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.
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Episodes
Every episode is filed here as soon as it is published.
EPISODE 9: Npbody 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.
EPISODE 6: AI Governance: How to Keep Your Agency Safe
A written AI policy isn’t the same as real AI governance. In episode 6, Gareth and Callum unpack the real stories behind shadow AI, leaky connectors and regulated data risk – and why getting governance right first is what lets an agency actually move fast with AI.
EPISODE 5: Why Some Agencies Never Break £1m
Every founder starts as the engine – the seller, the doer, the one everyone depends on. Callum presses Gareth on why so few founders actually let go, and the four intertwined barriers that keep them stuck.
EPISODE 4: Making AI Work For Your Agency
Your AI sounds clever, but it doesn’t understand a word it says – it’s a prediction machine. Callum on why most agencies are running a fast intern instead of an embedded employee, and the folder of markdown files that changes that.