Agency leaders are built for optimism. It's in the DNA. Walk into any pitch presentation and you'll see it: the belief that this agency can solve anything. The energy. The hunger. The confidence that borders on audacity.

But the last few years have worn that down in ways that aren't always visible. The roller coaster didn't just go higher and lower - the highs and lows became exceptional. Unprecedented. And somewhere in the middle, something shifted.

Confidence took a hit.

That's the reality Sarah Vick hears in every boardroom she sits in. Sarah is a chair and non-executive director who's spent 20+ years helping creative and technology businesses define and deliver growth strategies. She's seen what happens when the fundamentals crack. When boards stop planning for growth and start planning for survival. When ambition gets replaced by anxiety.

But here's what Sarah is also seeing now, in early 2026: something is shifting again. Not back to where it was. Something different. More realistic. More grounded. "The highs and lows have been exceptional," she says. "We're used to living on the roller coaster now. Some things are getting better."

That's not naive optimism. That's exhaustion turning into acceptance, which is often the first step toward genuine resilience.

About Supo:

Supo provides people-first intelligence software for professional services firms, helping businesses maximize profit and motivate their people through powerful, AI-enabled business intelligence dashboards. By connecting over 500+ platforms and providing real-time data analysis, Supo helps firms make better data-driven decisions about their profit, projects, and people.

For more information about Supo: ⁠www.supo.co.uk

About Sarah Vick:

Sarah Vick is a chair and non-executive director specialising in supporting creative and technology businesses to define and deliver strategic growth plans. With more than 20 years of global leadership experience, she helps agencies navigate growth, scaling, operational improvement, international expansion, and M&A. She speaks regularly on finance for agencies, career development, and the role of gratitude in business success, and brings a sharp financial lens to the ambition conversation.

For more information about Sarah Vick: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarahvick/

About Simon Rhind-Tutt:

Simon Rhind-Tutt is co-founder of Relationship Audits, a consultancy that provides actionable intelligence on client-agency relationships built on millions of data points. Nearly three decades of experience have convinced him of one thing: business is built on relationships, and those relationships should be measured, understood, and continuously improved. His proprietary RADAR survey tool helps agencies and clients move beyond satisfaction scores to genuine mutual commitment.

For more information about Relationship Audits: https://relationshipaudits.com/

About Joanna Anthony:

Joanna Anthony is a fractional operations leader, strategic advisor, and co-founder of The Client Impact Awards, a recognition programme celebrating the account leaders and client service professionals who drive growth and build the partnerships that make great work possible. With over 30 years on agency boards, she specialises in designing the operational structures and relationship-building behaviours that make strategic partnerships actually work - and in proving that client service is a commercial asset, not a cost.

For more information about Joanna Anthony: https://joannaanthony.com/

The question arrives quietly at first. Then it becomes deafening.

Agencies are delivering work faster than ever. Not because they've hired more people or worked harder. Because AI has fundamentally changed how work gets done. A task that took three days now takes three hours. A brief that required a week of research now needs an afternoon. Efficiency has skyrocketed.

But something else has happened alongside that acceleration. Vulnerability. Pressure. A creeping sense that speed isn't actually the answer - it's just made the problem more obvious.

David Finch, who advises agencies at board level, calls it the mindset shift nobody's making. James Holden, who works on leadership and culture, calls it an identity crisis. Simon Douglas, who runs a performance marketing agency and lives with this tension daily, calls it a market that's fundamentally changed. Lewis Wilkins, who's building a model that leans into AI rather than resisting it, calls it an opportunity nobody's taking seriously enough.

They all agree on one thing: the agencies that are hiding from this conversation are the agencies that are going to cease to exist.

About Supo:

Supo provides people-first intelligence software for professional services firms, helping businesses maximize profit and motivate their people through powerful, AI-enabled business intelligence dashboards. By connecting over 500+ platforms and providing real-time data analysis, Supo helps firms make better data-driven decisions about their profit, projects, and people.

For more information about Supo: ⁠www.supo.co.uk

About David Finch - The Thinking Field:

David Finch advises agencies at board level through The Thinking Field, bringing 20+ years of experience helping agency leaders navigate strategic transformation. His expertise sits at the intersection of business strategy, digital transformation, and the changing agency model. David works with agencies on the fundamental question: where is your value going to come from in a world where your current value proposition is becoming commodified?

For more information about The Thinking Field: https://www.thethinkingfield.com/

About James Holden - Holden Thinking:

James Holden runs Holden Thinking, working with leadership teams on culture, identity, and navigating uncertainty. He specialises in helping leaders understand how their own identity shapes their agency, and how to evolve both when the world around them shifts fundamentally. His work addresses the psychological dimension of business transformation - the part most leaders avoid.

For more information about Holden Thinking: https://www.linkedin.com/company/holden-thinking/

About Simon Douglas - Curated:

Simon Douglas runs Curated, a performance marketing agency specialising in SEO, PPC, and content. With 12 years of direct experience watching AI change what agencies can charge for and what clients actually want, Simon is living the tension between the old delivery model and the new value model. His agency is actively pivoting from delivery-heavy work to strategic thinking and client outcomes.

For more information about Curated: https://curated-digital.com/

About Lewis Wilkins - Future Strategy Club:

Lewis Wilkins founded Future Strategy Club, building a model that leans into AI rather than resisting it. His perspective is that the opportunities created by AI adoption are far larger than the threats - but only if agencies are willing to rethink what they're actually building. He works with agencies on AI strategy and how to use AI to amplify human capability rather than replace it.

For more information about Future Strategy Club: https://www.futurestrategy.club/

Most agencies look the same, pitch the same, and end up competing on price. This episode is about what you do instead.

Jim Johnson is joined by Jeremy Stern, Scott Ashley Whiteley and Elena Malinowski for a conversation about standing out in a crowded market. Jeremy explains why he narrowed his niche while everyone else diversified - and how 20 years of sticking to it means over 60% of his income now comes from clients who've stayed more than a decade. Elena breaks down the affiliate model, where brands only pay when a sale actually happens. And Scott makes the case that "sexy is dead" - audiences see through celebrity endorsements, and relevance beats glamour every time.

Along the way: why storytelling is really about emotion, whether the author of an advert even matters in the age of AI, treating AI as a sparring partner rather than a search engine, and why genuine curiosity might be the rarest skill in marketing.

Because it turns out a tight niche is a better moat than a broad deck.

Elephant in the Boardroom is presented by Supo - replace gut feel with true intelligence.

About Supo:

Supo provides people-first intelligence software for professional services firms, helping businesses maximize profit and motivate their people through powerful, AI-enabled business intelligence dashboards. By connecting over 500+ platforms and providing real-time data analysis, Supo helps firms make better data-driven decisions about their profit, projects, and people.

For more information about Supo: ⁠www.supo.co.uk

About PromoVeritas:

Jeremy Stern founded PromoVeritas 25 years ago to become the specialist in international promotions, prize draws, and promotional compliance that the industry had abandoned. Working across 90 countries with 250 clients, he's built a business where retention drives growth and authority replaces pitching. Over 60% of PromoVeritas revenue comes from clients who've been with the agency for more than a decade. His philosophy is built on deep curiosity, genuine expertise, and the commercial clarity that comes from refusing to diversify.

For more information about PromoVeritas: www.promoveritas.com

About Blott:

Scott-Ashley Whiteley founded Blott on the conviction that storytelling - the ability to take something complicated and make it felt - is the last truly differentiating skill agencies have. Working across GTM, digital experience, and innovation, Blott works with ambitious businesses in music, fintech, FMCG, and private equity. Scott is building an agentic operating system for his own agency - using Blott as the proof point that the capabilities he sells to clients actually work. His philosophy: 50 passionate specialists beat 200 indifferent ones every time.

For more information about Blott: www.blott.com

About Webgains Global:

Alona Malinovska leads Webgains Global, a performance-based platform that connects brands with publishers across 80+ countries. Rather than operating as a traditional agency, Webgains charges brands on commission - they pay only when results happen. Alona watches consumer discovery shift in real time: from Google to social and influencers to AI tools. Her philosophy: accountability through measurement, and the belief that the commercial model should reflect reality rather than obscure it.

For more information about Webgains Global: www.webgains.com