From Getting Fired to Running a Thriving SEO Agency with Leo Poitevin | Ep #929

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Leo Poitevin is the founder of Astrak, a fast-growing SEO agency based in Chiang Mai, Thailand, specializing in the French-speaking market. In just a year and a half, Leo grew his team from one to ten people — a journey that started not with a bold entrepreneurial vision, but with getting let go from a job during his probation period. In this episode, Leo and Jason get into what it really takes to go from freelancer to agency owner, how to reclaim your time as you scale, and the hard lessons of hiring your first salesperson.

Sponsors and Resources
E2M Solutions: Today's episode of the Smart Agency Masterclass is sponsored by E2M Solutions, a web design and development agency that has provided white-label services for the past 10 years to agencies all over the world. Check out e2msolutions.com/smartagency and get 10% off for the first three months of service.

Key Takeaways:

• Build for enterprise value, not freelance income.** The first year and a half of running an agency often means making less money than you would going solo. Leo reframed that trade-off by focusing on what he was actually building: a sellable company with real enterprise value, not just a higher hourly rate.
  
  
• Get your time back by compressing from the top down.** Leo's approach: start at maximum workload, then delegate piece by piece and block more time back into your schedule. If you start at 12 hours a day, there's only one direction to go. Every six months, something that used to live on his plate no longer does.
  
  
• Know what role you're actually hiring for before you post a job.** Leo discovered that "sales guy" isn't one job — it's a closer, an SDR, a full-cycle rep, and more. He and Jason break down why small agencies need someone who can do everything, and why matching your hire to your ICP matters more than industry experience.
  
  
• YouTube builds trust and leads even at small scale.** Without a large following or high-end production, Leo generates consistent inbound leads through long-form screen share videos. If you're struggling with lead generation, he says this is the most underused channel for agency owners.

Leo also shares how he built his sales process from scratch using a $7 online course, competitor proposal decks, and conversations with other agency owners — and why he believes you can't survive this industry long-term if you don't genuinely like people.

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