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#859 Building a $6.5M Remote Agency in 5 Years — LevelUp Leads
Description
Dan interviews John Karsant, founder of Level Up Leads, a 73-person outsourced SDR agency doing about $6.5M/year revenue, built while living abroad (Argentina, now Barcelona). John shares how he found remote work early via Craigslist, then spun out a list-building service that nearly failed due to one-off sales before pivoting into full appointment setting—eventually cold calling, which raised value, doubled average sale while keeping churn steady, and enabled $15K–$20K/month packages. He explains why radical honesty wins deals, how a strong ops leader and an in-house client dashboard improved transparency, and which metrics matter most (dial-to-connect, meetings booked, show rate, and pipeline movement).
In this episode:
- John discusses hiring ahead of the curve
- How he compensates reps based on client retention
- The decline of email outreach
- John’s inbound engine that drives 80–90% of leads
- Practical AI uses for role play training, transcript analysis, playbooks, and script generation
- The value of an experienced CEO coach
- John’s approach to investing and family life
Thanks to this week's sponsor Wayfront — the AI-ready operating system for productized agencies. One client portal. One team dashboard. All your data, AI-accessible. TMBA listeners get an extra free month on top of the trial at wayfront.com/tmba.
Links:
Level Up Leads
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Chapters:
(00:00:33) Guest Intro Story
(00:02:11) Argentina Remote Leap
(00:04:24) Barcelona Founder Life
(00:05:24) Time Management Abroad
(00:07:37) Business Idea Origins
(00:08:47) Pivot To Cold Calling
(00:12:17) Honest Sales Edge
(00:12:48) Ops Systems Dashboard
(00:14:27) Metrics And Financials
(00:18:12) Retention Based Pay
(00:21:44) Outbound Shifts And Inbound
(00:24:26) AI Workflows For SDRs
(00:28:43) CEO Coaching And Hard Stuff
(00:31:32) Personal Finance Investing
(00:31:16) Life Outside Work Dadhood
(00:38:58) Ideal Clients And Wrap Up
CONNECT:
Dan Andrews is the co-founder of Dynamite Circle, author of Before the Exit, host of the Tropical MBA podcast, and an entrepreneur who has successfully launched and scaled multiple 7-figure businesses.
Email Dan@tropicalmba.com
PLAYLIST:
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