I started sending cold emails and got zero leads from 2 K companies. What pain point or automation should I focus on first? Should I consider targeting the English‑speaking market?
Focus on an automation pain point that resonates with your target market. Since you’re French, you can still target English‑speaking markets; translating your successful French campaign takes about 20 minutes. Try copying the exact same campaign, translate it to a comfortable fluency level, and send it out. I’ve seen similar campaigns generate eight positive responses out of 300 contacts. For niche ideas, check out the three best AI automation agency niches for 2025 and pick one with willing‑to‑pay problems.
Yes, the business model is absolutely viable in France. In fact, it's a competitive advantage because you have an intrinsic understanding of the market and the language. You can take the English email templates I've developed and run the exact same campaign in French instead of English. By doing so, you will get significantly higher response rates on all your campaigns because the market is far less saturated—there are far fewer people doing this in France compared to the English market. So you should definitely jump on this, especially if you're a forward thinker willing to experiment. My recommendation: set up a campaign to pitch to French people. You can copy one of my campaigns, but don't just use Google Translate; sit down and translate the concepts and ideas, paying attention to tone of voice and cultural differences. Then launch it and report back—let me know when you book meetings, for example. There are already many people doing this in French, as well as in Dutch and German. After that, I shift to discussing brand stats and brainstorming. I note that we've had a rough day with slow growth, likely sub‑1K subscribers now, and the massive boost we received is declining. I wonder if I'm no longer ranking for certain terms or if my current strategy is causing stagnation—I'm still gaining watch time and revenue, but audience growth feels limited. I feel the need to create new content that pushes further than most people think. I also mention being called smart and sexy, looking at automation tools, checking out Jay in my community, exploring YouTube automation videos, noting the prevalence of sponsored posts, and observing that YouTube automation is popping off. I consider making more YouTube automation videos, eliminating shorts from my feed, and looking into AI automation. I comment on competitors like Liam Molly crushing it with high views, and note that getting a 19x return is rare for a channel this size. I also browse other creators, see thumbnail styles, and conclude that I should make some YouTube automation videos, perhaps revisiting an early Redditology channel that scraped Reddit and used AI voiceovers. I think YouTube automation could be a tangential side niche alongside general automation. I also mention agents—while I don't yet believe in agents, I acknowledge others are crushing it with agent videos and maybe we should explore that. Finally, I decide to stop brainstorming because it's getting boring and the lights are coming off, wishing everyone a lovely rest of the day.
Cold email isn't really automation; you can easily build an AI‑enabled cold‑email agency, which is a top solo‑freelancer model right now. But the simplest, highest‑leveraged system you can build for a client is a 'speedtole' system—a glorified autoresponder. You watch a mailbox for incoming mail from a filter (e.g., Facebook lead ads sending an email), then using Make.com, n8n, or cloud routines you scan the mailbox, get the trigger, and immediately reply via email. Then you send a Twilio SMS, and a team member calls the prospect. This cuts response time from minutes to under a minute, boosting pickup and conversion rates because of the perceived professionalism of your system. I’ve seen this system add over a million dollars in revenue for clients and improve existing funnels by 10‑20%, easily generating an easy $500k per year.
Cold calling is extremely time‑inefficient: spending an hour on the phone typically yields only 10–15 minutes of actual conversation unless you use a power dialer, and most people don’t use even basic tools like Clearbit. This means you operate at about 25% efficiency—the opposite of leverage. Instead of cold calling, devote that time to sending high‑quality cold emails and direct messages. The outcome is similar: prospects get a high‑quality interaction, you can appear on video, and you gain the ability to automate follow‑ups, cut through gatekeepers, and eliminate dial and connect times. Essentially, a well‑crafted cold email functions as a high‑quality voicemail that scales far better than phone calls.
cold callingcold emaillead generationbusiness development
It depends on your definition of “good,” but in general yes—cold emailing everybody can work. It’s not the best approach, though. I wouldn’t start with local businesses; I’d begin with digital, high‑ticket offers that are easily scrapable and whose clients come primarily through online channels—think digital agencies, high‑touch or high‑ticket SaaS, or recruitment firms with high internal volume and repeatable fixed costs. Automating a fixed cost that occurs many times a day creates inherent value, and local businesses would be a secondary focus. Still, I wouldn’t kick off with locals. After that, I moved on to brand stats: I log growth across the main channel, Instagram, and the daily updates channel as a simple awareness tactic and for fun; my daily updates channel now sits at 11,743 subscribers, up about 100, though I couldn’t locate my phone to verify. I also run an Instagram channel and have a follower‑tracker set up, which I keep blocked on my computer so the algorithm doesn’t distract me. I checked a handle (Nick Sarafh) and got 304,516 followers, noting the increase seemed delayed and only showed a 121‑rise, which would be the worst growth day on record. My main product count is 292,763, and a competitor (Spence) stays about $1,000 ahead each day. I wrapped up by saying I’m heading back to the pool and invited further questions in the comments of the daily updates channel.