Scaling With Culture Key Takeaways:
Slipping creative output and low morale are often the first signs your agency is scaling faster than its systems can handle.
Culture isn’t defined by perks or policies. Transparency and shared accountability are the foundation of retention and long-term performance.
5WPR emphasizes the importance of layered systems with human oversight to ensure messaging remains accurate, strategic, and on-brand.
74% of high-growth startups fail due to premature scaling, according to a study by Startup Genome.
Growth isn’t the problem. It's how it's managed.
When scaling outpaces structure, quality suffers, culture erodes, clients drift, and leadership is left scrambling to regain control.
In Episode 97 of the DesignRush Podcast, 5WPR Executive Vice Presidents Ilisa Wirgin and Leigh Ann Ambrosi share how they’ve scaled multimillion-dollar PR divisions without losing the very things that made their teams and client work great.
They reveal what healthy growth looks like in 2025 and how transparency, niche specialization, and thoughtful leadership keep the agency focused and resilient.
Listen to the full episode now on Spotify or YouTube to learn how to scale your agency without breaking what works.
Episode Chapter Summary
- 00:00 – Why most agencies break from the inside: early signs of unhealthy growth
- 04:22 – How 5WPR uses transparency to align teams during rapid scale
- 08:40 – Turning culture into an operating system, not an HR perk
- 12:30 – What separates a strategic partner from a service provider
- 15:45 – The KPIs that matter most when scaling PR divisions
- 19:10 – Specialization vs. generalization: how vertical teams drive stronger results
- 24:15 – Structuring AI and affiliate into PR strategies without losing the brand voice
- Use culture as a leading indicator
- Make culture part of the growth engine
- Shift from vendor to trusted advisor
- Track the right growth signals
- Integrate innovation with structure
1. Spot the Red Flags Early
Culture is your early-warning system during growth.
One of the clearest signs an agency is scaling beyond its limits? The work starts to suffer.
When overextension kicks in, team enthusiasm drops, results become harder to replicate, and day-to-day operations feel like a grind.
That shift in energy is a signal to pause, realign, and redistribute focus.
At 5WPR, both execs watch closely for early cracks: campaigns that feel forced, strategy losing direction, or creative momentum slowing.
These aren’t just growing pains, they’re indicators that bandwidth and focus may be out of sync.
“You see a lot of energy being poured in, but not a lot of meaningful return,” says Illisa.
“You feel it inside the team… creative thinking slows down. Even the day-to-day stuff starts to feel like a heavy lift.”
2. Turn Culture Into a Growth System
Culture isn’t what happens after growth. It’s what makes growth sustainable.
In high-growth environments, culture tends to be treated like a bonus, something nice to maintain once revenue goals are hit.
But at 5WPR, culture is the foundation of everything else.
Transparency isn’t a branding exercise, it’s how the agency operates.
Leadership doesn’t shield employees from tough realities. Instead, they’re upfront, even when performance dips.
That honesty invites collaboration and gives teams a real stake in the agency’s direction.
Leigh Ann makes it clear: culture isn’t about ping pong tables or kombucha.
“We’re not talking about free snacks in the kitchen and a bevy machine,” she says.
“We’re talking about a true culture where there’s transparency… and those conversations you have to have.”
3. Evolve From Vendor to Strategic Growth Partner
Client trust is the result of cultural clarity and consistent listening. It doesn't happen by accident.
Every agency wants to be seen as a strategic partner, but few actually behave like one.
At 5WPR, becoming a partner starts with asking better questions and listening more than talking.
Intake calls are used to understand the client’s business model, pain points, and definition of success, not to pitch a pre-baked solution.
This listening-first approach continues throughout the relationship.
Quarterly, agenda-free business check-ins help keep the agency’s work aligned with larger business priorities, not just media goals.
“You can get all the great placements in the world, but if it’s not ringing through the register, then no one really cares,” Leigh Ann points out.
4. Track the Metrics That Actually Sustain Growth
If you know where to look, culture shows up in data.
Not all growth is good growth. For Ilisa and Leigh Ann, the first metric that matters is team health.
If scaling means losing great talent or burning people out, it’s not real progress: it’s a short-term spike with long-term cost.
Other critical metrics include the quality of new business, the evolution of client relationships, and internal tenure.
Longevity isn’t just a feel-good stat. It reflects trust, stability, and team alignment.
Specialization also plays a huge role in maintaining performance as teams expand.
Leigh Ann restructured her division from a general CPG group into two verticals — food & beverage and home & housewares — so staff could go deep, build expertise, and pitch with confidence.
5. Adopt Innovation With Guardrails, Not Guesswork
Innovation should accelerate your culture, not override it.
While 5WPR is future-focused, they approach innovation with intention.
AI tools are used across several layers, from cleaning data to generating and reviewing content, but every step includes human oversight.
This ensures the tech supports strategy, not replaces it.
“We use one agent for cleaning data, another for generating messages, and a third for quality control,” says Leigh Ann. “That last layer is what keeps everything grounded.”
Affiliate has also become essential, especially in beauty and wellness. In 2025, it’s not enough to show up in a story. Brands must be “shoppable” at the moment of discovery.
And with more consumers turning to tools like ChatGPT instead of Google, visibility in AI-generated answers is fast becoming the new SEO battleground.
“Consumers are putting their searches in ChatGPT,” Ilisa notes. “That’s changing SEO in big ways… it’s about being recommendable.”
Final Advice: Don’t Try to Win Everything All at Once
For founders or agency teams in growth mode, Ilisa and Leigh Ann offer the same principle: focus.
Don’t try to win every platform, every audience, or every conversation at once.
Instead:
- Define your unique edge
- Know what you don’t know
- Do one thing really well, then expand
“Do something really well,” Ilisa says. “Make sure that you have your story nailed, your messaging nailed, and the right people in place to get you to that next level.”
Leigh Ann adds that true traction only happens once you understand your market position and why anyone should care.
“Once you figure out what sets your product apart, then you can figure out the next steps… Knowing what you don’t know is probably one of the most important things that agencies and businesses can embrace.”
About the Guests
Ilisa Wirgin Executive Vice President, Beauty & Wellness at 5WPR
Ilisa leads 5W’s beauty and wellness division, focusing on earned media, influencer strategy, and integrated storytelling for consumer brands.
Leigh Ann Ambrosi Executive Vice President, Consumer Brands at 5WPR
Leigh Ann oversees 5W’s consumer division, including food, beverage, spirits, and home categories. She’s known for creating niche-focused teams and high-impact, insight-led PR campaigns.
Why Internal Alignment Is the Real Growth Advantage
Agency growth isn’t broken, but the way most agencies manage it is.
When teams scale fast without structure, the signs show up early: slipping quality, fading culture, and clients quietly losing confidence.
5WPR’s leaders show that sustainable scale doesn’t come from headcount or revenue alone. It comes from deep vertical focus, honest communication, and knowing when to slow down to realign.
The future belongs to agency teams that prioritize culture like process, build specialization into org design, and treat client strategy as a shared business function.
For founders, team leads, and agency execs navigating fast growth, this episode is your playbook for scaling without breaking what makes you great.
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