Agency Growth Club

Michael Transon, founder of Victorious, one of the best-known SEO agencies, joins Josh Peacock on the Agency Growth Club to share what his team found when they studied around 50,000 AI citations.What you'll learn:1. Why roughly 99.999% of AI buying-decision citations point somewhere other than a brand's own website2. The off-site signals that decide whether AI names your brand3. Why mentions without a link can still get you recommended4. Why nobody can guarantee you a spot in ChatGPT, and what to do instead5. How a top agency uses AI without letting quality slip6. The costly mistake Michael made twice while growing Victorious7. What to look for when hiring now that AI can produce the work samples

Connect with Michael Transon: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaeltranson/Find Michael's agency, Victorious: https://victorious.com/Follow The Search Signal on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@theSearchSignalByVictoriousConnect with Josh Peacock: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshpeacock-searchforhire/About Search for Hire:Search for Hire places elite SEO, Paid Media, and Growth talent into agencies and in-house teams, with 95% of roles filled within 25 days and every placement backed by a 1-year guarantee.➕ Are you hiring for your agency? Book a call: https://www.searchforhire.com/contact/

Are you hiring for Search Market talent? Let's talk. https://www.searchforhire.com/contact/?utm_campaign=476173503-Youtube-to-Site&utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=video"I've seen senior hires that are good talkers and good thinkers. But that is a complete difference to a good doer." Four operators on the Agency Growth Club share how they hire people who actually deliver, and why the CV is the least useful part of the decision. From a head of marketing scaling a DTC brand to three agency founders, the rule is the same: hire for output, grit and soft skills, then teach the rest.In this video:1. Why some senior hires talk a great game but can't do the work (Joe Hale, Verde)2. The one-line hiring rule behind a brand aiming for $100M (Matty Martin, Cadence)3. Why Pearl Lemon makes its application process deliberately annoying (Deepak Shukla, Pearl Lemon)4. Why hiring without a structured process and tech test was an expensive mistake (Michael Ryan, Inc Digital)Chapters:0:00 Why some senior hires never deliver1:19 The one hiring rule for a fast-scaling brand2:41 Why make your hiring process harder?5:45 The most expensive hiring mistake founders makeOn today's line-up:1. Joe Hale, Founder of Verde2. Matty Martin, Head of Marketing at Cadence3. Deepak Shukla, Founder of Pearl Lemon4. Michael Ryan, Founder of Ink DigitalAbout Search for Hire:Search for Hire places elite SEO, Paid Media, and Growth talent into agencies and in-house teams, with 95% of roles filled within 28 days and every placement backed by a 1-year guarantee.

Are you hiring for Search Market talent? Let's talk. https://www.searchforhire.com/contact/?utm_campaign=476173503-Youtube-to-Site&utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=videoLisa Paasche, Founder of Verve (acquired by Omnicom) and now an agency advisor, joins me on the Agency Growth Club to break down how she took Verve's profit margins from 10% to 40%. She covers why she hired graduates over experienced SEOs, how she taught her team to argue, the simple forecasting model most founders skip, and why she made salaries fully transparent. Stick to the end for an exclusive announcement.In this episode:1. Why Lisa believes creative digital PR has gone backward2. Closing down the entire content team and rebuilding it with a different profile of hire3. Hiring for "the stretch": potential and range over experience4. The levers behind 10% to 40% margins5. Love Week, DISC profiling, and teaching a team to disagree productively6. Hiring a COO by turning every task that drained her energy into a job description7. A simple, risk-weighted forecast that tells you when to hire8. Full salary transparency, including letting a team vote on an above-bracket hire

"API and AI is going to be as expensive if not more expensive than humans at some point anyway, at least the lower-salaried roles people are looking to get rid of."

Kaiyan Ali, founder of Montaj Digital, joins Josh Peacock on the Agency Growth Club to explain why AI is currently subsidized by venture capital, why that won't last, and what to actually do about it before the bill catches up with you.

We get into why "replace my team with AI" is almost always a sign you hired the wrong person, how to build one shared knowledge base instead of scattered files across Drive, Notion, Slack and email, and why senior leadership at enterprise companies are choosing smaller, higher-paid teams amplified by AI over large teams of mid-level hires.

Are you hiring for your agency? Book a call: https://www.searchforhire.com/contact/Connect with Josh Peacock: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshpeacock-searchforhire/Connect with Kaiyan Ali: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kaiyan-ali-042534140/

Are you hiring for Search Market talent? Let's talk.

https://www.searchforhire.com/contact/Your job ad is costing you A-players, and it's probably not the copy.Josh Peacock (Search for Hire) breaks down the 6 things missing from almost every job ad he reads, and why fixing them takes one 90-minute meeting, not a rewrite.In this episode:1. A real senior SEO manager ad, read the way a strong candidate actually reads it2. Why vague phrases like "fast-paced" and "self-starter" show up in every ad (it's not laziness)3. Why you need an ICP for candidates, not just for clients4. The 6 things the best hiring brief Josh has ever received did differently5. How one law firm client filled a tricky role in 23 days, not luck6. The 4 things that actually belong in a job ad7. The 6 questions every strong candidate is silently asking on a screening call8. The 90-minute framework that replaces the rewrite

"I didn't really have a choice — I found you on Google, I found you on AI search, and I also found you on YouTube."Michael Ryan (Founder, Ink Digital) joins Josh Peacock on the Agency Growth Club to break down how he built a travel, hospitality and B2B SEO agency from a solo operation in 2019 to a business closing in on £2M in revenue — and the growing pains that come with doubling it again.In this episode:1. Why Michael bet on the travel niche during COVID, and how the pent-up demand paid off2. How "search everywhere optimization" changed the way travel and B2B clients actually get found3. Building a YouTube strategy from a standing start, and why 20-30 views can pay for itself in B2B4. Why clients are asking to rank in AI search before they've fixed their SEO foundations5. The four-month sprint model Ink Digital uses instead of 12-month lock-in contracts6. How the rebrand from Mr. SEO to Ink Digital was executed without losing search traffic7. The most expensive mistake of the last six years: recruitment without a real hiring process8. The plan to double the business to £350K MRR, and what's likely to break along the way

See how we hired talent for Cadence and more: https://www.searchforhire.com/case-study/cadence/Cadence's Head of Marketing Matty Martin breaks down how the electrolyte brand is scaling from $20M to a $100M run rate next year — the DTC playbook, the subscription mechanics, and the hiring lessons behind the growth team.In this episode, Matty covers:1. The 3-step growth playbook: spend more, spend more efficiently, then increase LTV per customer2. Why Cadence is shifting from a 50/50 DTC-retail split to 80/20 DTC by next year3. How a subscription-exclusive cap became one of their biggest retention drivers4. The 400+ micro-creator Discord that turns a brief into 20 pieces of content in 48 hours5. Why a subscriber is worth 3.2x a one-time buyer — and how that reshaped hiring6. The hiring mistake that cost Cadence months: choosing the big-brand CV over the candidate who said he'd send 500 cold DMs a day7. How hiring a paid media lead two weeks before Black Friday transformed the account overnight8. Cadence's long-term plan to take on Gatorade in the $94B+ sports and energy drink category

Are you hiring for senior Search Market talent? Let's chat: https://www.searchforhire.com/contact/ I recently had the opportunity to sit down with Travis Tallent from DayNova AI, and honestly it went in about six different directions (in the best way possible).He ran AI adoption for a 90-person team before going all-in on his own thing, and he told me exactly what he'd do differently if he had to do it again. We got into the one mistake that makes people quit over AI, why gamifying it doesn't work for everyone, and some genuinely wild stuff about the neuroscience of why new tech freaks your brain out.Also talked search budgets, where AI pricing is actually heading, and whether some of these AI valuations are about to pop. Travis doesn't hold back on any of it.

Are you hiring for senior Search Market talent? Let's chat: https://www.searchforhire.com/contact/ Charlie Clarke deleted LinkedIn, Instagram, and every social app... and it became Minty's best year ever. In this episode of Agency Growth Club, we break down why.Charlie Clarke (Founder, Minty Digital) joins Josh to unpack what's actually changed since his last appearance on the show: why he stepped back from social entirely, why Minty stopped positioning itself as "just SEO," and the hiring mistakes that nearly cost the agency its best clients.We get into the real numbers behind a 40%-revenue client concentration rule, the honest ROI on AI SEO tools right now, why small agencies have a genuine speed advantage over bigger competitors, and what Charlie would do differently if he was starting Minty again tomorrow.If you're running a search marketing agency and trying to figure out what to prioritise next, content, hiring, or AI... this one's worth the full watch.Connect with Charlie Clark: https://www.linkedin.com/in/charlieclarkdigital/Connect with Josh Peacock: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshpeacock-searchforhire/Work with Search for Hire:📞 Book a call with Josh: https://www.searchforhire.com/contact/ Timestamps:00:00 — Reconnecting after five years apart01:37 — He deleted LinkedIn and Instagram04:27 — Removing himself from hiring decisions07:54 — Dropping the "SEO agency" label09:12 — The whale client that broke everything15:32 — 5,000 GEO agencies chasing clients17:17 — Rolling GEO into every account22:36 — Killed a £10k tool overnight24:08 — What's non-negotiable when hiring now28:35 — Cutting hiring down to weeks37:13 — The truth about agency acquisitions38:30 — What he'd do starting over39:50 — Why Minty ditched account managers

Are you hiring for senior Search Market talent? Let's chat: https://www.searchforhire.com/contact/ Jason Hennessey built Hennessey Digital for over a decade, then sold it to private equity, and stayed. In today's episode, I go behind the scenes of the deal with Jason: the two-year run-up, getting EBITDA from break-even margins to $4.7M in a single year, why he spent more time negotiating the LOI than anything else, and how he called six founders who'd sold to PE and asked each one the same question: *"How did you get screwed over?"*Jason is still CEO of Hennessey Digital, now part of Herringbone Digital (the Trinity Hunt-backed platform) that acquired $25M in EBITDA in its first year and sits at roughly $110M top line today. He's also on the buy side now, and shares exactly what he looks for in the agencies they acquire.What you'll learn:– The moment to pivot from lifestyle business to sellable asset – What actually changes in the business when you decide to sell– How to structure an earnout so you don't leave growth on the table– Why clean financials are where most deals die, and how to avoid it– How a personal brand earned Jason a higher multiple– The communication playbook for telling your team, your clients, and the marketConnect with Jason Hennessey: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jhennessey/ Connect with Josh Peacock: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshpeacock-searchforhire/