The Truth About Marketing Agencies: An Inside Look from Someone Who Started One to Fix the Industry

I want to be upfront about something: I own a marketing agency. So when I say the traditional advertising, media, and marketing agency models are broken, I’m not throwing stones from a safe distance. I’m saying it as someone who spent years inside it, watched it up close, and eventually decided the only way to fix it was to build something different from the ground up.

My name is Joe Doran. I founded Wabash & Lake Consulting in Richmond, Virginia in 2016. Before that, I worked for a media and advertising group, and I watched the same pattern repeat itself over and over: prioritizing internal profit over client success, businesses spending serious money and getting very little in return, and a fundamental misalignment between what agencies were selling and what their clients actually needed.

This is my honest assessment of how that happens and what a better approach looks like.

The Conversations That Built This Company

Before I started Wabash & Lake, I kept hearing the same things from business owners:

• “We tried marketing before…”

• “The agency promised the world and delivered PowerPoints.”

• “We spent real money and got zero new customers.”

• “They treated us like just another account number.”

• “We can’t afford a $100K Marketing Director but we need serious marketing help.”

These weren’t outliers. They were the norm. And the more I heard them, the clearer it became that the traditional agency model had a structural problem, not just an execution problem, and that businesses deserved better.

What the Traditional Agency Model Gets Wrong

Most agencies are built around their own revenue model, not their clients’ success. That creates some very predictable problems.

The markup problem. Agencies routinely mark up media buys, vendor costs, and production work, sometimes significantly, without disclosing it to clients. That means you’re not just paying for the work. You’re subsidizing someone else’s profit margin on every dollar you spend.

The execution-only problem. Most agencies are set up to run campaigns, not to think strategically about your business. (Think Hammer and Nail…) You get tactical execution without anyone asking the harder questions: Does this connect to your sales process? Is this the right audience? Is this building long-term brand value or just burning through impressions? How do I communicate this campaign to my staff?

The accountability gap. When results don’t come, agencies default to the dashboard and buzzwords. They show you traffic numbers, reach, engagement (metrics that don’t necessarily translate to revenue), and the conversation about whether your phone is actually ringing somehow never happens.

Why We Built Wabash & Lake Differently

Wabash & Lake was built as a direct response to everything I just described. So many businesses would not fall into the traps listed above if they only had a high-performing marketing director on staff. So that’s what we do. We operate as a fractional marketing department, not a vendor, not a campaign shop, not an agency looking for markups, but an embedded part of your team. Our model is built around three things the traditional agency world tends to avoid: radical transparency, genuine accountability, and strategy that’s tied to revenue.

On pricing: we charge one flat monthly rate. We don’t mark up media buys or vendors. We don’t accept kickbacks from anyone. We refund every advertising commission back to you. That’s not a talking point. It’s a policy we’ve held since 2016.

On strategy: every engagement starts by connecting marketing to your sales and operations goals. We don’t launch campaigns because it’s time to launch campaigns. We build programs around where your revenue actually comes from and where you’re losing it.

On team: when you work with Wabash & Lake, you’re working with a real team — strategists, creative directors, operations leaders, and client services managers — all of whom treat your business like it’s their own. That’s not an accident. It’s how I built this company from the beginning, because it’s the only version of this work I’m willing to do.

What to Look for When Choosing a Marketing Partner

Whether you work with us or not, here’s what I’d encourage any business owner to ask before signing with any agency or marketing partner:

• Do they ask about your operational, sales, and revenue goals, or just your marketing budget?

• Can they clearly explain what success looks like in terms of actual business outcomes?

• Are they fully transparent about how they’re compensated, including any vendor relationships?

• Are they honest about what work they do themselves versus what work they’re outsourcing?

• Do they push back when something isn’t working, or do they just keep running the same plays?

• Are they willing to tell you honestly if they’re not the right fit?

A good marketing partner should be able to answer all five of those questions clearly and without hesitation. If they can’t, that’s worth paying attention to.

Let’s Have an Honest Conversation

If you’ve been burned before and you’re skeptical, I get it. That skepticism is exactly what this company was built to address. If you’d like to talk about your marketing situation honestly — no pitch, no pressure, no pretending everything is fine when it isn’t — we’re here for that.

Book a free consultation at wabashandlakeconsulting.com or call (804) 464-3622.

About the Author

Joe Doran is the founder and Chief Strategist at Wabash & Lake Consulting, a Richmond, Virginia-based fractional marketing firm. He founded the company in 2016 after years of watching the traditional agency model fail small businesses. He has 30+ years of experience turning struggling businesses into market leaders. Learn more at wabashandlakeconsulting.com.