The Agency Profit Podcast

Points of Interest00:01 – 01:28 – Introduction: Marcel and Carson set up the focus of the episode on why cash flow deserves as much attention as profitability in agency businesses.01:28 – 03:31 – Two Extreme Cash Flow Scenarios: Carson shares real client examples of agencies with tight cash despite solid operations and others with healthy bank balances masking eroding profitability, highlighting why cash and profit are easy to confuse.03:31 – 07:35 – Cash Flow vs Profitability and the Accrual Lens: Marcel explains that cash flow and profitability are correlated but distinct, outlining how agencies can be profitable with poor cash flow or unprofitable with strong cash, and introduces the importance of having both cash and accrual views.07:35 – 11:01 – Debt, Leverage, and the Cost of Poor Cash Flow: The conversation turns to agency debt, debt service ratios, and how borrowing is often used to cover weak unit economics, with Marcel warning how costly debt and “poor person pricing” can wipe out thin margins.11:17 – 18:03 – Lever One: Speeding Up Cash Collection: Marcel walks through practical ways to accelerate cash in the door, including stronger payment terms, bigger deposits, earlier invoicing, incentives for early payment, AR processes, auto-pay, and invoice factoring, while stressing how faster cash can create a dangerous illusion of higher profitability.18:03 – 21:28 – Lever Two: Delaying or Spreading Expenditures: The discussion shifts to reducing or smoothing cash outflows via flexible labor, aligning contractor terms with client terms, shortening the “cash down payment” needed to serve large projects, and avoiding unprofitable work chosen only for easier cash flow.21:28 – 26:34 – Variable Cost Models, Leasing, and Refinancing: Marcel outlines options like moving from upfront to usage-based models, leasing instead of buying, using tax planning, and refinancing expensive lines of credit into longer-term, lower-interest loans to ease monthly cash burden.26:34 – 29:04 – The Trap of Short-Term Cash Fixes: They highlight how tactics that conserve cash now—high-interest credit, invoice factoring, short-term debt—often make the business more expensive to run later, and stress the importance of applying for credit while the business is still healthy.29:04 – 33:12 – Lever Three: Building Cash Reserves and Planning for Seasonality: Marcel explains how to build three to six months of operating expenses plus two to four payrolls in cash, manage owner distributions, plan for slow periods like holidays, and use shareholder loans and credit strategically.33:12 – 36:21 – When Big Cash Reserves Hide Problems: The hosts discuss how large cash balances can mask emerging profitability or cash flow issues, arguing for a disciplined cadence of reviewing both cash and accrual metrics so owners see problems before they become crises.36:21 – 40:25 – Key Profitability Benchmarks Agencies Should Track: Marcel summarizes the core accrual benchmarks—delivery margin, direct delivery margin, overhead as a percentage of AGI, operating margin, average billable rate, utilization, and average cost per hour—as the foundation of sound unit economics.40:25 – 43:11 – Cash Flow Metrics and Parakeeto’s Evolving Role: The episode closes with a rundown of cash-specific metrics—cash reserves, operating cash flow vs EBITDA, AR/AP days, CAC payback, debt service coverage, and line-of-credit usage—and a look at how Parakeeto is expanding its services to help agencies manage profitability and cash flow holistically.Show NotesPodcast Episode on Revenue Recognition with Marcel & CarsonLink to Notes File For Cash Flow ImprovementLove 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 Interest0:01 – 01:27 – Introduction: Marcel welcomes returning guest Vito Peleg, CEO of Atarim, and frames the conversation around how agencies can streamline creative collaboration and leverage AI to improve delivery efficiency and profitability.01:28 – 03:27 – From Touring Musician to Collaboration Software Founder: Vito shares his backstory as a touring musician building websites from a van, then running a web agency, and how constant friction getting clients to give timely, clear feedback led to the first version of Atarim as a WordPress plugin.03:27 – 06:46 – The True Cost of Collaboration on Delivery Timelines: Marcel highlights how reducing delivery time by 50–70% transforms profit and cash flow, and Vito reframes the issue by showing that collaboration with clients and stakeholders routinely increases project timelines by 500–700%.06:46 – 10:06 – Why Text-Based Feedback Breaks Creative Work: Vito explains that human feedback is naturally three to five words and visual, but agencies force clients into long, text-heavy descriptions via email, docs, and tickets, creating procrastination, dead time, and constant misalignment.08:39 – 10:06 – Vague Feedback and Week-Long Clarification Cycles: Citing Atarim’s data, Vito notes that 68% of creative comments written in text are too vague to action on first pass, leading to clarification cycles that typically add a full week to even simple tasks like updating a slide.10:12 – 15:07 – Building Momentum and “Two Days and a Weekend”: In response to Marcel’s question about where agencies lose the most efficiency, Vito argues the biggest gap is at project start and introduces the “two days and a weekend” framing plus fast, simple deliverables (like a sitemap) to create momentum and urgency.15:15 – 17:28 – Getting Imperfect Work in Front of Clients Early: Marcel and Vito discuss reframing early deliverables explicitly as rough first passes so clients expect to react rather than receive perfection, reducing sunk-cost risk and speeding up alignment on direction.17:28 – 24:49 – How AI Is Compressing Build Time and Changing UI: Vito describes the evolution from hand-coded sites to drag-and-drop builders and now prompt-driven interfaces, arguing that AI will shrink creation time so dramatically that collaboration will become an even larger relative drag on projects.22:29 – 25:56 – The Future of Figma, Builders, and Dynamic Interfaces: Vito predicts that the traditional Figma-to-dev pipeline will erode as tools let teams go from prompt to production UI, while Marcel adds a Google perspective on a future where AI dynamically renders interfaces tailored to each user.30:37 – 37:42 – Agencies as Orchestrators of AI Agents, Not Just Humans: Vito outlines a future where agency owners orchestrate a team of AI agents instead of being the “talent,” potentially pricing work by tokens instead of dev hours, and using agents to automate follow-ups, support, and clarification cycles like Atarim’s Claro.39:14 – 45:19 – Atarim’s Agentic Creative Team Vision and Next Steps: Vito explains how Atarim is building a multi-human, multi-agent collaboration environment where specialized AI teammates (design, accessibility, performance, PM) work together in threads, and invites listeners to explore the early-access experience at Atarim.io.Show NotesConnect with Vito via LinkedInWebsite: Atarim.ioLove 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 – 02:30 – Introduction: Marcel and Kristen introduce the episode’s focus on productized services versus custom work and set the expectation for a nuanced, non-dogmatic discussion for agencies.02:31 – 07:25 – Defining Productized Services & Common Misconceptions: Marcel defines productization as selling a clear outcome for a fixed price, explains that backend processes do not need to be identical every time, and debunks the idea that productized services must be rigid or factory-like.07:26 – 11:31 – Benefits of Productized Services for Sales and Operations: The hosts outline how productized services can shorten sales cycles, simplify proposals and contracts, standardize onboarding and delivery, and support more scalable, profitable operations when paired with strong process and pricing.11:32 – 15:43 – Hidden Costs and Rigidity of Productization: Marcel explains how process investments create product and operational debt that are expensive to maintain and slow to change, highlighting the risk of misfit productized offers in complex or iterative work like web and software development.15:44 – 19:00 – Pricing Model Quadrant and Scope–Contract Alignment: The conversation explores the value–risk pricing quadrant and shows how flat-fee or fixed-scope productized offers can clash with agile, fluid scopes when every backlog change forces contract renegotiation and erodes margin.19:01 – 22:33 – Abstracted Time & Materials as a “Productized” Offer: Marcel introduces abstracted time and materials models such as leasing a cross-functional team per sprint, arguing that agencies can sell clear “products” without fixed deliverables while using pricing structures that better share risk with clients.22:34 – 27:10 – Strategic Upsides of Custom Work for Complex Problems: The hosts outline how custom work suits complex, high-value, or enterprise-level problems, enables larger deal sizes and higher absolute profit, and lets agencies operate in less crowded, harder-to-solve problem spaces.27:11 – 29:40 – Staffing Strategy for Custom Agencies: Marcel describes a staffing model built around a small core of senior experts and a flexible bench of freelancers or contractors, enabling agencies to absorb project volume swings without constant hiring and layoffs.29:41 – 33:44 – Pricing, Delivery Margin, and Contractor Economics: The discussion dives into calculating delivery margin targets for internal staff versus contractors, marking up units of time appropriately, and deciding when to treat outside experts as pass-through costs while still protecting project profitability.35:07 – 37:48 – Debunking the Myth That Custom Work Cannot Scale: Marcel challenges the claim that custom work is inherently unscalable or unprofitable by pointing to large professional services firms, while acknowledging the real challenges around utilization, staffing, and pricing on time and materials.37:49 – 42:32 – Market Context, Price Ceilings, and Competitive Pressure: The hosts explain how custom approaches can price agencies out of mid-market segments where clients do not value extensive process, and emphasize matching the business model to what the market needs and is willing to pay for.42:33 – 48:53 – Choosing the Right Model and Recommended Resources: The episode closes with a call to map services against value and risk, design pricing and delivery models accordingly, avoid chasing productization as a silver bullet, and check out suggested experts and resources on productized services and pricing.Show NotesPricing Model QuadrantChris DuboisAnthony GindinBrian KessmanGreg Hickman 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 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.

Points of Interest00:00–01:02 – Introduction: Marcel welcomes Stephen, a veteran agency operator, author, and CEO of Predictive ROI focused on helping agencies sell more by adding value.01:02–03:09 – Who Predictive ROI Serves: Stephen explains their exclusive focus on agencies and their expertise in business development through authority positioning and structured nurture.03:09–05:18 – Systems Mindset Origin Story: From Air Force missile silos to agency life, Stephen shares how life-or-death procedures taught him the power of process in selling.06:21–07:30 – Why Go-to-Market Matters Now: With AI as a new disruption, positioning and trust creation become mission-critical as channels get noisier.07:30–11:30 – Trust Starts Below Zero: Referencing market skepticism, Stephen argues prospects begin in “distrust,” so sellers must over-prove capability through repeated value.11:30–15:43 – Expertise vs. Empty Positioning: Marcel critiques “lipstick positioning” and argues public demonstrations of expertise are required to restore credibility.17:06–20:30 – Power of Long-Form Content: Both highlight unscripted, long-form conversations as a stress test that builds trust better than polished sound bites.20:49–23:55 – Step 1: Choose a Narrow Who: The framework begins by declaring a niche, rejecting generic messaging, and embracing focus as the path to demand.23:55–28:27 – Step 2: Name the Methodology: Codify problems, pillars, and levers; document common mistakes and strategic moves so teaching and delivery match.30:18–33:51 – Trust Architecture: Help Me Understand: First sales meeting is a five-question diagnostic about the prospect’s priorities, obstacles, and market—no pitching.34:08–39:53 – Align & Prescribe → Meet & Greet: Use a self-scoring “Focus Finder,” then have strategists teach the system, add proof and ROI, and gain conceptual agreement.40:24–48:00 – Content Blueprint & Consistency: Turn the methodology into pillars (Grow, Nurture, Sell), create cornerstone content, repurpose across channels, and show up weekly.Show NotesEdelman Trust Barometer reportPredictiveroi.com/resourcesStephen’s LinkedInLove 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 – 01:30 – 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.

Points of Interest1:08 – 1:44 – Defining Retainers: Marcel and Carson introduce the topic of retainers, noting how different agencies define them in varied ways.2:05 – 2:37 – Core Benefit of Retainers: Carson explains that retainers create recurring revenue and provide clients with consistent access to agency resources.2:50 – 3:33 – Historical Context: Marcel traces retainers back to traditional professional services, where upfront payments secured future capacity.3:44 – 5:19 – Modern Variations: The conversation highlights how retainers have evolved into many models, including time-and-materials, flat fees, and performance-based pricing.5:32 – 7:04 – Pitfalls of Prepaid Hours: Carson critiques “bucket of hours” retainers, emphasizing their lack of control and operational strain.7:10 – 9:29 – Accrual Accounting Risks: Marcel outlines how prepaid hours create deferred revenue liabilities that are often untracked, leading to serious cash flow problems.11:05 – 11:41 – Operational Consequences: Carson notes that unexpected claims on rollover hours can overwhelm teams, forcing agencies into overwork or costly freelancer hires.12:04 – 14:33 – Pricing Model Quadrant: Marcel introduces the value–risk quadrant, showing how agencies should align retainer structures with engagement value and project risk.15:07 – 16:31 – Abstracted T&M Models: For high-value, high-risk work, Marcel explains why abstracting hours into larger time blocks or cross-functional teams improves leverage and profitability.17:00 – 18:21 – Low-Risk Models: The hosts outline flat retainers tied to deliverables and performance-based pricing tied to client outcomes, noting challenges with attribution.19:00 – 20:27 – Pricing Dynamics: Carson and Marcel discuss how flexibility and overages influence rates, with retainers often discounted for predictability but charged higher when clients exceed agreed capacity.37:06 – 38:14 – Account Management Posture: Marcel contrasts T&M models, where account managers say “yes and” to client requests, with fixed-scope retainers, where the posture shifts to “yes but” requiring tradeoffs or renegotiation.Show NotesConnect with Carson via LinkedIn4 Agency Pricing Models: Which One is Right for You?Maximizing Project Profit Margin: A Guide to Increasing ReturnsFree 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 – 01:09 – Introduction: Marcel introduces guest Matt, founder of The Creative Life and bestselling author, highlighting his mission to help creatives design businesses that align with their lifestyles.01:14 – 02:24 – Coaching High-Level Creatives: Matt explains his role as a coach for award-winning creatives seeking fulfillment beyond the hustle, sharing examples of clients from Disney, Spotify, and the music industry.02:39 – 05:00 – Early Career and First Business: Matt recounts his start in advertising agencies, the launch of his own creative business, and his pursuit of a digital nomad lifestyle inspired by The 4-Hour Workweek.05:00 – 07:28 – Incongruence of Success and Fulfillment: While achieving his dream of running a remote business, Matt realized his work lacked meaning and fulfillment, sparking a personal crisis after the sudden loss of a family friend.07:57 – 10:46 – Discovering Core Values: Through coaching, Matt identified that fulfillment comes from emotional states like freedom, impact, and significance, which guided his transition into life coaching for creatives.12:02 – 15:47 – Three Core Challenges for Creatives: Matt outlines the main struggles creatives face: lack of differentiation, poor communication of value, and inability to scale delivery beyond the founder.18:03 – 20:56 – Differentiation Through Unique Experience: Matt introduces the idea of standing on a “mountain of value,” emphasizing that personal stories and experiences create unique positioning for creative businesses.21:38 – 24:00 – The Four P’s of Positioning: Matt shares his framework for differentiation—Person, Problem, Promise, and Process—illustrated with a case study of a former Spotify designer who grew by niching into music tech branding.26:26 – 28:22 – Communicating Value Through Symptoms: Matt explains why creatives must focus on client symptoms rather than their own services to attract higher-quality clients earlier in the buying journey.30:28 – 34:52 – Shifting the Sales Approach: Marcel and Matt discuss how education and thought leadership build trust, while Matt emphasizes the importance of mastering sales conversations to accelerate client acquisition.35:32 – 37:20 – Building Scalable Delivery Systems: Matt describes how to design repeatable processes that move clients from current challenges to desired outcomes, enabling agency founders to step back from daily delivery.39:38 – 42:26 – Final Advice and Resources: Matt promotes his upcoming book The Creative Studio Roadmap and diagnostic tool and encourages creatives to intentionally design businesses that bring freedom, fulfillment, and financial security.Show NotesConnect with Matt via:LinkedInWebsiteMatt’s One Page Sales FrameworkCreative Courage Podcast: 3 Strategies To Skyrocket Your Agency’s Profit with Marcel PetitpasNew Book Tool: Quiz ToolLove 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 – 00:51 – Introduction: Marcel welcomes Carson Pierce back to the show and introduces the episode’s focus on utilization, specifically the hidden costs of low utilization in agencies.01:18 – 01:50 – Why Utilization Matters Now: Marcel notes that many agencies are struggling with overstaffing and underutilization in a difficult market, which compounds hidden costs over time.01:50 – 02:45 – Carson’s Perspective on Utilization: Carson explains that agency owners often see only the surface-level financial impact of low utilization, but miss the deeper, unexpected effects it creates.02:45 – 03:26 – Everyday Utilization Analogies: Carson shares real-world examples, like an unused Jeep and moving trucks, to illustrate how underutilized assets quietly drain resources.03:39 – 05:59 – Defining Utilization Clearly: Marcel defines utilization as the percentage of purchased team capacity actually used for revenue-generating client work, clarifying common misconceptions and variations.07:25 – 09:25 – Over-Servicing as a Hidden Cost: Carson highlights how idle team members often fill time by overservicing clients, which distorts expectations, undermines project profitability, and becomes habitual.09:25 – 11:00 – Internal Projects and Incentives: Marcel explains that low utilization often shifts time into internal projects, which can be productive but frequently become unfocused or misaligned with priorities.11:00 – 13:47 – Lost Efficiency Without Pressure: Carson argues that high utilization forces efficiency improvements, whereas low utilization removes urgency, leading to stagnant processes and missed bottleneck discovery.15:55 – 17:46 – Disengagement and Cultural Risks: Carson warns that underutilized employees may feel unproductive, disengage, or eventually leave, while survivors of downsizing can resist returning to higher workload levels.20:08 – 21:34 – Opportunity Cost of Low Utilization: Marcel expands on the long-term financial risks, including reduced profitability, lower enterprise value, depleted cash reserves, and a shift to defensive decision-making.25:23 – 27:35 – Managing Unutilized Time Wisely: Carson advises agencies to be deliberate with excess capacity, setting clear expectations for client over-servicing or internal projects and preparing for busy periods.29:21 – 34:21 – Modeling and Leadership Lessons: Marcel and Carson stress the importance of building a business model to set realistic utilization targets, and Marcel shares candid lessons from Parakeeto’s restructuring journey.Show NotesDeep dive on UtilizationUtilization CalculatorBook: The GoalLove 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 Interest1:10 – 2:03 – Introduction: Marcel welcomes Mike Grinberg, founder of Proofpoint Marketing, who specializes in helping boutique firms strengthen positioning to compete against large incumbents.2:15 – 3:54 – Competing with “IBM”: Mike explains his role as helping boutique firms reduce client risk perception so they can win against well-known, safer-seeming competitors.4:48 – 5:40 – The Safe Choice Problem: Agencies that differentiate too much without context risk being seen as confusing or risky, which often drives clients back to incumbents.5:46 – 8:44 – Positioning Overlooked Through Risk: Traditional positioning frameworks focus on being better or different but rarely consider how buyers perceive risk in making a nontraditional choice.10:08 – 12:52 – Why Positioning Matters More Now: In uncertain markets, poor positioning is exposed. Firms that only grew with the tide find themselves struggling when growth slows.13:10 – 14:16 – Positioning as an Operational Issue: Positioning cannot be treated as surface-level messaging; it must be reflected in delivery, hiring, onboarding, and overall business design.15:13 – 17:29 – Three Levels of Differentiation: Mike outlines functional, intellectual property (frameworks, tools, methodologies), and promotional differentiation as the three vectors agencies must align.19:00 – 20:13 – The Category Dilemma: Agencies often struggle between fitting into known categories, which brings competition, or creating new ones, which increases client risk and education costs.22:23 – 24:03 – Functional vs. IP Positioning: Mike advocates anchoring to existing categories functionally while differentiating through intellectual property and go-to-market messaging.26:30 – 27:49 – Starting with Ideal Client Profile (ICP): Effective positioning begins with deeply defining the ICP beyond titles and industries, including attributes like stage, structure, and challenges.30:26 – 36:23 – The Risk Perception Matrix: Mike introduces his framework with two axes—personal vs. organizational risk and internal skepticism vs. external questioning—to explain how agencies can derisk buying decisions at every stage.Show NotesConnect with Mike via LinkedInNewsletter: Proofpoint.marketingRisk Perception MatrixLove 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 Interest0:00 – 0:17 – Opening: Marcel reflects on building production-level software using low-code tools without prior coding experience, setting the stage for a discussion on rapid change in the agency landscape.1:01 – 3:40 – Conference Context & Audience: Marcel shares his experience at Web Summer Camp in Opatija, Croatia, hosted by Netgen, describing its highly technical European attendee base and collaborative environment.5:03 – 7:18 – European Agency Realities: The conversation explores regulated salaries, generous benefits, and extended vacation policies in markets like North Macedonia, and how these shape agency cost structures compared to North America.7:18 – 11:16 – Local vs. Export Markets: Many Eastern European agencies balance serving lower-rate local clients with the opportunity and challenges of selling into higher-priced North American and UK markets.11:16 – 14:22 – Trust and Positioning Across Borders: Marcel emphasizes that weak positioning, not geography, is often the real barrier to winning high-value international work and urges agencies to invest in thought leadership.16:19 – 18:20 – AI as a Global Equalizer: They discuss how AI is redefining “geo-arbitrage” by giving agencies worldwide access to powerful, low-cost capabilities, eroding traditional labor-cost advantages.19:09 – 21:05 – Universal Agency Benchmarks: Marcel notes that delivery margin targets above 50% and overhead at 20–30% apply globally, though currency differences can magnify software cost burdens in some regions.22:24 – 25:26 – Retaining Talent in a Global Market: Agencies face competition from multinational firms and startups for top talent, leading many to adopt flexible, growth-oriented cultures to keep their teams engaged.26:29 – 28:19 – Collaboration as Competitive Advantage: The cooperative nature of the agency community, in both Europe and North America, is positioned as key to navigating future M&A activity and industry shifts.29:17 – 31:35 – The Power of Networking: Marcel highlights the role of trusted peer relationships in unlocking referrals, partnerships, and acquisition opportunities during both strong and challenging economic cycles.32:05 – 36:18 – Positioning for the North American Market: Competing solely on technical capability is becoming harder; agencies must lean into operational excellence or deep specialization to sustain premium pricing.37:00 – 40:19 – Final Take on Adaptability: Marcel closes by underscoring the importance of solving specific, high-value problems better than anyone else, with specialization and clarity as enduring competitive levers.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 Interest0:00 – 1:25 – Guest Introduction: Marcel welcomes James Friel, serial entrepreneur, investor, and leadership expert, to discuss building scalable, profitable businesses through effective operations and leadership.1:26 – 3:08 – Journey from Corporate to Entrepreneurship: James shares his transition from aerospace and software engineering into consulting, entrepreneurship, and acquiring businesses, driven by a curiosity for how businesses function.3:09 – 4:48 – Building a Sellable Business: James outlines his core focus—helping founders create businesses that generate cash flow and are structured for potential exit through strong infrastructure and operational clarity.5:00 – 6:46 – The First Principle: Customer-Perceived Value: A business is only viable if customers see genuine value in its offerings. Founders often overvalue their own ideas and under-prioritize market fit.6:47 – 10:14 – Value Creep and Feature Fatigue: James critiques how companies add features that customers don’t value, creating bloat and eroding customer loyalty—highlighting the need for focus and feedback.10:15 – 11:24 – People and Culture as Core Assets: A business with enterprise value depends on its people. Leadership, culture, and alignment are foundational to building an organization that can thrive without the founder.11:25 – 13:56 – James’ Leadership Struggles and Realizations: James recounts his early leadership challenges and how they motivated his deep dive into team performance, management systems, and organizational design.15:00 – 16:15 – The Three Core Failures: Most performance issues stem from lack of leadership, accountability, and clarity. Fixing these creates the foundation for sustainable team success.16:16 – 21:24 – Why Leadership Is a Profit Lever: Leadership is essential for ROI on your largest expense—people. Poor leadership silently burns cash and stalls growth, despite having the right strategy or data.23:37 – 26:17 – Willingness vs. Ability Matrix: James introduces a simple performance framework that helps leaders assess team members based on their alignment (willingness) and skills (ability).33:01 – 37:52 – Role-Based Scorecards: James breaks down his approach to team structure using one-page scorecards for each role—clarifying objectives, tasks, metrics, and reporting expectations.38:00 – 40:17 – Introducing the “57 Hats” Product: James shares his new gamified tool that helps founders identify and delegate responsibilities, creating clarity on team structure and freeing them to focus on growth.Show NotesConnect with James:LinkedInWebsiteGame: 57 Hats Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Points of Interest0:00 – 0:13 – Introduction: Marcel Petitpas introduces the importance of pricing in agency profitability, emphasizing that even great delivery and project management can’t compensate for poor pricing strategy.1:00 – 1:39 – The Problem with Pricing Guesswork: Kristen Kelly explains that most agencies lack a formal pricing framework, often relying on gut feelings, competitor comparisons, or outdated rate cards.2:09 – 3:49 – “Vibe-Based” Pricing Explained: Marcel highlights how pricing decisions are frequently made without math or structure, leading to unclear expectations and poor profit outcomes.4:00 – 5:35 – Budget-First Pricing Pitfalls: Agencies that accept client budgets without recalibrating scope or checking for margin risk setting themselves up for failure from the outset.6:27 – 7:46 – Undercharging and Overdelivering: Many agencies underestimate the margin needed for true profitability, aiming too low and failing to account for overhead, unutilized time, and business costs.9:00 – 10:33 – Scope Creep and the $0 Change Order: Kristen and Marcel discuss strategies for managing out-of-scope requests, including the effective use of $0 change orders to maintain boundaries.11:43 – 14:20 – The Right Way to Factor in Overhead: Marcel breaks down how to incorporate overhead and indirect costs into pricing without overly complex calculations or flawed net profit heuristics.16:15 – 19:49 – Choosing the Right Pricing Model: Using the Agency Pricing Quadrant, the episode explores how risk and value should guide pricing models—ranging from hourly to value-based strategies.19:53 – 22:34 – Tracking Average Billable Rate (ABR): A simple but powerful metric, ABR helps agencies estimate delivery margin and benchmark performance across services and projects.22:56 – 25:09 – Overcoming Fear of Raising Prices: Kristen and Marcel debunk fears around increasing prices, offering strategies for timing and managing legacy client transitions.25:21 – 26:54 – Delivery Margin as a North Star: The key takeaway: aim for a 70% delivery margin when pricing services to ensure room for overhead, profit, and sustainable operations.Show NotesConnect with Kristen via LinkedInFree Agency ToolkitParakeeto Foundations CourseFree access to our Model PlatformPricing CalculatorPricing & Scoping EpisodePricing Model Quadrant Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Points of Interest0:00 – 1:05 – Introduction: Marcel introduces Stephen Neville, CEO of BugHerd, highlighting his background in agency work and his transition into running a SaaS company that helps agencies streamline QA and client feedback.2:24 – 3:10 – The Dream of SaaS: Marcel and Stephen discuss the allure many agency owners feel toward building a product, inspired by success stories like 37signals—often without fully grasping the implications.5:30 – 7:10 – Major Model Differences: Stephen outlines key contrasts between service and product businesses, including delayed ROI in SaaS, the shift from clients to customers, and the challenge of proving value before seeing returns.8:02 – 9:09 – Saying No at Scale: Product businesses require frequent, disciplined “no’s” to user feedback—unlike services, where agencies are more likely to say yes. This shift is critical to managing scope and long-term product health.10:14 – 11:02 – Why Agencies Want to Pivot: Common motives include stabilizing revenue, creating proof of expertise, and giving teams opportunities for skill development—though not all transitions are strategically sound.13:19 – 14:04 – Common SaaS Misconceptions: Marcel highlights flawed assumptions—such as SaaS needing less human capital or being less client-facing—debunking the idea that software removes the need for people.16:20 – 17:01 – SaaS Risk Profile: The risk and financial exposure of building SaaS is often underestimated, with founders needing to endure potentially years of losses before seeing profitability.21:15 – 22:53 – Lessons to Apply in Services: Stephen emphasizes adopting the SaaS discipline of qualifying and deflecting misaligned client requests, to protect team capacity and maintain healthy utilization.24:01 – 24:59 – Productization Without Code: Agencies can create repeatable, value-rich offerings by productizing existing services—without building software—through structured, process-driven deliverables.28:29 – 30:20 – The Real MVP Framework: Marcel shares his “Three Ps” framework—Problem, Point of View, and Process—as the true foundation for product development, arguing services are the best way to validate solutions.33:01 – 34:46 – Services as a SaaS Growth Lever: Stephen explains how services improve acquisition, onboarding, and retention—especially for enterprise clients—making them a strategic tool, not a liability.35:46 – 37:25 – Monetizing Services in SaaS: The conversation closes on the growing trend of SaaS companies charging for implementation and support, reframing these formerly free functions as value-rich offerings worth paying for.Show NotesConnect with Stephen via LinkedInWebsite – Bugherd.com Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.