The Tribe Maker AI Phone Outreach
The Tribe Maker · AI Phone Outreach

How the service makes money, what a seat costs, and your role

Built from the Nov 12 discovery call with Michael Gholson, the final explainer script, and vendor pricing checked Nov 12, 2026.

Client pays $1,800–$2,100/mo management + calling minutes on their own card
01 · Cost per seat

Monthly margin calculator

Hard costs are estimates, checked Nov 12, 2026. Figures are before your time, team time, agent usage, or taxes.

Seat assumption: neither the call notes nor the script defines “seat.” Here, 1 seat = 1 more client account running on the service (its own list, AI caller, number, and email campaign). Correct this if you meant a software seat or an extra staff seat — the math would change.
Client seats1 seat
120
Monthly management price per seat$1,800/mo
$1,800$2,100
Hard-cost profile

These totals are before anyone’s time.

Margin vs hard cost, per seat

Item, monthlyLean seatBigger list
Retell phone number$2/mo standard number · $10/mo verified number (bigger column) $2$10
Email sending + list/enrichment toolExample: Instantly Starter $94 (5k emails, 1k contacts) · Scale $194 (100k emails, 25k contacts). No tool chosen yet. Instantly is an example tool only. $94$194
Sending inboxesGoogle Workspace Business Starter, $7/user/mo · 3 inboxes vs 6 $21$42
Look-alike sending domain(s).com at $11.17/yr, about $0.93/mo · 1 domain vs 2 $1$2
Retell concurrency + knowledge baseFirst 20 concurrent calls and 10 knowledge bases free per account; $8/mo each after that $0$0
Hard cost per seat ESTYour time, team time and agent usage not included $118$248

Instantly is an example tool only. No email or list tool has been chosen yet.

02 · Minutes the client pays

Retell minutes, billed to their card

Projection, not a forecast of a client’s usage. The client pays Retell directly, on their own card, for connected time only. This is not in the margin above. Every 1,000 minutes is $110–$125 at $0.11–$0.13 per minute.

Batch dialing adds $0.005 per dial. Add $0.015 per minute if Retell supplies the line. The full range is $0.07–$0.31 per minute depending on the voice and AI model.

03 · Business logic

From signed client to booked meetings

Two goals on every call: reach the decision maker and book a follow-up, or get the decision maker’s direct email from the front desk.

  1. 1

    Client signs

    Proposal approved. Monthly management fee billed through Stripe.

  2. 2

    Build the list

    Target niche and area. Up to 3 possible decision-maker emails per location (est. 75–80% found).

  3. 3

    Build the brain

    Scripts, voice, and every scenario mapped. AI disclosure where a state requires it.

  4. 4

    AI calls

    The Retell voice agent (same setup as Becky) works the list in batches.

  5. 5

    Email follow-up

    Sent from a separate look-alike domain. Phone and email together: 7–10 touches.

  6. 6

    Meetings booked

    Follow-up calls land on the client’s calendar.

  7. 7

    Report + tune

    Spot-check calls, fix weak spots (for example hang-ups at about 15s), report to the client.

Outcome A

Decision maker answers

Gives the pitch and works to book a follow-up call for the client.

Outcome B

Front desk answers

Asks for the decision maker’s direct email, or confirms the one on file. “Send me info” gets the receptionist’s email.

Outcome C

Voicemail / no answer

Tagged and called again at a different time of day. In the Denton test, 21 of 30 calls went to voicemail.

Client → The Tribe Maker
$1,800–$2,100/mo
Management fee. Starts near $1,800 and rises toward $2,100 as the campaign scales.
Client → Retell (their card)
$0.11–$0.13/min EST
Calling minutes billed directly, connected time only. Every 1,000 minutes is $110–$125.
The Tribe Maker → tools
$118–$248/mo EST
Phone number, email sending and list tools, inboxes and domain. Detail in the calculator above.
04 · Your role

What only you do, and the team lanes

The team handles the daily work. These are the calls and approvals that need you.

You, Mike

  • Sell it. Discovery calls, set the final price between $1,800 and $2,100, approve the proposal.
  • Set the terms. Overages, territory pricing, and how minutes reach the client’s card.
  • Approve the brain. Target list rules, call script, voice, and the email sequence before launch.
  • Compliance sign-off. OK each state’s AI-calling and disclosure rules before calls go out there.
  • Kick off each client. Onboarding call, client card on Retell, calendar access for booked meetings.
  • Weekly review. Read the report, spot-check calls, approve tuning, check in with the client.
  • Green-light the explainer. Verity holds the video until you say go.

The team & agents

  • Sal writes the proposal and IO.
  • Proton Bob keeps the service page and explainer page current.
  • Emily writes the email sequence copy.
  • ChaChing sets up and sends the monthly Stripe invoices.
  • Ops / team builds and enriches the list, configures the Retell agent and number, re-queues voicemails, batches follow-ups, writes reports.

Open decisions waiting on you

  1. Overage terms aren’t set. The page defers them to the proposal.
  2. Territory pricing wasn’t answered on the call.
  3. Email/list tool hasn’t been picked. Instantly is used here only as a priced example.
  4. Billing setup: the client’s own Retell account, or rebill from yours?
  5. David’s proposal is due to Michael by the morning of Nov 13.
  6. “Calls at cost” wording is out. Say “minutes billed directly to your card.”
  7. Angle: chiropractor vs med spa (Michael says med spas run on a different model).
  8. What “seat” means to you. This dashboard assumes one more client account.
05 · Call evidence

Nov 10 test, in plain numbers

From the Nov 10 test run. These figures are listed here as text so they can be read without signing in to another dashboard.

Nov 10 test

Dials
31
Live people
9
Bookings
0
Total cost
$2.59