#86 · Why I Moved 13 Times In One Year (Behind-the-Scenes)
He explains that automation agents aren't super valuable yet but are close; the real value is in how you follow up, not the automation itself; you shouldn't treat leads like criminals; use a friendly, assumptive tone to preserve relationships and increase response rates; examples from Alex Hormozi show that a courteous check‑in works better than harsh automated messages.
The reason most AI agencies sell lead‑gen offers is that lead generation is the core value for most businesses—it’s the simplest way to get a ‘yes.’ Once you have a lead‑gen system in place, AI automation agencies can easily upsell related systems: after delivering leads, you can sell CRM organization, payment automation, onboarding automation, fulfillment automation, and so on. By building a stack of services—from lead generation to conversion, payment, onboarding, and fulfillment—you create natural upsell and retainer opportunities, leading to recurring revenue.
Don’t automate any client‑facing activities—calls, proposal videos, onboarding, strategy or upsell sessions—because white‑glove service brings in far more money. Automate everything else: lead capture, data handling, invoicing, reporting, and any backend tasks.
It's really interesting that you're noticing this without intending to. Customers have pain points, and when you press those pain points, they reward you disproportionately compared to other topics. In your case, the pain point is lead generation. Paid ads are just a mechanism; the real value is in lead gen. Every time you discuss lead gen, people respond and want more, so you keep pressing that pain point. Automation is not the product; it's a means to an end. It's not something you should sell outright. Think of automation as a way to make something work better. For instance, if a company has a lead gen pipeline that isn't performing well, adding automation can improve it significantly. Or if a fulfillment process works manually but you want to scale, automation can reduce headcount and increase output without hiring more people. So focusing on lead gen isn't bad; it's where the value lies. Regarding your sales calls, if you're getting low conversion rates (like 7-8%), that's not unusual for a first AI automation customer or any new customer. The issue is likely that you're not following a standardized process. Once you adopt a consistent sales skeleton—building rapport, transitioning, framing the call, learning why they're talking to you, understanding their problem, gathering background, proposing a solution, and following up—you can refine it over time. The key is repetition: following the same process repeatedly makes you good at it. Your big issue is probably the lack of a standardized process, not the automation itself.
No, I think AI automation is the concert of several skills. To be a very good automator you need strong attention to detail, which is a skill—not something you're born with. You also need good systems and process thinking. To be a good AI automation specialist you must understand business needs and problems. Many people enter this field from a technical side, deeply understanding systems and first‑principles thinking, but then they spend hours on tiny academic edge cases that businesses don’t care about. Businesses reward solving real problems, not perfect academic cases. So AI automation really is a blend of technical and business skills. I lean heavily toward the business side, which is why I make more money than many technically gifted people in my community. If you extend the idea to running an AI automation company, the owner needs some copywriting, video editing, ads, or SEO knowledge—being a jack of all trades is better than mastering just one. In short, an AI automation company’s value isn’t just in the automation itself; it’s in how the automation works with your business. You need a money‑generating process or flow first, then you add automation to speed it up. I discuss this in yesterday’s video.