Agency Life International by Teamleader

About Agency Life International by Teamleader

A powerful podcast about running a creative agency or digital studio: that's Agency Life International. Hosts Robin (Teamleader) and Louise (com&co) bring together leading voices from the international agency scene to talk about topics that matter. From pitching and pricing strategies, to project management and mergers and acquisition. Can't get enough of Agency Life International? Check out thisisagencylife.com to binge on e-books, videos and exclusive research.

Publisher

Teamleader

Category

arts

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

20 Dec 2024

Latest episode

23 Sept 2025

Latest episodes

8 of 14 episodes have a transcript.

1. 

   23 Sept 2025TRANSCRIPT

   How to fix the bad habits that are killing your agency - with Drew McLellan (Agency Management Institute)

   What if your biggest risk isn’t a bad quarter, but a bad habit? What if you're a leader who doesn’t lead, your team is flying blind, and knowledge is stuck in people’s heads instead of in systems? Podcaster and agency consultant Drew McLellan guides us through the biggest agency pitfalls and how to avoid them.

2. 

   23 Jul 2025TRANSCRIPT

   Game on: Winning the Champions League – with Sharon Bennett (WePlay)

   Sharon Bennett, Head of Client Services at WePlay, discusses the demanding, data-driven world of sports marketing and shares insights from working with major sports brands in this interview.

3. 

   23 Jul 2025TRANSCRIPT

   Why agencies don’t scale - and what the best ones do instead. With Nick Petroski (Promethean Research)

   Nick Petroski of Promethean Research examines why agencies struggle to scale, addressing scope creep and AI's impact, offering insights for smarter, data-informed choices in the agency world in this interview.

4. 

   27 Jun 2025

   Financial fitness: what does an agency need for healthy growth? With Mark Probert (Cactus, Agencynomics)

   Mark Probert discusses financial strategies that agencies need to implement to maintain healthy growth and successfully scale their operations in this interview.

5. 

   27 Jun 2025

   How do you turn virality into value? – with Dean Joffe (StudioB)

   Dean Joffe, Business Development Director at StudioB, discusses building a creator-led agency with a focus on entertainment to drive value, in an interview about viral advertising.

6. 

   27 Jun 2025

   Stop pitching like it’s 2012: new rules for growth. With Duncan Wood (Ingenuity)

   Duncan Wood of Ingenuity examines how agencies adapt business development strategies to meet modern CMO expectations through sharper propositions and long-term thinking in this interview.

7. 

   26 Mar 2025

   The big squeeze: how consolidation puts pressure on agencies. With Michael Farmer (Farmer & Co)

   Management consultant Michael Farmer analyzes agency consolidation, revealing how holding companies prioritize cost reduction, which can diminish creative talent, in an interview about maintaining agency independence.

8. 

   28 Feb 2025TRANSCRIPT

   No more ‘Pizza Monday’: what does Gen Z really want from your agency? With Carolyn McMurray (Word Tonic)

   Carolyn McMurray of Word Tonic discusses how agencies can effectively collaborate with and cater to Gen Z, providing insights into their motivations and expectations in the workplace in this interview.

9. 

   20 Jan 2025

   Do agencies make cr*p 95% of the time? With Dr. Pepe Marais (Joe Public SA)

   Dr. Pepe Marais discusses the pursuit of creative excellence and the challenges of maintaining quality in the face of pressures like billable hours, in an interview about the advertising industry.

10. 

    20 Jan 2025TRANSCRIPT

    Confessions of a funny freelancer: with Dave 'The Word Man' Harland (UK)

    Dave 'The Word Man' Harland discusses using humor to connect with audiences and transform corporate language into engaging content as a freelance copywriter, in this interview.

11. 

    20 Jan 2025TRANSCRIPT

    Steve Harrison (UK) argues for more fun and fame in advertising

    Steve Harrison discusses the advertising philosophies of Howard Luck Gossage, emphasizing the importance of entertainment and controversy in creating memorable campaigns in this interview.

12. 

    20 Dec 2024TRANSCRIPT

    Nick Asbury (UK) on the (non)sense of purpose marketing

    Does your agency have a purpose? And what about the clients in your portfolio? Author, poet and anti-purpose thinker Nick Asbury thinks the pendulum has swung too far. Does a mayonnaise brand need a purpose? How can your agency make a positive impact without being tacky? And how does purpose affect the credibility of your agency and your brands? We let Nick loose in the playground of purpose, and got a super interesting podcast out of it.Reading tip: Nick Asbury wrote a whole series of blogpo...

13. 

    20 Dec 2024

    Does your agency make brands grow? With Michael Farmer (US)

    Agencies have become too docile: they carry out what clients ask and avoid difficult conversations for fear of losing those clients. Yet, according to agency consultant Michael Farmer, they are ideally placed to challenge brands, bring innovation to the table and thus make their brands grow. How do agencies reclaim that role? How can they contribute more to a brand's success? And how can they reap the financial rewards? You’ll hear more in this episode.Reading tip: be sure to also check out M...

14. 

    20 Dec 2024TRANSCRIPT

    Michael Farmer (US) on the crisis agencies are facing

    Agencies are delivering more and more work, for less and less money. We discuss this crisis with Michael Farmer (US), author and agency consultant with 30+ years experience at places like Ogilvy and Bain Consulting. Farmer explains how this complex issue came to be, but also offers solutions to get out of the vicious cycle. The first step: understanding better the exact work you do for clients.

Inside a recent episode

How to fix the bad habits that are killing your agency - with Drew McLellan (Agency Management Institute)

Published 23 Sept 2025 · Transcript excerpt

[…] COVID threw us into a tailspin. So in some ways it's not abnormal, but it always feels abnormal in the moment, right? We get used to sort of smoother waters and then of course the waters get rocky again. And so So that economic impact is really affecting agencies because clients are slowing down projects. Clients are cutting budgets. Prospects are slower to sign deals. Deals are smaller in size because everyone's kind of hoarding some of their cash because they just don't know what's going to happen. Just like we do as consumers when economic times are challenging. So you have that. And then on the other side of that, you also have... […]

Who has been a guest on Agency Life International by Teamleader

Names identified in recent episode analyses. Showing up to five guests.

• Sharon Bennett
• Nick Petroski
• Mark Probert
• Dean Joffe
• Duncan Wood

Podcast Authority Score: 10 / 100

A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.

Quality

20

Social presence

0

YouTube

0

Engagement

0

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Guest appearances

Books guests

Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.

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