Kent Lewis is the Fractional CMO at Anvil Unlimited, where he provides strategic marketing consulting and digital growth solutions for select clients. He helps organizations with integrated marketing strategy, competitive benchmarking, vendor management, and employee development. Kent also advises leaders on thought leadership and online reputation management programs. In addition to his work at Anvil Unlimited, he is the Founder of pdxMindShare, a Portland-based career community offering networking, education, and professional growth resources. Kent is also the Executive Director of NextNW, an organization dedicated to unifying Pacific Northwest advertising, marketing, and media professionals.
About the Episode
Building a successful agency isn’t just about great clients or clever campaigns. It’s about the culture that drives every decision, project, and partnership. In this conversation, Tyler Lane sits down with Kent Lewis, Fractional CMO at Anvil Unlimited, to explore how strong values, accountability, and empathy create lasting resilience inside marketing teams. Kent shares how he rebuilt his agency’s culture from the ground up after recognizing its foundation had eroded and reveals how adaptability, transparency, and intentional leadership shape the future of agencies in a rapidly changing digital world.
Key Moments
From Music Marketing to Digital Strategy
- How Kent Lewis found his way into digital marketing and launched Anvil Unlimited [01:56].
Designing Culture by Choice, Not Default
- Why company culture must be intentional and how Kent redefined his agency’s values [10:49].
Playing to Strengths and Building Better Teams
- The power of aligning people with their unique talents for greater collaboration [18:06].
Hiring for Values, Not Resumes
- How focusing on culture fit over credentials transformed Anvil’s growth trajectory [21:08].
The AI Shift and the Future of Agencies
- Kent’s take on how AI will reshape agency models and the importance of agility [38:55].
Top Insights
- Design your company culture with intention – Building culture by design, not default, ensures that values guide every decision and behavior.
- Put employees before clients – Prioritizing team well-being fosters accountability, loyalty, and better client relationships in the long run.
- Conduct regular one-on-one check-ins – Consistent personal conversations build trust, surface hidden issues early, and strengthen employee engagement and retention.
- Hire for values alignment, not just skill – Selecting people who share your core beliefs creates a more cohesive and high-performing team.
- Create individualized development plans – Mapping each employee’s goals and growth path increases motivation, career satisfaction, and long-term organizational success.
Notable Quotes
- “I define culture as how your organization behaves when you’re not present — when owners and senior leadership are not present.”
- “It has to be designed or else it just defaults to your personality, and that’s not what I wanted.”
- “I moved from client first, employee second to employees first, client second, and that made all the difference.”
- “Everybody’s pulling. It’s not a passive metaphor of sitting in a bus; you have to be in there pulling your weight.”
- “The smart agencies will be leaner, smaller, faster, and niche down into specific industry verticals or skill sets.”
Resources
Industry Experts
Companies and Organizations
- Session Interactive
- NextNW
- pdxMindShare
- Entrepreneurs’ Organization (EO)
- EO Alchemy
- EO Ignitor
- EO Accelerator
Frameworks and Books
- Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS)
- The Freak Factor: Discovering Uniqueness by Flaunting Weakness by David J. Rendall
- Good to Great: A Study of Management Strategies of Companies with Lasting Growth by Jim Collins
- The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics by Daniel James Brown
- No B.S. Guide to Succeeding in Business by Breaking All the Rules by Dan S. Kennedy
Build a Culture That Converts
A thriving agency starts with culture, not campaigns. At Session Interactive, we help marketing teams design systems that balance strategy, creativity, and accountability so your people and performance grow together.
For more conversations on digital strategy, leadership, and innovation, subscribe to the Built to Convert podcast.
Ready to align your team and scale smarter? Visit Session Interactive to see how we help agencies and brands build resilient, data-driven growth.
