FlexOps

I set up FlexOps to help founders build and scale their digital agency.

If you're here, and you're a digital agency founder, you've likely:

-- built a great agency that's generating at least 25k MRR
-- got a team of between 1 and 20 people (maybe a few more)
-- got no shortage of ambition to scale, but there are things holding you back

The good news is that through FlexOps, I'll help you to:

-- Increase your agency revenue
-- Scale your company, so it grows around you, giving you more time and freedom as a founder
-- Lower the amount of stress and strain you feel week to week

***More Revenue, More Time, Less Stress***

Founder

Centus

As of 2023, Centus has helped over 150 leading brands build their influencer programs and has paid out over $100m to over 5,000 independent content creators.

As Managing Director, I ran the business and reported directly to the Founder. I oversaw our team of 30 people across Ireland, the US, and Europe. 

I had six direct reports across our departments; planning, buying, campaigns, sales, people & finance

Managing Director

Transitioned into the role of Account Director after 18 months operating as an AM. The main roles and tasks I carry out on a day-to-day basis include, but are not limited to:

→ Managing and overseeing all DTC brand accounts at a strategic level.
→ Leading the Account Management team (4) - who manage the clients, and the Campaigns Team (6) - lead the execution of 300+ campaigns each month across 25+ brands.
→ Leading the recruitment for both teams, and assisting the MD with hiring across the wider business.
→ Liaising with each team to help our clients hit their month-on-month advertising spend targets but also ensuring we're doing so while achieving their CPA goals.

Account Director

Transitioned into the role of Senior Account Manager after 6 months as AM. The main roles and tasks I carry out on a day-to-day basis include, but are not limited to:

→ Managing and overseeing all B2C brand accounts at a strategic level.
→ Leading a team of six people, who manage and execute on 100's of campaigns each month across 25+ brands.
→ Assisting the MD in the recruitment of new team members for roles on both the Brand and Sales sides of the business.
→ Liaising with brands to hit their month-on-month advertising spend targets, but ensuring we're also doing so while achieving their CPA goals.
→ Establishing and tracking both the company and individual KPIs.

Senior Account Manager

Centus is a performance-based influencer marketing agency. We help direct-response brands acquire new customers through YouTube and Instagram in the most efficient and cost-effective way possible.

As an Account Manager, the key day-to-day tasks included, but were not limited to:

→ Strategizing with global DTC brands to create YouTube and Instagram sponsorships that bring in high-performance results
→ Planning with creators and talent agencies to produce successful, high-quality integrations
→ Creating briefs for brands that creators use to develop their content and integrations.
→ Managing brands utilizing 7-figure advertising budgets, and reporting month-on-month to ensure acquisition targets are hit as effectively as possible.

Account Manager

Brown Bear Marketing

Brown Bear Marketing is a fully done-for-you content marketing service for small businesses and startups.

We take over a company's entire content marketing operation and create their strategy, produce articles for them, drive targeted traffic to those articles and then convert that traffic to qualified leads.

If you'd like any additional information about the service we provide or the clients we've worked with, feel free to get in touch at ross@brownbear.marketing

Founder, Content Strategist

Fliplet

Fliplet is an enterprise mobile app creation and management solution that enables organisations to streamline business processes and improve communication effectively.

As Content Marketing Manager, my main task was to ensure that Fliplet was educating organisations on the topic of enterprise mobility to ensure they understood the importance and influence that mobile strategy would have on their growth going forward.

A summary of typical daily tasks included but was not limited to the following:

→ Creation and management of content marketing editorial calendar
→ Taking the lead on keyword research and making recommendations based on targets (edit: Organic traffic rose by 97% during my time as content manager)
→ Entirely responsible for community management and social promotional activity
→ Using Google Analytics to produce reports on content performance and making strategic recommendations for improvement
→ Supporting the creation of high-quality content, internally.
→ Managing freelancers, contractors, and agency content writers to ensure we received content of that meets our editorial guidelines and expectations.

Content Marketing Manager

MyFamilyClub Ltd, DC Thomson & Co. Ltd

MyFamilyClub is a website that aims to help families with children of all ages to save, manage and make money.

Focused on the digital marketing channel of the company. That being said I had the opportunity to work on a wide range of elements within the business.

→ Managed the social accounts (Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest) consisting of a 125,000 user community
→ Created an effective mix of viral, evergreen, and informative content on a daily basis
→ Maintained and updated the affiliate traffic/accounts weekly, driving traffic to the site through appropriate SEO and relevant content
→ The compilation of monthly reports gave me an opportunity to analyse how the business was performing and WHY. 
→ A solid understanding of e-mail marketing and newsletters, leading campaigns reaching over 250,000 users.
→ Direct involvement in business growth and development introduced me to the fundamentals of growth marketing and hacking.

Digital Marketing Manager

WatchFit

WatchFit is a dynamic, evolving online library of resources and information relating to health and fitness. The company has also launched an app for iOS and Android devices.

During my time with WatchFit I took the opportunity, within a fast-paced professional environment, to develop my expertise in a range of marketing roles and practices, most notably focusing on the following:

→ SEO (Google AdWords, Moz) 
→ Social Media Management (LinkedIn)
→ Marketing & PR
→ Business Development
→ Editorial - CMS (WordPress) - Formatting & optimising articles

Social Media Marketing Intern

Helping Digital Agency Owners Operate & Grow Their Business | Founder @ FlexOps | Agency Operations & Management

Hi, I’m Ross.

I help agency owners get unstuck and grow their business.

There are 5 key areas I tackle with my clients:

1. Founder - Understand what you want for the business and your role in it
2. Clients - Retain and grow clients through exceptional service
3. People - Get the right people, in the right place, doing the right things
4. Processes - Build a system that the agency operates on
5. Pipeline - Working with more of the right clients for your agency

I’ve helped my clients go from:

- Nearly quitting their agency → Loving their leading role and keen to grow
- A dysfunctional team → Organised, aligned and autonomous
- Losing clients from bad systems → Clear processes for the team to execute
- No defined customer → Calendar full of prospects that fit his ICP

If you are an Agency Owner struggling with these problems…

Send me a DM 📥

Let’s see if I can help.

15 years ago, I left school. Completely clueless.

Now? Well, I'm maybe a little less clueless.

Here’s how it has played out so far...
__________

📌 Age 18 → 22 | University

Great memories.

My priorities were simple:

1. Go out as much as possible
2. Study a little (the bare minimum)
3. Repeat

I had a lot to learn…
__________

📌 Age 22 → 26 | Various Marketing Roles (London)

My first wake-up call.

I assumed my degree would open doors.

Turns out. It didn’t.

A recruiter (who I think felt sorry for me) suggested I move to London. So I did.

I landed an unpaid internship, which led to three PAID marketing roles.

That’s where I started figuring things out.
__________

📌 Age 26 → 28 | Business Owner (1st Attempt)

FlexOps isn’t my first go at running a business.

I started a content marketing business. For 6-12 months, it barely made anything.

Then it clicked.

By month 15, I was making the most money I ever had.

But then...
__________

📌 Age 28 → 32 | Agency (Account Director → MD)

I left my own business to join a small agency in Galway.

The next few years were nothing short of extraordinary.

We:

- Built a team of 40 people
- Managed $4m+/month in influencer ad spend
- Worked with brands like Squarespace, Audible, HelloFresh & Headspace

My journey as part of that?

Account Manager → Account Director → Managing Director

Importantly, I helped the owner build the agency they wanted.
__________

📌 Age 32 → Now | Owner - FlexOps

I wanted to help MORE agency owners.

I wasn't sure how, but I was confident I could help.

I launched FlexOps.

2 years in, I've worked with 35+ agencies across the world.

Los Angeles, New York, Indianapolis, Galway, Dublin, Cork, Glasgow, London, Manchester, Nottingham, Bristol, Madrid, and Dubai.
__________

It’s been incredible.

(But it feels like I'm still just getting started, too!)

Ross Brown

Helping agency owners get unstuck, leave the chaos behind and grow to 1m+ ARR

It’s ok, don’t worry. Running an agency isn’t that hard.

You just need to:

Win clients
Retain clients
Manage your cashflow
Put out fires constantly
Do MORE with your clients
Keep team performance high
Stay on top of industry trends
Work long hours (often, at the start)
Train talent - to a very high standard
Make sure your pricing is set up right
Figure out how to lead a team of people
Hire exceptional talent - ensure they're the right fit
Help clients put out fires so their business functions
Build systems and processes so things don’t crumble

And then you just have to think about your own life outside of “work”

Kids
Partner
Friends
Parents
Hobbies
Finances
Mental Health
Physical Health

… easy peasy lemon squeezy!

If you’re reading this as an agency owner...

You’re doing great.

Look after yourself first. Always.

If you do, the agency will be ok.

I sat in on more internal agency meetings last month

It's fair to say I've been surprised...

In particular, by:

1. How much is often shared
2. By how little is actually decided

As such, most meetings were a waste.

- Too long
- Too many updates
- Barely any decisions
- Rushed the last 5-10 minutes
- Uncertainty as we all leave the call

A solution for a couple of clients has been to flip the typical narrative/agenda.

Start with "decisions to be made"

Not "updates"

Updates are shared async in advance. 

Why?

People have context on required decisions to be made

When it comes to the meetings, decisions might require some discussion, and that's fine. 

Assigning a meeting lead/owner - that rotates each week - ensures we don't linger on a particular decision either

The outcome?

Two agencies were able to cut weekly management meetings down from 60 mins to 15-25 mins

Another agency estimates they're saving 6-8 hours per week across their team from following the same process across departments.

- No new tools
- No extra docs

Just faster decision making

Winning new clients is hard enough for an agency. 

What makes it even harder?

An owner who isn’t prepared to share more of their 'wins' with existing clients

I’ll come across owners who say:

- “I’m not a fan of shouting about our wins"
- "I don’t like being braggy”

Often, they’ll also then say they’re struggling to grow

 It could well be the case that they're:

- Shy and haven’t ever shared much let alone 'wins'
- Worried about coming across as arrogant
- Nervous about saying the wrong thing

Whatever it is, the owner is likely already equipped with several excellent case studies and examples of how great they are at what they do

And I feel for them. 

There's a big difference between...

A) "I'm the best in the world at [x], here's how I generated $10 million for them in 5 days"

or 

B) "I've worked closely with [x] for 2 years now, here's how we've helped them increase their revenue by [x%] through [x, y, z]"

__________

Simply sharing the journey they’ve been on with a client can be enough to get a "lurker" to reach out

My point? 

Don't be afraid to share a win. 

It's not a brag, it's not arrogant, and most of all, you get to tell it in the way you feel comfortable doing. 

But if you don't share it... 

Those potential clients might well look elsewhere.

What I've learned from speaking to 300+ agency owners?

Most of them doing €40-100k/month feel:

- Trapped
- Buried in client work
- Firefighting daily
- Guessing what to fix next

They'll do all of the things they're apparently meant to do:

Hire people.

Win new clients.

Tweak processes.

But it feels like running on a hamster wheel.

The truth is, they don’t know what to prioritise or why

Growth stalls. Stress piles up.

---

Before I work 1:1 with any owner, I run an audit.

One focused session where:

- We cut through the noise
- Map out exactly what to fix
- What to park (and why)
- Identify where you're leaking profit

The owner leaves with a clear plan/priorities for the next 3-6 months.

From mid-October, I want to do more of these.

So I'm going to open up 5 extra slots per/month.

No commitment for any further work with me beyond this (unless we both think it makes sense)

↓

If you're running an agency and want to make the rest of 2025 count...

Drop me a message and I’ll send you the details.

Overheard at a recent conference

“You know, there are just too many agencies.”

I don’t fully disagree.

But I don’t think it’s the full picture either.

I think a more accurate take would be that there are too many agencies who:

- Don’t know who they actually help
- Can’t explain what they do or why it matters
- Call themselves “full service”

I think these things (and likely a few others) have contributed to a bloating in the number of marketing/advertising agencies.

But amidst the sheer volume of agencies, some things are shining through.

→ Lean, tightly positioned agencies are thriving
→ Bigger, loosely positioned teams are struggling
→ Some COVID-era agencies have stagnated/folded

It’s not that there are “too many.”

It’s that too many are existing in a very competitive space.

The agencies that win are the ones who double down on:

1. Know their niche
2. Communicate it clearly
3. Deliver consistently in that space

Talking about agencies?

With Karl? No better way to spend the day

I've followed him for a while now. I find myself nodding along with pretty much every post he puts out!

Since recording this, I've found out he's also another tall person, so we've got even MORE in common 🤣

We got into various topics, but covered:

- Early growth hurdles for agency owners
- How fear and a lack of clarity hold so many back
- The challenge of niching down as well as letting go of difficult clients
- The struggles many face with sales/business development

And I even touched on how FlexOps is going!

Links are in the comments.

Make sure to follow Karl and check out more from his podcast - 'Retained Trust’

If an agency's people are always "saving the day"…

It’s not a success story.

It’s a clear sign the systems are either:

1. Nonexistent
2. Broken

Firefighting or last gasp heroics ≠ success

Regardless of how great your people are, they will eventually burnout, leave, or tail off

They cannot carry your agency for you

- Delays will stack up
- Quality drops
- Clients lose confidence

So how do we get ahead of this, and:

1. Make sure great systems support great people
2. The agency isn't reliant on any single person

__________

1. Pinpoint the bottlenecks

- Where does work actually stall?

2. Track metrics

- Time (specifically, delivery time)
- Errors (or escalations)

3. Run a systems "sprint"

- Can't fix everything at once
- Pick one component of your process map
- Work WITH the team to address it

4. Test & tweak

- Run the updated process or system
- Gather feedback, and improve

5. Make this a process in itself

- 1x "sprint" per month
- Focus on addressing more urgent areas first

We want your best people spending time on high-value tasks, not fixing broken tools or covering for lacklustre systems.

What really annoys agency owners?

Lots of things, seemingly! But, specifically...

When they keep seeing the same mistakes over and over again in their agency

Understandable!

Yet...

It's likely because they haven't introduced a feedback loop to address and learn from errors/slip-ups.

What they do have is a lengthy backlog of things they could/should improve.

Big difference.

For example;

- Client flags something "small"
- It's passed off as unimportant
- It happens again. The client is disgruntled
- It's passed off as important, not urgent
- Client is now p***** off
- Owner gets dragged in
- Owner, team, and client are all p*****

And what's worse...

That client is convinced to stick around, only for the same thing to play out again in 3 months' time.

What to do?

1. Track/log insights, errors, or feedback
2. Assign importance, priority, and an actual person
3. Implement changes
4. Track/measure impact
5. Report back to client/team on outcomes

Repeat

This is definitely falling into the boring-as-hell category, but guess what...

It might just save you a few painful conversations next month.

Every few weeks, I'll see a post along the lines of:

“There's more agency advisors than agencies!”

I know it's often said tongue in cheek, but still...

I think it's nonsense.

What’s really happening is usually one of two things:

- An owner had a negative experience with a coach
- An owner has done well without a coach/advisor

Both are valid

The first isn’t ideal, the second is great.

I've been advising/coaching agencies for over 2 years now

Not that long, but long enough to:

- Speak 1:1 with over 300 owners
- Work 1:1 with nearly 40 agencies

It has never been clearer to me that these people have a higher chance of building the business they want if they get the right support

- They'll grow faster
- Spot gaps/opportunities quicker
- Lead a healthier approach to running the agency
- Have more clarity on where they're going
- Have way more space to work on the agency

If there is a "problem", I suspect it might be that some advisors or coaches don't focus on a particular niche enough

I'm sure I could help more agencies than I do

But frankly, I rarely choose to support an agency outside of a certain stage/size.

My point is, if you're running an agency...

→ I think you'll get it to where you want it to be sooner with the right support

It might be me, it might be someone else.

Regardless, go get that support

There are PLENTY of great people to help you out!

If you look at my profile and think, "nope, he's not for me", DM me. 

I'll gladly share a list of exceptional people who might be a better fit.

Taplio

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