Claim OwnershipThe Digital Agency Growth Podcast
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Rated in the top 3% by ListenNotes and going strong for nearly 300 episodes since 2018, The Digital Agency Growth Podcast is dedicated to helping marketing agency owners and executives build stronger firms so they can grow, get acquired, or enjoy more peace of mind. Hosted by agency veteran and Sales Schema CEO Dan Englander, each episode features interviews with successful agency founders, industry experts, and business strategists who share insights on client acquisition, team building, offering optimization, operational efficiency, and sustainable growth models.
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If you’re planning your 2026 biz dev strategy without real market data, you’re guessing. In this episode, I talk with friend of the show Nicholas Petroski, founder of Promethean Research and creator of the Digital Agency Referral Playbook, about what the numbers actually say—and how top agencies are using referrals, account growth, and GTM clarity to build next year’s plan. This is the clearest look you’ll get at what’s really moving the needle heading into 2026. 🧭 What You’ll Learn The refer...
Most agencies try to fix pipeline by working harder, but not by working smarter. This conversation digs into why outbound has gotten tougher, what’s changed in the last decade, and how agencies can build a healthier, more defensible acquisition motion. We cover the shift from brute-force outreach to signal-driven, trust-based systems, why TAM size changes everything, and how sales and marketing need to operate as a single unit for mid-market deals. It’s a clear look at the mechanics behind wi...
In this episode, Dan Englander sits down with Garrett Jestice, former CMO and founder of Prelude, to unpack how to turn that randomness into a repeatable Go-To-Market (GTM) system that actually compounds. Garrett helps B2B agencies and service businesses replace scattered marketing efforts with a focused GTM strategy built on customer proof — clarifying audience, offer, messaging, and channels so growth stops being a guessing game. They break down why most agencies start with the wrong things...
👉 Want to build referrals systematically instead of relying on luck? Grab my book 📘 Relationship Sales at Scale: https://salesschema.com/book -- In this episode, Dan Englander talks with Brooke MacLean, CEO of Marketwake, one of the Southeast’s fastest-growing digital agencies and a five-time Inc. 5000 honoree. Brooke shares how she bootstrapped Marketwake from a solo consulting gig into an 80-person powerhouse serving clients like Yamaha, University of Georgia, and Machete Jewelry — all thr...
In this solo episode, Dan Englander breaks down a truth most agency owners quietly suspect: the majority of sales and marketing advice out there was never written for firms like yours. Most “agency growth” tactics are built for high-volume, productized services with large addressable markets—not for boutique, complex-service agencies selling trust, nuance, and strategy to a few hundred ideal clients. Dan calls this dynamic “The Great Mismatch.” He unpacks why the standard playbooks fail, what...
Every few months, I like to pause and look back at the ideas that resonated most with agency owners on LinkedIn — the ones that got people talking, DM’ing, and quietly saying yeah, that’s been my experience too. This episode isn’t about tactics. It’s a quick tour through the lessons that seem to keep coming up again and again in our world, the stuff we all wrestle with if we’ve been selling complex services for a long time. Stuff I cover The trouble with the awkward commission pitch and...
In this episode, Dan Englander welcomeed Carl Smith, community builder and leader of The Bureau, for a wide-ranging, no-BS conversation on where the agency world is headed. 🧭 What You’ll Learn The “Philosophical Futurist” Mindset How to face rapid change—especially around AI—without fear or cynicism.Inside The Bureau The story behind one of the most influential agency communities and how it evolved from a 24-person retreat to a 1,400-member ecosystem.The New Agency Model: Guilds & Partn...
Most agencies don’t have a lead generation problem—they have a leverage problem. In this episode of The Digital Agency Growth Podcast, Dan Englander dives deep into how agencies can grow faster by amplifying what they already have: past clients, case studies, frameworks, and relationships. Forget chasing the latest marketing fad or new sales channels; sometimes the fastest path to growth is working smarter with the assets already in your hands. What You’ll Learn in This Episode: What “leverag...
In this episode, I sat down with @Sharon Toerek from Innovative Agency to talk about the real shifts happening in agency business development — and the constant evolution that comes with them. We unpacked why 2025 is the year agencies need to get honest about their positioning, how trust — not information — has become the key currency, and why specialization isn’t just smart, it’s essential for survival. ⏱️ Timestamps 0:00 – Welcome and introduction: why the agency landscape feels confusing i...
In this episode of the Digital Agency Growth Podcast, I’m joined by Brock Murray, co-founder of seoplus+, a digital marketing agency he launched back in 2012 that has grown into a 50+ person team serving clients across North America and beyond. Brock shares the arc of his journey, from launching his first web hosting business at 14, to building seoplus+ with his partner Eddie, to scaling through multiple growth stages while navigating the challenges of delegation, client specialization, and l...
Most agencies live and die by referrals. But here’s the catch: They usually happen randomly.When you do ask for intros, it feels like giving people homework.And even if you’re consistent, it’s hard to know where the real opportunities actually are.In this solo episode, I share my journey from the “analog networking” days of wandering trade shows… to running hundreds of cold campaigns during the trust recession… to finally cracking the code on how to make referrals systematic, scalable, and pr...
In this episode, I talk with @Audrey Kwan in the Small But Mighty Agency, to tackle one of the most misunderstood growth levers in agency land: referrals. Together, they unpack how trust is the new currency in a cold-lead-saturated market—and how smart agencies are building systems around referrals, not just hoping they happen. ⏱️ Timestamps 0:00 – Why cold outreach is failing and trust is everything 2:10 – The rise of trust-based selling in the agency world 5:40 – Why personalization alone i...
In this episode of the Digital Agency Growth Podcast, I’m joined by Eric Baum, founder and CEO of Blue Leads—one of the top HubSpot Solutions Partners globally. Eric shares the full arc of his journey, from accidentally starting an agency after hacking Yellow Pages spend for his plumbing business, to scaling a team of 40+, to building one of the most successful HubSpot implementations agencies in the world. We dig into what it actually takes to get out of the sales seat, build second-layer le...
Proposals can make or break your agency’s Q4 pipeline. Too vague, and prospects don’t see the value. Too detailed, and they get stuck in analysis paralysis. In this episode, Dan is joined by Joe Ardeeser, founder of Smart Pricing Table, to talk about how agencies can strike the right balance, upsell strategically, and close deals faster as the year wraps up. Whether you’re facing slow proposals, scope creep, or undercharging, this conversation gives you practical steps to turn proposals into ...
As summer winds down, many agencies face the same problem: pipelines that dried up in July and August, and a mad dash to generate momentum before year-end. In this episode, Dan lays out a practical action plan for September outreach — how to reset your business development, stand out to brands, and build the right conversations that lead to Q4 results. This is from Dan’s conversation with Stephen Woessner on the Sell With Authority podcast. what you’ll learn: Why most agencies waste energy ch...
In this episode, I sit down with Roger Nairn, CEO of JAR Podcast Solutions, to talk about how he’s grown a top-tier production agency working with brands like Amazon, Lululemon, Amex, and Cirque du Soleil. We get into the systems, sales strategies, and creative positioning that helped him go from “no name, no business plan” to building a client list most agencies dream about. ⏱ Timestamps 00:00 – From hobbyist to first client in four days 02:35 – Why “just starting” beats overplanning every t...
In this episode, I sat down with the Happy Clients Podcast to talk about what’s working in agency sales right now, without the cringe, without the outdated playbooks, and without turning you into a full-time cold caller. Most agencies can sell for their clients all day, but when it comes to their growth, things can get messy. I’ve spent the better part of a decade helping agencies stop relying on “hope and referrals” and start building sales systems that work. ⏱ Timestamps 00:00 – The “spar...
In this episode, I sat down with Kristen Sweeney, the founder of Every Little Word — a boutique content and communications agency that’s laser-focused on helping complex B2B orgs share what they actually know in ways that actually work. We got into the nitty-gritty of what it means to build trust with subject matter experts, why most B2B content is fundamentally broken, and how Kristen made a huge decision to walk away from a partner that was 60% of her business. Timestamps...
In this week´s episode Stewart Gandolf joins me to talk through what it actually takes to niche down, build a sustainable agency, and scale without losing your sanity or soul. Stewart’s been in the healthcare marketing game for over two decades, and his experience building Healthcare Success into one of the top firms in the space is loaded with tactical insight. We talk about the trap of project-based work, how to structure your agency around recurring revenue, and why most agencies screw up ...
This solo episode is a deep dive into the unsexy but transformative groundwork that agency owners need to lay to build a reliable new business engine. Dan breaks down what really separates enterprise-level agencies from the ones stuck in "Cobbler’s Children" limbo — not just in terms of tactics, but in mindset, strategy, people, and execution. He shares hard-won lessons from years of running Sales Schema and coaching 200+ agencies, including how to stop waiting for referrals, start building d...
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