I have no idea how long it would have taken me to firgure out even a part of what Jed showed us during the challenge. I knew a fair amount about lead sources and available databases, but I've found that's where the issue starts; the problem isn't knowing that the data exists or even knowing where to get it; the problem is sifting the valuable information from ALL the information. That's what we learned. I haven't become an "expert" by any means, but it was an extraordinarily valuable use of (rougly) 90 minutes a day for five days to learn some real skills.

So, I ran my initial search for Automotive repair in order to build a list for automotive repair facilities as we have been getting hit up for that industry by PE a lot recently (and I needed to choose a target industry for the class). Part way through the initial exercise using Apify to scrape Google Maps, it occurred to me to go over and look at the Nevada DMV website as well. Claude agreed that this was a good resource and made some adjustments to the .md file to reflect the change going forward, but we continued building and enriching the list from Google Maps. As yet, I still need to use Hunter.io or some other product to get more emails, but the main goal was to learn the process. (SIDE NOTE: for my work, as a regionally focused generalist, Clay might be a worthwhile investment for my process). At the end, I decided to test the DMV website model to see what differences I would reveal. Well, in terms of pure numbers, it was pretty dramatic: Google Maps found 275 or so Google Maps records for businesses doing work in Auto Repair, while the DMV database search revealed 439 in the same three counties. Now, it's possible that some of the new records will be operations that operate in an unmarked industrial park because they are doing custom work ("Hot August Nights" is a thing in Reno, there are a boatload of classic cars and the restoration guys to support them here), and aren't good candidates, but the resulting numbers are so much higher, I have to believe that the Google Map search missed some good candidates too. Some caveats: 1. The search was done on NAICS 81111 and 811121. 811121 is Auto BODY repair, which isn't really what I'm looking for (for this search), but it was chosen by the Apify actor to begin with. So, to keep things apples for apples, I conducted the search the same way on the DMV site (it's easily separated in a spreadsheet and I have a start on an Auto body list now as well. 2. In our conversation on Wednesday(?) in the class, @Jed Morris asked me if Claude could actually read all ten pages that were displayed on the DMV website.

As I mentioned on the "Off Market..." call today, here is a resource that I used to develop an email sequence with Claude. I uploaded it plus some other stuff I had written and researched about ideal client avatars (just a profile of who you visualize your most likely email recipient to be). The chat where I developed the sequence and the lead magnet was VERY long (way longer than Claude likes, but I didn't know that then). Mailshake is a perfectly fine vendor and resource, but I signed up with them because they had a direct integration with Pipedrive (my current CRM). They do not have a direct integration with my new CRM (Go High Level, not yet rolled out), but I may not need it, given what @Jed Morris taught usabout Claude's ability to create connections on the fly. Insightly or another cold email vendor might be just as good, or even better, than Mailshake. My understanding is that GHL even has the ability to handle multiple domains as well (it being the swiss army knife of CRM's) but I will really have to think about the cost of trying to do everything myself vs engaging a specialist (Mailshake or Insightly) to do it better and faster at a relatively low cost...

@Jed Morris - I was trying to get into the recording and download the handout from today but no joy, the cursor is just spinning. I'm open to the possibility that you are still trying to upload both files and I'm jumping the gun...

Stewart Guthrie from Reno, Nevada. M&A Advisor and Business Broker. USMC veteran, three time business owner (food & beverage wholesale/Residential Property Management/Business Brokerage) with my wife and business partner, Kathryn. The Liberty Group of Nevada was solely a main street business brokerage when we purchased it in 2021. Kathryn and I are pushing up to the "Lower Middle Market" though truthfully, most businesses that are the size of LMM, are still run as if they were a main street business (lots of add-backs, flat to non-existent management structure, etc.). We do business in both California and Nevada.