From a $10 million lawsuit to award-winning success How Russ Ward turned one non-negotiable rule into recurring revenue and back-to-back SaaSPRENEUR Gold Awards

Note: This case study reflects one user's experience. Results vary and are not typical.

August 2023. Russ Ward's business generated -$122 that month.

Not a slow month. A loss.

It wasn't the first time a number had collapsed on him. Seven months earlier, under a different offer, revenue had bottomed out at $4,687 in a solar campaign he hadn't validated before selling it. Years before that, a business he'd built from nothing had drawn a $10 million lawsuit from the NFL and a frozen bank account courtesy of the IRS.

Russ had been broke before. Truly broke, the kind where he once asked a state representative for a food card with an MBA in his hand. Long before any of that, he'd already walked away from a guaranteed career for someone he loved. Understanding why he kept rebuilding starts there.

The challenge: A business that kept losing the one thing Russ never had growing up

Russ grew up on government assistance and his father left when he was seven. His grandfather became the closest thing he had to a father and the only one who took his ambition seriously.

Then came eight years in the Navy as an intelligence analyst working jointly with the National Security Agency, earning three degrees including an MBA and building toward a guaranteed career with a security clearance high enough to walk into the White House.

When his grandfather was diagnosed with terminal cancer, Russ turned down a ten-year extension to spend the next eighteen months by his side instead. When his grandfather passed away, the grief was just one of the reasons his first marriage ended.

When Russ built an online business selling bootleg DVDs (including Super Bowl broadcasts), he made more money than he'd ever seen. He spent nearly all of it because some part of him already knew he wouldn't get to keep it. He was right.

The NFL sued him for $10 million. The IRS froze his accounts. He lost the house, lost two cars and had to tell his ex-wife he couldn't afford to feed his own kids. He lived for a stretch on a SNAP card he still keeps today. At his lowest point, he seriously considered ending his life before deciding to try building a business again.

He started over in 2017, running $250 Facebook ad campaigns for real estate agents in exchange for cash and a video testimonial. He found HighLevel in 2018 and built the rest of his career on top of it.

Years later, running his own agency, that same instability found its way back in, just smaller this time. In February 2023, revenue dropped to $4,687 a month after Russ launched a solar offer without first testing it.

A month later, a case study with marketer Dan Henry pushed him to nearly $22,000. But he still couldn't bring himself to charge what Dan told him to charge. "I never had the nerve to charge what he said, which was a minimum of $20K," he said.

He continued to undercharge and brought on a sales partner who sold faster than Russ could deliver. Nearly every sale that quarter had to be refunded.

Another divorce in December 2023 shifted his focus from growth to survival, and by April 2024, revenue had dropped to $1,773 per month, the second-lowest point of the period.

Underneath it sat one problem. Nearly all his revenue was one-off.

"I knew I needed to be charging retainers for consistent revenue, but I wasn't able to close that way," he said.

The solution: One rule… every client and student has to run HighLevel

The turn started with a stage. Perry Belcher, who runs an annual AI Bot Summit, invited Russ to speak on an early-AI panel in 2024. Russ was showing a voice bot he'd built and offering to sell more of them. After a five- to ten-minute talk, roughly 200 people lined up to talk to him.

Russ took their contact information and launched a community at $97 a month. Then he made one decision that changed the shape of his business… Every client and community member had to buy a HighLevel account through him to access it.

Roughly 120 people signed up. Each one bought a HighLevel account through him to join. His recurring revenue went from zero to about $12K a month, almost overnight.

"That's non-negotiable,” he said. “And that's how I've sustained a level of success with HighLevel."

Today, the offer stack, all built and delivered inside HighLevel, includes:

• Qualified Live Transfers "rental": $500. Client supplies up to 2,000 old leads, Russ's business covers SMS and AI costs, client keeps 100 percent of rental revenue.

• Qualified Live Transfers ownership: $5,000 flat fee to own the system outright, plus $197 a month in maintenance.

• AI receptionists: $497 upfront, $197 a month.

• A community teaching the process: $97 a month.

• Car dealership marketing partnership (started October 2025): partner pays $6,000 a month via wire transfer.

The mechanism behind Qualified Live Transfers is simple to describe but hard to replicate without the underlying infrastructure.

Old or cold leads get reactivated by SMS, an AI qualifies them and if the timing is right, the AI calls the lead and live-transfers them to a sales rep in real time.

"Now I tell clients to not touch ANYTHING," Russ said. "I let HighLevel and AI do all the qualification, appointment setting and live transfers. Now clients just have to answer the phone or show up for an appointment with qualified leads."

The result: From -$122 to $22,115 in twelve months

Years earlier, back in 2017 when he was building his first real estate offer for $250 a client, Russ sat in a bakery with his daughter Emma, then four or five years old, eating cookies. He checked his Stripe account and his eyes widened enough for Emma to notice and ask him what was wrong.

He had just crossed $10,000 for the first time. That's the moment he realized he could do this for real.

Seven years later, his business posted $22,115 in August 2024, the highest monthly amount he’s hit yet.

That wasn't a lucky spike. It was the direct result of converting stage credibility into 120 recurring HighLevel sub-accounts almost overnight, then holding the line on the rule that made those accounts recurring in the first place.

"I know at the start of the month I have enough recurring revenue to pay my bills, and anything on top is extra business revenue," Russ said, describing what changed once recurring revenue existed at all. "In the past with no recurring revenue, I had to hunt for every dollar."

For a man who once had no floor at all, at home or in business, that sentence is the entire point.

The numbers: Where The Lead King stands today

Russ currently manages 37 active paying customers across monthly retainers, SaaS and student relationships, supported by one full-time team member he personally trained to build every kind of AI bot he sells.

• 2023 revenue: $112,590.*

• 2024 revenue: $139,060, between his community and custom build-outs priced between $1,500 and $25,000 each.*

• 2025 revenue: $91,317 in standard monthly reporting, a genuine down year driven by a suddenly crowded AI bot market.*

That 2025 total doesn't include a new $6,000-a-month car dealership marketing partnership that began in October 2025.

*Revenue figures represent gross revenue during the stated period and do not reflect expenses or net profit.

What happens when you make one rule non-negotiable instead of chasing the next one-off deal?

Russ didn't fix his revenue by finding a bigger offer. He fixed it by refusing to sell outside his own platform again.

Today, that rule supports 37 active paying customers and a two-time HighLevel SaaSPRENEUR Gold Award, run with a single full-time team member Russ trained personally. He's also turning a car dealership marketing relationship that started as a high-ticket retainer into something bigger.

"I really see this turning into a true partnership in the future," he says.

There's a lot more to how Russ structured the offer that made this repeatable, what his current pricing looks like and the two mistakes he says cost him the most along the way.

Read the full case study to see the exact pricing tiers behind his Qualified Live Transfers offer, how one AI Bot Summit panel slot turned into roughly 120 recurring HighLevel accounts almost overnight, and the five lessons he says any agency owner can apply today.

Disclaimer: The results shared in this case study reflect the experience of one HighLevel user and are not typical or representative of what other users may achieve. The Lead King's growth and revenue outcomes are specific to their unique business model, market and execution. Revenue figures represent gross revenue during the stated period and do not reflect expenses or net profit. HighLevel makes no representations, warranties or guarantees regarding potential earnings, client growth or business success. This content is for illustrative and informational purposes only and does not constitute a business opportunity, franchise offering or earnings guarantee. Past performance does not predict future results and individual results will vary significantly.