About
Get Your Complete Financial OS at https://startup-ideas-pod.link/brex_SIP
I sit down with James Dickerson, the Boring Marketer, who owns Diesel Dudes, a mobile diesel repair business in Charlotte, North Carolina, and spent years running agencies for local businesses. James shows how to sell AI-built funnels to Main Street trades businesses doing $2 million to $20 million a year, starting with a Boring Funnels search that found 100 Dallas plumbers worth pitching. He walks through the leaks he finds on their landing pages, the funnel offers he'd sell, and how he'd win clients with the Dream 100, lumpy mail, and local meetups. If you know how to use coding agents, this episode gives you a full playbook for a service business built around booked jobs.
Build funnels that sell: https://startup-ideas-pod.link/boring_funnels
Timestamps
00:00 – Intro
01:23 – Sponsor: Brex
02:08 – Why sell AI to Main Street
03:05 – James's Background
04:32 – Finding and Picking a Niche
07:26 – The $2M to $20M Opportunity
09:02 – Plumbing and HVAC Market Size
10:56 – Underserved Trades Niches
12:38 – Auditing Five Dallas Plumbers
13:50 – Personal Agents vs. Google
15:02 – Selling Booked Jobs and Phone Calls
17:41 – Funnel Offer Overview
19:43 – Funnel Example
23:19 – Matching Ads to Funnels
24:14 – Chet Holmes and the Dream 100
28:18 – Branding your Firm
30:04 – Meta Ads for your firm
31:37 – Stacking Old School and New School Marketing Strategy
34:31 – Find, Pitch, Deliver
36:02 – Showing Owners the ROI
37:37 – Pricing your Offer
41:45 – Reporting With AI
42:33 – Closing Thoughts
Key Points
Main Street trades businesses doing $2 million to $20 million a year have budgets and few useful pitches in their inbox.
James sells booked jobs and phone calls, since owners care about revenue and ROI over AI.
The biggest leaks sit on the landing page: missing ad promises, hidden Google ratings, and buried booking buttons.
Funnels with tripwires, instant prices, quizzes, and owner videos turn paid traffic into booked jobs.
The Dream 100, lumpy mail, and local meetups build trust with owners over months.
One free build in exchange for a case study gets you to paid work.
The #1 tool to find startup ideas/trends - https://www.ideabrowser.com
LCA helps Fortune 500s and fast-growing startups build their future - from Warner Music to Fortnite to Dropbox. We turn 'what if' into reality with AI, apps, and next-gen products https://latecheckout.agency/
FIND ME ON SOCIAL
X/Twitter: https://twitter.com/gregisenberg
Instagram: https://instagram.com/gregisenberg/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gisenberg/
FIND JAMES ON SOCIAL
X/Twitter: https://x.com/boringmarketer
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jadickerson/
I sit down with James Dickerson, the Boring Marketer, who owns Diesel Dudes, a mobile diesel repair business in Charlotte, North Carolina, and spent years running agencies for local businesses. James shows how to sell AI-built funnels to Main Street trades businesses doing $2 million to $20 million a year, starting with a Boring Funnels search that found 100 Dallas plumbers worth pitching. He walks through the leaks he finds on their landing pages, the funnel offers he'd sell, and how he'd win clients with the Dream 100, lumpy mail, and local meetups. If you know how to use coding agents, this episode gives you a full playbook for a service business built around booked jobs.
Build funnels that sell: https://startup-ideas-pod.link/boring_funnels
Timestamps
00:00 – Intro
01:23 – Sponsor: Brex
02:08 – Why sell AI to Main Street
03:05 – James's Background
04:32 – Finding and Picking a Niche
07:26 – The $2M to $20M Opportunity
09:02 – Plumbing and HVAC Market Size
10:56 – Underserved Trades Niches
12:38 – Auditing Five Dallas Plumbers
13:50 – Personal Agents vs. Google
15:02 – Selling Booked Jobs and Phone Calls
17:41 – Funnel Offer Overview
19:43 – Funnel Example
23:19 – Matching Ads to Funnels
24:14 – Chet Holmes and the Dream 100
28:18 – Branding your Firm
30:04 – Meta Ads for your firm
31:37 – Stacking Old School and New School Marketing Strategy
34:31 – Find, Pitch, Deliver
36:02 – Showing Owners the ROI
37:37 – Pricing your Offer
41:45 – Reporting With AI
42:33 – Closing Thoughts
Key Points
Main Street trades businesses doing $2 million to $20 million a year have budgets and few useful pitches in their inbox.
James sells booked jobs and phone calls, since owners care about revenue and ROI over AI.
The biggest leaks sit on the landing page: missing ad promises, hidden Google ratings, and buried booking buttons.
Funnels with tripwires, instant prices, quizzes, and owner videos turn paid traffic into booked jobs.
The Dream 100, lumpy mail, and local meetups build trust with owners over months.
One free build in exchange for a case study gets you to paid work.
The #1 tool to find startup ideas/trends - https://www.ideabrowser.com
LCA helps Fortune 500s and fast-growing startups build their future - from Warner Music to Fortnite to Dropbox. We turn 'what if' into reality with AI, apps, and next-gen products https://latecheckout.agency/
FIND ME ON SOCIAL
X/Twitter: https://twitter.com/gregisenberg
Instagram: https://instagram.com/gregisenberg/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gisenberg/
FIND JAMES ON SOCIAL
X/Twitter: https://x.com/boringmarketer
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jadickerson/