Matt Cruz

Founder @ Modern Code Consulting | AI Powered Digital Marketer

[Matt Cruz @MattCruzCodes]

Deciding to scale more horizontally with my services.

I sell a low ticket local SEO and automation package to HVAC contractors. It really applies to any high volume local business, so going to start pushing other niches closer to me.

Hoping this increase in TAM will get me to $10K MRR and beyond. Have already cold called every HVAC contractor in a 10 mile radius so excited for the switch up lol

[Matt Cruz @MattCruzCodes]

My SEO agency stack ⬇️

Outreach:

Lead scraping - Outscraper
Cold calling - my phone + spreadsheets
Cold email - Instantly + Google Workspace

Marketing:

Instagram + FB - Claude skill + GPT image 2
X - AI for topics + my brain to write lol

Delivery:

Contracts - Claude skill + Google Docs
Citations - BrightLocal
Text & email automations - GHL
Web dev - Next.js
Reporting - Local Falcon + Claude skill
Call tracking - CallRail
GBP & FB posts - GPT image 2 + Claude skill
SEO Blog Posts - Claude skill + GPT Image 2

[Matt Cruz @MattCruzCodes]

Get your tracking and attribution dialed so you can give them the right numbers.

Makes you better at delivering too.

[Matt Cruz @MattCruzCodes]

Reporting MATTERS.

Most agencies don’t give their clients the data that will make them stay.

If you’re actually doing the thing, get your reporting together.

Show your clients that by the numbers they are better off with you.

[Matt Cruz @MattCruzCodes]

Stop saving prompts.

Build skills.

A prompt is a one-time ask. A skill is a reusable system with steps, tools, examples, and guardrails baked in.

I've replaced 80% of my "let me ChatGPT this" moments with skills I can run from any project.

Same input quality every time.
No re-explaining context.
No prompt drift.

The next layer of leverage with AI isn't better prompts. It's better systems around them.

[Matt Cruz @MattCruzCodes]

What’s your favorite cold outreach method?

- Cold calls
- Cold emails
- Cold DM
- Meta Ads
- Google Ads

[Cormac @cormachayden_]

software engineers before vs after agents

[Matt Cruz @MattCruzCodes]

@BacLeodiv Basically all the above. Anything that's not distribution early on is a misuse of time.

[Matt Cruz @MattCruzCodes]

@aryanlabde It's the new video games at this point

[Matt Cruz @MattCruzCodes]

@Meta @facebook My Facebook account is locked in an ENDLESS Advanced Protection loop I never signed up for.

Email codes never arrive, every device is blocked as 'unrecognized,' all help links redirect me to the same broken flow. DAYS of this and I have ads live that I can't even review.

Need a human to review my account ASAP!
#Facebook #Meta"

[Matt Cruz @MattCruzCodes]

@iraftopo Congrats on going live 🎉

Back linking is where I’m least competent in SEO. I know there’s value, but it’s just the most manual process…

[Matt Cruz @MattCruzCodes]

@insights5g Learning this with problem clients in my agency.

Tough to know when it’s right to cutoff the account vs. keep it going. Thinking the more success you have, the easier it is to burn the bridge for the peace of mind. I need to be more successful lol

[Matt Cruz @MattCruzCodes]

Making social content using chat image 2.0 vs. nano banana is a HUGE upgrade 🤯

I’m usually pro just sticking to systems that already work, but after some testing, this feels like a switch well worth the time.

[Matt Cruz @MattCruzCodes]

If there was one thing I could tell my younger self, it’d be this 🙌🏾

[Codie Sanchez @Codie_Sanchez]

Dear old people:

Waking up early, being married, going to church, reading books, going to bed at 10pm, drinking less, and staying home more is actually amazing.

Sorry I was wrong.

[Matt Cruz @MattCruzCodes]

@yongfook Still takes tons of prompting to get one feature right... Big difference between prototyping and production 🙌🏽

[Matt Cruz @MattCruzCodes]

Was going to gate keep this but F it.

I improved my ad targeting for my HVAC clients with better lead scraping.

I used public permit records to build a list of addresses where the ac unit was last changed 12+ years ago, or the house was built 12+ years ago and no new mechanical permit has been pulled.

Then, I enriched the list with SkipGenie to get the contact information I need for my Google & Meta Ads campaigns.

Results pending, but have 1000s of higher quality prospects for my clients because of this method. Expecting this to do really well with the replacement ads we're going to run to these audiences.

Side note: the idea for this came after I watched a few of @nicksaraev's videos on lead scraping. They've changed the game for my agency. Highly recommend his stuff.

[Matt Cruz @MattCruzCodes]

@lividprowess @gregisenberg *sigh*

[Matt Cruz @MattCruzCodes]

GitHub has a fake star economy.

Services that sell thousands of fake stars to pump projects. Looks legit on the surface, zero real users behind it.

Same exact playbook as spammy SEO agencies selling "backlink packages."

Pay for 200 links from sites no human visits. The profile looks fat. The domain authority tool says the number went up. Meanwhile none of it moves real traffic or real revenue.

If the metric is easy to buy, it's easy to fake. Stars, links, followers, reviews, all the same story.

Check what actually drives leads. Everything else is vanity.

[Matt Cruz @MattCruzCodes]

44% of songs uploaded to Deezer every day are AI-generated.

Same thing is about to hit blog posts, GBP posts, social captions, and product descriptions.

The businesses that win won't be the ones pumping out the most AI slop. It'll be the ones using AI to ship faster on stuff that's actually theirs.

[Matt Cruz @MattCruzCodes]

AI just published all my scheduled content at once on IG 🤬

I have a claude skill that makes my business IG content. I was playing around with auto scheduling so I wouldn’t have to manually add my 21 posts for the week into Meta biz manager.

For whatever reason, Opus 4.7 thought there was a non existent schedule option through Meta’s API.

Thought this model would be smarter than this…

Long story short, always do some sort of manual QA.