Referrals can fuel an agency’s early growth—but they may not be enough to carry it forward. This conversation explores how agency owners can build a more intentional, adaptable pipeline before they urgently need one.

In this episode, Josh Hoffman and Jason Graub discuss:

• The podcast’s audience and interview format
• Recognizing when referrals are no longer enough
• Founder involvement in agency sales
• Testing channels to build a consistent pipeline
• North Pulse’s tailored outreach strategies and campaigns

Key Takeaways:

• Referrals are valuable, but their unpredictability makes it risky to rely on them as the sole source of new business.
• Agency sales often depend on demonstrating the founder’s expertise, making it difficult to hand the process off entirely.
• There is no universal pipeline playbook; test multiple channels, then focus on what works for your business.
• Conference outreach is more effective when it starts before the event, with specific meetings in mind.
• Watch for market changes early and build new ways to generate demand before pipeline pressure becomes urgent.

“If you don't think referrals are going to necessarily carry the business in 2027, how do you think about the different ways now, not in January when you're like, ‘Crap, I don't necessarily have the leads and pipeline that I would want to have.’” - Jason Graub

About Jason Graub:

Jason has built go-to-market from nothing at three companies, carrying the number himself before building the systems that carried it. At Tourial, he took revenue from $100K to $1M ARR in under a year. At Navless, he built the foundation that reached the first $500K in six months. At Eventup, he ran the function and the team.

He also builds the software. Bespoke applications, internal tools, and automations, fitted to whatever a client already runs rather than requiring them to adopt something new. That includes the systems behind our own outreach, and production builds for clients where the process was too specific for anything off the shelf.

Having run sales teams is why the software he builds fits how people actually work instead of forcing them to change how they work.

Connect with Jason Graub:

Website: https://northpulse.ai/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jason-graub/

Connect with Josh Hoffman:

Website: https://northpulse.ai/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jhoffman610/

Audio production by Turnkey Podcast Productions. You're the expert. Your podcast will prove it.

After nearly 18 years and more than $1 billion in closed new business, Jesse Eisenberg turned down CEO offers to join a 21-year-old college dropout's street interview startup. In under a year, it grew 6x. He explains the pricing, packaging, and trust-building moves behind that growth, and why he's never needed outbound sales.

In this episode, Josh Hoffman and Jesse Eisenberg discuss:

• Innovation through listening and delegating
• Consultative selling and deeper discovery
• Hiring sales talent from within the delivery team
• Rebranding, pricing, and subscription packaging for rapid growth
• Repositioning authentic creative as upper-funnel brand content

Key Takeaways:

• Discovery time predicts win rate. Turn one discovery call into several by meeting every stakeholder before the pitch, so you walk in with champions who are rooting for you.
• Outbound sales is usually inefficient for agencies. Personal brands, paid media, and your own media channels build trust before a prospect ever reaches out.
• Look inside for your best salespeople. Staff who already deliver the work bring credibility and authority on day one.
• Packaging can steer buying behavior. Offering raw footage only on subscription plans moved subscription adoption from 50% to 80%.
• Let data decide where your product fits. Creative that underperforms on conversion metrics may be driving new-customer revenue further up the funnel.

"Brands don't want to be sold by the salesperson. They want to meet the team that they'd actually be working with." - Jesse Eisenberg

About Jesse Eisenberg:

Jesse is the CEO and Co-founder of StreetTalk, a creative advertising agency specializing in street-interview video content that combats AI-generated marketing and influencer fatigue. Previously Chief Growth Officer at Tinuiti, the largest independent performance marketing agency in the U.S., Eisenberg scaled the company from $1 million to over $200 million in revenue during his 17-year tenure. He is recognized for transforming Authentic Generated Content (AGC) into a high-performing advertising format, with client campaigns achieving 5x higher engagement and 33% lower cost-per-acquisition than traditional methods.

Connect with Jesse Eisenberg:

Website: https://www.streettalk.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jesse-eisenberg-8b1955b/

Connect with Josh Hoffman:

Website: https://northpulse.ai/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jhoffman610/

Audio production by Turnkey Podcast Productions. You're the expert. Your podcast will prove it.