How Sascha Scaled His Cold Email Agency to $50,000 MRR

When I joined him, he already had some customers, but now we just streamline things and it's so much fun to like directly see the things you're saying in the program that we can use them. It works for us and just like get ahead step by step. And coming from the uncertainty of a startup, you gave us a lot of certainty there and trust that it's possible. And you see so many other people succeeding. Right. So it's just completely different and you really have to change your mindset. Just do what what they tell you and it is working and then you, you grow and you. Yeah, get ahead.

It's.

That's really nice.

What's going on guys? Andre Hagel Jr. Here from client Ascension, back with another student spotlight interview here with my man Sasha. How you doing, brother?

Hey. I'm really good. How are you?

Good, good, good man. I'm pumped for this one. Because you have a very unique background compared to most Client Ascension students. I would consider you like a very seasoned entrepreneur having the experience working in a, in a VC backed startup. I think you are even a YC backed, super cool. And the connections and the experience that comes from that is second to none, especially just being in this really fast developing space that we're in. But besides that, you came into Client Ascension just at the start of this year, in 2025, I think in January. Now we're in March, so around three months ago. And you've achieved some pretty amazing results, basically starting your agency and going, you mentioned at least. So the funny thing for the audience is we had this scheduled a couple weeks ago. We both had some scheduling difficulties that led this to now being scheduled today. But when you filled out the form, you, you mentioned that you did 32k in the first three months and then now you're telling me that you just recently reached 50k a month in February, in March, which is some amazing growth. So I'm excited to talk about that with you today.

Yeah, it was a really cool ride. Yeah. And we're doing quite well right now. Yeah, happy about that.

That's awesome, man. So take me back. How is it transition from you know, being in, in like a startup environment with YC to then going in and doing your own thing? That's more so like a cash flow business.

Yeah, I mean it's, it's really different and, but it's exciting now to like running cash flow business, like being lean, actually making money and seeing profits at the end of the month. So that's really cool. And yeah, it's, it's just really different, like coming from a background where in a startup where you know you're like working for the pipe dream, let's say you know something, you want to build something, you don't even know what to sell. So there's a lot of uncertainty all the time. Every call you go into, like, it's not really a sales call, it's more of a consulting call because you try to figure out, can we help them now running over now to like actually just following the client Ascension process of you have a good offer. Like, that's the first really different thing. Like, we have a clear offer, we know what to sell, and then just like run that through a funnel and getting clients and then getting results for them. It's completely different, but a lot of fun. Yeah.

Yeah, that's awesome, man. And, and what was it like early on? Like, I know you were in Client Ascension while you were working on other things, but since working on this agency offer specifically, like, what was the start like? Because starting from scratch is always pretty scary, but it's also exciting because you have like a blank slate and you can take learnings and experiences from previous things you did and apply them right away. But, like, what was that experience like? Just getting started. And how did you use a program like Client Ascension to speed up that process?

Yes. So I mean, I have my business partner, Fabian, who's like, he started working on this last year. We've been like, he's also in Y Combinator. We've been on the phone for the last three years every weeks, first sharing our, like, struggles as a CEO and now he was transitioning out of the last year, starting his agency and I was always talking about him and I was already following Client Ascension content and it was like, it could be things you can do different. And I would really love to join, but I was still committed to my style and wanted to do that. And now, then when I, when I joined him, he already had some customers, but now we just streamline things and it's so much fun to like, directly see the things you're saying in the program that we can use them, we can, it works for us and just like get ahead step by step. And coming from the uncertainty of a startup where you never know if things work to like, the things you gave us a lot of certainty there and trust that it's possible. And you see so many other people succeeding. Right. So it's, it's just completely different. And you, you really have to change your mindset there. Like, it's from going from you're not sure if it's working to now just do what what they tell you and it is working and then you, you grow and you get ahead.

It's.

That's really nice.

It's cool because we could both speak from experience running more like a software type company and like a startup because we have list kit that we're currently working on and you had your, your YC startup and like it's a grind, it's high pressure, it's low pay. Right. Like you're working crazy hours and you're really not able to take much out of the business because it's all got to get reinvested in growth to then going into like an agency or coaching program or something that's just more cash flow. Like you see the reward a lot faster and with a lot more confidence and certainty that it's going to be there. Because it's not like the environment of a startup or software. So you have a lot more control over cash flow and there's obviously benefits to both. Right. Like the goal of a software or YC backed startup is to go for a major exit and get rich off of, you know, one big capital event. But it's really also fun to run an agency and have nice cash flow coming in. So yeah, what were some of those things? Because agency offers specifically, they work real different and that's what we specialize in teaching in client attention. What were some of the things that we taught or told you to do early on in the process that you like immediately saw results from?

I mean probably the biggest change was the whole offer coaching and everything around offers for the agency. You really teach that quite well that you need a clear offer. It has to be an offer that works for Cole. Especially since you, you're starting out just having that, a strong offer, formulate that well and then go out and just sell and fulfill on that. Where we don't have that in a startup, right? Because like we, I mean we, we pivoted on the way. We just, we didn't really know what we were selling so we were trying something there. So that was just like specifically something that, that completely changed my mind also like from coming from a lot of uncertainty how to run a business and make it profitable in the startup to make the agency is clear, you need a good offer. You don't need to be like cute about it or like come up with something crazy. There are many things out there for Internet based companies that work. Just pick something that like aligns with your skill Set and you even enjoy doing and then just like have a good offer around that and just execute on that.

Yeah. And I feel like this comes up a lot on my student spotlight interviews, like the offer. And I feel like I can relate to the audience for not really like understanding what we mean by that. Because, like, what do you mean an offer? Like, I sell cool email services. Like, that's my offer. And it's like, well, okay, if you were to go through the training with Daniel Fazio and Client Ascension, like, the offer is so much more than that and there's so many components that go into it. So, like, what were some of the things you learned Just going through our offers, training and working with Daniel on like, hey, it's not just cold email services, it's all the rest of this and here's how to frame it and here's how to sell it and here's how to message about it. Because that's the biggest difference. You could have the best product and the best team and the best customer support. But if you don't know how to frame and message your offer, no one will buy in the first place. I see it all the time. And you probably see it now. Looking back in the YC world, it's like you have a lot of good products and cool tech and engineers, but they don't know how to offer, they don't know how to sell. So what were some of those things that Daniel pointed out that really stuck with you?

Yeah, I mean, specifically for us, like the difference from telling people I'm running a cold email agency or a cold email service, to going to someone like a lead and telling them we can book you 10 to 20 qualified sales meetings into your calendar. And even risk free in terms of we do performance based, that's just a clear offer. Like 10 to 15 qualified sales meeting into your calendar on a performance basis compared to, hey, I'm doing a cola service, you're interested in that. So that's just like this. The specific framing there, then the risk reversal he's teaching. Especially if you're starting out. I mean, we are a bit lucky since we're YC founders, we have some inbuilt trust. Let's say people like give you some authority with that. But still, if you're starting out with no testimonials in beginning, just adding a risk, reverse reversal on top of that just makes it easier to sell and also more clear what you're doing.

So yeah, yeah, makes sense. Yeah. And it's surface level stuff that we're talking about here, but like, Daniel's got hours and hours of videos in Client Ascension on teaching, like offers that sell. And the nice thing with Client Ascension is we've put, you know, over a thousand students through the program since we've started. And we started the business like four years ago at this point. So we've been doing it for quite a while. We also run offers ourselves like at Lizkit and at Client Ascension with different things that we do at Client Ascension like with challenges and low ticket and high ticket. So we also teach, you know, based on experience, which I think is why we're able to produce a lot of case studies. Like yourself, what were some. What were some things in the program that stood out compared to maybe working in like an environment like yc? Like maybe talk about the relationship with like your student success coach or even just having access to other expert coaches in the program that can help with different like challenges or steps that you're going through in the business.

Yeah, I mean, specifically for like an. As an agency owner, what really what I love is the like so many weekly calls that different topics and I like usually I always attend the same calls which are relevant to me, but specifically for me, there's like two cold email calls every week where I can just oftentimes honestly listen in. But I get information about other people running cold emails so I can get new ideas out of that. That really helps. Then I mean Daniel's call is like, probably that's worth the investment already with Daniel and like his inputs on marketing, other offers. Just like it helps me so much and to being like on top of my game and just being. Having a bunch of good ideas, seeing other people doing this. And also like the coaches are really good at just telling people again and again, don't overcomplicate it. Do the things. These are mostly basic things in the beginning to get to your like first five, 10 customers. Just having this reminder from like the community in being in calls. That's super helpful to me especially as someone who's like used to think big and overthink maybe to. To see like these. Concentrate on these actionable things.

Yeah, 100%, dude. And that's like the simplicity of it as well. Where I think people get tripped up is they. They like to over complicate things or they like to, you know, ask a bunch of questions and try to, you know, come up with like a unique way of doing things. And it's like, no, like the, the things that we're telling you to do. We've Seen them work time and time again. I think this specific case study interview is like my 75th case study interview on my YouTube channel. Daniel's got over 20, Christian's got a handful. So like we've done over a hundred of these interviews with successful students and it's always the same thing. They always tell me that they just listen to the coaching and to the advice and to the action items that we assign to them and when they implemented it, they got results. Um, and I can tell you the students that don't end up being, you know, on a spotlight interview like this, they're still questioning and doubting the things that we're telling them they need to do and kind of speaks for itself.

Yeah, no, but honestly, that's something I, I probably, I wish I could go back 10 years in time. I wanted to be like, like self employed or entrepreneurs, like 15 years or something and never really took the jump before I had like the startup idea. But I always was thinking, you need an idea, you need an idea of other people. There's like talking to other people, friends who want to start something, like, yeah, I just need an idea. But it's, that's something you like. It's really clear now to me, you don't need an idea. There's so many businesses that work and they need another good person delivering that service if you just commit to it and even don't be too creative with it. Just pick a basic business and get started. And I really oftentimes think to myself like, I wish I would have had this realization 10 years ago or something would be so, so valuable. So yeah, that's one of the biggest learnings for me and so helpful.

I think everyone goes through that learning. Right. It's nice inclined ascension because we get a lot of these younger guys that are just kind of open to whatever and they really, you know, look up to us and respect us from the content that we post and the results that we've been able to get. But you have, you know, more seasoned business owners like yourself that come in and rightfully so. Like you got to think through and, and make sure you know, what we're telling you to implement is aligned with your goals and what you want for your business. But yeah, there's, there's some that do it a little bit more than others and, and you can see in their results like the impact of, of delaying and overthinking and trying to rationalize things that have already been proven to work. So it's great that you've overcome that. Roadblock and are now, you know, able to implement rapidly and, and, you know, see the results, because you've gotten some pretty amazing results. You've scaled to 50,000amonth with your agency, which is awesome. And one thing you pointed out that the audience should know of is like the cold email support, right? So you run a cold email agency. There's a lot of cold email agencies and client attention. That's a benefit in itself because you get to see what other cold email guys are doing and you can help them and get help from them. Because I think a lot of people will be surprised to join client attention and see how supportive our community is, even though there's people that are naturally competing with each other. But then we also have coaches like Nick Abraham runs a huge cold email agency. Matt Lucero runs a whole huge cold email agency. And then cold email Chris runs a huge cold email agency. They all host weekly calls in client ascension, helping other cold email agencies like yourself to succeed. So I think the culture of it's really cool too, where if you want help, you'll get it. And as long as everyone's paying it forward and helping each other and not trying to hide and not disclose information on things that are working or what could be working, it creates a really cool environment and sets you up to get the support and the help you need. And then you start to realize, like, yeah, everyone can win. It's not just one cold email agency is going to survive. Like, we could all do really well. So, yeah, pretty cool. What's one piece of advice you'd have for, let's say, a student in the program that is just been in there for a while and are just not making the progress that they wanted, they're not getting the results. They're not, you know, at 50k a month in three months like you are, they're just falling behind and they're, they're dissatisfied. Like, the program is is there at their fingertips, the weekly coaching calls are there. Their student success coaches, they're trying to help them. Like, what are some things, though, that they can do that can start to show them? Like, here's a quick winner. Here's, you know, a quick way to see success and to start to build the belief and the momentum they need to grow?

I mean, it's really as simple as just follow the advice that's given to you and don't overthink it. And that's really it. Like, talk to your students success coach. They know which step you are. They will point to you what you should be doing right now and just really do it, like execute it. I mean there's so many information in Kajabi which can just follow along, execute on that. Don't overthink it. Think it. And if you have questions, go to like the coaching call and then even follow up there. Like I see, since I'm like in all cold email calls just to listen in every week I see people who like jumping from three different calls and ask for the same advice over and over again. Where you see they are overthinking. And there's something actually in yc they told us quite early, it's like don't shop for advice. Where like don't go to five different partners or coaches and try just to get different input. Probably they have different input, but it's almost the same. And just like trust them. They are far ahead than you and they can certainly help you if you just trust it. And I know it's. It's not about a trust where you think they're not true just. But you're overthinking it and oftentimes it's just like committing to the. Yeah. To the action and. And just follow through with it. I think also Daniel sent his email newsletter about yesterday about like, it's the boring things where like 80% of your day, every day is just like executing on basic things.

That's it. That's literally it. 80%. Yep. So that's awesome, man. I'm really happy to hear that you've been able to implement and get results and yeah, just. Just not go shopping for. For more input and advice. I think people love like, do people love to just go and hear advice and motivational speeches and you know, like watch YouTube videos and read Twitter threads and it's like you spend all day doing that instead of implementing. You're never going to make progr. It's really cool that you found, you know, a community and specific coaches that you trust and can work with directly to get, you know, really quickly the advice in the direction you need and then you can go to work and implement and you know, now see the results from it. So congrats on that. For people listening in that want, you know, access to the same information and advice that you're getting. They could just go to clientessension. Com. As always, we don't really pitch hard in these videos ever. But it's there. It's always been there. It's available to you@clientessension.com if we're a good fit to work together. I'm sure eventually we'll work together. It doesn't have to be right now, but if you're interested in at least, you know, seeing what that's all about, you could go to clientessension.com but for you, Sasha, outside of Slack, where other Client Ascension members that are watching this can just simply DM you in Slack to connect, where can the rest of our audience find you and follow you online?

Yeah, so I'm, yeah, we're not doing that much social yet, but I'm on LinkedIn. You can find me, certainly reach out there or just go to our website, operatana.com and then you can find us there, book a meeting and then if you ever need anything, cold email or go to Market Sales Engineering, we would love to talk to you and, and hopefully help you. Yeah.

Awesome. Thanks, Sasha, for being an ideal student here at Client Ascension and congrats on all the results and I look forward to seeing you continue to build on success you've had so far.

Yeah, thank you. And really, like you didn't want me to say it, but I would like be reminiscent if I wouldn't say it. If you're on the fence, you want to start an online business or you already started but you're stuck. I really think for me, Client Ascension was life changing. It helped me so much, so much clarity to follow along. So yeah, just, I mean, consume some, some stuff on YouTube. You will see there's so much value and it's really, really helpful.

Yeah, I appreciate that, Sasha. Thank you so much, brother. Appreciate you keep crushing out there.

Yeah, same. Take care. Bye.