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.
If you're running an automation agency, you have three main options to find clients. First, Upwork: it's the simplest, straightest path for beginners to get your first dollar online, though the ROI is lower than other methods. Second, cold email: cost per acquisition is super low, you can scale it, and you can use AI to personalize outreach; check out my previous videos on my main channel @Nix for details on customizing and personalizing emails. Third, communities: post high-value content daily or every few days in groups where your target customers hang out; this frames you as an authority and quickly builds an inbound presence without the hard work of recording hundreds of videos. In Maker School I provide a daily regimen: send 10 Upwork applications, make a community post, and do cold email outreach each day. I recommend about 270 cold emails per day (nine mailboxes with 30 emails each). With a two-step sequence, that yields roughly 3,240 contacts per month, leading to about 90 engaged people, and assuming a third respond positively, you get around 30 leads per day—fantastic for your pipeline. This is what's working today given your photography background; you don't need to cold‑approach bigger businesses unless you want to, as it's often a pain.
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.