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What happens when the business you built starts to go the way of the horse and buggy?

In this episode of the Agency Advantage Podcast, Brad Starnes sits down with Pam Mashburn, founder of exploreMedia in Montgomery, Alabama and its national HVAC agency, exploreHVAC & Home Services, to unpack how a newcomer guide turned into a marketing company with a team of 25, what she'd do differently in her first year of niching down, and why she's stopped stressing SEO for small business owners.

Pam is an industrial engineer by degree. At Cummins she helped set up the assembly line for the Dodge Ram diesel engine. When her family moved to Montgomery, her company wasn't there, so she stayed home with her kids and figured out fast that she was made to work. Montgomery was a hard town to figure out, so she started a newcomer guide for military families and other new arrivals. They still publish it. In 2019 they started a digital agency, and later they added HVAC and home services as a third pillar so they could reach beyond a small market. The hardest change wasn't niching down. It was going from a publishing company to a digital agency, and she lost people over it. When someone told her they were a publishing company, she said no, they were a company that was going to survive and thrive. She talks about the people she wishes she'd hired sooner, why EOS and a team she trusts mean the company doesn't have to be "the Pam show," handing off payroll at last, and why her agency is going all in on AI visibility while she still says AI has to be checked by smart people.

In this conversation, Brad and Pam discuss:

From building diesel engines at Cummins to a newcomer guide in Montgomery

Adding HVAC as a third pillar instead of niching the whole company

The first-year mistake: not hiring enough people

Why salespeople shouldn't be your account reps

Side hustle or real business, and running EOS before they were ready

Why the company doesn't have to be the Pam show

Handing off payroll and building a backup for every critical process

Getting a team to follow you into a new niche, and the people you might lose

Why they stopped stressing SEO and went all in on AI visibility

Keeping one culture across a local and remote team

Timestamps:

[00:00] - Agency Advantage intro
[00:28] - Meet Pam Mashburn of exploreMedia and exploreHVAC & Home Services
[01:27] - From Cummins engineer to stay-at-home mom in Montgomery
[02:01] - A newcomer guide for a hard-to-figure-out town
[02:43] - Starting a digital agency and choosing HVAC
[04:20] - Purchasing, processes, and the Dodge Ram assembly line
[04:57] - Helping Americans navigate Germany before smartphones
[05:46] - Why add an HVAC pillar instead of niching everything
[06:30] - It's about leads and conversions, not branding
[08:34] - The first-year mistake: not hiring enough people
[09:21] - Why salespeople shouldn't be the account reps
[11:13] - Side hustle or real business?
[11:51] - Running EOS before they were ready
[13:05] - It didn't have to be the Pam show
[13:31] - Working the hardest station on the shop floor
[16:26] - The last thing she handed off: payroll
[16:52] - A backup for every critical process
[18:54] - Working Genius and trading work with her integrator
[19:49] - Getting your team on board with niching down
[21:32] - Losing people in the shift from publishing to digital
[22:25] - The next pivot: AI
[23:04] - Why they stopped stressing SEO for small businesses
[23:46] - Known, trusted, and found
[25:12] - Why her clients would fire her for an AI rep
[26:25] - Building a team beyond Montgomery
[28:04] - Keeping one culture across local and remote
[29:41] - Teams teaching teams at the monthly lunch and learn
[30:16] - Ideas for bringing a global team together
[31:11] - Pam's advice: don't give up

CONNECT WITH BRAD:

Facebook →
https://www.facebook.com/BradStarnesOfficial/

Instagram →
https://www.instagram.com/bradstarnesofficial/

LinkedIn →
https://www.linkedin.com/in/bradstarnesofficial/

CONNECT WITH PAM:

exploreMedia →
https://exploremedia.com

exploreHVAC & Home Services →
https://www.explorehvac.com

LinkedIn →
https://www.linkedin.com/in/pammashburn/

CONTACT:

TalentFuze →
https://talentfuze.io

Book a call →
http://bradstarnes.fyi/talentfuze/

#AgencyAdvantage #PamMashburn #exploreMedia #exploreHVAC #HVACMarketing #HomeServicesMarketing #AgencyOwner #AgencyGrowth #MarketingAgency #EOS

Are you an agency owner that is looking to scale through global talent? Connect with us at talentfuze.io or join our free Facebook group, The Agency Advantage: https://www.facebook.com/groups/youragencyadvantage/

Are you an agency owner that is looking to scale through global talent? Connect with us at talentfuze.io or join our free Facebook group, The Agency Advantage: https://www.facebook.com/groups/youragencyadvantage/

Send us Fan Mail

Who's answering your leads after you log off for the night?

In this episode of the Agency Advantage Podcast, Brad Starnes sits down with Bryce DeCora, co-founder and CEO of CloseBot, to unpack how a Boeing engineer who hated sales calls ended up building the conversational AI behind more than 1.2 million booked appointments, why he says your appointment setters aren't going anywhere, and the mistake he sees sink AI setups before they ever go live.

Bryce grew up on a farm in Nebraska, got a mechanical engineering degree, and ended up at Boeing working on prototype AI projects. He wanted out of corporate life, and real estate was the only kind of business he knew, because he'd watched his wife do it. He found out fast that he didn't want to spend eight hours a day calling people. So he tinkered in tech instead, and CloseBot is what fell out of it. Then interest rates went up and residential real estate came to a halt. He knew he wasn't going back to Boeing. There was no plan B. He sold the tool to a buddy, it didn't work very well, and he kept fixing it until it did. Then he found the HighLevel Facebook group and just started helping people. He talks about how CloseBot stacks up against HighLevel's built-in conversational AI, why he thinks AI makes more sense than a human for your first sales hire, and why about half of CloseBot's booked appointments happen after hours.

In this conversation, Brad and Bryce discuss:

Leaving an engineering job at Boeing for real estate

Hating sales calls and tinkering in tech instead

Going all in with no plan B when residential real estate stalled

Selling the first version to a buddy and fixing it until it worked

Getting known by being useful in the HighLevel Facebook group

How CloseBot plugs into HighLevel and HubSpot conversations

CloseBot versus HighLevel's built-in conversational AI

Why appointment setters still have a job, and a better one

Why half of booked appointments happen after hours

The biggest mistake: building it way too complex to start

Timestamps:

[00:00] - Agency Advantage intro

[00:28] - Meet Bryce DeCora, co-founder and CEO of CloseBot

[02:46] - Why he wanted out of corporate life

[03:24] - Why his wife's real estate career pulled him in

[05:14] - Hating sales and tinkering in tech instead

[05:47] - Brad's warning: stop building and start selling

[07:33] - The first customer, the first fixes, and the HighLevel group

[09:22] - When residential real estate came to a halt

[10:55] - No plan B

[14:05] - What CloseBot actually does

[14:59] - Real estate, healthcare, and a traveling circus

[16:23] - How it plugs into HighLevel and HubSpot

[17:16] - From basic booking to a roof quote on the spot

[18:41] - Text only, but it understands voice notes

[19:19] - Personal Facebook DMs and Meta's Muse app

[21:34] - CloseBot versus HighLevel's built-in AI

[23:04] - The API, vibe-coded CRMs, and what's coming

[24:42] - Do agencies still need appointment setters?

[27:28] - AI for your first hire and the after-hours 50%

[29:21] - Just turn it on

[30:07] - Using data to build your agency's moat

[31:44] - How many follow-ups it really takes

[32:39] - Right place, right time

[33:27] - Restarting conversations from sales call notes

[36:26] - The biggest mistake: building it way too complex

[37:16] - Stop building and go sell

CONNECT WITH BRAD:

Facebook →

https://www.facebook.com/BradStarnesOfficial/

Instagram →

https://www.instagram.com/bradstarnesofficial/

LinkedIn →

https://www.linkedin.com/in/bradstarnesofficial/

CONNECT WITH BRYCE:

CloseBot →

https://closebot.ai

LinkedIn →

https://www.linkedin.com/in/iambryce/

CONTACT:

TalentFuze →

https://talentfuze.io

Book a call →

http://bradstarnes.fyi/talentfuze/

#AgencyAdvantage #BryceDeCora #CloseBot #ConversationalAI #AIAppointmentSetting #HighLevel #AgencyOwner #AgencyGrowth #MarketingAgency #LeadFollowUp

Are you an agency owner that is looking to scale through global talent? Connect with us at talentfuze.io or join our free Facebook group, The Agency Advantage: https://www.facebook.com/groups/youragencyadvantage/

Are you an agency owner that is looking to scale through global talent? Connect with us at talentfuze.io or join our free Facebook group, The Agency Advantage: https://www.facebook.com/groups/youragencyadvantage/

Send us Fan Mail

What would you cut from your agency if your peace of mind was on the line?

In this episode of the Agency Advantage Podcast, Brad Starnes sits down with James Donovan, owner of Accounting Leads Now, to unpack how an agency doing marketing, VA work, and inbound phone answering for $1,500 a month hit a breaking point, the decision to stop answering clients' phones even though it cost him about a third of his revenue, and the rebrand that turned Nine Two Media and CFO Chronicles into Accounting Leads Now.

James didn't start in accounting. After a layoff he was biking door to door in Toronto, working with hair salons, massage therapists, and cleaning companies, until a friend told him the same playbook could work for accounting firms nationwide. Years later his team had drifted into being three businesses at once. Every day the fires had been burning for hours before anyone logged on, and he says he was the worst version of himself to everyone around him. This past winter, after leaning on his Seven Figure Agency coaches, he told clients the phone answering was ending. Many left. He talks about the relief that came after, why he now leads with local service ads and lower-ticket bookkeeping and monthly accounting work, and why he's too stubborn to quit.

In this conversation, Brad and James discuss:

Getting laid off, knocking on doors in Toronto, and landing in the accounting niche

Why selling fractional CFO services to cold leads takes so much education

Local service ads and the lower-ticket "Trojan horse" offer

Hitting a hard deadline to finish his book, Booked Solid

The word of mouth myth that accounting firm owners keep repeating

Doing way too much for way too little, and the day he stopped answering client phones

Losing about a third of revenue and what came after

Rebranding from Nine Two Media and CFO Chronicles to Accounting Leads Now

Telling the difference between being stubborn and needing to let go

Don't say someone else's no for them

Timestamps:

[00:00] - Agency Advantage intro
[00:28] - Meet James Donovan, owner of Accounting Leads Now
[01:45] - A layoff, door knocking in Toronto, and the 40 mile radius
[02:30] - A friend's nudge into accounting and the ERTC wave
[04:03] - Why fractional CFO leads were hard to sell
[05:17] - Local service ads and the Trojan horse offer
[07:07] - Four rocks a quarter and the deadline that finished his book
[08:55] - Brad's $30 mic podcast launch: just execute
[10:53] - The word of mouth myth in accounting firms
[12:00] - Tax season referrals and the other nine months
[13:37] - Doing way too much for way too little
[14:42] - Daily fires and the worst version of himself
[15:04] - The coaches' reaction and ending the phone answering
[16:27] - The thought process behind the cut
[17:51] - Losing a third of revenue and the relief after
[20:19] - What is your peace of mind worth?
[20:33] - Brad's own pivot and James flips the question
[24:25] - Rebranding a podcast mid-stream
[25:31] - Nine Two Media to Accounting Leads Now
[27:01] - "We're not Coca-Cola"
[29:34] - Too stubborn to quit
[31:59] - How to know what to let go
[32:36] - The F1 analogy: let go to go faster
[34:18] - Don't say someone else's no for them
[36:42] - Where James is still the bottleneck
[39:12] - Believe in yourself and do the work

CONNECT WITH BRAD:

Facebook →
https://www.facebook.com/BradStarnesOfficial/

Instagram →
https://www.instagram.com/bradstarnesofficial/

LinkedIn →
https://www.linkedin.com/in/bradstarnesofficial/

CONNECT WITH JAMES:

Accounting Leads Now →
https://accountingleadsnow.com

The Accounting Leads Now Podcast →
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-accounting-leads-now-podcast/id1760779231

Booked Solid (book) →
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0F4KQ3TZ2

LinkedIn →
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamesbdonovan/

CONTACT:

TalentFuze →
https://talentfuze.io

Book a call →
http://bradstarnes.fyi/talentfuze/

#AgencyAdvantage #JamesDonovan #AccountingLeadsNow #AccountingMarketing #AgencyOwner #AgencyGrowth #MarketingAgency #Rebrand #SevenFigureAgency #NicheMarketing

Are you an agency owner that is looking to scale through global talent? Connect with us at talentfuze.io or join our free Facebook group, The Agency Advantage: https://www.facebook.com/groups/youragencyadvantage/

Are you an agency owner that is looking to scale through global talent? Connect with us at talentfuze.io or join our free Facebook group, The Agency Advantage: https://www.facebook.com/groups/youragencyadvantage/

Send us Fan Mail

Luke Eggebraaten started out flipping go-karts, dune buggies, and beer vending machines on Craigslist in college. He figured if it didn't sell, he'd use it anyway.

He ended up as director of marketing at an orthodontics practice, where his whole job was being the liaison to the marketing agency they hired. Watching that agency make him look good from across the country is what made him think he could do it too. He started Phaser Marketing on the side in 2019 and ran it that way for two years, cash flow positive from month one, paying himself nothing.

What made him finally quit wasn't a revenue milestone. It was a friend at a bar in Omaha asking why he didn't just go full time, and him not having an answer.

Today Phaser serves excavation, septic, and hardscaping companies, about 120 of them, at roughly $200K in monthly recurring revenue with a team of 31.

The centerpiece of this episode is the part most agency owners never hear laid out honestly: how he moved off white label. At seven figures he was spending $50K a month with two white label partners. He spent 14 months migrating clients in batches of four or five, roughly $2K of billing per batch, hiring one specialist per ten clients as he went. Gross margin went from about 40% to 60%. Net went from about 15% to between 25 and 30%.

In this episode:

Why he built a business bank account instead of paying himself for two years
The exact numbers he had when he quit his job, and why he says most people shouldn't copy him
What he means by desperation being a smelly cologne, and why he kept a job to avoid it
Why he collected every medal in the Seven Figure Agency program on purpose instead of sprinting
The batch-by-batch math of moving 120 clients from white label to an in-house team
Why marketing getting diluted is good news if you're actually creative
The two things still on his plate that he can't delegate, and neither one is client work

Timestamps
00:00 Intro
01:34 Go-karts, dune buggies, and beer vending machines on Craigslist
02:34 Director of marketing at an orthodontics practice, and the agency that inspired him
03:03 Starting Phaser in 2019: real estate, demolition, oil field, garage door, and a party bus company
03:47 His wife's job at Carvana, the move to Arizona, and going full time
04:01 Joining Seven Figure Agency and niching into the dirt world
04:30 Where Phaser is today: 120 clients, $200K MRR, 31 team members
05:23 The question at the bar he couldn't answer
05:52 The actual numbers when he quit: $7K MRR, $6K in projects, $8K in the bank
09:14 Who should quit their job and who absolutely should not
11:20 Finding Seven Figure Agency, Josh's book, and the invite from Tony Ricketts
12:46 Why he collected every medal instead of sprinting to seven figures
13:40 What having a coach actually gets you
15:39 "There is no making it"
16:38 Problems get bigger as you grow, but growing is still nicer
17:58 Desperation is a smelly cologne
21:03 Being willing to tell a prospect no
23:16 Marketing your own agency: put the mirror up first
24:42 Why diluted marketing is good news for creative people
26:50 The 80/20 content rule and why most people have it backwards
28:01 Building a personal brand and a company brand that feed each other
29:45 How to run a white label relationship well, and how most agencies blow it
31:30 The margins before the transition: 40% gross, 15% net
32:08 The batch method: five clients at a time, $2K per batch, one hire per ten clients
33:05 Where the margins landed after
37:03 The two things he still can't get off his plate

CONNECT WITH BRAD:

Facebook → https://www.facebook.com/BradStarnesOfficial/
Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/bradstarnesofficial/
LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/in/bradstarnesofficial/

CONNECT WITH LUKE:

Phaser Marketing → https://phasermarketing.com
Dirt Bags Podcast → https://dirtbagspodcast.com
LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/in/luke-eggebraaten/

CONTACT:

TalentFuze → https://talentfuze.io
Book a call → http://bradstarnes.fyi/talentfuze/

#AgencyAdvantage #LukeEggebraaten #PhaserMarketing #DirtWorld #ExcavationMarketing #WhiteLabel #AgencyGrowth #NicheMarketing #MarketingAgency #AgencyOwner

Are you an agency owner that is looking to scale through global talent? Connect with us at talentfuze.io or join our free Facebook group, The Agency Advantage: https://www.facebook.com/groups/youragencyadvantage/

Send us Fan Mail

What happens when you cut your team in half and finally pay yourself more than you made in the OR?

In this episode of the Agency Advantage Podcast, Brad Starnes sits down with Nisha Ryan, Founder and CEO of The Aligned Pretzel Inc, to unpack a car-accident origin story, the six-person payroll that left her working 16-hour days for less than nursing pay, and the boundaries that rebuilt the agency around a lean team of three.

Nisha never planned to start an agency. She was an operating room nurse until she was rear-ended at a red light on her day off. She couldn't work, she'd just finished a yoga teacher certification, so she started teaching online. People asked how she built her website and got paid. She posted that she was opening VA services and had five clients by the end of that day. Ten years later she runs The Aligned Pretzel for online educators, web, funnels, paid ads, and organic social. The middle of that story is the part most agency owners will recognize: saying yes to every client request, stacking people to support the work, and watching margins disappear. What changed wasn't a new offer. It was boundaries, ownership on the team, a January rate-increase schedule, and choosing not to grow just because she could. She's also a single mom to a nearly three-year-old, so the business had to fit a life that can't absorb 16-hour days.

In this conversation, Brad and Nisha discuss:

Twenty years of origin pressure compressed into one accident-to-agency path

The gap between consulting and implementation, and rebuilding the offer around it

Her first retainer: $1,000 a month for up to 40 hours of funnels, email, and social

Being the yes woman, and how that stacked six people onto the payroll

Raising rates every January on a schedule so the conversation stops being scary

Auditing costs outside of labor and cutting overlapping software

"Whatever we normalize, our clients think is normal"

Giving the team ownership instead of routing everything through the founder

Why this isn't her season for growth, and why revenue is still at its highest

Capping new clients at one or two a month on purpose

Asking Kajabi's head of marketing for a stage, and getting flown to headquarters

Timestamps:

[00:00] - Agency Advantage intro 
[01:53] - The car accident that started everything 
[04:40] - First clients, coaches and educators, and Kajabi expert recognition [05:41] - The gap between consulting and implementation 
[08:43] - First retainer: $1,000 a month for up to 40 hours 
[11:23] - Being the yes woman and stacking six people on payroll 
[12:20] - Where to automate versus where to lead 
[14:34] - Raising rates every January on a schedule 
[16:00] - Auditing costs outside of labor 
[21:18] - Less involved than ever, and why single motherhood forced it 
[22:14] - "Whatever we normalize, our clients think is normal" 
[23:11] - Giving the team ownership 
[28:25] - Delegating in her personal life, and the guilt that comes with it 
[32:00] - The message she sent Brad about what's holding her back 
[33:26] - Why this isn't her season for growth 
[35:47] - Growing on purpose at one or two clients a month 
[40:45] - Advice for anyone starting out: minimum viable, then ask 
[41:50] - Asking Kajabi for a stage and getting flown to headquarters

CONNECT WITH BRAD:

Facebook → https://www.facebook.com/BradStarnesOfficial/

Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/bradstarnesofficial/

LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/in/bradstarnesofficial/

CONNECT WITH NISHA:

The Aligned Pretzel → https://thealignedpretzel.co

Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/thealignedpretzelinc/

YouTube → https://www.youtube.com/@thealignedpretzel

LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/in/nisharyan/

CONTACT:

TalentFuze → https://talentfuze.io

Book a call → http://bradstarnes.fyi/talentfuze/

#AgencyAdvantage #NishaRyan #TheAlignedPretzel #AgencyOwner #Boundaries #AgencyGrowth

Are you an agency owner that is looking to scale through global talent? Connect with us at talentfuze.io or join our free Facebook group, The Agency Advantage: https://www.facebook.com/groups/youragencyadvantage/

Are you an agency owner that is looking to scale through global talent? Connect with us at talentfuze.io or join our free Facebook group, The Agency Advantage: https://www.facebook.com/groups/youragencyadvantage/

Send us Fan Mail

What happens when you sell the agency you built, then buy one you didn't?

In this episode of the Agency Advantage Podcast, Brad Starnes sits down with Jono Long, CEO of Leads Near Me, to unpack 20 years as a Metro Atlanta youth pastor, a $300-a-month Facebook side hustle that paid the mortgage, and the decision to acquire a ten-year-old auto repair marketing firm instead of starting over.

Jono sold his church-niche agency in May 2025, then partnered to buy Leads Near Me that October. He walked in as CEO of a team he didn't hire and clients he didn't sell. The agency markets for 800-plus independent auto shops. He talks through splitting fulfillment off the phones, hiring marketing coaches, standing up pods, and why buying beats starting from scratch when the problems are fundamental and the business is already profitable.

In this conversation, Brad and Jono discuss:

Twenty years in youth ministry and the side hustle that became an agency

Why COVID doubled his book instead of wiping it out

Niching into restoration, then churches, and why church margins stayed thin

Selling, then buying: walking into a team and a book you didn't build

Getting specialists off the phones and installing marketing coaches

Pods, 800 shops, and making a large agency feel small

How to pick a niche by who you like serving, not a list

The bottleneck that is almost never a secret sauce

Timestamps:

[00:00] - Agency Advantage intro
[00:28] - Meet Jono Long, CEO of Leads Near Me 
[02:07] - Twenty years as a Metro Atlanta youth pastor 
[03:08] - The $300 Facebook side hustle that paid the mortgage 
[05:12] - Last night in youth ministry, then COVID 
[06:36] - Why he didn't lose a single client 
[08:31] - Restoration, then churches 
[15:50] - Selling the agency, then buying one 
[18:24] - Walking into a team you didn't hire 
[22:19] - Flat org chart, understaffed fulfillment, culture fear 
[23:42] - Specialists off the phones, marketing coaches, pods 
[26:51] - What he fixed first (and what he left as a premium) 
[30:15] - How to pick a niche: like the people, not the list 
[35:19] - Where Jono is the bottleneck (there is no secret sauce)

CONNECT WITH BRAD:

Facebook → https://www.facebook.com/BradStarnesOfficial/

Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/bradstarnesofficial/

LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/in/bradstarnesofficial/

CONNECT WITH JONO:

Leads Near Me → https://leadsnearme.com

LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonolong

CONTACT:

TalentFuze → https://talentfuze.io

Book a call → http://bradstarnes.fyi/talentfuze/

#AgencyAdvantage #JonoLong #LeadsNearMe #AgencyAcquisition #AutoRepairMarketing #AgencyGrowth #NicheMarketing #MarketingAgency #AgencyOwner #Delegation

Are you an agency owner that is looking to scale through global talent? Connect with us at talentfuze.io or join our free Facebook group, The Agency Advantage: https://www.facebook.com/groups/youragencyadvantage/

Are you an agency owner that is looking to scale through global talent? Connect with us at talentfuze.io or join our free Facebook group, The Agency Advantage: https://www.facebook.com/groups/youragencyadvantage/

Send us Fan Mail

Josh Crouch built Relentless Digital by going deep before going wide. After eight years inside home-service companies, he launched with one focused offer for HVAC contractors and grew into a premium agency that he says has reached $750K in monthly recurring revenue.

In this Agency Advantage conversation, Josh and Brad Starnes break down niche selection, premium pricing, database reactivation, speed-to-lead, organic community marketing, and the systems required to scale without making the founder the bottleneck.

You’ll learn how to:
• Turn industry experience into a positioning advantage
• Start with one service and expand without losing focus
• Connect marketing performance to sales and operations
• Recover opportunities already sitting in a client’s CRM
• Use Facebook groups to build trust before prospects need you
• Buy back your time by hiring people who can own the work

CONNECT WITH JOSH
Josh Crouch: https://joshcrouch.com/
Relentless Digital: https://www.relentless-digital.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/josh-crouch/
Service Business Mastery: https://servicebusinessmastery.com/

RESOURCE MENTIONED
Buy Back Your Time by Dan Martell: https://www.buybackyourtime.com/

CHAPTERS
00:00 Meet Josh Crouch of Relentless Digital
01:27 What three years on the Inc. 5000 really takes
03:25 Fast growth creates fast problems
06:35 Why niche expertise builds trust
08:43 From HVAC accountant to operator
15:29 The marketing lessons that started the agency
18:21 Start with one service and get great at it
19:47 Reaching a $750K monthly run rate
21:59 Premium pricing and premium delivery
26:25 Where marketing and operations meet
31:04 Database reactivation that produced $300K
34:20 Speed-to-lead and follow-up systems
37:23 How Facebook groups drive organic growth
44:11 Buy back your time

Share this episode with an agency owner who is trying to do everything alone, and subscribe for more behind-the-scenes conversations about building an agency from the ground up.

#AgencyAdvantage #AgencyGrowth #DigitalMarketing

Are you an agency owner that is looking to scale through global talent? Connect with us at talentfuze.io or join our free Facebook group, The Agency Advantage: https://www.facebook.com/groups/youragencyadvantage/

Send us Fan Mail

What happens when an agency owner stops serving everyone and becomes the obvious choice for one overlooked niche?

In this episode of the Agency Advantage Podcast, Brad Starnes sits down with Will Hanke, founder of Window Treatment Marketing Pros, to unpack how Will broke through a self-imposed $14K MRR ceiling, committed to an underserved niche, and built a $1.6 million agency with a global team.

Will explains why he rebranded around window-treatment dealers, spent years building omnipresence before scaling paid ads, and considers waiting too long to hire an appointment setter one of his biggest misses. He also shares how LeadBoomerang became both a client-retention tool and a sales advantage—and why trying to sell it as standalone SaaS failed twice.

In this conversation, Brad and Will discuss:

• Breaking through self-sabotage and limiting beliefs
• Finding a “blue ocean” niche from an existing client roster
• Rebranding a niche agency in days
• Growing with your business instead of outrunning operations
• Building omnipresence before investing heavily in ads
• Why cold calling was Will’s biggest missed opportunity
• Turning lead follow-up software into a competitive advantage
• Building and retaining a global team
• Using EOS and core values to create remote culture
• Respecting a winning formula without worshipping it in the AI era

Timestamps:

00:00 – Agency Advantage intro
00:29 – Meet Will Hanke
03:43 – The self-sabotage ceiling at $14K MRR
07:39 – Finding an overlooked niche
08:55 – Rebranding around window-treatment marketing
11:59 – Grow with your business
12:30 – Building omnipresence before paid ads
17:16 – The cold-calling opportunity Will missed
19:02 – LeadBoomerang as a sales and retention tool
22:01 – Will’s first offshore hires
26:16 – EOS, core values, and remote-team culture
30:08 – Mindset and nearly 400% MRR growth
33:31 – Respect the winning formula, but never worship it
34:46 – Will’s advice for growing agency owners

CONNECT WITH BRAD:

Facebook → https://www.facebook.com/BradStarnesOfficial/
Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/bradstarnesofficial/
LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/in/bradstarnesofficial/

CONNECT WITH WILL:

Window Treatment Marketing Pros → https://wtmarketingpros.com
Website → https://www.willhanke.com
LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/in/techlh

CONTACT:

TalentFuze → https://talentfuze.io
Book a call → http://bradstarnes.fyi/talentfuze/

#AgencyAdvantage #WillHanke #WindowTreatmentMarketingPros #AgencyGrowth #NicheMarketing #MarketingAgency #RemoteTeam #AgencyOwner #EOS #LeadGeneration

Are you an agency owner that is looking to scale through global talent? Connect with us at talentfuze.io or join our free Facebook group, The Agency Advantage: https://www.facebook.com/groups/youragencyadvantage/

Send us Fan Mail

What happens when COVID wipes out every client except one?

In this episode of the Agency Advantage Podcast, Brad Starnes sits down with Nick Hoard to discuss his journey from radio to founding Nick the Marketer at his kitchen table in Birmingham, Alabama, and building Patient Care Marketing Pros into an agency serving over 250 urgent care clinics with a global team.

Nick shares how a mid-notice radio format flip forced him into entrepreneurship, how the pandemic gutted his client roster two years in, and how the one client who stayed, a multi-location urgent care, handed him the niche that changed everything. He also gets candid about burning thousands on Facebook ads that flopped, spending years building credibility across podcasts, YouTube, and live events, then turning ads back on to wildly different results.

In this conversation, Brad and Nick discuss:

• Going from radio to a kitchen-table agency doing free work for testimonials
• How the urgent care niche selected Nick instead of the other way around
• Cutting campaign launches from 90+ days to under 10 by niching down
• "Manufacturing fame" and why ads only work after omnipresence
• The AI dependency lesson: just like an employee can quit, so can an AI
• Core values as a retention model for a global team
• Letting go of the office and leading a fully remote culture

Nick also explains why culture is what happens when the leader leaves the room, and why applied knowledge, not knowledge, is the real power.

Timestamps:

[00:00] - The agency that runs without the founder
[01:02] - Meet Nick Hoard and the kitchen table origin story
[03:17] - Starting with Facebook ads right as the game changed
[07:22] - COVID, churn, and the one client who stayed
[09:56] - The free workshop that changed the trajectory
[11:48] - When your AI tools burn to the ground
[14:53] - Nick the Marketer becomes a hub (and Postcards with Preston)
[19:23] - Manufacturing fame: it's not who you know, it's who knows you
[22:32] - Why his ads failed before omnipresence and won after
[26:09] - The first culture break: hiring without knowing what for
[32:24] - Core values as a retention model
[36:01] - Going global and rethinking loyalty
[40:44] - Trust, guardrails, and leading remote
[41:23] - Wrap up

🔗 CONNECT WITH BRAD:

Facebook → https://www.facebook.com/BradStarnesOfficial/
Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/bradstarnesofficial/
LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/in/bradstarnesofficial/

🔗 CONNECT WITH NICK:

Website → https://nickthemarketer.com
Patient Care Marketing Pros → https://patientcaremarketingpros.com/
LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/in/nick-hoard-6454838/

✉️ CONTACT:
 Website → https://talentfuze.io
Book a call → http://bradstarnes.fyi/talentfuze/

About me:
 I'm Brad Starnes, founder and CEO of TalentFuze, where we help marketing agency owners build real delegation systems by placing vetted offshore specialists into their businesses. Before TalentFuze, I built and sold my own marketing agency, so I've lived the exact bottlenecks most agency owners are stuck in: too much on the owner's plate and not enough leverage.

On Agency Advantage, I have honest conversations with agency owners and operators about what it actually takes to grow: the systems, the hires, the hard lessons, and the advantages nobody posts about on LinkedIn.

#AgencyAdvantage #NickHoard #PatientCareMarketingPros #NickTheMarketer #UrgentCareMarketing #MarketingAgency #AgencyGrowth #AgencyOwner #NicheDown #AgencyCulture #RemoteTeam #BusinessGrowth

Are you an agency owner that is looking to scale through global talent? Connect with us at talentfuze.io or join our free Facebook group, The Agency Advantage: https://www.facebook.com/groups/youragencyadvantage/

Send us Fan Mail

Should your agency build its own delivery team or borrow someone else's?

In this episode of the Agency Advantage Podcast, Brad Starnes sits down with Austin Benoit to discuss his journey from a corporate mechanical engineering career to founding Search Prestige, a white label agency that now powers SEO, Google Ads, and Meta Ads delivery for over 100 agencies across the US.

Austin shares how he taught himself SEO during COVID, moonlighted on Upwork for a year while still working as an engineer, and went full-time in the middle of the pandemic. He also gets honest about the hiring mistakes that skewed his standards, why he restructured his team around true A players, and where white label actually fits in an agency's life cycle. Brad and Austin run competing models on paper, TalentFuze building in-house teams with vetted offshore specialists and Search Prestige renting out its own, so this conversation puts both paths on the table.

In this conversation, Brad and Austin discuss:

• Leaving a corporate engineering track to go full-time in SEO
• How systems thinking from engineering translates to running an agency
• Realizing your B players were never A players
• Where white label fits in an agency's life cycle, and when to graduate from it
• What separates agency partners who scale from the ones that stall
• Tracking AI visibility in ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews
• The one hire that lets an agency owner actually step away

Austin also explains why account management is the most slept-on seat in an agency, and why great communication retains clients longer than great results ever will.

Timestamps:

[00:00] - Build your own delivery team or borrow one?
[01:32] - Meet Austin Benoit and Search Prestige
[05:56] - Walking away from engineering during COVID
[10:09] - What systems thinking gives you as an agency owner
[12:35] - The A player wake-up call
[15:49] - Where white label fits in an agency's life cycle
[20:17] - Why some agency partners scale and others stall
[24:44] - AI SEO, GEO, and what the tracking data actually tells you
[29:59] - The self-attributed reporting tip most agencies skip
[32:25] - The one hire that lets you step away from your agency
[37:08] - Know your LTV before you choose a white label partner
[38:43] - Connect with Austin Benoit

🔗 CONNECT WITH BRAD:

Facebook → https://www.facebook.com/BradStarnesOfficial/
Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/bradstarnesofficial/
LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/in/bradstarnesofficial/

🔗 CONNECT WITH AUSTIN:

Website → https://searchprestige.com
LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/in/austin-benoit-seo/

✉️ CONTACT:
 Website → https://talentfuze.io
Book a call → http://bradstarnes.fyi/talentfuze/

About me:
 I'm Brad Starnes, founder and CEO of TalentFuze, where we help marketing agency owners build real delegation systems by placing vetted offshore specialists into their businesses. Before TalentFuze, I built and sold my own marketing agency, so I've lived the exact bottlenecks most agency owners are stuck in: too much on the owner's plate and not enough leverage.

On Agency Advantage, I have honest conversations with agency owners and operators about what it actually takes to grow: the systems, the hires, the hard lessons, and the advantages nobody posts about on LinkedIn.

#AgencyAdvantage #AustinBenoit #SearchPrestige #WhiteLabelAgency #MarketingAgency #AgencyGrowth #AgencyOwner #SEO #GEO #AIVisibility #Delegation #BusinessGrowth

Are you an agency owner that is looking to scale through global talent? Connect with us at talentfuze.io or join our free Facebook group, The Agency Advantage: https://www.facebook.com/groups/youragencyadvantage/