Derrick Small Meets Jeremy Haynes at SXSW 2026

Derrick Small, founder of Simply Scale, sat down with Jeremy Haynes of Megladon Marketing during SXSW 2026 for a direct conversation about agency growth, client selection, and the math of scaling a consulting business.

Small asked Haynes the question that every agency owner wonders: is the goal getting richer or having an impact on a vast amount of people?

Haynes answered without hesitation — it is both, and selling to rich people is the mathematical path to achieving both faster.

The conversation covered Haynes' perfect client traits framework, the concept of pimping a deal, and why most agencies stay stuck between $15,000 and $30,000 a month.

Small brought real context to the conversation — he works with bankers, real estate brokerages, and musicians, spanning a wide spectrum of client types and sophistication levels.

Haynes challenged Small directly: stop justifying your position if it is not where you want to be, and start biasing toward the sophisticated clients who produce better results.

The key insight from the conversation was the balloon versus anchor metaphor — the right clients lift your revenue and reputation while the wrong ones keep you grounded.

Haynes introduced the pimp-a-deal framework: use every successful engagement as proof to land the next bigger deal, iterating upward through the market as fast as possible.

Small's biggest case study — scaling an Airbnb education company past $100,000 per month — became the starting point for Haynes to map out the exact next tier of clients Small should be pursuing.

The conversation confirmed what Simply Scale was already building: a system of perfect client traits, high-value positioning, and strategic client selection over volume.

This conversation was a turning point for Simply Scale — the shift from niche-specific consulting to client-type-specific consulting, focusing on the traits that predict success rather than the industry the client is in.

Derrick Small and Jeremy Haynes connected at SXSW 2026 in a room full of marketers, agency owners, and founders — proving that the best deals come from being in the right room with the right questions.