There’s a strange thing about building a business for nearly 10 years...

You realise how much of it you were figuring out as you went.

The clients that leave. The hires that don’t instantly make life easier. The bigger numbers that somehow come with bigger worries. The decisions you make without knowing whether they’re the right ones. And the confidence you keep expecting to magically arrive one day.

In this episode of The Agency Diaries, Kate Williams, founder of award-winning digital agency KW Marketing, looks back at nearly a decade of agency ownership — what she believed when she started, what she’s learned the hard way, and the things nobody really prepares you for when you decide to build a business.

You’ll hear:

• Why losing a client doesn’t always mean you’ve failed

• Why more revenue doesn’t automatically make you feel more secure

• The reality of hiring, delegating and learning to let go

• Why being needed isn’t the same as being a good leader

• The decisions that have shaped the business over nearly a decade

• What building an agency has given Kate, and what it’s cost along the way

Because perhaps one of the biggest lessons from nearly 10 years of building an agency is that founders spend far too much time figuring things out alone.

And sometimes what you need isn’t another course, business book or person telling you they’ve cracked the formula.

You need a room full of people who get it.

That’s why The Agency Diaries is evolving beyond the podcast, with the launch of The Founding 100. The first 100 founders helping to shape a private community built around honest conversations, shared experiences and figuring out agency life together.

Because nobody teaches you how to build an agency. And nearly 10 years in, Kate is still learning too.

LINKS & RESOURCES:

• Join The Founding 100 and become one of the first founders shaping The Agency Diaries community.
• Follow @theagencydiaries_ for honest conversations about agency life
• If this resonated, leave a review - it helps more founders find this space.

No nonsense. No highlight reels. Just real stories, real lessons, and a reminder that you’re not doing this alone.

Nobody teaches you how to become the boss.

You start a business because you're bloody good at something. Marketing. Design. Strategy. Creative. Whatever it might be.

Then the business grows. You hire people. And suddenly, being good at the work isn't enough anymore. Your job changes.

You're responsible for leading people, making decisions, giving feedback, setting direction, having difficult conversations and creating an environment where other people can actually succeed.

But nobody really teaches you how to do any of that.

This week Kate Williams, founder of award-winning digital agency KW Marketing, is joined by Jess Wiggins, founder of Impact Coaching International (and former lawyer), talking about what actually happens when you go from doing the work to leading the people doing the work.

You'll hear:

• Why founders so often become the bottleneck
• Why trusting your team can feel so bloody difficult
• What happens when you employ people who are better than you at something
• The shift from being the doer to becoming the developer of people
• Why difficult conversations and feedback are skills you have to learn
• How to lead with kindness without lowering your standards
• The pressure of being the person everyone else looks to for answers
• Why being a perfect, polished version of a leader isn't necessarily what people need

Ultimately, you can't control how your team behaves. But you can create the conditions for them to succeed.

You can give people support. You can give them space to develop. You can trust them with genuine responsibility. And you can start letting go of the idea that being valuable means being needed for everything.

If you're growing an agency, managing a team, thinking about hiring your first employee, or currently somewhere in that slightly terrifying transition... this one's for you.

LINKS & RESOURCES:

• Join the movement at theagencydiaries.co.uk
• Follow @theagencydiaries_ for honest conversations about agency life
• Connect with Jess Wiggins on LinkedIn
• If this resonated, leave a review - it helps more founders find this space.

No nonsense. No highlight reels. Just real stories, real lessons, and practical conversations about building an agency that actually works.

There comes a moment in every founder's journey when money stops feeling exciting... and starts feeling heavy.

When it's no longer just about paying yourself. It's about payroll. Cash flow. Hiring decisions. Late invoices. Taking risks. Investing in growth. And carrying the responsibility of everyone else who depends on your business.

In this episode of The Agency Diaries, Kate Williams, founder of award-winning digital agency KW Marketing, unpacks the emotional side of agency finances, why so many founders avoid talking about money, and how financial confidence isn't something you magically wake up with... it's something you build.

From the reality of paying a growing team to learning how to separate emotion from business decisions, this is an honest conversation about what really happens behind the numbers.

You'll hear:

• Why revenue and profit are two very different things

• The emotional weight of payroll and leading a growing team

• Why pricing still feels uncomfortable for so many agency owners

• Cash flow, forecasting and the systems every founder should understand

• Why investing in growth often feels terrifying (but necessary)

• The importance of removing emotion from financial decisions

Whether you're freelancing, building your first team, or scaling an established agency, this episode is a reminder that financial pressure doesn't mean you're failing. It usually means you're growing.

And the more openly founders talk about money, the easier it becomes for everyone else to build businesses that are not only ambitious, but sustainable too.

LINKS & RESOURCES:

• Join the movement at theagencydiaries.co.uk
• Follow @theagencydiaries_ for honest conversations about agency life
• If this resonated, leave a review - it helps more founders find this space.

No nonsense. No highlight reels. Just real stories, real lessons, and a reminder that you’re not doing this alone.