Should I focus on getting clients first and learn skills later, or build skills and automations before acquiring clients? What to do while warming up cold emails?
To be fair, we cover all this in Maker School, but I'll still dangle the carrot. There are other lead generation mechanisms you can use while warming up emails. Upwork is big—apply the same approach I recommend there: record customized Loom videos and send them via cold DMs instead. Find creators, influencers, or people doing work you think you can help with, record a video solving their problem, and send it across their social media platforms. There's a lot you can do here, but I wouldn't just wait 2 to 4 weeks; you could send many customized DMs in that time, and many would likely respond.
Cold email works fantastic for consultants. If you run a software development, no-code development, or AI automation agency, you are essentially a consultant. I regularly pitch people in the AI and automation vertical to use cold email to get clients, and I use it myself to get my own clients. The same system that works for you will work for any other consultant. You don't need to worry about whether it works for consultants—it does. Proof is in the pudding: if you're using the system to acquire clients, then by definition it's working. Additionally, you can explore niche packs inside Maker School and other systems you could sell, such as unique repurposing content creators, trend detectors, YouTube comment ideators, and tools like Vid IQ that help find liars for inbound flows. There are also YouTube-specific tools for long-form content creators. In short, cold email is great for consultants, coaches, and similar professionals.
I’ve been in the same spot. I started by rotating a handful of Gmail accounts—sometimes five—sending about ten cold emails a day from each. It’s not ideal, but it works to get started as long as your emails are well‑researched and the approach is solid. Gmail accounts have lower deliverability, especially new ones, so they need to warm up. You can also buy cheap inboxes (e.g., three Instantly airmail inboxes for around $4 each per month plus a domain) which gives you roughly 90 emails a day. Build a quick lead list, template your messages, and spend the first hour‑and‑a‑half each day sending them. You can also DM prospects. The key is to keep sending, refine your copy, and don’t worry too much about the tools at the start.
Your situation isn't really an issue—you're already using lead‑generation strategies that don't demand daily time. The biggest improvements in life come from doing the same thing consistently over a long period. I recommend a daily lead‑generation activity that requires you to articulate the benefits of your service, such as recording a video or leaving a voice note. Examples include sending DMs on LinkedIn, X, Instagram, or TikTok, or engaging in relevant communities. Talking to people in a social‑media style helps you get 1% better each day at explaining benefits and understanding needs. You can also create personalized icebreakers for large lead lists using tools like Ampify to automate the process.
Return on your time would be trading a little bit of your money for said time through getting these cold email platforms and using AI to personalize your icebreakers and send them out. If you just think about strictly return on time, that would be the way. But in your case, Lucas, from experience, because you're in maker school, I know you're at the very start line of your business and don't have a lot of access to capital right now. For you, it's not about return on time; you can do things that are poor return on time because you have a lot of time. Something that would be a poor return on time would be things like custom Loom videos. Despite being poor return on time, they're a lot higher intent. So there's a difference between efficiency and effectiveness. Right now you're asking about efficiency, best return on time. What you should really be asking about is effectiveness given 12 hours a day. Why not just work all of that time to bootstrap your first client, and once you have some revenue coming in, focus on scalability.