$0 in Custom Work: The Agency Scaling Blueprint to Monthly Recurring Revenue with Tim Fahndrich

Most agencies fail to scale because they’re buried in custom proposals, service chaos, and complexity they created. In today’s episode, I talk with Tim Fahndrich, founder of WhirLocal, about the exact moment he decided to eliminate custom work entirely—and how that decision transformed his agency into a scalable, recurring-revenue business built on productized services and automation.

Tim’s agency went from full-service overwhelm to a subscription-based model with zero proposals, clear pricing, and simplified fulfillment. If you're trying to reduce churn, increase profitability, and build systems that don’t rely on your day-to-day input, this conversation is for you.

We explore the agency bottlenecks that kill growth, the power of recurring revenue in stabilizing operations, and the critical role of AI and automation in scaling smart—not just fast. Whether you're using GoHighLevel, ClickUp, or building a service-based agency from scratch, you’ll learn practical, battle-tested strategies to build an agency that runs without chaos.

Connect with Tim Fahndrich
Tim invites digital agency owners and local business leaders to join WhirLocal for free at https://whirlocal.io. Learn how to use AI, automation, and community-based media to build recurring revenue and support small business impact at scale.

Books Mentioned

• The CEO’s Mindset by Vinnie Fisher
• Get Scalable by Ryan Deiss

Chapters

• 0:38 Tim’s Entrepreneurial Journey and Early Leadership Lessons
• 3:03 Serving Local Businesses and the Power of Community-Driven Agencies
• 8:08 Why Full-Service Agencies Struggle to Scale
• 11:06 Eliminating Custom Proposals and Productizing Services
• 15:30 Recurring Revenue, Subscription Models, and Simplified Fulfillment
• 18:30 How AI and Automation Are Reshaping Client Delivery
• 20:07 Faith, Vision, and Building a Mission-Driven Business
• 28:52 Recommended Books and Resources
• 31:25 Closing Thoughts and Contact Information

Transcript

Dr. William Attaway: 0:00

Today I'm excited to have Tim Fondrick on the podcast. Tim is a lifelong entrepreneur, a community builder and a passionate supporter of local business. He was born in Mexico to missionary parents and moved to Oregon when he was three. As the youngest of five brothers, Tim learned early on the value of hard work, connection and creativity. On the value of hard work, connection and creativity, Tim and his wife, pam, have been married for 32 years and have worked together in business for the past 17. They share a love of music and enjoy leading worship together at their church. Tim also has a serious love of travel. He has visited 49 out of 50 US states, along with Canada, Mexico, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and 11 European countries. Whether he's helping small businesses grow, encouraging others through faith and leadership or simply sharing his story, Tim brings heart, experience and a deep love for people and community. Tim, I'm so glad you're here. Thanks for being on the show.

Tim Fahndrich: 1:10

Thank you, William. I'm really looking forward to this.

Intro/Outro: 1:15

Welcome to Catalytic Leadership, the podcast designed to help leaders intentionally grow and thrive. Here is your host author and leadership and executive coach, dr William Attaway.

Dr. William Attaway: 1:33

I would love to start Tim with a little bit of your story for our listeners, particularly around your journey and your development as a leader. How did you get started?

Tim Fahndrich: 1:44

Yeah, it's interesting. So right out of college I decided to join a family run business. A couple of my brothers had started a landscape business and they needed some help, kind of on the business side of things. I got a business degree and figured, oh my goodness, I know all this stuff.

Intro/Outro: 2:04

Yeah.

Tim Fahndrich: 2:05

Right. All the book knowledge. You got it.

Dr. William Attaway: 2:08

I know all this stuff. You got the piece of paper, you're good.

Tim Fahndrich: 2:13

So I went into business with them and kind of started leading on the business side of things and that that was my initial career.

Dr. William Attaway: 3:11

Uh, that, that was my initial career. Uh, spent 14 years with with my brothers doing some landscaping business. Uh, landscape business along the way toward in. That wasn't so easy, but yeah, I mean I think just even before that honestly it's like a lot of you know, just leadership roles.

Tim Fahndrich: 3:20

Growing up as an entrepreneur, as somebody that you know, captain of sports teams and athlete, and just different things like that is really kind of where the genesis of leadership came from for me. And now you WhirLocal. Talk about that a little bit. What is that about? Yeah, so we're Local is a positive, community-based media network and a champion for all things local, and what that means is you know, in media today there, you know TV and MS a lot of it is just corporate run and what we really wanted to do is come up with a a positive, community-based media network and and something that we can be really proud of that encourages and uplifts our community and our local communities in a way that really recognizes the value and the integral part of what small businesses and nonprofits bring to the table economically, relationally, community-wise, and be able to support them in every way possible.

Dr. William Attaway: 4:22

Have you always had a heart for the small local business?

Tim Fahndrich: 4:25

Yeah, for sure, it runs in our blood. And Pam and I both my dad and Pam's dad were both entrepreneurs. I mean, my dad was a missionary and a pastor at heart but he also ran a small business and Pam, my wife, pam's's dad was a small business uh, contractor for his career and uh, so it really is, it's in our DNA. So, yeah, really supporting that local business. And it was interesting because one of the things you know, I know you speak to a lot of agency owners and there's a lot of, there's a lot of, you know, uh, emphasis on finding a niche. Finding a niche, finding a niche right, and so we had served local businesses for quite a while and that was a turnaround actually for our business.

Tim Fahndrich: 5:13

And you know, three years into our business journey, we actually had no idea what we were doing. And then we kind of like OK, we really want to work with local businesses. And then there was this kind of this feeling like, well, we really need to pick a niche. And so we did. We started picking, we picked a niche, started going deep into a particular area, trying to figure out how to grow that nationwide.

Tim Fahndrich: 5:35

And then COVID hit and we were like, is that really our passion and is that really where we want to go? And we realized that it's for us like we love local and it's hard to have that same relationship that you can have when you see a customer at the grocery store, at the ball game, at church, you know, at a chamber event. It's hard to have, I mean, when you can have that kind of relationship, versus when you see him once or twice a year at an event or something. And that just really became our. It reinforced our passion and why we love to serve local businesses and nonprofits, because we can have that, that local relationship. So now what we're doing with, as we're expanding across the country, building we're local in community by community, we're finding other people like us that are entrepreneurs and they love their community and they love, you know, they recognize the value and the impact of local businesses and nonprofits and they want to be able to do the same thing in their community to support local.

Dr. William Attaway: 6:47

So if that makes any sense, oh, 100%, and I love the passion there and I think that's that is why you have been successful in doing what you're doing. You know, so often I see entrepreneurs you know they're pursuing revenue but it's not aligned with their passion and that just leads to burnout over time. But if you can align those two things, you can align. You know, the reason people start a business is to be able to eat and live indoors right, to add value to other people and also add value to their family. And by aligning your passion area there, it just seems so evident to me Like this is that is what is catapulting you forward with what's happening, with. We're local yeah, absolutely.

Tim Fahndrich: 7:33

I mean, I think the there's a lot of metrics that you can look at, top line and vanity metrics in terms of revenue and and different things, as an agency, as a business owner. But at the end of the day, like, are you really for us when, when we were kind of going through that decision making, do we continue to pursue a niche? Do we go deep in all all things? Agency services, which I can come back to. But uh, it was like it was it's for. For us, it's more about designing the business that we really want to have for, for the type of impact that we want to make, and and how do we accomplish that? And for us, again, it was like well, we really truly want to find a way to serve local businesses in our community and then duplicate that across the country, which is where we're at now. We're starting to do that across the country.

Dr. William Attaway: 8:22

And I think that's it's so laudable to see what you're doing and that alignment. Let's talk about agency for a second, because agencies are. I mean, there are so many different kinds, so many different types, so many different things you can focus on. You know, to be a full service agency these days means that you're doing about 4,000 different things. Right, you know why did you I mean a lifelong entrepreneur why step into agency world? What drew you there and why the type of agency that you're building now?

Tim Fahndrich: 8:56

Yeah, it was interesting because, like when we so I did have a sales job after we left the dot com hit the brick wall, right, we hit that proverbial dot com brick wall, ran out of money, all this, all this stuff that happened to just about everybody. I went to work for a company for six years. They had actually bought our website and I went to work for them, but my entrepreneurial juices really got started again. I was like Pam, I can't do this anymore. They treated me well, don't get me wrong, but it was just like. You know, I'm an entrepreneur.

Intro/Outro: 9:27

Right.

Tim Fahndrich: 9:28

Exactly I got to do it. So you know, first three years we didn't really have a clue what we were doing. Then we kind of landed on let's serve local businesses, and then that grew into becoming this full service digital agency and it was like wow, we're going to do websites and we're going to do PPC, and we're going to do SEO and we're going to do et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.

Tim Fahndrich: 9:53

Notice my mumbling right, because you just kept adding to the list and that became you know, we, we started pushing hard on that and and building that, and I mean we, we've made every mistake in the book. But, um, the, the idea, as that continued to grow, the complexity of that continued to grow and and like how to just the complexity of everything got out of control. And I I hear that a lot with, uh, with agency owners, they're like wearing so many hats, they're offering so many different products. How do they even manage the complexity? And so we were like A, we want to focus on recurring income or recurring revenue, subscription-based revenue. And then B, how can we simplify and productize what we're offering? So we're at a point now where we do not do.

Tim Fahndrich: 10:46

I saw somebody post on Facebook the other day they, they hate, um, the customized proposals. And I was like, yeah, I hate those too, because we don't do anything custom and we don't do proposals. That's that's how we designed our business. Now, like, we don't, we've productized and everything turns into recurring and if that isn't a fit, then that isn't a fit, and you know it's not where we go.

Dr. William Attaway: 11:19

So when you think about you know your ideal client that you love to work with, that you can really see results. For what do you see?

Tim Fahndrich: 11:33

for what do you see? Yeah, for us it's the local, mostly local businesses, but we do work with some nonprofits that are, you know. They're typically in the five to 50 employee range. There's exceptions, either way, honestly, and sometimes we get really small businesses that are just trying to get their presence and their reputation and what we like to talk about five different areas that we can have an impact their online presence and their reputation. And what we like to talk about five different areas that we can have an impact their online presence, their reputation, their content marketing and how that impacts local reach how they reach more consumers, because that's what they all want, right?

Tim Fahndrich: 12:03

Sure, absolutely At the end of the day, that's what they all want. And then, of course, now really integrating automation and AI, and so the ideal business for us or nonprofit is somebody that looks at those things and say we need help in those areas. And then we can turn around and, because of the products that we've built and the systems that we've built, we can make an impact in those areas is so they're looking to basically say I can't do it all by myself, I need some help and and I'm willing to invest some money at least to to be able to do that.

Dr. William Attaway: 12:39

So, and I think that's the expertise you bring right, that you're you're a true growth partner, right? You come alongside of them and you're like, hey, you know you're struggling, I know how to get past where you're stuck. You know, and I can help you. And, man, I got to tell you as a small business owner myself. That's something that really resonates, because nobody knows everything. Nobody can know everything about everything. You just can't. You have to pick and choose. You know, I hire an accountant because I don't know the tax code and I'm not going to learn the tax code, I'm just not, and I know that about myself, and so that's why I hire somebody. And this is their expertise, this is what they're great at. I want you to be world class at this for us. Let's, let's, let's do it. You know, and I think people come to you with the same idea, do you agree?

Tim Fahndrich: 13:26

you agree? Yeah, definitely I agree. And and again, I mean I and I wouldn't say we know it all either, because things are changing so fast and that's a that's a whole, nother part of the topic we can discuss here. But things are changing fast. But yeah, people are looking to us for the expertise. They literally they don't have time, they don't have expertise and and yet they need the help and they recognize that for sure.

Dr. William Attaway: 13:48

So so how? I mean, you've been in this long enough to see some trends and a whole lot of change over these years, and there's only more ahead. Where do you see things going? What are some of the trends that you see coming our way?

Tim Fahndrich: 14:04

Yeah, so I was having this conversation with a longtime friend of mine, uh, back East and been a really successful digital agency owner, um, done, done some really good things, right, and but and yet he is. He said, tim, what's going on? Uh, you know, and and just the way this year is starting and some of it. There's certainly some economic uncertainty and and and different things that could be economic uncertainty and different things that could be playing some roles, but I think, fundamentally, the landscape in the agency space is changing in a way that like and changing really really fast.

Tim Fahndrich: 14:41

I think mindsets are changing, obviously, ai and automation are changing. I think, um, like just even the impact of AI on search, for example. I personally so rarely use um, I rarely use Google anymore in terms of looking for answers, and so think about how that then impacts, how and again, I'm on the, I'm on the cutting edge, bleeding edge in a lot of ways but think about how that starts to impact a local business who is relying on search to show up to get customers. Yes, and so that's just one example of how technology and AI and everything is changing that at a at a pace that, quite frankly, I don't think we've ever seen, and I think it's just all changing very, very quickly.

Dr. William Attaway: 15:38

I agree. So you're not using Google anymore. What are you using?

Tim Fahndrich: 15:42

Well, I mean. So I should clarify. Of course I still use Google, but when I'm looking for answers, I'll open up ChatGPT, I'll open up Perplexity. I'll open up Perplexity as an amazing research tool and I can, you know, I can find much better answers that allow me to dig deeper and find exactly what I need using one of those tools than I can finding and sifting through pages of Google results that may or may not be relevant, tools than I can finding and sifting through pages of Google results that may or may not be relevant. And so it is again super interesting and how that impacts a small local business or a nonprofit, like getting found. I'm not saying by any means for agency owners out there and people you know, entrepreneurs. I'm not saying that search is dead. It's not, but it is. It's an example of change that is happening.

Dr. William Attaway: 16:33

It's a major shift, right? I mean, I know people and this is what I do. The same thing. I go to chat GPT, I go to perplexity, I'm going to, I'm going to talk and like go back and forth trying to really dial in exactly what I'm looking for so I can get the results that I'm after. No-transcript, they don't go to Google really for anything, they're going to ChatGPT.

Tim Fahndrich: 17:03

Exactly. I had a conversation yesterday with a younger entrepreneur, second generation in leadership, in his company and he's like, yeah, you know, I jumped on ChatGPT early and I use it every day, and you know, again, we're seeing a mixture of that, of course. So that's managing managing that and understanding that change. And I honestly think a lot of people, a lot of older people like myself, don't, um, aren't ready for that. Yeah, there, there, there's a lot of denial, or or not not necessarily even denial, but I think there's just a lot of people that's like I don't, they're not realizing how fast things are changing.

Dr. William Attaway: 17:43

So when somebody comes to you like that and they're not at the point where they're bleeding edge, they're not diving into chat, gpt and such yeah, but they need help, yeah. Where do you start with them?

Tim Fahndrich: 17:56

Yeah, so one of the things we actually love doing is teaching kind of and helping along and and and helping along those at those levels.

Tim Fahndrich: 18:03

So we've done a lot of AI workshops, uh, and now we've really kind of incorporated it into we're local um as a kind of a first step. So we give away, uh, one of our, our model is that we give away, uh, free memberships to um local businesses and nonprofits. Again, it doesn't matter, wherever you are in the US, you can sign up. We have some family-friendly stipulations and so forth in terms of types of business, but they can sign up for a free membership. And then the very first thing we do is we invite them to a new member workshop and during that new member workshop, we show them and walk through together, like, here's how you can use we're Local and AI to really transform your business. And we walk through some basics and or it's super interesting because you've got a mix of course, I always try to ask, like you know, on a scale of one to 10, where are you at with AI? And you know, one being I've never used it before, just getting started 10 being, like I'm an expert, which I don't know who's saying that?

Intro/Outro: 19:04

right, because it's changing, not me.

Tim Fahndrich: 19:09

But you know. So we obviously have a mix right, but the goal is to show the brand new beginner, somebody that's maybe been a little skeptical, like how they can get started, and or we always like if we get a more advanced user we always get away, help them walk away with oh my goodness, I didn't even know that was possible and and so I mean that's just a short. That's a short, you know, 60 minute new member workshop that we're doing to kind of help educate. But then that leads into some additional opportunities to learn and grow with us together. To learn and grow with us together.

Tim Fahndrich: 19:40

And there are a million ways to be bleeding edge, and I would say we are, personally we're bleeding edge. But small businesses and nonprofits are not prepared to be bleeding edge. They're having trouble staying cutting edge and so, if we can and that's not a criticism of them at all, we all wear a lot of hats, right so it kind of depends on where you're trying to go. So we're trying to help them along that path with the new member workshop and just kind of helping them embrace AI.

Dr. William Attaway: 20:20

You know you and Pam really integrate faith into your business, into your lives. So many people feel like they have to compartmentalize that part of their life and kind of wall it off. That's not who you are. You are and from the first time we met last year I saw that about you, that this is just part of who you are. This just flows out as naturally and freely as talking about we're local.

Tim Fahndrich: 20:46

Yeah, it really does. It's part of it's who we are. You know, just background with growing up, faith background. Both of us did, and it's, you know, I think it's so important to us. Pam and I had a.

Tim Fahndrich: 21:04

We went to a marriage retreat three years ago now. Uh, that our pastor put on and uh, it was like this sounds really good. You know, let's go and we had a chance to really think about some ways of like, how do we, how do we have a bigger impact? Like on our drive home we were like how do we have a bigger impact with what we have? And so much of that revolves around not an overt preaching but by any means, but like living out our faith in our business and viewing our business as a mission in one of our core, core vision statements that you know, we've always wanted to be a light in the marketplace and that's partially like how do we? Just that's the difference, too, of building a positive, community based media network versus toxic social media and or local media. You know there's there's examples, of course, that I could name, but I won't. But we just want to, we just want to make it, we want to be a light in the marketplace. And how see how that plays out. I love that.

Dr. William Attaway: 22:12

Tim, you know your business needs you to lead at a higher level today than it did five years ago, and that same thing is going to be true five years from now. Your team, your clients, they're looking to you. How do you stay on top of your game? How do you level up with the new leadership skills that your business, your team, your clients are going to need you to have in the days and years to come?

Tim Fahndrich: 22:38

Yeah, I think partially it comes down to getting in the room with other leaders and something that I hadn't been doing enough of, to be honest, and so just really trying to get in the room with other leaders.

Tim Fahndrich: 22:52

And also, I think a big part of what I'm seeing is being able to say, okay, what got us here is not going to get us there, and and looking at the pace of change and the pace of everything going on, and there's a there's a lot of chaos, a lot of confusion, a lot of change and and, as I mentioned earlier, just being able to like that pace of change is like nothing we've ever seen. So, I think, for me, thinking about how do, thinking about how do I lead in a way that helps our team and our customers and we're growing a network of local champions, affiliates and so forth across the country that helps, I guess, in a way that they feel they don't feel displaced because it's still at the end of the day, it's still all about people, but you know that they don't feel displaced by automation and AI, but they can embrace it and help them do their jobs better.

Dr. William Attaway: 23:56

I love that. As you think of your business as a whole, what is one thing that you want most?

Tim Fahndrich: 24:04

I would say, is to make an impact in our communities, in the communities that we serve. I just feel strongly that, as the passion came out earlier, like local small business and nonprofits are the heartbeat, they're the backbone. I mean, I know it's a cliche, but they truly are. They're the backbone of our economy and it actually hurts right that when we see a small business and so many are struggling right now, I see a small business go out of business and like, was there more that I could have done? And so if we could be known to provide tools, systems, strategies, you know whatever that looks like, relationships that can help a small business or a nonprofit thrive instead of go out of business, yeah, that's kind of where our heart is Make an impact and be a light in the marketplace. So, thinking about that, what's stopping you from it.

Tim Fahndrich: 25:19

So you know, part of it comes down to, you know, resources and model, and you know we've made a lot of mistakes in some of that. For sure, but just the you know, we just recently revamped and tweaked a few things in our model that I think will help me get out of the way and help others thrive in new ways. But also, just yeah, just putting a scalable operating system in place that can remove some of those bottlenecks. I love that.

Dr. William Attaway: 25:52

And you are not alone. I see that so often and I know that so many of the people who are listening can resonate with this idea that the bottleneck is in the mirror. We all have that capacity and I think most founders have that tendency. We all tend to lean that know absent incredibly intentional decisions and choices that we build into the system. So you know you're always learning. You've mentioned being on the bleeding edge, the cutting edge. Where did you learn best from? Is there a book that's made a big difference in your journey? Are there podcasts that you listen to? What are some of the sources of learning that really you would recommend to the other leaders who are listening?

Tim Fahndrich: 26:54

really really quickly, like when reading a book, I'm like, oh well, let me think about that and I'm all you know I'm I'm off on a rabbit trail, but uh, it doesn't mean I don't read uh books. And and some that recently have had uh, uh an impact in my mindset and in our business. One is, uh, the CEO's mindset, by Vinnie Fisher.

Tim Fahndrich: 27:10

Um it actually has helped me realize that I really do need to change my mindset. I opened up a page today and was reading through a section. I was like that's about all I can do. I can read about a page because then I get you know. But I was talking about product development.

Tim Fahndrich: 27:31

I'm a product guy, I'm an idea guy, so I'm always wanting to overdevelop and that's been one of my, that's been one of our challenges. We've overdeveloped in so many ways in terms of what we're local, can do and the you know the thing was talking about. You know, don't get stuck in that overdevelopment loop. So, um, learning about that, but also another book that Pam has actually, um, I read part of it, but Pam has actually really kind of helped condense it and start implement for us.

Tim Fahndrich: 27:57

And you know she's my co-founder, she's my wife, she's my life partner, she's my business partner, so, but she's really the implementer and being able to it's get scalable by Ryan Dice and it's building an operating system for your business that doesn't depend on you, and that a lot of what I've taken from that is. We've been able to map out processes, we've had SOPs and we've had all this kind of stuff and they've changed so rapidly but but really being able to just use a really simple concept but taking sticky notes and putting them up on a on a you know labeling, and putting them up on a on a whiteboard and say, okay, when this happens, what happens next? And then another sticky note, and another sticky note and just mapping it all out and then taking stuff out or adding stuff as needed, and that's been super helpful.

Dr. William Attaway: 28:44

That's excellent, tim. I could talk to you for another hour. There's so much wisdom and insight that you have shared today, and I'm so grateful for your generosity in sharing from what you've learned so far. I know our listeners are going to want to stay connected to you and learn more about we're Local. What is the best way for them to do that?

Tim Fahndrich: 29:05

Yeah, I mean you can jump on our website. Again. We give away free memberships what we call memberships to local businesses and nonprofits, wherever you might be, and so it's we're Local. It's W-H-I-R. Local. We're is a synonym for buzz, by the way, and it's also play on words. We are local, but it's W-H-I-R. Localio and you can jump on there. That directs you to our website. I'm also on LinkedIn. I'm also on Facebook.

Dr. William Attaway: 29:40

We'll have all those links in the show notes.

Tim Fahndrich: 29:43

Yeah.

Dr. William Attaway: 29:44

Sounds great. Tim, thank you so much for sharing so generously today.

Tim Fahndrich: 29:49

Thank you. I appreciate the opportunity to to be on the show with you.