Agency Forward

Agency Forward explores the future of agencies as tech and AI drive down the cost of tactical deliverables. Topics include building competent teams, developing strategic offers, systemizing your business, and more. New episodes delivered every Tuesday.

Agency Forward is a business podcast hosted by Unknown Host, with 123 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80. PitchCentric scores this show on Booking Probability, Listen Score, and live audience signals refreshed every 24 hours.

Unknown Host hosts Agency Forward, a business show with 123 episodes published.

Our AI reads these to draft pitches. Use them as grounding for a pitch that cites a real guest and a specific topic.

• 

  Episode #121

  121 Bryan McAnulty: Run AI Agents Like an RTS, Not a Chatbot

  Aug 18, 202642 min

  Hey everyone, today I'm joined by Bryan McAnulty . Bryan is the founder of LatchLoop, where he and his team run AI agents at serious scale, something like 3 billion tokens a month, to get more done without burning out the humans running them. I wanted him on the show because most agency owners are still treating AI agents like a chatbot: you sit there, you watch it work, you prompt it again. Bryan's take is that the mental model is wrong, and once you start running agents like a real-time strategy game instead, everything about how much leverage you get out of AI changes. In this episode, we discuss: The three types of agent workflows: background loops, massive-scope tasks, and tight feedback-loop work How agents went from handling 20-30 minute tasks a year ago to running for hours or days now How to avoid the AI burnout he saw hit developers earlier this year And more... You can learn more about Bryan on LinkedIn . And don't forget to check out LatchLoop . ----------- Lead Gen is the hardest part of running an agency. For most, it's unpredictable, it's slow, and it's usually expensive. Gia flips that. It's the all-in-one growth platform that turns your existing relationships and client work into a steady pipeline. Gia automates lead gen follow-up and content, and it's all from the work you're already doing. You can check it out and get some free bonuses at getgia.ai/dynamicagency ----------- No one was asking for another community. But I've made one anyway. So what's different? The Dynamic Agency Community is designed around access rather than content. Access to peers who've done it before. Access to experts who've designed solutions. Access to resources that have been battle-tested. And right now, the price for founding members is only $97/year. Join today so your agency has immediate access to everything you need to grow. You can join at DynamicAgency.Community. ----------- Subscribe to the Agency Forward blog on Substack. We have weekly blog content with practical advice to help you advance your agency. ----------- And if you're ready for 1-on-1 help to create some mind-blowing offers for your agency, visit DynamicAgencyOS.com to schedule a free consultation. Running an agency is tough, but you don't need to go it alone.

  ListenShow Notes
• 

  Episode #120

  120 Park Howell: Why AI Makes Storytelling a Bigger Moat

  Aug 11, 202632 min

  Hey everyone, today I'm joined by Park Howell . Park is a storytelling coach and consultant who helps brands turn their story into a measurable growth engine, using frameworks like And-But-Therefore to make an often-dismissed "soft skill" produce hard, provable ROI. I wanted him on the show because agencies are about to get hit with a wave of AI-generated content that all sounds the same, and Park's argument is that storytelling isn't the thing AI commoditizes, it's the thing that becomes your biggest moat once everyone else is producing generic copy. In this episode, we discuss: Why AI turns storytelling into a bigger competitive advantage, not a smaller one The difference between an intuitive storyteller and an intentional one The And-But-Therefore framework and how it plays to the brain's pattern-seeking, decision-making wiring And more... You can learn more about Park Howell on LinkedIn . And check out StoryCycle Genie for yourself. ----------- Lead Gen is the hardest part of running an agency. For most, it's unpredictable, it's slow, and it's usually expensive. Gia flips that. It's the all-in-one growth platform that turns your existing relationships and client work into a steady pipeline. Gia automates lead gen follow-up and content, and it's all from the work you're already doing. You can check it out and get some free bonuses at getgia.ai/dynamicagency ----------- No one was asking for another community. But I've made one anyway. So what's different? The Dynamic Agency Community is designed around access rather than content. Access to peers who've done it before. Access to experts who've designed solutions. Access to resources that have been battle-tested. And right now, the price for founding members is only $97/year. Join today so your agency has immediate access to everything you need to grow. You can join at DynamicAgency.Community. ----------- Subscribe to the Agency Forward blog on Substack. We have weekly blog content with practical advice to help you advance your agency. ----------- And if you're ready for 1-on-1 help to create some mind-blowing offers for your agency, visit DynamicAgencyOS.com to schedule a free consultation. Running an agency is tough, but you don't need to go it alone.

  ListenShow Notes
• 

  Episode #119

  119 Rich Matukaitis: The Agencies Winning With AI Aren't Cutting Corners

  Aug 4, 202632 min

  Hey everyone, today I'm joined by Rich Matukaitis . Rich is a partnerships lead at Rebuy, the ecommerce personalization platform for Shopify brands. He spent four years at Shopify before joining Rebuy, and got his start as a business owner himself, building an online booking system as a hairdresser. I wanted Rich on because he works with hundreds of agencies and thousands of brands through Rebuy's partner program, which gives him a front-row seat to which agencies are actually pulling ahead with AI and which ones are getting left behind chasing shortcuts. In this episode, we discuss: Why the agencies winning with AI are using it to add capacity, not cut headcount How to stay human and keep your critical thinking sharp when everyone has access to the same tools Why trust, not claims of being "the best," is becoming the real currency for agencies And more... You can learn more about Rich Matukaitis on LinkedIn . Also, talk to Rich about Rebuy's Partner Program . ----------- Lead Gen is the hardest part of running an agency. For most, it's unpredictable, it's slow, and it's usually expensive. Gia flips that. It's the all-in-one growth platform that turns your existing relationships and client work into a steady pipeline. Gia automates lead gen follow-up and content, and it's all from the work you're already doing. You can check it out and get some free bonuses at getgia.ai/dynamicagency ----------- No one was asking for another community. But I've made one anyway. So what's different? The Dynamic Agency Community is designed around access rather than content. Access to peers who've done it before. Access to experts who've designed solutions. Access to resources that have been battle-tested. And right now, the price for founding members is only $97/year. Join today so your agency has immediate access to everything you need to grow. You can join at DynamicAgencyOS.com/Community . ----------- Subscribe to the Agency Forward blog on Substack. We have weekly blog content with practical advice to help you advance your agency. ----------- And if you're ready for 1-on-1 help to create some mind-blowing offers for your agency, visit DynamicAgencyOS.com to schedule a free consultation. Running an agency is tough, but you don't need to go it alone.

  ListenShow Notes
• 

  Episode #118

  118 Nicholas Petroski: The Real Reason Digital Agencies Don't Scale

  Jul 28, 202639 min

  Hey everyone, today I'm joined by Nicholas Petroski . Nicholas is the founder of Promethean Research and has been researching the agency industry since 2015. He's surveyed and consulted with thousands of agency leaders and built benchmarking reports on margins, operating models, and specialization trends. Where most of us are working from anecdote — our own client base, our own network — Nicholas has the actual industry-wide data. I wanted Nicholas on because he can back up (or challenge) a lot of the advice floating around the agency space with real numbers, not just what sounds right on LinkedIn. Plus, his studies are legitimately great and surface a lot of awesome insights. In this episode, we discuss: Why "scale" and "growth" are different things, and why confusing them sets agencies up for a rough time Why roughly 86% of agencies now identify as specialists Why contractor-heavy staffing has protected agency margins over the past few years despite falling revenue And more... You can learn more about Nicholas Petroski on LinkedIn . ----------- Lead Gen is the hardest part of running an agency. For most, it's unpredictable, it's slow, and it's usually expensive. Gia flips that. It's the all-in-one growth platform that turns your existing relationships and client work into a steady pipeline. Gia automates lead gen follow-up and content, and it's all from the work you're already doing. You can check it out and get some free bonuses at getgia.ai/dynamicagency ----------- No one was asking for another community. But I've made one anyway. So what's different? The Dynamic Agency Community is designed around access rather than content. Access to peers who've done it before. Access to experts who've designed solutions. Access to resources that have been battle-tested. And right now, the price for founding members is only $97/year. Join today so your agency has immediate access to everything you need to grow. You can join at DynamicAgencyOS.com/Community . ----------- Subscribe to the Agency Forward blog on Substack. We have weekly blog content with practical advice to help you advance your agency. ----------- And if you're ready for 1-on-1 help to create some mind-blowing offers for your agency, visit DynamicAgencyOS.com to schedule a free consultation. Running an agency is tough, but you don't need to go it alone.

  ListenShow Notes
• 

  Episode #117

  117 Mike Montague: How to Stop Making AI Marketing Slop

  Jul 21, 202637 min

  Hey everyone, today I'm joined by Mike Montague . Mike is the founder of Avenue 9 and the host of the Human First AI Marketing podcast and YouTube channel. He got his start in radio and sales training before running marketing for a large international company with over 200 offices across 29 countries, and now works with agency owners and business leaders on how to actually use AI in marketing. I got to meet Mike at a conference we spoke at earlier this year, and I loved the way he talked about AI. He's tested a real, practical framework for where AI belongs in the content and marketing process and where it doesn't. This, for me, is a relief, because it's not just theory about the future of AI marketing. In this episode, we discuss: Why most AI-generated marketing content turns into "slop," and the strategy work that has to happen first to avoid it The four buckets for deciding what AI should and shouldn't touch in your business How "gifts and invitations" marketing works even better with AI-enabled personalization And more... You can learn more about Mike Montague on LinkedIn . ----------- Lead Gen is the hardest part of running an agency. For most, it's unpredictable, it's slow, and it's usually expensive. Gia flips that. It's the all-in-one growth platform that turns your existing relationships and client work into a steady pipeline. Gia automates lead gen follow-up and content, and it's all from the work you're already doing. You can check it out and get some free bonuses at getgia.ai/dynamicagency ----------- No one was asking for another community. But I've made one anyway. So what's different? The Dynamic Agency Community is designed around access rather than content. Access to peers who've done it before. Access to experts who've designed solutions. Access to resources that have been battle-tested. And right now, the price for founding members is only $97/year. Join today so your agency has immediate access to everything you need to grow. You can join at DynamicAgencyOS.com/Community . ----------- Subscribe to the Agency Forward blog on Substack. We have weekly blog content with practical advice to help you advance your agency. ----------- And if you're ready for 1-on-1 help to create some mind-blowing offers for your agency, visit DynamicAgencyOS.com to schedule a free consultation. Running an agency is tough, but you don't need to go it alone.

  ListenShow Notes

Recent guests on Agency Forward. Study who booked and why before you pitch.

Based on semantic analysis of episode topics and host coverage, this show is a strong guest fit for executives in:

Industry fit is computed by PitchCentric using vector embeddings of the show's episode catalog.