Welcome to Agency Breakthrough, where we bring you real, gritty stories of agency operators who found the path to get past the plateau. Whether it’s hitting on a playbook for massive growth, scaling profit margins, or finding a way to have an agency and a life, we’re here to share how they achieved it; and laugh a little along the way. Presented by ZenPilot and ClickUp, and your hosts today are Jakub Grajcar and Gray MacKenzie.
Tiffany Sauder – On Her Agency’s Comeback Through Vulnerability, Decision Making Frameworks, and “90% Execution”
In this episode, Kuba chats with Tiffany Sauder, CEO of Element Three, keynote speaker, and creator of the Scared Confident podcast, about her breakthroughs related to rebuilding her agency, leadership approach, and personal life.
Tiffany shares insights on admitting business problems openly, making difficult but necessary decisions, implementing operating systems for consistency, and communicating organizational change.
Problems this episode will help you solve:
✅ How to have open and vulnerable conversations about business problems
✅ Making unpopular but necessary decisions as a leader
✅ Implementing operating systems and processes for discipline and consistency
✅ Improving communication around organizational change
Some highlights:
⚖️ Admitting business problems openly is scary but also freeing - it brings control and a chance to solve them
⚖️ Change starts with vulnerability about the real situation, then clear decisions, then diligent change management
⚖️ Picking one operating system/structure and fully committing is better than trying to customize everything
⚖️ Layoffs are painful but sometimes necessary - be transparent about reasons and allow people to emotionally process
⚖️ The "Understand, Agree, Like" framework helps people intellectually process difficult changes
⚖️ Open book financials are scary but crucial for creating trust and transparency
This episode will be perfect for agency owners and entrepreneurs facing issues with talent retention, profitability, or scaling up their business.
👉 Don’t forget to follow and rate us on your preferred podcast platforms. We’re also on YouTube: @ZenPilot
📣 Shoutouts and mentions:
Tiffany’s website and podcast: https://www.tiffanysauder.com/ (https://www.tiffanysauder.com/?utm_source=youtube.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=abt-ep-007-tiffany-sauder)
Tiffany’s agency, Element Three: https://elementthree.com/
🛠 Tools:
Hatch light system for kids' sleep schedules!
📚 Books/Concepts/Frameworks:
Great by Choice by Jim Collins
The Great Game of Business by Jack Stack
Open book financials
EOS (Tiffany was the opening keynote speaker for the 2023 EOS Conference, check out her awesome speech: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKkQtxvegj4)
3 Oct 2023
Chris Dreyer – From $0 to $13M: The 4 Cs Framework That Fueled His Agency's Growth
In this episode, Kuba and Gray chat with Chris Dreyer, founder of rankings.io, about the key breakthrough moments that fueled his agency's growth from $0 to $13M in revenue.
Chris shares his framework for creating leverage in an agency using the "4 Cs": Capital, Code, Collaboration, and Content.
Some highlights:
👑 Chris’ focus on winning the game of business by finding and exploiting leverage
👑 The importance of tracking revenue per employee to stay profitable
👑 Using automation and APIs to create leverage
👑 Thoughts on podcasting vs speaking at events for authority and distribution
👑 Chris' approach to hiring and labor arbitrage
👑 His favorite books and mental models
Chris provides tactical tips and mindset shifts that helped him rapidly scale his agency. His story will resonate with agency owners struggling with fragmented growth and profitability issues.
👉 Don’t forget to follow and rate us on your preferred podcast platforms. We’re also on YouTube: @ZenPilot
📣 Shoutouts and mentions:
🛠 Tools:
ClickUp
📚 Books/Concepts:
Ready, Fire, Aim
The Boutique
How to Get Rich
$100M Offers
🧠 Mental Models:
Iron Triangle
Pareto Principle
👨🏫 People to follow:
Greg Alexander
Alex Hormozi
Naval Ravikant
💼 Service vendors:
Lower Street (podcast production company)
21 Sept 2023
GuavaBox Story – Dramatically Scaling Traffic Using Batching
In this episode, Kuba asks Gray about the good old days of GuavaBox—an inbound marketing agency that both Gray and Andrew (ZenPilot’s co-founder) were leading back in the early 2010s.
Gray told the story of a relatively simple change in their marketing workflow that led to huge pipeline results for GuavaBox.
Some highlights:
🍈 How GuavaBox increased traffic from 200 to 15,000 visitors per month through disciplined content batch days
🍈 Gray's system for planning high-impact content fueled by SEO research
🍈 How a structured system boosted team morale and progress
Overall, Gray shared an inspiring growth story and actionable advice on systemizing content marketing. This episode will be particularly useful for service business owners struggling with inconsistent marketing and lead generation.
👉 Don’t forget to follow and rate us on your preferred podcast platforms. We’re also on YouTube: @ZenPilot
📣 Shoutouts and mentions:
🛠 Tools:
HubSpot
ClickUp
Around
📚 Books/Concepts:
Deep Work by Cal Newport
Maker vs Manager Schedule
Progress Principle (there’s a Talk at Google and a book about it)
👨🏫 People to follow:
Marcus Sheridan
Seth Godin
Chris Brogan
Paul Graham
4 Sept 2023
Nikole Rose – What it takes to scale and sell an agency (+ tips on culture and ROWEs)
In this episode we talked with Nikole Rose, Managing Partner at Gravity Global (the most awarded B2B agency in the world, 500+ strong), about her journey going from starting an agency to selling it just over a year ago.
Nikole shares the key breakthrough moments that allowed her agency Mojo Media Labs to scale and successfully exit, including:
🍏 Making the courageous decision to go all in on inbound marketing in 2012 despite it being unproven at the time
🍏 Being the first agency partner for Terminus and betting big on ABM very early
🍏 Taking risks with culture like open book management and ROWE (Results Only Work Environment)
🍏 Making acquisitions of other agencies to accelerate growth
🍏 Working with ZenPilot to become more process-driven using ClickUp 🙌
🍏 And more!
Nikole shares experience-based tips on change management; M&A conversations; evaluating tools and platforms; and the mindset required to make courageous decisions that break you out of your comfort zone.
👉 Don’t forget to follow and rate us on your preferred podcast platforms. We’re also on YouTube: @ZenPilot
📣 Shotouts and mentions:
👨🏫 People to follow:
Mike Rose (Nicole's husband and business partner)
Sangram Vajre (Co-Founder of Terminus)
🛠 Tools:
HubSpot
Terminus
ClickUp
💬 Other mentions:
Digital Mastermind Group - community for digital agency owners
10 Aug 2023
James Carbary – From podcasts to media brands (+ company pivots and brand villains)
In this episode of Agency Breakthrough, Kuba and Gray chat with James Carbary, founder of Sweet Fish Media, about his journey pivoting the agency from a blog writing shop to a trailblazing podcast studio to now building full “media brands” for B2B companies.
James shares the breakthrough moment that changed everything for Sweet Fish—realizing podcasting alone was limiting and expanding to broader media brands that allow wider reach across channels.
James also discusses the books that have shaped his thinking, and shares examples of consumer media brands that are doing it right.
The conversation explores the role of guests vs solo shows for thought leadership; the importance of identifying your “villain” and uniting your market against it; and much more.
👉 Don’t forget to follow and rate us on your preferred podcast platforms. We’re also on YouTube: @ZenPilot
📣 Shotouts and mentions:
📚 Books:
Love Does by Bob Goff
The Intentional Father by John Tyson
Start With Why by Simon Sinek
👨🏫 People to follow:
Jay Acunzo
Drew McClellan
💬 Other mentions:
Audience Plus (Anthony Canada's company)
Own That Show - a media brand analysis show James does with Anthony Canada
Kauffman CPA - an accounting firm James recommends
B2B Growth Show - Sweet Fish's long running podcast
PeerSignal and Keyplay
17 Jul 2023
Marcus Sheridan – The story behind They Ask, You Answer
In this episode, we ask Marcus Sheridan about his breakthrough story. Marcus is a keynote speaker, sales+marketing teacher extraordinaire, and author of “They Ask, You Answer”—regularly featured as a fundamental read for anyone looking to grow their business (e.g. by Forbes, Mashable, and BookAuthority).
We cover a lot, including: Marcus’ stance on in-house vs. external content hires; the challenges Marcus faced when teaching businesses about They Ask, You Answer; and Marcus’ gift recommendations for Gray’s mom.
Don’t forget to follow and rate us on your preferred podcast platforms. We’re also on YouTube: @ZenPilot
17 Jul 2023
Origin Story – Why we're starting a new podcast
Welcome to Agency Breakthrough, where we bring you real, gritty stories of agency operators who found the path to get past the plateau.
In this episode, Gray and Kuba explain why the podcast came to life and how we’re planning to run it. We also share a round of recommendations of resources and tools for agency operators.
Thanks for checking out our very first episode!
Don’t forget to follow and rate us on your preferred podcast platforms. We’re also on YouTube: @ZenPilot
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