Profit, Not Pixels: How Financial Accountability Becomes an Agency’s Real Differentiator
Interview: Building a Client-First Agency with Senior Talent, Clear Systems, and Real ROI
Behind the Agency Podcast with Sam Tomlinson, Partner at Warshavsky
Watch
Prefer the highlights? Key takeaways and summary below.
TL;DR – Key Takeaways
Warshavsky was built on a simple but rare idea: build the agency you’d actually want to hire.
Senior talent > junior leverage. Clients shouldn’t pay for an agency’s training program.
Growth breaks things—every time. Expect it, plan for it, document everything.
Referrals are great… until they aren’t. Agencies stall when they don’t build their own pipeline.
Standing out isn’t about louder marketing—it’s about financial accountability.
Impressions and clicks don’t win trust. Contribution dollars do.
Treat your agency like a client—or it’ll always come last.
Saying “no” to bad-fit clients is a growth strategy, not a luxury.
Long-term trust is earned by doing the hard right thing, even when it costs short-term revenue.
Meet the Guest
Sam Tomlinson is a partner at Warshavsky, a boutique digital marketing agency founded in 1996. Sam came into agency life through an unconventional path—real estate finance and large-scale transaction modeling—bringing a deep grounding in data, economics, and financial rigor into marketing.
That background shapes how Warshavsky operates today: business-first, outcome-driven, and unapologetically focused on profit over vanity metrics.
Episode Summary
1. An Unusual Path into Agency Life
Sam didn’t start in agencies. He started in finance—helping model $50M–$500M real estate transactions. Agencies were something he hired, not worked for.
That perspective stuck.
When he joined Warshavsky nearly a decade ago, it wasn’t about “learning marketing.” It was about applying the same analytical discipline—just with different inputs.
“We’re still adding things up. We’re just adding up different stuff.”
2. Warshavsky’s Founding Ethos: Be the Agency You’d Hire
Founded by David Warshavsky after time at large agencies like Edelman, the firm was built as a reaction to what didn’t feel right:
Billing juniors at senior rates
Swapping people constantly
Optimizing for margin instead of outcomes
The rule was simple: put yourself on the client side of the table.
Leadership at Warshavsky owns and invests in other businesses, which keeps empathy real—not theoretical.
3. Why Senior Talent Is Non-Negotiable
One of Warshavsky’s clearest differentiators: 75–80% of the team is senior-level (5+ years experience).
Junior talent is trained internally—but not placed on client accounts to “figure it out.”
“Clients shouldn’t be paying for your education.”
This costs more in the short term. It pays off in trust, retention, and long-term relationships.
4. Growth Breaks Everything (The Rule of 1 and 3)
Sam shares a lesson from early growth:
Every time your team size jumps from:
1 → 3
3 → 10
10 → 30
Everything breaks.
Processes fail. Communication breaks. What used to “just work” stops working.
The only way through it?
Heavy documentation
Real project management
Looms, training programs, and institutional knowledge
Yes, it hurts margin short-term. It’s still the right call.
5. The Referral Ceiling (And Why Agencies Stall)
Like many agencies, Warshavsky grew early on referrals and networking.
That worked—until it didn’t.
Around ~20 people and ~25 clients, Sam felt the ceiling:
“This is as far as networking can take us.”
Referrals are:
Unpredictable
Vulnerable to acquisitions
Dependent on people staying in the same roles
So the agency had to do for itself what it did for clients:
Position clearly
Build thought leadership
Invest in content, speaking, and case studies
Create a real pipeline before it was desperate
“You don’t hunt when you’re hungry.”
6. How Warshavsky Actually Stands Out
Sam frames differentiation as a three-legged stool:
1. Thought Leadership
Speaking, content, and deep case studies that prove relevance before the pitch.
2. Operational Proof
Clear processes. Clear delivery. Doing exactly what you say you’ll do.
“It’s a superpower to just do what you say you’ll do.”
3. Financial Accountability (The Real Differentiator)
Everything ladders back to business economics:
How money flows
What drives profit
Where contribution dollars come from
Impressions and clicks are table stakes. Profit is the language executives care about.
7. Contribution Dollars > Vanity Metrics
Sam is blunt: top-line growth is easy. Profit is hard.
Warshavsky focuses on contribution dollars:
Revenue minus all costs of acquisition, delivery, and service.
What the client does with that profit?
That’s an executive decision—not marketing’s job.
This approach wins trust fast, especially in pitches:
“No one else has shown me this. Send the contract.”
8. Managing Expectations with Honesty (and Probability)
Warshavsky doesn’t promise single outcomes. They show ranges.
Why?
Because marketing includes luck.
Celebrities wear your product? Lucky.
Deals stall in December? Seasonal reality.
By modeling ranges and pipeline math (lead → MQL → SQL → close), they:
Diagnose problems earlier
Avoid blame games
Maintain trust even in down months
9. Tools, Systems, and a Hatred of Meetings
Sam’s indispensable tool: Loom.
Asynchronous
Documented
Replayable
Fewer miscommunications
Project management matters—but how you communicate matters more.
Meetings ≠ progress.
10. The Biggest Growth Unlock: Treating the Agency Like a Client
A turning point for Warshavsky:
They added the agency as a client.
Assigned an account manager
Set budgets and KPIs
Measured cost per opportunity, SQL, and close
Most agencies treat their own marketing like an afterthought.
“Everything falls apart if you have no new business.”
11. Learning to Say No (and Add Friction)
As the agency matured, Sam learned to say no to:
Bad-fit clients
Short-term wins with long-term costs
They also added friction to intake:
Questionnaires
Clear expectations
If a prospect won’t engage early, that’s a signal—not a fluke.
12. Advice for Smaller Agencies (<10 People)
Sam’s advice is refreshingly direct:
Decide what kind of agency you want to be—there’s no single right model.
Your real assets are:
People
Knowledge
Systems
Overpay your best people.
If you don’t love agency life, don’t do this.
“Agency life is a full-contact sport.”
Notable Quotes
“Clients shouldn’t pay for your training program.”
“Anyone can grow top line. Profit is where the real work is.”
“You don’t hunt when you’re hungry.”
“Doing the right thing compounds—even when it costs you short-term.”
Learn More / Get in Touch
Newsletter → https://samtomlinson.me/newsletter
Twitter → @digitalSamIam
LinkedIn → Sam Tomlinson
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