The Handbook: The Operations Podcast
Running a serviced based business, an agency or consultancy isn’t just about great client work. It’s about keeping everything behind the scenes running smoothly.
That’s where The Handbook comes in. Our goal? To help you take your business to the next level of business maturity.
This podcast is for operations and service-business leaders who are juggling it all – people, processes, finance, tech, and everything in between.
Every other week, we dive deep into a specific challenge that businesses face as they grow in headcount and complexity. You'll get practical insights and real-world advice from experts who’ve been there, solved the problems, and know what works.
If you’re looking for smarter ways to scale, streamline, and strengthen your business, you’re in the right place. Welcome to The Handbook community, your go-to guide for better business operations.
And don’t forget to sign up for The Handbook newsletter – we’ll send you the key takeaways from each episode straight to your inbox: scoro.com/podcast/#handbook
The Handbook: The Operations Podcast is brought to you by Scoro.
Episodes
34 episodes
Board-Level Thinking, Sale-Ready Ops – with Sam Wood
Your ops might be ticking along just fine.But what if your founder got sick tomorrow? What if your top client left? What if you had to make a big decision with zero visibility on the numbers?You might not be planning to sell yo...
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Season 1
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Episode 33
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40:14
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The ops CHEAT CODE: One year of insights condensed with Harv Nagra
Is your business growing, but it still feels messy?This solo episode from Harv looks back at one year of The Handbook podcast, and it’s a big one. Harv recaps what he’s learned from a year of speaking with ops leaders across the...
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Season 1
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Episode 32
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32:28
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Are you helping or hindering your delivery team? With Galen Low
Ops Leaders, are you unintentionally making life harder for your delivery team?Galen Low, co-founder of The Digital Project Manager and host of The Digital Project Manager podcast, joins us to flip the lens, and spotlight the real impact...
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Season 1
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Episode 31
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48:35
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Strategic Ops, Unlocked: Manish Kapur’s Workshop Playbook
What does it really take to operate more strategically as an agency?Manish Kapur returns to The Handbook to help agency ops leaders shift from firefighting mode to future-focused thinking. If you’ve ever struggled to carve out time for t...
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Season 1
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Episode 30
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51:29
Growth Thresholds & Growing Pains with Marcel Petitpas
Growth is the goal for many agencies, but as your team hits certain size thresholds, your structure, systems, and workflows can start to break down.Marcel Petitpas, CEO of Parakeeto, has spent years helping agencies around the world clea...
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Season 1
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Episode 29
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45:38
Pricing, Profitability & Predictions with Karl Sakas
What if you could charge more, and keep your best clients happy?Karl Sakas has spent over 20 years in agency operations and consulting, helping more than 600 agencies shift from reactive to strategic. In this episode, he joins ...
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Season 1
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Episode 28
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48:23
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Why your tools aren’t talking & what it’s costing you with Ryan Pearcy
Your tech stack might be holding your agency back more than you think.Ryan Pearcy, founder of Digital Transformers and chartered accountant, has helped...
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Season 1
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Episode 27
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37:16
BenchPress 2025: 4 Big Agency Opportunities You Need To Be On Top Of
How do agencies stack up in 2025?The results are in for BenchPress 2025. The UK’s largest benchmarking survey for independent agencies has revealed some surprising (and shocking) trends about the state of the industry.To break it ...
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Season 1
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Episode 26
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38:01
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How to Get Clients to See You as a Strategic Partner with Max Traylor
Most agencies add value far beyond execution. They develop methodologies, frameworks, and strategic thinking that help clients make better decisions. But too often, they give that thinking away for free. Only to compete on price when it’s time ...
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Season 1
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Episode 25
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39:14
Rethinking performance, pay reviews & career growth with Zoe Blogg
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, Op...
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Season 1
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Episode 24
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39:53
How to move from tactical to STRATEGIC ops with WPP's Preston Chandler
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 Chand...
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Season 1
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Episode 23
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50:07
Mike Della Porta: How to elevate service delivery for scale
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 si...
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Season 1
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Episode 22
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41:13
Managing Gen Z: Challenges, Myths, and the Opportunity with Isobel Camier
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.&n...
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Season 1
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Episode 21
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34:33
Building a systemized, codified, scalable sales engine with Ryan Hall
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 fo...
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Season 1
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Episode 20
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1:08:07
Running your agency like clockwork with Jinny Mitchell-Kent
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 ...
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Season 1
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Episode 19
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38:19
How to document and embed best practices that stick with Harv Nagra
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 operati...
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Season 1
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Episode 18
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22:44
Hire, train and retain like Sarah Brougham
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 he...
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Season 1
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Episode 18
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47:39
Amy Hopper: How to build more engaged, high-performing teams
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 ...
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Season 1
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Episode 17
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43:42
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Richard Brett: What is 'rev rec' & which metrics matter?
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...
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Season 1
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Episode 16
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43:27
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BONUS EP: How can you boost your agency's productivity?
Do you ever get to the end of the working day and wonder, ‘What did I actually get done today?'You’re certainly not alone. We’re interrupted about every 8 minutes. And it can take up to 20 minutes to get back to what we’re do...
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Season 1
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Episode 15
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21:38
Trenton Moss: 3 high-impact strategies that redefined my agency
Curious about how an agency experimented with new approaches and found their recipe for success?In this episode, we talk with Trenton Moss, a former agency owner who ran his business for 15 years before it was sold. Trenton shares the ke...
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Season 1
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Episode 14
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52:28
Dan Timmiss: How to get your agency IT ready for scaling
As an Ops person, the role of IT expert is often part of the job. So how can you ensure your agency’s IT infrastructure is set up for scaling? That's the focus of our discussion with Dan Timmiss, Technical Director at Kaizen IT Sol...
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Season 1
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Episode 13
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42:52
Freia Muehlenbein: How to pitch to WIN
Winning pitches is tough. Ghosting has become a common challenge, and even when you win, clients may be commissioning smaller pieces of the project rather than the full program.But that’s only part of the struggle - crafting...
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Season 1
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Episode 12
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48:06
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Jenny Plant: Great Sales & Great PM - Can One Person Do It All?
Part of the remit of an ops leader is to ensure they’ve got the right people, in the right place. In many agencies, account managers handle sales, client relationships, AND project management. However, this hybrid role often leads t...
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Season 1
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Episode 11
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37:54
Julia Vastrik: How to strengthen company culture in the WFH era
We’re in the age of remote and hybrid working, and our physical distance from one another is having a huge impact on company culture. Previously, grabbing lunch or a drink after work was easy. But now, even small talk needs to be c...
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Season 1
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Episode 10
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35:33
