Don’t be that nice guy on socials... Even on LinkedIn. Got a lead from Skool. He said he liked my posts on AI sales systems. Even mentioned the $40k CRM lift I talk about. Cool. I’ve been burned by tire-kickers before, so I decided to qualify first. Asked a few direct questions. Replied late (2-3d later). Vague (not understandable). Clearly AI-generated answers. No signal. No clarity. No ownership. Then out of nowhere: “You know… I can tell your posts are AI-generated. Your services and pitch are all over the place. But let’s see. This is what I need…” Then he pasted my own posts back to me like evidence. Cringe. I replied politely and clarified: I use Claude.ai to format. Stories, insights, experience = mine. Anyone who actually reads can tell. His response? “You disqualified yourself. If you post something, you should know exactly what you offer. Sales 101.” I was done. Not angry. Not defensive. Just clear. “I’m good, brother. I don't know what I post about, what I offer, who I am!” A lesson I learned the hard way: Tire-kickers don’t just waste time. They quietly mess with your confidence. They poke. They project. They test you without ever intending to buy. And if you’re too “nice,” you’ll entertain them longer than you should. This isn’t about starting wars or dunking on people. (Although platforms like X, admire controversies) I keep conversations respectful. But I’m also raw with boundaries now. If someone can’t: – answer clearly – respect your work – engage like an adult They’re not a prospect. They’re noise. The faster you spot them, the more energy you save for people who actually matter. "Being kind doesn’t mean being available to everyone." Share if you've a same sort of story.

Last month I pivoted to code-based agentic workflows. Built a full outreach engine — complex logic, multiple data sources, a ton of edge cases. Where n8n took months to finish and iterate (ofc it was the first shot). Recently pivoted fully customizable, robust, python based agentic system. Worked “good enough” on first run. A week of tightening. Then parity with the old system — and more flexible. No magic. Just speed. Phase 1 — Manual: lists, research, inbox tab juggling. A single SDR burning 20+ hours/week doing robot work. High cost. Zero leverage. Phase 2 — AI-assisted (2023 → early 2025): AI was a fast but flaky junior. You still needed humans to chain, correct, and babysit workflows. Phase 3 — Agentic AI (now → next 10 months): AI that plans, reasons, self-corrects, and chains multi-step processes end-to-end. It can even improve its own patterns over iterations. The progress is compounding, not linear. Real effects I’m seeing now: 20–40 hour projects reduced to 2-hour builds Multiple tools replaced by a single agentic pipeline Teams scaling output without scaling headcount Yes, AI still fails sometimes. But the real risk is letting months of progress sit idle while you debate “is it ready?” Practical wins, not hype: Sales: prospect research, personalized outreach, follow-ups — running while you sleep Ops: data entry, QA, automations — removing daily drag Support: routing, triage, answers to common questions — humans handle real problems Analysis: synthesis, forecasting, pattern recognition — turning noise into decisions Applying AI isn’t magic and it’s not “replace your team.” It’s amplify your team — push their limits and remove boring work. If you’re still treating AI as a curiosity instead of an operator, you’re choosing to fall behind.

An automation agency was stuck at $5K/mo. I showed them a clean path to an extra $20K/month in pipeline. They tried everything — ads, cold calling, more volume, more templates. Pipeline didn’t move an inch. They were blasting 200+ emails/week. Generic. Forgettable. Messages that could’ve gone to anyone. Result? 0.9% reply rate. Maybe 1 SQL/month on a “good” month. And they wondered why outbound “doesn’t work anymore.” So I rebuilt the entire thing from scratch (I was using for myself). I built a Python-based outbound engine that: Pulls the prospect’s latest posts (real-time intent) Extracts the pain they’re literally talking about online Crafts ROI-driven pitches (“Cut CAC 25%… improve LTV:CAC to 3x…”) Sends personalized outreach at scale without slowing down Here’s what changed: Before → 200 emails/week 1% reply 1 SQL After → 150 emails/week 6% reply 8 SQLs Same effort. 6× more pipeline. Let’s do the math: 8 SQLs × $2,500 ACV = $20,000 added pipeline Close rate didn’t change → more revenue, automatically. Why the jump? Because we fixed the only 3 levers that actually matter: Target. Copy. Offer. Everything else is noise. Here’s the real principle: Relevance scales replies. Generic outreach → 1% Signal-targeted outreach → 8% This is literally the difference between: Empty calendar vs Consistent weekly calls Most agencies can’t break their revenue plateau because: Their ICP is “anyone who might need us” Their message fits 1,000 companies Prospects delete it in 3 seconds Your real competition isn’t other agencies. It’s the delete key. If your agency is stuck: It’s not your service. It’s not your pricing. It’s not the market. It’s your outbound strategy. Fix outbound → everything compounds. (P.S. Currently talking to them to fix their offers. Wish me luck)

A founder reached out this October. “I need a robust SDR system—lead gen, personalization, multi-channel outreach, CRM sync… everything.” He ran an automation agency. Tech skills? Solid. Revenue? Under $5K/month. He’d spent months inside n8n trying to automate everything. Result? Zero leads. Zero calls. Zero pipeline. And now he wanted to build something even bigger. I didn’t build what he asked for. I ran an audit instead. Because the problem wasn’t his stack. It was that he was automating the wrong things. I showed him something boringly simple: Find leads that match your ICP Pull what they’re actually talking about Send emails that talk to their problems, not your features Let it run That’s it. How I pitched it: Not “This integrates with X and automates Y.” But “Here’s how this puts $20K in your pipeline in 90 days.” ROI first. Tech second. He paused. “Wait… that’s it?” “Yeah. That’s it.” Sales cycle dragged a bit because he kept asking: “Shouldn’t we add…?” And I kept saying no. We built the simple version. Launched it. 3 weeks later, he hit me up to extend the partnership. Now he’s closing deals instead of building workflows nobody sees. His message yesterday: “Perfect bro, that’s exactly the kind of hands-off, results-driven approach I want.” We’re moving some pieces to code now (more control, less friction). But the foundation hasn’t changed. Still one metric: pipeline. After studying 20+ agencies, here’s the real pattern: Vendors impress you with tech. Partners help you make money. Most founders get sold complexity when they actually need clarity. They get sold features when they need results. You don’t need a system that does everything. You need a system that fixes the one thing blocking revenue. For most agencies, that’s outbound. Not AI. Not automations. Not integrations. If your pipeline is empty and you’re still “building”… You’re not solving a tech problem. You’re solving the wrong problem. Thinking of breaking down the outreach system in my next post.

6 months of no leads. Then 6 calls/month — without increasing volume. April to October? Silence. Cold outreach felt like yelling into a cave. So I asked myself the question “Why is my calendar actually empty?” Turns out I was doing what 90% of people do: "Hey [Name], I help companies with AI automation…" Delete. It wasn’t bad. It was generic. And generic dies instantly. So I stopped trying to “scale outreach” and asked a better question: What if every cold email felt like I actually looked at their LinkedIn — without spending 5 minutes per lead? Not fake personalization. Not “I saw your recent post about…” garbage. Real relevance. Real context. Real reason to reply. So I built a workflow in n8n that does this in 15 seconds: - Scrapes the prospect’s latest LinkedIn activity - Identifies their actual business pain (based on what they’re talking about) - Generates an icebreaker tied to something they publicly signaled - Injects it into a short ROI-focused email template No fluff. Just: “Noticed you're dealing with [X]. We helped a similar team cut ops cost 20% by automating [Y]. Worth a quick call?” That’s all people want. Relevance + credibility. Not essays. Not pitches. Before: 200 generic emails/day → ~2% reply → 0–1 calls/month After: 100 contextual emails/day → ~6% reply → 6 calls/month Same time. Same output. Different system. Outbound didn’t start working because of AI. It started working because I stopped acting like my offer mattered more than their world. Most cold outreach fails because it’s selfish: “Here’s what I sell.” Nobody cares. The second you show them you actually understand their current situation? Walls drop. AI won’t fix bad messaging. But it will handle the boring research that makes good messaging possible at scale. If your outbound is stuck, here’s the uncomfortable truth: Volume isn’t the problem Templates aren’t the problem Tools aren’t the problem Relevance is. And relevance starts with picking the right targets and speaking their language, not yours.