THE AGENCY GROWTH CLUB

Growing a digital agency is exciting, chaotic, and often brutally expensive.

Few people understand that journey better than Tony Lael, part-owner of four US-based digital marketing agencies (including Aponus Consulting) and on track to partner in 10 within the next three years.

In this Agency Growth Club feature, Tony breaks down the frameworks, financial disciplines, and leadership principles that help agency owners move from the early treadmill phase to building companies that run, and grow, without them.

Below are the biggest takeaways from our conversation.

From Grind to Gold: Why Agencies Lose Sight of Wealth Building

When agency founders start their journey, they’re driven by passion, for marketing, creative work, or new technology. But as Tony explains, most get stuck firefighting:

“Everybody gets on the treadmill putting out fires. They forget why they started in the first place, and they forget what it means to build wealth.”

Tony’s upcoming book, From Grind to Gold, teaches owners how to stop thinking like operators and start thinking like investors. True wealth, he argues, comes when an agency can pay you entirely from profit, not from a salary.

That’s the “win state” on the board game Cashflow, which he credits for shaping his mindset.

Why Profit First Should Be an Agency’s Default Operating System

Tony starts every agency partnership the same way: with Profit First.

Most founders operate with this structure:

• Revenue

• Costs

• Expenses

• Whatever is left is profit

Profit First flips that logic:

• Revenue

• Profit you choose first

• Then expenses must fit what’s left

This exposes waste immediately.

“Profit First puts a glaring spotlight on the stuff you should not be spending money on — or the people you should not be spending money on.”

The biggest quick win?
Identifying when a $50/hr team member is doing $10/hr work.

How Much Cash Should an Agency Have? Tony’s Rule: Three Months Minimum

Tony doesn’t pay out profits until the agency has three months of expenses and COGS in the bank.

This isn’t primarily for emergencies, it’s for confidence.

“It’s not because you’ll use the cash. It’s so you feel confident enough to make better decisions. It frees your mind.”

The Most Expensive Lesson Tony Ever Learned: A $260,000 Hiring Mistake

Without hesitation, Tony shared his most painful experience:

“Hiring the wrong person. It was a $260,000 mistake. Massive. I’ll never make it again.”

Why hiring mistakes hurt so much:

• Wrong hires can’t deliver for clients

• They damage culture

• They cause churn

• They create silent friction inside the business

One of the simplest rules we love to also highlight, came from RE:Signal’s founder, Kevin Gibbons:

“Hire everyone as if you were putting them in front of your best client.”

The Biggest Mistake Agencies Make Before $1M: Ignoring Culture

Most sub-$1M agencies still hire for skill over culture. Tony argues this is why they can’t break the next threshold.

“When you define what you believe, who you are, and why you help the people you help, it becomes obvious who fits, and who doesn’t.”

Strong culture does two things:

1. Improves delivery

2. Makes your marketing more magnetic

Culture should attract great clients and repel the wrong ones.

The EOS Trap: Trying to Do Too Much at Once

Tony has helped multiple agencies implement EOS. The biggest issue?

Overloading the to-do list.

“Teams want to do everything at once. They overload themselves and end up being good at nothing.”

Instead:

Master one thing at a time.

• One acquisition channel

• One operational system

• One process improvement

• One quarterly priority

Tony calls it the “slow down to speed up” principle.

Systems That Buy Back Your Time

Most owners don’t struggle with systems, they struggle with priorities.

You can’t build systems until you know:

• Where the agency is going

• What the next bottleneck is

• Whether the problem is people, process, or pressure

He breaks agency systems into three loops:

1. Get new business

2. Onboard and deliver the work

3. Tell the world about the work you delivered

Pressure in one system exposes weakness in the next. Growth is cyclical.

The Stagecoach Model: How Leadership Must Evolve From $500K to $5M

Tony’s favourite analogy for leadership is the old Western stagecoach:

• The founder is the driver

• The leaders are the two horses out front

• The team are the horses behind them

The founder’s job is NOT to pull the wagon.

“Our job as owners is to support the leaders, clear obstacles, get them resources, and help them get unstuck. They’re the ones who pull.”

A-players solve problems without you.

B-players wait for you to solve problems.

Leadership must shift from doing to directing.

What It Really Takes to Double an Agency in 12 Months

Tony boils every growth plan down to three pillars:

1. Pipeline:
   Are we generating enough qualified opportunities?

2. Delivery:
   Can we onboard, deliver, and retain at a high standard?

3. Awareness:
   Are we telling enough people about the great work we’re doing?

Everything else, finances, team structure, culture, flows from those three.

There’s no secret hack.

There’s only discipline, visibility, and execution.

Hiring A-Players for Your Agency?

If you’re scaling and don’t want hiring to slow down your momentum, that’s where we can help.

• SEO talent: seoforhire.co

• Paid media talent: paidmediajobs.com

We work with 100+ agencies globally and help founders build high-performance teams that drive revenue.