Key Takeaways
- Adam McChesney built about 200 websites before he really sold one, then used them as proof when he went full time in July 2020.
- His first full-time month brought in zero new business. Daily personal brand content and 5 to 10 short video audits a day turned it around.
- He says his agency finished last year at about $2.1 million and sits around $200,000 a month in recurring revenue.
- Every client is on SEO plus HighLevel, with paid ads only as an add-on. He won't sell paid ads by themselves anymore.
- His edge is consulting. Sometimes a business doesn't need more leads, it needs to stop losing the ones it has.
Agency case studies usually show the highlight reel. HighLevel's new case study with Adam McChesney, founder of Builders for Authority, spends a lot of its hour on the lows: a first month with no sales, a partnership that fell apart in 2024, and a full restart. We're On Point Tech Solutions, a GHL consultant in the Bay Area working out of Los Gatos, and this is the most useful agency story we've watched in a while. Here's what stood out, with every number as Adam gave it in the interview.
200 Websites Before the First Real Sale
Adam was in medical device sales, on the road most of the time. In November 2018, sitting in a Kansas City hotel room before Thanksgiving, he decided he wanted his time back. He searched how to make money online, clicked a Facebook ad, and spent $7,000 on a course about building and ranking websites he'd own.
His first site, an appliance repair page in St. Louis, hit the first page of Google in about a month. Then he kept building. Around 200 sites between 2018 and 2020. The catch: he was too nervous to call business owners and charge them. He gave leads away for free until the owners asked to pay. One appliance repair tenant has paid him about $500 a month since 2019 on a site that costs him about $20 a month to run.
That pile of sites became his sales pitch. When he went full time, he could show a roofer or a tree service real rankings and real call volume in their own trade.
The Month With Zero Sales
July 2020 was his first full-time month, and he sold nothing. Worse than when it was a side hustle. So he joined a mastermind, hired a coach, and started posting on Facebook every day. His first client came about 90 days later from that content, and that client is still with him.
His daily revenue activity was simple: 5 to 10 video audits, each a 4 to 5 minute Loom, sent to business owners every day. He still sends them. His take on agency owners who stall is blunt. Polishing SOPs, redesigning your own site for the tenth time and switching niches are often just ways to avoid selling.
The numbers followed. About $150,000 in 2020, $750,000 in 2021 and $1.7 million in 2022, after joining a digital marketing franchise that took operations off his plate.
The Offer Today
After the 2024 partnership exit, he relaunched in October 2024 and says he hit $100,000 a month in recurring revenue within 120 days. He credits that to never stopping his content, even when he wasn't running an agency.
The offer is tight. Three tiers, all monthly: SEO plus HighLevel, then that plus one paid ad channel, then two. SEO and HighLevel are required, either through his team or on the client's own. Minimum average retainer is around $2,500. Websites are the part he likes least, because they wait on client feedback. About half of clients still need one because their current site is on a weak platform.
On the tech side, his team builds SEO sites on WordPress and uses HighLevel for landing pages, automations, follow-ups, calendars, reputation, and integrations with the client's field or project management system. The team is 35 people, mostly remote in Nicaragua.
Three Things That Made Him Stand Out
- Proof. Real sites, rankings and call volume in the prospect's own trade.
- Consulting, not order taking. He asks what's actually broken. Do they need new leads, or HighLevel to plug a leaky bucket? That came from his medical sales background.
- Help first. Even when a prospect doesn't sign, he gives them three or four things to fix on their own. They remember him later.
He also says 80 to 90 percent of his content is the business journey, not screenshots of results. And he mentions HighLevel's affiliate program as a real extra income stream, just from talking about what his team already uses.
Why This Matters for Bay Area and San Jose Businesses
If you run or want to start an agency in the Bay Area, the competition is thick. Adam's point that plenty of people in any room can do what you do lands hard here. Proof, daily content and consulting-style sales conversations are the parts nobody can copy from your website.
If you own a San Jose home service business, flip it around and use it as a hiring checklist. A good marketing partner asks whether you need more leads or better follow-up before they sell you ads. They show you work in your trade. And they should leave you better off even if you don't sign.
Practical Steps
- Build proof before you pitch, even if it's your own test projects.
- Pick one daily revenue activity, like short video audits, and track it.
- Post about the real journey, not just wins.
- Tighten your offer into a few tiers with a required core, like SEO plus a CRM.
- On every sales call, ask where leads are leaking before you pitch more leads.
- Write down the business and lifestyle you actually want, then set your numbers from that.
Watch the Full Case Study
Final Thoughts
Adam's closing advice was plain: control what you can control, take it one day at a time, and ask for help when you're stuck. The playbook isn't a secret. Showing up every day when nothing's working is the hard part. If you want a GHL consultant in the Bay Area to build the HighLevel side of your business, from follow-up to automations, that's what we do at On Point Tech Solutions in Los Gatos, serving San Jose and the whole Bay Area. You own what we build, and we'll either do it for you or teach your team with an SOP.