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#48 · I Tried Every Lead Gen Approach So You Don't Have To

youtube ↗Client Acquisition

How do you attract actual clients instead of people just looking to learn automation?

Yeah, I like to think so as well. I deliver a ridiculous amount of value—whether it’s $60, $70, or whatever the current price is, sometimes around $3,000 depending on when you watch this. To make a long story short, I don’t actually recommend posting on YouTube for a while; most people see creators like me posting and assume that’s how you make money, so they feel they need to post and showcase their systems. I can only do that because I’ve already had success selling this through cold outreach and built a business model aside from YouTube. Only once I had the cash flow to justify spending time on YouTube did I start making videos consistently. Before you start making videos about a money‑making topic, get to the point where you’ve achieved more than 99% of people at that thing. If you’re a standout 1% with some accomplishment or social proof, people will be far more likely to listen to you. There are literally a million‑plus people waving light poles online talking about stuff they don’t really understand. When you can demonstrate real results—say, making $42,000 a month—and show how you did it, you cut through that noise much more easily. The key is to do it without bragging; come across as genuine, not ungrounded. Based on our interactions in Maker School, you’re not that kind of guy—you’re good. For me, it’s more about reputation than follower count; I care about the strength and quality of each follower, not just the number. I’m not missing out on money by focusing on goodwill; in fact, I’m accumulating more goodwill than pretty much anyone in the industry by doing this. Thanks for the advice—you totally get how to play the game.

social proofreputationgoodwill

Related answers

youtube ↗Marketing

You give away automation tutorials for free on YouTube, yet you also sell the same automations to businesses. Aren't you worried that businesses will just use your free tutorials to build their own solutions instead of hiring you? How does this seemingly contradictory approach work for your business? I'm curious about your strategy.

Well, logically I get what you're saying, but you're assuming it's a zero‑sum game—that if I give away my secrets they benefit and I gain nothing. Actually, it's not a zero‑sum game at all. Putting this content out there has significantly increased market demand for these services, creating a positive feedback loop where the demand growth outpaces whatever I've given away in knowledge. We live in a knowledge economy, and knowledge is the main thing. By giving what feels like very little knowledge—because I've already done all the work—I can provide overwhelming, ridiculous amounts of value, and you see that as a ton of value. That makes you far more likely to join my paid community, my programs, hire my agency, or work with me in a consulting context. In reality, I lose very little: people already know how to put together a proposal generator; I'm not exactly reinventing the wheel, and when I first started sharing, a lot of copycats appeared, but I'm fine with that. I firmly believe knowledge should not be gatekept. What I do gatekeep and charge for is the accountability—the one‑on‑one time with me. That's why this approach has worked well for me. Sam Ovens, the literal king of consulting, featured me in a video saying I make about $269,000 a month with my school (an information product). And giving this free YouTube content, despite not selling anything directly, has worked exceptionally well.

free contentbusiness modelknowledge economyone-on-one
youtube ↗Lead Generation

I'm unsure if I'm on the right track; I'm currently building blogs and LinkedIn posts while dabbling on YouTube, lacking social proof and cold outreach skills, and haven't finalized my offer template. I think my progress will be slower than those who aggressively use cold emails and DMs.

No problem. Let's take a look at your YouTube progress—it's likely going to take longer than you expect. You have a lot going on: blogs, LinkedIn posts, YouTube dabbling, and you're exploring automation and the over‑50 niche, which I actually think is a great niche. You also have another channel that's fine. However, I don't see this as the straightest path to winning. If you aim to make $5,000–$15,000 a month with this setup, you'll probably need outbound outreach rather than relying on inbound, unless you have something inherently fascinating about you or an offer so irresistible that people are drawn in just by your thumbnail or title. In most cases, the likelihood of winning with inbound quickly is low, so outbound remains the simplest, straightest route to success. My advice is to focus on nailing your offer template—something I struggled with at first too. Remember, not being good at something now doesn't mean you never will be; it's just a matter of putting in time, effort, and persistence. Don't let a lack of social proof or current skill level become a limiting belief. Start sending outreach; social proof matters more for inbound than outbound, so you can build it as you go. That's what I'd do in your situation, John.

outreachoffer-templatesocial-proofniche
youtube ↗Lead Generation

If I had $1,000 and your knowledge, what business would you start from scratch and how would you grow it?

If you have $1,000, it's effectively the same as having $0 when viewed from a high enough level--there's no real difference. My advice is identical for anyone with zero or $1,000: start a daily consistent outreach habit, regardless of platform (social media, email, etc.). Choose a simple daily target--for example, talk to or get in front of 10 people each day for your business. Over a year that's 3,650 contacts; even a tiny conversion rate can generate significant capital because luck stems from preparation plus opportunity, and you boost luck by maximizing outreach. Most people struggle because they lack such daily habits; the real bottleneck in almost any venture is soft skills, sales ability, and marketing. You could build a product like Netflix tomorrow, but without marketing you'd have zero viewers. Practical ways to hit your daily goal: send 10 Upwork applications daily, send 10 cold emails per day on behalf of your business, or reach out to your favorite YouTubers (like me or Ali Abdal) with a custom pitch each day. Alternatively, list the top 10 creators, identify their problems, and offer to solve them--doing this for a month yields about 300 high-quality touches, each taking only 5-10 minutes, which can drive real results. Begin this habit now and maintain it for months; the compounding effect will create the bulk of your long-term capital.

daily outreachhabitlead gen
youtube ↗Marketing

Should I focus on pushing content regularly or prioritize high-quality content at a slower pace? If starting from scratch, what videos would you make?

Well, I wouldn't be in your situation in the first place. It doesn't make sense to start a YouTube channel or talk about stuff until you've actually delivered value in the past. If your revenue is less than $20,000 a month, you shouldn't be running this channel right now because lead volume will be too variable and there's nothing to build a business around. Spending time just touching up your content and trying to make it really high quality completely defeats the purpose—believe it or not, your content doesn't have to be very high quality as long as you're somebody worth listening to. For example, I'm just in my room in a tank top after a shower; I might not know what I'm talking about when I started this video, but it's still worth listening to because I've achieved outcomes that a lot of people here want to achieve, and I've consolidated a lot of knowledge. The two are valuable together, but the actual quality of the content aside from that knowledge and the perceived value of being associated with me isn't anywhere near as high. So the hack is: you need to do good first. Don't start a content business and then run another business side by side. Start the other business, crush it, achieve massive success, and then make videos talking about it. If you do anything else, you're really just putting the carpet before the horse and wasting your time.

content strategypersonal brandyoutube