As they grow, we grow: David Kieran, Zoma | Exit Ready 006

David Kieran started Marketing For Me out of his attic in Dundalk in 2016, going door to door selling websites when other digital marketers refused to leave their laptops. Nine years later he is the founder and MD of Zoma, a 15-person full-service agency, front of shirt sponsor of Dundalk FC, and exploring a US office and an AI sub-brand.In this episode of Exit Ready, David talks me through:Why he rebranded from Marketing For Me to Zoma in a Dundalk pub during COVID, and why they defined the brand values before picking a nameThe 10-person danger zone: scaling from 3 to 18-20 people, finding they were less profitable than at 10, and deliberately scaling back to 15The €500 photoshoot that turned into a €100,000-a-year clientBecoming the first Shopify partner in Ireland in 2016 (two years before most of the Irish market caught up)How wellbeing culture (rooftop fitness fundraisers, social clubs, fit-meal canteen) became a hiring moat in a rural location an hour from both Dublin and BelfastProducing the most viral jersey launch video in League of Ireland history for Dundalk FCWhy he's looking at the US during economic turmoil ("when there's economic turmoil, that's when you have a real chance to enter a market")How Zoma uses Notion + AI automation to free creative time, and why he won't let AI run client relationshipsIf you're an agency owner trying to grow without losing the things that made the business work in the first place, this one is full of decisions worth stealing.---Take the free Agency Valuation Assessment: https://moveatpace.com/agency-valuation/Join 240+ agency owners getting weekly insights: https://moveatpace.com/newsletter/Zoma: https://zoma.ieConnect with Connor:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/c-mca-0a9b6b160/Website: https://moveatpace.com#ExitReady #AgencyOwner #AgencyGrowth #MoveAtPace