Revenue, margins, profit.
Pricing, financial decisions, and the questions that keep you up at night.
The stuff you
can't Google.
Or ask ChatGPT.
Solace is a private space for agency founders and senior teams to talk openly about what's really going on — the margins, the people decisions, the stuff you can't figure out alone. Pressure-test your thinking with people who actually get it.
Running an agency can be lonely at the top.
You're making decisions about hiring, margins, churn, and growth — often without anyone to pressure-test them with. The podcasts give you frameworks. The LinkedIn posts give you highlights. But nobody talks about the messy middle: the decisions you're not sure about, the risks you can't quite see, and the questions you don't want to ask publicly.
Hope grounded
in reality.
Running an agency is one of those things that looks simpler from the outside than it ever feels on the inside. The highs are high. But the doubt, the pressure, and the weight of decisions that affect real people — that part doesn't get talked about enough.
Solace exists because we think agency founders and their senior teams deserve a space that's honest about all of it. Not relentlessly positive. Not doom and gloom. Just a place where you can show up as you are — whether things are going well and you want to protect that, or things are hard and you need people around you who understand.
When we were running our agencies, we wished something like this existed. Not a course. Not a paid mastermind where the real product is the upsell. Just a genuine community of people who understand what this life is actually like — and are willing to share openly about it. The goal isn't to perform success — it's to actually build something sustainable, together.
The conversations
that actually matter.
Real experience, not AI-generated experience.
Hiring, culture, leadership.
Building a team that doesn't fall apart when you step back.
New business & retention.
Upselling, knowing when to push vs. protect, and where the next year's revenue comes from.
AI & service models.
What the next few years actually look like — beyond the LinkedIn takes.
05 · The human side
Mental health, wellbeing, founder identity. The cost of carrying it all, and the people around you when it gets heavy.
The stuff nobody posts on LinkedIn.
More than a Slack channel.
-
Bi-weekly office hours
With both founders — bring your real questions, get real answers.
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Monthly guest sessions
With people who've actually done the thing — not consultants selling the next thing.
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Founder-only sessions
For the conversations that only make sense with other owners in the room.
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A community of peers
Who'll tell you the truth, share what's working, and have your back when it gets hard.
The first guests
through the door.
Monthly live sessions, focused on agency growth with experienced experts.
Britney Muller
AI Educator + Advisor who's been mixing machine learning and marketing since before it was a trend — formerly of Hugging Face and Moz.
What Agencies Should (And Shouldn't) Be Doing Right Now With AI
AI is both a risk and an opportunity for agencies. Britney joins us to break down where agencies can thrive in this new world — and how to use the tech to their advantage.
Rand Fishkin & Amanda Natividad
Rand: Co-founder of SparkToro, Snackbar Studio and Alertmouse. Author of Lost and Founder, along with the upcoming Zero Click Marketing.
Amanda: Founder and Co-author, Zero Click Marketing and Chief Evangelist, SparkToro.
How Agencies Should Leverage Zero-Click Search in Their Own Marketing
The rise of zero-click search and the decline of open-web traffic is undeniable. So what should agencies actually do about it for their own marketing?
Lisa Paasche
Founder of Verve Search — bootstrapped it to 50+ people and sold to Omnicom in 2017, and now guides agency owners through their own exits.
Selling Your Agency: The Highs, Lows and Everything in Between
Plenty of owners think about exiting one day and wonder what it's really like. Lisa has been there and done it — and shares the honest version.
Sari Lash
A licensed psychotherapist (LPC, NBCC) turned corporate communications leader and culture consultant, bridging the gap between business and human psychology.
Burnout, Mental Health and Wellbeing: Why Are Agencies So Exposed — and What Can We Do About It?
The agency model is almost built for stress. How do we grow agencies successfully without burning out along the way?
These are just the first four. Join the waitlist →
Agency founders
turned builders.
Lavall & Paddy
Agency founders turned builders
Between us, we've built, scaled, and sold agencies. We've made the expensive mistakes so you don't have to. We started Solace because we wished something like it existed when we needed it most.
We're starting
small on purpose.
We're capping the founding group at around 50 people. No open doors, no mass signups. We want the right people in the room — agency founders and senior leaders who are serious about doing this well and generous enough to share what they know.
Solace · waitlist
You're on the list.
Check your inbox to confirm your spot — we'll be in touch personally.
The questions
you're probably asking.
- Is it free?
- Yes — it's free for our founding members. We're focused on getting the right people in the room, not on monetising it.
- Who is Solace for?
- Agency founders and their senior teams — whether you're growing fast and want to protect it, or going through a hard stretch and need people who get it. It's not just for people in crisis; it's for anyone serious about building something sustainable.
- Is this a course or a mastermind?
- No. There's no curriculum and no upsell. It's a genuine community of people who understand the work — office hours, guest sessions, and honest conversation between people who've actually done it.
- Where does it all happen?
- We run the community on Circle, with live sessions hosted over Google Meet.
- What's the time commitment?
- As much or as little as you want. Drop into the bi-weekly office hours and monthly guest sessions when they're useful, join the founder-only sessions, and dip into the conversations in between. No attendance pressure but like anything, you'll get more out of the community if you're able to be present.
- How do I join?
- Solace is invite-only, and we're capping the founding group at around 50 people. Join the waitlist and we'll be in touch personally — no automated funnel.
- Will you try to sell me something?
- No. No pitches, no upsells. That's the whole point.
Still in? Join the waitlist →