The Handbook: The Agency Operations Podcast

Feb 24 2025 25 ep. 38 mins 6

The Handbook: The Agency Operations Podcast artwork

Agency operations can be lonely.

Enter The Handbook: The Agency Operations podcast. A space where we talk to fellow experts and operations leaders about agency life – discussing the challenges keeping us up at night, as well as strategies that help make things run a little bit smoother.

Each episode, we'll have a guest speaker who brings a fresh perspective and gives us plenty of food for thought.

Hosted by Harv Nagra, operations consultant, and former in-house agency operations director.

Subscribe and be lonely no more!

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The Handbook: The Agency Operations Podcast is brought to you by Scoro.

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Rethinking performance, pay reviews & career growth with Zoe Blogg

Feb 24 2025 39 mins

Are performance reviews a waste of time—or your agency’s secret weapon? Too often, agencies treat performance management as a checkbox exercise, bogged down with vague feedback and awkward salary conversations. But Zoe Elizabeth Blogg, Operations Director at Reboot Online, has built a system that actually works. From structured performance reviews to proactive (quarterly!) sala

How to move from tactical to STRATEGIC ops with WPP's Preston Chandler

Feb 10 2025 50 mins

Your agency’s operations can either fuel creativity, or kill it. And you can focus on the big picture that drives real financial impact, or get stuck in the weeds. Preston Chandler, WPP’s Global Practice Lead of Strategic Operations has a point of view, and the experience to prove it. In fact, Preston’s role at WPP is all about advising agencies in the group on how they can o

Mike Della Porta: How to elevate service delivery for scale

Jan 27 2025 41 mins

We’ve all had those moments, we land that huge new client – first comes the elation for winning the mandate that will transform our fortunes, and then the mild panic at how we’re going to deliver. There’s also times when what we do is simply just not that well understood across the organization – there might only be one internal expert, which creates a significant amount

Managing Gen Z: Challenges, Myths, and the Opportunity with Isobel Camier

Jan 13 2025 34 mins

This year, Gen Z are due to make up over a quarter of the workforce – a huge proportion. But both the negative headlines and moaning around the watercooler have commenced. Claims of entitlement, laziness, and unreasonable expectations abound. But is any of it true? And is their approach to work really that detrimental to an efficient workplace? In this episode, Harv speaks with I

Building a systemized, codified, scalable sales engine with Ryan Hall

Dec 16 2024 68 mins

In a tight market, sales become a big concern. Relying on repeat business or referrals no longer cuts it, you have to put in more effort. Often in agencies, the know-how on how to get this done is missing; few people come from a formal sales background. So a haphazard approach is implemented and we hope for the best. Only that slapdash approach rarely gets the results we want. Is i

Running your agency like clockwork with Jinny Mitchell-Kent

Dec 02 2024 38 mins

How do you create a highly efficient agency without losing flexibility or quality? In this episode, Harv Nagra sits down with Jinny Mitchell-Kent, Joint Managing Director at Great State. With nearly 20 years of experience at agencies big and small—including global powerhouse AKQA—Jinny shares how she’s applying lessons from her big-agency days to a 100-person team. Here’s w

How to document and embed best practices that stick with Harv Nagra

Nov 18 2024 22 mins

Are you battling with inconsistent processes, bad practice and poor staff training? In this episode, Harv Nagra explains the benefits of documenting and embedding best practices – to take your agency one big leap forward in operational maturity. Harv shares his best tips on: Creating an agency handbook – to create a single source of truth for your business, and help your team w

Hire, train and retain like Sarah Brougham

Nov 04 2024 47 mins

Hiring and training new employees is a big commitment - and getting it right will have a lasting impact on your agency. Kicking off The Big Agency Club series, we chat with Sarah Brougham, VP of Operations at GenFlow. Sarah’s helped multiple agencies go from start-up to established, having a big hand to play in their growth and maturity journies. Sarah has spent the past six year

Amy Hopper: How to build more engaged, high-performing teams

Oct 21 2024 43 mins

Individuals thrive when they’re equipped to handle challenges. Amy Hopper is a former agency owner and now founder of the business consultancy TOA. In this episode, Amy opens up about her journey through some serious challenges. She shares how those experiences helped her create a system that keeps teams (and individuals) focused, engaged, and productive. Amy dives into practical

Richard Brett: What is 'rev rec' & which metrics matter?

Oct 07 2024 43 mins

Which metrics should you track, to run your agency as efficiently as possible? In this episode we speak with Richard Brett. Rich is a seasoned FinOps professional with 15+ years of experience, including a decade in the agency world. Rich has played a key role in scaling agencies, setting up financial processes, and supporting sustainable growth. Rich will take us into a deeper dive