“Ego Is the Enemy”

Welcome to another episode of eCom@One with Richard Hill! In today’s conversation, Richard Hill sits down with Anthony Barone, co-founder of Studio Hawk and the driving force behind their UK expansion. Anthony Barone shares the remarkable journey of going from a career in hospitality to scaling Studio Hawk from a small Australian team into an international SEO powerhouse with offices in Melbourne, Sydney, London, and Atlanta.

You’ll hear candid stories about rapid growth, building a company culture across continents, and why niche focus has been their biggest lever in sales and partnerships. Anthony Barone also opens up about the role of AI and large language models in the changing SEO landscape—and why mastering the fundamentals is now more important than ever.

Whether you’re running an agency, building your own team, or just curious about the intersection of search, growth, and technology, this episode is packed with hard-won lessons, real-world advice, and a glimpse into what’s next for Studio Hawk. Let’s dive in!

00:00 "Falling Into SEO Career"

05:23 "Building Studiohawk From Scratch"

09:26 Scaling Sales for SEO Success

11:48 "Power of Specialism in Events"

14:03 Shoreditch Cool Commerce Event

17:45 "Building Networks Through Events"

23:12 "Advice for UK Agencies Expanding"

23:55 "Preparation for US Expansion"

26:56 "Planning International Business Expansion"

30:12 "Follow Core Values Intentionally"

35:25 "SEO Opportunities in the AI Era"

38:26 Navigating Marketing Challenges Efficiently

39:55 Shopify, Universal Protocol, Ads Update

43:22 "Ego Is the Enemy" Recommendation

In this episode of Agency Intensive, Richard Hill sits down with Mads Singer, agency trainer and management consultant who's helped hundreds of teams move from founder-led delivery to repeatable, scalable operations.

Mads breaks down why most brilliant SEOs stay stuck at the same revenue level year after year, what the "superhero syndrome" really costs your business, and the exact hiring sequence that prevents you from becoming the bottleneck. He explains the four business buckets every agency needs to master, why you should pick ONE marketing channel and go deep, and how to build repeatable SEO processes that scale.

The conversation covers the three critical growth stages where most agencies get stuck (0-10, 10-25, and 25-50+ people), why writing SOPs yourself is killing your time, and how to hire specialists instead of trying to clone yourself. Mads shares real examples, including the roofing SEO who 3x'd his business in 12 months by going to industry events, and breaks down what it really takes to build a sellable, scalable agency.

If you're a talented SEO stuck in delivery or an agency owner trying to break through revenue plateaus, this episode gives you the exact steps to scale without burning out.

Listen to the full episode now, and don't forget to hit subscribe.

**Topics Covered**

00:00 Introduction

02:07 Why talented SEOs struggle to scale

03:13 Mads' background: From IBM to agency consulting

07:03 The four business buckets: Sales, marketing, operations, finance

08:04 The superhero syndrome killing your growth

13:38 Finding your ONE marketing channel

18:05 The roofing SEO case study: 3x growth in 12 months

20:36 Sponsor: Aristo Sourcing

21:38 Key hires for scaling from 5 to 20+ people

24:30 Building culture with your first hires

28:24 SOPs: What the gurus get wrong

34:34 Leadership challenges scaling £1M to £5M

35:05 Three growth stages where agencies get stuck

46:31 Starting an SEO agency from scratch today

47:19 The ONE process framework

50:02 Breaking down processes for specialization

51:40 Hiring specialists vs. cloning yourself

53:26 Book recommendation: First, Break All the Rules

54:14 Where to find Mads Singer

From wasted pitch decks to strategic conversations that close. Aaron Hutchinson reveals the Win Without Pitching methodology that's helping agencies stop gambling on low-probability pitches and start winning profitable clients through expert positioning instead of endless presentations.

Aaron Hutchinson is a sales consultant and trainer specializing in the Win Without Pitching methodology for creative agencies and professional services firms. Based in the UK, Aaron helps agency owners and their teams move from reactive order-taking to strategic expert positioning through the Four Conversations framework. After years as Managing Director of a creative agency, Aaron founded The Hutch Consultancy to address the industry's most persistent challenge: winning new business profitably without wasting resources on futile pitches.

This podcast episode is relevant to you if you're an agency owner struggling with new business, tired of losing pitches you spent days preparing for, finding it difficult to have confident pricing conversations, or trying to hire and train salespeople who can sell expertise rather than just deliverables. Find out why your pitch win rate is probably lower than you think, what the "three years from now" question unlocks in sales conversations, and why presenting three options beats a single proposal every time.

Aaron reveals the frameworks that separate expert agencies from vendor agencies, introduces RAB (Revenue Above Budget) as the metric that actually matters, and explains why 25,000 UK agencies are competing in a market more crowded than McDonald's locations. If you're serious about transforming your agency's sales process or finally cracking the code on profitable new business without soul-destroying pitch work, this episode delivers practical, immediately actionable frameworks.

Topics Covered:

00:00 - Introduction: The agency world's oldest question

02:28 - What challenges are agencies facing with sales and new business?

04:18 - Why there are 25,000+ agencies in the UK (more than McDonald's!)

07:22 - The two-year email: How long-term positioning pays off

09:32 - Why pitching is gambling (and the real win rates you're facing)

12:44 - What is Win Without Pitching and why does it work?

14:06 - The Four Conversations framework explained

19:50 - The magic question: "We're having coffee three years from now..."

24:58 - Expert vs Vendor: The doctor analogy

28:08 - Pricing conversations: Why money talks are so uncomfortable

31:42 - The secret to avoiding awkward "we don't have that budget" moments

33:19 - The power of options: Why three is the magic number

38:18 - RAB: Revenue Above Budget explained

42:02 - Staying resilient in agency sales: Avoiding soul-destroying work

45:25 - Conversations not presentations: Why we don't use decks anymore

47:45 - Book recommendation: The Four Conversations by Blair Enns