What Part of Running an Agency Won’t Exist in 10 Years?

Welcome to Peaceful Growth, where you will find actionable tips to grow your agency to $10M (without working overtime).

Here’s what you will find in this issue:

• What part of our agency will disappear in 10 years?
• How do we become a thinking partner, not just a dev agency?
• With clients asking for speed and savings, how do you keep the craft alive?
• What’s one hard decision we made that made us stronger?
• What’s one habit that helped us grow in the past, but could hurt us in the future?
• If you could give every employee one skill or mindset for the future, what would it be?

I almost skipped writing this weekend.

The last two weeks were hectic.
Between travel and preparing for Multidots’ 16th anniversary celebration—I felt drained.

But then something special happened.

On our drive to Napa Valley, my son fell asleep in the car, and my wife took the wheel.

I had 45 minutes of stillness.

(Parents will understand what a miracle that is.)

So I pulled out my laptop and started writing.

This issue is what came out of that quiet pocket of time.

Alright, back to our 16-year celebration.

We celebrated my agency's 16 year anniversary. I shared more about our 16 years growth journey here.

Our celebration day (May 1st) had four parts:

1. State of Multidots
   Aslam (my co-founder) and I shared our wins, revenue numbers, and key lessons from last year.
2. Future of Multidots
   We talked about where we’re headed in the next 1–3 years—and what we’re leaving behind.
3. AMA (Ask Me Anything)
   Our team asked us anything—like a founder town hall. This year’s AMA had some amazing questions.
4. Fun & Games
   We played Bingo… and yes, I won a full house. (I promise it wasn’t rigged 😄)

This year’s AMA hit differently. The questions weren’t just about business. They were about the future. About AI. About culture. About leadership.

So in this issue, I’m sharing a few of those AMA questions—along with my honest answers.

I don’t know if you’ll care, but I hope something here will help you reflect on your own journey.

Q: In an era where clients demand speed, scale, and savings, how do you envision preserving craftsmanship in agency work?

You know, this one’s been on my mind a lot.

Clients today want faster, cheaper, and better. That’s the new normal.

But here’s what I believe—craftsmanship is what gets you remembered.

Anyone can do fast work. Not everyone can do memorable work.

For our B2B clients, it’s not just about results. It’s about giving them:

• Status—like showing their boss they hired a “WordPress VIP Gold Partner.” Or winning an award with a site we helped them build. Or being able to say, “We’re working with the same agency trusted by PepsiCo and AskMedia.”
• Peace of Mind—knowing we’ve got uptime covered, accessibility handled, migrations bulletproof. They sleep better because we’re on the job.

And for B2C clients, it’s about the process and story: (This matters less to us as an agency, but it's still worth understanding.)

• Process, like taking them behind the scenes. Like showing the winemaking process instead of just serving the wine. Letting them feel the care we put into every sprint, every launch, every test.
• Story, the story you tell about the work is just as important as the work itself. If you tell someone, “This painting was stolen from a famous gallery,” or “This was hidden behind a wall for 50 years,” suddenly, it becomes mysterious, valuable, and worth talking about.

So yes, let’s move fast. But let’s never rush.

Let’s automate the boring stuff so we can spend time on the parts that make people say “wow.”

Craftsmanship builds trust. And trust builds growth.

Q: What’s one tough decision in the last 2 years that, in hindsight, made Multidots stronger for the long term?

Being frugal.

It wasn’t fun. It wasn’t popular. But it made us stronger.

I took inspiration from Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, and Warren Buffett—guys who watch every penny and do everything they can to avoid paying the “dumb tax.”

We paused big spending.

We questioned every tool, every subscription, every hire.

We said no when it was easier to say yes.

And that forced us to get creative.

To protect our focus.

To find smarter ways to do the same work.

And the result? 16 years, zero losses. Always profitable.

Sometimes, growth isn’t about adding more.

It’s about removing what doesn’t matter.

Q: Today, clients want ‘thought partnership,’ not just execution. How do you envision Multidots becoming an advisory brand, not just a ‘service’ brand?

Here’s the shift I see happening:

Clients used to want someone to build the thing.

Now, they want someone to think through the thing.

They’re not just buying code. They’re buying clarity.

They want a guide. A partner. Someone who brings fresh thinking to the table.

That’s why we’ve made some key moves:

• We publish the “WP for Enterprises” newsletter—not just to show what we know, but to help clients think better.
• We start each project with a Discovery—because it’s not about jumping in fast, it’s about understanding deeply.
• We offer Growth services, not just dev work—because the real value is in helping them move the needle.

So let’s not wait to be asked what we think.

Let’s lead with thought.

Let’s ask better questions. Bring sharper ideas. Build real trust.

Q: If you could instantly transfer one skill or mindset into every employee, what would it be for the future of Multidots?

Two things.

Skill? AI fluency.

Not just “how to use ChatGPT.”

But how to think with it.

How to save 3 hours with the right prompt. How to test faster, write better, brainstorm smarter.

Mindset? “Ideas up” instead of “ideas down.”

Top-down leadership doesn’t scale.

Some of our best innovations have come from interns, PMs, and engineers who saw a better way.

I want everyone here to feel like a builder, not a task-taker.

See a problem? Bring a fix.

Have a crazy idea? Say it out loud.

The future belongs to the fast learners and brave thinkers.

Q: If you had to ‘unlearn’ one habit that worked in the first 16 years but will kill us in the next 16, what is it?

For a long time, we hired people with the mindset:

"If they had the right attitude, fit our culture, and were open to learning, we’d teach them everything else."

And that worked… when the pace was slower.

But today?

We need people who are better than us, more experienced than us, more skilled than us.

They tell us what we should do to grow our agency (instead of waiting for us to tell them).

And ideally—they teach us something new.

So here’s the mindset shift I’m making:

Don’t hire to teach. Hire to learn.

Q: What part of running an agency won’t exist in 10 years—and what will replace it?

I’ve been thinking about this a lot.

Especially as AI keeps getting smarter at writing, designing, coding—the very heart of what agencies like ours do.

So I stepped back and looked at history.

• Email (and text, phone) replaced postal mail.
• Online shopping replaced stores.
• Digital publishing replaced printing presses.

But two things stood out to me:

1. Those older things didn’t completely vanish. People still love getting handwritten letters, visiting stores, and reading physical books.
2. Every wave of disruption created more work (more e-commerce websites, more publishing platforms), not less, for agencies like us.

So here’s my guess for the next 10 years:

• Websites won’t be websites. People will experience our work through chatbots, voice assistants, AI dashboards—not just web pages. In other words, the “web” will be mostly headless, API-driven, and smart.
• UI/UX on websites will matter less than the structure and organization of the content.
• Content will be AI-first, human-second. AI will read and filter your content first—then shape how it reaches humans.
• In the age of AI, the only agencies that thrive are the ones that think beyond execution and become strategic partners in growth, change, and complexity.
• Design, development, and content creation become commodities. Opportunity: Build intellectual property, not just services. Create playbooks, systems, frameworks, and niche expertise that clients can’t get from ChatGPT or Canva Pro.
• Strategy, systems design, behavior psychology, and ethical AI use become the moat.
• Agencies that don’t reinvent themselves become irrelevant or turn into AI prompt operators.
• 80% of websites will be AI-generated and good enough for small businesses. Opportunity: Become an AI-integrated consultancy, helping clients use AI safely and smartly in their CMS, not just avoid it.
• Mid-size agencies stuck doing $10K–$30K projects will get squeezed by DIY AI platforms.
• Enterprises still need humans — for: Complex architecture, Governance, Security, Multi-channel content orchestration. But even enterprise clients will ask: “Why can’t this be done faster and cheaper using AI?”
• That means we’ll need roles like:
  • AI Strategist
  • AI Workflow Designer
  • AI Implementor
  • Agentic Engineer
  • AI Operator

We’re not building for the internet of 2015 anymore.

We’re building for the AI-native web

That’s it for this week.

Hope some of these thoughts help you reflect on your own path—whether you’re running a business, working inside one, or building something from scratch.

See you next time.

P.S. Napa was a blast—lots of fun, lots of wine. I feel incredibly lucky to be a founder and have the freedom to work (and live) wherever, whenever.

[On a totally different note, here’s something I’m excited to share to help you sharpen your copywriting skill as a founder in 2025]

One Skill Every Founder Should Sharpen in 2025

When CD Baby sent a quirky order confirmation email (“...placed on a satin pillow and carried to our private jet…”), customers loved it.
They shared it. It went viral.
That one email helped the small store sell over $100M in music.

Great copy builds trust, creates experiences, and drives sales.
And it’s not just CD Baby—companies like Groupon and Basecamp used writing as their secret weapon.

As founders, we write every day. If our words don’t connect, we lose opportunities.

The good news? Writing is a skill—you can learn it.
If you learn just one skill this year, make it copywriting.

I recommend CopyThat—a 10-day email course that takes just 30 mins a day. It’s worth it.

Did you enjoy this newsletter? Check out my other stuffs too:

• Subscribe to Learn + Grow for tips on leadership, health, and productivity to keep you at your best
• Subscribe to WP for Enterprises to learn how billion-dollar brands use WordPress
• Listen to Peaceful Growth Podcast for insights on how to grow your agency
• Hire Multidots to build or migrate your website in WordPress
• Try Google Docs style collaboration in WordPress with Multicollab
• Checkout collection of premium WooCommerce Plugins
• Feel stuck? Try 1:1 founder-to-founder mentoring. Ask anything: sales, marketing, people, growth. Pay only if I help. Schedule a free 15-min intro.

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One More Thing...

A lot of you have asked about the tools I use to stay productive and grow my agency.

So, I put them all in one place—organized by category:

• Writing Tools ✍️
• Productivity Apps ⏳
• Skills and Courses for Founders 🎓

And more.

You can check them out here.

Hope it helps! 🚀