a signalHow thought leadership keeps you visible while timing sorts itself outKnowing which CMOs to reach out to, and what to say when you do. This episode covers both.Show Notes:-The Next Big Win: thenextbigwin.comGet the full show notes and more information here: https://audreyjoykwan.com/podcast/ep162Podcast Edits by Lindsay Curtis

There's one thing that consistently saved me from finding out in December that a client had already checked out. It didn't work perfectly every year, but the years I ran it, I saw the risk coming instead of getting blindsided by it.In this solo episode, I'm talking about that habit: an existing-client growth review run every September, no matter how packed the month got. It was a deliberate look at where things actually stood with the clients I already had, quick and practical rather than something that needed a blocked-off week.Three lenses I'd run every client through:Renewal riskExpansion opportunitiesAdditional servicesI get into what I was actually looking for in each one, plus where this went well for me over the years, and where it didn't.If September already feels like it's running you instead of the other way around, this one's for you. If you want to connect with other agency owners in person, join us at the Agency Together Mastermind Mingler on September 17th in Vancouver: https://agencytogether.com/mastermind-minglerGet the full show notes and more information here: https://audreyjoykwan.com/podcast/ep161Podcast Edits by Lindsay Curtis

Referrals feel great until they stop. And when they do, most agency owners realize they never actually built a pipeline, they built a network and hoped it would behave like one.Jasma Moody spends her days inside the pipeline of Copper, listening to sales calls, digging through customer data, and figuring out exactly why some leads convert and others quietly disappear. In this episode, she breaks down the real difference between a network and a pipeline, and why so many agency owners confuse the two until a client churns and they're left scrambling.Jasma walks through the simplest possible way to start tracking pipeline (hint: it's not a fancy CRM), the three signs it's time to outgrow a spreadsheet, and a weekly, monthly, and quarterly rhythm that keeps business development moving even when client work is eating every hour of the day.She also reframes something almost every agency owner gets wrong: what to do the moment someone says "not right now."This one's for anyone who's ever looked up from a busy season and realized their pipeline went cold without them noticing.Jasma is leading a conversation on pipeline growth at the Agency Together Mastermind Mingler in Vancouver on September 17th, one of five conversation streams you can choose your way through. Learn more here.Show Notes:-Jasma's LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/jasmamodyGet the full show notes and more information here: https://audreyjoykwan.com/podcast/ep160Podcast Edits by Lindsay Curtis

There's a version of the "we need to talk about scope" conversation that plays out in almost every agency, and it usually gets treated as a project management and profitability problem. Talia Palermo doesn't see it that way. She compares it to going in for what you think is a shoulder injury and finding out the real issue is somewhere else in your body entirely. Project management issues, she says, are often just the symptom. The real cause is usually hiding a few steps back.Talia is the innovation manager at Function Point, where she talks to agency owners all day and hears what's actually breaking before most of them have language for it. One number she shared stopped me mid-sentence: 56% of agencies say they don't have enough information at the start of a project to scope it properly.In this episode, we cover:Why over-servicing keeps showing up as the top frustration agency owners bring to Talia, and what's really driving itHow value-based pricing works differently on the outside than it does internally, and where agencies get that twistedThe mindset shift that makes time tracking feel like advocacy instead of surveillanceWhy profitability has to be part of the entire project life cycle, from estimating to active work to review, not just something you check at the endThis one will change how you think about the numbers you're not looking at.Want more conversations like this one? Talia is leading a conversation on project management, profitability, and pricing at the Agency Together Mastermind Mingler in Vancouver on September 17th, one of five conversation streams agency owners can choose their own adventure through. Learn more here.Show Notes:-Talia's LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/taliapalermoGet the full show notes and more information here: https://audreyjoykwan.com/podcast/ep159Podcast Edits by Lindsay Curtis

You're doing a piece of client work you've done a hundred times. You open a tool, and it does in minutes what used to take an afternoon. And instead of relief, there's a stomach drop: if it can do that, what am I still charging for?Here's the real risk. Your clients are having that same realization, whether you talk about it or not. And if you stay quiet about what's changed in how you deliver your work, you're not protecting yourself, you're just waiting for them to notice on their own, and start wondering what else you haven't told them.In this episode, I break down what it actually takes to stay irreplaceable to a client right now. It's not one thing, it's a sequence, and there's a last step that's harder than the rest, the one this whole episode is really about.Hit play if you've felt that stomach drop and haven't figured out what to do about it yet.And if this one hits home, come talk it through live. We're digging into this exact question at the Strategic Partnership Mixer on August 6th, online.Get the full show notes and more information here: https://audreyjoykwan.com/podcast/ep158Podcast Edits by Lindsay Curtis

Most agency owners have felt the sting of being ghosted after a great sales call, the kind where the conversation goes well, real interest seems to be there, a proposal goes out, and then nothing comes back.It happens often enough that it gets treated as simply the cost of doing business, something you absorb by giving your best thinking away for free and hoping enough of it converts into paying work.What that approach quietly costs, though, is time: hours that could have gone into your actual clients, your actual offer, or just having an evening back.Daniela found her way to a different approach, but not by design. Like a lot of agency owners, she learned it the hard way, through the overwhelm of free consultations before building a sales process that leads not just to a signed client but to a 12-month retainer, and that process is what she unpacks in this episode of the Small But Mighty Agency podcast.Daniela Furtado is the founder of Findable Digital Marketing, an agency that works exclusively with design and construction firms, though it took her years to arrive at that focus.For a long stretch early on, she ran her business across two completely unrelated industries at once, and it wasn’t until she finally chose which one to build around that everything else, including the sales system she still uses today, became possible.That system starts with an $800 consultation, an offer that both saves Daniela time and primes prospects for the retainer conversation that follows. She walks through the details in the episode, along with how she pitches a 12-month commitment in a way that rarely comes down to the number twelve at all.It took Daniela two years to build this system. The episode covers what she learned in that time, so you do not have to spend two years finding out for yourself.Show Notes:-Findable Digital Marketing Website: findabledigitalmarketing.com-Instagram: findabledigitalmarketing-Daniela's LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/daniela-pimentel-furtadoGet the full show notes and more information here: https://audreyjoykwan.com/podcast/ep157Podcast Edits by Lindsay Curtis

You already know that search doesn't look the way it used to. Buyers are no longer finding agencies through one clean path from Google search to website visit to inquiry. They may discover you through an AI-generated answer, a Reddit thread, a local Facebook group, a directory, a review, a LinkedIn profile, or a blog post that answers a very specific question.Darlene Moore from Drive Traffic is actively watching how visibility is shifting, and in this episode she shares what she's seeing on the ground right now — where decisions are actually being shaped, and what's working.We talk about what makes content worth citing, why lived experience and specificity matter more than generic AI-generated content, and how you can use tools like ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Reddit, and Search Console to understand where your buyers are actually looking for answers.Show Notes:-Website: drivetraffic.ca-LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/darleneHey thanks for hanging out with me at the Small But Mighty Podcast. If you enjoyed this episode it would mean the world to me if you hit the follow or subscribe button in your podcast app and share it with a friend. And I’ll see you on the next one. Get the full show notes and more information here: https://audreyjoykwan.com/podcast/ep156Podcast Edits by Lindsay Curtis

There's a moment Joe Teo describes in this episode that will feel familiar to a lot of agency owners: revenue flattening, a growth channel that stopped working and no plan B.For Joe, the CEO and co-founder of HeyOrca, that moment forced a question most marketers never think to ask: what if you'd built a growth strategy with no foundation underneath it?In this episode, Joe breaks down how HeyOrca rebuilt their growth engine through community-led marketing after paid ads hit a wall, and what they learned about the difference between having an audience and building a community.We get into:Why systems alone (newsletters, Slack groups, webinars) don't create community, and what actually doesThe shift from "what should we publish next?" to a question that changes everythingHow paid ads fit into a community-led strategy without becoming the whole strategyThe participation signals worth tracking beyond likes and commentsWhy Joe thinks AI fatigue is pushing people toward something most marketers are underestimatingJoe is also the author of Community-Led Marketing, and his take on where trust, attention, and growth intersect right now is one I think you'll be thinking about long after the episode ends.Show Notes:-Website: heyorca.com-Community-Led Marketing ebook: heyorca.com/ebook/community-led-marketing-Joe Teo's LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/josephteols-HeyOrca's LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/heyorcaHey thanks for hanging out with me at the Small But Mighty Podcast. If you enjoyed this episode it would mean the world to me if you hit the follow or subscribe button in your podcast app and share it with a friend. And I’ll see you on the next one. Get the full show notes and more information here: https://audreyjoykwan.com/podcast/ep155Podcast Edits by Lindsay Curtis

Ten years of running an agency, and everything was still in her head.Natasha Golinsky, founder of On Purpose Projects, a custom web and e-commerce development agency, didn't plan her exit from the day-to-day. A stage two breast cancer diagnosis gave her six weeks to hand over a business she'd been running for a decade, while everything lived in her head.What came out the other side is one of the most honest, human stories about building a business that can run without you that I've heard.In this episode, Natasha shares what it really took to build and lead a strong remote contractor team, why the freedom she worked toward came with an unexpected identity shift, and what she wishes she'd done differently long before the crisis hit.Here's what we cover:What the handoff actually looked like when the timeline wasn't strategic, it was survivalThe emotional side of stepping out, the loneliness, the grief, and learning to let go of being neededThe multi-phase hiring process Natasha uses to find contractors who are the right fit beyond technical skillHow to start loosening your grip by identifying the work you already avoidYou don't have to go through a health crisis to build a business that doesn't depend on you. But you do have to be intentional about it.Let's dive in.Show Notes:-Natasha's LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/natashagolinskyHey thanks for hanging out with me at the Small But Mighty Podcast. If you enjoyed this episode it would mean the world to me if you hit the follow or subscribe button in your podcast app and share it with a friend. And I’ll see you on the next one. Get the full show notes and more information here: https://audreyjoykwan.com/podcast/ep154Podcast Edits by Lindsay Curtis

A lot of small business owners are feeling the pressure to keep up right now.AI is changing how we work. New tools and platforms keep showing up. Buyers are behaving differently, and the market feels harder to read than it used to.And I get it.When things feel uncertain, it’s very easy to start adding more.But for small but mighty business owners, more is not always what creates momentum. Sometimes it just makes the business heavier.In this episode, I sit down with Lydia Lee, business strategist and work reinvention coach, for a conversation about what it really means to grow in this season.This is not a tidy framework conversation. It’s more of a real talk about the pressure small business owners are carrying, what is changing in the market, and why some of the most important growth moves right now might actually be quieter ones.We talk about simplifying, getting clearer on what you actually need, and building a business around your real season of life instead of someone else’s version of success.We also get into why relationships matter more than ever. AI can give you ideas, outlines, and tactics, but it cannot replace trust.In this episode, we cover:why experienced small business owners are feeling overwhelmed right nowhow AI is creating both urgency and distractionwhy adding more is not always the best response to uncertaintywhat it means to define growth based on the season you are actually inThis conversation is for you if you have been feeling the pressure to do more, but some part of you knows the answer might be to pause, simplify, and ask a more honest question:What do I actually need right now?Show Notes:Website: screwthecubicle.com ​YouTube: youtube.com/screwthecubicleLinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/lydialleeHey thanks for hanging out with me at the Small But Mighty Podcast. If you enjoyed this episode it would mean the world to me if you hit the follow or subscribe button in your podcast app and share it with a friend. And I’ll see you on the next one. Get the full show notes and more information here: https://audreyjoykwan.com/podcast/ep153Podcast Edits by Lindsay Curtis