Amanda Schomaker, Head of Growth at 1905 New Media, joins Michael Barber to talk about growing an agency while adopting AI and protecting the client experience.
Amanda shares lessons from running her own boutique agency, why poor scoping can damage profitability, and how acquisitions should add capabilities without creating a disjointed business.
She explains how 1905 uses its in-house tool Kirk to help clients interact with marketing data, how her team is beginning to measure AI visibility, and why branded search trends can offer useful signals when attribution is changing.
The conversation closes on what agencies can offer when clients arrive with an AI-generated marketing plan: human touch, critical thinking, judgment, logic, and taste.
Takeaways:
- Poor project scoping can damage client trust, planning, and profitability.
- Running a boutique agency teaches leaders to plan around deliverables.
- Live brands need one clear message across public-facing channels.
- Feasibility studies separate real demand from enthusiasm and assumptions.
- Acquisitions should add skills, not just increase company size.
- Protect what made an acquired firm valuable in the first place.
- Clients care about solved problems, not an agency’s org chart.
- AI dashboards can help clients talk with their data in real time.
- Traffic does not always equal demand or reveal the strongest leads.
- Human judgment remains an agency advantage when AI handles more tasks.