The Agency Profit Podcast

Points of Interest00:00 – Introduction: Marcel introduces Dr. Matthew Jones and frames the co-founder relationship as a critical driver of business health and day-to-day well-being.01:14 – Origin Story: Matt explains how mediating friends’ founder conflict revealed a gap between business coaching and psychological expertise for co-founders.02:20 – Why It’s Hard: The relationship requires a dual lens—operational structure and psychological dynamics—or teams get shortchanged.05:40 – Red Flag to Watch: Recurring disagreements usually mask unspoken emotional issues around power, recognition, or closeness that stall decisions.08:19 – Two Kinds of Trust: Matt distinguishes operational trust (competence) from personal trust (availability and attunement) as separate failure points.09:34 – Tools & Frameworks: Introduction to the Co-Founder Satisfaction Index and the three-phase Conflict Navigation System (prep, conversation, accountability).10:33 – Cadence That Works: “Syncs” for operations and “dates” for meta-communication humanize partners and prevent ad hoc, disruptive alignment.13:51 – Containment in Practice: Schedule conflict conversations instead of reacting in the moment; example reframes an all-hands interruption into a debrief.15:49 – Written Feedback Protocol: Parakeeto’s situation–behavior–impact flow with consent sets clear context and reduces emotional reactivity.18:54 – Running the Conversation: Use “I-messages” for low-intensity talks; switch to reflective dialogue (speaker/receiver, paraphrase, validate) when emotions run high.22:08 – Commitments & Follow-ups: Translate insights into concrete commitments with a timeline to “close open loops” and reinforce accountability.25:34 – When Splits Happen: Matt’s “Stabilizer Split” month helps decide path; negotiate together before lawyers, expect grief and manage emotional debt.Show NotesBook: The Cofounder EffectCofounder Satisfaction IndexWebsite: Cofounder ClarityConnect with Matt via LinkedInEmail: matt@cofounderclarity.comLove the PodcastLeave us a review here. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Points of Interest00:00 – Introduction: Marcel welcomes recurring guest Carson Pierce to the Agency Profit Podcast and introduces a new format—walking through a real, anonymized client assessment to show how Parakeeto diagnoses and solves profitability challenges.02:00 – Every Agency’s Problems Are Unique but Familiar: Carson explains that while every agency’s situation feels unique, most share a few core underlying problems that manifest differently based on team structure, services, and culture.03:40 – Client Background: The featured firm had around 12 staff, close to $1M in revenue, but was losing roughly $80K per year. Despite solid demand, they couldn’t pinpoint the source of their declining profit.05:00 – Early Misdiagnoses and Attempts: The leadership team suspected overhead costs like health insurance and software were to blame and tried tightening internal processes, but those adjustments didn’t solve the deeper financial issues.06:30 – Leadership Misalignment: With multiple co-founders holding different perspectives, the agency struggled to align on the root cause of its issues, each assuming the problem lay outside their area of expertise.10:00 – Starting the Assessment: Carson outlines Parakeeto’s assessment process—benchmarking against a healthy “agency model,” ingesting financial and time data, and identifying gaps between planned and actual performance.11:50 – Payroll Red Flag: Analysis revealed that 98% of all revenue was going directly to payroll, leaving no margin for overhead or profit—a clear signal of structural imbalance.13:30 – Data Gaps and Adjustments: The team had poor time-tracking compliance and a prepaid revenue entry on the P&L that skewed results. Parakeeto corrected these to reveal a more accurate financial picture.16:30 – Root Causes Identified: The agency was top-heavy with overhead roles, under-utilized due to a bottlenecked design team, and priced below the level their delivery costs required.20:30 – Building the Roadmap: Quick wins included improving time-tracking compliance and reclassifying project management and account management as billable delivery hours. Longer-term actions included hiring a designer, raising prices 10–15%, and training PMs in scope management.25:50 – Strategic Choice: Grow, Don’t Cut: Instead of downsizing, the founders chose to grow out of the constraint—adding delivery capacity to balance the team and improve utilization since demand existed.28:40 – Coaching and Next Steps: Carson explains the ongoing coaching plan—educating on data hygiene, improving utilization, then progressing to deeper ABR and project-level analysis—focusing first on leading indicators before tracking lagging outcomes.Show NotesConnect with Carson via LinkedInFree Agency ToolkitParakeeto Foundations CourseFree access to our Model PlatformLove the PodcastLeave us a review here. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Points of Interest00:00 – 00:39 – Introduction: Marcel introduces Simo Lemhandez, founder of Folk CRM, one of Europe’s fastest-growing SaaS startups recognized by Product Hunt.00:42 – 02:18 – Defining Folk CRM: Simo explains Folk’s mission to redefine CRM as an AI-native platform that centralizes all client touchpoints and automates busywork.02:21 – 04:20 – Origin Story: Simo shares how freelancing revealed the shortcomings of traditional CRMs and inspired him to build one that truly works for its users.04:31 – 07:26 – Product Philosophy: Folk deliberately focuses on small and mid-sized businesses (1–100 people) with a simple interface and complex backend automation.07:26 – 10:23 – Evolution of Go-to-Market: Simo outlines emerging trends: multichannel social selling, account-based marketing, and deeper personalization powered by AI.10:23 – 12:00 – Centralizing Context with AI: Marcel highlights how AI can synthesize client interactions across platforms, reducing manual data entry and complexity.13:16 – 16:13 – Human-in-the-Loop Design: Simo shares his framework for balancing automation and human oversight using a “workflow criticality × automation difficulty” matrix.16:13 – 19:54 – Platformization & SaaS Rationalization: Discussion on SaaS consolidation, where AI accelerates integration and reduces the need for fragmented tool stacks.20:03 – 23:10 – Building Flexible Architecture: Marcel and Simo explore how AI allows software to handle complex workflows while keeping user experiences simple.23:10 – 28:34 – The Future of Expertise: Both reflect on how AI lowers the barrier to competence but raises the premium on originality, strategy, and creativity.28:46 – 30:57 – Closing Thoughts: Simo encourages experts to embrace AI change cycles, stay curious, and focus on high-value creative work while AI handles repetition.Show NotesFOLK FREE TRIAL - use promo code PARAKEETO for 30% OFF your first 3 monthsConnect with SimoLove the PodcastLeave us a review here. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Points of Interest00:01 – 00:55 – Introduction: Marcel welcomes Kristen Kelly and frames Q4 as prime season for annual and quarterly planning, noting the high cost of leadership offsites demands clear outcomes.01:18 – 03:10 – Why Planning Feels Hard: Kristen cites common hurdles—turning history into forward plans, aligning stakeholders, and building forecasts that can flex with scenarios.01:55 – 03:47 – Frameworks Without Dogma: Marcel references EOS and Scaling Up, extracting shared essentials: look back, look forward, set a few priorities, and install a cadence.03:48 – 05:16 – From Ideas to Execution: Teams stall when models are rigid or fragmented and when revenue targets are arbitrary rather than grounded in capacity, pricing, and cost.05:17 – 08:43 – Static Models Create Drag: Rigid spreadsheets bias decisions toward the status quo, force opinion-driven debates, and delay choices into the quarter, shrinking execution time.08:44 – 11:48 – Prep That Actually Works: Start with mission and quantifiable goals, anchor to a simple, accurate, flexible model, and compare forecast to actuals to keep scope tight.11:49 – 14:32 – Surface Misalignment Early: A pre-offsite FUD survey (fear, uncertainty, doubt) creates psychological safety, reveals blind spots, and primes productive discussion.14:33 – 17:16 – Make the Look-Back Lightweight: Ongoing scorecards make recaps brief; focus on AGI, delivery margin, overhead/AGI, operating profit, and levers like utilization, ABR, and average cost per hour.17:17 – 20:56 – Prioritize by the Numbers: Identify which metrics must move, set a small set of OKR-style priorities, and tie initiatives directly to measurable outcomes and weekly execution.20:56 – 23:47 – Objectives Stay Stable; Communicate Often: Big objectives change slowly; raise the bar via evolving key results and over-communicate the plan so decisions map back to it.25:23 – 27:58 – Commit, Then Figure It Out: Install scorecards and targets even if imperfect; the commitment becomes the forcing function to solve data structure, forecasting, and tracking.28:27 – 36:56 – Model-Backed Decisions & Facilitation: Use a living model to handle cyclical topics (price raises, comp), budgeting, and tradeoffs; third-party facilitation drives objectivity, buy-in, and offers ABR-improving options beyond price increases.36:56 – 39:29 – Unified Budgeting & Final Advice: A connected model aligns payroll, pricing, overhead, and delivery targets, preventing unrealistic constraints; the closing takeaway is numbers-first planning that builds alignment and speeds execution.Show NotesConnect with Kristen via LinkedInFree Agency ToolkitParakeeto Foundations CourseFree access to our Model PlatformLove this Episode?Leave us a review here.  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

In this engaging conversation, Stephen Woessner, CEO of Predictive ROI and agency veteran, shares insights on the critical importance of trust and positioning in the age of AI. He discusses how his military background shaped his systems mindset for effective sales strategies. Stephen emphasizes that prospects often start in distrust, necessitating a consistent demonstration of value. They explore the power of unscripted, long-form content in establishing credibility, while outlining a focused approach to market messaging that drives demand and builds lasting relationships.

Points of Interest00:00 – 01:30 – Introduction: Marcel welcomes Parakeeto’s Kristen Kelly back to discuss a recurring misconception in agency operations—the belief that a better project management or PSA tool can solve profit management challenges.01:30 – 03:25 – The PM Tool “Silver Bullet” Myth: Kristen explains how leaders and PMs often adopt new tools to tame chaos, believing marketing promises that they’ll also solve utilization, capacity, and profitability issues.03:25 – 06:00 – Why Agencies Fall for It: Marcel and Kristen note that while PM tools are valuable, they’re often oversold as full profit-management systems. Agencies end up frustrated by missing fields, tool quirks, and data limitations.06:00 – 08:45 – Hitting the Wall: Many teams find themselves with tools that improve delivery workflows but still leave them unable to make key financial or operational decisions because the data remains fragmented across systems.08:45 – 11:43 – Introducing the Framework → Data → Process Model: Marcel outlines Parakeeto’s three-part sequence for solving profit management: define the framework (metrics and formulas), structure the data, and establish ongoing processes for hygiene and cadence.11:43 – 12:46 – Why Sequencing Matters: Without first defining what needs to be measured, agencies make poor configuration choices in PM tools—creating rework, confusion, and endless tool migrations.12:46 – 15:19 – Defining the Framework: Agencies must precisely define how metrics like utilization, delivery margin, and project profitability are calculated, and understand the relationships between those measures before configuring tools.15:19 – 19:54 – The Role of Process and Data Hygiene: Marcel explains that real-time reporting fails if data quality is poor. Clean, reliable reporting requires an ETL (Extract, Transform, Load) process, not direct reporting from source data.19:54 – 22:55 – The Precision Trap: Kristen and Marcel explore the conflict between PMs needing granular precision and executives needing simple, high-level rollups. Forcing perfect data consistency across teams destroys usability and compliance.22:55 – 26:28 – Practical Limits of In-Tool Reporting: Marcel describes how building detailed profitability reporting directly in PM tools creates unsustainable complexity, unrealistic data maintenance, and unreliable results.26:28 – 34:38 – Building a Sustainable Data Architecture: They outline how Parakeeto’s ETL pipeline works—extracting time data (person, project, hours), joining it with payroll and project grids, normalizing fields, and applying ongoing QA to ensure accuracy.34:38 – 42:37 – The Big Takeaway: Kristen and Marcel conclude that PM tools are essential for delivery but not the whole profit solution. Agencies should use them for managing work while relying on a clear framework and data pipeline for accurate reporting.Show NotesConnect with Kristen via LinkedInFree Agency ToolkitParakeeto Foundations CourseFree access to our Model PlatformLove this Episode?Leave us a review here. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Points of Interest00:00 – 01:15 – Introduction: Marcel introduces Casey Brown, author of Fearless Pricing and founder of Boost Pricing, highlighting her experience generating over $1B in client profit.01:15 – 02:15 – Defining a Pricing Geek: Casey explains her passion for pricing as the intersection of psychology, process, and data, with a mission to help firms earn the prices they deserve.02:15 – 03:09 – From Engineering to Pricing: Casey shares how she moved from chemical engineering into pricing at GE, discovering its blend of strategy, negotiation, and value creation.03:09 – 04:29 – Pricing as Poker, Not Economics: Casey contrasts real-world pricing with textbook theory, describing it as a poker game where buyers and sellers strategically hide information.04:29 – 07:01 – The Price–Quality Effect: Casey highlights how higher prices in professional services often increase demand, as clients equate higher cost with higher quality.07:01 – 09:13 – From Strategy to Mindset: Casey explains how shifting focus from pricing models to training sales teams on confidence and value communication created better results.09:13 – 14:22 – Why Agencies Struggle with Pricing: Casey outlines two main barriers—lack of focus on pricing strategy and fear of rejection—that lead to underpricing and discounting.14:22 – 18:35 – Running a Pricing Meeting: Casey recommends quarterly reviews of market shifts, win rates, and client profitability to make pricing a consistent strategic priority.18:35 – 22:18 – Operational Levers for Pricing Power: Marcel and Casey discuss how utilization, staffing models, and capacity planning affect the ability to hold firm on price.22:18 – 26:30 – New vs. Existing Client Pricing: Casey stresses segmenting price increases by client type and keeping communications brief, personal, and unapologetic.26:30 – 35:51 – Preparing Teams for Sales Conversations: Casey emphasizes role-play, objection handling, and value-first framing to help frontline teams confidently present pricing.35:51 – 47:56 – Raising Prices with Longstanding Clients: Casey shares phased approaches and cautions against gimmicks, while Marcel introduces tactics like repackaging and the “3 Rs”—Recapture, Rescope, Replace.Show NotesPricing Meeting Structure GuidePricing & Scoping for Agencies PodcastBoostpricing.com/resourcesCasey’s LinkedInFearless Pricing BookLove the PodcastLeave us a review here. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Points of Interest0:50 – 2:07 – Introduction: Marcel and Carson set up the challenge of revenue recognition in agencies, where payments and work schedules rarely align, creating distorted profitability metrics.2:19 – 3:22 – Cash Accounting Pitfalls: Carson shares a client example where tracking only bank deposits caused wild swings in monthly profit and billable rate reporting, rendering metrics unreliable.3:37 – 4:15 – Why Cash Accounting is Common: Marcel explains that firms default to cash-based accounting because it is cheaper and simpler, but acknowledges the operational limits for service businesses.6:13 – 7:17 – Cash vs. Accrual Explained: The hosts break down the difference between cash accounting, which records money moving in and out, and accrual accounting, which aligns revenue and expenses with when they are actually earned or incurred.8:35 – 9:26 – Project Example of Misalignment: Marcel illustrates how upfront deposits and final payments distort monthly reporting, showing why cash accounting fails for project-based agencies.11:07 – 12:13 – Complex Expense Timing: They highlight how vendor terms and delayed payments further complicate accrual accounting, making profitability appear very different depending on the lens used.13:42 – 14:58 – Payroll Timing Issues: Carson notes that biweekly payroll cycles can skew monthly reporting, making accrual adjustments essential for accurate performance measurement.15:12 – 16:20 – Why Invoice Dates Don’t Work: Marcel warns that many accountants mistakenly use invoice schedules for accrual recognition, which misrepresents how much work is truly complete.16:38 – 19:48 – Four Earned Value Methods: Marcel outlines four ways to measure progress for revenue recognition: time versus timeline, time versus budget, burndown via story points, and subjective project manager input.21:38 – 23:16 – Forecasting and Performance Indexing: They stress the importance of pairing earned value with forward-looking forecasts and using cost or schedule performance indexes to spot projects at risk.24:23 – 26:04 – Phasing Projects for Accuracy: The conversation explores breaking projects into major phases to better reflect real effort, while avoiding overly complex setups that burden teams.27:25 – 29:19 – Accountant Impact and Liabilities: They emphasize that proper accrual requires manual journal entries and careful tracking of deferred revenue and liabilities, ensuring agencies avoid misleading profitability and balance sheet risks.Show NotesPodcast Episode: Revenue Recognition in Agencies (with Rich Brett)Blog: Understanding Cost-Performance IndexingFree Tool: Cost Variance CalculatorLove the PodcastLeave us a review here. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Points of Interest00:08 – 01:42 – Introduction: Marcel introduces Mark Drager, founder of Sales Loop, and sets the stage for discussing his Core Selling Identity Framework.01:42 – 04:06 – Early Career in Film and Television: Mark shares his beginnings in film school, early TV roles, and the realization that career progress in the industry was too slow for him.04:06 – 06:33 – Crash Course in Internet Marketing: Mark describes his time at an internet marketing franchise in 2005–2006, where he learned fundamentals like segmentation, AdWords, and split testing before launching his own agency.06:33 – 07:36 – Launching an Agency: Mark explains how he built his agency through video production, applying strategic questionnaires and deep client understanding to ensure valuable outcomes.07:36 – 09:59 – Selling on Tactics vs. Strategy: Mark contrasts transactional, tactic-driven sales with strategy-driven sales that command higher fees but carry more responsibility.09:59 – 12:30 – Challenges of Strategic Responsibility: He outlines the risks of owning outcomes in strategic engagements, emphasizing that greater accountability enables higher pricing but also higher client expectations.12:30 – 13:31 – Why Clients Reject Proven Strategies: Mark notes that clients often resist effective strategies due to psychological discomfort, sparking his pursuit of a framework to explain these reactions.13:31 – 16:04 – Development of the Core Selling Identity: Mark describes years of research and workshops that led to defining three archetypes of selling identities, tested across industries and client types.16:04 – 19:52 – Tribe Leader Profile: The first identity, Tribe Leaders, rely on relationships, networking, and referrals, benefiting from low acquisition costs but struggling to scale consistently.19:52 – 22:13 – Farmer Profile: Farmers use marketing-driven systems, data, and attribution models to generate leads, achieving predictability but requiring high capital investment and systemization.22:13 – 26:32 – Hunter Profile: Hunters rely on outbound sales, structured pipelines, and sales management to drive predictable growth, but often dismiss branding and content strategies as distractions.26:32 – 34:26 – Applying the Framework for Business Growth: Mark and Marcel discuss how identifying your selling identity enables focus, reduces wasted spend on mismatched tactics, and sets a path for scaling through consistency and aligned strategies.Show NotesConnect with Mark via:LinkedInYouTubeEmail: mark@salesloopbrand.comLove the PodcastLeave us a review here. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Carson Pierce, a recurring guest and expert on agency operations, joins the conversation to dissect the complex world of retainer models. He emphasizes the core benefits of retainers in generating consistent revenue while critiquing traditional ‘bucket of hours’ that can overwhelm teams. The discussion covers modern variations of retainers, the significance of tracking deferred revenue, and innovative pricing structures that balance risk and profitability. Carson also highlights the need for proactive client partnerships to enhance overall agency performance.