The Profit, People & Productivity Podcast

Imagine reading your CV out on a first date. Paul Simms says that's exactly how most agencies market themselves.In part two of our conversation, Paul, founder and CEO of Impatient Health, gets into the questions every agency owner is wrestling with right now: why authenticity wins more work than polish, why AI-written content is quietly eroding trust, and why he believes AI won't kill agencies, but will change what clients pay them for.He's also refreshingly honest about his own mistakes, including the positioning problem that held his consulting business back, and the friend who started an agency the same year and is now selling $40m a year.00:00 Don't let AI do the thinking02:45 Would you read your CV on a first date?07:29 Why AI is killing trust12:54 Scaling authenticity beyond the founder16:24 "I'm not for you": the power of strong positioning19:44 Will AI kill agencies?26:05 "I can do it in five minutes on my laptop"30:29 How Impatient Health uses AI33:36 Say no to nine things before saying yes to one36:35 Three golden nuggets for agency owners42:26 Becoming a pull company, not a push company46:05 The positioning mistake that cost himMissed part one? Listen here: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-profit-people-productivity-podcast/id1840172937?i=1000793813402https://open.spotify.com/episode/0nZjdSTi4YPZwRsJb1aE4I?si=EPBVBjEASB6x6Q8sYwEq4A&utm_source=copy-linkhttps://youtu.be/OZCZrRgo8cM?si=MqrSPtAunz4Ev34rConnect with Paul Simms: https://impatient.health/staff/paul-simms/Alfie Wenegieme / Profit Sprout: https://profitsproutconsultancy.com/This episode is sponsored by Rofinery, the commercial visibility platform for agencies: https://www.rofinery.comIf you run an agency, follow the show and pass this episode to another founder who needs to hear it.#agencyowners#agencyfounders#agencygrowth#agencylife#agencyleadership#agencymarketing #commsagencies#creativeagencies#digitalagencies#profitability#founderlife #profitsproutconsultancy#rofinery#peoplemanagement#leadership#marketing #marketingagency

Most of what your clients ask for will keep you average.Paul Simms spent three years quietly building a marketing methodology on oneuncomfortable premise: customers don't know what they want, and asking them isa dangerous strategy. Paul is the founder and CEO of Impatient Health and formerCEO of eyeforpharma, which he built into pharma's largest event business over 17 years before selling to Reuters in 2019. In part one of this two-part conversation, he unpacks why provocative ideas beat market research, how concept cars and Paris Fashion Week actually work, and what agency owners can borrow from his "halo loop" - a repeatable cycle of provocation, learning, and building that creates pull instead of push. 00:00 Six months of my work, postponed or cancelled03:12 Earning the title "pharma provocateur"05:43 The event that unlocked the entrepreneur in him12:41 You can't break the rules until you know the rules16:30 You need to define who isn't your customer27:23 All three business arms being profitable is a badthing33:27 Why asking customers what they want is a dangerousstrategy41:04 The halo loop: turn provocation into pull52:34 How agencies can run bounded experiments with boldideas Connect with Paul Simms: linkedin.com/in/psimmsAlfie Wenegieme / Profit Sprout: linkedin.com/in/alfie-wenegiemeRofinery: https://www.rofinery.com

An inside look at how Camino is scaling with AI without losing what makes it work: its people.Jess from Camino walks through the AI tool her team built in-house, which went from 70% accuracy in 2023 to 99% today, and why she's adamant AI hasn't replaced a single job at her agency. She explains why Camino is still hiring juniors while other agencies cut junior headcount, what running a fully remote team built around Slack actually looks like day to day, and the one thing that keeps her up at night as the business grows. She closes with her start, stop, and thing to seriously consider for anyone leading an agency right now.#AgencyLife #AgencyGrowth #AgencyOperations #AgencyOwner #AgencyManagement #DigitalAgency #Rofinery #MedComms #AIinBusiness #AgencyCulture

Most agencies chase growth or profit. Camino's Jess Blackwell built both, hitting £5.3m revenue and over 25% EBIT in three years. In this episode, Camino COO and co-founder Jess Blackwell breaks down how she and co-founder James Turnbull left secure corporate roles with no clients and no funding to build one of the most awarded medcoms agencies in the UK. She explains why they built an agency rather than a consultancy, how "land and expand" drives their organic growth, the real risks behind hiring ahead of the curve, and why every member of her team, not just the finance function, needs commercial acumen. Jess also shares the mistake that nearly cost Camino repeat business early on, and how she thinks about client concentration risk as the business scales.#AgencyLife #AgencyGrowth #AgencyOperations #AgencyOwner #AgencyManagement #DigitalAgency #Rofinery #MedComs #AgencyLeadership #OrganicGrowth

Mark Robinson went from a struggling agency to winning every proposal pitched for three months straight. Here's exactly what changed.In part two of this conversation, Mark gets into the detail of how Wrapped turned their new business around, why agency owners should never step away from sales, and what most agencies get wrong when things aren't working. He also covers the shift from Google to LLM search -- why not showing up on ChatGPT or Claude is now a real visibility problem -- and why children are actually the best salespeople in the world.#AgencyLife #AgencyGrowth #AgencyOperations #AgencyOwner #AgencyManagement #DigitalAgency #Rofinery #NewBusiness #AgencySalespwPWWQiwCf7NzPJKnwGL