You probably know that I’m a big believer in the power of AI for agencies (and many other businesses). I’m an advocate of learning, experimenting, and implementing at a fast pace.
Vibe coding opens the door for anyone with a good idea to turn it into a real solution without having to learn the ins and outs of programming.
And that’s a good thing.
But just because you can vibe code something, it doesn’t mean that you should. And if you are going to do it, you need to be smart about it.
I’ll explore this idea a bit more later in this week’s newsletter, but first let’s look at what Jen has rounded up for us this week.
— Chip Griffin, SAGA Founder
Jen’s Weekly Roundup
Here’s what caught my eye this week:
REPORT WHAT CHANGED, NOT WHAT YOU DID — Gini Dietrich at Spin Sucks explains why teams get asked to report activities and then judged on outcomes, and says every report should answer three things: what worked, what didn’t, and what you’ll change.
THE PROPOSAL THAT WROTE ITSELF LOST THE CLIENT — Duncan Isaaksen-Loxton tells Troy Dean on The Agency Hour how he used AI to turn two days of research into a 13-page proposal in a couple of hours. The client wrote back that it sounded like AI and hired someone else. All the trust from the discovery call disappeared once the client felt like a prompt instead of a priority. Shel Holtz and Neville Hobson at For Immediate Release report that AI-generated LinkedIn posts are creating new demand for human ghostwriters. Their test is whether the thinking is yours and you can stand behind every sentence, whoever or whatever did the typing.
AI WITHOUT CONTEXT IS JUST AN INTERN — Khushbu Doshi of E2M tells Kristen Kelly on the Agency Profit Podcast that an AI agent with no knowledge of your clients works like a new intern. Her starting point is a client context file covering history, competitors and the ideas the client already rejected. Eric Fulwiler of Rival tells Sharon Toerek on The Innovative Agency that the agencies that thrive will chase effectiveness, not just efficiency, and will turn what they know into IP they can sell.
DECIDE WHAT’S NOT FOR SALE BEFORE SOMEONE ASKS — The Bureau of Digital says AI companies are offering agencies as much as $500,000 for their old emails, contracts and Slack history, because those records show how humans do work. The catch is that they’re full of clients and employees who never expected those conversations to be sold, and not every seller will strip out the names. Something to think about before an offer arrives and the money starts making the decision.
THE NOTE YOU MAIL BEATS THE EMAIL YOU BLAST — Blair Enns at Win Without Pitching spent four weeks writing one handwritten thank-you note a day instead of chasing digital outreach, and came away convinced that slow, unscalable effort is what stands out now that inboxes are full of spam. On 2Bobs, he and David C. Baker argue that as AI takes over more routine work, the interesting people will win.
YOUR NEXT CLIENT ALREADY KNOWS YOU — Lee McKnight Jr at RSW/US says the easiest outbound starts with people who already know you, meaning your first-degree LinkedIn connections, past clients, and brands where you finished second. Stay close to that last group, because the agency that beat you often isn’t working out three months later. Karen Swim and Michelle Kane at That Solo Life add that ghosting is almost never personal. It’s often due to a budget freeze or a leadership change, which is why you need several conversations going at once.
GET IN THE DETAILS, THEN GET OUT — David C. Baker at Punctuation argues the best leaders are hands-on just long enough to build the process, then hand it over to capable people and move on. His example is an owner who writes everything down before a vacation, then stops once she’s back because being essential feels good. Karl Sakas says good systems also make the thoughtful things easier to do, like sending a new hire the proof of their business cards before their first day.
DON’T WAIT FOR THE RED LIGHT — Albert Banks of Apertus tells Steve Guberman on Agency Bytes how merging with a peer agency pushed both firms past their plateaus, and makes the case for running a business that’s sellable whether you ever sell it or not. Kellye Crane at Solo PR Pro shares a more personal story. After years of invisible health issues that took her out of full-time work, she urges solos to look into disability insurance and to get warning signs checked early, because your body tends to skip from yellow straight to red.
DON’T LET LOYALTY STAND IN THE WAY — Brad Farris at Anchor Advisors offers two questions that help you see a hard personnel call clearly when loyalty is clouding your judgment. If you don’t have a boss or a board to push back on you, questions like these are the next best thing.
— Jen Griffin, SAGA Community Manager
Vibe coding & your agency
You and your team may be excited about AI. You keep hearing these great ideas that others have begun to implement.
Vibe coding sounds intriguing and perhaps you see it as a way to create better internal solutions or even launch actual products to sell that complement your agency’s services.
I don’t want to discourage that enthusiasm.
But I do want to encourage some clear thinking around how (and when) you use vibe coding for your agency.
There are a few things you should always keep in mind:
Don’t reinvent the wheel. Just because you can vibe code a custom CRM doesn’t mean it is a good idea. Off-the-shelf software still has an important place in your toolkit.
Understand the risks. When you vibe code something, you assume responsibility for it. That means any code that accidentally deletes important files, leaks private information, or otherwise does things you don’t want ends up as your problem.
Recognize the true costs. It’s easy to build a prototype with vibe coding. It looks cool and probably even does what you asked it to do. But how does it handle edge cases? Will that require additional hours? What about bug fixes or maintaining connections to third-party services as they make changes? These hidden costs can easily eat up expected cost savings (especially when switching from a similar subscription-based SaaS service).
Consider the user experience. I have seen some truly brutal examples of vibe-coded “applications” that use difficult workarounds because whoever built them didn’t understand how to make proper connections to third-party services or how to use proper hosting tools. If the vibe-coded solution requires more effort from the user, perhaps that boring old shared spreadsheet wasn’t so bad after all.
Remember how fast things change. AI platforms like Claude and ChatGPT make it increasingly easy to create interactive applications that run on their own servers. But these services are all evolving so quickly that it is not uncommon for things to break when their new features aren’t compatible with old ones. I spend a fair bit of time revamping my own personal tools to address items that break when these companies adjust policies or functionality with little notice.
Be wary of hitching your wagon to one employee. Many of us have had those rock star employees who can innovate fast and take things to the next level. But if you aren’t building a roster of these players, you’re in a bind if they move on or get consumed by other work. If you’re going to rely on vibe-coded work, you need to spread your bets across the whole team rather than relying on a single outlier.
If you have a smart strategy in place and ask the right questions, vibe coding can do wonders for your agency. Just make sure you put the right energy into planning the approach that works for you, not just today but for the longer term.
