Hermetic AI

Over the past 12 months, I’ve F*ed up too many times to count while building Hermetic AI.  Here are the 3 biggest mistakes I’ve made: 1. Assuming I knew our I.C.P. because "I am the I.C.P."     I thought we had our ideal customer profile nailed down because, well, I was the ICP.  Every decision (from the integrations we built to our onboarding flow and feature set) was based on what I thought I would want.  It turns out, just because I could see value in a feature doesn’t mean others would.  Now, we have a graveyard of unused features we spent months building that no one cared about. The lesson?  Never assume your perspective represents your customers’. 2. Believing product-market fit was guaranteed because of competition     When we launched, we assumed we’d find product-market fit in B2B SaaS because similar solutions with a head start were targeting them hard.  But as we built, we noticed it didn't resonate the way we hoped.  There was to much education and hand holding to get them up to speed.  So, we pivoted... first to home services, then franchises, then to coaches.  Each shift felt like starting over, and nothing quite clicked. Then, we shifted our focus to the private events industry (restaurants, bars, hotels, etc...).  In the last 50 days, we’ve onboarded 182 locations and some of the biggest & well known logos in the industry.  And here's the thing... it felt effortless.  Word of mouth grew, referrals grew, and customers saw instant value in our solution. The lesson?  It’s not about where you want to succeed... it’s about finding the market that needs you. 3. Trying to SEND IT from the start     I wanted to build the whole house at once.  Brick by brick?  Too slow.  Instead of starting small and testing the waters, I jumped straight into the deep end with an ambitious, all encompassing vision. You know what they say... go big or go home, right?  Well... it turns out the complexity of that vision led to missed deadlines, bugs, and tons of added work & frustration.  When we finally took a step back and narrowed our focus, things started falling into place. The lesson? Starting small is how you start big. Luckily, I work with some GREAT people who helped push it forward when I F*ed it up. For 2025, I will not make these mistakes again... but I will make plenty of new ones. Because, If you aren't making mistakes... you aren't trying hard enough.

I just ran 248 cold emails that hit my spam through GPT and identified 8 common trends. My quick summary is "GICO"!  Full breakdown below. It said: 1. Overly Promotional Language ↳ Words like "Black Friday SALE," "Act Fast," "Skyrocket," "Last Chance," and "Giveaway" scream marketing and urgency. ↳ Emojis 🚀🔥 and excessive uppercase letters make emails look spammy. 2. Excessive Use of Personalization ↳ Subject lines with "Brandon" or "Hermetic AI" feel forced when paired with generic content. ↳ Over personalization without genuine context will raise suspicion. 3. Generic Pitches or Vague Promises ↳ “Quick Question Brandon,” “Looking to Get Back Some of Your Time,” or “Act Fast for 50% Savings!” read non specific and templated. ↳ Spam filters recognize a lack of substance. 4. Suspicious Calls to Action or Claims ↳ Exaggerated promises like "Increase Revenue 10X" or "Huge Phone Bill Savings!" sound too good to be true. ↳ Spam filters flag these as unreliable. 5. Misleading Subject Lines ↳ Clickbait subject lines like "Brandon Shortlisted!" or "Meet the VC Power Players" create false expectations. ↳ Deceptive practices are easy targets for spam filters. 6. Repetition of Buzzwords ↳ Frequent mentions of “AI,” “Transform,” “Effortless,” or “Quick Call” feel formulaic and insincere. ↳ Spam filters penalize buzzword heavy approaches. 7. Excessive Follow-Ups ↳ Repeated subject lines like “Hi Brandon - Quick Call?” or “Following Up” lack engagement and feel automated. ↳ Persistence without value gets flagged. 8. Generic Openings in the First Line ↳ Many emails start with, "Hi Brandon, I hope this email finds you well," or "Just following up..." ↳ These intros fail to establish credibility or relevance, making them look like bulk emails. My takeaway: Garbage In = Garbage Out

I had no clue what I was doing when I started my first company so I read tons of books.  I ended up building a sales team of over 100 and credit these 5 books on leadership: 1️⃣ Leaders Eat Last – Simon Sinek (He's got a few good ones) 2️⃣ The Five Dysfunctions of a Team - Patrick Lencioni 3️⃣ Good to Great - Jim Collins 4️⃣ How To Win Friends & Influence People – Dale Carnegie 5️⃣ The 5 Levels of Leadership - John C. Maxwell 💥 Bonus: Who Moved My Cheese – Dr. Spencer Johnson (Way too short for a long run, but it’s 💸 for attitude and embracing change.) I’m sure there are other great ones… Drive, Culture Code, Start With Why... what am I missing? PS - I also had some great mentors along the way!

The company is failing. We are losing deals left and right. Revenue leaks are quickly sinking our ship. -𝗵𝗼𝘄 𝘄𝗲 𝗴𝗼𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲- Tried to plug the holes: "respond faster, auto-responders, add website scheduling, trigger sequences" ^standard directive This ignores the operational gaps and creates delays, missed connections, impersonal outreach, and misaligned efforts. -𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘄𝗲 𝗱𝗶𝗱- Identified our hidden revenue leaks: 1. Delayed Lead Engagement • Leads waiting too long for a response. • High bounce rates due to lack of immediacy. • Missed opportunities in the first crucial minutes. 2. No-show Meetings • Prospects booking but never showing up. • Cancellations without follow ups or reschedules. • Unaddressed gaps between scheduling and attending. 3. Poor Lead Nurturing • Forgotten leads not ready to convert today. • Lack of follow up strategies for dormant prospects. • Missed chances to revive cold leads months later. 4. Unqualified Leads Flooding the Funnel • Wasting resources on unfit prospects. • Reps spending hours on dead end meetings. • Lack of automated qualification filters. 5. Disorganized Lead Routing • Leads landing with the wrong reps. • Inconsistent handoffs between marketing and sales. • Delays in responding due to manual distribution. 6. Missed Post Meeting Opportunities • No structured follow up after key meetings. • Neglected reviews and sentiment checks. • Inaccurate reason codes from closed lost deals. -𝘄𝗲 𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗱𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗼 𝗿𝗲𝗺𝗼𝘃𝗲 𝗳𝘂𝗻𝗻𝗲𝗹 𝗳𝗿𝗶𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻- We looked for a solution that could: ↳ Engage leads instantly and automatically. ↳ Follow up consistently to increase show rates. ↳ Revive leads long-term to win back lost opportunities. ↳ Qualify and route leads effectively. ↳ Plug all revenue leaks with one system. -𝗯𝘂𝗶𝗹𝘁 𝗮𝗻 𝗔𝗜 𝗴𝘂𝗮𝗿𝗱𝗿𝗮𝗶𝗹 𝗮𝗴𝗮𝗶𝗻𝘀𝘁 𝗿𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘂𝗲 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗸𝘀- ↳ Automated immediate and personalized lead responses. ↳ Boosted show rates with follow ups that stayed in context. ↳ Rescheduled meetings automatically for no shows. ↳ Revived dormant leads through long-term nurturing. ↳ Guaranteed proper lead qualification and routing. -𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗻𝗲𝘄 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗯𝗲𝗰𝗮𝗺𝗲 𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗻𝗲𝘄 𝗯𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀- ↳ Leads engaged in seconds vs. minutes. ↳ No shows followed up with until they reschedule. ↳ Dormant leads nurtured into revenue opportunities. ↳ Meetings filled with qualified prospects only. ↳ Sales teams free to sell and not juggle admin tasks. -𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗻𝗲𝗱 𝗹𝗼𝘀𝘁 𝗿𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘂𝗲 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗼 𝗮 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗻𝘆- Hermetic AI. 🚀

Your prospects are LYING TO YOU!!! So here's the truth... I don't believe a word they say. During sales calls for Hermetic AI ... I know their problem is much bigger than what they tell me initially. It's like when I ask my wife what is wrong, and she says, "Nothing, I'm fine..." Or even more so like the friend who asks you to come out for "just one drink" but has plans to turn it into an all nighter, knowing you have a meeting the next morning. They wanna party... and need your help because they can't do it alone. But the LAST thing they will ever do is let you know that. So what do you do to find out the truth? Ask more questions!!! If you're in sales, you should ask these questions multiple times on every sales call you conduct: "Why did you ask me that?" or... "Curious, what makes you say that?" DO NOT take what your prospects tell you at face value. Dig deeper to get to the root and they will tell you exactly how to sell them. Assume that what they say isn't true, and to get the truth... you'll have to ask ?'s!

I hate to break it to you, but if you’re in sales, social proof has 𝗭𝗘𝗥𝗢 impact on your ability to sell. Marketers, before you light up my comments don't hear what I'm not saying. Can it help drive leads TOFU? Sure. But sales people, once you’re in front of that prospect, it has no impact on your ability to close the deal or not... if you are a skilled sales person. How come? Because social proof doesn't matter when your prospect’s pain is strong enough. I'll explain. A few years back, I was in a small car accident. Nothing major, but big enough to make me think I broke my ankle. I was taken to the ER, and for 4 hours, I waited, writhing in pain, to see the doctor. Finally, they took me back to the exam room, and after waiting another hour... the doctor walked through the door. What was my first question to him? "Who else have you operated on this year?"... or "What would your other patients say their experience has been like?"... or maybe "Where did you go to med school?" LOL… NO! My first question was, "What is the matter with me, and can you make it stop?" I never asked any of those questions… in fact, I signed up for his service without even asking the price. When your prospects are in enough pain, they will buy what you have and will be willing to pay anything for it... IF you can convince them that what you offer will get rid of their pain. Great salespeople find where the pain is and show people how to get rid of it!

#AI #B2B #SALES

I failed accounting as a Wharton MBA. But I turned that failure into a system for clarity. Here’s how I built a financial cockpit for my business: (you can do this too) It’s straightforward. ↳ but it requires consistency. My strategy since working with a mentor has been… → Building a clear financial cockpit. A cockpit helps me: Maximize cash flow Get extreme clarity Anticipate crises Plug profit drains And when I see a “profit drain” ↳ I can correct course early. You need three “report cards”: 1. The Balance Sheet ↳ Snapshot of your business on a given date. 2. Income Statement ↳ Theoretical, because profit ≠ cash. 3. The Cash-Flow Statement ↳ Cash flow is the best measure of business health. Takeaways: The income statement is a THEORY of how your business is doing ↳ This is money you earned, NOT cash collected. The cash-flow statement is a FACT about how your business is doing. The goal? Convert revenue into profit And profit into cash. Ways of generating cash flow: Sell assets Boost sales Use savings Raise capital Borrow funds Reduce COGS Lower inventory Extend payables Speed up receivables Cut overhead (lowest-hanging fruit) This approach is simple but powerful, ↳ especially for self-funded entrepreneurs. The goal of a business is cash flow: Assets → Revenue → Profit → Cash Flow Here’s the point, fellow entrepreneurs… Anyone can master their business with a financial cockpit.

Here’s the SMB cold call script we’ve used for 10+ years to book 4-6 demos per rep, per day. Nothing earth shattering or new, just has always worked across 3 different companies. 1. Introduction & Pattern Interrupt "Soooo yeah… I'm gonna be honest with ya here [name]. This is a cold call so I do have something to ask you about your business sooo… would you like to hang up on me now or give me 30 seconds and then decide!" 2. Who You Are & Why You’re Calling "Great, so my name’s [name] with [company name], I assume your plate's full so I'll be quick. The reason why I am calling you is because I noticed you're the [job title] at [company], and we help other [job title]’s: [outcome 1] [outcome 2] [outcome 3]" 3. Relevance / Qualification "Are any of those keeping you busy?" 4. Social Proof & Value Proposition "Ok, well the reason why I reaching out to you specifically is we just helped [name], who is the [job title] at [similar company], get [matching outcome], and I wanted to show you how you can do it with or without our help." 5. CTA – Set the Next Step "So the purpose of my call right now is to find a time on your calendar for a brief call so I can introduce my company to you, talk about your priorities and how we can help, and at the very least you walk away knowing how to [matching outcome]?" "Would tomorrow be a bad day for that?" ***This is the basic skeleton/ general framework. There are slight variations to make depending on ICP and tweaks you can make based on skill. I'll explain the psychology, tonality, and KPI's in another post! Happy to help with any questions, drop them in the comments 👇! ♻ Feel free to save & share! PS - I still hop on the phones from time to time using this pitch, and never once do I mention I'm a founder.