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Host a local AI meetup: Corey partnered with a local realtor, hosted at her…

Brief

Corey Ganim lays out a repeatable client-acquisition and productized-consulting playbook: run a low-cost local AI meetup (he partnered with a realtor, spoke about Claude for 15–20 minutes, captured attendee contact info and landed a client within a week), then sell a $999 "AI Assessment" that guarantees 5 hours/week saved or a refund. The assessment workflow is a 45-minute Fathom-recorded interview, transcript analysis in Claude to identify 5–7 opportunities, a Gamma-built report (executive summary, impact/effort matrix, 3–7 tool recommendations, 4‑day quick wins, financials), and a 30-minute review call; Corey says 40–60% of clients opt into paid implementation. He recommends starting by mastering Claude/ChatGPT/Fathom/Gamma/Zapier, doing 2–3 free assessments, ramping price from $499→$749→$999, and monetizing via an upsell ladder (examples: $1–10k implementations and $1k/mo retainers).

Why it matters

Host a local AI meetup: Corey partnered with a local realtor, hosted at her office for $0, spoke 15–20 minutes about Claude, answered questions 15–20 minutes, collected attendees' emails/phones at the door, followed up the next day and landed an AI Assessment client within a week; he says this works in towns/cities of 10,000+ and only needs ~10 attendees to be worth it.

Key details

  • Sell an "AI Assessment" product at $999 with a guarantee of at least 5 hours returned per week or a 100% refund; Corey reports an average ROI delivered of 6+ hours/week saved for roughly $40/month in tools.
  • Delivery system: a 45-minute interview (recorded with Fathom) using targeted workflow questions; feed the transcript to Claude to surface 5–7 tool recommendations; produce a Gamma report (exec summary, impact/effort matrix, 3–7 tool recommendations, 4‑day quick wins, financial impact); run a 30-minute review call—about 40–60% of clients then buy implementation help.
  • Upsell ladder and real example: Process Optimization $3–5k, No-code automation (Zapier/Make) $1–3k, Custom GPTs $3k+, Custom AI Skills $3–5k, Full agent implementation $5–10k + $1k/month retainer; real case: a business-broker with 400 emails per listing got a $3,000 custom GPT that eliminated ~95% of that email workload.
Source evidence

Everyone is asking "but how do I find clients?"

Here's a simple method that anyone can do (even if you have zero followers):

Host a local AI meetup in your city.

I did this a couple months back and immediately landed a client.

I partnered with a local realtor and we hosted it at her office.

This was a great move for a few reasons:

1) good realtors know tons of people so she was able to invite her clients

2) hosting it at her office gave us a built-in audience of other realtors

3) it cost me $0

All I did was talk for 15-20 minutes about Claude (which none of them had ever heard of or used).

Answered questions for another 15-20 minutes.

Got everyone's email and phone number at the door.

Followed up with everyone the next day, got an AI Assessment client within a week.

Tbh I didn't market this event very well, all I did was post it on Luma/Meetup.

But if/when I do it again I'll post about it multiple times in all the local Facebook groups, invite everyone in my local network, and have a coworking space host/sponsor it.

If you live in a city/town of 10,000 people or more this will work, you really only need 10 people to show up for it to be worth it.

Corey Ganim (@coreyganim)

A guy offered me $1,000 to follow him around for a day and tell him where to implement AI in his business.

I didn't take the deal (because this is not scalable at all) but it did make one thing clear:

business owners are desperate for AI guidance.

What they don't need is a developer or an "AI automation" agency.

They need someone who can simply tell them where AI fits into their existing workflows.

I turned this into a product called the AI Assessment.

I sell them for $999.

Here's the exact system you can copy:

THE OFFER

$999 for a custom AI report. 3-7 specific tool recommendations tailored to their workflows.

Guarantee: 5 hours returned per week minimum, or 100% refund.

Sounds aggressive but it's really not.

Average ROI I've delivered is 6+ hours/week saved for ~$40/month in tools.

STEP 1: THE 45-MIN INTERVIEW

Google Meet call recorded with Fathom.

Questions I ask:

-Walk me through a typical day
-What tasks do you hate but can't delegate?
-Where are you the bottleneck?
-What do you wish you could automate but haven't figured out?

Goal: surface their pain in their own words. Not what they think they should automate, but what actually eats their time.

STEP 2: FEED THE TRANSCRIPT TO CLAUDE

I've built multiple Skills that chain together for this step but if you're just starting out a simple prompt will still work:

"Analyze this transcript of a business owner describing their workflows. Identify the top 5-7 areas where off-the-shelf AI tools could save them significant time. For each, recommend specific tools and estimate weekly time savings."

Claude catches patterns you'd miss. Connects pain points across the whole conversation.

I review, add my own picks, cut anything that feels like a stretch.

STEP 3: BUILD THE REPORT IN GAMMA

Structure:

-Executive summary (their top 3 opportunities)
-Impact/Effort matrix (focus on quick wins)
-3-7 tool recommendations with implementation details
-4-day quick wins plan
-What comes after quick wins (preview of upsells)
-Financial impact
-Next steps

Looks like a $5K consulting deliverable but only takes me 5 minutes from template.

STEP 4: THE 30-MIN REVIEW CALL

This is where trust gets built and upsells happen.

Screen-share and walk them through each recommendation. Gauge their appetite for help.

About 40-60% want help implementing. That's where the real money lives.

THE UPSELL LADDER

Process Optimization: $3-5,000
No-code automation (Zapier/Make): $1-3,000
Custom GPTs: $3,000+
Custom AI Skills: $3-5,000
Full agent implementation: $5-10,000 + $1K/mo retainer

Real example: business brokerage owner gets 400 emails every time he lists a new business. Every email asks the same 4 or 5 questions.

For $3,000 I built him a custom GPT trained on each listing's marketing package that he can send to potential buyers.

Eliminated 95% of his email workload per listing.

WHY THIS WORKS

Business owners don't need another AI course. They don't need to learn prompt engineering. They don't need a developer.

They need someone to look at their specific situation and tell them exactly what to do.

What we're selling here is clarity.

HOW TO START

1) Know the tools. Spend a month using Claude, ChatGPT, Fathom, Gamma, Zapier.

2) Do 2-3 free assessments to build your process and get testimonials.

3) Start charging. $499. Then $749. Then $999. Raise every 3-4 clients until people say no.

4) Build your upsell menu (where the real money is made)

Go out and make it happen.

— https://nitter.net/coreyganim/status/2053202612346822773#m