Guide · Michel's Guides

Build a $1M/year cold email agency from zero

The exact playbook Michel Lieben would run if he had to restart ColdIQ today: pick a wedge you can dominate, build trust in public, and do one revenue-generating activity every single day.

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What you will build

Lead generation is one of the most commoditized markets on the planet. Thousands of agencies make the same claims, copy the same tutorials, and chase the same clients. This guide gives you the counter-play: instead of positioning as "the best outbound agency," you carve out one under-tapped component of outbound and become the first name people think of for it.

By the end you'll have a positioning wedge you can own, a LinkedIn content loop that builds trust before you ever pitch, a feedback system that tells you what prospects actually pay for (not what they say they want), and a daily revenue-generating activity you commit to for a year.

This is the same path ColdIQ took from a $3K/month side retainer to an agency running outbound for roughly 70 B2B clients and generating $6M per year, with over 50 of those clients powered by Instantly.

Prerequisites

What you need before you start

01 · LinkedIn account

Your trust-building and feedback channel. You'll post here and mine the engagement.

02 · Instantly account (or similar sending tool)

You'll need sending infrastructure to hit 500 cold emails per day.

03 · One outbound skill you can go deep on

Data sourcing, deliverability, AI personalization, Clay workflows — anything you can credibly dominate.

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Step 01

Pick one slice of outbound you can dominate

Do not copy successful agencies move for move. When people clone Growth Engine X's Clay tutorials or ColdIQ's tool breakdowns, they miss why those work: each agency dominated a subcomponent of outbound first. Eric Nowoslawski owns Clay expertise on YouTube; ColdIQ positions as the most technology-savvy outbound agency rather than "the best." Map the components of outbound, find one that is under-tapped, and become the reference for it. Michel's example of an open lane: nobody produces genuinely advanced content on AI prompting for personalization at scale.

Step 02

Charge for implementation before you feel ready

ColdIQ started by accident. Michel was writing educational content about sales tools to earn 20-40% recurring affiliate fees, and readers kept asking him to implement the systems instead. He refused until he needed the money, quoted one prospect $3K/month, and the prospect accepted. The client was happy with roughly one day per week of work — the same $3K his full-time job paid for a whole month. The lesson: done-for-you implementation out-earns content and affiliate income dramatically, so quote a flat monthly retainer as soon as someone asks you to do it for them.

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