70% margins, 150 clients: Inside Brad Smith’s Automation Links

His path started in a Florida gym. A website trade, early SMS automation, and a bad car accident that pushed him from a local gym owner, to helping companies market and sell online.

After launching AutomationLinks, a marketing automation service for medium to large businesses, Brad struggled to break out of his local network. Cold outreach didn’t work. Nobody responded. So he created a podcast, made it about his guests (not himself), and used it to build real relationships.

Now, over 300 interviews later, he’s built a high-margin agency with 150 clients, 70% profit margins, and a plan to fully step out of the day-to-day by 2026. I sat down with Brad to hear how it all started, and where it’s headed next.

1. Who are you and what do you do?

I’m Brad Smith, founder of AutomationLinks. We’re a full-service marketing automation company for medium to large businesses. We also run The Content House here in Wilmington, a rentable space for video shoots, podcasts, and YouTube creators.

2. What’s your backstory? How did this all begin?

My wife and I ran a fitness business in St. Pete, FL. I traded training sessions with a guy who ended up building our website, and within three months, we were #1 on Google and generating consistent leads through SMS automation. That was 10 years ago.

After a bad car accident forced us to sell the fitness business, I leaned into what people had always asked me about: how to get clients from the internet. I started by helping other fitness businesses, then expanded to any business that needed leads.

3. How did you land your first customers?

I reached out to people who had already asked me for help. I offered to build websites and set up SEO for free to prove it worked. Then I started charging a few hundred bucks, got referrals, and built up a small local client base.

But I couldn’t get traction outside of St. Pete. Cold emails and DMs didn’t work. So I flipped the script, and launched the Relationship Marketing Podcast and made it about my guests. I’d interview them, optimize the episode, and send follow-ups to offer my services.

It worked, and about 40% of the guests became paying clients.

4. What’s worked to attract and retain customers?

Video. If I can’t shake your hand, I want you to see my face.

That’s why I’ve been posting tutorials on YouTube for 8 years. It builds trust and shows prospects how I think.

For retention, the playbook is consistent communication. I learned it years ago from a Dan Martell coaching call. He emailed three times to confirm our meeting, got on Zoom early, and refused to run the session unless we both had cameras on. That stuck with me.

Today, we do the same with our clients. Every account gets regular Zooms. Weekly, biweekly, or monthly, where we talk face-to-face. It builds the relationship, shows we care, and keeps us top of mind. We also follow up with personal messages and check-ins outside those calls. The consistency makes a difference.

5. How’s the business doing today?

We’ve grown every year since launch. Right now we have 150 active clients, an 8-person team, and we’re running at 70% profit margins.

Until recently, I handled sales, automation, and operations. But that’s changing. I sat down with Trenton last year and he asked where I wanted to be in 10 years, not 12 months. That question shifted my focus.

So this year, we built a new office, hired locally, and brought in two strong team members to take over core services. I’m hiring a third now to round things out, plus an operations manager. By January 1st, I plan to officially step out of the day-to-day and take on a pure CMO role, focused solely on marketing and growth.

6. Any big “oh shit” moments?

Year 3. I got distracted.

I was trying to scale without relationships—launching a course, building a community, skipping Zooms. But that model didn’t fit our clients. They didn’t want education. They wanted execution.

The result? Churn shot up. Nobody bought the course. And the people I was attracting weren’t even our ideal customers.

It took about six months to course-correct. I shut it all down and went back to what worked: building trust, showing my face, and doing the work.

7. What’s the biggest misconception about your industry?

People think marketing success is about building a great website or running flashy ads. But that’s only the first step.

The real money is in the follow-up. A study I read showed it now takes around 28 days and 24 touchpoints across three different channels before someone buys. Yet most websites convert at just 0.01%. You can bring in a thousand visitors, and only one might fill out a form. The other 999 vanish unless you have systems in place.

Too many people obsess over new traffic. I focus on converting the traffic you already have, through email, automation, and consistent, multi-channel follow-ups.

8. Favorite tools?

We run on Google Workspace, Slack, and Telegram. But the core of our stack is Go High Level. It replaced multiple tools for us and streamlined our workflow.

For websites, we use Duda. It’s fast, SEO-friendly, and integrates well with Go High Level. That speed makes a huge difference in ad performance and conversions.

We also use Zapier when clients prefer different platforms like HubSpot or Calendly. And of course, we lean into YouTube and X (Twitter) for consistent inbound.

9. Favorite content?

One of the earliest books that made a big impact was Sell or Be Sold by Grant Cardone. It taught me how to properly run sales, and made me realize how much I was doing wrong at the beginning.

Gary Vee’s Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook also shaped how I think about marketing. I don’t push sales in every post or video, I give value up front and let buyers come to me.

Lately, I’ve been deep in Buy Back Your Time by Dan Martell. It’s a blueprint for scaling by building systems and hiring the right team. I’ve been applying it all year as I step out of operations.

10. If you had to start a new business today, what would it be?

No clients, no calls, just affiliate revenue.

I’d pick two or three software platforms I love, study their affiliate programs, and build a content engine around them. YouTube videos, SEO landing pages, tutorials, stuff that compounds over time.

I already earn from a few affiliates on the side, but if I had to start over, I’d go all in. It’s scalable, passive, and you never have to chase anyone down. All value, no babysitting.

11. Best advice for entrepreneurs?

Be honest about what you want to be doing for the next 10 years.

If you’re going to build something long-term, don’t waste energy chasing shiny objects. Pick a lane, go deep, and stay patient. That’s how you build something that lasts.

Final Takeaways

Make it about them: Brad’s built his podcast as a platform to build trust at scale. When you amake your outreach about yourself, your fighting an uphill battle.

It’s all about the follow-up: 999 website visitors don’t mean anything if you never reach back out.

Showing your face builds trust at scale: People want to know who they’re doing business with, and video is the best way to build trust at scale.

Systems > hype: Brads 70% margins came from focus and systems, not funnels.