How to Build an Exit Ready Agency That Runs Without You (with Damiano Raveenthiran)

You scaled past seven figures. The revenue is real. So is the exhaustion.

In this episode, I sit down with Damiano Raveenthiran, founder of The Agency Business and an operator who built a 75-person, $8.4M agency, exited three companies, and now runs a portfolio of seven. He did what so many agency founders dream about: he removed himself from the center of his own business and turned it into an exit ready agency.

Damiano shares the moment his son's health crisis forced him to step away, what he rebuilt on the other side, and the enterprise sales strategies that helped him close $25M in deals. He breaks down the shift from freelancer to CEO, the role AI automation plays in agency operations today, and why clarity on your purpose changes every decision you make.

Connect with Damiano Raveenthiran:
Website: theagency.business
Instagram: @DamianoR
YouTube: The Agency Business

Books Mentioned:
Buy Back Your Time by Dan Martell
Fanatical Prospecting by Jeb Blount

I want to invite you to check out the Committed Mastermind, a community I help lead along with world-class leaders like JC and Karen Hite, Vinnie Fisher, and Jonathan Mast, plus incredible mentors like Dr. Gary Chapman, author of The 5 Love Languages, and many others.

This is for entrepreneurs who want to build a thriving business without sacrificing their faith, their family, or their health.

Check out the Committed Mastermind at https://committedmastermind.com/

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Transcript

Welcome And Guest Setup

Dr. William Attaway 1:21

I'm excited today to have Damiano Ravitaron on the podcast. Demiano is an agency founder, operator, and private equity strategist who has built and scaled multimillion dollar agencies. After growing a 75-person team and exceeding $8 million annually, he realized the business depended entirely on him. Today he helps founders and agency owners restructure their businesses around leverage, ownership, and long-term sustainability, turning founder-dependent companies into scalable, exit-ready assets. Demiano, I'm so glad you're here. Thanks for being on the show. Yeah, thank you so much for having me.

Intro 2:08

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 Hadaway.

Dr. William Attaway 2:25

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

SPEAKER_02 2:35

Yeah, I mean, um, I'm 36 now. I started when I was 24, so it's about 12 years ago. Um, you know, when I started, I didn't realize that I was going to end up becoming an agency owner. Um, to be honest, um, I'm from Montreal. Um, when I was 24, I decided to move to Toronto because I thought, hey, bigger city, bigger more opportunities, I could get a better job. And uh I moved there, and after I paid my first month of rent, I had about $400 left in my pocket. Um and so I had been learning um how to build Shopify stores by watching a few YouTube videos at the time. I've been looking into like e-commerce and different ways to make money online. Um and it just kind of hit me one day where I was like, well, there must be so many stores in Toronto that don't even have a Shopify store and that probably would like to have a Shopify store. And so one day, I remember this day, um, I I went to Staples, I printed my portfolio a hundred times, and um I just spent 10 hours walking into every every store uh that I could find in Downtown Toronto and just having a conversation with the owners. From there, I got my first gig, uh, which was for a hardware store that needed uh an e-commerce store. And uh

From Montreal To Door-To-Door Hustle

SPEAKER_02 3:47

and somehow seven years down the line that turned into my first agency, which I got to $8.4 million a year and 75 employees and three offices. Um But I I I really just started off wanting to make some extra food for groceries. It really came down from that at the time.

Dr. William Attaway 4:03

Goodness. What a start, man. That's a fantastic story. You know, so many agency owners struggle with scaling. You went to you went to 8 million, right? And discovered that you're at the center of the spider web, that everything is connecting to you. What was it like to run a five, six, seven, eight million dollar agency still in that center piece, that center piece where everything's touching you?

SPEAKER_02 4:32

Yeah, it was very stressful. It was very stressful. I would burn out like once a year. Um, and you know, like I had gotten to the point where my mind was very strong and like I could I could withstand the pressure and and and all the stress that came with it. Um, but then my body would start giving up um and I would get really sick. Um, and these types of things, it I just could see that it wasn't sustainable. Um, the shift happened when I had my son. When I was 30 years old, I had my son um and um he was very sick when he was born, and so we had to spend about three months in the hospital, and I couldn't run the business and take care of my newborn son at the same time. And so that's where I sort of saw that this was a a really big problem that I had to I had to solve. Luckily, I had surrounded myself with a lot of agency owners. Most of my friends and are are are agency owners today. And so I

Scaling To 8M And Burning Out

SPEAKER_02 5:25

had a couple of my friends that really came to the rescue during that time so that the company wouldn't fall apart. Um, and I'm eternally grateful for them because of that. Um, but I knew I had to change something, and so that's where I started going down the rabbit hole of um what I needed to do to actually build uh a business that could stand on its own without me being in the middle of everything. And that's basically how I do business today. Um so very, very, very, very different perspective.

Dr. William Attaway 5:53

You know, uh I've uh what happened with your with your son, you know, is so unexpected. Right. I mean, you had no idea going into that, I'm sure, that this was going to take three months of your life and you were gonna have to step back. You know, a principle often teaches that the storms in life will come. And when they do, it's too late at that point to try to build the foundation. You got what you got, right? When you were in that moment and and in the aftermath of that, you made a choice to prioritize your family. You said, I want to make sure my family is coming first before my business. I think a lot of entrepreneurs and agency owners struggle with that. Is that your experience as you look around the landscape?

SPEAKER_02 6:40

Yeah, for sure. I mean, I think um, especially with the agency owners that I work with, in a lot of cases, when when we start working together, the first thing we do is we figure out why we're doing this. You know, like what is our goal? What is our objective? What is the outcome here? And I'm surprised in a lot of cases, and at the same time, I'm not surprised because I was like that as well on one point, but we don't we just don't think about it, right? Like we're just living month to month trying to uh trying to make our cash flow, trying to grow the company and doing it the right way. And we don't really think about why we're doing this and like what it's gonna look like in like three years or five years, or if

Family Crisis Forces A New Model

SPEAKER_02 7:14

we want an exit strategy, or or you know what our goal is. You know, a lot a lot of people start businesses to increase their personal net worth, and somehow they lose track of that along the way in trying to grow the business, you know. Um and you take decisions that are very different um when you're clear on that outcome and you have clarity around it. Um and so I think that's you know, when when the whole thing with my son was going on, that was the the one thing that I had to um wrestle with was really understand why I was an agency owner and why I was doing this. Because at the beginning it was just to make a few extra bucks for to buy groceries, and then eventually it became to not have to work for someone again and have my own location independence and um and and financial freedom. And then eventually it became about hey, I have an asset here with this company and I want to grow it. And um yeah, and and then you know, getting getting that kind of clarity makes you take the right decisions, I think, uh towards your goal.

Dr. William Attaway 8:22

I think you know, I love what Brene Brown says about this. Clarity is kindness, you know, most especially with yourself. When we take the time and do the work to get clear about our motivation, boy, that that brings so much value and so much good fruit comes from that. You know, uh one of the things I love about your story, Damiano, is that you didn't just keep this understanding and this insight to yourself. You know, you said, How can I help others who are in this type of an environment? Today you are helping founders and agency owners learn from the lesson that you learn. You're not just storing it up for you, holding it back. You're you're sharing it as a conduit of that insight. What does that look like for you? How do you come alongside founders and agency owners?

SPEAKER_02 9:12

Yeah, I mean, so I started my consulting firm called the agency business, the agency.business, um, in January 2025. But I have been a mentor in several of the masterminds that I have joined for about 10 years. And so I have been mentoring agency owners for over a decade at this point. I was just doing it for free, just because I enjoyed it. Like to me, it was the best calls out of my week. I really enjoyed those calls. I really helped like a lot of people. I got to I got to help in the last 10 years, I got to help about 700 agencies, um, which has been pretty awesome. And um in December 2024, I just kind of asked myself, like, if I enjoy it so much, why don't I just turn this into a business? Um, and so I started the consulting firm in in January 2025. And so far we have worked with um, we actually just uh crossed 50 agencies. So that's that's been that was a pretty cool um kind of milestone there. Um and we have a very high success rate because it's it's one-on-one mentorship, right? I meet with them for an hour once a week. Um we talk about what has been going on in the business, we figure out what the right strategy to grow is, and as well as the goals and all of those. Um and I'm there with them. Uh they have access to me on WhatsApp, basically 24-7. Um so if they get stuck or if they have a

Mentorship That Builds Leverage

SPEAKER_02 10:30

problem, uh I help them with that. And it's just about having that that mentor that I never had, right? So I'm trying to be the mentor I never had. Um because you know, I I had several mentors along the way, you know, and one person would help me with operations, and one person would help me with lead generation and and so on. But I never found the one person that was like that had all the experience in growing agencies and I'd made all the mistakes. Like um, and I always kind of like looked for that, you know. Um, and now that I I am that, I was like, hey, I can I can I can give back and do this. And so my clients have have been able to scale pretty pretty effectively, but most importantly, they've been able to get clarity on why they're doing this um and and how to move towards achieving the outcomes that they actually want for themselves and for their families um without losing track of it.

Dr. William Attaway 11:16

That's so good. You know, it it we're we're similar in in so many ways. I my dad started a traditional ad agency back in the 70s, right? And he ran it for 40 years. But he did not make the turn when digital landed.

unknown 11:32

Right.

Dr. William Attaway 11:32

Right. And so he didn't end up with a sellable asset. Everything focused on him, and it was it was exactly what you described. It was that that center of the spider web problem. And what I've been doing for decades is trying to help founders and agency owners in particular not to repeat that mistake and to get out of their own way so that they can have something that is scalable and that they can exit from at some point that has some valuation. I love that's part of your story too.

SPEAKER_02 12:03

Yeah, yeah, 100%. I mean, I've exited three agencies at this point in my portfolio. Currently, I have four agencies um that are running. So it's um yeah, I've been I've been through I've been through a lot in learning what's what's required to get a good a good multiple, who to go to, how to put together that narrative, uh when the time comes, how to even find the right networks, you know. Um I didn't know anything during my first exit. It just kind of happened. Um but you know, the time my by the time the third exit came around, you know, I knew about you know partnering with investment banks, for example. And I knew how to take advantage of certain networks and and and build the right narratives and things like that. And now, oftentimes when I build a company, I build it with the exit in mind from the start. Um and so it's uh yeah, my experience has gotten me to to learn how to do a lot of that and and I love being able to share that. I think in a lot of cases, when you teach someone something, you get as much from the relationship as the student. Um, and so I've I've been witness of that and I experience that uh every day. So I I love what I do. It's the best it's the best part of the job. I love it.

Dr. William Attaway 13:15

So, you know, with the insight that you have not only into your own agencies, but also working with and mentoring so many others. Are there common threads that you see of issues and challenges that you see agency owners really struggling with and kind of where they get stuck?

SPEAKER_02 13:32

Yeah, 100%. Um, I think, and I I like to tackle like a few things. I would say that my strength is growth more than operations. Some people are better at operations. Obviously, I'm decent at operations, so I can obviously build my own companies and stuff, but um growth is really where I can help a lot. Um, and so usually I help my clients a lot with enterprise sales process, how to find, nurture, um, and close enterprise clients so that you know they don't have to get stay stuck at selling 3 to 5k a month retainers, but they can move up the value chain and have clients to stay with them for much longer, which creates a lot more stability. Um you know that also comes with offer design and these kinds of things. So a lot of people are stuck in working with small and medium-sized businesses, not knowing how to go to enterprise or even how to achieve um a pipeline of enterprise clients. So that's something that I specialize

Enterprise Sales And CEO Mindset Shifts

SPEAKER_02 15:44

in, and and you know, I'm very proud to say that I've closed about $25 million worth of enterprise deals in the last decade. And so I've seen a lot in that pipeline, and I have a process for that. Um and then um and then other than that, like a really big one, depending on the size that they're at, but the mentality of going from freelancer to CEO, right? Like a lot of people struggle with that. A lot of people struggle with hiring their first uh team members and um you know their team their team not uh delivering at the level that they would, right? I even had some of my clients that first time they go through that, they're like, man, I I might as well just go back to doing it myself. Because it was it was done right what I was doing myself. But that would defeat the purpose of actually building the business into an asset, right? That's right. Um and so yeah, like that's that's another show. I feel like at every at every like revenue stage that an agency is at, there's different problems and different struggles that come up. Um, you know, like my agencies that are making you know six figures a month right now, and the founders are still like taking all the decisions. For them, it's about bringing in the right executive team and separating departments and keeping them accountable to OKRs and stuff. And um, that that whole stuff is usually a pretty mute to to agency owners like that at that level. So different different levels have different problems.

Dr. William Attaway 17:06

Boy, isn't that true? I uh I heard a uh speaker say one time, you know, everybody wants to go to the next level, right? But what you forget is that that new levels mean new devils, right? There's new problems at every level. And you've got to be mindful of that and not think, oh, if I just if I just get to the next level, then all our problems will disappear. That has not been the experience of anybody I know.

SPEAKER_02 17:29

Exactly.

Dr. William Attaway 17:30

Yeah. So so the agencies that come to work with you, is there something that that makes them like this is what makes them ready? This size or this type of mindset or this type of niche, is there is there a characteristic that you would say, hey, this is if this is you, you'd be a good fit here.

SPEAKER_02 17:49

To be honest, I have worked with a lot of agencies at at all sizes, right? I've even worked with some corporate professionals that were looking to quit their jobs and start agencies. Wow. So to me, like when I work, and you know, like I put my personal time into, so I I can't have a call for an hour with like 100 people, right, a week. So like I am I'm limited on the amount of people that I work with. Um and so I try to choose people who are really dedicated to this, right? Who really want to like change their lives by creating a cash-flowing business, by creating an asset that are not gonna just give up halfway through and they they want to build something that's that's gonna you know become something that's good to increase their net worth, right? Um and so it when I see that dedication is usually where I'm like, yes, I can work with this person. Um and that that's and then they could be at any level, to be honest. Like they could be they could be really small getting started, they could be at 100k, 200k a month already, and already have teams of like 20, 30 people, and they're looking to solve those kinds of problems. Um it really depends. But I work directly with the founders. Um, so you know, some agencies will come and they'll be like, you know, work with our team. I'm like, no, like I work with founders um only. Um and yeah, like that's um that's kind of that's kind of who I who I like to work with usually. But usually it's if I see that there is there's uh that I can help um in their problems and it's things that um are pretty easy for me to solve, then at that point.

Dr. William Attaway 19:23

Yeah, the agency world is changing in so many ways, I think at a faster pace than I've ever seen. You know, and AI is a huge piece of that. And that's the topic du jour, right? As you look across the landscape with your experience, what do you see as as as some things that agency owners right now need to really be mindful of? And if they're not stepping toward this, this is something they need to focus on.

SPEAKER_02 19:50

Yeah, that's a really good question. Um, I would say it's integrating AI in as many processes within the agency as possible. Um, because my agency owners that do that, like I'll give you an example. I work with an agency right now out of out of Colorado, and they um they're at $300,000 a month in revenue, months recurring revenue right now. And they brought on a really good COO. She was an expert in AI. She was able to basically automate most of their internal processes on the project management side, and they laid last month they laid off their entire project management team because it was no longer required. Yeah, so and I do think that there is a future where we're gonna see agencies that have like four people, but these four people are paid executive salaries because they're the strategist levels, right? The the people that can take. Um, and a lot of the execution is just gonna be done by AI agents. And so when a client closes on an agency, they're not just buying the service, they're basically buying the stack that on the like the tech stack that they have of agents that can deliver this, um, the the outcomes that they're looking for. Um margins are getting better, right? Because obviously less people, more automation, margins that's when they get better. So um yeah, and and you know, I've come across agency owners that is just one guy with a bunch of AI agents and he's making six hundred, seven hundred thousand dollars a year, and he's he's pretty happy, you know. Um so yeah, so there's a I think it's it's inevitable, right? Like we can fight it, we can feel whatever we want about the layoffs and things like that, and people lots of people are gonna be affected. But um, as agency owners, I think it's important for us to be at the cutting edge of the technology. And if if automation is where the world is going, the agencies that are going to survive are the ones that are going to automate their processes as much as possible and be able to deliver that uh as much as possible. Because you can't sell a service anymore because services are just commodities at that point, and that's just like a race to the bottom, and AI will be able to offer that. Look at what's happening with like website development now, right? Um AI can do I can make a $10,000 website in 10 minutes now. Um and so there's gonna be a gap

AI Automation And Selling Outcomes

SPEAKER_02 22:10

where like some people will profit from that and they'll they will sell the website that took 10 minutes and for 10k, right? Um, but eventually it's gonna be it's gonna be normal and everyone's gonna know that. So if your pitch is hey, we're an agency that makes websites, you're gonna have a very difficult time. Um so it's it's about moving up the value, the value chain and really being able to sell the outcome um more than just service.

Dr. William Attaway 22:35

If you were starting an agency right now, in the middle of this season, where the the emergence of AI, vod coding, all these different pieces that are around that you're referencing, if you were starting something right this minute, what would you focus on?

SPEAKER_02 22:50

I would focus on AI automation. I think like a lot of companies are they want to do it, but they don't know how to approach it. We're in that era of AI at the moment. Um and I think that there's there's a there's a big need for outside help in a lot of these companies. Um especially on on the enterprise side. Um you know, like I I was just in a conversation with a really large grocery store chain. Uh and they have a bunch of processes that could be automated with AI, which would save them a bunch of cost and stuff, right? They just don't have the internal team to be able to do that, and they don't want to build the internal team to do that. Um and so obviously they would at that point go to an agency and go to like an expert shop that could do that kind of like automation. So I will go down that path today. Um I think there's uh a lot of money to be made in in the world of automation for the next little bit.

Dr. William Attaway 23:47

You know, you have to lead at a higher level today than you did 10 years ago. And that same thing is gonna be true 10 years from now. How do you stay on top of your game? How do you level up with the new leadership skills that your team and your clients are gonna need you to have in the days ahead?

SPEAKER_02 24:07

Yeah, I mean, honestly, it's a lot of it comes from from mentorship myself. I have mentors that I rely on as well. Um I think in the last like 10 years I've spent like $1.5 million on like coaching and mentorship and all that kind of stuff. Um and so yeah, I'm constantly going to workshops, to different events, like meeting lots of people, having tons of conversations around leadership and around the better, the the best way to do things. And then and then I do have my own coaches and my own mentors, and I'm part of like different mass. my groups and and all of these things are to make me a better leader um and to make me a better entrepreneur. And that's something that I've just I've just always done. Like since since I started. I knew that my skills weren't going to get me very far. And so I was like I need to learn new skills and and how to do that. So that's I just always relied on the best way that I learn is actually by someone who already knows how to do the thing teaching me. And so you know if if ever I want to learn a new skill, you know, I'll go to a website like Upwork and find an expert and pay him a couple of hours of his time whatever whatever that costs and just be like I just want you to teach me this. Like just teach me this skill. Like how do I do it? How do I build an AI website or how do I run ads or and that's how I've I've kind of like learned a lot of cases as well from experts. That's so good.

Dr. William Attaway 25:30

You know as you look at the the months and years ahead what is one thing that you want most as you look across your business landscape?

SPEAKER_02 25:41

I think like a big priority for me has been to be able to build a system that is 100% independent of me. I think I'm close. I'm quite close. You know there's seven companies in my portfolio right now and we're launching two more by the end of the year. And four of them are agencies and there's teams in each company and there is I have co-founders in each company as well. And right now I'm very much more in a position where I I'm almost like a consultant for my own companies and I bring new opportunities because basically all I do is network all day. And I go to different conferences and different events and just like meet people. I have a KPI on the number of new opportunities that I want to bring in every single um every single month

Staying Sharp Through Coaching

SPEAKER_02 26:34

for the entire portfolio. And then and I and I and I just follow that um but that piece is still on me right and so it's going to be about bringing in like a better team of leaders that could do a lot of the work that I do but within the company you know but more at the at the holding level rather than within the each individual company level. So it's good. Yeah.

Dr. William Attaway 27:03

You know you you are obviously a continual learner you know from the the coaches that you engage to the masterminds that you're a part of like you you are always learning and seeking out new opportunities to learn and grow. I'm curious is there a book that has made a big difference in your journey that you'd recommend to the leaders who are listening?

SPEAKER_02 27:22

Buy back your time from Don Martell. Great book. Yeah it's a really good book right um buy back your time um I also enjoyed um Fanatical Prospecting from Jet Blunt I don't know that one that's a really good one yeah yeah it's all about prospecting it's all about going out there and finding the right opportunities and doing it correctly and giving yourself uh giving yourself goals and KPIs to follow and be mechanical to them. So it's it's pretty awesome. Well I'm gonna check that out thanks. Yeah yeah definitely check it out so yeah those those two are last question I've got for you if I had the ability to snap my fingers and solve one problem in your business right now what would you want that problem to be I think

Building A Portfolio Beyond The Founder

SPEAKER_02 28:16

um well we've been working on content since the year started um we have a team that works on content we do we we make a lot of content now we make a lot of content on LinkedIn um on YouTube on Instagram it's a good amount of content but it's not the level of content that I would like to I like I definitely want I want to put out like 10 times more content than that. Wow yeah and so that's probably the next problem that I would like to to solve at some point.

Dr. William Attaway 28:45

This has been such a fascinating conversation and I'm so grateful for your time and your transparency and sharing so openly from your journey and what you've learned so far. I I think your best is ahead and I can't wait to see where you go from here. I know our listeners want to stay connected to you and keep up with your journey too and maybe find out more about this agency business coaching opportunity. Well what's the best way for them to connect with you?

SPEAKER_02 29:13

Yeah 100% so if you go to my website which is theagency.business um you basically have everything that you need to connect with me there. You can also find me on Instagram at DamianoR and then same thing on on all social media platforms on Damiano R. So yeah if you if you come by and um I'm also on YouTube um it's the agency business on YouTube and I make videos every single week specifically for agency owners um and I give tons of free value on there as well.

Dr. William Attaway 29:42

We will have all those links in the show notes.

SPEAKER_02 29:44

Awesome. Thank you so much for having me. Hey thanks for being here

Book Picks Content Goals And Where To Connect

SPEAKER_02 29:49

it's been great thanks so much