Austin Holmes just dropped a conversation with Stephen Semple that's equal parts marketing wisdom and partnership lessons.

The guy's in his 60s and started with a Bachelor of Commerce in marketing back when they were teaching direct mail instead of social media. Now he's running a performance-based marketing agency in Ontario, Canada, where his team shares in client growth, copywriters earn more than market rate, and nobody has to become a manager to make good money.

His best stories? Not the quick wins. It's working for free during COVID to keep retail clients alive when they were completely shuttered. It's turning case studies into stories that got 700,000+ views on his TEDx talk (when the average is 1,200). It's taking a jeweler from $1 million to $30-40 million in sales. It's watching Getto Heating and Air Conditioning go from financial distress to a $500 million private equity exit in seven years, all through story-based campaigns.
Quick gems from the episode:
→ Origin stories build trust: tell the moment you started, the emotion behind it, the person you talked to first
→ Performance-based models create natural alignment. When you grow, they grow. Celebrate together.
→ Don't pull people onto big stages too early. Reps matter. His podcast is 230 episodes in the early ones weren't as good.
→ When clients fight your core principles, part ways. They haven't bought into your process.
→ Emotional first, logic second, it's not just a saying, it's how decisions actually get made
→ Find a mentor who's already figured it out. Roy Williams handed him a business model that took 20 years to build.

The snowboarding lifestyle in a small town north of Toronto? Just a bonus.
Check out Austin's Overpressure podcast if you want conversations about building systems that work, partnerships that matter, and creating something you never want to retire from.