Summary

Andrew DiLullo, CEO of Ad Crunch, shares his journey from audio production into building an agency that helps DTC brands grow fast. He and host Sean Lang dig into the realities of scaling. Why retention beats acquisition, how hiring A list players changes everything, and how clarity creates stability.

Takeaways

• Agencies often start by accident—demand forces structure.
  
  
• Client retention is the most underrated growth lever.
  
  
• Hiring ops and A-players unlocks scalability.
  
  
• Referral deals with SaaS account managers can fuel pipeline.
  
  
• High-volume creative testing delivers exponential client growth.

Check out Andrew's agency here:

AdCrunch

Identify & Fix your critical gap now: www.agencyuplift.co/mini

Agency Uplift - Free Stuff to Scale Your Agency:

https://www.agencyuplift.co/sop (I saved $20K/mo using this system)

Summary

In this episode, Pasha Knish sits down with Sean Lang, founder of Agency Uplift, to unpack the fundamentals of scaling an agency. From defining company culture to structuring a smart hiring process, Sean shares how agency owners can stop being the bottleneck and build teams that thrive.

Takeaways

• Culture and values drive better hiring decisions than resumes alone.
  
  
• Add friction to your hiring process to filter out the wrong candidates.
  
  
• Founders often become bottlenecks by keeping decision-making centralized.
  
  
• Processes should be created by the people who do the work.
  
  
• Slow down to set foundations that enable faster scaling later.

Listen to more episodes of Agency Operators Podcast here:

Agency Operators Podcast

Check out Pasha's agency here:

AMZ OPTIMIZED

Identify & Fix your critical gap now: www.agencyuplift.co/mini

Agency Uplift - Free Stuff to Scale Your Agency:

https://www.agencyuplift.co/sop (I saved $20K/mo using this system)

Summary

Sean Lang sits down with Adam Paine, founder and CEO of NUBRAND, to dive into the 16-year evolution of his performance marketing agency. Adam shares how he grew from building websites solo to running an 8-person distributed team that partners with CMOs across industries. He talks candidly about struggles with over-reliance on referrals, learning to scale, finding the right people, and shifting from “being the agency” to truly becoming its CEO. From systems and processes to mindset and health, Adam unpacks what it really takes to build a sustainable, scalable agency.

Takeaways

• Adam started NUBRAND after discovering SEO in the early 2000s and grew it over 16 years.
  
  
• Early growth came through referrals, but reliance on one channel nearly broke the agency when that stream dried up.
  
  
• Transition from doing everything himself to building an 8-person expert team was crucial for scale.
  
  
• Niche focus isn’t always about industry, NUBRAND targets CMOs across verticals.
  
  
• Relationships and communication are key, clients should feel like NUBRAND is part of their team.
  
  
• LinkedIn has been the most effective channel for high-quality client acquisition.
  
  
• Tools like HubSpot, Monday, Slack, and AI-powered workflows transformed operations.
  
  
• Systems and processes shifted Adam from “the agency guy” to a CEO role.

Check out Adam's agency here:

NUBRAND

Identify & Fix your critical gap now: www.agencyuplift.co/mini

Agency Uplift - Free Stuff to Scale Your Agency:

https://www.agencyuplift.co/sop (I saved $20K/mo using this system)