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Most agencies lose clients in 18 to 24 months. Chad Bauer's clients stick around for decades.
Chad is the president and owner of SR&B Advertising, a Maryland agency founded in 1964 that he acquired from his father and transformed from a traditional ad shop into a modern growth and performance marketing firm. The numbers speak for themselves: 94% client retention, 20% year-over-year revenue growth, and not a single dollar ever spent on self-promotion. Every client has come through referrals.
In this episode, Chad and Aspen get into what it actually takes to inherit a business without coasting on it, and why the shift from owner-operator to actual leader is where most founders get stuck.
In this episode:
- Why inheriting a business can be harder than starting one from scratch
- Time blocking, calendar discipline, and the Claude "CEO daily brief" skill Chad built to prep for every day
- The switch from ChatGPT to Claude and where each AI tool actually earns its place
- The Monday.com onboarding mistake that cost him seven years of institutional knowledge (and how to avoid it)
- Taking over from his dad: what he kept, what he changed, and handling "that's not how your dad did it"
- The four-meeting playbook that built accountability into the team without micromanaging
- Why he says "we're not in marketing, we're in the relationship business"
- The secret to 94% retention: defining success before the contract is signed and communicating before clients have to ask
- Why picking up the phone is the most under-utilized tool in business
- Buying tech for where your business is now, not where it might be in five years
- The productivity advice Chad gives everyone but doesn't follow himself
Connect with Aspen:
- Take the free Business Dependency Audit and find out exactly where your business depends too much on you: Click Here
- Grab the $17 Business Relief Toolkit, checklists that help you fix it: Click Here
- Follow along on Instagram for behind-the-scenes: Instagram
- Tools I actually use: ClickUp
- Questions? DM me or email mentor@aspenpeggs.com
Connect with Chad:
- SRB Advertising: Click Here
- Chad on LinkedIn: Click Here
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