Higher Levels began as a simple SEO-driven YouTube experiment during lockdown and grew methodically into the largest tech sales education platform by following audience demand, protecting trust, and scaling before ever going full-time.
Higher Levels was recently featured on the Auburn University Harbert College of Business podcast. As a 2015 Auburn engineering alum, that alone was special.
But what made the conversation powerful was not the resume highlights. It was the origin story.
We went deep on how Higher Levels actually started, how it grew, the mistakes we avoided, the money we turned down, and the decisions that allowed it to scale into the largest tech sales education channel on YouTube.
Auburn University Website
Apple Podcasts Link
Entrepreneurship online is heavily romanticized.
People assume you need a viral moment, venture funding, or a massive audience before you can build something real.
Higher Levels did not start that way.
It started with one video per week, a clear keyword, and listening closely to audience demand.
The growth was methodical. And that is the part most people never hear.
Higher Levels did not start as a company. It started as a curiosity.
During lockdown, I had extra time and I had fallen in love with tech sales as a career. I kept thinking, more people should know about this.
Then I did something simple.
I looked at search data.
The term “tech sales” was being searched tens of thousands of times per month. The growth rate year over year was exploding. And there was almost no credible long-form content explaining:
That was the lightbulb moment.
Instead of trying to go viral, I decided to post one YouTube video per week with “tech sales” clearly in the title.
That was the strategy.
The first videos did not get massive views.
250 views.
500 views.
But the comments were different.
“This helped me break into Salesforce.”
“I used your advice and got an SDR interview.”
“Do you coach?”
That is when I knew there was real signal.
Views are vanity. Comments asking for help are business validation.
Over six to nine months, I started taking occasional one-on-one calls. Nothing formal. Just helping people.
The pattern became obvious. There was real demand for structured guidance.
Higher Levels was born from following that demand, not forcing a product into the market.
For almost three years, Higher Levels was built while I was still working full-time in tech sales.
This is important.
We did not quit cold turkey.
We built consistent revenue first. We tested offers. We refined frameworks. We learned what actually worked in the market.
Coaching turned into structured training.
Structured training turned into full programs.
Programs turned into a scalable online education platform.
By the time we went full-time, the business was already proven.
This was not a leap of faith. It was a calculated transition.
One of the more difficult decisions early on was saying no to sponsorships.
At around 500 to 1,000 subscribers, companies started offering paid promotions.
For a small creator, $500 to $1,000 per video is meaningful.
But we said no.
We did not want to dilute trust before we even had our own product.
If someone came to learn about breaking into tech sales and suddenly saw unrelated product placements, credibility would erode.
We likely turned down $5,000 to $10,000 in the first year.
That decision protected long-term brand equity. Trust compounds. Short-term sponsorships do not.
Another misconception we addressed on the podcast was scale.
We replaced our salary when we had roughly 12,000 YouTube subscribers.
Not through ad revenue.
Through delivering a high-value outcome in a high-value niche.
Tech sales has real earning potential. People who want to break into it are willing to invest in serious training that accelerates that path.
This is the key lesson:
You do not need millions of followers.
You need alignment between audience and outcome.
A focused audience of 10,000 motivated professionals can outperform a distracted audience of 100,000 casual viewers.
In the early days, the content was heavily focused on breaking into tech sales.
That made sense. I was two years into my career. I knew that transition deeply.
As my career advanced into enterprise sales, working with clients like Morgan Stanley, TD Bank, JPMorgan Chase, and Goldman Sachs, the content evolved.
We began covering:
The platform matured as I matured in my own career.
That organic growth is why the content stayed authentic.
Higher Levels began by helping individuals break into tech sales.
Over time, something interesting happened.
Companies started reaching out.
They saw the quality of the frameworks. They saw the results. They wanted structured training for entire sales teams.
That is the next evolution.
From helping individuals land jobs to helping high-growth companies modernize their sales execution.
The foundation is the same. Clear thinking. Clear communication. Real-world execution.
The scale is different.
Higher Levels was never about chasing views.
It was about building the most credible, practical, operator-led education platform in tech sales.
Now the vision expands into:
AI will automate tasks.
It will not replace top performers.
The reps and teams who know how to integrate AI into structured execution will dominate.
Higher Levels intends to be at the center of that evolution.
Q: How did Higher Levels actually start?
A: It started with identifying search demand around “tech sales” and posting one YouTube video per week during lockdown. Viewer demand for coaching led to structured programs.
Q: Did you quit your job to start Higher Levels?
A: No. The business was built over nearly three years while working full-time in tech sales before transitioning fully.
Q: How many subscribers did you have when you went full-time?
A: Around 12,000 highly focused YouTube subscribers. The business was supported by program revenue, not ad revenue.
Q: What was the key growth lever?
A: Search-driven content combined with consistent value delivery and protecting brand trust early on.
If you are considering breaking into tech sales, Tech Sales Ascension is built from the exact frameworks that grew Higher Levels from a YouTube channel into a global education platform.
If you want to follow the same structured, high-leverage path instead of guessing, start there.
→ Learn more at https://www.higherlevels.com
February 2026
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