How Boyuan Zhao Grew His Email Marketing Agency PLTHORA to 7 Figures
Michael sits down with Boyuan Zhao in person in Dubai. Boyuan has known Michael for about five years and grew PLTHORA, his eCommerce email marketing agency, to seven figures. They talk about dropping out of university broke, landing first clients with manual cold email, working only a few hours a week for parts of the year, and why he is building the agency to sell.
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Topics covered
- Dropping out of university with an overdraft
- Landing the first retainer with cold email
- Scraping and verifying leads by hand
- Keeping the business model simple
- Why he wouldn't start an eCommerce email agency today
- Personal brand, YouTube and coaching
- Building to sell, and his long-term goals
Key takeaways
- Every client acquisition method works. Pick one and put in the volume.
- Boyuan landed his first retainer, $3,480 a month, on day 24 of cold emailing.
- He scraped and verified leads by hand for about six months and grew to $30,000 a month on cold email alone.
- Manual prospecting and persistence can land a dream client. One took 22 cold emails and three Looms.
- A simple business lets him work 5 to 15 hours a week for parts of the year.
- If one channel brings all your leads, you have key-man risk and channel risk. Build outbound as well.
- Building to sell is good for your team, your clients and you, even if you never sell.
Show notes
🎓 Dropping out and starting broke
Boyuan dropped out of university with around $800 to $1,000 of overdraft. He ran ads for eCommerce brands for about a year, then doubled down on email marketing.
He found his first clients with cold email, using what he learned from a course and from Googling, first with HubSpot and then Lemlist. On day 24 he closed a $3,480 a month retainer. He chose a specific number on purpose. His door-to-door sales background taught him that client acquisition is a numbers game.
“every client acquisition method works every single one”
Boyuan Zhao, 11:54
⛏️ Doing the manual work
Boyuan grew the agency to $30,000 a month with cold email alone. For about six months, even while making around $15,000 a month, he still scraped leads and verified them himself with Hunter.
He tells the story of landing a dream client. He sent 22 manual cold emails and three Looms with no reply. Then he emailed the client's wife, and that 23rd email is what finally landed the client.
“manual prospecting is so underrated”
Boyuan Zhao, 15:47
🧘 Keeping it simple
Boyuan says he wanted a simple life. For three to six months of the year, he works only 5 to 15 hours a week. He says that in Q4 last year the agency grew from around $60,000 to around $130,000 a month in about two months.
Now his clients come from intros and YouTube, and he is setting up outbound. He also admits he wouldn't start an eCommerce email agency today because it has become very competitive. He thinks traditional businesses are more attractive.
🎥 Personal brand and coaching
Boyuan says his biggest regret is not starting coaching back when the agency was at $30,000 a month. He is coaching now.
His agency goal is $500,000 a month. He knows referrals that come from his YouTube channel create key-man risk, so he wants outbound to bring in clients too. His advice on personal brand is to start personal, even if you only post monthly.
🏁 Building to sell
Boyuan makes the case, which he credits to Alex Hormozi, that building to sell is better for your team, your clients and yourself. His goal is an enterprise value of $10 to $15 million, and he has a SaaS product in the works.
His personal goals are a $100 million net worth and a Ferrari.
“if you want to treat your team good you should build to sell”
Boyuan Zhao, 25:52
About Boyuan Zhao
Boyuan Zhao runs PLTHORA, an email marketing agency for eCommerce brands. In the episode he says he has run it for about four and a half years with 15 full-time remote staff, and that he now manages only his COO.
Boyuan moved from China as a kid and dropped out of a computer science degree focused on AI. He ran ads for a year before going all in on email. He also creates content on YouTube and Instagram, and has started coaching.
Episode links
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