In this special episode of Agency Acquisitions & Exits, the tables turn once again.
Peter Lang, the show’s host and founder of Digital Agency Business, sits in the guest seat, this time interviewed by Steve Guberman of Agency Outsight.
Together, they go deep into Peter’s origin story, his obsession with M&A, the emotional evolution behind his career, and why he believes acquisitions are the ultimate unlock for founders ready to transcend entrepreneurship.
The Spark That Started It All
Peter’s fascination with acquisitions began long before he ever bought his first agency. While studying international business in Paris, he spent time with the family of a close friend whose father happened to be the CEO of Président Cheese, a global brand known for its Camembert.
What caught Peter’s attention wasn’t the cheese. It was how the company grew.
“He was using M&A for international expansion. He wasn’t running operations. He was running deals. That’s when I realized—the CEO isn’t the operator. The CEO is the dealmaker.”
That conversation planted a seed. Long before “buy then build” was a mainstream idea, Peter understood that growth through acquisition wasn’t reserved for Fortune 500s. It was a strategic discipline, one he wanted to master.
The Moment Everything Clicked
Years later, when Peter finally began executing his own acquisitions, the feeling wasn’t just excitement, it was frustration.
“I was mad at myself,” Peter admits. “I thought, I should’ve started this six years earlier.”
Back then, the M&A playbook wasn’t easily accessible to entrepreneurs. Books like Buy Then Build or How to Buy a Small Business hadn’t entered the mainstream conversation. Peter had to figure it out through trial and error: building systems, deal frameworks, and integration strategies from the ground up.
That frustration became fuel. Every founder Peter now mentors echoes the same sentiment: I should have started earlier.
Why Most Founders Wait Too Long
When asked why so many founders delay, Peter points to one simple truth: they’re consumed by the day-to-day.
“Founders spend 100% of their bandwidth solving today’s problems. M&A feels out of reach, like something for later. But the problem is, later never comes.”
For Peter, that realization became the foundation of his work: helping agency owners see M&A not as a distant dream, but as a practical, repeatable process.
From Operator to Educator
Peter’s path into teaching wasn’t planned, it was organic.
Long before he was running acquisitions, Peter was already teaching others how to adapt to change. In 2008, while still in university, his aunt invited him to speak at a Travel Writers Conference in Marin, California.
At the time, Peter’s personal blog had over a million monthly visitors. He was a 20-year-old explaining Facebook, blogs, and social media to a room of established writers decades older than him.
“I didn’t realize it at the time, but I was practicing something that would define my career — taking something complex, distilling it, and helping others implement it.”
That experience laid the groundwork for what would later become Digital Agency Business and the Agency M&A Mastery course, both built to make M&A accessible for founders.
Teaching as a Path to Mastery
Peter believes the highest level of mastery isn’t doing, it’s teaching.
He explains his philosophy as a four-stage evolution:
- Do it yourself.
- Teach it internally.
- Delegate it externally.
- Teach others to do it without you.
Each layer increases leverage and impact, not just for him, but for everyone who learns his frameworks.
“Every time I teach someone to run a deal, I’m increasing the sample size of what I can learn from. My own deals get better because others are testing the process.”
Evolving the Vision: Consolidating the M&A Value Chain
Today, Peter’s mission has grown beyond individual acquisitions. He’s building something much larger: a system that connects the entire M&A value chain for service-based businesses.
From finance and accounting to brokerage, education, and post-acquisition integration, his goal is to professionalize and simplify a space that’s historically been fragmented and intimidating for small-business buyers.
“There are too many sellers and not enough savvy buyers. My vision is to make better buyers, better sellers, and to connect them through education and mentorship.”
Stepping Out of the CEO Role
One of Peter’s biggest revelations? Realizing he didn’t need to be the CEO.
“I don’t call myself a CEO anymore. I own businesses, but I hire CEOs to run them. My zone of genius is deals.”
That shift — from operator to owner — is the core of his philosophy. Founders shouldn’t chain themselves to operations; they should elevate to ownership, investing, and capital allocation.
“If you own the house, you don’t fix your own roof. You hire someone better than you to do it. The same applies to your business.”
M&A as the Entrepreneur’s Final Evolution
For Peter, M&A represents the highest form of entrepreneurship: the transition from building something to owning and compounding through capital allocation.
“The journey is simple. You start by selling a skill, then you sell systems, then you sell leadership. Eventually, you sell the business. Once you do that, your job becomes capital allocation and that’s M&A.”
He sees acquisitions not as a transaction, but as transcendence, the moment an entrepreneur steps fully into the role of investor.
The Founder’s Trap and the M&A Escape
Peter often jokes that founders will spend years trying to hire a salesperson who will never outperform their first acquisition.
He explains: “A founder-led sales agency will spend 18 months trying to onboard a salesperson who might close five or ten deals in two years. Or you could buy another agency with 20 clients in 90 days. It’s faster, it’s cheaper, and it actually compounds.”
He sees acquisitions as the logical extension of everything agencies already do: client acquisition, team expansion, and capability growth, but with greater speed and less risk.
Lessons from the Trenches
When asked about the most defining deal of his career, Peter points to a tragic but transformative acquisition, the BBMD deal, closed in just seven days after the owner’s unexpected passing.
“It taught me what a motivated seller really is. The deal wasn’t about the business. It was about the people, their circumstances, their needs. Every deal since then, I ask: what’s really driving this?”
That emotional intelligence, he says, is what separates good dealmakers from great ones.
Looking Ahead: The Book, the Coaches, and the Next Chapter
Peter’s next year is shaping up to be one of his most ambitious yet. He’s finalizing his long-awaited book: a practical guide for agency owners who want to buy three to four businesses a year, grow faster, and build wealth without waiting decades.
At the same time, he’s expanding his impact through a new network of certified M&A and Exit Coaches: experienced founders who now teach his frameworks to agency owners ready to grow through acquisitions.
“If we can train 100 more people to help agencies buy, scale, and exit better — we change the industry.”
Peter’s Final Reflection
After decades in business, hundreds of deals, and thousands of conversations with founders, Peter leaves listeners with one lasting thought:
“If you want to grow, get around people who buy and sell. If you want to change your future, get in the room with people doing deals. The paradigm shift comes from proximity.”
