This Isn't a Downturn, Stop Treating It Like One w/ John Suder & Bart Mroz

John Suder and co-host Bart Mroz discuss why agencies are calling the market “challenging,” arguing it’s more than a temporary downturn: structural shifts are reshaping the agency business. They explain how the past two decades of tailwinds—expanding internet budgets, new channels, and less-savvy clients—made generalist positioning, referral-driven growth, and hiring ahead of revenue work, but those conditions no longer apply. They point to three forces hitting at once: AI compressing the value of execution, a choppy economy that delays decisions and breaks pipeline math, and political/regulatory instability that makes clients conservative with discretionary spending. They argue that agencies can survive by getting smaller and sharper on purpose, focusing on fewer, better clients, tightening positioning, evolving pricing and packaging, and selling judgment and strategy rather than commoditized execution. 00:00 Downturn Cold Open 00:32 Challenging Market Defined 02:13 Tailwinds Are Gone 04:18 Three Forces Collide 07:31 Old Model Survival 08:41 Broken Downturn Playbook 11:08 New Playbook Moves 14:33 Sell Judgment Not Output 17:48 AI Velocity Opportunity 19:48 Newsletter And Share 20:50 Market Feels Challenging 22:13 How We Got Here 23:46 Tailwinds Are Gone 24:35 Three Forces Collide 27:49 Old Model Can Survive 28:54 Downturn Playbook Fails 11:08 New Playbook Focus 34:51 Sell Judgment Not Output 38:06 Builders Plus Velocity 40:05 Final Takeaways Links: The Playbook newsletter: https://playbook.agencyfocus.xyz Full article: "This Isn't a Downturn. Stop Treating It Like One." https://playbook.agencyfocus.xyz/p/th...