The Agency Profit Podcast
Welcome to the Agency Profit Podcast hosted by Marcel Petitpas, CEO and Co-Founder of Parakeeto. Finally, an agency podcast that isn't JUST about getting more clients. On the show, we bring in experts, agency owners and consultants to share their actionable tips for improving profitability and operational efficiency. Here, you'll learn what systems to implement in your business, what kind of KPI's to track, and benchmarks to aim for. How to manage things like capacity, utilization, billing rates, processes and procedures, what tools to use, mistakes to avoid and so, so much more. If you're tired of putting out fires...
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From Time Tracking to Time Intelligence, With Elizabeth Thorn
<h2>Points of Interest</h2> 00:01 – 00:35 – Introducing Time Intelligence: Carson Pierce welcomes Elizabeth Thorn to discuss how agencies can use better time data to improve profitability and decision making. 00:35 – 02:18 – From Agency Owner to SaaS Leader: Elizabeth shares how her experience running a digital marketing agency shaped her perspective on operational efficiency and measuring time. 02:18 – 04:31 – Why Time Tracking Needs to Evolve: The conversation explores why simply recording hours is no longer enough and how agencies can use time data to make smarter business decisions. 04:31 – 06:46 – The Foundation of Reliable Data: Elizabeth explains why accurate, consistent time tracking is essential for forecasting, pricing, utilization, and project prof...
Owner's Clarity and the Four Constraints, With Mike Grinberg
<h2>Points of Interest</h2> 00:00 – 02:50 – Introducing Owner's Clarity: Kristen Kelly welcomes Mike Grinberg back to the podcast to discuss why founders should develop personal clarity before focusing on positioning or marketing strategy. 02:50 – 05:30 – Why Successful Founders Still Feel Miserable: Mike explains how many founders build profitable businesses that ultimately fail to support their personal goals, values, or fulfillment. 05:30 – 07:10 – A Real-World Example of Misalignment: Mike shares the story of a founder whose business model eliminated the mentoring opportunities that gave his work meaning, despite excellent financial performance. 07:10 – 10:15 – Learning from Personal Experience: Reflecting on his own agency journey, Mike explains how removing himself entirely from cl...
Pass-Through Revenue: The Money That Was Never Yours, With Carson and Kristen
<h2>Points of Interest</h2> 00:01 Introduction and New AI-Driven Call Analysis: Kristen and Carson introduce a new process where they use Claude to analyze client calls regularly and surface recurring themes for the podcast, starting with today's topic: pass-through. 01:14 Defining Pass-Through: Kristen defines pass-through as any money that flows from a client through the agency to another vendor, where the agency isn't responsible for that cost's profitability, citing examples like media spend, print budgets, and stock imagery. 03:26 Defining AGI and the Formula: Carson explains Agency Gross Income (AGI) as top-line revenue minus pass-through, emphasizing that a $5 million agency by billings...
Profitability Is an Operations Problem, with Sarah Still
<h2>Points of Interest</h2> 00:00 – 01:43 – Introduction: Marcel introduces Sarah Still, Partner and COO at RAYNE IX, and frames the conversation around agency operations, profitability, scaling, and building valuable businesses. 01:44 – 02:28 – Helping Women Build Valuable Agencies: Sarah explains how RAYNE IX works with women agency owners to improve performance, build enterprise value, and prepare for future exit opportunities. 02:29 – 04:33 – From Finance to Agency Operations: Sarah shares how her accounting background led her into agency operations after helping clean up the books of a startup marketing agency. 04:34 – 06:10 – Building RAYNE IX After Agency Leadership: Sarah describes leaving her COO role after 11 years and eventually partnering with Kylie Peter...
We Take Care of the Money: Parakeeto's New Positioning, Explained, With Kristen Kelly & Carson Pierce
<h2>Points of Interest</h2> 00:01 – 00:53 – Why Revisit Positioning: Carson and Kristen introduce Parakeeto's repositioning effort and explain why they wanted to publicly discuss the evolution of the company's messaging. 00:53 – 02:18 – The Profitability Problem: The discussion explores how Parakeeto's heavy emphasis on profitability created confusion about what the company actually does for clients. 02:18 – 04:21 – The Challenge of Category Creation: Carson and Kristen reflect on attempts to create or fit into categories like FinOps and why unfamiliar categories often create more confusion than clarity. 04:21 – 06:18 – From Profitability to Stewardship: The conversation introduces the new positioning centered around helping agency owners focus on building their businesses while Parakeeto...
Shifting From Operator to Owner, With Jason Swenk
<h2>Points of Interest</h2> 00:00 – 02:12 – Jason Swenk's Agency Journey: Jason shares how he accidentally started an agency in 1999, grew it to more than 100 employees, sold it after 11 years, and eventually transitioned into coaching agency owners worldwide. 02:12 – 06:22 – Designing a Lifestyle Business: Jason explains how agency owners often aspire to more freedom and flexibility, sharing how he structures his own workweek and prioritizes experiences outside of work. 06:23 – 10:14 – Escaping the Operator Trap: Jason introduces an exercise that helps founders identify the tasks they dislike and begin designing their business around their strengths instead of remaining stuck in daily operations. 10:15 – 13:19 – The Manager Stage and Delegation Chall...
Cash Flow & The Future of AI, With Colin Hewitt
<h2>Points of Interest</h2> 00:00 – 01:00 – Introduction: Marcel welcomes Colin Hewitt, CEO and founder of Float, and frames cash flow as the lifeblood every agency depends on. 01:01 – 02:09 – The Origin of Float: Colin shares how running his own agency exposed the limits of spreadsheet-based forecasting and led him to build a cash flow product for service businesses. 02:10 – 05:24 – Direct vs Indirect Cash Flow Methods: A look at why traditional P&L-derived forecasts age the moment they are finished, and how a hybrid direct method delivers a forecast owners can trust day-to-day. 05:24 – 07:31 – Why Agency Cash Flow Is Uniquely Complex: Retainers, milestone billing, and time-and-materials projects each be...
Inside a Boutique Agency Holdco, With Sei-Wook Kim
<h2>Points of Interest</h2> 00:01 – 00:38 – Introduction: Marcel introduces Sei-Wook Kim, co-founder of Barrel and Barrel Holdings, highlighting his experience building and scaling multiple agencies. 00:38 – 01:31 – What Barrel Holdings Does: Sei-Wook explains their holdco structure, managing a portfolio of independent, specialized marketing agencies with a long-term acquisition strategy. 01:31 – 03:31 – Origin of the Holdco Model: The conversation explores how Barrel evolved from a single agency into multiple businesses through spin-offs and organic opportunities. 03:31 – 04:56 – Shift from Incubation to Acquisition: Sei-Wook shares why they moved from building agencies from scratch to acquiring established firms to accelerate growth. 04:56 – 06:07 – Independent Portfolio vs Roll-Up Strategy: They discuss why Barrel Holdings avoids the...
Profitability Sequencing: How Agencies Maximize Margins, With Kristen Kelly
<h2>Points of Interest</h2> 00:01 – 02:30 – The Cost of Poor Sequencing: Marcel and Kristen introduce the core issue—agencies often apply the right tactics in the wrong order, leading to wasted effort and stalled profitability. 02:30 – 05:00 – The Insight Formula: They explain that data alone is meaningless without context, introducing the key concept that insight comes from comparing expectations to reality. 05:00 – 06:30 – Start with a Business Model: Agencies should begin by building a model of their business to define what success should look like before measuring performance. 06:30 – 08:30 – The Danger of Starting with Data: Many firms overinvest in tracking actuals first, only to realize they lack the benchmark...
Growing Through M&A in the Age of AI, With Peter Lang
<h2>Points of Interest</h2> 00:01 – 00:38 – Introduction: Marcel opens the episode by introducing Peter Lang as an entrepreneur, investor, and operator deeply focused on mergers and acquisitions. 01:00 – 02:13 – From Holding Company to Teaching M&A: Peter explains that he now runs a holding company, invests in assets including agencies, and is focused on teaching other founders how to acquire and grow businesses. 02:41 – 06:09 – How an Agency Owner Became Obsessed with Acquisitions: Peter shares how an early interest in corporate finance, investing, and business ownership evolved alongside accidentally building a digital agency. 06:34 – 09:23 – The First Deal and the Power of a Motivated Seller: Peter recounts the unusual acqu...
