Moving Agency Growth Out of the Boardroom

In this episode, I sit down with Freia Muehlenbein, owner of Be Reyt Agency Advisory. After scaling a digital department from 0 to 100 people in 7 years with no prior management experience, Freia discovered the biggest problem in agency growth: 80% of boardroom strategies never make it to daily operations.

Freia reveals why top-down mandates fail, how to involve the right people from day one, and the systematic approach to moving strategy out of boardrooms and into actual operational changes. She shares the change management frameworks that turn resistant teams into strategic partners and the data-driven systems that separate thriving agencies from those stuck in growth plateaus.

We explore the fatal disconnect between leadership vision and team execution, the collaborative change management approach that creates buy-in rather than resistance, and why agencies need someone dedicated to owning strategic delivery full-time. Freia also shares insights on positioning agencies for the AI era and building the human skills that become more valuable as automation increases.