Breakthrough, Don't Burn Out: Rethinking Mental Health in Agency Life
From the outside, many agency leaders look like they are winning. From the inside, they are often burning out. The adrenaline that drives agency growth can eventually grind you down, squeezing out the very creativity and clarity your business needs to survive.
Nikki Gatenby, author and former leader of Propellernet, argues that wellbeing shouldn't be a reaction to a crisis—it should be the strategy. At Propellernet, engineering mental health into the agency's DNA led to a 7% churn rate and 10x profit growth.
Wellbeing as a Profit Lever
We often treat engagement as a "fluffy" HR metric, but the data suggests otherwise. When you design a culture for wellbeing, you get elite performance. Nikki highlights that happy, healthy people are the ultimate drivers of:
Reduced Absenteeism: 5x lower than the industry average.
Talent Retention: Staff who stay and recommend the agency to others.
Sustainable Profit: Growth that doesn't rely on breaking your team.
Proactive Care: The Four Quarterly Questions
Instead of waiting for burnout to strike, Nikki suggests four simple prompts to normalize proactive care:
Have you taken your holiday? Rest is recovery, not a luxury.
Have you used your growth days? Providing space for exploration without expectations.
Are you using your health benefits? Normalizing therapy and physical checkups.
Are you making the most of coaching? Using coaching for development, not just crisis management.
AI and the "Empathy Advantage"
In an era of rapid AI acceleration, the real threat isn't automation—it's dehumanization. The opportunity for agencies is to use AI to remove administrative drudgery so that teams can reinvest in what humans do best: intuition, relationships, and empathy. EQ (Emotional Intelligence) is now your greatest competitive advantage.
Get Ready for the 2026 Agency Growth Book
We are currently preparing the 2026 Edition of The Agency Growth Book, featuring all-new strategies for the year ahead. Please download our existing versions and follow us or register for our newsletter to get updates first.
