Referrals don't scale: Cathal O'Reilly, Rooftop Twenty Two | Ep: 001

Cathal O'Reilly started Rooftop Twenty Two from his bedroom in January 2020. No clients, no team. Six years later: 14 full-time staff, a studio in Dublin, and a client list of Irish and international brands.Growth was not a straight line. For the first few years the agency was doing good work, bringing in solid revenue, and barely making profit. Cathal was the salesperson, the account manager, the point of contact for everything. The business worked because he never stopped.In this episode we talked about:The difference between a lifestyle business and an actual businessWhy referrals alone will not get you where you want to goThe production manager hire he wishes he'd made 18 months earlierWhat changed when he started speaking to clients like an entrepreneur, not a creativeWhy you need to treat yourself as your own best client (and why agencies are terrible at this)If you run an agency and the business side hasn't caught up with the quality of the work, this conversation is for you.FREE AGENCY VALUATION (PDF report): moveatpace.com/agency-valuationWEEKLY NEWSLETTER: moveatpace.com/newsletterBOOK A DISCOVERY CALL: cal.com/moveatpace/discovery-call