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/

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/

What if you closed agency clients without ever getting on a sales call?

In this episode of the Agency Advantage Podcast, Brad Starnes sits down with Frankie Fihn to discuss how he runs a $150K to $300K per month agency with a team of two to five people and signs clients with a single five-minute video instead of a call, a discovery meeting, or a proposal.

Frankie is ten-plus years in, and the road there was not clean: 20 months without making a dime, sleeping on his girlfriend’s couch, and burning his first agency to the ground after a decade of burnout before rebuilding it smarter. What changed was the model. He went from 200 booked calls a month down to six and closed more business, because busy buyers do not want to sit through a pitch three weeks out. They want to know what it is, what it costs, and how to buy it. He has had clients sign up at 1 a.m. from bed.

In this conversation, Brad and Frankie discuss:

• Why scaling rapidly broke his first agency, and what doing less but better fixed
• The three parts of a video pitch that actually closes
• The two places almost everyone blows it: the open, and the “here’s exactly how to pay me” close
• How he dropped from 200 booked calls a month to six and grew revenue
• Why pre-selling does more work than the pitch itself
• Running a $150K to $300K per month operation with a team of two to five
• What masterminds gave him that no course ever did

If you are drowning in sales calls and sick of trading hours for offers that go unread, start here.

Timestamps:

[00:00] - What if you never took another sales call?
[01:58] - From the factory floor to running an agency
[05:46] - The early grind of an SEO agency
[09:39] - What masterminds actually gave him
[13:03] - The video pitch model, explained
[13:32] - Walking away from the traditional sales call
[19:43] - The real challenge in agency sales
[21:48] - Using video to sell instead of meetings
[23:44] - The workflow behind a video sale
[25:20] - Visual storytelling that does the convincing
[27:35] - Why pre-selling carries the whole close
[31:11] - How to craft a video pitch that converts
[33:01] - The mistakes almost everyone makes on video
[39:43] - Closing the deal without ever getting on a call

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

🔗 CONNECT WITH FRANKIE:
Website → https://www.beyondagencyprofits.com/
YouTube → https://www.youtube.com/@beyondagencyprofits
Book → https://beyondtheagencybox.com/
LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/in/frankfihn/

✉️ CONTACT:
Website → https://www.talentfuze.io/
Book a call → https://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 #FrankieFihn #BeyondAgencyProfits #LoomClose #AsyncSales #VideoSales #SellWithoutCalls #MarketingAgency #AgencyGrowth #AgencyOwner #ClientAcquisition #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/

Should you build an agency to run, or build one to sell?

In this episode of the Agency Advantage Podcast, Brad Starnes sits down with Matt Coffy to discuss walking out on a $50 million corporate territory at Sprint, accidentally building a medical marketing agency out of a website he made to show off his own chops, and scaling it to 30+ people and $250K a month before kicking himself out of it on purpose.

Matt started consulting in 2010 with no real plan. His dentist became his first recurring client while he was in the chair getting a tooth filled. That accident became Customer Bloom, then Practice Bloom, then a multiple seven-figure exit. He started planning that exit two years early by trading marketing work for broker advice, deliberately made himself removable from day-to-day operations, and still nearly sank the business at its peak by signing 30 clients a month with no way to keep them. He is running the same playbook a third time now as ProfitEngines, and he is blunt about who he will let near it.

In this conversation, Brad and Matt discuss:

• Why he repeats the same agency pattern on purpose instead of chasing something new
• The two-year head start every owner needs before trying to sell
• Why churn, not new business, decides what your agency is actually worth
• The high transaction value, high velocity filter that decides which niche to chase
• How industry knowledge buys trust that marketing credentials never will
• What performing on stage taught him about business that an MBA never could
• The boat rule he uses to vet every client, employee, and vendor before they get on board

Matt is also honest about the part nobody posts about: the day you sell the thing you built is the hardest day, not the finish line. If you have ever wanted to build something you could actually walk away from, this one is for you.

Timestamps:

[00:00] - Build an agency to run, or build one to sell?
[01:47] - From a $50M Sprint territory to walking out
[06:46] - How ProfitEngines became version three of the same business
[08:31] - Niche or generalist: which one actually pays
[11:06] - Why the medical niche worked
[13:01] - Buying trust with industry knowledge instead of credentials
[15:43] - Partnering with clients past the marketing metrics
[17:27] - When the marketing actually changes someone’s life
[19:07] - What performing on stage taught him about business
[21:55] - Navigating the sale and the exit
[27:02] - The hardest lessons from selling an agency
[32:29] - Preparing to sell two years before you sell
[35:12] - The boat rule for choosing the right people

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

🔗 CONNECT WITH MATT:
Website → https://profitengines.com/
LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattcoffy/

✉️ CONTACT:
Website → https://www.talentfuze.io/
Book a call → https://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 #MattCoffy #ProfitEngines #AgencyExit #SellYourAgency #MarketingAgency #AgencyGrowth #AgencyOwner #ClientRetention #MedicalMarketing #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/

Cyle Patnode started the same business three times before it finally worked.

He dropped out of college at 21, got left holding the bag when his marketing franchise went bankrupt, and ended up broke at 23. He was waiting tables and valeting cars in a new city. Then the Pennsylvania AG came after him over a lead-gen play gone wrong. Then COVID wiped out every client he had except one.

That one client was a personal injury attorney. It's the entire reason Case Engine exists today; a law firm marketing agency doing around $300K a month with a team of 30+.

In the first episode back since the relaunch, Brad walks Cyle through the full "fucked" era and how he clawed his way to "unfucked": why he resisted niching down for years (and what it cost him), the one ad that signed a $5K/month client in week one, and why he's betting the agency's future on AI search; getting law firms cited inside ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini before the rest of the industry catches up.

In this episode:

• Why building the same agency three times beat starting something new
• The real cost of waiting too long to niche down
• How a single case study turned one surviving client into a growth engine
• The first three moves any firm should make to get cited by AI search
• Why top talent (not automation) is still the bottleneck to real growth

If you've ever launched something that blew up in your face and wondered whether to go again, this one's for you.

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/

Your agency looks like it's working. You've got the revenue, the clients, the thing everyone else calls success. And you haven't taken a real day off in months, because the whole operation still runs on your hands and only your hands.

The UnF*cked Agency is the show for that... the conversation that usually only happens after the conference, at the bar, when the guard finally comes down. The churn that's scaring you. The cash that's tighter than it looks. The fact that you built a business that owns you instead of the other way around.

Host Brad Starnes has been there... he built an agency that looked like a dream while it was on fire inside, and sold it under distress before rebuilding around the lesson he paid for the hard way. No guru theater, no ten-step frameworks you'll never use. Just honest talk and real operators, working through one idea every episode: how to get your agency unfcked. Not perfect. Not optimized. Just not broken, not trapped, and not bleeding.

If you're past survival, doing real revenue, and more exhausted than you've ever been — start here.

New episodes break down the real mechanics of building an agency that doesn't eat your life. Follow the show so the next one finds you.

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/