Day 7 of 20 · AI for Trades

Your Trades Foundation

⏱ 5 min 📊 Beginner

You've just completed Week 1. In six lessons, you've gone from knowing nothing about AI to having a complete system for responding to leads faster and better than your competition.

Let's take stock of what you've built — and make sure it's all locked in before we move on to more advanced strategies next week.

What you've built this week

Here's a quick recap of the foundation you've put in place:

Day 1: The mindset shift. You learned that AI isn't about replacing your trade skills — it's about making sure those skills get seen. The tradespeople who win aren't necessarily the most skilled. They're the ones who respond first with a quality message. AI gives you that edge.

Day 2: Your toolkit. You set up ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity — three free tools that cover everything from writing lead responses to researching competitors to checking local regulations. You've got the apps on your phone, ready to go between jobs.

Day 3: Lead platform mastery. You understand how RatedPeople, Thumbtack, hipages, and other platforms actually work. You know the lead cycle, you know that speed plus quality wins, and you know the economics — even a small improvement in your win rate means thousands more in revenue.

Day 4: Your killer profile. You used AI to rewrite your platform profile from a forgettable few lines into a professional, trust-building bio that works for you 24/7. Every lead that checks your profile now sees someone worth hiring.

Day 5: Response templates. You've got AI prompt templates for emergency jobs, planned projects, and small repairs. You know the five elements of a winning response: personal greeting, specific acknowledgment, relevant expertise, a smart question, and a clear next step.

Day 6: Hands-on practice. You ran through the complete workflow — copy the lead, paste the prompt, review the response, hit send — and saw firsthand how a 2-minute process produces responses that outclass what most tradespeople spend 15 minutes writing by hand.

Knowledge Check

What are the five elements of a winning lead response?

A

Introduction, company history, qualifications, services list, and terms and conditions

B

Name, trade, location, price, and timeline

C

Price, availability, photos, reviews, and a phone number

D

Personal greeting, specific job acknowledgment, relevant expertise, a smart question, and a clear next step

The five elements — personal greeting, acknowledging the specific job, showing relevant expertise, asking a smart question, and giving a clear next step — are the framework that consistently wins jobs on lead platforms. AI helps you hit all five every time, in under 2 minutes.

The numbers that matter

Let's put some real numbers around what this week's work is worth.

Before AI: You spend 10-15 minutes per lead response. You respond to 6 leads per day. That's 60-90 minutes every evening writing messages. Your win rate is around 15-20%.

After AI: You spend 2 minutes per lead response. You respond to the same 6 leads. That's 12 minutes total. Your responses are more personalized and professional, so your win rate improves to 25-35%.

The impact:

Time saved: 50-80 minutes per day — that's your evening back, or time to respond to even more leads.

Extra jobs won: If you go from winning 1 in 6 leads to 2 in 6, you've doubled your conversion from the same spend on lead credits.

Revenue increase: On average jobs worth $300-$500, winning just 4 extra jobs per month means $1,200-$2,000 in additional monthly revenue. For bigger jobs — kitchen refits, rewires, roofing projects — the numbers scale up dramatically.

All from better communication. Not more hours on the tools. Not more money on advertising. Just smarter responses.

Six days, six building blocks. You've built a complete AI-powered system for winning more work.

🤖

ChatGPT

online

I've just finished Week 1 of the AI for Trades course. Can you give me an honest assessment — am I set up to start winning more work, or is there anything I'm missing?

Based on completing Week 1, here's where you stand: **What you've got right:** - AI tools set up and on your phone (critical for speed) - An updated, professional profile that builds trust - Prompt templates for different job types - A 2-minute workflow for responding to every lead **Quick checklist before Week 2:** 1. Have you actually responded to at least 3 real leads using AI this week? If not, do it today. Practice beats theory. 2. Is your profile live and updated on your main platform? 3. Do you have the ChatGPT or Claude app on your phone's home screen for quick access? 4. Have you saved your prompt templates somewhere easy to find? (Notes app, pinned message, etc.) **What's coming in Week 2:** You'll learn how to write quotes that close, follow up without being pushy, manage reviews like a pro, and turn one-off jobs into repeat customers. The foundation you've built this week makes all of that possible. You're in a strong position. The key now is consistency — use AI on every lead, not just when you remember.

↻ Replay conversation

Knowledge Check

What is the most important habit to build coming out of Week 1?

A

Switching to a paid AI subscription immediately

B

Writing longer, more detailed responses

C

Using AI consistently on every single lead, not just occasionally

D

Spending more money on lead platform credits

Consistency is everything. The tradespeople who see the biggest results are the ones who use AI on every lead, not just when they have time or remember. Making AI your default response method — rather than an occasional tool — is what turns a small advantage into a significant business improvement.

Your Week 1 challenge

Before you move on to Week 2, here's a quick challenge to cement everything you've learned:

Respond to your next 5 leads using AI. Every single one. Time yourself — you should be under 3 minutes per response. After each one, rate the AI's output on a scale of 1-5 and note what you tweaked.

By lead 3 or 4, you'll notice something: you're getting faster, the AI is getting better (because you're learning to prompt it better), and the whole process feels natural.

Bonus challenge: Go back to your platform profile and read it one more time. Does it still sound right? Would you hire yourself based on what it says? If anything feels off, run it through AI one more time.

Knowledge Check

If you're spending more than 3 minutes on an AI-assisted lead response, what's most likely going wrong?

A

You should be using a different AI tool

B

You're over-editing the AI output instead of trusting the template and making quick tweaks

C

The lead is too complex for AI to handle

D

Your AI tool is too slow and you need to upgrade

The most common reason for slow AI-assisted responses is over-editing. The AI gives you a strong 90% draft. Your job is the final 10% — a quick tone check, a local detail, and a fact verification. If you're rewriting the whole thing, revisit your prompt template to get better first drafts.

What's next in Week 2

Next week takes everything you've built and goes deeper:

Smart quoting — Using AI to write quotes that look professional and close more deals. Templates for itemized quotes, ballpark estimates, and everything in between.

Follow-up messages — The art of following up without being annoying. AI-generated follow-ups that keep you top of mind after a site visit.

Review management — Responding to reviews (good and bad) with AI. Plus strategies for getting more 5-star reviews from happy customers.

Turning one job into many — Using AI to ask for referrals, offer related services, and keep past customers coming back.

Your foundation is solid. Now it's time to build on it.

🔧

Day 7 Complete

"You've built the foundation — toolkit, profile, templates, and workflow. Now use it on every lead. Consistency is what turns AI from a novelty into revenue."

Tomorrow — Day 8

Speed Wins — Responding First

Next week you'll master the art of fast follow-ups, smart quoting, and turning leads into repeat customers.

Continue to Day 8 →