I flew 4,510 miles to Sydney expecting some good presentations and a few connections. What I got was a complete shift in how I'm building Lead Piranha. About 200 of us showed up. If you were there, you know. If you weren't, here's what actually mattered. Here's what hit hardest: 1. Specialize or die This got hammered home multiple times. Generalist agencies are cooked. The real money is with specialists who own a vertical and know every workflow in that space. We recently pivoted to focus exclusively on AI lead gen for service businesses, and hearing this validated by people already crushing it at 7 and 8 figures was exactly what I needed. 2. Build systems clients own, not rent The retainer model where clients are stuck in GHL or similar tools forever is dying. The new play is building custom systems on the client's infrastructure. They own it, you manage it, costs stay minimal. Nobody's trapped, and it positions you as a true partner instead of just another vendor. 3. Custom software is replacing SaaS AI makes custom builds cheaper and faster than ever. The agencies positioning as transformation partners instead of service providers are going to dominate the next few years. Forcing clients into one size fits all tools is becoming a harder and harder sell. 4. Hire fast, fire faster I've been stuck trying to find the perfect project manager for months. Got some real talk from someone on the team about just hiring 1 or 2 VAs instead. Cheaper, more flexible, handles what I actually need. Speed beats perfection. Make the hire, test it quick, cut if it's not working. 5. In person events are a cheat code Being in the same room with people who are building similar businesses hits different. I left with actual friendships and potential collaborations, not just LinkedIn connections. If you're on the fence about going to the next one, just go. BONUS: You don't need to be special Talked to a bunch of people at different stages. Some just starting, some already scaled. The thing that stood out is nobody there was superhuman. Just normal people with a vision and the willingness to chase it. Authenticity attracts the right people and the right opportunities. That's it.

I’ve been seeing a lot of talk in the AI automation space around cold email, LinkedIn outreach, and cold calling — and of course some people are landing clients through warm leads and referrals too. I’m curious to hear from everyone here: What’s working best for you right now when it comes to landing new clients? Is there a particular channel or method that’s been giving you the highest ROI lately? I’m just trying to do a bit of a pulse check. I want to make sure I’m not overlooking something that could strengthen my outreach strategy, and I think it’d be valuable to hear what’s actually working from people actively in the field. Appreciate any insights you're willing to share. Looking forward to learning from everyone.

Just wanted to share something that’s been working surprisingly well in case it sparks ideas for anyone here. We built a simple voice agent that calls leads a few minutes after they fill out a form. The only thing it does is ask, “What’s the biggest challenge you're facing in your business right now?” and based on their answer, it sends them one of four resources. No fancy flows. No scheduling. Just a friendly call, a relevant question, and something useful in return. What’s wild is how human it feels — and how much of a difference it's made in response rates and overall trust. Especially for clients who coach or consult, where first impressions really matter. I know not everyone here uses voice tech, but for anyone running lead gen, the faster you engage with people, the more it compounds. This has been one of those small builds that quietly does its job better than expected. If you’re experimenting with anything similar (or thinking about it), happy to share how we set it up or lessons we’ve picked up along the way. Always down to exchange ideas with anyone building cool things.

Two months into learning voice AI, and I can honestly say I’ve grown a lot, both in skills and as a person. The journey hasn’t always been easy, but the support from this community has made a huge difference. In my latest video, I talk about some of the biggest challenges I faced and what I learned along the way. If you’re just getting started, I hope it gives you a clear idea of what to expect and helps you avoid some of my early mistakes. I’d really appreciate it if you gave it a watch, but either way, thank you to everyone here for the encouragement and support.

A lot of leaders in the AI automation space recommend cold calling as a solid way to get prospects and start a lead nurturing pipeline. But one of the biggest challenges with cold calling is building those lead lists in the first place. As an agency owner, I know how frustrating and time-consuming this can be, so I put together a simple automation using Make.com and Apify. With these tools, I was able to build a Google Maps scraper that creates a list of potential prospects automatically—no coding required. The whole process took me less than 20 minutes. I wanted to share this with the community because I know there are people here who are ahead of me, some who are right where I am, and others just starting out. If this was helpful for me, I’m sure it can help at least one of you too. I walk through exactly how to set this up in my latest video. If you have a few minutes, I’d really appreciate it if you could give it a watch. Thanks!