Latest / The Marketing Career Podcast with Fexingo: Marketing Jobs, Skills, and Career Growth / How Former Agency Leaders Are Building Marketing Consultancies in 2026
Transcript
- Lucas: Luna, I was looking at a survey from the Agency Management Institute this week, and one number jumped out: 38 percent of agency leaders say they're planning to leave their firms and start their own consultancy by the end of 2026. Luna: Wow. That's a third of senior agency talent saying 'I'm done with the agency model.' What's driving that? Lucas: A few things. Burnout is the obvious one — agency life has always been high-pressure, but this year it's compounded by clients demanding more for less. But the deeper driver is that the economics of going independent have never been better. You can build a consultancy with three people and a few tools, and earn more than you did as a partner at a fifty-person shop. Luna: And I bet AI is part of that equation too — you don't need a junior team to do production work anymore. Lucas: Exactly. Let's talk about a real case. I spoke with a former creative director — let's call her Sarah — who left an agency last year. She built a consultancy focused on fractional CMO work for B2B tech companies in the Series A to Series B range. Three people: herself, a senior strategist, and a freelance designer. Year one revenue: eight hundred fifty thousand dollars. Luna: That's impressive. What's the secret sauce? How is she getting clients? Lucas: She told me the single biggest thing she underestimated was sales. She thought marketing skill was enough — you know, 'build a great brand strategy and clients will come.' But the reality is, as a consultancy, you're running a business. You have to be comfortable with outbound, networking, and doing discovery calls. She ended up hiring a sales coach early on. Luna: And that's something agency people rarely learn. Agencies have new business teams. When you go solo, you are the new business team. Lucas: Right. And speaking of building a business — if these marketing conversations have sparked something you've actually used or thought about applying, we want to mention something. We deliberately keep this show ad-free because we think that makes the advice more honest. If that matters to you, the simplest way to support that choice is buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. Luna: Yeah, and honestly, it's a tiny gesture that helps us keep the podcast independent. No ads, no sponsors dictating topics. Lucas: So back to Sarah and her consultancy. The other thing she did differently: she didn't try to replicate her agency's full-service model. She picked one narrow offering — go to market strategy for B2B tech — and charged a premium for it. Her typical retainer is fifteen thousand dollars a month. Luna: That's a fraction of what an agency would charge, but it's high for an individual. How many clients does she need to make that work? Lucas: She targets four concurrent clients. That gives her sixty thousand a month, or seven hundred twenty thousand annually. The rest of her revenue came from one-off projects like brand positioning workshops. She's selective — she turns down clients that don't fit her sweet spot. Luna: I imagine the hardest part is maintaining that discipline. When you're starting out, it's tempting to take any paying client. Lucas: Absolutely. And that's where a lot of people stumble. They take a client outside their niche, then they're working on something they're not great at, and the quality suffers. Your reputation is everything as a consultant. One bad project can kill referrals for months. Luna: So what about AI? You mentioned it earlier. How is Sarah using it to replace junior staff? Lucas: She uses AI for research, competitive audits, and first-draft copy. She told me she used to have a junior strategist spending twenty hours a week on competitive analysis. Now she does it in two hours using a custom GPT trained on her methodology. That freed up budget to hire the senior strategist. Luna: That's a smart trade — replace a junior with a tool, then reinvest in senior talent. But doesn't that mean fewer entry-level jobs in the industry? Lucas: It does. And that's a real concern. But for someone building a consultancy, it's a way to keep margins high without a big team. Sarah's overhead is basically her salary, a freelance designer, and software subscriptions. No office, no benefits, no HR. Luna: Let's talk about the downside. What happens when the economy dips? Agencies have a portfolio of clients; a solo consultancy is more vulnerable. Lucas: That's the biggest risk. If you lose one client, you lose twenty-five percent of your revenue. Sarah mitigates that by keeping a six-month cash reserve and having a pipeline of prospects she's always nurturing. But she admits it's stressful. She works more hours now than she did at the agency, but she says it's worth it because she controls her calendar. Luna: I've heard that from a lot of freelancers too. The freedom is real, but the financial instability is a trade-off. Do you think this trend is sustainable, or is it a reaction to the current agency burnout cycle? Lucas: I think it's both. The burnout is real, but the enabling conditions — AI, remote work, fractional executive roles — are permanent. So some of these consultancies will fail, but many will succeed. I'd bet we see a permanent shift: more senior marketers choosing independence over agency partnership. Luna: What advice would you give someone listening right now who's thinking about making the leap? Lucas: Three things. First, start building a side consultancy while you're still at the agency. Get your first three clients before you quit. Second, invest in sales training — read 'The Challenger Sale' or take a course. Third, niche down aggressively. Don't be a generalist consultant; be the person who does one thing better than anyone else in your market. Luna: And what about financial preparation? How much runway should they have? Lucas: At least six months of personal expenses, plus what you need to cover business startup costs — website, legal, accounting. Sarah told me she spent about fifteen thousand dollars on setup before she earned her first dollar. Most people underestimate that. Luna: That's a solid number. Any closing thoughts on where this trend is headed? Lucas: I think we're going to see a bifurcation of the agency world. Big networks will still exist for integrated campaigns, but boutique consultancies will capture the high-value strategy work. The key question is whether you're ready to be a business owner, not just a marketer.