I’m thinking of creating an offer that teaches businesses how to set up an information hub for their SOPs, policies, client data, etc., to improve productivity, communication, and onboarding speed. Do you think this idea has sales potential?
Yeah, that sounds like a lot of work—don’t build it first. Sell the concept before you invest time in development. Find the best way to pitch what you’ve written, then create nine variations to test the messaging. Reach out to a cold‑email audience, sending about a hundred pitches per offer each day for a month. By the end you’ll know which messaging resonates. Only when you get a bite should you start building the actual system or template; start with outreach, not development. (He then shares his channel stats: his main channel is at 72,629 subscribers, Instagram around 93k, with a standout growth day showing 1.32% increase on the main channel, 4.36% on Instagram, and 3.27% on daily updates. He notes losing his voice from a loud boat ride but emphasizes that this was his biggest growth day in a long time. Over the past month and a half, he’s only had two such standout days, and he just experienced one. He also mentions that his Maker School churn is down to 17%, a 5% reduction from the strategy he implemented live, which saved him roughly $150k on a $120k/month product—equivalent to making $705k instead of $545k if churn had stayed high.)
If you have $1,000, it's effectively the same as having $0 when viewed from a high enough level--there's no real difference. My advice is identical for anyone with zero or $1,000: start a daily consistent outreach habit, regardless of platform (social media, email, etc.). Choose a simple daily target--for example, talk to or get in front of 10 people each day for your business. Over a year that's 3,650 contacts; even a tiny conversion rate can generate significant capital because luck stems from preparation plus opportunity, and you boost luck by maximizing outreach. Most people struggle because they lack such daily habits; the real bottleneck in almost any venture is soft skills, sales ability, and marketing. You could build a product like Netflix tomorrow, but without marketing you'd have zero viewers. Practical ways to hit your daily goal: send 10 Upwork applications daily, send 10 cold emails per day on behalf of your business, or reach out to your favorite YouTubers (like me or Ali Abdal) with a custom pitch each day. Alternatively, list the top 10 creators, identify their problems, and offer to solve them--doing this for a month yields about 300 high-quality touches, each taking only 5-10 minutes, which can drive real results. Begin this habit now and maintain it for months; the compounding effect will create the bulk of your long-term capital.
If you're using Facebook for this, it's essentially game over--Facebook DMs are extremely difficult, limited to about 10 messages per day per account, and you'll quickly end up in message requests. By contrast, a cold email account lets you send 25-30 emails daily and costs only $2-$4 per month, whereas a Facebook account runs around $50 per month due to verification overhead. Therefore, you need an intermediate step to obtain their email addresses, then conduct cold email outreach. Calling is also effective, especially for towing businesses that are often on the road; you can't reliably email auto shops, so walking in or calling works. This approach isn't perfect, but it's workable. Regarding my own situation: I've realized I need to set up ads. Yesterday I hung out with Jackie Chu in Vancouver, who's now ranking for businessman and is a brilliant guy--I plan to send him a message. I also met Tom Wang, who's really cool, and Tony, founder of Bessie. Their advice was to run retargeting ads from Maker School; they said not doing so would be idiotic. I agree and will implement that, with help from my team and the school. My strategy is to list the problems my community faces, pick five or ten, and record a video addressing each. The videos will reiterate that Maker School is 100% free if you don't land your first client within 90 days, with a full refund. We also have $20,000 in discounts; most people use about 10%, giving roughly $2,000 off, which means a new member gets an immediate 10x ROI in the first month before even getting a client--so there's no reason not to join. I'll track video completion percentages to gather more data. My offer is strong and the product quality is high, so I'll put it in front of as many people as possible. I'm also excited that a friend is onboarding people for Claro, and I'll meet school guys later today for a coffee-shop flyover activity and other fun. Overall, I'm amped up about everything happening, and I believe ads could unlock insane growth if executed well. As for my channel stats: my main YouTube channel currently shows 471,066 subscribers, which is abysmal growth; other metrics indicate decent growth elsewhere--my paid offer has 7,234 sales, my Maker School rank is still two, and we're making good money, though subscriber growth isn't what I expected because I'm not creating viral head-type videos. I'll keep growing at a steady clip and hope to reach 500k subscribers by year-end.
You can absolutely hit $17‑$20K a month without cold email, but you need to focus on the platforms and outreach methods that actually move the needle. The biggest issue right now is that you’re not targeting the right places. While cold email is the simplest and most scalable channel, you can still generate high income through Upwork and community‑based outreach. For example, sending about ten high‑quality Upwork proposals a day can give you a 4‑6x return on your connect spend, which translates to roughly $7‑$8K a month after accounting for marketing and platform costs, leaving you with a healthy 75% gross margin. To improve beyond linear growth, decouple inputs from outputs by building reusable outreach templates and leveraging platforms that let you automate large‑scale, yet personalized, communication. Cold email is one such lever: invest a fixed amount of time in a high‑quality campaign, target precisely, and let it run without daily manual effort. Community outreach works similarly—become a recognized figure in a niche community, create evergreen posts that solve problems, and let those assets generate leads with minimal ongoing work. The same principle applies to cold DMs. All these strategies are layers of leverage; even the lowest‑leverage method—consistent Upwork activity—can get you to $17K if you execute well.
Josh's approach is perfect if you're not yet in the automation industry, don't have an automation business, or aren't freelancing; your only goal should be to go from zero to one as quickly as possible. Most people in Josh's situation try to jump from zero to a hundred right away, but the strategies for going from 0 to 1 are different from those needed to scale to 100. Josh is looking for a minimum viable strategy—similar to a minimum viable product—to avoid stagnation and quit, because he values feedback loops. This is the way I approach any business model in the 2020s, given how fast everything moves. Regarding your question about minimum tools and whether to focus on Upwork until you earn money: it depends on your financial situation. The quickest path from zero to one, in my experience, is to spam three methods: Upwork applications, cold emails, and community engagement. I call it spamming like a video game because, while quality matters, the law of large numbers ensures results if you send enough outreach. For Upwork, send many applications using a customized Loom video approach—record a short video saying, 'Hey, how's it going? I just saw your post for XYZ; let me show you exactly how I'd solve this.' Highlight your relevant experience (X, Y, Z) and past results. Even if you're new to Upwork, this personalized touch boosts your chances. For cold emails, use one of my offer formulas or cold email templates, then find an audience, split‑test two or three audiences, and gauge reply rates—especially positive replies. You can personalize with AI if you wish; my Nix cold email templates are available via the four‑step cold email copying system. For communities, identify groups and niches you're interested in (e.g., videography, dental clinic managers). Post hyper‑relevant content that provides value without selling immediately. For example, in a dental clinic manager community, share a strategy like 'end‑of‑insurance reactivation' that leaves voicemails about unused benefits. By consistently giving value over time, you become an authority and can start charging for your services. These three outreach methods—Upwork, cold emails, and community posting—constitute the minimum viable strategy for landing your first client.