Agency Culture Conversations

In 2022, Natasha and Sam were a marketing pro and a college sophomore who started a conversation at a family reunion. Three years later, The Viral Group is a 24-person global influencer marketing agency. In this episode, the two co-founders sit down to share how they built it, how they hire, how they handled the HR manager who faked interview scorecards, and the lessons they have learned about clarity, trust, and remote culture along the way.In this episode, you'll learn:▸ Why they hired senior "builders" before junior "executioners" and didn't take a salary for 18 months ▸ The hiring philosophy that combines startup speed with corporate systems ▸ The HR manager who faked interview scorecards (and what they did about it) ▸ The light-accountability systems they built afterward, instead of resorting to micromanagement ▸ How they track 24 people across functions without micromanaging ▸ Why burnout comes from lack of clarity, not workload ▸ How a single team member's feedback led to company-wide health insurance ▸ How to tell an A-player "no" to a promotion without losing them ▸ The two mistakes both founders would refuse to repeat🏆 Run an agency with a culture worth recognizing? Apply for our official agency culture recognition program at https://agencyworkplaces.com/nomination-formGuests: Natasha and Sam, Co-Founders of The Viral Group Host: Wesley Hoang, COO at Agency Workplaces

Gaspar has spent more than 30 years inside advertising agencies. He started as an intern, helped bring CNN to Mexico, built an internal agency at Herbalife Nutrition that supported marketing across 93 countries, and today leads global operations at 121, a worldwide agency with over 200 employees.In this episode, you'll learn:▸ Why alignment beats talent and process every single time ▸ How to build an internal agency that supports marketing across 93 countries ▸ The cultural proximity model behind hubs in Bangalore and Kuala Lumpur ▸ Why rewards work in private and criticism works in public in some cultures ▸ The 3-3 framework for structuring difficult accountability conversations ▸ The three mistakes leaders make as their teams scale past 15 people ▸ How to protect culture when speed is the goal ▸ Why AI will not replace agency teams, but it will replace the teams that refuse to use it ▸ The one mistake he would refuse to repeat after 30 years in agencies🏆 Run an agency with a culture worth recognizing? Apply for our official agency culture recognition program at: https://agencyworkplaces.com/nomination-formGuest: Gaspar, Director of Global Operations at 121 Host: Wesley Hoang, COO at Agency Workplaces

Kesley Smith joined Zoek Marketing three years ago when it was primarily a Wix partner agency. Today, Zoek is a 120-plus person fully remote, full-stack digital marketing company, and Kesley is the Director of Marketing and Business Development, leading two completely different teams.In this episode, you'll learn:▸ How a 120-person fully remote agency built a culture of trust without micromanagement ▸ Why your sick day policy reveals more about your culture than any all-hands meeting ▸ The situational interview questions that filter out candidates who only give textbook answers ▸ Why technical skills are not the entire part of a job ▸ How to lead two completely different teams on one shared foundation ▸ The difference between communicating and comprehending, and why the gap kills team performance ▸ How to have the hard conversation when a team member is not delivering, without losing trust ▸ The one mistake she would refuse to repeat from her early leadership years🏆 Run an agency with a culture worth recognizing? Apply for our official agency culture recognition program at https://agencyworkplaces.com/nomination-formGuest: Kesley Smith, Director of Marketing and Business Development @Zoek Marketing Host: Dr. Vo, CEO @Agency Workplaces

In five years, Brandon Scott and his co-founder built CarbonBox Media from a two-person operation into a 70-person digital marketing agency. The biggest jump came in the past 12 months alone, when the team grew from 15 to 70 employees. Brandon admits the scale broke his early systems, so he brought Israel Alarcon on to rebuild the foundation underneath the growth. In this episode, you'll learn:▸ How CarbonBox Media scaled from 15 to 70 team members in a single year ▸ Why Israel believes faith is the opposite of fear, and how that shows up in leadership ▸ Brandon's hiring conversation that filters out candidates who are just telling him what he wants to hear ▸ How to surround yourself with A-players smarter than you and why that's the only path to real scale ▸ The 90/10 standards-versus-autonomy rule that keeps the agency from drifting into bureaucracy ▸ The one personality trait no amount of coaching can change ▸ How they've gone 18 months without letting a single person go for lack of clients🏆 Run an agency with a culture worth recognizing? Apply for our official agency culture recognition program at https://agencyworkplaces.com/nomination-formGuests: Brandon Scott @CarbonBox MediaIsrael Alarcon @CarbonBox MediaHost:Wesley Hoang @Agency Workplaces

Katelyn started her career in corporate law before pivoting into people operations. Today she's the Director of People Operations at Aloha, a 100-plus person agency that's won the Inc. 5000 award six times in a row, and she just rolled out a custom AI agent named "Ali" that handles the repetitive HR questions her team used to spend hours on every week.In this episode, you'll learn:▸ The three transferable leadership skills she carried from corporate law into HR ▸ How a 100-person agency uses a custom AI agent to free its HR team from repetitive questions ▸ Why her leadership team meets monthly with a shared goal across departments ▸ How to balance welcoming new ideas with fiercely protecting your core values as you scale ▸ Three tips for delivering hard feedback in a culture that loves to celebrate ▸ The 30/70 rule for structuring feedback conversations so people leave aligned ▸ Where AI stops being useful and human leadership has to take over ▸ The one mistake she would refuse to repeat as a people operations leader🏆 Run an agency with a culture worth recognizing? Apply for our official agency culture recognition program at: https://agencyworkplaces.com/nomination-formGuest: Katelyn Hoffman, Director of People Ops at Aloha Host: Dr. Vo, CEO of Agency Workplaces

Chris Fink didn't found his agency. He joined it as a strategist after 23 years in automotive management and a stint running operations at a med spa. Years later, he's a partner running multiple sister agencies under one roof, and he has strong views on what makes the team-to-leader transition work.In this episode, you'll learn:▸ Why "clarity over comfort" is the most important shift a new leader can make ▸ The advice he gives every newly-promoted leader before their first hard conversation ▸ How his team runs multiple sister agencies on one shared operating system ▸ The hiring process that uses personality assessments to put the right person in the right role ▸ How to break a "yes-man" culture using a deliberately ridiculous idea as a test ▸ Why he'd rather build leaders who eventually leave than build lifers who stay forever ▸ The one mistake he'd refuse to repeat if he had to rebuild his agency from scratch🏆 Run an agency with a culture worth recognizing? Apply for our official agency culture recognition program at https://agencyworkplaces.com/nomination-formGuest: Chris Fink, Partner at Fannit Host: Wesley Hoang, Agency Workplaces

When Eric Ritter walked away from a stable career at Johns Hopkins to go all-in on his agency, the people closest to him didn't understand why. Ten years later, Digital Neighbor is a 14-person hybrid team built on a culture so specific it has its own clause inside every client contract.In this episode, you'll learn:▸ How to know when your side hustle is ready to become your main hustle▸ The Jeff Bezos "risk test" Eric used to push past the fear of going full-time▸ Why his very first hire was about protecting his energy, not adding skill▸ The two non-negotiables that hold his entire culture together▸ The "kindness clause" Eric writes into every client contract, and what it actually says▸ Why visibility, not productivity, is the real currency of any hybrid culture▸ The early warning signs that tell him a team member is starting to slip▸ The one mistake he'd refuse to repeat if he had to rebuild Digital Neighbor from scratch🏆 Run an agency with a culture worth recognizing? Apply for our official agency culture recognition program at:https://agencyworkplaces.com/nomination-formGuest: Eric Ritter, Founder of Digital NeighborHost: Wesley Hoang, COO of Agency Workplaces