EP 104: Why Most Agencies Collapse Right After Their “Best Year” (And How to Survive It) | Greg Shuey of STRYDE

Summary:

Your agency can look “successful” on paper and still be one bad quarter away from collapse.

In this episode, I sit down with Greg Shuey, a 14 year agency veteran who’s been through every version of agency pain: rapid growth, COVID whiplash, client churn, and the brutal transition from “easy revenue” to sustainable profit.

Greg doesn’t sugarcoat it. He breaks down what actually happens when agencies scale too fast, why most founders misunderstand people management, and how one simple mindset shift completely changed the predictability of his business.

Takeaways:

• The real reason agencies churn clients after their biggest revenue year
  
  
• Why “more clients” is often the wrong answer when cash gets tight
  
  
• The difference between revenue and good revenue (and why it matters)
  
  
• How accountability systems prevent people problems before they start
  
  
• What Greg changed after buying out his partners and why urgency skyrocketed
  
  
• Why niche focus worked, until it didn’t
  
  
• How AI search is rewarding agencies that did SEO the right way all along

Check out Greg's agency here:
STRYDE

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