Local Nerds × Tim Cole · Session 1 of 5

Prospect Research,
automated.

Eight hours a week, reclaimed.
For: Tim Cole, Vistage Chair · Denver & Colorado Springs
Date: April 21, 2026 · 10:45 AM MDT
Session: 1 of the Recruiting Automation engagement
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Today · 50 minutes

What we'll do

0:00What I built for you
A walk through the Playbook and the prospects we researched.
0:10The Research Engine, live
Run it on a name you pick. See the whole system in action.
0:20Your pipeline
The spreadsheet schema, status states, and how your workflow lands in it.
0:30Week One playbook
What you do Monday through Friday to turn this into outcomes.
0:40Q&A + what's next
Your questions; a look at Sessions 2 through 5.
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The starting point

What I heard from you

35 hours a week on recruiting.

Of which 8 hours is research — the mechanical side of the work.

25 new prospects added each week. An 8-step cadence. Quality over speed, non-negotiable.

"I'm not looking for someone to take this over.
I want to understand how AI can carry the mechanical load so I can do the part only I can do."

— Tim, April 2 call

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Part 1

Your criteria, encoded

01
Title — CEO, President, Founder, Owner, or Managing Partner
02
Ownership — privately held, not public, not F500 subsidiary
03
Revenue — $5M–$500M annually
04
Location — HQ within ~25 miles of downtown Denver
05
LinkedIn — active in last 6 months, 500+ connections
06
Not a conflict — not another chair, not a coach, not a current Vistage member

Every name that hits the Research Engine is checked against all six. Fail any one, and the engine returns disqualified with a reason — not full research.

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Part 2

The Intrigue Hook formula

Your signature move. The phrase that makes every cold email not feel cold.

"…intrigued by your [X] and business leadership…"

[X] = one specific thing, drawn from a real public signal, in their language.

  • Specific, not general. "Your Q1 expansion into Fort Collins" beats "your work in the space."
  • Real. Something the recipient knows is true about themselves.
  • Short. The phrase fills a slot in a longer email. It has to flow.
  • No superlatives. "Impressive," "inspiring," "innovative" — kill on sight.
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Part 3

Starter prospects, already researched

Real Denver-metro CEOs who match your six-point filter. Starting points, not final answers.

Food mfg Specialty retail Sustainable engineering Senior living Industrial distribution Home services Cultural attractions Beverage distribution Enterprise AI

These are our guesses from public signals. Your instincts on who's a real fit override. We'll prune together in a moment. Vistage-portal clearance is still your step — I can't log in to your CRM.

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Part 3 · the lineup

The hooks, at a glance

01  Marco Abarca · Ready Foods  ·  Fox Plant automation and Fourth Industrial Revolution lens
02  Rordan Shane · Shane Co.  ·  navigating tariffs without sacrificing customer trust
03  Celeste Cizik · Group14  ·  research challenging Colorado's all-electric buildings policy
04  Adam Kaplan · Solera  ·  Alliance for Connected Senior Care and 57% fall reduction
05  Brad Armstrong · General Air  ·  25 years and the family-and-employee-owned model
06  Levi Torres · High 5  ·  third consecutive Fast 50 ranking
07  Sean McNicholas · SSA  ·  LA Zoo expansion and 452 Hospitality approach
08  Kenneth Boyd · Denver Beverage  ·  34 years and the coffee-themed action figure you actually shipped
09  Jon Nordmark · Iterate.ai  ·  Public AI Risk series and CTA 2025 CEO of the Year

Each has three hook variants in the spreadsheet. Pick the one that sounds like you.

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Part 3 · sample

A prospect, up close

Marco Antonio Abarca
CEO, Owner & President · Ready Foods, Inc. · Denver
$50-100M
Signal: ColoradoBiz "CEO of the Year" finalist (late 2024). Featured in KUNC Sept 2025: new Fox Plant producing 4× output with the same headcount.
"…intrigued by your Fox Plant automation story and the Fourth Industrial Revolution lens you bring to food manufacturing and business leadership…"

Three hook variants are in the spreadsheet. Pick the one that sounds most like you — a single-character edit from you beats the cleanest draft from us every time.

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Part 4

Your pipeline

The status pipeline. Every prospect moves left to right.

New Researched Vistage-Cleared Cadence Started In Conversation Member

Alternate ends: Disqualified · Lost.

Every column is either something the engine writes (name, title, signal, hook) or something you update (status, cadence step, last contact). Glance on Monday. See who's where.

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Part 5

The Research Engine

One brain. Three doors. Start where you already live.

START HERE

Custom GPT

Built inside your ChatGPT account in 5 min. Paste a name, get a research card. Where the weekly work lives.

OPTIONAL

Claude Project

Same brain in Claude. Better writing on hooks. A/B it against the GPT on the same name.

SESSION 3+

Codebase

The Worker behind the scenes. For when you need to batch 50 names or hook into your sheet. 150 lines. Yours.

The brain is the system prompt — your six criteria, your hook formula, your honesty rules. The doors are the interfaces. Improve the prompt once, every door gets smarter.

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Part 6

Your Week One

MonPick five of the ten prospects. Vistage-portal clear them.
TueGet contact info into your phone + Outlook. (Lusha / CRM.)
WedFire Step 1 of your 8-step cadence. The hooks are already drafted.
ThuTest-drive the Research Engine on two fresh names you've been meaning to look up.
FriReply with what worked, what didn't, and your spreadsheet column headers for Session 2.

By Friday: ten prospects researched without your hours. Five in outreach. Engine validated on your picks. Pipeline live.

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Part 7

Where we go from here

SessionFocusWhat you get
2Schema & batchYour spreadsheet columns folded in. Engine gains a batch endpoint — paste 20 names, get 20 results.
3Outreach sequencerYour 8-step cadence encoded. Auto-advancement on status change. Per-step drafts in your voice — for your review, never auto-sent.
4Signal watcherWeekly re-check on active prospects. New signal → new hook suggestion → priority bump.
5CRM handoffLight integration with your tools. Documentation pass. You run it solo for a week. Debrief.

Session 6 is deliberately optional — you decide by Session 4 whether we need it.

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Part 8

What's yours today

  • The Playbook — the written document you can print and mark up.
  • Researched starter prospects — calibration fuel for how the system sounds in your voice.
  • The Pipeline Spreadsheet — pre-populated and ready to extend.
  • The Research Engine codebase — live, callable today.
  • Your workspace at timc.localnerds.co — bookmark it; every session stacks up here.
  • The recap email — arriving in your inbox within 24 hours.

Session 1 was never about a concept deck. It was about handing you a working system you can direct, and the materials to calibrate it to how you recruit.

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10 MINUTES LEFT

What do you want to poke at?

No bad questions. Especially the skeptical ones.
reu@localnerds.co · 970.800.1295 · localnerds.co