He HATED GoHighLevel Until This AI Offer Hit 500+ SaaS Clients | Declan O’Reilly | #gohighlevel

But I actually hated it.

He's not just a normal guy, he's actually the GHL wizard.

Don't focus. I'm telling you, it's— if you try to constantly focus on, okay, let me sell this for $297, $599, let me just do this money, money, you're not— you're gonna miss the point of, of delivering the value. When I first came in this space, a lot of the videos I was seeing is these guys were leaving out so much.

What is the best way you believe somebody can take to be like, okay, in the next 30 days I'm getting host and SaaS users.

In the beginning, what I recommend people focus on is, and then like hone in on one.

What do you think is the best offer? Like you said, where you could sell a service along with the software that can make sure that they never leave, basically. What would that packaging and offer be right now in 2025 and 2026?

I would— I mean, you can go on my YouTube channel and see the amount of testimonials I have. I have more than anyone else. It's because I'm telling people to sell the simplest things that are easy to set up and provide the most start you right now.

The customers are getting so sophisticated that they don't care about how good you sell them, they only care about what service is actually— What's going on? What's going on? Everybody's actually tuning in today. Welcome back to another episode of The Nikhil Sai Show, which is hosted by me, The Nikhil Sai. And guess what's going on today? I'm back with another amazing podcast. This guest has a very unique journey. He's not just a normal guy, but he's actually the GHL wizard, and he won all the awards you can imagine in the GHL space. He won a free Tesla, a bronze award, also multiple gold awards. He's a gold SaaSpreneur. On top of it, this year he walked stage for the platinum award. He's educated over a million people online, combining all his channels with views and whatnot on how to start and scale a GHL business. Let's not waste any time and let's actually learn from somebody who built a successful agency and now helping many more agencies scale using GHL. Let's call GHL Wizard on stage for the Nikhil Sai Show. Let's welcome Declan O'Reilly. What's up, brother?

Not much, man. Thank you so much for having me, Nikhil. I appreciate your time.

Yeah, for sure, for sure. I mean, what an inspiring journey. I would love to get into the GHL wizardy questions, but before that, give us some context about who Declan is and how did you found GHL in the first place. I think you were you were super early, like very, very early into the game with GHL, if I'm not mistaken. Give us like a quick rundown about your story and so people understand who you are and what you're up to so far.

Yeah, so I started way back when I got started on my online journey. It was in about, I think, the end of 2019. But here's what's funny. The first tool I started with was GoHighLevel, but I actually hated it. So I didn't use it for like 2 years because it was so bad at the time. That I was using all this stuff. But long story short, I built up an agency, you know, did a bunch of stuff, and I ended up coming full circle back to GHL because someone kept telling me how great it was. And I got back on, and when I logged back in, I was like, this is way better than I remember it being. And then it kind of— I mastered HighLevel and did all the stuff with that.

For sure. I remember, you know, being in the group as early as March 2020. I was super skeptical about their business model. Like, how can you give me my own SaaS company for $297? This sounds like an incredible business. Like, you guys would go bankrupt in 3 months. Let me just be on the sidewalls and see. But they built an incredible business. It's so funny. I had similar journey of going all circle around and then being like, okay, finally we have to get on this, otherwise it's going somewhere. So now you have won a lot of awards, especially with SaaS users, right? Give us like a quick rundown what worked really well because many people who are selling GHL, they are really struggling from what I've seen, at least the most of them, about actually getting stickiness to their software because it's just 100,000, 150,000 of them actively selling the same market over and over with different brand names and different whatnot. You were able to secure over 500 active sub-accounts. Tell us the journey on what worked for you to build your SaaS business.

Great question, you can, I'll kind of answer this in two parts. I think the first really important thing to note is that people are hearing things that sound good, and then they try to sell it versus selling something that is actually valuable. Now, the key to making something valuable without breaking down the whole value equation really is just giving businesses something they can't live without. Like it's, it's something that they have to have, you know what I mean? And I have a saying You know Alex Hormozi? I'm sure you do. Well, he always talks about give people an offer so good they feel stupid saying no. Well, I have a saying that is give people a service so good that when you leave, they want to kill themselves. Now, I know that's very dramatic. The concept is though, is that if you provide enough value that when you leave, if you say, hey, I don't want to work with you anymore, they will come chasing you. But the vast majority of agency owners I see, because I have a big community, I talk to a lot of people, is they're just giving things that aren't valuable enough. So if you're watching this and you're like, well, where do I start? This sounds great. Now where do I start? Well, first off, unpack AI because AI can solve problems they're already dealing with. See, if you're trying to sell ads, SEO, all these other services, even websites, they may need it, they may not. But everyone's answering the phones, everyone's answering emails, everyone's doing these things already. And if you can slide in and just save time and take care of what they're already doing, it goes a long way into keeping the stickiness, like you said, Nikhil, and the retention. And too many people are out here selling things that they saw some guy online say was really good. Because let's face it, the vast majority of people in this space have never done what they're telling you to do, at least on the affiliate side. They haven't. They've never done a SaaS business. They've never had a marketing agency. They don't know really how this works. They're just telling people to sell this service or that service. But I've done it. I've been doing it for years. I know what it's like to have to talk to business owners, work around their objections, and be inside their mind. So the first big thing is like figure out an offer, and we can unpack this later, but figure out an offer that they need and can't live without. From there, you solved a lot of your problem.

Yeah, 100%. I could totally relate because still so many agencies are selling gimmicky one-off services instead of making the CRM like very useful for their business. Like, yeah, if their customers are interacting through the CRM, they couldn't cancel even if they want to, like what you said.

Exactly. That's exactly what I'm saying though, Nikhil, is that like if you give them something where if they leave, they immediately feel pain, you're golden. But people aren't doing that. They're giving services that aren't going to solve problems. It just kind of helps.

Yeah. It's like good to do, good to do services. So I totally can understand and I could see the pattern in the market. Now let's go a little deeper, right? Like go high level, like you're the GH Wizard, so you're the best person to answer this. Has so many freaking features. I mean, they just launched like 400 new features. I'm like, oh my God, right? And especially for a beginner, I mean, people like you and me might get nerdy and like go excited and build stuff, but beginners who are still setting up their agency account and trying to get their first 5 or 10, 20 clients just to keep up, uh, you know, with the pace, they get overwhelmed with all the tools and features and whatnot, right? What do you think is the best offer, like you said, where you could sell a service along with the software that can make sure that they never leave basically? What would that packaging and offer be right now in 2025 and 2026 and beyond?

Yeah, man, you're asking great questions, man, because some of these things, I mean, I get these questions all the time in my group and it's interesting because a lot of services in HighLevel, and this is just, you only can know this if you actually worked with HighLevel, is what a lot of people don't understand. And I get why people make YouTube videos saying just do this one thing, but in reality, a lot of the services in HighLevel is like multiple things combined. Like an AI voice agent, for example, at first glance is an AI voice agent, but it actually is connected to the CRM because it's bringing in the leads, it's putting them in the database, it's actually connected to the calendars. It's, you know, there's all these things that are grouped into one that you don't really have to learn the full thing. It happens automatically. And that's the beauty of HighLevel. So to answer your question about like, You're saying like a good first offer?

Yes. That we're saying the first offer I would easily sell and fulfill.

I would say AI voice agents right now. That's— I mean, you can go on my YouTube channel and see the amount of testimonials I have. I have more than anyone else is because I'm telling people to sell the simplest things that are easy to set up and provide the most value right now. The AI agents, not only can they answer calls, do customer support and sales 24/7, you can attach them onto the website as an AI voice widget. Like it's never been easier to provide value, but people, I still see this, are complicated automations or building out these elaborate websites. It's like, dude, just take the easier route and make easier money. It's going to help them more too.

100%. I think, yeah, that's like the easiest thing to sell. And also HighLevel made it so easy to even fulfill. Like I've seen the agent studio and I was one of the early users. I was like, wow, like this is clean and much easier to, you know, use instead of the retail and the Vapis and the AirAIs, like all the crazy other tools which were in it and automations. And, you know, it's, it is crazy to, to look at all the other things. So, um, now I have a very interesting question. Now we just discussed about the offer, about like what could be sold, and we realized that the lowest hanging fruit is AI voice agents and AI chatbots, uh, you know, for on websites for small businesses. When it comes to marketing though, marketing agencies suck at marketing, at least for themselves. This is so true. I've seen this pattern like maybe, yeah, sometimes. So what is the best way you believe somebody can take to be like, okay, in the next 30 days I'm getting my first 10 SaaS users?

So like client acquisition?

Yes. What is the best way to generate lead to get the first 10 clients?

Yeah, this one is probably what I spend the vast majority in my time working on in the group for new people. And this is why, again, I think I have the most testimonials, is I have people focus 80% of their time on this. Because especially in the beginning, your only job is client acquisition because A, you need money, but B, that's how you actually learn. You don't learn watching videos. You learn from doing it in real life. So there's a bunch of different methods you can use. There's a bunch. Now, in the beginning, what I recommend people focus on is they try a couple things and then, like, hone in on one. So you can do any sort of cold online outreach. So that could be cold DMs, cold SMS, which there's a lot of compliance laws, gotta be careful, cold WhatsApp, cold email, cold calls, anything like that. You can do ads, but I don't recommend people do that right off the bat. But then there's a lot of in-person stuff that's really easy to do that you can make a lot of money from pretty quickly, in my opinion, which is like networking, door-to-door, actual like mail, like sending people like letters, any sort of like expos or events. There's all these basic things, building referral systems you can do right off the bat to start getting clients in. And what I see with a lot of people is like, if you just go out and just for one day just experiment, like, hey, I'm gonna cold call all day, or I'm gonna go to 5 networking meetings, or I'm gonna go talk to these business owners. If you pick one thing and just do it in one day a bunch, you'll see how easy it is to get leads. But what most people do is they think cold calling, they make 3 cold calls and then they stop. You know what I mean? Like, they go to one networking meeting and they sit in the back on their phone not talking to anyone. Like, you have to do the thing. And if you can do that, I'm telling you, you will get as many leads as you possibly want. And I see this because I have students that come in, they get to like $10K in like a month. It's crazy. Now, that's not normal. A lot of people, it takes them a lot of time. But the thing that they all have in common, the winners, is they just hammer the prospecting. And that's, that's the most important thing you have to focus on. So to answer your question, I would say it, it depends on what suits you best, but whatever you're gonna pick out of any of those things I mentioned, just put all your time into it first.

Mm-hmm.

Because you gotta get leads in first. And then there's all kinds of other things you can do from there.

Yeah. Interesting. Like as you've written on your profile, like volume negates luck. You just wanna do so much volume that it's impossible for you to not get a client. I, I totally agree, uh, with, with that aspect. Now we are in a very interesting market in my opinion, because AI is getting so good that like business owners are questioning if they should even hire a marketing agency, right? Earlier it used to be, oh, I can't do copywriting myself, I need a marketing team, I can't run ads myself, I can't create these video ads or content. SMMA used to be a big thing. Now ChatGPT can like basically do 80% of it. The agents and what's happening in the space I think it only is going to get crazier. What do you see as a future of the agency space? Like let's say 3 years down the line, 5 years down the line, how do you envision the agency space is going to be and what the GHL community should be prepared for for that time?

Literally one of my favorite questions because I talk about this so much because a lot of people are concerned like AI is taking over everything. Well, there's two really important parts to know. Okay. Number one, if you look at any sort of like government guidelines, they're cracking down super hard on like a lot of AI things. So for example, like AI cold calls, the FTC has banned that. You can't do that. There's ways to do outbound, but like there's all these laws that are popping up everywhere and spam filters and things to combat it that like, it's not as easy for AI to just go out and sell itself as people think. So that's the first thing. The second thing is that people still need to have it in their hands, which means that, yeah, they may not necessarily hire an agency, but they're gonna hire some sort of tool. And with HighLevel, because you can white label, you can just go, hey, I'm this little mom, you know, this little shop that does AI. I can help you out. Here's my AI. So you almost can become like the middleman very easily. And that's what I'm seeing right now happen. And it's blowing up. The other important part that's really fascinating that I'm starting to see is the amount of barriers to entry to use AI. It's not as simple as coming on and using it. This is what people think. They think that, oh, AI is just gonna be everywhere and business owners can just access it. There's all these things you have to do. For example, outbound AI voice on HighLevel, you have to get your license verified. You have to put your first name in. Like, you can't just go on and do that. Harder than people think. So I think what it's going to come down to, and this is just what I'm seeing, and I'm actually almost 100% I'm going to be right on this, is that it's going to go to the agencies that focus on prospecting the most and that have the good relations with their clients to get them verified faster. Because a lot of people think this is just going to be something you can pop. I mean, you remember when A2P happened, that it created a whole— yeah, that's what's happening now though, is that we're having these things where it's not so easy to just Oh, I'm a business owner. I can just do this. You're going to need some sort of like guiding into it. So I actually think that if you can just focus on prospecting and have enough people, you can constantly sell them the newest AI. I mean, I think there's going to be a lot of agencies that are going to get wrecked, but I also see a lot of agencies that are going to get so rich so fast. It's going to come down to the prospecting.

So 100%. I think that's like a very common pattern. Like Whenever there's like a new opportunity, like a million people try, 100,000 of them win and continue to win, and 900,000 of them give up so easily. And then they just complain that it didn't work, or, oh, it was just a trend. And, you know, yeah, it was a trend, you know, you didn't ride it well. So that's kind of what I think about. Now we kind of tapped into a few things here, right? Like the best offer to sell right now is the most leveraged, easy to fulfill, and much value-add voice AI. We talked about the best way to prospect. We talked about offline events. I know other people who are crushing it with creating local marketing events and building, you know, a small community and then selling them software from there. So I think it works brilliantly well. Many GHL beginners or even anybody who's also like a pro at building GHL stuff, but they have confidence issues. They can't sell, they don't know how to pitch it correctly. What have you seen as the best pattern? Like what's the best sales process? Is it like building a custom voice agent and showing them a custom demo or is it like doing a webinar? Style when you're offline? Like, what has been the best sales process to convert attention into an actual SaaS user or an agency client? What have you seen working the best right now?

The most important thing that I've seen that I— and this is just what I've seen crush time and time again, and this is what I have my YouTube videos are all on this, but it's show, don't tell. A lot of people are going in and just yapping about how great this AI is. What I recommend people do is they get one of my AI smart websites or anything. I give them away for free on my YouTube channel. You can have them where they have AI agents, chatbots. You just set it up for free for them, give them a free trial, and just let it sell some of their people for them. Because what can happen is if it goes on and it's answering the phone calls, answering the messages, and is doing all this, all you have to do, okay, is have the free trial end. And if it's solving the core problems that you set it out to solve, they will immediately have to go answer the messages, answer the calls, and they feel the pain immediately. Then from there, they come to you. That's what I've been telling everyone to do. It's easy and it actually is valuable. You're not going, hey, buy my service, buy my service. You leave, they go, why did you turn it off? And then you say, well, trial is up.

Yeah. Oh my God.

The best part, you don't have to be good at sales. You can be a complete Sales idiot and you'll, you'll like clients.

Yeah, I agree. I think, yeah, the market shift is real. Like I've seen so many agencies hammering their entire focus on sales back in 2020, 2021. The customers are getting so sophisticated that they don't care about how good you sell them. They only care about what the service is actually doing for them. And I like the way you repitched it by just positioning it as a free trial. And unless you're like an absolute nerd who doesn't talk to people, like I think you could be able to sell like the free trial services for sure. And this is like the drug dealer example. Like, you give the first pack for free and you're like, hey, if you like it, come back, I'm right here. And then you just think, come back every week.

Exactly.

Yeah, that's so fun. Now let's say you crack the code, right? Like you got the offer right, you're prospecting consistently, you got your sales process by doing free trials, and the next immediate problem is retention. And agencies suck it.

This.

Like I've seen this time to time to time. The most they usually have clients for is like 3 months, 2 months, maybe if they're lucky and they're good enough, 6 months, right? And you have 500 active SaaS users. You're the Platinum Award winner. And I'm sure, you know, all of your YouTube subscribers and students have hundreds of users combined for sure as well. So what have you seen as the best retention strategy? What do you think is the playbook to retain agency clients? In 2025 and beyond, beyond what we talked about, the voice and making the CRM super integrated so they can't leave. That's all fine, but how about actually keeping them for super long term? What have you seen as the golden nuggets, uh, that can keep them?

In the beginning, you should just be— if you're a beginner now, I'll get into the advanced part in a sec, but if you're a beginner, your whole focus should be going in and making sure that they rely on you. Like, take over their payment processors. Make it easy. Set up automations to make that part easy. Like, go in and make it so that, again, if they leave, it's painful. What I've seen, and I'm sure you can agree on this, I've seen so many people where they give local SEO or ads or a lower, you know, go high-level service, and their clients will leave, and they don't even know that they left, or they're like, what were you doing in the first place? Because the agency, it's not enough value. But if you can take over those basic things where you basically are running that side of the business. Again, it comes down to what you're providing them and the problems you're solving. Because if you can take over the right amount of stuff, and we'll get into upselling in a second, your clients will pretty much pay you forever. I mean, I have clients that are still paying me from 2020. Serious. I'm not even— and they, they talk to me maybe once every 7 months. Because I've solved enough of their core problems. The price is just right and they don't need to worry about it. And I think people are trying to get away with giving the least amount of value possible. And if you can just go in and solve that, you know, that value problem for them and be— and when I say value, I mean like they need you. You're, you're, you're never, they're never going to leave. And I have experience with this. And then from there, the next core thing is, is upselling to bigger services or doing it for free. So you really, they can't leave.

Hmm. No, I like that totally. I'm with you on that and I could totally agree. And in terms of pricing, I've seen this spectrum of people trying to lowball and race to the bottom type of people and not even following the MAP policy that HighLevel has and not honoring that. On the opposite spectrum, there is people who are selling ultra high setup fees and who are actually doing good as well, but at the same time they're not doing it the volume that they want. Right. Where do you see the sensitivity of pricing and what do you recommend from a pricing standpoint when you are actually starting, let's say somebody's beginning their CHL agency, what do you think they should sell for? What should be the pricing?

Yeah, this is a big one. A question I get asked a lot. And the answer is a little nuanced because I think that if your service is good enough, people will pay any price. They really will. Like, price is never the issue. And I think what people need to focus on in the beginning, and I know this sounds scary because a lot of people they, they just want money, but like, don't focus on money in the beginning. I'm telling you, it's, if you try to constantly focus on, okay, let me sell this for $297, $590, let me just do this money, money, you're never, you're gonna miss the point of, of, of delivering the value. Get in there, solve their core problems, then charge as much as you possibly can. That's the best. Now, for beginners, if you're selling AI voice agents and, and AI chatbots, I recommend anywhere from $197 to $297 a month to start. That's if, if you want basic pricing. But what I've seen people do is they'll go in. I had a guy in my group. I, I don't know if I can say his name right now. I, I wanna get him on an interview, but he basically went into this client, this landscaping client, and he started off by just giving him, you know, I think it was like an AI chatbot to answer his texts and this call text, but he went behind this guy's back and just set up everything in GoHighLevel for him. He basically just wanted to learn HighLevel. He was a new student of mine, and he went in and literally set up everything— a website, email cadences, forms, AI voice. I mean, like, everything. Did it in, like, a week. Wanted to learn. So he learned the software. The crazy part is, is he gave it to the guy. The guy, like, literally skyrocketed, like, the local SEO, the reputation management, brought in a lot of leads, saved him time, like, I think he like tripled the guy's revenue in a month, like crazy things. And it was so funny because he was charging, I think it was like $197 or $200, something in that really small range. He now charges $3,000 a month for that service. And he just has one client. He doesn't need, like, he's new. He doesn't even know what to do at this point. He's like, I'm not sure. He's a complete beginner, but like $3,000 for something that's set up and you don't really have to do any work once it's set up. That's not bad if you ask me, man.

It's definitely not. Yeah.

That was a beginner though. That was the thing is like he, and he kind of experimented, but with my, but my point is, is like you can take any client and if you build enough value, you can charge whatever the hell you want. As long as you're doing your due diligence and you're showing them that like, hey, I can make you money, dude, price is never the issue.

100%. I agree. I think, I think if you could add bottom line or save expenses, there's always a way for you to keep, you know, food on the table as an agency. So that's really interesting story right there. Now, um, I have a different question. You've been really educating a lot of people on YouTube as the GHL Wizard, and you've been, I would say, crushing it, uh, lately on YouTube. And, you know, you know, you've got the Bronze Award right there, you know, it kind of proves that, you know, enough people are getting under you for affiliate, right? I mean, you've been posting content, like, I think maybe 500+ videos combined, not including the podcast you've done and whatnot. Give us like a little content masterclass because people's attention span is screwed. Like it's a different intention right now what's happening in the media space. How do you see personal brand as a game? Give us like a little playbook on content creation and you know what's working for you.

Yeah, that's an interesting one. I mean, I'm new to the content game. I'll be honest. I'm not going to claim to be a master. I mean, I literally really started doing content maybe about 11 months to a year ago. Like, I really don't know content that well. I'm very new. I just have popped off really fast and been really successful with it. If I had to guess with content, again, I'm— this is— take this with a grain of salt because I'm not an expert. I'm more of an expert in SaaS at this point. What I would say is just provide really helpful videos. I mean, I think the one thing that I saw— I mean, I know it sounds dumb, but like, Really show them what's going on. When I first came in this space, a lot of the videos I was seeing is these guys were leaving out so much of it. And I'm not going to name any of their names, but like, they would come on and be like, okay, it's now time to set up an AI voice agent. So, and they wouldn't show it, but they'd be like, yeah, but you're just going to go to this tab, this tab, this tab, click this button. And now we're going to set it up. But it's like, first off, if I'm a beginner, I don't know what the hell you just said. Number 2, GoHighLevel interface updates every week.

Yeah.

So it's like, dude, your stuff is so misleading. So I came in and was like, let me make stuff as in-depth as possible. I'm starting to see that with other creators. They're actually putting more effort into videos. I mean, actually helping people. Like, if you're going to have a community, actually help people. Like, the reason I've grown so fast is I mean, and this is— I'm biased, but I also have data on this. But like, I have the best affiliate community in this space. By far, not just because everyone keeps telling me that, but because I have more testimonials and case studies than anyone I have seen yet. Because when they come in, what the other people do, and again, I'm not, I'm not knocking on anyone. I'm not naming any names, but they'll have, you know, some outdated course from 2021. That's not even relevant anymore. They have a couple really shitty snapshots and a community and that's it. They're with me. I have 6 live coaching calls you can attend. From real agency owners for free. I have about every kind of snapshot you could possibly want. I have AI prompts, I have sales scripts, I have consulting calls, I have, you know, done-for-you agency snapshot, like literally everything you could possibly need and some for free in the group. And we tell the truth too. Like if we get on calls, I don't get on. I'm like, hey everybody, there's, you know, this is this, this cool new feature. It'll make you some money. I get on, I'm like, get off your lazy asses and go prospect. Like, what are you like? Oh, now. But like, that's what people need to hear.

Yeah, I agree.

People keep sugarcoating this. They're like, oh, you don't have to work hard, you can just take it easy. But none of their people are winning. They have no testimonials. It's like, in the beginning, we're all idiots. Everyone has to accept that. You're gonna have to put some elbow grease into this. So it's like, yeah, I mean, I was a bit of a tangent, but yeah, I would say just providing value.

Makes sense. I mean, that's actually very true, right? Like, when you just consistently give value in your content, I think it's just a matter of time before you pop up, right? Like, before you actually, like, get big on, on socials. That's what Hormozy has done. I remember being his first 100 subscribers and he had like 7,000 followers. I asked him like, hey, can we do a podcast? And he, he replied me back then. This was— wow, he was even big, uh, you know. But anyways, but that's what he's done. He's just incredibly focused and just adding value. And I think that's what you're doing in the educational space. But I agree with you, there's definitely a lot of woo information in the HighLevel space about the features. But the reality is I think most agencies just need to remember how important getting leads and prospecting is because they take it lightly. They just think, oh, I build, people come. That's not how agency market works. You have to sell. Every day, make 10 to 20 offers every day to be able to get consistent clients. To get 10 prospects to see your offer, you have to have hundreds of leads every day. So prospecting is— so I totally agree. Now let's go on the tangent of—

wait, really quickly, really quick, I have to go to the bathroom. Just pause.

Yeah, yeah, sure, sure, we got this. Now let's go to a different tangent, uh, Declan. When we talk about SaaS, right, like $197, $297, this is cool, like low churn, a lot of clients, not doing any service, just implementing the CRM once and managing them over time. Like, that sounds super cool. When it comes to actually profiting a lot and taking home a lot of money, yes, the recurring revenue creates stability and, you know, make sure you're not in the hunt and survival mode. But also to make a lot of profits, you have to crack the high ticket, the ascension, the upsell of your existing SaaS users or your agency clients, right? What have you seen as a good playbook that works well? To convert SaaS users into high-ticket clients and the different upsells that agencies could do to keep profiting more while adding value.

Yeah, another, another great one. I actually created an 11-hour video on this that's called Sell GoHighLevel Smart. Start with small features, upsell the big features, which sounds really big, but I get into it. What I do is I have people start with AI because first thing you want to solve the core problem because before I get into the upsell sequence, you want to make sure that you have a proper downsell sequence, which means you don't want to go in, you have on AI agents, you upsell, and then they cancel everything. If you ever upsell, you want them to default back to the original plan, which is why step number 1 is locking in the agents to CRM, just having enough so they won't leave. From there, once you know they're not going to leave, I recommend going to a higher ticket plan, which would be a really a combination between reputation management and local SEO, which are kind of the same thing at this point in, you know, in a way, because that's going to start bringing in a lot of leads over time. Okay. And then if you need to, you can run ads, but local SEO and reputation management, I think, are only going to get more important because reviews are one of the only things that I have seen that you can't fake with AI. You can build AI posts, you can do this, but Google tracks the IP addresses of the Gmail. You leave it like you can't fake that. So that is going to be even more important when like you're trying to find businesses on ChatGPT, Gemini, Grok, wherever you're, you know, you're searching. Reviews are going to be super important. So that upsell, I mean, you can charge $1,000, $2,000, $3,000 a month for that whole local SEO reputation management package. And once you set it up, it's pretty much autopilot for the most part. Now, Ads is a tricky one because depending on the industry, it's all different. Like it is. I think that if you can get your Google Business Profile ranked high enough, I think dipping into Google Local Service Ads can be a very good upsell. But those only tend to work really well if the Google Business Profile is very optimized and has a lot of reviews. If you can get that dialed in, that's a whole other upsell. But again, it depends on the industry. Depends on the industry.

Interesting. See, like, one thing I could definitely mention is you know what you're talking about. So like, you've seen, like, you're actually getting your hands dirty and, you know, actually to be able to like speak the language. And usually, like, I watch YouTube videos and whatnot of other people teaching HighLevel, and the surface level stuff just surfs off. It just sounds so easy, but when you actually start doing it, you're like, what in the world is happening?

That's so funny that you say that. Cause when I first got into the content game, cause I had an agency, you know, I've been doing this for a long time. Like I've had to go through so many of these problems through my, like on my own and with a team that like, I know the nuances to the point, like when I hear people talking online on these videos, I know immediately if they're bullshitting or not. And the vast majority of them, I'm like, dude, you guys have no clue what you're talking. Cause they're just saying a bunch of words. I mean, I'm sure you see the same thing. Like they don't know what they're talking about.

Yeah, that's really funny. Now, what's up with your dressing? I see, like, I was one of the speakers at the High Level Summit 2024, you know, and I saw you with the same Versace, you know, when you're walking for, you know, the gold award, because I was in the same room then. So, and even this time when you were at the Summit 2025, you were in the white.

I was a white, pink, and what was it? Gold.

You were prepared, dude. Like, for 3 different awards, you were prepared to keep changing. So how do you look at materialism and wealth in general? What's your perspective on it?

That's an interesting question. That's a more metaphysical question. That's an interesting one. So I think obviously AI is a whole topic with wealth creation and that kind of gets weird, but like I ultimately see money as a way to fast-track whatever you want. Now I have an example for you, cause I think there's too many people. Again, you, I'm sure you understand people that think money is evil or that material goods are bad. They have this weird kind of thing because they've never had it. But like I had this really interesting moment one time where, cause I used to box a lot and do mixed martial arts where I've seen, yeah, I would go to the classes, the group classes and do all this stuff. I would learn, I'd be good, you know, learn the skills. But then I paid a coach for a month of one-on-one sessions. It was way more money, but in that one month, I didn't become like 1x better, I became like 5x better. It was like insane. And I remember thinking, and this is before I had really very much money, but I remember thinking like, dude, if I had more money, I could have just fast-tracked all of my boxing, Muay Thai, and jiu-jitsu skills. And I remember being like, This wasn't about having money. It was about literally buying time. And I couldn't understand that until I went through that. So what I started to see money as a materialism and all this stuff in general is like, it literally is a way to get your time back because you can fast-track things. If you want to learn something, you can pay a better price and learn it quicker. Like it's literally a shortcut in my— and it can solve so many of your problems.

Wow. That's a very, very thoughtful answer. That's like a really interesting tangent on how you look at income and money in general. That's a very thoughtful answer. Let's go to a different set of questions. Obviously, HighLevel would be top of this list, but what other tools do you use on a daily basis to manage your business, your client success, your coaching business, and everything altogether? Give us the tool stack and the functions you're using.

A lot of ChatGPT.

Google products.

I mean, that's really it. Like, I, I really don't use a lot of other softwares. Like, people think, like, because a lot of other people, they add all this stuff on HighLevel. I mostly just use HighLevel. That's really it. And then, I mean, I'm serious. I don't, I don't feel the need to. So, and then a couple other basic stuff, but that's pretty much it.

Yeah. See, like, I remember asking the same question, uh, because I've been doing this podcast from like 5 years now, uh, we used to listen to like 15 different tool names and Once the HighLevel picked up, everybody just says HighLevel and that's it. I was like, whoa, like I should probably not ask this question because we are getting the same answer every time. So we should just answer that question instead. So let's get to like an average routine. I know you have, you know, your coaching clients for, you know, the HighLevel affiliate side, but also your SaaS clients and agency. So give us like an average rundown on how your day looks like.

So it varies from day to day, but usually I'll start off Immediately get to work. I don't really have like a morning routine. I just grab some coffee. I'll immediately go in and I'll usually start prepping for videos. So I have a whole team that takes care of a lot of the side of things. But then with SaaS, it really is just me checking on, on my team. I have some VAs, I have a couple of employees, like it, a lot of it's just me managing. A lot of my time does go into video creation at this point because I'm new to that and I'm like trying to figure out what videos work well. So that's kind of what I've been focusing on. But Other than that, I mean, it's just working and then I'll exercise, go for a walk, go to boxing or something like that. That's pretty much it. And I try to get as much sleep as possible.

But you sound so much like Hormozy. Like, did he have a lot of influence on you?

Or I actually, I don't watch very many creators. Like I just don't on YouTube. He's one of the only people I watch because he's, he's given me so much. I mean, I've, like, I've probably paid close to $150 grand on online courses over my entire sphere. Like, I've paid so much money for online courses, and Alex Hormozi's videos on YouTube have helped me more than any online course ever. Like, I'm not even kidding you. Like, they really have. It's shocking. It's just because it's so simple, and it's like, it's what I need to hear, not what I want to hear. Yeah, I just, I go back to that.

Yeah, 100%. And just, he, he keeps reminding you on what needs to be done instead of trying to come up with cool stuff.

Like, that's so—

that's— I, I remember the OG videos, like, back in the day. He's just sit behind a wall and just talk business about, like, how Jim Rohn scaled. And I remember those videos, and it used to be, like, crazy value. Still it is. I'm just saying, like, now it's like I've consumed so much, kind of became a little repetitive, but he still drops nuggets here and there. Yeah, yeah. If you could go back and talk to the 20-year-old yourself, the younger version— how old are you right now?

25.

Jeez, so you're not even that old. Anyway, if you could go back to the 5-year-old version of you just getting started agency, and let's say you're starting right now in 2026, what would be your game plan? What would be a suggestion to yourself?

Get on YouTube earlier. I can't believe it. I mean, I, dude, I would be, I mean, I would be like, MrBeast of GHIO. Literally, like, I, I, It's actually, it's one of the few things I regret. Like, I, I don't live in the past.

I don't.

I just block it out of my mind. Like, I live in the future more. But like, it's the one thing that when I go back down memory lane, I'm like, man, because I had all these thoughts like, maybe I should do YouTube, maybe I should do all throughout 2020, '21, '22. If I did that earlier, dude, it, it's painful. But that, that would be it because everything else was a learning lesson that— but that was the only thing that I neglected.

Yeah, yeah, I, I totally can relate with that.

I agree.

Yeah, I could totally relate with that. That makes a lot of sense. Uh, what's your life's biggest achievements so far and what are your next big goals?

That's a good one. So, so far there's a couple. I mean, first, I think I wouldn't say— obviously no one wins at the online game, but like, I think when you get past certain revenue markers and you start to like you just have a compounding vehicle and you have enough to pretty much do whatever you want. That's kind of like something I always wanted and I've already achieved that. So I mean, as far as like crowning achievements in my life, I mean, that would probably be one of them. There's a couple, I'm trying to think of something that's more tangible and make more sense. I will say for future stuff, definitely going after the diamond plaque, which I think I can get and then Affiliate of the Year, which I know I can, because I'm at the pace I'm moving, dude. I'm, I'm telling you, I'm not gonna drop any numbers, but from what I see what other people are doing, I'm smoking people right now. There's only a couple people that are doing better than me that are like the top, top dogs, because I've, I've asked around and it's kind of interesting to see. I've really popped off the last 4 or 5 months. I'm like, I want that Affiliate of the Year award. Give it to me.

Yeah, yeah, the commander jacket, huh? You're going for it. For sure.

I want the affiliate of the year though.

Like, you know, that's the ultimate status. Yeah. That's like the, that's like the, now nobody can like talk shit. Like once you get there.

I'm also, I'm also trying to get on some, some really, really, really big podcasts, which you'll, I don't want to say anything because I don't want to jinx it, but I'm, I have some things in place. They're pretty big, dude. They're pretty big, but it's just hard because like Yeah, I know a few people, uh, you know, who are—

I could connect you with, you know, with some good names, uh, for that for sure. So, um, what inspires you? I mean, you know, like you said, you have this agency journey for so long, you have consistent SaaS recurring revenue coming up, and now the affiliate side is going to pop off with you becoming big on YouTube. Technically, even if you just sleep on the bed, you should be fine for like a good few months, if not years. So what inspires you to wake up and get to work and actually grind for making videos and learning content and doing podcasts? Like, what's your reason you're still doing this?

You know what's funny? It started off as just like making money doing this stuff. But honestly, with AI becoming as powerful as it's become, it's almost like there's kind of like a, I don't want to say an urgency, but like AI is moving so fast and no one can predict where it's going. Going, but like, if it keeps getting better and better, like, it's gonna do everything for everyone, and it's basically gonna enslave humanity. I mean, if you take it to like 10, 20 years— well, again, everything turns out different than we think. It's, it's going to be somewhere in the middle. But I, I just like, I think right now there's like, it's, it's really an easy time to make money online, and I think it's just important to, if you have a winning, like, wind at your, your sails, to maximize that as much as you can, because who knows what's going to happen. And I've seen so many people talk about like, oh, I was doing this and then it ended. Or I used to— because I have a lot of friends that like back in the 2000s up to 2010 were— had huge SEO agencies. They were buying Lamborghinis every other week. Like, it was retarded. But then what happened was is that like Google changed and it wasn't so easy to do and they lost clients. So like I think there's an easy mental shift that people do where it's going to be like this forever when it's not.

It's not true.

Yeah, exactly. We have to be ready to change. But like, while we're winning, win hard now because I don't want to have any regrets. I don't be like, oh, I kind of went hard. It's like, I want to maximize this beautiful period where it's awesome. Because who knows what the future is going to be? Who knows?

I think that's a very interesting perspective because I do believe what you said was absolutely true because all the markets work in like cycles, right? Like, yeah, if you look at the biggest business in the world, they were banking when the cycle was running. They were not assuming that it would run forever. They were just banking. Yeah, the moment. And yes, I think now it's the GHL moment. So whoever is not on the, on the, on the pedal yet, you know, get on the rocket ship, otherwise you might be left behind.

Well, Alex, I have to say one thing really quick, uh, really quick, Nick, is Alex Chamosi said something really interesting to me, and he said someone said this to him, but I saw it in one of his videos. It was so interesting. He was saying that this guy came up to him and said— I'm sure you've heard this— he said, when everything is going bad, try harder. And he said, when everything is going well, try hardest. Which is interesting because it's like, well, you should try hardest when you're doing bad. But he was saying, he's like, when you have the win, like when you have that momentum where everything's right, he's That's when you want to absolutely pedal to the metal, like attack. Yeah, hammer. And I always was like, what? But that's kind of what I'm seeing. I'm like, I'm winning right now. Maybe I should just like 20x what I'm doing. 2 YouTube videos a day. Like just go all out. Like, you know what I mean? Like, I mean, do you feel that same way? It's kind of an interesting point.

100%. I think, yeah, Mad Max, dude. Like, yeah, I totally agree. I've seen Hermosi saying, hey, you know what? So many people ask me how I'm running this 100 million brand. This is again Hermosi. I might not be quoting him exactly. Technically, but he said many million-dollar brands come to me, they post 1 times a day, we post 100. It's literally just the volume difference. We are doing 100 mil because we are posting 100 pieces of content a day. You're doing a mil because you're posting 1 time a day. And I was like, whoa, like that's like, that's like a bell bond. Like you just have to do more and just, you know, like that's, that's crazy, you know. And, uh, yeah, it's, it's crazy. Uh, so yeah, it's been pretty awesome, man. Like whoever is listening to and they might be like, you know what, I like his Versace dress, I like the plaques he has behind him, and I want to learn from the client overall. How do they get in touch? What's the best way they could follow you or take the next steps to get mentorship and whatnot?

Yeah, I would say just go to my YouTube channel. It's GHL Wizard. You'll find it very easily. I have tons of stuff for free. I don't really sell any high-ticket coaching programs or courses. It is really none of that. So it's like you can come in.

Is that not how you made your money?

No, I give everything for free, man. That's the crazy part.

No, I'm mocking, but you get the point.

I know, I know. I just realized. I was like, ah, I see what he's doing. But you can come in and like go on my YouTube channel. I put everything on my YouTube channel so you can learn literally everything. And then in the community, when you sign up with HighLevel, I mean, we got 6 to 7 live coaching calls per week, attend for free with real agency owners. Not coaches. Big distinction. I didn't hire some idiot. They're real agents. We have every snapshot you could possibly want. We have AI scripts, sales scripts, AI prompts, done-for-you websites, done-for-you automations, outreach systems, training modules on everything. Like, it has everything and you can have it for free. So that's what I tell people. Just go. It's yours. But take action. You got to work. You can't, you can't come in and be lazy. You got to go and do the work.

I hear this so many times, like, oh, I want to sign up for a gym, but I don't want to sleep well, not eat well, but I want to get fit. Dude, you have to pay the price. Yeah, yeah, that's super cool. You know, you're giving a lot of ton of bonuses to join, uh, under you for GHL and a lot of value on your YouTube. So guys, check out GHL Wizard on YouTube, and hopefully you'll have a good time working with him closer. And the clan, it was pretty awesome having you on. Any last words to conclude the whole show for today?

Well, I would say the first thing is thank you so much, Nick, for having me on, dude. I really appreciate you taking the time, man, and me sharing this message. It means a lot. So first off, thank you. The second thing I would say is, like, whatever you're doing right now with AI, with just the way the world is, like, just do more volume. Like, I tell people this constantly, but like, I think there is such an opportunity we have. Like, I think, again, I don't know all of history because I wasn't there for it, but from what I've read, like in the whole timeline that I see right now is possibly the easiest time I've ever seen ever to make money and get wealthy. Like it's never been easier. You have all the knowledge at your fingertips. You have everything you could possibly need. You know, for the most part, you're not getting attacked by tribes or I mean, maybe if you're in another part of the world, like it's never been easier. So it's like, just take advantage of that. Cause it's not always going to be like that. It's not. So, so take advantage of it now. So that's all I would say.

100%.

We live in a golden age.

Yeah, yeah. This is the time we all worked for for centuries, and here we are. So I think you should take advantage of it, not take it lightly. That's a really good message. Once again, man, thank you so much for joining. And guys, hopefully you really enjoyed this podcast. Share this with all your nerdy GHL friends because there was a lot of beans spilled around about what offers and packaging and high ticket, how to do ascension, client retention. We talked about everything. Basically, this is like a GHL masterclass. From the wizard himself. So hopefully we'll see you popping up more and, uh, you know, getting the awards and, you know, the, the achievements you wanted to achieve. And congratulations once again, and thank you so much for your time. And guys, share this, comment, subscribe, and hopefully we'll have Declan once again, he gets the Diamond or the Affiliate of the Year. Let's, let's go for it. Yes, sir.

All right, thanks, man.

Cheers.