§ 01 · The Hook
The bait, then the rug-pull.
He held an old telephone at the top of the video and described the exact feeling most agency owners know too well: the pause, the polite chill, the ninety-second death march of a conversation that was already over. He got good at cold calling. Then he stopped entirely -- not because it does not work, but because he found something that works better, feels better, and pulls higher response rates from people who actually want to talk.
Where the time goes.
00:00 – 00:47
01 · Why cold calling feels bad
Hook using vintage phone prop, personal credibility (3 agencies, 1,500+ businesses), and a reframe: cold calling fails because you interrupted a stranger with nothing to offer them yet.
00:47 – 01:47
02 · The real problem
The problem is not nerves or scripts -- it is showing up with a pitch before earning any trust. The fix is specific pre-knowledge.
01:47 – 03:25
03 · Step 1: Find the problem first
Google Maps audit walkthrough -- review counts, response rates, website presence. Identifies real problems in 30 seconds.
03:25 – 04:22
04 · HighLevel prospecting tool
Faster version of the Google Maps audit: automatic scoring, PDF audit generation, sorts by conversion likelihood.
04:22 – 06:16
05 · Step 2: Lead with what you found
The word-for-word outreach message template that earns replies -- no pitch, no service mention, no meeting request. A specific observation and an offer to share a free breakdown.
06:16 – 08:46
06 · Step 3: The 4-touch follow-up
Four messages spaced days apart, each adding something specific. Message 1: audit offer. Message 2: add a useful tip. Message 3: acknowledge sales fatigue. Message 4: 'before I close your file' deadline.
08:46 – 09:39
07 · What to do when they reply
Send the audit, then offer to fix exactly one problem at one price. Paradox of choice kills the sale when you pitch everything.
09:39 – 10:38
08 · The stacking model
Reviews ($197) + AI receptionist ($247) + revenue website ($299) = $743/client. 10 clients = ~$87K/year. Build the relationship on one win first, then expand.
10:38 – 11:24
09 · Volume vs. relevance + CTA
Cold calling = volume game. This system = relevance game. HighLevel trial + Agency OS + free masterclass CTA.
Visual structure at a glance.
Named ideas worth stealing.
01:47
list
The Relevance-First Outreach System
- Step 1: Find the problem before you reach out (Google Maps or HighLevel audit)
- Step 2: Lead with what you found -- not a pitch
- Step 3: Follow up like a human -- 4 messages, each adding value
A 3-step replacement for cold calling built on research, specificity, and value-first messaging.
Steal for any outreach-based service business selling to local SMBs
06:16
list
The 4-Touch Follow-Up Sequence
- Message 1: Specific observation + offer to send free audit
- Message 2: Add one useful tip related to the breakdown
- Message 3: Acknowledge sales fatigue directly
- Message 4: 'Before I close your file' -- natural deadline
A 4-message sequence designed to avoid the two failure modes: disappearing after one message or spamming 20 times.
Steal for cold email or DM sequences for any service business
09:39
list
The Service Stacking Model
- Review automation: $197/mo
- AI receptionist: $247/mo
- Revenue website: $299/mo
- Total: $743/client/mo
Start by solving one problem at one price, earn trust, then layer additional services over time.
Steal for productizing recurring services for local business clients
Lines you could clip.
00:00
"I got good at it, I made it work and then I stopped it completely."
01:38
"The fix isn't a better script. The fix is showing up already knowing something specific about them."
09:37
"By the time they ask how much it costs, you've already done more for them than most agencies do after they get paid."
10:35
"Cold calling works by volume. This strategy works by relevance."
Things they pointed at.
How they asked for the click.
10:38
product
"Everything I just showed you -- the prospecting, the audits, the automations -- it all runs on one platform, HighLevel. When you start your free trial through the link below, I'll drop my entire agency OS into your account on day one."
Integrated throughout the tutorial (HighLevel tools demoed mid-video), not just bolted on at the end. Feels like a natural extension of the system being taught.
Word for word.
HOOK opening / re-engagementCTA the pitch metaphor story
00:00HOOKI've made thousands of cold calls. I know what it feels like to dial a number, hear someone pick up and immediately feel their energy shift the moment they realize you're trying to sell them something. That little pause, the polite but distant, who is this?
00:12HOOKAnd then the slow death of the next ninety seconds while you try to salvage a conversation that was over the moment they picked up the phone. I got good at it, I made it work and then I stopped it completely. Not because it doesn't work, it does.
00:23HOOKI stopped because I found something that works better, feels better and gets a higher response rate from people who actually want to talk to me. I've built three 7 figure agencies, worked with over 1,500 small businesses, run thousands of campaigns and today I do it all as a one person agency with zero employees. In this video, I'm going to show you exactly what I do instead of cold calling to get clients, three steps and by the time you finish watching you'll understand why cold calling feels so bad in the first place and why this approach feels completely different.
00:49But first, the real problem with cold calling because it's not what most people think. You see, most people think that cold calling feels bad because they're nervous or they're scared of rejection or they think that they need a better script, that's not it. Cold calling feels bad because you're interrupting a stranger who has no idea who you are, no reason to trust you and no context for why you're calling.
01:09You're asking for their time before you've given them anything and they can feel that the moment they pick up. It doesn't matter how confident you sound, the problem isn't your delivery, the problem is that you showed up with nothing except for a . The fix isn't a better script, The fix is showing up already knowing something specific about them, a specific problem, a specific opportunity because when you know something specific about the person you're reaching out to, something real, something that you found before you ever said a word, well the entire energy of that conversation shifts.
01:38You're not a stranger with a sales pitch anymore. Now, you're someone who knows their situation and is showing up with some ideas and some strategies to help make their life better. So, me show you the system now starting with step one, find the problem before you reach out.
01:52Right now, you're doing what most cold callers do, you're guessing and guessing sounds like this, hey, do you need more leads? And business owners have heard that question so many times, it doesn't even register anymore. But when you know the specific problem that they're going through before you reach out, the conversation is completely different and let me show you just how fast you can find the most important problems that most businesses need fixed right now.
02:13Let me pull up Google Maps and we'll search for any local service business in any city. It could be dentists or plumbers or HVAC, roofers, any business where customers search online to find someone to hire. Let's use alarm systems for our niche and Boulder, Colorado for our city.
02:27We'll click the more places button down here to give us a full list and just like that you can see that you could see a wide range of results when it comes to reviews alone. There's a business with a 148 reviews, uh, four, thirty five, 13, then there's this one here with 414 reviews and a 4.9 star rating.
02:44Customers see that difference instantly and they call the one with four fourteen reviews every single time. Next, let's click into a few listings. Are they responding to their reviews because most aren't and every ignored review looks like nobody's home.
02:57For someone choosing between two different options that silence is often enough to make them choose someone else. Also, is there a website linked up? A lot of businesses shockingly
03:05don't even have one connected to their Google listing so even if someone does find them there's nowhere to go. Alright, so a few problems found in like thirty seconds and the business owner has no idea that any of this is happening. They're busy pulling teeth or fixing pipes or whatever they're doing, they're not sitting there auditing their Google listing.
03:22Now, me show you how you can speed this up instead of having to click through one listing at a time. Inside HighLevel which is the software I use to run my entire agency, I'll talk more about that later, there's a prospecting tool built exactly for this. So, on the left sidebar we'll click prospecting then we can start a new one and type in your business type and the city that you want to search for.
03:39And now, instead of clicking through every listing manually, it's already analyzed everything. It's looked at their review count, their website status, their Google profile completeness and it scores each business based on how many problems it finds and how likely they are to convert into a client.
03:53So now, instead of guessing who needs help, I can sort by who very obviously needs help and when I click the add button here it automatically generates a full audit PDF report that I can send to the business in order to provide value in advance and show them how I can help. With this, you're not going in cold with a pitch, you're going in with a specific audit of a specific business that you prepared for before you said anything.
04:15Now, if you don't have high level yet, Google Maps gets you most of the same information. You just take some notes instead of generating a PDF. Okay.
04:22Step two, lead with what you found. This is where most people ruin it. They do the research, they find the problem and then they throw it all away by sending something that sounds like everybody else.
04:31Something like, hi, I'm a digital marketer and I help businesses like yours get more leads. Would you like to hop on a call? That message gets ignored 99 times out of a 100 for one very simple reason and that is that message could have been sent by anyone to anyone and the business owner knows it.
04:46I tested this message side by side with the message that I'm gonna give you now. Same type of businesses, same offer,
04:52one message gets completely ignored every single time but but the one I'm about to show you has a single digit response rate double digit on a good day. You're gonna want to say this pretty much word for word so write this down. Hey, name.
05:03I was searching for business type in city and came across your business. You've got some solid reviews. I noticed a few things on your Google listing that might be costing you calls though.
05:12I put together a quick breakdown if you'd like to see it. No charge, no strings attached, just thought it might help.
05:17Is it okay to send it over? Go over that again carefully. There's no pitch, no mention of your service, no meeting request, you're not asking for anything yet.
05:25You're just proving that you paid attention before you reached out and that flips the entire dynamic. Instead of who is this and what do they want, they think what did this person find? And, you can send this message anywhere.
05:36You can email it or send it via DM or text. You can even use it as your opener on a call instead of a pitch if you decide that you still want to make cold calls after this. The channel or the media that you use matters a lot less than the specificity of the message and the fact that you did some research ahead of time.
05:52Okay. Step three, follow-up like a human. Most people either send one message and then completely disappear or they send 20 messages and turn into the exact person that business owners have been trying to avoid since the beginning of time.
06:03The sweet spot is obviously somewhere in the middle. I like three to four messages spaced a few days apart each one short and adding something specific not just just checking in but actually adding something. So let me show you the sequence I use.
06:15Message one is the initial outreach that we already covered. The specific observation, the quick breakdown, no sales pitch.
06:22This one goes out, a tag gets added to the prospect automatically and then the automation kicks in. Message two goes out the next day if there's no reply and this is where most people go wrong. They just bump the original message.
06:34Instead, you want to add something small and specific. So try sending this. Hey, name.
06:39Forgot to mention, one of the fastest things I've seen work for business type is an automated review request that goes out after every job. I talk about that in the breakdown. Want me to send it over?
06:49That message doesn't feel like a follow-up. It feels like you remembered something important, something useful and that's a completely different energy. Message three goes out a few days later if there's still no reply.
06:58This one does something a little bit different. It acknowledges the fact that this is all kind of awkward and it acknowledges it directly. So, try this.
07:05Hey name. I know salespeople are the worst so I get it if you'd like me to stop. That said, I'd hate for you to miss out on what I found just because I didn't send one more message.
07:15Still happy to send it over if you want. That message works because it names the thing that everybody's thinking. They're not annoyed at you specifically, they're tired of pitches in general.
07:23Acknowledging that puts you on their side. Message four is the last one. You want to send this a couple days after that and it goes like this, hey, name.
07:30Before I close your file, I just wanted to check one last time. If you're not interested, no worries at all. I won't reach out again but if the timing's just been off, I'm still happy to send over what I found.
07:40Before I close your file does something very specific. It creates a natural deadline without pressure and in my experience a surprising number of replies come on this message because people finally have a reason to respond rather than just keep ignoring it. After that, move on.
07:54If four messages don't get a response, this isn't the right person right now. This entire sequence is already prebuilt inside of my agency OS. All four messages, the timing, the automations, it's ready to go.
08:05You can just copy it into your account and you're done. And you get instant access to all of that and a whole lot more when you start a free trial using the link below. And if you're not using HighLevel yet, a simple spreadsheet with a send date next to each prospect works fine.
08:16The tool just makes it automatic but the principle works either way. So when someone replies and they will, here's what you do next because this is the part where most people freeze. They get a reply, yeah, send it over.
08:28Then suddenly, they don't know what to do next. So here's what you do. You send them the audit.
08:33Just walk them through what you just found. Then you do one thing. You pick one problem and you offer to fix it.
08:38Not every problem they have, just one. If their reviews are the issue which they usually are, then you offer the review automation for a $197 a month.
08:47Set it up in about fifteen minutes and it runs automatically after every completed job. If they're missing phone calls which you can test by calling them either during business hours or after hours or on the weekend, well, then you can offer the AI receptionist for $247 a month.
09:01This AI agent which you can install right inside HighLevel answers calls after hours, it qualifies the lead, it books the appointment and does all this automatically. The point here though is that you want to solve just one problem with one solution for one price. This avoids something called the paradox of choice where you give them way too many different options and they get overwhelmed and they pick none of them.
09:21It also helps to keep things clean and clear and easy to understand for both you and them. Here's what I want you to sit with, that cold call conversation I described at the start, the one where you can feel them waiting for you to stop talking, that happens because you showed up asking for something before you gave them anything.
09:37This is the opposite. You found their problems, you prepared something specific, you offered to share it for free and by the time they ask how much it costs, you've already done more for them than most agencies do after they get paid.
09:49That is a completely different relationship that's built right from the very first message. Plus, once one service is running and they can see it working and their reviews are climbing, their calls are getting answered, well, they ask what else you can fix and that's when you start stacking other services on top of it. Start with reviews for 197 then add the AI receptionist for $2.47,
10:08add a revenue website later for $2.99 a month that automatically captures and converts leads and now you're up to do some quick mental math, $743 per client and your clients aren't canceling because these services are producing results that they can see every week.
10:24At 10 clients with these stacked services, you're almost at 6 figures a year. Here's the truth, cold calling works by volume. You make enough calls that eventually someone says yes despite the interruption.
10:33CTAThis strategy on the other hand works by relevance, you find people who already have the problem, you show up with evidence that you know what's wrong and how to fix it and then you make the smallest possible request. Every day you wait someone else is finding those same businesses on Google Maps, Maybe they send the message, maybe they don't, but the ones who do are going to have clients that could have been yours.
10:53CTAEverything I just showed you, the prospecting, the audits, the automations, a whole lot more, it all runs on one platform, high level. When you start your free trial through the link below, I'll drop my entire agency OS into your account on day one. Prebuilt automations,
11:05CTAoutreach scripts, review campaigns, all ready to go. You don't start with a blank screen, you start with my complete system. And if you want to see the complete picture, how to pick your niche, what to charge, and how to scale this into a real agency, I broke the whole thing down in a free master class that I've got linked up right here.
— full transcript
§ 05 · For Joe
Show up with evidence before you ask for anything.
WHAT TO LEARN
The reason outreach fails almost universally has nothing to do with confidence or scripts -- it is that you arrive asking for attention before you have demonstrated you deserve it.
- Generic opening lines fail because the recipient knows instantly they could have been sent to anyone -- specificity is the only thing that breaks through.
- Thirty seconds on Google Maps surfaces three real problems a local business owner does not know exist and has no time to find themselves.
- A message that offers to share a free audit with no pitch attached flips the psychological dynamic from interruption to invitation.
- Follow-up messages work best when each one adds something new rather than simply reminding the recipient that the first message exists.
- Naming the awkwardness of sales outreach directly in the third message disarms the defensive reflex and positions you on the prospect's side.
- Offering one solution to one problem at one price after the first reply converts far better than presenting a full menu of services.
- Building a client relationship on a single working result creates the natural opening for stacking additional services -- expansion happens when the client asks, not when you pitch.
- A system that works by relevance requires more preparation per prospect but produces a higher response rate from people who already have the problem you solve.
