#332 · best lead source in 2026 (it's not Apollo)
I wish you could make money without jumping on a call, especially initially, but if it sounds too good to be true, it usually is. I don't know; maybe he's doing it well because he has a specific way of doing things, but it's not personally how I would proceed.
I'm not sure I saw it on his calendar; I invited him; I don't think there's any bad blood—he still comments in my community. He's probably busy, but if he reaches out again I'll do it.
Winner stories has a great story: he's starting an agentic workflow agency and has two questions. First, which industry should he offer his service to? He should target digital industries with easily scrapable data, high‑ticket services (average order value at least $5k, ideally $10k–$30k+), and industries that are non‑compliant—avoiding heavy regulation like healthcare. Instead, focus on unregulated, wild‑west style sectors such as agencies. Second, his main outreach is cold email but he hasn't gotten a client, and he's considering going deep into cold calling. If he hasn't sent many cold emails or invested real time in learning and iterating, he can't claim to have gone deep in cold emailing. To get good at cold email (or cold calling) he needs to spend several hours a day over months studying copy, testing, and improving—only then will he see real improvement.
Your dream of a productized agency is common. A good example is DesignJoy—Brett made about $100k/month as a one-man agency by templating all his work, working 6–9 hours a day, selling a $4,995/month subscription, and managing clients via a Trello board. He'd pick a template from his library, modify it based on customer needs, and deliver it manually (pre‑AI). Over time he built ~300 templates, making future clients easy. His success came from ensuring every unit of work benefited him and avoiding calls for a long time, which he considered essential to growth. Check out Brett from DesignJoy for reference.
Yes, I recommend joining Maker School; you have enough runway to allocate your $600 effectively. Use available discount codes to stretch your budget, and instead of spending on operations or credits, consider applying to platforms like make.com, Nadn, Bolt, Lovable, or similar tools—they often rotate offers. Save money for outreach efforts. For sales calls, since you're young and some platforms may restrict minors, you can have a trusted person (like your brother) front the initial outreach and handle fulfillment or client management while you focus on delivery. Training your brother is a viable approach, though it will be challenging at first.