Hey Everyone, Just wanted to share a small win for me today. I managed to secure my first sit down with a possible client today. I got talking to our contract manager at work today just general chit chat talking about his role and what it entailed. We got onto how late he has to work and how it was hard on the family so so forth. I said to him what if i could give you that time back through implementing software that did a lot of the heavy lifting when it comes to office admin. he laughed and asked how was that I explained lv learned how to use AI to build systems we went back and forth a bit about AI talking about where it might lead and such and I'm not going to lie basically regurgitated Jakes classes stating things like how its now to have a hand carved rifle will set you back a small fortune but way back when you would of been looked down on, I spoke about the part about human desire and how that will always be there. He was completely taken back to him I was now not just a vet and a carpenter I was the future and Iv been asked to come to the office tomorrow to sit down and talk. I know its only a sit down and nothing confirmed but when i first approached them i was basically laughed out the office and given work via what's app but that small amount of knowledge might be the reason my life changes for the better. So thank you @Jake Van Clief .for giving this course away and helping complete beginners like me a fighter chance of a better future.

I've been running cold email campaigns for clients for 3 years and the biggest shift I've seen isn't the tools. It's what actually gets a reply. Personalization used to mean scraping a name and company from LinkedIn, dropping it in the first line, and hitting send. "Hey {FirstName}, I noticed {Company} and thought..." That worked in 2022. It's dead now. Everyone's doing it and prospects can spot a mail merge from the subject line. What changed for me was treating personalization like actual research instead of a data field. Here's what I started doing: → I scrape the prospect's entire website. Not just the homepage. Blog posts, service pages, case studies, about page, even their contact form if it's there. → Then I feed all of that into OpenAI and have it analyze what they actually do, who they serve, and what problems they're likely dealing with. The AI doesn't just summarize. It finds the specific details nobody mentions in generic outreach. So instead of "I saw you work in logistics," the email opens with "Noticed you handle cross border freight into Mexico. Your blog mentioned customs delays eating 15% of delivery windows." That's the kind of line that gets opened because it doesn't sound like 500 other emails they got that week. The reply rates went from 2-3% with generic personalization to 8-10% with actual research. One prospect replied last week: "Your email won because you actually read our site. Everyone else sent the same template." The system I built does this automatically. Scrapes the website. Analyzes every page. Generates icebreakers that reference non-obvious details. It writes openers like a human who spent 20 minutes studying their business, except it does it for 1,000 prospects in an hour. Here's what I learned building this: Small prompt details make a massive difference. Having OpenAI shorten company names naturally (say "Stripe" not "Stripe Inc.") and reference specific pages beyond the homepage makes it feel real. The difference between "I saw your website" and "I saw your freight tracking dashboard lets customers get ETAs without calling" is everything.

💰 Week 1 winner @Ian Barriopedro took home $200 cash. 🎟️ This week the prize gets bigger. ✨ Winner gets a FREE seat in The Lyceum. ✨ https://www.skool.com/quantum-quill-lyceum-1116/12-weeks-real-projects-250k-in-prizes-lets-talk?p=e850567b 🎯 Pick your cohort: Technical, Business, or Creator. Your call. 📋 THE CHALLENGE: "The Returning Client" You just got hired again. Different client this time. Meet Marcus. 👋 📎 Download the full client brief attached to this post. 🛠️ YOUR DELIVERABLE An interactive artifact built in Claude that does what Marcus asked for. ✍️ Plus a 100 word writeup covering: - 👤 Who it's for - ⚙️ What it does - 🎨 One design choice you made and why 📐 THE RULES ✅ It has to work ✅ It has to sound like Marcus, not a bank ✅ The writeup matters ⚖️ Judging: Myself, Jake, and the mods. 🎟️ Who can enter: Premium and VIP members only. Free members, this is your sign. Upgrade and you're in the running for a Lyceum seat. 🚀 📨 How to submit: Drop a screen recording or screenshot of your artifact, the link if you've got one, and your writeup in the comments below. 📅 Deadline: Saturday, May 2nd at 12:00 PM EST 🎉 Winner announced: Monday, May 4th at 12:00 PM EST 💡 A note before you start. This isn't a finance challenge. It's a design and voice challenge. You don't need to be a CFP to win this. Read the brief. Marcus tells you exactly what he wants and how he thinks. Your job is to build something that solves his problem and sounds like him. 🆕 If you've never built an artifact in Claude before, this is a great first one. The brief is clear, the scope is reasonable, and the bar is "would Marcus actually send this to a prospect?" 🔥 @Ian Barriopedro set the standard last week. Your turn. LFG 🚀