The Six Levers of Profitable Client Engagements | EP17
Release Date: 12/09/2025
Turning Every New Client Opportunity Into an Agency’s Compounding Asset | EP25
The AgencyHabits Podcast
Most agencies treat client work as a series of one-off transactions. But the most successful firms treat every engagement as an investment that compounds over time. In this episode, hosts Peter Kang and Sei Wook Kim introduce the concept of engagement yield: the tangible and intangible value that extends far beyond the invoice. They break down the four components of engagement yield; proof, leverage, relationships, and referrals. And explains how agencies can systematically capture this value. Peter and Sei Wook share practical strategies for turning client work into lasting assets: from...
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Why Peter Wrote a Book on Holding Companies | EP24
The AgencyHabits Podcast
In this special episode, host Sei-Wook Kim interviews Barrel Holdings co-founder Peter Kang about his new book, The HoldCo Guide: How Entrepreneurs Structure and Build a Holding Company That Lasts. Peter shares the organic journey that led him to write the book, from scaling a single agency to building a multi-agency holding company, and why no existing resource fully addressed the topic. He breaks down the core concepts every entrepreneur should understand: the spectrum between capital allocator and operational HoldCos, the critical balance of centralization vs. decentralization, and the...
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Breaking Down Agency Employee Compensation | EP23
The AgencyHabits Podcast
Compensation is more than just a number. It’s a strategic tool for attracting, retaining, and motivating talent. In this episode, hosts Peter Kang and Sei-Wook Kim unpack the full spectrum of employee compensation in an agency setting. They start by acknowledging that while pay is crucial, it’s not the only factor. Culture, management, challenging work, and company trajectory all play vital roles. From there, they dive into the core components: base salary (and how to set competitive, geographically-aware bands), benefits (health insurance, 401k, PTO, and creative perks), and both short-...
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Annual Checkup: 9 Markers to Diagnose Your Agency’s Health | EP22
The AgencyHabits Podcast
Most agencies only seek help when something is broken. But by then, the problems are often systemic. In this episode, hosts Peter Kang and Sei-Wook Kim shift the conversation from reactive fixes to proactive health. They introduce a holistic “annual checkup” framework, mapping nine critical agency functions to body parts and their vital signs: from positioning (vision) and client trust (heart rate) to revenue stability (blood pressure) and risk resilience (immune system). Drawing from their experience building and scaling Barrel, Peter and Sei-Wook explain how to spot early warning signals...
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Evolving from Managing Projects to Growing Accounts | EP21
The AgencyHabits Podcast
Growing from single-project engagements to managing multiple, concurrent work streams is a major turning point for any agency. In this episode, hosts Peter Kang and Sei-Wook Kim unpack the structural shift required to turn this complexity into a sustainable competitive advantage. Drawing from their own hard-earned lessons at Barrel, they dissect the common pitfalls like team silos, client misalignment, and leader burnout, that can derail multi-faceted accounts. Peter and Sei-Wook break down the three critical roles needed for success: Account Leadership for strategy and relationships, Program...
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How Agencies Should Think About and Manage Risk | EP 20
The AgencyHabits Podcast
In this episode, Peter Kang and Sei-Wook Kim break down how agency owners should think about risk, not as isolated problems to react to, but as ongoing exposure that needs to be actively managed. Using a simple risk matrix, they explain how to prioritize risks based on likelihood and impact, and why high-impact risks deserve disproportionate attention. They then walk through nine of the most consequential risks agencies face, from founder burnout and partner misalignment to legal exposure, cash flow insolvency, client concentration, and strategic drift. For each, they share practical ways to...
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Learning From Other Agency Owners | EP19
The AgencyHabits Podcast
Great agencies are not built in isolation. In this episode, Peter Kang and Sei-Wook Kim explore the transformative power of community and peer learning for agency founders. The hosts share their personal journey from working in a silo to actively seeking mentorship and joining dedicated communities, revealing how these connections helped them avoid blind spots, gain crucial perspective, and accelerate their growth. Peter and Sei-Wook break down specific communities that have been instrumental to their journey, including Bureau of Digital, Society of Digital Agencies (SoDA), and Collective 54....
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Why Agencies Rely on Referrals But Few Treat It as a System | EP18
The AgencyHabits Podcast
Most agencies say they rely on referrals, but few treat them as a system. In this episode, Peter Kang and Sei-Wook Kim dismantle the "hope-based" approach to referrals and lay out a strategic framework for building a consistent pipeline. Drawing from the book The Referral Code, they redefine referrals as a transfer of goodwill and share actionable tactics for intentional referral generation. Peter and Sei-Wook cover how to identify the right people to ask, the critical importance of timing your ask within a "state of appreciation," and how to craft effective, open-ended questions. They also...
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The Six Levers of Profitable Client Engagements | EP17
The AgencyHabits Podcast
Profitability is the lifeblood of any agency, yet it can feel elusive. In this episode, Peter Kang and Sei-Wook Kim move beyond surface-level tips to reveal the six fundamental levers that directly impact the bottom line of every project, retainer, and service program. They break down how pricing, staffing, engagement design, scope management, reusable IP, and automation all interlock to create or erode healthy gross margins. Drawing from their experience across the Barrel Holdings portfolio, Peter and Sei-Wook share candid examples of where profitability leaks and provide a practical...
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Scaling Your Agency Beyond $2M | EP 16
The AgencyHabits Podcast
In this episode, Peter Kang and Sei-Wook Kim dissect why agencies hit the $2M and what you can do to break through. They explain how founder-centric systems that work at a smaller scale become the primary constraint to growth, leading to breakdowns in client delivery, team management, and financial visibility. The hosts share actionable solutions, from improving onboarding and implementing debrief processes to strategically hiring for your weaknesses and deepening financial rigor. They also introduce the Agency Systems Playbook, a framework of five core systems that drive a scalable agency....
info_outlineProfitability is the lifeblood of any agency, yet it can feel elusive. In this episode, Peter Kang and Sei-Wook Kim move beyond surface-level tips to reveal the six fundamental levers that directly impact the bottom line of every project, retainer, and service program. They break down how pricing, staffing, engagement design, scope management, reusable IP, and automation all interlock to create or erode healthy gross margins.
Drawing from their experience across the Barrel Holdings portfolio, Peter and Sei-Wook share candid examples of where profitability leaks and provide a practical framework for course correction. They emphasize that profitability isn’t about charging more; it’s about systematic execution. The episode concludes with four actionable habits agency leaders can implement immediately to turn these levers into a repeatable engine for financial health.
Key Moments
1. Defining Gross Margin: The core metric that indicates how efficiently you deliver client work.
2. The Three Profitability Leaks: How missteps in pricing, staffing, and delivery crush margins.
3. Lever One – Pricing & Scoping: Aligning promises to fees and the mindset of pricing for
outcomes.
4. Lever Two – Staffing & Utilization: Balancing seniority, tracking time, and using contractors to flex capacity.
5. Levers Three & Four – Engagement Design & Scope Management: Creating efficient workflows and defending against scope creep.
6. Levers Five & Six – Reusable IP & Automation: Building leverage through standardization and using technology to cut delivery costs.
7. The Four Profitability Habits: The weekly rituals that keep margins healthy across all engagements.
Real Talk Takeaways
1. Gross margin (revenue minus cost of delivery) is the clearest indicator of your operational efficiency, not just overall profit.
2. Profitability problems usually start at the beginning with poor pricing and scoping, setting the team up for failure from day one.
3. High utilization is critical. A project can be profitable in isolation, but idle team members between projects destroy company-wide margins.
4. A vague scope is a major liability. Clear documentation of deliverables and responsibilities is your first defense against scope creep.
5. Specialization pays off. The more you do similar work, the more you can build reusable components (IP) that drastically lower delivery costs over time.
6. Automations and AI are now essential profitability levers, handling administrative tasks and even supplementing execution work to increase team efficiency.
7. Improving profitability is a team sport. It requires shared accountability through habits like weekly budget reviews and structured project debriefs.
Timestamps
00:00 – Introduction: The Six Levers of Agency Profitability
01:27 – Why Gross Margin is the Key Metric
04:05 – Lever One: The Art and Science of Pricing & Scoping
06:42 – Lever Two: Optimizing Staffing Mix and Utilization
10:36 – Lever Three: Designing Engagements for Efficiency
15:24 – Lever Four: Managing Scope and Change Control
20:02 – Lever Five: Building Leverage with Reusable IP
22:53 – Lever Six: Implementing Automations and AI
26:00 – The Four Habits to Sustain Profitability
Notable Quotes
"Gross margin is the revenue that you receive as a company, minus the cost of delivery... that metric is an indicator of how efficiently you're doing the work and getting the work done." — Sei-Wook Kim on the definition and importance of gross margin.
"If you have a vague scope, you can get taken for a ride as an agency... that's one of the biggest liabilities when it comes to profitability." — Peter Kang on the danger of unclear project definitions.
"The more you can charge for a project helps with the margins... it gives you more buffer for expenses, if things go sideways, if there are delays." — Sei-Wook Kim on the relationship between pricing and financial resilience.
"Specialization is a key way [profitability] plays out... over time, you have all these components and IP and you're able to come to the table and do it super efficiently." — Peter Kang on how focus builds operational leverage.
Links & Resources
Peter Kang on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/peterkang34/
Sei-Wook Kim on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/seiwookkim/
AgencyHabits Website: https://www.agencyhabits.com/
AgencyHabits on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/agencyhabits/
Barrel Holdings Website: https://www.barrel-holdings.com/
Barrel Holdings LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/barrel-holdings/