“Take the Opportunity in Front of You,” Partnership-First Growth, and Why Free Work Doesn’t Convert
Interview: How a guy who wanted to be a sports agent stumbled into Shopify, built an agency the “squishy” way, and scaled with partnerships + systems (not fluff)
Behind the Agency Podcast with Ben Zettler, Founder of Zettler Digital
Watch
Prefer the highlights? Key takeaways and summary below.
TL;DR – Key Takeaways
Ben didn’t set out to start an agency. He wanted to work in sports. The agency happened because he kept saying “yes” to the next thing.
Shopify was the big domino. He built a sunglasses store in 2013 (he said it was around store #41,000), and that put him in the right place as Shopify exploded.
The moment it got real: a Shopify partner manager asked, “What would it take to do this full-time?” That question changed everything.
He went full-time in 2019 after the company he worked for got acquired—and side income was already beating his salary.
COVID was scary at first, then became an inflection point because e-commerce surged right after.
His #1 growth lever: partnerships (especially marketplaces inside ecosystems like Shopify). He treated responsiveness like a competitive advantage.
He said he replied to 6,000+ inquiries in the Shopify Experts Marketplace over 2–3 years and was told he was the most responsive partner in the ecosystem.
He’s built a 20-person team with contractors (he’s the only W-2), which keeps the model flexible but makes sales/partnerships a bottleneck because it’s all on him.
Systems beat “fancy tools” when you’re disciplined. His CRM is… Google Sheets.
Loom was a big unlock for speed, clarity, and sales—but he tested free audits and said 0 out of 5 converted, which reinforced his “no free work” stance.
He takes affiliate commissions and thinks the “I don’t take commission to build trust” thing is overrated if you’re transparent. Commissions are ~10% of his business.
Biggest advice to early agency folks: make your work visible (portfolio + case studies) and get into partner ecosystems early.
Meet the Guest
Ben Zettler runs Zettler Digital, a Shopify/e-commerce-focused agency. His story isn’t the classic “I had a master plan.”
It’s more like:
“I kept following the breadcrumbs… and then one day I realized I had a real business.”
And honestly, that’s how most agencies actually start, even if people pretend otherwise.
Episode Summary
1) The origin story (sports → Shopify → agency)
Ben wanted to be a sports agent. He worked in college athletics (University of Maryland baseball), then got a job at Steiner Sports doing social + digital marketing.
But the real turning point happened when he went home with no job and started a sunglasses company.
He found Shopify in 2013, chose it over stuff like Wix/WordPress/Volusion, and called it the luckiest decision he ever made.
That one decision created a flywheel:
“Friend of a friend needs a Shopify site.”
“Someone needs help in Mailchimp.”
“Can you do social/digital for us?”
“Can you consult on the side?”
It wasn’t intentional. It was momentum.
2) The question that flipped the switch
His Shopify partner manager (Lauren Helstab) asked:
“What would it take for you to do this full-time?”
Ben basically hadn’t even considered it until someone asked the question out loud.
Then 2019 hit: his employer got acquired, and he was already making more money on the side than at his job—so he made the jump.
That part matters because it’s not some “brave entrepreneur” fairy tale. It’s more like: the math made the decision for him.
3) Growth isn’t a neat staircase (and most “agency strategy content” lies)
Ben went after a misconception pretty directly:
A lot of people talk like agency growth is a clean sequence:
Step 1 → Step 2 → Step 3.
He said it’s usually squishier than that. More like:
you try things
something works
you double down
something breaks
you fix it
repeat forever
That matches reality.
4) Challenges are daily, but COVID was the big inflection point
COVID was terrifying early on. He said there were a couple of weeks where it felt like, “Does anyone even care about buying online right now?”
Then e-commerce surged, and it changed the trajectory of his business.
It’s weird to say “COVID helped,” but for e-commerce services, it obviously accelerated adoption.
5) How he stood out in a crowded agency market: “be early + be relentless”
Ben’s differentiation play wasn’t clever branding.
It was execution inside an ecosystem.
He leaned hard into Shopify partnerships and programs:
Shopify Partner Program
Shopify Experts Marketplace (which he said was sunset recently)
He treated responsiveness like a moat.
He mentioned being told he personally responded to 6,000+ inquiries in that system over 2–3 years—most responsive partner in the ecosystem.
Not every inquiry was a great lead, but that channel was “massive” for pipeline.
The deeper lesson:
If you see a distribution channel that lets you “give a little to get a lot,” pay attention. Most agency owners ignore those windows.
6) The churn reality: “clients leave for cheaper… then come back”
He talked about something every agency feels but few say plainly:
Clients will shop you against cheaper options.
Sometimes they leave.
Sometimes they come back and say, “This isn’t working—can you fix X, Y, Z?”
That pattern forced him to constantly evaluate pricing and packaging, but he framed it as normal market behavior.
7) His operating model: 1 W-2 + 20 contractors
Ben’s setup is interesting:
He’s the only W-2 employee.
Team of ~20 contractors (US + international).
Pros:
flexibility
access to talent
variable cost structure
Cons:
Ben is the bottleneck for sales, partnerships, and a lot of client relationships
no partnerships manager, no dedicated biz dev
So he compensates with systems and discipline.
And yeah… his CRM is a color-coded Google Sheet.
That’s a good reminder: most people don’t need “better software.” They need to actually use something consistently.
8) Tools and systems that actually moved the needle
Two tools he called out as game changers:
Loom
He paid for Loom and it saved him time in two places:
internal feedback (faster than typing a long message)
sales/proposals (quick, specific recommendations without doing a full free audit)
He ran an experiment doing 5 free Klaviyo audits and said none converted.
That pushed him further into:
no free work
paid audits/consults that get credited back if they sign a retainer
Superhuman
He uses it for follow-ups, reminders, snippets, scheduled sends, and open tracking.
His theme: time + efficiency.
9) The “generalist agencies will die” take… and his pushback
Ben clearly gets annoyed by this idea.
People look at his menu (Shopify + Klaviyo + ads + CRO + site work) and call it “generalist.”
His argument is basically:
“E-commerce is a system. These parts all affect each other. If you only know one part, you’re blind.”
He gave examples of how it connects:
ads affect site conversion
site affects data collection
data affects email performance
email affects repeat purchase and payback period
So he sees “cross-functional” as an advantage—as long as you’re honest about what you’re great at.
And I’m with him here: a lot of the “generalists are dead” stuff is internet theater. The real question is whether you have a clear buyer and a clear outcome, not whether your service menu fits into one tidy box.
10) Affiliate commissions: take them, just don’t be weird about it
Ben’s take is refreshingly blunt:
If you recommend tools that genuinely help clients
and there’s a partner program
why would you not take the commission?
He said affiliate/referral commissions are about 10% of his business.
His key point is transparency. If a client asks, tell them—he even shared that he’ll tell clients the exact dollar amount.
He gave a concrete example:
a tool cost around $189/mo for a merchant
that merchant generated $300k+ in last-click attributed revenue from tool-driven Klaviyo flows
and the commission to Ben was small relative to the value
So the trust play isn’t “refuse commission.”
The trust play is “recommend what works + be clear about incentives.”
Notable Quotes
“It’s usually a little more squishy… not a clean stair-step sequence.”
“I responded to over 6,000 inquiries… most responsive partner in the ecosystem.”
“I did five free audits… none of them hired us.”
“You can either let them have the best tool and not get commission, or let them have the best tool and get commission.”
“Just show me examples… portfolios beat resumes.”
Learn More / Get in Touch
Ben said the best places to reach him:
LinkedIn / Twitter: @benzettler
Website: zettlerdigital.com (recently changed from benzettler.com)
