A. Structured Data and AI Model Design

The foundation of effective AI automation lies in structured data. By assigning "a value and the reason why I do that is because when you get in the habit of doing this you can then very easily integrate this with any tool on planet Earth you're using what's called structured data." This allows for seamless integration with various software platforms and efficient parsing of data.

A successful AI model for tasks like email personalization follows a clear structure:

• System Prompt: Defines the AI's identity (e.g., "You're a helpful intelligent writing assistant").
• User Prompt (Task): Clearly outlines the task (e.g., "Your task is to personalize an email... editing five templates for different sections").
• Templates and Guidelines: Provides the necessary content and rules for the AI.
• Data Input: A second user prompt delivers the actual data the AI will operate on.
• JSON Response: The AI returns the output in a structured JSON format, enabling easy integration and use.

This systematic approach is crucial for building "a real functional system that you guys can charge money for."

B. Test-Driven Development (TDD) for Workflow Creation

Traditional workflow building often leads to complex debugging. Instead, test-driven development is advocated:

1. Add the first module, test it.
2. Once validated, add the second module, test it.
3. Repeat for each subsequent module.

This incremental testing minimizes debugging time and identifies errors precisely: "if something in your flow breaks... and you know that everything up until here was perfect... obviously the error is right over here." This approach transforms an expensive, unpredictable debugging process into "a fixed time cost."

A. Niche Definition

Defining a specific niche is paramount. "If you do everything for everybody you technically do nothing for nobody." A good niche should ideally be:

• Digital-first: Easier to source leads using automated methods.
• High-ticket projects: Allows for higher revenue per client.
• Low regulation: Reduces complexity and overhead.

It is recommended to define three niches and commit to exploring them for at least three months. This multi-niche approach, once initial infrastructure is built for one, becomes "1.5 times the work because you've already done all the hard work... to replicate that across B and C you just need to like do a tiny bit more so 50% more work for three times the result is definitely free money." Examples include "selling sales systems specifically to website developers," "finance systems for IT consultants," or "product development systems for mobile app developers."

B. Business Name & Domain Acquisition

Business Name:

Don't overthink it. Set a 5-minute timer and use tools like Namelix. The name "does not really matter there's like a 00001% of business names will matter."

Domain Strategy:

Acquire a main domain for your brand (e.g., circleyworkflows.com) and multiple sending domains (e.g., sendworkflows.com, getcircleyworkflows.com). This protects your main domain's health and deliverability when sending large volumes of cold emails: "if you just start sending email straight from your main domain... you're going to trash all of that."

Third-party platforms (Zapmail.ai, Inboxology.com) can simplify cold email infrastructure setup, though self-setup offers valuable learning.

C. Leveraging Social Proof and Case Studies

Clients need evidence of your value. If you lack direct experience, "itemizing your entire corporate history" is crucial. Look for "the biggest hell yeah look at me that you can find." Quantify value where possible (e.g., "I generated $25,000 in revenue for a B2B manufacturing company").

If you have no prior corporate experience, leverage existing system blueprints (e.g., from Make.com or NADN playlists), make minor changes, and claim them as your own: "I built an AI podcast repurposing engine that produces 10 pieces of content... estimated savings per piece you do a little bit of quick math and you say I don't know 200 bucks or something like that."

D. Website and Lead Generation Channels

Website:

Publish a simple website using tools like Webflow, Lovable, or Carrd.

Upwork:

Highly recommended for acquiring initial customers, despite common skepticism. "As long as you can get up and running quickly you can worry about the legitimacy of your business model... later."

Community Engagement:

Join online communities (e.g., School.com) related to your niches. This allows you to:

• Understand customer problems directly: "go directly to a place where your target audience just bitches about their problems all day."
• Become a trusted resource: "build some authority... by helping people and answering their questions not asking for anything in return." Avoid direct pitches initially.

E. Sales and Payment Infrastructure

Proposal Template:

Essential for closing deals after discovery calls. A basic template includes: "a title page then you usually have a problem you have a solution statement of some kind you then have some sort of scope of work then you round it out with a timeline then finally you have some sort of pricing where you usually have a pitch." Platforms like PandaDoc, Better Proposals, or HelloSign are suitable.

Payment Processor:

Set up Stripe, PayPal, or a local equivalent to accept payments.

F. Consistent Daily Outreach

Track daily activity (emails sent, Upwork applications, community posts) using a simple Google Sheet. Consistency is key: "The one thing that you do have to do is you just have to be consistent." This acts as an "inbuilt accountability mechanism," especially when shared with peers.

A. Identifying High-Demand Services

Don't automate the process of understanding customer problems. "You actually understanding a customer problem is directly correlated with your success as a business owner."

• Listen to Complaints: Actively read community forums (e.g., School.com, Reddit) where your target niche discusses their pain points. This reveals "exactly what the problems that people are suffering from that are in your niche are right now."
• Solve Core Problems: For many niches, a common problem is "not enough clients." This can be addressed with "cold outreach systems" (scraping, email systems). Other examples include content generation (e.g., 100 blog posts for a client website) or clipping services for video editors.
• Validate with Feedback: Don't plan for every eventuality. Develop initial offers and "hear their feedback first."

B. Lead Scraping and Outreach Infrastructure

Lead Sourcing:

Use tools like Apollo.io to identify target audiences (e.g., website development agencies, videographers, real estate agents) based on location, company size, and keywords. Aim for at least 80% relevance in initial scrapes.

Data Scraping:

Use tools like Apify (e.g., Apollo code_cfter) to extract lead data, including emails. Be prepared to manually clean and enrich data (e.g., combining personal and business emails).

AI-Powered Personalization (Icebreakers):

• Use AI models (e.g., GPT-4 Mini) with a well-crafted prompt to generate personalized one-line icebreakers for cold emails.
• The prompt should define the AI's role ("helpful intelligent writing assistant"), the task, desired tone (Spartan/laconic), and output format (JSON).
• Provide multiple examples to guide the AI, demonstrating desired brevity, tone, and implied familiarity (e.g., "Hey [name], love what you're doing at [company acronym] also [relatable activity] wanted to run something by you").
• Integrate this into automation platforms like Make.com to process leads and update your sheets.

C. Crafting Irresistible Offers & Cold Email Campaigns

Email Sending Platform:

Use services like Instantly for cold email campaigns. Pre-warmed email accounts can save significant setup time, and female sender names often perform better.

Four-Step Copywriting Formula:

1. Is this spam? Answer with immediate personalization (icebreaker).
2. Who are you? Introduce yourself and your unique advantage.
3. Why does it matter to me? Justify the outreach by highlighting past successes or value delivered (social proof).
4. What next? Provide a clear call to action (offer/next steps).

Offer Design:

Frame offers with "plausible deniability" and an informal tone, making it seem like a direct, personal outreach rather than a mass sequence.

Split Testing:

Create multiple campaign variants with fundamentally different offers. This allows for rapid iteration and identification of successful approaches based on reply rates.

Follow-ups:

Include follow-up emails (e.g., two days after the initial email) to maximize engagement, even if they are concise.

Testing and Optimization:

Analyze reply rates to quickly identify underperforming campaigns and reallocate resources. "When there's a divide that's this big between a successful campaign... then a campaign that has a 0% positive reply rate... I have a feeling this real estate campaign probably just ain't it dog."

A. Understanding the Sales Funnel

Marketing drives leads to a meeting booked. From there, the sales process begins.

Meeting Booked:

The transition from marketing to sales.

Sales Meeting:

Outcomes include:

• Not a fit right now: Push back into a 30-day follow-up cycle for rebooking.
• Not a fit ever: Opt out.
• Want to move forward: Proceed to detailed proposal/scope of work.

Proposal/Scope of Work:

If not signed within 7 days, push to a dedicated follow-up cycle.

Signed and Paid:

The successful outcome, leading to onboarding.

B. Sales System Variations

One-Call Close:

Bundles everything into a single sales call (pitch, proposal, payment). "If you don't get a yes in the one call then you just don't really need to worry about them." This is higher risk but can result in "higher refund rates," "higher dissatisfaction rates," but also "you will usually close more and you'll usually make a fair bit more money."

Two-Call Close:

Involves an initial discovery call followed by a separate closing call. This approach is "better for people that have a little less experience with scoping and automation projects in general."

C. Pricing Strategies

Strategic pricing is crucial for growth.

• Hourly (Beginner): Start here for "first few bucks in the internet." It's "super straightforward" and minimizes friction.
• Value-Based (Intermediate): After a few clients, transition to:
  • Cost Savings: Best for large businesses with small margins (e.g., 25% of annual savings).
  • Revenue Uplift: Better for small businesses with large margins (e.g., 10-25% of increased revenue).

  These methods align incentives and are highly scalable, not tied to your time. "You can make 10,000 bucks in a few hours if you build it right."

• Deliverable-Based Retainer (Advanced): For trusted clients, shift to monthly recurring revenue tied to specific deliverables (e.g., "For $5,200 a month you'll get a weekly strategy call with me... one of those systems every single month"). This offers "super high leverage" and "control over all of your deliverables."
• Per Asset Based Pricing (Niche/SAS-like): For modular services (e.g., content production), charge per deliverable (e.g., $20 per article). This is "the most software-like way to price" and "definitely the most scalable," but takes longer to generate substantial revenue.
• Percentage of Revenue (Expert/High-Risk): Offer to generate, nurture, qualify, and close leads in exchange for a percentage of gross revenue. This offers "unbounded upside" but is high risk, requires confidence in delivery, and is not stable.

A. Solving Onboarding Problems

Onboarding addresses:

• Buyer's Remorse: Provide immediate value and a sense of progress after payment.
• Client Expectations: Set clear timelines and define communication frequency.
• Logistics: Gather necessary credentials and clarify responsibilities upfront.

B. Automated Onboarding Process

Automate post-payment communications using tools like Make.com.

• Thank You Email (Immediate): Send a personalized email thanking them for payment, making it feel "handwritten and customized."
• Onboarding Instructions & Calendar (Delayed): After a short delay (e.g., 4 minutes), send an email with next steps, a calendar link to book a kickoff call, and an agenda. This creates a "perception of progress."

C. Defining Win Conditions

Crucially, have an explicit conversation with the client about win conditions – "what sorts of boxes do I need to check before our project is over." This prevents scope creep and client dissatisfaction. Example: a lead generation project's win condition could be "a completed air table that automatically populates with new positive responses from your smart lead campaign."

D. Documentation and Upselling

• Deliverables: Deliver a high-quality completed project, detailed video documentation/training, and detailed text documentation/training. This offers "three deliverables for a few moments of extra work on your end."
• Automated Documentation: Use AI (e.g., GPT-4) with transcripts and screenshots from Loom videos to automatically generate detailed text documentation, greatly increasing perceived value.
• Soft Upsell: After project delivery, subtly introduce potential additional value by framing it in terms of client ROI (e.g., "I see no reason why I can't add 5% or more into your margins with a few changes"). Provide a simple, bullet-pointed snippet with estimated returns.
• Templated Delivery Email: Send a pre-created template that assumes the sale, includes links to all deliverables, and reminds about payment/reviews (especially for platforms like Upwork). Always assume everything is good and "never explicitly ask for revision requests."

E. Handling Revisions

• Delay Delivery (24+ hours): Avoid immediate revisions. This allows clients to consolidate multiple requests and understand that revisions aren't trivial.
• Assume Goodness: Never ask "Hey, do you have any revision requests?" Assume the project is perfect and use language that implies completion and satisfaction.
• Minimize Likelihood: The high quality and thoroughness of your initial delivery act as "inoculation against somebody asking for revisions."

A. The RPS Concept

• RPS = Revenue / Number of People: Most service businesses see RPS decrease as they add staff due to communication costs, training, and potential mistakes.
• Solo RPS Ceiling: A single specialist might hit a ceiling of $15,000-$20,000/month. The goal is to raise this ceiling significantly before hiring.

B. Four-Step Framework for Scaling

Productize What You Can:

• Deconstruct Services: Break down your service offerings into granular, repeatable components (e.g., a PPC campaign breaks into ad copy, ad creatives).
• Create SOPs: Develop step-by-step guides for each component, assuming zero prior knowledge. This clarifies the process and identifies automation opportunities.
• Revenue Ceiling: $20,000-$30,000/month per person.
• Example: Fat Joe (SEO platform) effectively productizes various SEO services.

Automate What You Can, Optimize What You Can't:

• Automate Components: Identify elements within your productized services that can be automated (e.g., using AI for ad copy generation). This "doubled the leverage."
• Optimize Non-Automated Parts: For parts that can't be fully automated, optimize the process to be as efficient as possible (e.g., using templates).
• Revenue Ceiling: $50,000-$100,000/month per person.
• Examples: Design Joy (design service leveraging templates), Kristoph Huran (consultant offering "voice message packages" for semi-productized advice).

Build Automated Distribution Systems:

• Distribution = Putting Product in Front of People: Scale your reach without adding staff.
• Outreach Systems: Automated cold outreach (e.g., emails, DMs) to large audiences with personalized messages. "Whether you connect with a 100 or 10,000 people your time investment is going to be the same."
• Content Systems: Creating content (e.g., YouTube videos, SEO articles) that generates leads passively.
• Revenue Ceiling: $100,000-$250,000/month per person.
• Examples: Justin Welsh, the author's own YouTube channel.

Purposefully Pick a Scalable Business Model (Optional, Late Stage):

• This step is for when you've exhausted the previous three and are still unhappy with your revenue ceiling (e.g., $250,000+/month as a solopreneur).
• Trade-off: Scalability often conflicts with short-term revenue. Models like freelancing and agencies offer quick revenue but limited inherent scalability, while SAS, info products, and platform-as-a-service offer higher scalability but require more upfront investment and time to generate significant revenue.
• Leveraged Agency: By productizing, automating, and distributing an agency model, you gain the benefits of both short-term revenue and high scalability.
• Examples of Scalable Models: Information products, software products, affiliate advertising.