There's one thing that consistently saved me from finding out in December that a client had already checked out.

It didn't work perfectly every year, but the years I ran it, I saw the risk coming instead of getting blindsided by it.

In this solo episode, I'm talking about that habit: an existing-client growth review run every September, no matter how packed the month got.

It was a deliberate look at where things actually stood with the clients I already had, quick and practical rather than something that needed a blocked-off week.

Three lenses I'd run every client through:

• Renewal risk
• Expansion opportunities
• Additional services

I get into what I was actually looking for in each one, plus where this went well for me over the years, and where it didn't.

If September already feels like it's running you instead of the other way around, this one's for you.

If you want to connect with other agency owners in person, join us at the Agency Together Mastermind Mingler on September 17th in Vancouver: https://agencytogether.com/mastermind-mingler

Get the full show notes and more information here: https://audreyjoykwan.com/podcast/ep161

Podcast Edits by Lindsay Curtis

Referrals feel great until they stop. And when they do, most agency owners realize they never actually built a pipeline, they built a network and hoped it would behave like one.

Jasma Moody spends her days inside the pipeline of Copper, listening to sales calls, digging through customer data, and figuring out exactly why some leads convert and others quietly disappear.

In this episode, she breaks down the real difference between a network and a pipeline, and why so many agency owners confuse the two until a client churns and they're left scrambling.

Jasma walks through the simplest possible way to start tracking pipeline (hint: it's not a fancy CRM), the three signs it's time to outgrow a spreadsheet, and a weekly, monthly, and quarterly rhythm that keeps business development moving even when client work is eating every hour of the day.

She also reframes something almost every agency owner gets wrong: what to do the moment someone says "not right now."

This one's for anyone who's ever looked up from a busy season and realized their pipeline went cold without them noticing.

Jasma is leading a conversation on pipeline growth at the Agency Together Mastermind Mingler in Vancouver on September 17th, one of five conversation streams you can choose your way through. Learn more here.

Show Notes:

-Jasma's LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/jasmamody

Get the full show notes and more information here: https://audreyjoykwan.com/podcast/ep160

Podcast Edits by Lindsay Curtis

There's a version of the "we need to talk about scope" conversation that plays out in almost every agency, and it usually gets treated as a project management and profitability problem.

Talia Palermo doesn't see it that way. She compares it to going in for what you think is a shoulder injury and finding out the real issue is somewhere else in your body entirely. Project management issues, she says, are often just the symptom. The real cause is usually hiding a few steps back.

Talia is the innovation manager at Function Point, where she talks to agency owners all day and hears what's actually breaking before most of them have language for it. One number she shared stopped me mid-sentence: 56% of agencies say they don't have enough information at the start of a project to scope it properly.

In this episode, we cover:

• Why over-servicing keeps showing up as the top frustration agency owners bring to Talia, and what's really driving it
• How value-based pricing works differently on the outside than it does internally, and where agencies get that twisted
• The mindset shift that makes time tracking feel like advocacy instead of surveillance
• Why profitability has to be part of the entire project life cycle, from estimating to active work to review, not just something you check at the end

This one will change how you think about the numbers you're not looking at.

Want more conversations like this one? Talia is leading a conversation on project management, profitability, and pricing at the Agency Together Mastermind Mingler in Vancouver on September 17th, one of five conversation streams agency owners can choose their own adventure through. Learn more here.

Show Notes:

-Talia's LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/taliapalermo

Get the full show notes and more information here: https://audreyjoykwan.com/podcast/ep159

Podcast Edits by Lindsay Curtis