Agency Culture Conversations

Agency Workplaces
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  • Society & Culture

What is the secret sauce behind the world’s most successful agencies? It's not just a high-ticket offer or a flawless sales script, it's an exceptional culture that attracts top-tier talent and keeps them for years. Welcome to Agency Culture Conversations, the podcast dedicated to the human side of high-performance scaling. Hosted by the CEO and COO of Agency Workplaces, this show pulls back the curtain on the internal engines of 7 and 8-figure agencies that aren't just winning on the balance sheet, but winning in the hearts of their teams. Each episode, we sit down with founders and leaders who have cracked the code on workplace excellence. These aren't just "feel-good" stories, our guests lead agencies with verified, exceptional culture scores. We dive deep into the tangible strategies they use to build trust, foster innovation, and maintain a competitive edge in a remote, hybrid, or onsite world. In every episode, we explore: Scaling Without Burnout: How elite agencies maintain their "soul" while crossing the 7 and 8-figure marks.The ROI of Culture: Data-driven insights on how a high culture score directly impacts retention, client satisfaction, and profitability.Leadership at the Top: Candid conversations with founders on the hard decisions required to protect a team's environment.Operational Excellence: How leaders align day-to-day workflows with core values to create a "workplace of choice." Whether you’re a founder looking to bridge the gap from "busy shop" to "award-winning workplace" or a leader tasked with protecting your team’s momentum, this is your weekly masterclass in agency leadership. Build a better team. Get recognized. Scale with soul. Learn more about getting your agency recognized at AgencyWorkplaces.com.

Episodes

  1. 6d ago

    Kesley Smith: Why Sick Days Reveal The Truth About Your Culture | Agency Culture Conversations Ep. 5

    Kesley Smith joined Zoek Marketing three years ago when it was primarily a Wix partner agency. Today, Zoek is a 120-plus person fully remote, full-stack digital marketing company, and Kesley is the Director of Marketing and Business Development, leading two completely different teams. In this episode, you'll learn: ▸ How a 120-person fully remote agency built a culture of trust without micromanagement ▸ Why your sick day policy reveals more about your culture than any all-hands meeting ▸ The situational interview questions that filter out candidates who only give textbook answers ▸ Why technical skills are not the entire part of a job ▸ How to lead two completely different teams on one shared foundation ▸ The difference between communicating and comprehending, and why the gap kills team performance ▸ How to have the hard conversation when a team member is not delivering, without losing trust ▸ The one mistake she would refuse to repeat from her early leadership years 🏆 Run an agency with a culture worth recognizing? Apply for our official agency culture recognition program at https://agencyworkplaces.com/nomination-form Guest: Kesley Smith, Director of Marketing and Business Development @Zoek Marketing Host: Dr. Vo, CEO @Agency Workplaces

    1h 13m

  2. May 19

    Brandon & Israel: How To Grow A Team From 15 To 70 In One Year | Agency Culture Conversations Ep. 4

    In five years, Brandon Scott and his co-founder built CarbonBox Media from a two-person operation into a 70-person digital marketing agency. The biggest jump came in the past 12 months alone, when the team grew from 15 to 70 employees. Brandon admits the scale broke his early systems, so he brought Israel Alarcon on to rebuild the foundation underneath the growth. In this episode, you'll learn: ▸ How CarbonBox Media scaled from 15 to 70 team members in a single year ▸ Why Israel believes faith is the opposite of fear, and how that shows up in leadership ▸ Brandon's hiring conversation that filters out candidates who are just telling him what he wants to hear ▸ How to surround yourself with A-players smarter than you and why that's the only path to real scale ▸ The 90/10 standards-versus-autonomy rule that keeps the agency from drifting into bureaucracy ▸ The one personality trait no amount of coaching can change ▸ How they've gone 18 months without letting a single person go for lack of clients 🏆 Run an agency with a culture worth recognizing? Apply for our official agency culture recognition program at https://agencyworkplaces.com/nomination-form Guests: Brandon Scott @CarbonBox MediaIsrael Alarcon @CarbonBox Media Host: Wesley Hoang @Agency Workplaces

    55 min

  3. May 8

    Katelyn Hoffman: How To Use AI In HR And Keep It Human | Agency Culture Conversations Ep. 3

    Katelyn started her career in corporate law before pivoting into people operations. Today she's the Director of People Operations at Aloha, a 100-plus person agency that's won the Inc. 5000 award six times in a row, and she just rolled out a custom AI agent named "Ali" that handles the repetitive HR questions her team used to spend hours on every week. In this episode, you'll learn: ▸ The three transferable leadership skills she carried from corporate law into HR ▸ How a 100-person agency uses a custom AI agent to free its HR team from repetitive questions ▸ Why her leadership team meets monthly with a shared goal across departments ▸ How to balance welcoming new ideas with fiercely protecting your core values as you scale ▸ Three tips for delivering hard feedback in a culture that loves to celebrate ▸ The 30/70 rule for structuring feedback conversations so people leave aligned ▸ Where AI stops being useful and human leadership has to take over ▸ The one mistake she would refuse to repeat as a people operations leader 🏆 Run an agency with a culture worth recognizing? Apply for our official agency culture recognition program at: https://agencyworkplaces.com/nomination-form Guest: Katelyn Hoffman, Director of People Ops at Aloha Host: Dr. Vo, CEO of Agency Workplaces

    52 min

  4. May 4

    Chris Fink: How To Build An Agency Culture That Actually Scales | Agency Culture Conversations Ep. 2

    Chris Fink didn't found his agency. He joined it as a strategist after 23 years in automotive management and a stint running operations at a med spa. Years later, he's a partner running multiple sister agencies under one roof, and he has strong views on what makes the team-to-leader transition work. In this episode, you'll learn: ▸ Why "clarity over comfort" is the most important shift a new leader can make ▸ The advice he gives every newly-promoted leader before their first hard conversation ▸ How his team runs multiple sister agencies on one shared operating system ▸ The hiring process that uses personality assessments to put the right person in the right role ▸ How to break a "yes-man" culture using a deliberately ridiculous idea as a test ▸ Why he'd rather build leaders who eventually leave than build lifers who stay forever ▸ The one mistake he'd refuse to repeat if he had to rebuild his agency from scratch 🏆 Run an agency with a culture worth recognizing? Apply for our official agency culture recognition program at https://agencyworkplaces.com/nomination-form Guest: Chris Fink, Partner at Fannit Host: Wesley Hoang, Agency Workplaces

    1h 2m

  5. Apr 29

    Eric Ritter: Why The Best Agency Have A "Kindness Clause" | Agency Culture Conversations Ep. 1

    When Eric Ritter walked away from a stable career at Johns Hopkins to go all-in on his agency, the people closest to him didn't understand why. Ten years later, Digital Neighbor is a 14-person hybrid team built on a culture so specific it has its own clause inside every client contract. In this episode, you'll learn: ▸ How to know when your side hustle is ready to become your main hustle ▸ The Jeff Bezos "risk test" Eric used to push past the fear of going full-time ▸ Why his very first hire was about protecting his energy, not adding skill ▸ The two non-negotiables that hold his entire culture together ▸ The "kindness clause" Eric writes into every client contract, and what it actually says ▸ Why visibility, not productivity, is the real currency of any hybrid culture ▸ The early warning signs that tell him a team member is starting to slip ▸ The one mistake he'd refuse to repeat if he had to rebuild Digital Neighbor from scratch 🏆 Run an agency with a culture worth recognizing? Apply for our official agency culture recognition program at: https://agencyworkplaces.com/nomination-form Guest: Eric Ritter, Founder of Digital Neighbor Host: Wesley Hoang, COO of Agency Workplaces

    55 min
  • 5 Episodes

About

What is the secret sauce behind the world’s most successful agencies? It's not just a high-ticket offer or a flawless sales script, it's an exceptional culture that attracts top-tier talent and keeps them for years. Welcome to Agency Culture Conversations, the podcast dedicated to the human side of high-performance scaling. Hosted by the CEO and COO of Agency Workplaces, this show pulls back the curtain on the internal engines of 7 and 8-figure agencies that aren't just winning on the balance sheet, but winning in the hearts of their teams. Each episode, we sit down with founders and leaders who have cracked the code on workplace excellence. These aren't just "feel-good" stories, our guests lead agencies with verified, exceptional culture scores. We dive deep into the tangible strategies they use to build trust, foster innovation, and maintain a competitive edge in a remote, hybrid, or onsite world. In every episode, we explore: Scaling Without Burnout: How elite agencies maintain their "soul" while crossing the 7 and 8-figure marks.The ROI of Culture: Data-driven insights on how a high culture score directly impacts retention, client satisfaction, and profitability.Leadership at the Top: Candid conversations with founders on the hard decisions required to protect a team's environment.Operational Excellence: How leaders align day-to-day workflows with core values to create a "workplace of choice." Whether you’re a founder looking to bridge the gap from "busy shop" to "award-winning workplace" or a leader tasked with protecting your team’s momentum, this is your weekly masterclass in agency leadership. Build a better team. Get recognized. Scale with soul. Learn more about getting your agency recognized at AgencyWorkplaces.com.

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