Elizabeth and Anthony Heaney started Squint Creative (https://squintcreative.com/) from their apartment during COVID lockdown in 2020. Both were working 12-hour shifts at a diagnostics company. They built the business in their three days off, took client calls from an airport cafe, and signed their biggest retainer from that same airport.

Five years later, Squint is one of the most distinctive CGI and fake out-of-home studios in the country, working with brands like Primark, Boost, and Killwater, and producing campaigns that hit millions of views.

In this episode we talked about:

Working 12-hour shifts while building an agency on the side, and why they would do it the exact same way again

How they scaled Hollywood-level CGI back to an affordable price for social media campaigns

Running a business as a married couple, and why critique from your spouse hits differently than critique from a client

A construction sector campaign that hit five million views and why the client had to be brave to back it

How Squint uses AI for 3D tracking and gap-filling without replacing the creative process

Their advice: build a safety net, get a retainer or two, then make the jump

The things that make an agency easier to run are the same things that make it valuable to a buyer. This episode covers what that looks like for repeatable delivery: when you systematise how the work gets done, you can scale it without scaling the chaos.

---

Want to work with me?

Take the free Agency Health Scorecard and find out where your agency stands:

https://moveatpace.com/agency-scorecard/

Join 200+ agency owners getting weekly frameworks:

https://moveatpace.com/newsletter/

---

Connect with me:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/connormcauley/

Website: https://moveatpace.com

Podcast hub: https://moveatpace.com/podcast/

Email: connor@moveatpace.com

#ExitReady #MoveAtPace #AgencyOwner #CreativeBusiness #AgencyGrowth

Aedin O'Neill spent over 20 years in marketing before founding Grow Web (https://growweb.co.uk/), a boutique PPC and paid media agency in Belfast. She made a deliberate choice to stay specialist: 80% performance, 20% brand. No full-service, no generalist drift.

That focus is what keeps Grow Web trusted by national and international clients. But staying specialist in a landscape where Meta and Google are changing the rules daily is a fight, not a default.

In this episode we talked about:

Why she chose to stay boutique and specialist instead of chasing full-service revenue

How Meta's aggressive automation is pushing agencies to fight for control of their clients' brands

Running a business with her sister Sinead, and why complementary skills make the difference

The competitive mindset from an All-Ireland GAA background and how it shapes a results-first culture

Her advice to anyone starting a PPC agency: go niche, get your hands dirty, build credibility before you build a brand

Using AI for operational efficiency while managing different attitudes across a multi-generational team

A well-run agency is also a sellable agency. When you do one thing and build processes around it, you get repeatable delivery. That is what makes the business both easier to run and more valuable.

---

Want to work with me?

Take the free Agency Valuation and find out where your agency stands:

https://moveatpace.com/agency-valuation/

Join 200+ agency owners getting weekly frameworks:

https://moveatpace.com/newsletter/

---

Connect with me:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/connormcauley/

Website: https://moveatpace.com

Podcast hub: https://moveatpace.com/podcast/

Email: connor@moveatpace.com

#ExitReady #MoveAtPace #AgencyOwner #DigitalAgency #AgencyGrowth

Mark Kelso co-founded Glaze Digital with Richard over 12 years ago. What started as a do-everything agency (websites, video, photography, app development) is now a Shopify Plus partner in the top 1.5% globally, with 250+ stores built for brands doing over £20M a month.

The technical side was never the problem. Glaze had the reputation, the clients, and the platform expertise. The commercial engine just had not kept pace.

Over 13 months working together, Glaze saw a 47% increase in revenue and a 110% increase in profit.

In this episode we talked about:

The month Mark had zero revenue coming in, and the wake-up call it created

Why being brilliant at Shopify does not automatically grow your agency

Moving from white-label work to direct strategic partnerships

The resistance to hiring middle managers (and what changed their minds)

Restructuring billing so you are not sending every invoice at month-end

How Glaze uses AI (Flora for product imagery, clients bringing Lovable designs) without losing what makes them them

If you run an agency where the work is already excellent but the business side has not caught up, this conversation is for you.

FREE AGENCY VALUATION (PDF report): http://moveatpace.com/agency-valuation

WEEKLY NEWSLETTER: http://moveatpace.com/newsletter

#agencyowner #agencygrowth #shopify #agencycoach #exitready

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 business
• Why referrals alone will not get you where you want to go
• The production manager hire he wishes he'd made 18 months earlier
• What changed when he started speaking to clients like an entrepreneur, not a creative
• Why 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-valuation

WEEKLY NEWSLETTER: moveatpace.com/newsletter

BOOK A DISCOVERY CALL: cal.com/moveatpace/discovery-call