Profitability is an Operations Problem, with Sarah Still –– Ep.227

About this Episode

In this episode of the Agency Profit Podcast, Marcel is joined by Sarah Still, Partner and COO at RAYNE IX, to explore why building a healthier, more valuable agency starts with operationalized leadership. Drawing from her background in accounting, finance, and agency operations, Sarah shares what she learned helping scale a marketing agency to nearly $10 million and 60–70 team members, and how that experience now shapes her work with women building valuable agencies. Together, she and Marcel unpack why culture is not something founders simply “create,” but the result of clearly defined values, expectations, and behaviors being consistently protected and enforced. From pricing assumptions and unreliable time tracking to the complex relationship between finance and operations, this episode offers a practical lens for agency leaders who want more clarity, stronger accountability, healthier teams, and better profitability without relying on burnout as the business model.

Watch this Episode

Points of Interest

• 00:00 – 01:43 – Introduction: Marcel introduces Sarah Still, Partner and COO at RAYNE IX, and frames the conversation around agency operations, profitability, scaling, and building valuable businesses.
• 01:44 – 02:28 – Helping Women Build Valuable Agencies: Sarah explains how RAYNE IX works with women agency owners to improve performance, build enterprise value, and prepare for future exit opportunities.
• 02:29 – 04:33 – From Finance to Agency Operations: Sarah shares how her accounting background led her into agency operations after helping clean up the books of a startup marketing agency.
• 04:34 – 06:10 – Building RAYNE IX After Agency Leadership: Sarah describes leaving her COO role after 11 years and eventually partnering with Kylie Peters to support women building healthier agencies.
• 06:11 – 08:39 – Why Focus on Women Agency Owners: Sarah explains the personal and professional motivation behind helping women founders capture the value they are creating in their businesses.
• 08:40 – 11:32 – Operationalized Leadership: Sarah argues that agencies often miss the importance of defining values, behaviors, standards, and leadership cadences that protect the business as it scales.
• 11:33 – 13:58 – Clarifying Founder Values: Marcel reflects on how unclear values at Parakeeto led to frustration, poor leadership moments, and delayed decisions around hiring and accountability.
• 13:59 – 15:43 – Culture as the Result of Enforced Values: Sarah explains that culture is not created through intention alone, but through the behaviors, standards, and values that leaders consistently enforce.
• 15:44 – 19:18 – The Power of Clear Expectations: Marcel and Sarah discuss how expectations shape leadership, performance, accountability, pricing, forecasting, and enterprise value.
• 19:19 – 24:52 – Assumptions Before Certainty: Sarah and Marcel explore why agencies should not wait for perfect clarity before taking action, but should make assumptions explicit so results can be compared against expectations.
• 24:53 – 28:59 – Time Tracking and Precision Traps: Sarah and Marcel discuss why unreliable time-tracking data can be worse than no data, and how agencies often overcomplicate measurement without knowing what question they are trying to answer.
• 29:00 – 43:38 – Finance, Operations, and Profitability: Sarah and Marcel unpack why profitability is an operational problem made visible through finance, and why agency leaders must understand the tradeoffs between margin, hiring, utilization, pricing, team health, and growth.

Show Notes

• RAYNE IX
• Connect on LinkedIn
• • Sarah Still