From a ski slope conversation to 120+ staff. That's the journey of Impression, one of the UK's fastest-growing performance marketing agencies.

Mikey Emery started in a server room with three co-founders and built an agency that's broken through every glass ceiling—staying profitable, debt-free, and people-first the entire way.

Mikey Emery

Mikey Emery is the Commercial Director and co-owner of Impression, a performance marketing agency with offices in Nottingham, London, and Manchester. After joining the founders in 2014, Mikey has been instrumental in scaling the business from 4 people to over 120 staff while maintaining a relentless focus on automation, AI, and client-centric delivery.

This podcast episode is relevant to you if you're navigating agency growth, struggling with team structure, or wondering how to invest in automation without losing the human touch.

Find out how Impression restructured from channel-based teams to client-centric pods, why they paused client billing during COVID (and grew 50% anyway), and what it really takes to launch into the US market as a UK agency. Mikey shares the honest truths about leadership evolution, making decisions even when you're not sure, and why learning from pitch losses has driven more change than celebrating wins.

If you're serious about scaling your agency while keeping culture intact, this episode is packed with real, usable lessons.

Topics Covered:

1:34 - How Mikey got into the agency world (and why his e-commerce business failed)

3:37 - From bedroom freelancers to first office in 2014

4:46 - Growing from 4 people to 120+ staff across three UK offices

6:22 - The step changes that pushed through growth glass ceilings

8:00 - Why moving into an office space was a pivotal moment

10:18 - Winning seven-figure accounts that changed the trajectory

12:24 - How servicing bigger clients is less operationally complex than you think

14:13 - Splitting time as Commercial Director across growth, marketing, and client services

15:54 - Using data and forecasting to stay 95% accurate on the next 4 months

18:55 - Leadership evolution: from impatient decision-maker to trusting the team

21:22 - Why "a decision is better than no decision" became his guiding principle

23:22 - The agency's approach to AI and automation (it's been core for 10 years)

26:32 - Launching their proprietary AI content production tool

29:19 - Investing in full-time developers and data scientists to build tech in-house

32:16 - The US expansion: why every state is its own country

34:24 - Going from UK-based clients marketing in the US to building a proper US presence

36:02 - Setting up offices in New York, Chicago, Atlanta, and Miami

40:14 - The biggest challenge: COVID and the decision to pause client billing

43:52 - Why they chose not to furlough staff and how it paid off

46:59 - The importance of having a war chest of cash reserves

47:58 - What's on the roadmap: US growth, AI acceleration, and restructuring into pods

49:41 - Moving from 20+ people on accounts to lean, client-centric pod structures

52:40 - One piece of advice: Make a decision, even if it's wrong

53:47 - Why failures drive more change than successes

54:26 - Book recommendation: The Good Company by Arthur Blank