Explore every episode of the podcast Agency Advantage
| Title | Pub. Date | Duration | |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Agency That Paid Everybody But Her | 24 sept. 2026 | 00:39:56 | |
What happens when you cut your team in half and finally pay yourself more than you made in the OR? In this episode of the Agency Advantage Podcast, Brad Starnes sits down with Nisha Ryan, Founder and CEO of The Aligned Pretzel Inc, to unpack a car-accident origin story, the six-person payroll that left her working 16-hour days for less than nursing pay, and the boundaries that rebuilt the agency around a lean team of three. Nisha never planned to start an agency. She was an operating room nurse until she was rear-ended at a red light on her day off. She couldn't work, she'd just finished a yoga teacher certification, so she started teaching online. People asked how she built her website and got paid. She posted that she was opening VA services and had five clients by the end of that day. Ten years later she runs The Aligned Pretzel for online educators, web, funnels, paid ads, and organic social. The middle of that story is the part most agency owners will recognize: saying yes to every client request, stacking people to support the work, and watching margins disappear. What changed wasn't a new offer. It was boundaries, ownership on the team, a January rate-increase schedule, and choosing not to grow just because she could. She's also a single mom to a nearly three-year-old, so the business had to fit a life that can't absorb 16-hour days. In this conversation, Brad and Nisha discuss: Twenty years of origin pressure compressed into one accident-to-agency path The gap between consulting and implementation, and rebuilding the offer around it Her first retainer: $1,000 a month for up to 40 hours of funnels, email, and social Being the yes woman, and how that stacked six people onto the payroll Raising rates every January on a schedule so the conversation stops being scary Auditing costs outside of labor and cutting overlapping software "Whatever we normalize, our clients think is normal" Giving the team ownership instead of routing everything through the founder Why this isn't her season for growth, and why revenue is still at its highest Capping new clients at one or two a month on purpose Asking Kajabi's head of marketing for a stage, and getting flown to headquarters Timestamps: [00:00] - Agency Advantage intro CONNECT WITH BRAD: Facebook → https://www.facebook.com/BradStarnesOfficial/ Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/bradstarnesofficial/ LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/in/bradstarnesofficial/ CONNECT WITH NISHA: The Aligned Pretzel → https://thealignedpretzel.co Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/thealignedpretzelinc/ YouTube → https://www.youtube.com/@thealignedpretzel LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/in/nisharyan/ CONTACT: TalentFuze → https://talentfuze.io Book a call → http://bradstarnes.fyi/talentfuze/ #AgencyAdvantage #NishaRyan #TheAlignedPretzel #AgencyOwner #Boundaries #AgencyGrowth Are you an agency owner that is looking to scale through global talent? Connect with us at talentfuze.io or join our free Facebook group, The Agency Advantage: https://www.facebook.com/groups/youragencyadvantage/ Are you an agency owner that is looking to scale through global talent? Connect with us at talentfuze.io or join our free Facebook group, The Agency Advantage: https://www.facebook.com/groups/youragencyadvantage/ | |||
| He Sold His Agency in May. By October He Was CEO of 800 Shops. | Jono Long | 17 sept. 2026 | 00:39:55 | |
What happens when you sell the agency you built, then buy one you didn't? In this episode of the Agency Advantage Podcast, Brad Starnes sits down with Jono Long, CEO of Leads Near Me, to unpack 20 years as a Metro Atlanta youth pastor, a $300-a-month Facebook side hustle that paid the mortgage, and the decision to acquire a ten-year-old auto repair marketing firm instead of starting over. Jono sold his church-niche agency in May 2025, then partnered to buy Leads Near Me that October. He walked in as CEO of a team he didn't hire and clients he didn't sell. The agency markets for 800-plus independent auto shops. He talks through splitting fulfillment off the phones, hiring marketing coaches, standing up pods, and why buying beats starting from scratch when the problems are fundamental and the business is already profitable. In this conversation, Brad and Jono discuss: Twenty years in youth ministry and the side hustle that became an agency Why COVID doubled his book instead of wiping it out Niching into restoration, then churches, and why church margins stayed thin Selling, then buying: walking into a team and a book you didn't build Getting specialists off the phones and installing marketing coaches Pods, 800 shops, and making a large agency feel small How to pick a niche by who you like serving, not a list The bottleneck that is almost never a secret sauce Timestamps: [00:00] - Agency Advantage intro CONNECT WITH BRAD: Facebook → https://www.facebook.com/BradStarnesOfficial/ Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/bradstarnesofficial/ LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/in/bradstarnesofficial/ CONNECT WITH JONO: Leads Near Me → https://leadsnearme.com LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonolong CONTACT: TalentFuze → https://talentfuze.io Book a call → http://bradstarnes.fyi/talentfuze/ #AgencyAdvantage #JonoLong #LeadsNearMe #AgencyAcquisition #AutoRepairMarketing #AgencyGrowth #NicheMarketing #MarketingAgency #AgencyOwner #Delegation Are you an agency owner that is looking to scale through global talent? Connect with us at talentfuze.io or join our free Facebook group, The Agency Advantage: https://www.facebook.com/groups/youragencyadvantage/ Are you an agency owner that is looking to scale through global talent? Connect with us at talentfuze.io or join our free Facebook group, The Agency Advantage: https://www.facebook.com/groups/youragencyadvantage/ | |||
| From HVAC Accountant to $9M Agency Founder | Josh Crouch | 10 sept. 2026 | 00:42:22 | |
Josh Crouch built Relentless Digital by going deep before going wide. After eight years inside home-service companies, he launched with one focused offer for HVAC contractors and grew into a premium agency that he says has reached $750K in monthly recurring revenue. Are you an agency owner that is looking to scale through global talent? Connect with us at talentfuze.io or join our free Facebook group, The Agency Advantage: https://www.facebook.com/groups/youragencyadvantage/ | |||
| From a $14K Ceiling to $1.6M: The Power of Niching Down | Will Hanke | 03 sept. 2026 | 00:35:39 | |
What happens when an agency owner stops serving everyone and becomes the obvious choice for one overlooked niche? In this episode of the Agency Advantage Podcast, Brad Starnes sits down with Will Hanke, founder of Window Treatment Marketing Pros, to unpack how Will broke through a self-imposed $14K MRR ceiling, committed to an underserved niche, and built a $1.6 million agency with a global team. Will explains why he rebranded around window-treatment dealers, spent years building omnipresence before scaling paid ads, and considers waiting too long to hire an appointment setter one of his biggest misses. He also shares how LeadBoomerang became both a client-retention tool and a sales advantage—and why trying to sell it as standalone SaaS failed twice. In this conversation, Brad and Will discuss:
Timestamps: 00:00 – Agency Advantage intro CONNECT WITH BRAD: Facebook → https://www.facebook.com/BradStarnesOfficial/ CONNECT WITH WILL: Window Treatment Marketing Pros → https://wtmarketingpros.com CONTACT: TalentFuze → https://talentfuze.io #AgencyAdvantage #WillHanke #WindowTreatmentMarketingPros #AgencyGrowth #NicheMarketing #MarketingAgency #RemoteTeam #AgencyOwner #EOS #LeadGeneration Are you an agency owner that is looking to scale through global talent? Connect with us at talentfuze.io or join our free Facebook group, The Agency Advantage: https://www.facebook.com/groups/youragencyadvantage/ | |||
| He Didn't Pick His Niche. His Niche Picked Him. | Nick Hoard | 27 août 2026 | 00:40:35 | |
What happens when COVID wipes out every client except one? In this episode of the Agency Advantage Podcast, Brad Starnes sits down with Nick Hoard to discuss his journey from radio to founding Nick the Marketer at his kitchen table in Birmingham, Alabama, and building Patient Care Marketing Pros into an agency serving over 250 urgent care clinics with a global team. Nick shares how a mid-notice radio format flip forced him into entrepreneurship, how the pandemic gutted his client roster two years in, and how the one client who stayed, a multi-location urgent care, handed him the niche that changed everything. He also gets candid about burning thousands on Facebook ads that flopped, spending years building credibility across podcasts, YouTube, and live events, then turning ads back on to wildly different results. In this conversation, Brad and Nick discuss:
Nick also explains why culture is what happens when the leader leaves the room, and why applied knowledge, not knowledge, is the real power. Timestamps: [00:00] - The agency that runs without the founder 🔗 CONNECT WITH BRAD: Facebook → https://www.facebook.com/BradStarnesOfficial/ 🔗 CONNECT WITH NICK: Website → https://nickthemarketer.com ✉️ CONTACT: About me: On Agency Advantage, I have honest conversations with agency owners and operators about what it actually takes to grow: the systems, the hires, the hard lessons, and the advantages nobody posts about on LinkedIn. #AgencyAdvantage #NickHoard #PatientCareMarketingPros #NickTheMarketer #UrgentCareMarketing #MarketingAgency #AgencyGrowth #AgencyOwner #NicheDown #AgencyCulture #RemoteTeam #BusinessGrowth Are you an agency owner that is looking to scale through global talent? Connect with us at talentfuze.io or join our free Facebook group, The Agency Advantage: https://www.facebook.com/groups/youragencyadvantage/ | |||
| Build a Team or Borrow One? A White Label Founder Tells the Truth | Austin Benoit | 20 août 2026 | 00:37:33 | |
Should your agency build its own delivery team or borrow someone else's? In this episode of the Agency Advantage Podcast, Brad Starnes sits down with Austin Benoit to discuss his journey from a corporate mechanical engineering career to founding Search Prestige, a white label agency that now powers SEO, Google Ads, and Meta Ads delivery for over 100 agencies across the US. Austin shares how he taught himself SEO during COVID, moonlighted on Upwork for a year while still working as an engineer, and went full-time in the middle of the pandemic. He also gets honest about the hiring mistakes that skewed his standards, why he restructured his team around true A players, and where white label actually fits in an agency's life cycle. Brad and Austin run competing models on paper, TalentFuze building in-house teams with vetted offshore specialists and Search Prestige renting out its own, so this conversation puts both paths on the table. In this conversation, Brad and Austin discuss:
Austin also explains why account management is the most slept-on seat in an agency, and why great communication retains clients longer than great results ever will. Timestamps: [00:00] - Build your own delivery team or borrow one? 🔗 CONNECT WITH BRAD: Facebook → https://www.facebook.com/BradStarnesOfficial/ 🔗 CONNECT WITH AUSTIN: Website → https://searchprestige.com ✉️ CONTACT: About me: On Agency Advantage, I have honest conversations with agency owners and operators about what it actually takes to grow: the systems, the hires, the hard lessons, and the advantages nobody posts about on LinkedIn. #AgencyAdvantage #AustinBenoit #SearchPrestige #WhiteLabelAgency #MarketingAgency #AgencyGrowth #AgencyOwner #SEO #GEO #AIVisibility #Delegation #BusinessGrowth Are you an agency owner that is looking to scale through global talent? Connect with us at talentfuze.io or join our free Facebook group, The Agency Advantage: https://www.facebook.com/groups/youragencyadvantage/ | |||
| The Loom Close: How Frankie Fihn Sells Agency Clients Without Calls | 09 juil. 2026 | 00:41:20 | |
What if you closed agency clients without ever getting on a sales call? In this episode of the Agency Advantage Podcast, Brad Starnes sits down with Frankie Fihn to discuss how he runs a $150K to $300K per month agency with a team of two to five people and signs clients with a single five-minute video instead of a call, a discovery meeting, or a proposal. Frankie is ten-plus years in, and the road there was not clean: 20 months without making a dime, sleeping on his girlfriend’s couch, and burning his first agency to the ground after a decade of burnout before rebuilding it smarter. What changed was the model. He went from 200 booked calls a month down to six and closed more business, because busy buyers do not want to sit through a pitch three weeks out. They want to know what it is, what it costs, and how to buy it. He has had clients sign up at 1 a.m. from bed. In this conversation, Brad and Frankie discuss:
If you are drowning in sales calls and sick of trading hours for offers that go unread, start here. Timestamps: [00:00] - What if you never took another sales call? 🔗 CONNECT WITH BRAD: 🔗 CONNECT WITH FRANKIE: ✉️ CONTACT: About me: I’m Brad Starnes, founder and CEO of TalentFuze, where we help marketing agency owners build real delegation systems by placing vetted offshore specialists into their businesses. Before TalentFuze, I built and sold my own marketing agency, so I’ve lived the exact bottlenecks most agency owners are stuck in: too much on the owner’s plate and not enough leverage. On Agency Advantage, I have honest conversations with agency owners and operators about what it actually takes to grow: the systems, the hires, the hard lessons, and the advantages nobody posts about on LinkedIn. #AgencyAdvantage #FrankieFihn #BeyondAgencyProfits #LoomClose #AsyncSales #VideoSales #SellWithoutCalls #MarketingAgency #AgencyGrowth #AgencyOwner #ClientAcquisition #BusinessGrowth Are you an agency owner that is looking to scale through global talent? Connect with us at talentfuze.io or join our free Facebook group, The Agency Advantage: https://www.facebook.com/groups/youragencyadvantage/ | |||
| Kicked Out On Purpose: From $50M Sprint Territory to a Seven-Figure Agency Exit | 18 juin 2026 | 00:37:20 | |
Should you build an agency to run, or build one to sell? In this episode of the Agency Advantage Podcast, Brad Starnes sits down with Matt Coffy to discuss walking out on a $50 million corporate territory at Sprint, accidentally building a medical marketing agency out of a website he made to show off his own chops, and scaling it to 30+ people and $250K a month before kicking himself out of it on purpose. Matt started consulting in 2010 with no real plan. His dentist became his first recurring client while he was in the chair getting a tooth filled. That accident became Customer Bloom, then Practice Bloom, then a multiple seven-figure exit. He started planning that exit two years early by trading marketing work for broker advice, deliberately made himself removable from day-to-day operations, and still nearly sank the business at its peak by signing 30 clients a month with no way to keep them. He is running the same playbook a third time now as ProfitEngines, and he is blunt about who he will let near it. In this conversation, Brad and Matt discuss:
Matt is also honest about the part nobody posts about: the day you sell the thing you built is the hardest day, not the finish line. If you have ever wanted to build something you could actually walk away from, this one is for you. Timestamps: [00:00] - Build an agency to run, or build one to sell? 🔗 CONNECT WITH BRAD: 🔗 CONNECT WITH MATT: ✉️ CONTACT: About me: I’m Brad Starnes, founder and CEO of TalentFuze, where we help marketing agency owners build real delegation systems by placing vetted offshore specialists into their businesses. Before TalentFuze, I built and sold my own marketing agency, so I’ve lived the exact bottlenecks most agency owners are stuck in: too much on the owner’s plate and not enough leverage. On Agency Advantage, I have honest conversations with agency owners and operators about what it actually takes to grow: the systems, the hires, the hard lessons, and the advantages nobody posts about on LinkedIn. #AgencyAdvantage #MattCoffy #ProfitEngines #AgencyExit #SellYourAgency #MarketingAgency #AgencyGrowth #AgencyOwner #ClientRetention #MedicalMarketing #BusinessGrowth Are you an agency owner that is looking to scale through global talent? Connect with us at talentfuze.io or join our free Facebook group, The Agency Advantage: https://www.facebook.com/groups/youragencyadvantage/ | |||
| Too Stupid to Quit: From College Dropout to $300K/Month Law Firm Marketing Agency | 11 juin 2026 | 00:39:00 | |
Cyle Patnode started the same business three times before it finally worked. He dropped out of college at 21, got left holding the bag when his marketing franchise went bankrupt, and ended up broke at 23. He was waiting tables and valeting cars in a new city. Then the Pennsylvania AG came after him over a lead-gen play gone wrong. Then COVID wiped out every client he had except one. That one client was a personal injury attorney. It's the entire reason Case Engine exists today; a law firm marketing agency doing around $300K a month with a team of 30+. In the first episode back since the relaunch, Brad walks Cyle through the full "fucked" era and how he clawed his way to "unfucked": why he resisted niching down for years (and what it cost him), the one ad that signed a $5K/month client in week one, and why he's betting the agency's future on AI search; getting law firms cited inside ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini before the rest of the industry catches up. In this episode:
If you've ever launched something that blew up in your face and wondered whether to go again, this one's for you. Are you an agency owner that is looking to scale through global talent? Connect with us at talentfuze.io or join our free Facebook group, The Agency Advantage: https://www.facebook.com/groups/youragencyadvantage/ | |||
| Your Agency Is Holding You Hostage | 03 juin 2026 | 00:08:52 | |
Your agency looks like it's working. You've got the revenue, the clients, the thing everyone else calls success. And you haven't taken a real day off in months, because the whole operation still runs on your hands and only your hands. The UnF*cked Agency is the show for that... the conversation that usually only happens after the conference, at the bar, when the guard finally comes down. The churn that's scaring you. The cash that's tighter than it looks. The fact that you built a business that owns you instead of the other way around. Host Brad Starnes has been there... he built an agency that looked like a dream while it was on fire inside, and sold it under distress before rebuilding around the lesson he paid for the hard way. No guru theater, no ten-step frameworks you'll never use. Just honest talk and real operators, working through one idea every episode: how to get your agency unfcked. Not perfect. Not optimized. Just not broken, not trapped, and not bleeding. If you're past survival, doing real revenue, and more exhausted than you've ever been — start here. New episodes break down the real mechanics of building an agency that doesn't eat your life. Follow the show so the next one finds you. Are you an agency owner that is looking to scale through global talent? Connect with us at talentfuze.io or join our free Facebook group, The Agency Advantage: https://www.facebook.com/groups/youragencyadvantage/ | |||