This Is What Modern Community-Led Growth Looks Like ft. Juan Luis Ramirez

In today's episode, I chat with Nelson and Juan from Tennis One, a tennis coaching academy in Auckland, New Zealand, that's building itself into a lifestyle brand rather than just a service. The GTM story here is unlike anything else on the show: Juan runs an influencer outreach operation entirely on Instagram DMs, targeting micro to macro influencers between 5K and 50K followers whose content naturally aligns with the Tennis One lifestyle, offering them free coaching in exchange for content creation. The reply rate is 60-80%, and the first seven months produced nothing—then one influencer said yes, and the snowball effect took over. Mission Bay Tennis Club just won the 2025 New Zealand Tennis Club of the Year award, and inbound brand partnerships now come to them rather than the other way around. Juan's background runs from waiter in a Colombian restaurant in Takapuna—where he consistently outsold every other staff member on the monthly special—through an IT degree he pivoted away from, into tech sales startups, and eventually into GTM engineering at Tennis One. Nelson's take as the business owner is straightforward: one specialized person who can contact influencers effectively and build the system around it is worth more than a full marketing team running ads. Their advice: always lead with value, think in systems, show employers outcomes not effort, and persevere long enough to find the trigger—because once it clicks, it compounds fast. Enjoy 🙂(0:00) Introduction to Outbound Wizards (0:26) What Tennis One Does: Coaching Academy Turned Lifestyle Brand in Auckland (2:17) The Instagram Influencer Outreach Playbook: 60-80% Reply Rate, Free Coaching for Content (5:29) Seven Months of Nothing, Then One Yes, Then a Snowball—and a National Club Award (7:45) Juan's Journey: Top Waiter to IT Student to Tech Sales to GTM Engineer (9:46) Predictions: GTM and RevOps Are the Careers of the Future, SDRs Are Being Replaced (12:49) Advice: Lead With Value, Think in Systems, Show Outcomes Not Effort, and Persevere🔗 CONNECT WITH JUAN 👥 LinkedIn 📸 Instagram 💻 Website 🔗 CONNECT WITH SAURAV🎥 YouTube Channel🐦 X (Twitter)📸 Instagram💻 Website👥 LinkedIn📧 Email - [email protected]🙏 LEAVE A REVIEW If you enjoyed listening to the podcast, we'd love for you to leave a 5-star review on Apple Podcasts to help others discover the show :)👋🏼 GET IN TOUCH You can also reach out with any feedback, ideas or thoughts about the lessons you've learned from the episodes.