I Started Building an Agency … Then Stopped
Why the traditional agency model doesn’t work for most clients.
Starting over mid-career is a strange thing. I’ve done it a few times, with mixed results.
After selling my company in 2015, I gave myself five years to explore passion projects before choosing what came next. At 35, with three kids under five, I wanted my next real move to be intentional. Those years went fast, a blur of startups, ideas, late nights, and being the mayor of Kidville, USA. But they taught me something important: I’m at my best when I’m solving problems through design and building brands, systems, and products that help real people.
So that was the plan. I’d start a design agency.
Within a week, my first client fell into my lap. A pitch turned into a 6-month engagement that ended in a big win: great results, good money, creative push, awards, and a thrilled client. I wanted more of that: more clients, more collaborators, more momentum.
And then I saw the flaw in the model I was trying to build.
Where the traditional agency model breaks.
The only way to scale an agency is to take on more clients and hand off execution to cheaper, faster labor. That’s how every service business scales, but in the creative industry, it creates a huge gap between what’s sold and what’s delivered.
Clients hire agencies for senior-level craft (the work shown in the pitch deck or portfolio), but most of the execution is handled by junior designers.
Here’s how it usually plays out:
The founder or salesperson leads the pitch, showing A+ curated work.
A senior designer runs the kickoff and sets direction.
Then the senior steps aside, and 90% of the work is completed by juniors at bargain internal rates. Capitalism at work!
Project managers focus on timelines and cost, not craft.
The final product rarely lives up to the promise of the pitch.
I know this pattern too well. I’ve been the client in this story more than a dozen times and can always tell the exact moment an agency shifts its attention to its next, shinier client.
Suddenly, you’re managing the people you’re paying, trying to drag your own project across the finish line.
Nobody leaves happy.
Clients feel shortchanged.
Agencies feel squeezed.
And both sides pretend this is normal.
The truth is simple: the traditional agency model is built for efficiency, not for excellence. It protects margins, not relationships. And it consistently produces work that feels disconnected from the promises made at the start.
So I walked away.
A better way: embedded design leadership.
What works, for both sides, is a model built on partnership, not production. A model where creatives operate as embedded members of the team, working in the open, with continual communication and shared ownership of outcomes.
This approach fixes the pitch-versus-delivery gap because the person doing the work is the same person shaping the strategy. There’s no handoff, no dilution, no mystery behind the curtain.
But it demands a lot:
Embedded designers need commercial-grade skill and real emotional intelligence.
They must adapt quickly to company dynamics and stakeholder goals.
They have to perform under a microscope, maintaining high craft in real time.
Agencies using this model take on fewer clients and give each more attention.
Clients must trust the embedded talent and grant access to decision-makers.
It’s harder. It requires more vulnerability on both sides. It limits the number of engagements you can take. And yes, it can mean less cash at the end of the year.
But the work is better. The relationships are healthier. And everyone moves faster with greater clarity.
Getting pinged in Slack to make a quick update is better than navigating a multi-step SOW process. Building in the open with smart, kind people from all over the world makes you feel like part of something bigger. And the outcomes speak for themselves.
I can’t go back.
Where to go from here.
If you’re deciding whether to hire internally or bring on an agency, ask yourself which model creates true alignment for the people involved. Often, the right individual operating in the right model is what unlocks the outcome you’re after and makes you look good in the process.
I’ve been working with select teams in this embedded capacity for the past few years and have launched some pretty incredible things. If you’re exploring this approach or want to talk about what it might look like inside your organization, reach out and let’s chat.