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Not the Tool.

Phill Tomlinson joined the support calls to learn a piece of cold email software. Andrew kept talking about his words instead. Five strong replies, a new customer and $23,000 later, Phill stopped missing calls.

I was expecting you to only talk about, let’s talk about how we’re going to use this tool instantly. Let’s talk about how we’re going to do emails. Let’s talk about Gmail versus Microsoft.”

Phill Tomlinson, looking back on how he first met Andrew

That was the deal Phill thought he was getting.

Software help.

Which buttons to press. Which inbox provider to use. How to get the machine running.

That isn’t what happened.

The broker with a side business

Phill Tomlinson has been a commercial real estate broker for twenty-five years.

Years earlier, a virtual assistant had changed his working life. When other brokers asked how he did it, he started showing them. Then they asked him to just do it for them.

So he built a side business placing trained virtual assistants with commercial brokers.

And he needed those brokers to hear about it.

"I was trying to figure out how to leverage a tool called Instantly, so that I could do tons of emails to brokers who may have a question or an interest in considering getting a virtual assistant."

Instantly is cold email software. Phill joined LeadGenJay’s program to learn it.

The program had support calls.

Andrew was running them.

The calls that kept wandering off topic

Phill came to those calls with technical questions. That’s what support calls are for.

But Andrew kept steering somewhere else.

He showed the group the tools he was using himself. He talked about what was working in the business he was helping run.

And he kept coming back to the writing.

"You were talking about ways that would help us learn how to make our scripts better for the emails."

Here’s the thing most people miss about cold email.

The software sends whatever you give it. It sends a weak message to a thousand people as easily as it sends a strong one.

If the words don’t land, a better sending tool just helps you get ignored faster.

Maybe you’ve been there. You buy the platform, or hire the agency, or switch tools, because surely the setup is what’s wrong.

Sometimes it is.

More often it’s the message.

So Andrew did something that doesn’t scale. He took the time to go through Phill’s cold email copy with him. Then he helped him rework the messaging inside Phill’s Skool community, the online group where his prospects gathered.

The calls had stopped being about software.

"I cannot miss these calls anymore"

Phill noticed. So did everyone else.

"He’s not just helping us with an email, he’s helping us with our business."

That was how he described the mood on those calls.

And it changed how he treated them.

"And so I was like, I cannot miss these calls anymore. I have to be on every one of these calls."

He’d shown up for help with a tool.

He was staying for something else.

"I liked the idea that you were not just helping me hone an email, but you helped me figure out a way to leverage my business better."

The tally

Then the results started coming back.

Phill posted them in the community, and he tagged Andrew.

Phill Tomlinson's post in the community, tagging Andrew Naegele: "Apologies for the late response, @Andrew Naegele. I've been meaning to share this because the impact you've had on my journey deserves serious recognition. Here are my top wins from the Fast-Track Calls: 1. You took the time to walk me through my cold email copy and helped refine the messaging inside my Skool community. That support made a huge difference. Because of your guidance, I received five strong responses from cold outreach, gained a new customer directly from Skool, and have brought in $23,000 to date as a direct result. 2. I'm getting better at using AI and have been blown away by how effectively you leverage it in your business. Your walk-through of the Inspired app really opened my eyes to what's possible. I ended up purchasing the full version and have already started integrating it into my content creation process. 3. I've started using automation platforms like Make.com and Boost.space. I now have three solid automations running, which are helping my virtual assistants create content much faster and more efficiently. 4. I use three of your custom GPTs almost daily—for cold emails and standard responses. They've saved me 2-3 hours a week, and my copy is sharper, more consistent, and feels much more aligned with my voice. Thank you again for all the insight and support. It's made a real difference in how I operate and scale!! Phill"

Look at the first win on his list.

"You took the time to walk me through my cold email copy and helped refine the messaging inside my Skool community. That support made a huge difference. Because of your guidance, I received five strong responses from cold outreach, gained a new customer directly from Skool, and have brought in $23,000 to date as a direct result."

Five strong responses from cold outreach.

A new customer straight out of the community.

$23,000.

Phill didn’t credit a new sending tool for any of it.

He credited the work on his copy and his messaging.

What had changed was what his words said.

What the $23,000 bought

There’s one more thing that $23,000 did.

It got Phill’s attention.

He’d watched Andrew help a room full of people with their businesses. Now he’d seen what that help did for his own.

That early result is what brought Phill to work with Andrew directly.

The work that followed went a long way past email.

Andrew helped him rebuild his working day, get back on a conference stage and build software for his own brokerage.

But it started on a support call Phill joined to learn a tool.

He came looking for help with the machine.

He got help with the message. </content> </invoke>