In this episode, Arlen chats with Corey Quinn to unpack the strategic foundations behind escaping founder-led sales, specializing deeply in a niche, and building predictable, scalable agency growth. Corey breaks down the discipline of vertical focus, the power of gift-based outreach, and why trust-driven marketing is becoming even more essential.

About Our Guest — Corey Quinn:
Corey Quinn is an agency advisor and author of Anyone, Not Everyone. With more than 18 years driving revenue for agencies, Corey is best known for helping scale Scorpion from $20M to $200M as CMO.

Corey works directly with agency founders to help them escape founder-led sales, specialize intelligently, and build repeatable systems for revenue growth. His framework blends deep strategic focus, vertical specialization, and trust-driven outbound.

Key Takeaways:

• Founder-Led Sales Don’t Scale — Systems Do
  Corey calls it out straight: most agencies stall because the founder is still the engine behind every sale. It’s not sustainable. The real growth starts when you stop being the closer and start building the system that closes. (06:10)
• “Niche or Die” Isn’t Just a Catchphrase
  When you’re trying to serve everyone, you blend into the noise. Corey reminds us that owning a niche isn’t limiting—it’s liberating. The more specific your audience and problem, the easier it is for clients to find you and say “that’s us.” (11:35)
• Clarity Beats Complexity
  Forget chasing every new marketing trend or channel. Agencies win when their message is so clear it feels like mind reading. Corey says the best marketing isn’t louder—it’s sharper. (17:50)
• Document. Delegate. Detach.
  The founder’s job isn’t to hustle forever—it’s to design a sales machine that others can run. Write it down. Automate what you can. Train people to own parts of the journey so the business runs even when you’re not in the room. (23:40)
• Warm Beats Cold, Every Time
  Corey’s stance on outreach is simple: don’t spray, don’t pray. Start conversations that actually make sense—comment, share insight, connect genuinely. People buy from people who show up with value, not desperation. (31:25)
• From Rainmaker to Architect
  This is the real mindset leap. Stop being the one who pulls every deal from thin air and start being the one who designs the structure that keeps deals flowing—without you doing the pulling. (38:45)
• Data Informs, Humans Decide
  Automation is incredible, but it's not a replacement for judgment. Corey points out that the best agencies use data to filter, not to decide. You still need to read between the lines—to know when a “lead” is actually a real opportunity. (42:20)
• Final Thought
  Corey leaves us with this: growth doesn’t come from doing more—it comes from doing less, on purpose. The agencies that win are the ones that focus, build, and execute with clarity

References

• Corey Quinn on LinkedIn
• Book Title: Anyone, Not Everyone: A Proven System to Escape Founder‑Led Sales
• Official Book Page

Struggling with new business or want a sounding board for your strategy? Book a 15-minute chat with me — I'd be happy to be your thinking partner and help you gain clarity or spark new ideas.

Have questions, feedback, or guest suggestions for the show? We’d love to hear from you! Reach out at podcast@agency.partners

Stay connected and keep learning: Subscribe to our newsletter
or follow Arlen on LinkedIn

In this episode, Arlen chats with Mark O’Brien and Jake Goldman about the evolving realities of agency new business, marketing, and the strategic shifts agencies need to thrive in the next 2–3 years. From the dominance of LinkedIn to the increasing role of multi-channel content and human-centric strategies, this conversation is packed with practical perspective for agency leaders and marketers.

About Our Guests
Jake founded 10up in 2011 and grew it to over 300 people, serving clients like Salesforce, Hilton, Harvard, Disney and in 2023 merged with Fueled, where he continues to serve as a partner and vocal advocate for open platforms.

Mark is CEO of Newfangled, a consultancy that helps agencies build effective new business systems. Newfangled has been sharing their expertise for 3 decades through their newsletter, blog and speaking and has helped hundreds of agency clients reach their market.

Key Insights:

AI and Multi-Channel Strategy Shift
Jake explains that AI tools like ChatGPT and Perplexity have changed how prospects research solutions. Agencies need to combine LinkedIn, industry-specific directories, and direct outreach in a unified way to demonstrate relevance to LLMs and connect with clients actively seeking expertise across channels. (07:35)

Human-Focused Multimedia Content
Mark highlights that AI helps broaden reach, but it’s the agency’s authentic voice and expertise that make an impact. Long-form video, podcasts, and well-crafted articles remain vital for establishing credibility and trust. (15:05)

Specialization Drives Growth
Both guests agree agencies grow more effectively by focusing on a clearly defined niche. Spreading resources too thin diminishes impact; targeted expertise helps agencies stay relevant as markets and technologies evolve. (18:20)

SEO Diminishes, LinkedIn’s Dominance
Mark shares how LinkedIn remains the primary platform where agencies foster real, professional connections. SEO and email still support outreach efforts, but meaningful engagement on LinkedIn drives the most consistent results for agencies focused on relationship-building. (22:00)

Investing in Teams and Innovation
Jake stresses that innovation starts internally. Agencies that empower their teams to experiment, learn, and adopt AI technologies thoughtfully deliver better work and will maintain a competitive edge. (36:25)

Agility in a Shifting Economy
Mark points out that success depends on quickly understanding and adapting to broad changes—from globalization to evolving AI capabilities and remote work patterns—rather than reacting after the fact. (42:45)

Final Thought
The future favors agencies that combine human insight with strategic focus and smart AI use. This blend isn’t optional; it’s the foundation of sustainable growth in today’s dynamic environment.

References:

• Jake Goldman on LinkedIn
• Mark O’Brien on LinkedIn

Struggling with new business or want a sounding board for your strategy? Book a 15-minute chat with me — I'd be happy to be your thinking partner and help you gain clarity or spark new ideas.

Have questions, feedback, or guest suggestions for the show? We’d love to hear from you! Reach out at podcast@agency.partners

Stay connected and keep learning: Subscribe to our newsletter
or follow Arlen on LinkedIn

Thanks for tuning in.

On this episode I’m joined by Aviral Mittal, Director of Marketing for rtCamp, an enterprise WordPress agency with clients like Penske Media, Aljazeera, and Cox Automotive. Avi is a college dropout who started his career in the non profit sector, moved to hospitality, and then embraced entrepreneurship starting his own events company, and now finds himself in tech.

Key Insights:

• Bias toward going live. Publish earlier to engage the market, learn faster, and build momentum; polish iteratively. (3:25)
• Recruit internally for marketing. Recruiting internal experts helps convert relevant experience into credible marketing. It can be easier to teach marketing than your unique expertise. (8:55)
• Lead with demonstrated expertise. Long-form guides and tangible demos make pre-sales conversations easier, establish expertise, and create goodwill when shared generously. (10:40)
• Divide and conquer. Content development often works best when marketing gives context (audience, voice, style, purpose), experts guide substance (outline, review/feedback), and writers draft the piece (13:50)
• Onboard with intensity; decide fit quickly. Start new hires right away on real work that gets published, and meet with them daily to understand what they’re doing; assess the match in weeks (not months) to respect both the person and the team. (17:40)
• Use content to project value outward. In-depth pieces that generously share expertise show up naturally in search and AI, support pre-sales, and underpin broader thought leadership efforts across the team. (20:10)
• Opportunity-based marketing. Use first-party data and CDPs to identify engaged accounts, segment precisely (exclusion rules matter), and tailor outreach by buyer-journey stage. (23:25)
• Use events for relationship nurturing. Favor smaller, curated events; do the pre-work, personalize outreach, and follow up promptly to extend conversations. (30:40)
• Choose a high-agency marketing leader. Give room (and expect them) to set strategy, define success, communicate progress, and align with sales as one demand team. (34:56)

References:

• Aviral on LinkedIn
• rtCamp’s Resources library

Don’t miss our next episode: a conversation on the future of agency new business with the founder of a 300-person agency and the CEO of a firm that has specialized in agency marketing for decades.

Are you facing a challenge with new business in your agency or would you like a sounding board for an aspect of your new business strategy? Book 15 minutes with me to talk about it. I’d be happy to be a thinking partner.

If you have questions or comments about this episode, a topic you’d like covered, or an agency owner or relevant expert we should invite as a guest, we’d like to hear from you! Email podcast@agency.partners

If you have questions or comments about this episode, a topic you’d like covered, or an agency owner or relevant expert we should invite as a guest, we’d like to hear from you! Email podcast@agency.partners

Subscribe to our newsletter to stay in touch or follow Arlen on LinkedIn.

Thank you for listening!

And what is a healthy agency? A healthy agency is one that creates great value for its clients, people, and owners in a sustainable way.

In this episode Arlen and Piotr kick off a new series on agency new business and talk about why it’s hard, what success actually looks like, and how to replace heroics with a system you can operate consistently.

Key Insights:

• Nailing new business is a core part of agency health. It drives better client fit, pricing power, delivery quality, and more.
• Know your destination. A systematic, sustainable, approach to creating new client relationships. Not too dependent on any one person. Not too dependent on a single tactic or channel.
• Intermittent focus creates feast-or-famine. Even short pauses in new business efforts can create pipeline gaps later.
• Reduce key-person risk. Move from hero-dependent marketing and selling to a system that is easier for anyone to run.
• Pattern-match to improve outcomes. Better new business → increased repetition of work → better strategy, planning, margins, and value per hour.
• Diversify intelligently. Don’t rely on one person or one channel; do a few things exceptionally well.
• Improve your inputs. Appropriate focus, quality, consistency, and quantity of effort are all critical to building a strong new business muscle.
• The market’s shifting fast (global + AI). It’s a challenging time, but it’s also an opportunity for focused, specialized agencies to thrive.

Coming up in this series Arlen will be talking to agency marketing leaders on the front lines, seasoned new business advisors, and growth marketing experts to surface valuable perspective and actionable insight on new business.

Are you facing a challenge with new business in your agency or would you like a sounding board for an aspect of your new business strategy? Book 15 minutes with me to talk about it. I’d be happy to be a thinking partner.

If you have questions or comments about this episode, a topic you’d like covered, or an agency owner or relevant expert we should invite as a guest, we’d like to hear from you! Email podcast@agency.partners

Subscribe to our newsletter to stay in touch or follow Arlen on LinkedIn.

Thank you for listening!

And what is a healthy agency? A healthy agency is one that creates great value for its clients, people, and owners in a sustainable way.

On this episode, I’m delighted to be joined by Piotr Delawski, my cofounder at Agency Partners. Piotr has been building for the web for 2 decades and has spent much of that time in the agency world. He hails from Poland.

In our conversation, we talk about:

• How we met and our time at global agency XWP
• What brought Piotr to Agency Partners and what motivates him
• The problem space we're focused on
• Our vision for the future and what we're working on now

Now and then we'll have additional Inside Scoop episodes giving you a look behind the scenes at the work we're doing on Agency Insight and what we're learning in our collaboration with clients.

Coming up next is a new mini-series on agency marketing, after a break.

If you have questions or comments about this episode, a topic you’d like covered, or an agency owner or relevant expert we should invite as a guest, we’d like to hear from you! Email podcast@agency.partners

Subscribe to our newsletter to stay in touch or follow Arlen on LinkedIn.

Thank you for listening!

This episode is part of a mini-series on beginning with the end in mind. As we’ll find, building for your exit from the start helps create a thriving agency that delivers great value for you, your team, and your clients.

On this episode, I’m talking to Peter Kang of Barrel Holdings about optionality and the lessons from his experience building multiple agencies and now a holding company.

The agency he and his co-founder started in 2006 has grown into a holding company actively incubating, acquiring, and growing agencies. Peter has written extensively about his agency journey for years, sharing a wealth of in-the-trenches insight and perspective.

Key Insights:

• Starting an agency holding company gives you a chance to put your agency experience to work, developing other leaders, with more skin in the game than consulting or coaching (4:00)
• Independent agencies (vs. divisions) can help leaders move faster and adapt decisions and priorities more fully to the unique needs of that group and its strategy (9:00)
• Select leaders for proactivity, speed, and ability to organize, then empower and trust them (9:55)
• Align your leaders’ compensation directly with the mid-term goals for the agency. (15:17)
• Not all companies can achieve a life changing exit; you may still be able to make a healthy amount and reinvest your earnings in other places while continuing to run your firm (16:00)
• A holding company enables you to help others reach their full potential and pursue their goals, co-creating the future with your agency leaders. (20:50)
• Make space to invest in your leaders; set a deliberate example, make space for weekly coaching, quarterly time with all your leaders to share challenges and knowledge, and facilitate helpful connections for them (22:10).
• Horizontal positioning may sometimes be an easier place to begin, adding a vertical position as your portfolio develops and you see opportunities emerge (27:15)
• Acquisitions are something you can get better at with practice, just like running an agency.
• An attractive acquisition has tail winds and momentum, good client retention, not too much founder reliance, and potential for synergy with acquirers. (31:41)
• To build relationships, act in ways that benefit others expecting nothing in return. Take an interest in their success, reach out when they come to mind. Reach out to a few people every week. You get out of it what you put in. (35:20)
• Maintaining long-term engagement comes from a meaningful mission and balanced living. (37:50)

References:

• Barrel-Holdings.com
• AgencyHabits
• PeterKang.com (including newsletter sign up)
• Peter Kang on LinkedIn

If you haven't yet, take a look at the other 3 episodes in this mini-series on Beginning with the End in Mind.

Next up will be a conversation between Arlen and Piotr (Agency Partners co-founders) shedding more light on what we're cooking up and why, then a new mini-series to follow on effective agency marketing with some special guests. Subscribe so you don't miss out!

If you have questions or comments about this episode, a topic you’d like covered, or an agency owner or relevant expert we should invite as a guest, we’d like to hear from you! Email podcast@agency.partners

Subscribe to our newsletter to stay in touch or follow Arlen on LinkedIn.

Thank you for listen

• Running your agency so you can sell it is just running your firm well; it doesn’t commit you to selling it (2:38).
• Ask yourself: what would you want to do after selling your firm? Who are you if not an agency owner? Let reflection on these questions help guide how you think about and approach the idea of exciting your firm (6:17).
• To transition ownership to a worker-owned co-op, you need workers who (1) want that (2) are prepared to buy in (3) have the experience and capabilities to take on more responsibility. Building a strong, empowered leadership team is a good first step, something every agency needs anyway.
• Co-op vs. ESOP … for firms under $10 million, an ESOP may not be viable, but worker-owned co-ops can work for small firms and offer a lot of flexibility in how they are structured (22:00).
• Good coaching is about holding space for what’s really important, not letting that be crowded out by what is noisy or feels urgent (30:52).
• There are many ways to exit your agency well and it probably isn’t as complicated or challenging as you imagine; explore the options; it might be good (32:49). 

References:

• ICA Group, a non profit Sarah recommends and worked with to develop Big Duck’s worker-owned cooperative
• Compton Durham, Sarah’s advisory and coaching practice

Coming up next in this series on beginning with the end in mind is a conversation with a co-founder of multiple agencies and an agency holding company. Don't miss it!

If you have questions or comments about this episode, a topic you’d like covered, or an agency owner or relevant expert we should invite as a guest, we’d like to hear from you! Email podcast@agency.partners

Subscribe to our newsletter to stay in touch or follow Arlen on LinkedIn.

Thank you for listening!

• If you’re running a healthy agency doing meaningful work with people (clients and team) you enjoy, there’s no pressure to chase a short-term exit.
• A focus on solving complex problems for larger and more complex organizations makes your expertise harder to replace by another agency or by clients’ in-house teams. It also keeps things interesting and rewarding!
• Build long-term client relationships by helping them advance their most important business goals and metrics. This approach aligns you with long-term value creation (increasing LTV and retainer revenue) and builds mutual success and sustainability.
• It’s much easier to keep a great client than to make a new one. Invest in these relationships, look out for their best interest, and continue to evolve your capabilities to serve the needs of your best clients as they change.
• Stop and think: how would you approach your firm differently if you wanted to be leading it happily still in 25 years? A long-term, even multi-generational perspective on building a firm and creating wealth can be an inspiring contrast to the pressure to grow fast and sell.

References:

• Learn more about Inclind

Coming up in this series on beginning with the end in mind are:

1. An agency coach and founder with 2 successful exits
2. A co-founder of multiple agencies and an agency holding company

If you have questions or comments about this episode, a topic you’d like covered, or an agency owner or relevant expert we should invite as a guest, we’d like to hear from you! Email podcast@agency.partners

Subscribe to our newsletter to stay in touch or follow Arlen on LinkedIn.

Thank you for listening!

• Building a buyer-friendly firm builds a thriving firm for you too (2:10)
• Focus on fundamentals long before an intended exit: profitability, healthy client concentration, using accrual accounting, etc … addressing fundamentals can’t be done overnight when you want to exit (3:27)
• The best habit to be well-prepared for an exit is a monthly review of your financials, not as primarily a CFO presentation, but with your leaders coming prepared to raise and discuss any issues, present solutions, and then take action (8:40).
• Many of our preconceived ideas about selling an agency can be wrong: how much effort and time it takes, how hard it is to find a buyer, the size we have to be to sell, what we need to do to be ready. It’s worth talking to an expert and getting ahead of something so important (12:22).
• If your fundamentals are strong, expect the selling process to take 3-4 years to produce the best outcomes for you: a year to sell and 2-3 years continuing to work with the new owners to maximize your earnout (12:45).
• Some of the most important factors to work on to minimize difficulty selling and maximize valuation:
  • Profit (EBITA)
  • Client concentration
  • Recurring revenue (good, but not essential)
  • Tight positioning (vertical or horizontal can work)
  • A repeatable business development process, not too owner reliant
  • A strong leadership team

Episode Resources:

• Book: Selling Your Professional Service Firm (By David C. Baker), also available on Amazon and Audible
• Passive Sellers List by Punctuation
• Valuation Service by Punctuation

Coming up in this series on beginning with the end in mind are:

1. An agency founder 25 years in
2. An agency coach and founder with 2 successful exits
3. A co-founder of multiple agencies and an agency holding company

If you have questions or comments about this episode, a topic you’d like covered, or an agency owner or relevant expert we should invite as a guest, we’d like to hear from you! Email podcast@agency.partners

Subscribe to our newsletter to stay in touch or follow Arlen on LinkedIn.

Thank you for listening!

We share the backstory for Agency Partners and the Agency Health Podcast:

• How Arlen got into the agency world
• The experience and values that led to Agency Partners
• What is a healthy agency?
• The complexities of assessing and improving agency health
• The approach we take to growing agency health
• What to expect from the podcast going forward and who it's for
• The vision Arlen has for agencies in the future

Up next is a 4-episode mini-series on exit strategy: how to begin with the end in mind. Guests include:

1. An agency M&A expert
2. A cofounder of an agency holding company
3. An agency coach and founder with 2 exits
4. A career agency founder 25 years in

To stay in touch, subscribe to our newsletter or follow Arlen on LinkedIn.

If you have questions or comments about this episode, a topic you’d like covered, or an agency owner or relevant expert we should invite as a guest, we’d like to hear from you! Email podcast@agency.partners.