The STANDOUT Agency Podcast.
Father-and-son advisors Gareth and Callum Healey on what it really takes to build a differentiated, well-run marketing agency. Gareth on strategy, operations and growth; Callum on AI and where it’s genuinely changing how agencies work.
No theory for theory’s sake – just sharp, practical conversation built on real advisory work with real agencies. New episodes weekly, in video and audio, wherever you listen.
About the show
Each week, Gareth and Callum get into what actually separates agencies that plateau from agencies that build something that lasts. Gareth draws on decades of running agencies and advising agency founders on strategy, operations and growth. Callum brings the AI side – where it’s genuinely changing how agencies work, and where it’s just noise.
The conversation is built on the STANDOUT Agency System – the eight-pillar framework behind our advisory work – and the thinking in STANDOUT or Die.
Got a topic you’d like us to cover? Tell us here.
Episodes
Every episode is filed here as soon as it is published.
EPISODE 12: The Robots Are Coming – 3 Key Takeaways
AI is changing the agency margin model, and most owners haven’t decided who benefits. In episode 12 of The STANDOUT Agency Podcast, Gareth and Callum share the three takeaways from The Robots Are Coming, the AI event hosted by Agency Hackers: where the margin goes, why AI transformation stalls without ownership, and the data assets agencies already own and barely use.
EPISODE 11: The Three Numbers Every Agency Owner Should Know
Most agency owners didn’t start a business to look at spreadsheets – but the ones coming through a hard year are almost always closest to their numbers. In episode 11 of The STANDOUT Agency Podcast, Callum puts Gareth in the hot seat on why your accountant isn’t watching your numbers for you, the three numbers every agency dashboard needs, and why the profit figure most agencies quote is not the real one.
EPISODE 10: Why Your Agency Needs SOPs More Than It Needs AI
Agencies are rushing to adopt AI and skipping the step that decides whether it works. In episode 10 of The STANDOUT Agency Podcast, Gareth puts Callum in the hot seat on why SOPs come before AI, what to do when an agency has no processes to show you, why prompt libraries were a dead end, and why the time-based agency model is the thing really under threat.
EPISODE 9: Nobody Wants Your Agency Services
No client wakes up wanting a website, SEO or a retainer – they want what those things get them. In episode 9 of The STANDOUT Agency Podcast, Callum puts Gareth in the hot seat on why selling a list of services no longer works, why vague offers always get priced down, what productised agency services actually are, the three forms they can take now AI is in the mix, and the one exercise to run with your senior team this week.
EPISODE 8: Where Not To Use AI In Your Agency
Callum builds AI systems for agencies – and trusts AI less the more he learns about it. In episode 8 of The STANDOUT Agency Podcast, Gareth puts him in the hot seat on where AI shouldn’t go in an agency: why it’s a prediction machine that can’t say “I don’t know”, why handing juniors’ work to AI quietly breaks the way judgment gets built, why the felt half of a decision can’t be delegated, and why a model that can recite the whole STANDOUT system still isn’t the person who lived it.
EPISODE 7: Why Your Agency Marketing is stuck in Shawshank Prison
Most agency owners blame busyness for their own marketing never getting done. Gareth argues it’s closer to institutionalisation – a permission structure client work gives you that your own business never does. In Episode 7, he and Callum unpack why, and what actually breaks the pattern.
GUEST APPLICATIONS
Want to be a guest?
We record with a guest roughly every other week, so we can’t say yes to everyone. Gareth and Callum review every application together, and everyone gets a reply.
We’re looking for
- ✓ Agency owners with a result they can point to
- ✓ Specialists who can show a >£500k revenue independent agency owner something to do differently this week.
Not for us
- ✕ Product pitches
- ✕ SEO and link-building offers
- ✕ Topics anyone could have written
Takes about five minutes. Specific answers beat polished ones. No agents of representatives please.