Retained Trust
Want to know what it takes to build, scale, and sell your agency? Retained Trust is a weekly podcast where host Karl Hughes goes deep with digital service business owners to uncover the habits, tactics, and strategies they’ve learned to grow successful companies. Along the way, you’ll hear about Karl’s journey running and acquiring niche digital agencies as he learns from guests with a variety of backgrounds and experience levels.
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Beyond Organic Growth: Tristan Pelligrino on Buying Agencies and Building Sustainable Businesses
<p>In this episode of Retained Trust, host Karl Hughes speaks with Tristan Pelligrino, co-founder of Aragon Holdings, about building and acquiring marketing agencies. Tristan shares his journey from launching 522 Productions to founding Motion and expanding through acquisitions. They explore why strong leadership, recurring revenue, and operational systems matter when evaluating agencies, along with the challenges of cultural integration and founder dependency. Karl and Tristan also discuss SBA financing, creative deal structures, and the importance of maintaining relationships with potential sellers and investors. Tune in to learn how agency owners can prepare for an exit and how buyers can build...
Building Eight-Figure Agencies: John Ghiorso on Venture Studios, Market Timing, and AI
<p>In this episode of Retained Trust, host Karl Hughes speaks with John Ghiorso, founder of VantaFive, a venture studio and accelerator focused on niche marketing agencies. John shares his journey from bootstrapping Orca Pacific into an eight-figure business to selling it in 2020 and launching a new model for agency growth. They explore the importance of market timing, building enterprise value, and using customer acquisition data to scale profitably. John explains how VantaFive identifies emerging opportunities, partners with entrepreneurs, and builds specialized agencies targeting rapid growth. The conversation also examines how artificial intelligence is transforming agency operations, why traditional production...
Beyond the Sales Playbook: Christina Brady on AI, Sales Training, and Leadership
<p>In this episode of Retained Trust, host Karl Hughes speaks with Christina Brady, CEO and Co-Founder of Luster.ai, about her journey from sales representative to startup founder. Christina shares lessons from her time at MetLife and Groupon, including the challenges of managing teams without proper leadership training. They examine why traditional sales methodologies often fall short and how Luster uses AI-powered predictive enablement to identify skill gaps before they impact revenue. The conversation also covers personalized coaching, building effective sales processes, and creating a culture where employees can grow beyond their leaders. Christina closes by sharing lessons from...
Building a Million-Dollar Agency: The Systems Behind Seven-Figure Growth
<p>In this solo episode of Retained Trust, host Karl Hughes breaks down how service businesses can grow to $1 million in annual revenue. Drawing from his experience building and acquiring seven-figure agencies, Karl explains how to calculate the client base and pricing needed to reach the milestone, find service-market fit through customer conversations, and focus on a narrow beachhead market. He also covers referrals, demand capture, pricing for healthy margins, identifying operational bottlenecks, and hiring adaptable early employees. The episode offers a practical framework for building an agency that can consistently deliver value without requiring the founder to handle every...
Growing a Podcast: Robert Tuchman and Adam Hendricks on Organic and Paid Audience Growth
<p>In this episode of Retained Trust, host Karl Hughes speaks with Robert Tuchman of Amaze Media Labs and Audience Lift, and Adam Hendricks of The Podcast Consultant, about what it takes to grow a podcast. They discuss who should start a podcast, why audience quality can matter more than raw download numbers, and the role of consistency, strong audio, compelling content, and host enthusiasm in organic growth. Robert explains the paid promotion options available to podcasters, including contextually targeted distribution through Audience Lift, while Adam and Karl examine the metrics that matter most for B2B shows, from watch-through...
Building a Podcast Agency That Lasts: Rachael King on Pod People, Creative Growth, and Trust
<p>In this episode of Retained Trust, host Karl Hughes speaks with Rachael King, founder and CEO of Pod People, about building a podcast production company over nearly a decade. Rachael shares how her background in social media and PR led her to podcasting, why audio is such an effective medium for building trust, and how Pod People grew steadily as a bootstrapped agency. They discuss creative excellence, paid podcast promotion, building the right leadership team, managing client concentration and margins, and why bigger is not always better. Rachael also explains why she wants to build a company she would...
Why Audio Builds Trust: Jeff Large on Podcasting, Agency Growth, and Authority
<p>In this episode of Retained Trust, host Karl Hughes speaks with Jeff Large, founder of Come Alive Creative, about his path from teaching middle school to building a podcast-focused agency. Jeff explains how his company evolved from web development into audio production, why podcasts can create unusually strong trust and engagement, and how businesses can use audio to support authority, sales, education, and client relationships. They also discuss choosing the right clients, the founder’s role in sales, the rise of video podcasting, shifting client needs, and why agency owners should understand the difference between mastering a craft and bu...
Building Relationships That Drive Business: Dr. Jeremy Weisz on Podcasting and Networking
<p>In this episode of Retained Trust, host Karl Hughes speaks with Dr. Jeremy Weisz about using podcasting to build relationships, strengthen trust, and create business opportunities. Jeremy shares how his path from chiropractic to podcasting led to lasting professional relationships and eventually to building Rise25. They discuss why guest relationships can matter more than download numbers, how podcasts can shorten sales cycles, and ways businesses can use interviews to strengthen referral and strategic partnerships. Jeremy also explains his systems for staying in touch with contacts, choosing podcast guests, and using every episode as an intentional follow-up tool.</p><p><...
Building a Podcast Portfolio: Karl Hughes and Manuel Weiss on Acquisitions, Integration, and Growth
<p>In this episode of Retained Trust, host Karl Hughes welcomes back his business partner, Manuel Weiss, for a personal and business update. Manuel shares his move from Vienna back to the U.S., while he and Karl explain why they are shifting their attention toward the podcasting industry. They discuss stepping back from Draft.dev, acquiring Sundial Media and Rise25, and their approach to integrating teams while preserving brands that serve distinct parts of the market. Karl and Manuel also examine how their roles are changing as they focus more on acquisitions, culture, delegation, and building repeatable integration systems...
The Real Story of Entrepreneurship | Trailer
<p>Building a company is rarely the clean success story you hear after the fact.</p><p>On Retained Trust, Karl Hughes sits down with founders and entrepreneurs to unpack what actually happens behind the scenes — the breakthroughs, the mistakes, the uncertainty, the painful lows, and the lessons that only come from building something yourself.</p><p>These are candid conversations about entrepreneurship without the highlight-reel filter. Guests share the decisions that shaped their companies, the moments that tested them, and what they learned along the way.</p><p>If you’re building a business, thinking about starting one, or simp...
