The #1 Marketing Agency Red Flag: Control

For me, the ultimate red flag is simple.

Control.

Not because every agency is bad.

I don’t think most agencies are wrong or bad people.

A lot of what they do makes sense from a business standpoint.

Scalability.
Systems.
Growth.

But what makes their business smoother can make your business fragile.

What “control” actually looks like

Here are the common plays:

They build your website… but they own the domain.
Or they build your website… but keep admin access.
You get “manager access” while they hold the keys.

They run your ads… but inside their ad account.
So you never truly own the data.
Or the campaign history.
Or the audience.

They build your website on a custom CMS that only they control.
So if you ever leave?

You can’t take your site with you.

That is the part that frustrates me.

You might be building equity for years…
On something you do not actually own.

The digital storefront example

I relate it like this.

Your website is your digital storefront.

You would never hire a contractor to build you a building on rented land…

Then pay them to unlock the front door every day.

You wouldn’t do that with a brick-and-mortar location.

But digitally?

Small business owners do it all the time.

And most of them don’t even know it.

Why I got into marketing in the first place

I didn’t get into marketing because it’s trendy.

It started as a protective instinct.

I owned businesses.
I hired agencies.
And I kept getting burned.

It felt like they were halfway doing things.
Holding truths back.
Keeping control.

So I started learning this stuff myself.

And the more I learned, the more I realized there were shady things happening behind the scenes.

That is what led to the agency.

Not because I wanted to “start an agency.”

Because I knew I didn’t want to hire another one.

And I also hate seeing small business owners get taken advantage of.

Small business is the lifeblood of our country.

And a lot of “little guys” never get a fair shot because they can’t compete with big budgets and big teams.

So the question became:

How do we fix both problems?

The story that set the foundation for everything

The most frustrating example for me was a coaching and consulting business I had in the fitness space.

I hired an agency to:

Build the website.
Do SEO.
Run ads.

This was around 2017, 2018.

I started learning marketing more seriously during that time.

So I asked questions.

Not to be rude.

Because I was learning.

And every time I questioned something, I was treated like the idiot.

“You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“We’re professionals.”
“Just do the fitness thing.”

They got defensive fast.

That was a red flag.

Then I ran my own test.

I built my own landing page.
Sent traffic to it.
It performed better than theirs.

I brought it to them and asked them to make improvements.

Same response.

Dismissive.

So I told them we should part ways.

That is when it unraveled.

They had built my entire website on a proprietary CMS.

Hundreds of pages.
All the SEO work.

And when I left they basically said:

“You can’t have this. Best of luck.”

That moment is what led to Sean Garner Consulting.

I decided right then:

I will never do it like that.

Why agencies overpromise (and why most of it isn’t malicious)

Cam brought up something real.

Marketing is easy to sell like math.

“We’ll run Facebook ads.”
“You’ll get this many leads.”
“We’ll convert them.”

Sounds clean.

But real life is messy.

Different markets.
Different industries.
Different ad spend.
Different levels of brand equity.

A lot of marketers are optimistic by nature.

They want to paint the big future of what is possible.

But sometimes it turns into “blissful ignorance.”

They saw it work once for one client, and assume it will work the same for you.

Most of the time, they aren’t seeing the whole strategy.

They are just repeating tactics.

The difference between strategy and tactics

This is one of the most important lessons I’ve learned.

And it came from the fire service.

In the fire service, the strategy is simple.

Put the fire out.

But the tactics change:

Where did the fire start?
Is anyone inside?
How big is the crew?
Do we vent the roof?
What equipment do we have?

Marketing is the same way.

A tactic is not a strategy.

SEO is a tactic.
Paid ads are a tactic.
Social media is a tactic.

Strategy is the big picture.

The system.

And most businesses need the same core strategies:

Clear message.
Website that converts.
Follow-up nurture.
SEO foundation.
Authority building.

The tactics change based on the business.

Two clients on opposite ends of the spectrum

They asked me for examples.

One is a company called Machine Tool Specialties.

They sell CNC machines.

$250,000 to $3 million.

The other is Half Moon Plumbing.

Residential plumbing.
Average job might be $800.
Maybe $10,000 to $15,000 for bigger installs.

Same strategies.

Different tactics.

Nobody is buying a million-dollar machine from a Facebook ad.

But someone might buy a water treatment system that way.

That’s why we have a framework:

Build.
Fill.
Optimize.

Not just a website.

A sales funnel.

A customer relationship journey.

And the tactics inside that funnel change depending on price point, lifecycle, and how customers buy.

How to simplify marketing without dumbing it down

This is where messaging matters.

If your marketing is confusing, it won’t convert.

I don’t care how smart the product is.

If you can’t distill it into something clear, you’re going to lose.

That’s why we use the StoryBrand framework.

We build a brand script first.

Seven talking points that clarify the message so customers actually listen.

And then we use that to write everything else:

Landing pages.
Website copy.
Emails.
Social content.

If your offer is technical, you can still include the nuance.

You just don’t lead with it.

Most people scan.

If they can’t answer in three seconds:

What do you do?
How does it help me?
What do I do next?

They won’t scroll.

You have to earn the scroll.

What’s changing in 2026 with AI (and what isn’t)

The trend right now is AI visibility.

“How do I show up in ChatGPT?”
“How do I show up in Perplexity?”
“How do I show up in AI overviews?”

The strategy is basically the same as good SEO.

Technically sound website.
Good user experience.
Consistent content.
Strong authority through backlinks and brand mentions.

Some tactics shift slightly.

LLMs care a lot about brand mentions across trusted sources.
Google cares more about how backlinks connect and pass authority.

But the foundation is the same.

That’s why we call it search everywhere optimization.

Because you want to show up wherever your customers are looking.

The content advantage most business owners are ignoring

AI content is going to explode even more.

People are going to get sick of it.

The best way to stand out?

More human content.

Video podcasts.
Live videos.
Real conversations.

Because you can’t fake that.

You can see emotion.
How someone thinks.
How they process.
How they communicate.

That builds trust faster than any AI-written blog post ever will.

The real takeaway

If you’re a business owner, here’s what I want you to hear.

Marketing should not feel like smoke.

You should own your digital assets.
You should understand what is being done.
You should have a strategy, not random tactics.

And you should never be stuck paying someone just to unlock the door to your own business.

If you want the exact structure we referenced in this episode, download the Website Wireframe for 10x Your Team listeners.

It shows the 10 sections your website needs to generate more leads and make more money.

And if you want to learn more about building, filling, and optimizing your sales funnel, you can explore more at SeanGarner.co.