If most of your work comes from word of mouth, read this before December.

“Most of my business is word of mouth.”

I’ve heard that sentence more than any other in business.

I’ve started more than one company. I’ve scaled e-commerce brands to five and six figures, built my own software, and managed over $100,000 in ad spend: for my own brands, for other companies, and for clients. One of my clients spends over $1,000 a day on ads right now.

A lot of my time now goes to calls with local service business owners. Remodelers. Epoxy installers. Wrap shops. Detailers. Cleaners.

And in the first five minutes, almost every one of them says it.

They say it with pride. They should. It means they’re good. People like their work enough to tell their friends.

But after hearing it over and over, I noticed a pattern.

The owners who said it were all stuck at about the same size.

Not failing. Just stuck. Slammed in the summer. Quiet in the winter. Never sure where next month’s work is coming from.

I’ve helped local service businesses grow past that point, to six-figure months. And what gets them there is almost never better work. They’re already good at the work.

It’s a piece nobody told them they were missing.

Word of mouth only runs one way

For a referral to happen, someone has to hire you. Then love it. Then remember you. Then bump into someone who needs you. Then bring you up.

That’s five things that have to go right. None of them are up to you.

So word of mouth can only grow as fast as the customers you already have. It comes in waves you don’t control. And it goes quiet right when you need it most, in the slow months, when the truck payment and the insurance don’t slow down with it.

That’s why it feels like a ceiling. Because it is one.

Every business has two engines

Engine one does the work. Showing up. Doing it right. Being someone people trust.

Engine two brings in new people. Strangers who’ve never heard of you find you, trust you, and book you. When you want them to. Not when someone happens to mention you.

If you run on word of mouth, you built engine one, and you built it well. That’s why people refer you.

But almost nobody builds engine two. Nobody tells you it’s a separate thing.

Every business I’ve scaled, local or online, grew the same way: engine two got built.

Engine 1

Does the work

Quality. Follow-through. Why people refer you.

Engine 2

Brings in new people

Strangers find you, trust you, book you.

“I tried ads. They don’t work for my business.”

I hear this one almost as often.

Usually it went like this. You boosted a post. Got a bunch of likes. Nobody called.

Or you paid a lead site. Chased people all week. Half never picked up. The other half wanted the cheapest price.

Or you paid an agency. They sent reports full of “impressions”. Your phone didn’t notice.

So you decided ads don’t work for a business like yours.

I’ve put five figures of my own money into ads, and I’ve watched clients do the same. So I’m not saying this from the sidelines: usually, the ads weren’t the problem.

Think about what a referral is. Their friend already told them you’re good. They already trust you. All they need is your number.

Now picture a stranger scrolling Facebook at 9pm. They don’t know you. They don’t trust you. They’re not even thinking about your kind of work right now.

And the ad says: “Quality work. Free estimates. Call today!”

That ad is written for someone who already trusts you. The stranger doesn’t. So they keep scrolling.

You were doing word-of-mouth marketing on strangers.

The 5 steps

Before anyone hires anyone, they climb 5 steps:

1. They don’t think they have a problem.
2. They feel the problem.
3. They know there are fixes.
4. They know about you.
5. They’re ready to hire.

A referral skips straight to step 5. Their friend did the climbing for them.

A stranger starts on step 1 or 2.

Most local ads talk to step 5: “Book now. Call today. 20% off.” But almost everyone seeing that ad is on step 2.

So the ad wasn’t broken. It was talking to the wrong step.

And the few people who did call? They were the step-5 shoppers comparing quotes. Of course they wanted the cheapest price. Price was the only thing you gave them to compare.

UnawareTo notice the problem

Problem awareTo feel understood

Solution awareA reason your way is different

Product awareProof

Most awareA reason to act now

cold →ready to buy

What engine two actually needs

Once you see the steps, the fix explains itself. Strangers start low, so you need something that walks them up.

1. An ad that talks to step 2. Their problem, in their words. Not your logo.

2. A page that walks them up. The ad doesn’t sell. It gets the right person curious. The page teaches them something real, and by the bottom they understand the problem, trust you, and want the fix. That’s how a stranger gets to step 5 without a friend vouching for you.

(You’re reading one right now.)

3. A reason to act now. A real offer. Something worth raising their hand for this week.

4. Call them back in 5 minutes. A referral will wait for you. A stranger won’t. They asked three businesses, and whoever calls first usually gets the job. One well-known study found that calling within 5 minutes instead of 30 made a lead about 21 times more likely to become a real conversation.

Try this tonight. Fill out the form on your own website, or message your own Facebook page. Time how long it takes for anyone to get back to you. That’s how long a stranger waits for you. Most won’t wait that long.

5. A call that books. A short script that ends with a date on the calendar. Not a quote you email and hope about.

That’s engine two. None of it is talent. All of it can be built.

What it looks like with your numbers

Don’t take my word for it. Put in your own.

Your numbers

Average job value

−$+

Daily ad budget

−$+

How many you close

−%+

A realistic month

People who ask for a quote

22

People you reach in 5 minutes

13

Jobs booked

3

Ad spend

$900

Money in$4,500

A realistic month. Not a promise.

• $40 cost per lead on Meta for local services (conservative)
• 60% share you actually get on the phone (our conservative assumption)

One real example from my agency: a car wrap shop spent $1,042 on ads. 54 people asked for a quote. That turned into $27,600 in jobs.

The pieces don’t change as the budget grows. More budget just puts more people through them.

1. $1,042spent on ads
2. →54people asked for a quote
3. →$27,600in jobs

One client. Your results depend on your market, your offer and how fast you call back.

Why now, and not in December

Engine two takes a few weeks to dial in. Ads need time to learn. You need a few tries to find the one that works.

So what gets built in October and November is what’s booked in December and January.

If you start in December, you’re learning while your phone is already quiet. If you start now, the slow months are when it pays you back.

In Jobber’s 2025 survey of home service owners, the #1 thing owners said held their growth back was the season.

Why I’m writing this

Everything on this page comes from the training I give my own team.

When someone joins my agency, Ultemir, they don’t get a pep talk. They get that training: every step, in order. It’s how a brand-new person learns to build engine two for a real business.

I’m putting the first part here because most owners will never hire an agency. They shouldn’t have to wait on referrals forever because of it.

Two ways to build engine two

You’ve seen how it works. Now there are two ways to get it built.

How do you want to build it?

Have it built for meBuild it myself

Option 1: My team builds it for you..

We work with owners who are ready to put real money behind their marketing to grow, and whose business is already established. That’s who it works best for, because engine two runs on fuel: the more you can put into ads, the faster it learns and the more it brings back.

We build the whole thing: the ads, the page, the questions that screen out price shoppers, the alert that hits your phone the second someone raises their hand, the follow-up. Your job is to call back and close.

We take one business per trade per city, so if someone in your area already has the spot, we’ll tell you.

The guarantee: make back everything you paid us within 90 days, or we refund it. (Plain conditions, like calling people back within 5 minutes, are covered on the call.)

See if we're a fit →

2-minute application. Price is covered on the call. If we're not the right fit, I'll tell you straight.

Option 2: Build it yourself with my course, The Ultemir Playbook, plus a live 1-on-1 call with me.

For owners who’d rather build it themselves.

My course, The Ultemir Playbook, is the exact training my team uses, every step in order: the ad, the page, the offer, the 5-minute callback, the call that books. Wherever there’s writing to do, there’s a copy-paste prompt: you answer a few questions about your business and AI writes the first draft in your words. You fix it up. About an hour a week.

And you don’t do it alone. Every order includes a live 45-minute 1-on-1 call with me. We go through your business and your numbers, I answer your questions about the training, and you leave knowing your first three moves. You pick a time on my calendar right after checkout.

The course + a live 1-on-1 call with me: $50. Offer ends November 1st. That leaves you all of Q4 to scale.

Offer ends in24d 11h 06m 18s

Same $50 either way. The difference is whether a call with me comes with it.

Start this week, and you’re running it before the slow months hit, with me helping you set it up. Start in November, and you’re on your own. Start in December, and you’re learning while your phone is already quiet.

$50 is less than one job for any trade. One booked estimate pays for it many times over.

Claim your course + 1-on-1 call

$50 · One payment. Lifetime access, plus a live 45-minute call with me. Offer ends November 1st. All sales final.

If you only remember one thing

It was never “ads don’t work for my business.”

It was word-of-mouth marketing aimed at strangers.

Build the second engine before the slow months, and January stops being something you wait out.

— Cyrus

P.S. Not sure which one fits? If your business is established and you’re ready to put real money behind growing it, apply, and I’ll tell you honestly if we’re the right fit.