Ok, so today I want to walk you through how I use AI to write cold emails that don't sound like AI. I'm writing this because our team gets asked about cold email all the time. And when I actually look at what people are sending out, it's rough. Either they spent 45 minutes writing one email that still gets ignored, or they blasted out some generic template to 500 people and can't figure out why nobody replied. I've seen both scenarios play out over and over again across hundreds of businesses. Cold email works. It works really well when it's done right. But the bar is higher now because everyone and their mother is using AI to write outreach. That means the inbox is flooded with emails that all sound the same. Same structure. Same buzzwords. Same "I hope this finds you well." If your email sounds like every other AI-generated message, you're invisible. This guide shows you how to use AI for what it's good at (speed and volume) while keeping the output human enough that nobody can tell a machine wrote it. And I'm going to be honest, this is one of the best workflows to hand to a trained VA once you understand it. I'll explain how throughout. The process is five steps. Research, write, personalize, clean up, send. Let me walk you through each one. Link to Substack: https://open.substack.com/pub/matthewmetros/p/how-to-write-10-cold-emails-in-12?r=4e36e&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

Ok, so I'm writing this because I keep having the same conversation with business owners. They feel guilty when they're not busy. They feel like if they step back from the day-to-day, things will fall apart. And I get it. You started your business with your own two hands. You were the one on the mower, answering the phone at dinner, staying up until midnight to send invoices. But the reality is that there are only a few things each day that are genuinely high priority. Everything else? Someone else should be doing it. And when you start handing those things off, something interesting happens. You actually have space to explore new ideas. You start seeing opportunities you were too buried to notice. The busy work wasn't keeping the business alive. It was holding you back. I talk to hundreds of business owners (property managers, cleaners, landscapers, HVAC, etc.) and the ones who figure this out are the ones who grow. The ones who don't stay stuck doing $25/hour work forever. You need to mentally, emotionally, and spiritually shift from "Operator Mode" to "Captain Mode." It takes time. And when it finally clicks, your life changes... Link to Substack: https://open.substack.com/pub/matthewmetros/p/the-operator-trap-why-your-hustle?r=4e36e&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

Ok, so today I want to go over something that I think about constantly. And it's going to be uncomfortable for some of you to hear. Most of us suck at being managers. Including myself. When a VA messes up, most of us react over EMOTIONALLY. We jump down their throat. Fire off frustrated messages. Knowing we know should have never sent it. The irritation bleeds through everything - the tone of the message, the shortness of the reply, the way they word things. Then the next day or the next week when it happens again, they repeat the exact same cycle. Jump down their throat. Tell them how they messed up. Tell them to do better… This is the management style of about 90% of leaders. They wait for the next mistake and then they pounce. They spend their time frustrated and grumpy with their teams. They tell their VAs the same things 10 times and it still doesn't stick. And the VAs don't actually get any better. In fact, they get worse. Why? Because this style of management makes people incredibly uncomfortable. Literally Scared. Insecure in their job. Confused. It makes them numb to your coaching and feedback. They get offended. They get stressed. Then their performance falls off even further because now they're walking on eggshells trying not to mess up again. Instead of doing their job with confidence, they end up playing defense too. Overthinking everything. Trying to avoid mistakes instead of trying to win. Instead of being shown how and why to improve and what it will do for them, they are constantly told what NOT to do. And what makes this even harder with remote VAs is that they can't see your face. They can't read your body language. All they have are your words on a screen. So when you send a blunt message because you're busy and frustrated, they don't read it as "my boss is in a rush." They read it as "my boss is FURIOUS at me." Text-based communication gets misread constantly. A message you thought was direct, your VA read as hostile. That gap causes more damage than most people realize. And they quit.

Ok, so today I wanted to talk about something that costs business owners money every single day and most of them have no idea it's happening. Your social media profile. I'm writing this because I look at profiles from service business owners constantly. And the problem isn't that they don't have a profile. It's that the profile they do have is working against them. Some look unprofessional. Random photos, no clear message, spelling errors in the bio. Some go the opposite direction and look overly salesy. Every post is a pitch. Every caption reads like a brochure. And some are using corporate jargon that their actual clients don't understand or care about. Your customer doesn't know what "end-to-end solutions" means. They just want their building cleaned on time. Here's what happens. A potential client hears about you. They Google your name. They check your Instagram. They spend about two to three seconds deciding if they trust you. And if your profile looks like a hobby, or looks like a used car lot, or looks like it was written by a marketing textbook, they leave. That's a lead you'll never know you lost. This guide is focused on Instagram because that's what most of our clients ask about. But I want to be clear. These principles apply to any social media account. LinkedIn. Facebook. Whatever you're using to represent your business. Take these lessons, abstract them, and apply them wherever it makes sense for you. I'm keeping it simple because this is the kind of thing you can build out once and hand to a VA to maintain. Once the strategy is clear, the execution part is straightforward. Link to Substack: https://open.substack.com/pub/matthewmetros/p/your-social-media-profile-is-costing?r=4e36e&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

Okay, so I'm writing this because it's the number one mistake I see with our clients. They want better ads. They want a landing page that converts. They want emails that get replies. But they skip the research. They start writing before they know who they're talking to. Then they wonder why nothing works. I want to be clear that there is such an abundance of customers in the world. It is truly amazing how many people have money in their pocket right now that are willing to give it to you. BUT ONLY if they feel like you understand them better than they understand themselves. And you can't guess your way to that. You truly have to know. This guide is about the research step. The one most people skip because it's boring. Because they dont have time. Because because because…. Excuses… It's not sexy. It's not fun like writing headlines or picking images. But it's the step that separates the businesses that print money from the ones that stay stuck. And here's the good news. You don't have to do this yourself. This is exactly the kind of work you can hand to a virtual assistant. The research is systematic. It follows a process. Your VA can gather all the raw material, organize it, and deliver it back to you in a format you can actually use. This guide is written as an SOP. You can read it, understand why it matters, and then hand it directly to your VA to execute. Link to Substack: https://open.substack.com/pub/matthewmetros/p/stop-guessing-what-your-customers?r=4e36e&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true