About John

The coach agency owners call when nothing else has worked.

Serial entrepreneur, agency growth coach, dad, skier, and the guy who wears Converse to every meeting.

I am the business coach that digital agency owners come to when they've tried the lead generation courses, the sales training, and all the other tactics, and it still hasn't worked to grow their agency. I've been there. I've done it. And now I do this full time.

John Doherty
10+
Years building agencies
2
Agencies built and sold
500+
Agencies worked with
14
Max clients at a time

After 10 years of building and selling 2 agencies, and working with 500+ agencies over my career, I'm a full-time coach who helps agency owners do what I did: double their agency year over year and have it in a place to sell for life-changing money in 3-5 years.

Or, if your goal is to make great profit and have an amazing life while running your agency, we can do that too. I did both at the same time.

I'm not a business coach who read a book and started selling advice. I built Credo, a marketplace connecting companies with vetted digital marketing agencies. Grew it from $2.5K/month to $18K/month in 7 months, kept scaling from there, and sold it for 5x EBITDA. Then I built EditorNinja, a productized content editing service for marketing teams. Grew that one too. Exited to our largest competitor.

Two businesses. Two exits. And I had a great life while building both, because I learned early that grinding 80 hours a week isn't a growth strategy. I hired my first coach in late 2017 when Credo was at $18K/month and I had no idea how to scale further. That decision changed everything for me, which is why I now do this for others.

Along the way, I worked with hundreds of agency owners on every problem you can think of: pricing, lead generation, sales, hiring, firing, operations, positioning, and figuring out what to do when it all feels stuck.

I didn't become a coach because I couldn't do anything else. I became a coach because helping agency owners build better businesses is the thing I'm best at.

Here's what I know to be true

Most agency owners are great at their craft. They can do the work better than almost anyone. But the business side? Pricing, sales, operations, hiring, knowing what to focus on next? That's where things fall apart.

I've sat across from hundreds of agency owners who were stuck at the same revenue for years. They'd tried courses, masterminds, and coaching programs that gave them generic advice. Nothing moved the needle.

The reason is simple: most advice is too generic. Your agency isn't generic. Your problems aren't generic. And the path to doubling your revenue isn't a template someone sells for $497.

That's why I only work with 14 agency owners at a time. Every engagement is hands-on. I get deep into your numbers, your operations, your sales process, and your team structure. Then we fix what's broken and build what's missing.

What happens when we work together

People come to me for the strategies: pricing, lead generation, sales systems, operations, hiring. That's the work, and we do it well.

But here's what my clients tell me they didn't expect: the biggest value is having someone outside their business to think with. One client said, a few weeks into our engagement: "I feel much more focused on what I need to do. Some of the clarity you've given me..." and then he closed his first new deal that same week. He said ideas had "bounced around my head, but I hadn't brought them out." Sometimes you just need someone who can pull those ideas out of you and help you act on them.

Another client put it simply when we talked about continuing to work together: he wanted to keep the "coaching aspect of keeping me accountable." When a difficult client situation came up and he was tempted to just drop them, he said, "This is the value of coaching, giving me perspective that I didn't have. Thanks." That's real. Running an agency is lonely. You can't talk to your team about whether to fire someone. You can't ask your clients if your pricing is right. You need someone who gets it, who's been there, and who will tell you the truth even when it's uncomfortable.

The accountability matters too. Not in a "did you do your homework" way, but in a "you told me you were going to raise your prices three weeks ago and you still haven't, so let's talk about why" way. As that same client said: "This is what a coach is for. Downside, good side."

Many of my clients double their revenue within 6 months. Most make back their investment in the first 6 weeks. I'm not going to promise you those results, because your outcome depends on you doing the work. But my track record speaks for itself.

I'm not interested in being the coach with 500 clients and a course funnel. I'm interested in being the coach whose clients actually get results. That's a different business, and it's the one I chose to build.

Track Record

This isn't theoretical. It's what actually happens.

These are real patterns from real clients, not hypothetical projections.

2x

Revenue in 6 months

Many clients double their agency revenue within the first 6 months of working together.

6 wks

Investment paid back

Most clients make back what they paid me within the first 6 weeks. The rest is profit.

3-5 yrs

Exit-ready timeline

Build a business that's worth selling for life-changing money, on your terms.

The Path

How I got here

2024 - Present

Full-time agency coach

Sold my second business and went all-in on what I do best: helping agency owners build businesses worth owning (and worth selling).

2022 - 2025

Founded and sold EditorNinja

Built a productized content editing service for marketing teams. Grew it, systematized it, exited to our largest competitor. Second exit in 3 years.

2015 - 2022

Founded and sold Credo

Built the go-to marketplace for connecting companies with vetted digital marketing agencies. From $2.5K/month to $18K/month in 7 months, kept growing, and sold for 5x EBITDA.

2013 - 2015

Growth marketing at Trulia / HotPads

Ran growth marketing at Trulia Rentals and marketing for HotPads.com. Big-company experience that taught me what agencies look like from the client side.

2011 - 2013

SEO consultant at Distilled, NYC

Cut my teeth at one of the best digital marketing agencies in the world. Learned what great agency work looks like.

2008 - 2011

Destinée Media, Switzerland

Helped run a media organization in Huemoz, Switzerland, home of Swiss L'Abri. Lived there for 2 years spread across 4 years. It changed how I see the world.

2007

James Madison University

B.A. in Technical and Scientific Communication with a concentration in Online Publications (web development, before that was a thing).

Off the Clock

The rest of the story

I'm a husband, father of two, and based in Colorado. My wife Courtney and I are raising our daughter Tatum, our son Leon, and a very large black lab named Butterbean.

I have ADHD, which I now consider a superpower. It wasn't always that way. It caused me a lot of grief before I got my diagnosis and treatment. I talk about it openly because I know a lot of agency owners deal with the same thing and don't realize it.

I wear a black t-shirt every day. I own about 20 pairs of Converse. I'm usually in an RVCA hat. This isn't fashion advice, it's just fewer decisions so I can focus on what matters.

Courtney and I in Sayulita, Mexico
Sayulita, Mexico
Courtney and I hiking in Madeira
Madeira, Portugal

When I'm not coaching, I ski steep terrain, fly fish, mountain bike, and travel. My happy place is in our hot tub at our place in the mountains. I've studied 4 languages formally, speak French well, and consider myself a citizen of the world. The plan is to visit every continent.

I drive fast. I read a lot. I take a lot of photos but I'm not a photographer. I like bourbon and beer equally. My days are filled with coaching calls and creating content, which are genuinely the two things I love doing most.

The Doherty family in Chamonix, France
Chamonix, France. One of our favorite places on earth.

Oh, and I'm officially the most handsome man in Denver, Colorado. It's on the internet, so it must be true.

Ready to grow?

Let's talk about your agency.

I only work with 14 clients at a time. If there's a spot open, let's see if we're a fit.

Apply for Coaching