Matt Johnson

15 years selling anything & everything. Always building. Became the AI guy at work. Helping businesses big & small turn ideas into reality with AI.

[Matt Johnson @mattjson88]

Ask ChatGPT who the best plumber in your town is.

If your name doesn't come up, it isn't because your website is ugly. It's because the model can't find enough evidence that you exist.

Here's what actually decides the answer.

[Matt Johnson @mattjson88]

@dannypeavey Appreciate the heads up! Cross that off the list

[Matt Johnson @mattjson88]

@dannypeavey Lolol grokbot is posting it seems!

[Matt Johnson @mattjson88]

@kzitouni1 Same here!

[Matt Johnson @mattjson88]

@BirdVein Client text threads are not a project management system. Centralize updates in one place (email summary or shared job note) so decisions don't live in 14 different phones. Saves arguments later and protects your weekends.

[Matt Johnson @mattjson88]

@HVACSEO People are already asking AI for a local plumber or HVAC tech. If your site is thin, outdated, or missing clear service areas and proof, you won't show up in those answers. Free Instant Website Audit on https://t.co/sJEIXJBdMF if you want a quick read on what AI sees.

[Matt Johnson @mattjson88]

@JackColbySEO People are already asking AI for a local plumber or HVAC tech. If your site is thin, outdated, or missing clear service areas and proof, you won't show up in those answers. Free Instant Website Audit on https://t.co/sJEIXJBdMF if you want a quick read on what AI sees.

[Matt Johnson @mattjson88]

@VarsityHomeSvc If you're buried in jobs this weekend, do one thing before Monday: check how many calls went to voicemail Friday afternoon. That number is usually bigger than owners expect, and those callers rarely leave a message.

[Matt Johnson @mattjson88]

@GetJobber @openphone Missed calls between jobs are the quiet leak. Auto text-back in under a minute ("got you, calling shortly") recovers more jobs than a perfect voicemail greeting. Pair it with whatever scheduler you already run so the office isn't rebuilding the lead by hand.

[Matt Johnson @mattjson88]

@codyschneider This is the path. The trap is building the first version for one client.

You end up with their edge cases hardcoded. The version worth selling comes from the third client who asks for the same thing, not the first one who paid for it.

[Matt Johnson @mattjson88]

@DinScales26 The version that works even better is looking for the complaint, not the request.

Someone posting that their website guy went dark, or that nobody calls them back. They haven't started shopping yet, so you're the only one in the conversation.

[Matt Johnson @mattjson88]

@MitcheIl The wild part is a plumber doing $33k a month has to answer the phone at 6am, run three trucks, and chase invoices.

This guy has to remember the savings account password.

[Matt Johnson @mattjson88]

@Tech_girl Hit send.

It can draft anything, pull the research, decide what the reply should be. A human still hits send.

Every automation I've watched blow up went wrong at the exact step where nobody was looking.

[Matt Johnson @mattjson88]

@georgeclem Agree on boring local. One thing I'd add to the checklist: pick a niche where you can see the problem from the outside.

If you can pull up their site or their Google profile and know in 60 seconds what's broken, the first call is a demo instead of a pitch.

[Matt Johnson @mattjson88]

@coldemailchris Add one: the list is verified.

MX-valid is not the same as deliverable. I ran a list that looked clean, put it through real verification, and it came back a lot smaller. Everything downstream got better after that.

[Matt Johnson @mattjson88]

@RickyDPR Good question to ask. I'd add a second one: show me what you changed last month.

Not what you're going to change. What already shipped. That answer is usually a lot shorter.

[Matt Johnson @mattjson88]

@freddymcgill The $200/day in Claude credits one hurt. I'm at $200 a month and I still flinched.

No course though. That's the one I'm holding the line on.

[Matt Johnson @mattjson88]

@danellisona Me

[Matt Johnson @mattjson88]

@saleskhalifa @_JS29_ There isn’t a sweet spot is exactly right lol unfortunately

[Matt Johnson @mattjson88]

None of this is anti-AI. It's the difference between a system that runs for a year and a demo that impresses you for a week.

Fix it, then automate it. In that order.

[Matt Johnson @mattjson88]

The fastest way to waste money on AI in a service business is to automate something that was already broken.

You don't get a fixed process. You get a broken one that runs faster and costs more.

[Matt Johnson @mattjson88]

Related: automate the step, not the whole job.

"AI handles our intake" fails. "AI drafts the callback text and a human hits send" works, and it keeps working when something changes.