Growing a 300-Person Global White Label Agency with Damian Papworth

Agency Journey

"I can't grow if I'm doing the same stuff that I was doing last year. So for me to grow, I need to give my leaders space to grow in so that they're doing the stuff that I was doing last year—and then I'm doing something different. That's my yardstick for a good year."

Damian Papworth is the founder and managing director of Globital, a white label digital marketing agency serving over 250 agencies across 6-8 countries. With a team of around 300 staff distributed globally, Damian has built a scalable agency model focused on consistent, high-quality fulfillment.

In this episode of Agency Journey, Damian shares insights on building an agency for enterprise value, leading a distributed team, and navigating uncertain times in the industry. He emphasizes the importance of strategy over tactics and building strong relationships to weather economic challenges.

Whether you're looking to scale your agency, improve your leadership skills, or prepare your business for a potential exit, this episode is packed with valuable advice from Damian's years of experience in the industry.

🎁 Get $1,000 credit to try Globital's white label services for your agency: https://globitalmarketing.com/lp/white-label-digital-marketing/?utm_campaign=agency-journey-ep-305-damian-papworth

Episode Insights:

💡 Focus on profit, not revenue, when setting goals and measuring success. Your agency will be valued based on profit multiples, not revenue.

💡 Be aware of the tension between operational value and enterprise value when making business decisions. Sometimes what works best day-to-day may not be ideal for selling your agency.

💡 Build and maintain strong relationships with clients, especially during uncertain times. Agencies with deeper relationships have weathered recent challenges better than those relying on high-churn sales tactics.

💡 Implement Net Promoter Score and make your operational teams responsible for customer satisfaction. This builds trust and drives continuous improvement.

💡 Develop strong leaders within your organization to create a business that can run without you. Invest in executive coaching and give your leaders space to grow.

💡 Create consistent, documented processes to deliver reliable results at scale. Focus on being consistently good rather than occasionally brilliant.

💡 When meeting with your leadership team, ask "How can I help you?" to support their growth and development.

Resources Mentioned:

🌐 Damian's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/damianpapworth/

🌐 Damian's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/damianpapworth/

🌐 Globital website: https://www.globitalmarketing.com/?utm_campaign=agency-journey-ep-305-damian-papworth

📚 "Who: The A Method for Hiring" by Geoff Smart and Randy Street

🛠️ Net Promoter Score for measuring customer satisfaction

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