Summary:

Most agency owners don’t fail because they’re bad at delivery.
They fail because they build a business that can’t survive success.

In this episode, I sit down with James Kwon, founder of Figmints, to unpack what actually happens after you land clients and why hitting your first revenue goal can be more dangerous than missing it.

James shares how his agency hit $250K in its first year then nearly collapsed under taxes, payroll, and bad assumptions, and how that moment led to a radically different way of thinking about growth, compensation, and profitability.

Takeaways:

• The hidden reason most agencies get stuck between $200K–$400K
  
  
• Why sales, not talent, is the real bottleneck early on
  
  
• How James used Craigslist as a scrappy growth engine (and what that teaches us today)
  
  
• The dangerous myth of “doing everything well” in the early years
  
  
• How the Slices model turns compensation into a performance game
  
  
• Why hourly billing quietly kills agency profitability
  
  
• How to niche without blowing up your current revenue

Check out James' agency here:
Figmints

Join the free agency uplift community: https://www.agencyuplift.co/group

Get the 5 free custom GPTs that will help you stop being the bottleneck: https://www.agencyuplift.co/blueprint

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Summary:

Most agencies think growth comes from doing more.
More services. More platforms. More promises.

In this episode, I talk with Matt Dorman, co-founder of Ndevr, about why his agency took the opposite approach and why it may be the smartest move in today’s market.

We break down what happens when you intentionally avoid full service, focus on technical depth, and use consulting as a strategic entry point instead of chasing every opportunity.

Takeaways:

• Why specialization beats full-service in volatile markets
  
  
• How consulting can unlock implementation without selling harder
  
  
• The real reason WordPress and web dev demand slowed
  
  
• Why AI didn’t replace developers but exposed weak processes
  
  
• How to structure roles early to avoid operational chaos
  
  
• The mistake agencies make when chasing “scale” too soon

Check out Matt's agency here:
Ndevr

Join the free agency uplift community: https://www.agencyuplift.co/group

Get the 5 free custom GPTs that will help you stop being the bottleneck: https://www.agencyuplift.co/blueprint

👉 Get new episodes right to your inbox - click here 👈

Summary:

Building an agency gets harder before it gets easier and no one warns you when the rules change.

This is my 100th episode, and I pulled together the most important insights I’ve learned from founders who’ve scaled through chaos, complexity, and inflection points most agencies never survive.

These are the lessons I wish I had earlier.

Takeaways:

• The moment early momentum turns into operational friction
  
  
• Why premium pricing works only after a mindset shift
  
  
• How agencies quietly break at 10, 30, and 50 employees
  
  
• The truth about niching that most advice gets wrong
  
  
• Why focus beats hustle at every scale
  
  
• How founders recover after years of stalled growth

Join the free agency uplift community: https://www.agencyuplift.co/group

Get the 5 free custom GPTs that will help you stop being the bottleneck: https://www.agencyuplift.co/blueprint

👉 Get new episodes right to your inbox - click here 👈