Curb-side Delivery, 2013
I drew the whole system on one page.
Call the restaurant, call us, we verify the order, we deliver it. $11 flat, any size, eleven miles out of the Woodbridge mall. EZ PAY for the regulars.
Build the system Keep the system
You’re paying for the wrong thing.
If you’re paying someone to fix your code, build your website, post your content, run your research, design your ads, you’re renting pieces of a system you should own.
Ask how you build an AI system around it.
A free 15 minute call. No pressure.
What you rent
- Code
- Website
- Content
- Research
- Ads
- Design
What you own
Your system
Where this started
I have been building systems since before you had an app for it.
Video and photos were the trade. I learned the rest because nobody was going to come do it for me. Then Zanity Clothing, a real label with a store and a campaign that went to 50 states. Then Curb-side Delivery in Woodbridge, New Jersey.
Curb-side put 22 restaurants that did not deliver onto one menu. Olive Garden paid us $150 a month to be on it. Darden cut the check from corporate. We had corporate accounts on prepaid balances and a driver manual I wrote myself. That was August 2013. Uber Eats did not exist yet. Not the product, not the app. Uber started delivering food a year later in Santa Monica, and it took two and a half years before it had its own app.
So in December 2014 I sat down to build the software version. The developer I took it to told me the competition had venture capital and I had about $500 a month, and that I should go drive for one of them instead. I wrote back and asked whether I should call one of these companies that already had the system and sell them my territory.
I was running the idea a year before Uber was. I was pitching the software version a year before Uber had an app. And I had no capital to carry either one. That is the honest version. Every business I built before this one needed money to get big and did not have it. So I built a way to get paid that does not need a check from anybody. You own the system. I get paid for the thinking.
Then I ran accounts at Pinpoint Promotions and Marketing, then my own shop, WK Strategic Business Development, which is what A Cali Collective came out of.
What I sell now is that method. Not a video. Not a website. The thinking that makes them work, in a container you own.
What I ran, in order
- Video, photos, content, social media
- Zanity Clothing, 2012 to 2015
- Curb-side Delivery, New Jersey, 2013
- Pinpoint Promotions and Marketing
- WK Strategic Business Development
- A Cali Collective
Six runs at it. Same method every time: build it, then rewrite it until people connect.
The receipts
Not a portfolio. A record.
Everything here is from a file, an invoice, or an archive. The parts I cannot prove are not on this page.
Olive Garden, 2014
A chain paid me monthly to be on my menu.
$130 a month for menu distribution, $20 for logo space. Then Darden's corporate accounts payable reissued the check. That is a national restaurant group paying a two-man operation in Woodbridge.
The driver manual, August 2013
I wrote the operations, not just the idea.
Efficiency, teamwork, detailed worker. Show up 15 minutes early. Uniform clean. Email on your phone, Life360 on your phone. Triple-check the order and call the customer before you leave.
Woodbridge Township, September 2014
The township cut the ribbon with us.
Two people and a car, and the town showed up with the big scissors. Alongside that, corporate accounts on standing balances along Route 1: Wiss and Company, Castle Financial, Buckley Madole.
Zanity Clothing, 2012 to 2015
A label, a store, fifty states, and a team.
Hoodies, tees, snapbacks, photo shoots, a real checkout. The tagline was Question Everything. We ran a campaign called 50 States of Zanity. We ran a skate team, a BMX team and a flow team with written guidelines, weekly responsibilities and signed contracts, years before brands called that an influencer program.
September 2013
The governor posed with us.
Chris Christie, a month after Curb-side opened. The photo was in my own inbox that same week, which is why I can date it.
Sources on request: archived curb-sidedelivery.com menus from June 2014, the February 2014 invoice, and the Darden accounting thread from September 2014.
Cali Collective Academy
Learn AI from the guy who actually runs it.
A membership for local business owners. Three or four classes a month on AI, content, Google Ads and video, plus notes on your own account. $497 a month, cancel any time.
AI system
We run on a team of AI bots.
One director, a crew of specialists and Wilson’s yes on everything that goes out.
What we do
What the system is made of.
Four parts. You do not have to buy all four from me, and most people should not. Here is what each part does and what it is worth.
Proof
Photos and video that show the work the way it actually looks. This is the part nobody can fake, and it is why I still shoot.
- 94 leads
in 30 days for a plumbing client, 80 of them billable.
Demand
Google, Local Services and Meta, set up so you can see the calls and the leads rather than the clicks.
The place they land
A clear site that makes it easy to call or book. Built with AI, checked by a person, and yours.
Before
- 1Quote
- 2
Extra contract stepCut - 3Yes
After
- 1Quote
- 2Yes
The system
The part that runs without you. For Chandler’s Roofing I cut a contract writing step, so quotes reach yes faster. It sits in their accounts, and it keeps running.
You do not need all four. Tell Wilson the problem and he will tell you which part is actually costing you money.
A free 15 minute call. No pressure.
The work
Real work for real businesses.
- Quote.Yes.One step cut
Chandler’s Roofing
- What we did
- AI built their new website. We found an extra contract writing step and cut it. We introduced the team to AI bots.
- What changed
- A new website, and quotes get approved faster with one less step.
Marilynn Wolfe: Live Like a Local
- What we did
- We built a video series around her called Live Like a Local: three finished episodes, vertical shorts, call to action clips, plus YouTube titles and a posting plan.
- What changed
- She went from almost no video of herself to three finished episodes. She writes some of her own lines now and pitches her own ideas.
Turtle Shack Café
- What we did
- One shoot day on location. We photographed the menu, then designed the photos into ads with bold headlines, their logo and short lines in the restaurant’s own voice.
- What changed
- A full set of ready to post ads from a single shoot, sized for both feed and stories.
Josh Johnson Law and Buckmaster & Ellzey
- What we did
- For Josh Johnson Law, short video ads, including billboard and dashcam spots, cut wide and vertical. For Buckmaster & Ellzey, a four minute brand film with attorney interviews, a short cut and a client testimonial video.
- What changed
- Two law firms with polished video of their own, from short social ads to a cinematic brand film.
Featured project
Palm Coast Marina: Captain IQ.
A custom quiz, dock tablet and dashboard we built for the marina. 413 captains took the quiz in season one. The dock tablet logged 192 check ins and 10,427 gallons.
Featured project
Vanilla Ice Beach Project.
A collaborative video project. Beach houses, a tag wall and a stadium stage, all on camera.
How it works
Three steps. Then you own it.
Meet Wilson.
A free 15 minute call. Tell him what is on your list. He’ll tell you honestly where he would start.
Get the map, or learn to draw it.
One session and you leave with the plan. Or join the Academy at $497 a month and learn to build the next one yourself. Both are on the booking page and the Academy page.
You keep the system.
It runs on your accounts. If you stop working with me, it keeps running. That is the whole point.
A free 15 minute call. No pressure.
Who you work with
You talk to the people doing the work.
Wilson Kowaleski, Founder & Creative Director, leads the creative work. Patti helps local businesses show up when customers search. We run the ad campaigns. No account managers.
Quick answers
Good questions.
01Do you work in my area?
Yes. Based in St. Augustine, Florida. We’ve worked with businesses in California, New York, New Jersey, Utah, Idaho, West Virginia and Mexico, and we travel anywhere.
02What does it cost?
The first call is free. The Strategy Session is $400 for 60 minutes. After that, you decide what, if anything, comes next. Details are on the booking page.
03Is the first call a sales pitch?
No. It is 15 minutes about what is on your list. If a Strategy Session would help, Wilson will say so once, and the choice is yours.