Stories That Build Businesses - Todd Barrish - Marketing Agency Power Hour - Episode #049
What does it take to build a PR agency that lasts, and then scale it without losing what made it great? Todd Barrish, President and Founder of Indicate Media, brings 15+ years of B2B public relations expertise to this candid conversation about storytelling, building scalable processes, leveraging AI, and the personal journey behind his entrepreneurial path. If you run an agency, manage a team, or want to sharpen how you communicate your brand story, this episode is the conversation you didn’t know you needed.
Takeaways:
- Knowledge is your competitive edge. The best communicators are the best learners, read widely, ask smart questions, and get under the hood of every subject you're tasked with telling a story about.
- Systemize your work before you try to grow it. Sustainable scale requires documented processes, not just talented people. Build standard operating procedures so your team has a clear path to execute, not just your best guesses.
- Let structure guide your hiring decisions. Use a scored, multi-person interview process like the WHO Method to take the bias out of hiring, who you like in a conversation is not always who is right for the role.
- Your best education is already in the room. The clients and peers you work with daily are an incredible source of insight, stay curious, ask follow-up questions, and treat every conversation as a learning opportunity.
- History is a storytelling goldmine. Study how great leaders, communicators, and creatives delivered their messages, the pacing, the phrasing, the pauses, and bring those lessons into your own presentations and pitches.
- Data beats intuition when managing a team. Time tracking gives leaders real visibility into profitability, bandwidth, and hiring needs. You cannot scale what you cannot measure.
- AI amplifies human insight; it does not replace it. The agencies that win will use AI to increase efficiency while doubling down on the distinctly human skills, strategic thinking, relationships, and authentic storytelling that technology cannot replicate.
Connect with Todd:
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/toddbarrish1/
- Website: https://indicatemedia.com/
- Clay: https://clay.earth/profile/todd-barrish
Ways to Tune In:
- Transistor: https://marketingagencypowerhour.com/
- Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/19ECltpQuJWu6rfXlx98wT
- Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/marketing-agency-power-hour/id1809205281
- Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/344bea8c-7897-4dfc-8cdc-f31a92514243
- iHeart Radio: https://www.iheart.com/podcast/269-marketing-agency-power-hou-272863996/
- Podchaser: https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/marketing-agency-power-hour-6067409
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