Legends of Scale

Today we talk with Jason Fishman, founder of Digital Niche Agency (DNA).

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0:00 Meet Jason Fishman
0:17 75 Pitch Decks to Raise $3M
1:10 Why He Built DNA in 2014
3:06 The Rule Change That Opened Investor Ads
4:49 From Basic Ads to Full-Funnel Investor Marketing
7:19 Which Companies This Model Works For
8:49 Why Most Campaigns Still Fail
10:40 Can Agencies Raise Capital to Acquire Businesses?
12:38 Equity vs Loans: The Real Tradeoff
14:23 The 1.8M Investor Database Moat
15:20 Rebuilding the Agency With Campaign Quarterbacks
21:52 "Hire Slow, Fire Fast" in Practice
24:01 The Training System: I Do, We Do, You Do
29:01 AI Adoption Rule: Better Than Human
31:15 Find Jason Fishman + Digital Niche Agency

Today we talk with Josh Iverson, founder of iMediaAudiences.

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0:00 Meet Joshua Iverson
0:22 Selling the first ads on Facebook
1:12 The first scale moment
1:44 Losing $100K/month overnight
2:54 Building a genealogy ad network
3:54 First internal hire and arbitrage risk
4:46 What Ad Ops actually means
8:20 Why Google alone is not enough
10:11 Buyer-side vs seller-side Ad Ops
12:54 Laid off at NBC and starting over
14:29 The subscription-business entry point
15:55 Why local businesses struggle with agencies
18:33 The local agent-broker model
23:14 Pricing: retainers and media percentages
26:55 The 3x ROI promise and CPC reduction
30:07 Control vs scale in a license model
34:49 CRM, warm leads, and freemium offers
36:32 What most agencies miss with SMBs
39:06 Find Joshua + iMediaAudiences

Today we talk with Lori McDonald, founder of Brilliance Business Solutions. A 20-person ecomm marketing agency.

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00:00 We Sold Out — Then Hit a Wall
00:19 NASA to Founder: Lori’s Unlikely Career Pivot
00:49 The Brutal “Hobby vs Business” Moment
04:11 The Price Increase That Changed Everything
06:20 Know Your Numbers or Stall Your Growth
08:27 Fixed Bid vs Hourly: What Actually Protects Margins
11:24 “Success Plans”: Win-Win Retainers That Work
11:53 The Leadership Skill Most Teams Avoid: Healthy Conflict
15:35 How to Introduce Conflict Culture After an Acquisition
20:31 Gossip, Triangling, and Unhealthy Team Dynamics
27:59 They Thought Remote Would Fail — They Were Wrong
33:50 Hiring for Values, Not Just Resume Skills
35:37 Buying a Business Isn’t “Easy Mode”
37:20 From Demand Surge to Capacity Crunch in Manufacturing
42:32 What Lori Is Focused on Now: Repeat Rate + Margin Growth

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00:00 Meet Lior Eldan
00:20 From a Kitchen in Israel to Google and Samsung
00:58 "We Kind of Stumbled Into Being an Agency"
02:44 The Moment AI Felt Like an Existential Threat
05:42 Why Lior Built an AI Champions Program
10:58 "Most Companies Just Send an Email About AI"
11:19 Why Canceling Billable Work Was the Only Option
14:57 How the Hackathon Became a Monthly Product
17:02 The Boring Legal Step That Unblocked Everything
20:12 Why Home Tests Are Now Useless for Hiring
22:14 When Product, Design, and Dev Become One Role
25:05 The New Hire That Vibe Codes on Weekends
27:40 Builders vs. Domain Experts — You Need Both
31:57 "Skills Are a Commodity — Data Is Our Secret Sauce"
35:08 The Tool Scanning Reddit for Client Opportunities
38:17 Find Lior + Moburst

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0:00 Meet Stephane Gringer
1:10 When Brand Owners Couldn't Tell It Was AI
2:14 The 1,000-Ad Problem Nobody Talks About
4:08 How to Know When Your Brand Is Drifting
8:27 "People Buy With Emotion — Even in Enterprise Sales"
11:41 Building His Wife's Modeling Agency From Scratch
16:35 When to Map the Business vs. Just Build
18:46 How AI Changed the Way He Transforms Companies
21:43 The Batman Moment That Changed His Career
25:08 "I Walk In on Monday — Where's My Team?"
27:33 The 7-Day Shutdown That Fixed Everything
30:02 The Two Hires That Solved 90% of His Problems
32:21 Scaling AI Without Killing Your Brand
34:48 Find Stephane + Voxaic.ai

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00:00 Meet Jason Berkowitz
01:12 The Exit Interview That Forced Him to Delegate
02:33 Building Links From His Queens Apartment
05:39 Why He Went Fully Global (Zero US Employees)
10:02 "Getting Ghosted by Girls AND Employees"
12:10 Rules vs. Core Values (The Difference)
17:24 "The Hills You'd Die On" Aren't Worth It
19:32 Not Firing Fast Enough (The Fear of Things Breaking)
24:49 The 7 Pillars of His Agency
29:44 "Kickass Service AND Kickass Communication"
32:54 No Contracts — Earn It Every Month
36:01 The "Gap of Disappointment"
38:59 "Nine Times Out of 10, We Avoid Founders"
41:20 When Clients Get Promoted, They Bring Him Along
44:04 Find Jason + Break the Web

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00:00 Meet Kathryn Wilson
00:56 She Built an Agency From Scratch — Senior First
03:08 Why Most Founders Hire Too Late and Too Junior
03:20 "Lack of Leadership Is Expensive"
04:10 How to Audition 18 Directors Before You Hire One
06:27 Hiring the Chief Innovation Officer
08:28 More Expensive Per Hour, Cheaper Per Project
10:30 "We're Not Selling Sneakers — People's Lives Are at Stake"
11:10 Why She Hired a Personal Chef (Not a Foosball Table)
14:51 The "Zero Asshole Policy" in Hiring
16:09 Building Teams With Personality Data
18:54 Flat Structure: Five Pods, Three Products Each
21:33 Skills Get Screened Before Kathryn Ever Shows Up
23:37 Matching 300 Freelancers to Clients With AI
26:33 No Annual Reviews — Just Weekly KPIs
28:07 Find Kathryn + VUE Health

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00:00 Meet David Reske
01:11 The Moment Nowspeed Became Real
02:39 Why Founders Can't Build Sales Teams
04:30 The 3 Things That Fixed Sales
07:15 "The Number One Thing: Stop Hiring"
09:28 Flat Orgs vs. Structured Orgs
11:52 "The CEO Becomes the Bottleneck"
13:21 Why Nowspeed Went 100% Remote
16:10 The Camera Rule That Changed Culture
17:36 Why Outsourcing Nearly Broke Them
19:42 Agency vs. Contractor: How to Decide
23:14 The Cost-of-One-FTE Marketing Model
28:40 What Is Generative Engine Optimization?
29:57 The Solar Installer Moment
35:35 Find David + Nowspeed

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00:00 Meet Nate McKelvey
01:06 Building Jets.com Before Google Existed
04:05 "I Maxed Every Credit Card I Had — and My Wife's"
04:55 Growing Too Fast (It Set Them Back a Full Year)
05:59 How Nate Helped Planet Fitness Go From 300 to 1,000 Locations
07:51 "I Owed My Client a Hundred Thousand Dollars"
11:48 "They Didn't Want Nate — They Wanted Arnold"
12:24 The Ceiling You Hit When You Can't Scale Yourself
12:54 "What Used to Take Years Now Takes Minutes"
19:22 Running Dozens of Clients as a Team of 2
21:11 AI LinkedIn Replies That Don't Break the Rules
23:55 Find Nate + Bobos.ai

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0:00 Meet Alessandro Bogliari
0:11 From $1,500 to Google, Sony & Hyundai
0:52 The Moment He Couldn't Do It All Alone
4:13 Why Finance Was So Painful
6:30 Agency vs. In-House: What Broke
8:24 When to Hire Employees vs. Contractors
10:12 How He Split the Finance Team
14:14 60 People: How the Team Breaks Down
15:42 Adding Layers So the CEO Isn't Pinged 24/7
18:40 Strategists vs. Executors: How Pods Work
20:07 Why Onboarding Is a Goldmine
22:07 How He Caught the Broken Telephone Problem
25:24 Onboarding, Culture, Change Management
27:12 "Don't Think Other Businesses Are Perfect"
31:50 How to Prioritize With Unlimited Ideas
32:49 Phase 1: Market Share With $1,500
35:07 Phase 2: Operations & Margins
35:50 Phase 3: Senior Hires to Scale
36:30 Phase 4: Think Like a Buyer, Not a Founder
39:44 What He's Fixing in the Next 90 Days
40:09 The RFP Game With Fortune 500s
42:57 Where to Find Alessandro