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Nobody Teaches You How to Become the Boss | Leadership Lessons Founders Learn the Hard Way
Episode 914th September 2026 • The Agency Diaries Podcast • The Agency Diaries
00:00:00 00:53:20

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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:

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

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