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Hello and welcome back to my podcast. It’s a pleasure to have you here. Thank you for your
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attention. Today I’m going to run through how I’m using AI in my business endeavors at the moment.
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And I thought it was an interesting one to reflect on because every single day I’m seeing
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different posts from different people talking about how they are using this innovative tool
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and just even on the weekend,
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hanging out with some friends at dinner talking about,
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well, what is a bigger deal?
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Bitcoin and the invention of peer-to-peer money or AI.
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And I think the interesting observation I came to was like,
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well, perhaps Bitcoin is a more important innovation,
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discovery moment.
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But the way that AI has filtered into daily life
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already is extraordinary.
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And Bitcoin’s a much more high-touch,
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longer term process. You need to have experienced a bunch of different things to get to that point of
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asking what is money. And I encourage anyone to go and do that. But my current focus is AI and
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how it’s going to embed itself into everyday small business. And so I’ve looked at a pool
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and landscaping business. I’ve looked at a gardening business. I’ve looked at a mold
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reporting business. I’ve looked at an accounting firm. And the truth is they’re all different.
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where we point our attention every day is specific to the different problems we’re trying to solve
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and that’s why this I thought would be a really cool thing to run through it’s like how am I
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actually using Claude specifically to to build what I’m building and so this is a real behind
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the scenes look at what it means for me to be able to use this tool every day and you know previous
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episodes you will have heard me talk about the ability to use Claude with like a master thread
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with then sub threads and having a master document in the project file that you can then reference
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between the two of them absolutely that’s the case it’s almost like you have a chairman ceo c o o c t o
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um but this is going to be some more practical examples of what i’m actually doing and so it’s
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like okay um yeah just lay it out so so who’s this episode for so if you’ve heard me talking
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about the AI assessment that I’ve created, then this is essentially me showing my work and
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how to reflect it on a not necessarily a case study, but like an actual real scenario. Now,
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to be very clear, like I’m not a software developer. Yes, I’ve worked in and around tech
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for many years, angel investing in tech companies and trying to start startups of my own in the past.
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But I run a podcast and my current focus is an AI assessment product, which is essentially a
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productized consulting business. And otherwise, I’m homeschooling my three kids. And so just over
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the last week and a half, there’s a bunch of different problems that I had, or had that I was
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able to solve. And so if I think about it through the simple lens of, okay, well, first, you got to
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build the thing, like, what is it you’re building? And then you’ve got to advertise the thing. And
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then you’ve got to fulfill on whatever your product and service is. Now, in some ways, people will
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argue that the current scenario the script has been flipped and you can actually advertise things
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test the market to see what people are interested in and then go and build it but just for simplicity
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here it’s like okay I’ve seen a Deloitte report one in three Australian small business owners they
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do not know where to even start when it comes to how to incorporate or implement AI into their
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business great that’s the cornerstone of the problem I’m trying to solve right now and then
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it’s like okay I’ve developed this process where I can host a conversation do an interview and out
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of the back of that comes a report which is bespoke to the scenario you’re in with low-hanging fruit
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AI tools to make you more efficient and the value that people are seeing it’s it’s already fantastic
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but it’s like okay how does that apply to me and so some examples it’s like okay if I want to
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advertise this new product that I’ve created where you’ve got warm outreach cold outreach paid
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as the kind of three different channels.
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It’s like, okay, the previous episode I spoke through
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how I’ve created Apollo, well, not created Apollo,
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I’m using a tool called Apollo
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to do email outreach to accountants.
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And perhaps you’ve been watching this episode
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as someone that found me through that process.
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Now, very specifically, the AI assessment
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that I did on myself recommended Apollo.
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And so I’m like figuring out this new tool.
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Every time I hit a roadblock, I’m like screenshot,
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send it to Claude and Claude can help me figure through what it is.
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Like, okay, you’re stuck here or try this different direction.
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Okay, that’s why that isn’t working.
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And it essentially a whole new way of building things a whole new workflow And so the old way like how would I have done this in the past Like okay I want to build a cold outreach email campaign and I going to start with a Google search
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It’s like it takes forever to figure this all out, whereas now it’s like actually here’s the tool, sign up.
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Okay, any kinks that you come across when you’re actually onboarding, send them back to Claude,
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and then it will help take you through it on a step-by-step basis.
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Now, another example would be, okay, I’m sending traffic using my podcast content organically to a website.
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But when they get to that website, what happens if they just want to pop in an email?
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It’s like, okay, well, we could create an email pop-up that collects someone’s email and promises them something in exchange.
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So I decided to build a lead magnet.
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So, okay, I’m going to put my AI assessment out there for people to find.
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but in exchange, I’d like to collect their email. And this is kind of the crux of the previous
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episode as well. It’s like, all right, you’ve landed on the website, but hang on, how do you
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put a PDF on your website? And so I’m suddenly playing around in the back end of WordPress,
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which is a tool I haven’t used much before. And I’d paid a web building and branding agency about
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18 months ago to create my website to host, or not host, but to easily browse the different
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podcast episodes I’ve created I’m like okay I’ve got this infrastructure I should I should just
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build on top of it and it’s like okay well let’s create a web page all right so add new page and
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then you know you go through all these steps right and I eventually was like hang on I can’t get into
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the media section so I had to wait for the web agent to get back to me to then give me access to
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the media library and just the kind of headache where in the past you had to you had to outsource
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this work for quality purposes but now you don’t have to it’s like okay I’m actually going to get a
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better answer bespoke to me at the click of a button using an AI tool than I will be to go to
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a specialist in the space and so by the end of the process I was able to have a a web page part of my
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original website it’s jakewoodhouse.io forward stash self-assessment and it’s linked to the show
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notes of my previous episode and on that web page you can see the pdf for the assessment I created
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for myself plus a bit of copy around why I created it and as you scroll to the bottom you get to a
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footer based email capture tool which I built with ConvertKit and you can brand it with all
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of your own colors and I put in the process it’s like okay well once they’ve signed up with their
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email they get the report sent to them as well because people might want to refer back to it
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why would I give away this report well it shows the structure of what you get if you were to take
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the AI assessment with me but the point is it’s bespoke like if a plumber takes the interview
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it’s going to be different to an electrician taking the interview and different to a garden
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maintenance guy doing the interview or accountants or mortgage brokers or lawyers the point is you’re
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going to get a bespoke report to your scenario and where I’m very confident is the ROI on the cost of
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the report is it’s easy to see that in three or four weeks you get your money back straight away
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now where am I going with all this part of the convert kit process was okay once I’ve got someone’s
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email you’re then missing out on not sending them a message again and obviously they were willing to
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share an email address with you but perhaps weren’t ready to actually sign up and buy the AI assessment
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it’s like let’s create an email sequence it’s like okay so we created five different emails put them
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into ConvertKit. Now, Claude’s helping with the copy for all of this. I, of course, don’t want to
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look like a robot. And I like writing. So I’m editing it as I go through. But it’s the structure
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that’s so helpful. It’s like, well, this is the first email. This one is more introductory. This
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is the second email. You want to deliver some more value. And then by the fifth email, which is
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delivered maybe 12 or 15 days later from the first one, you actually ask someone to do something,
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the call to action and so within convertkit you create the email sequence and claude’s helping me
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do that and then once you’ve created the sequence it’s like all right well we need now we need to
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automate this and so you go to the convertkit tab and you’re looking at how like okay once the email
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address has been confirmed now you add that email address to this tag and once that tag is flagged
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then they begin a sequence of other emails and so each point you’re getting like oh what do i do now
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or why do I do this?
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You’ve got a strategic thinking partner,
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but then almost like an operational handhold
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to get you through the bits that you don’t realize.
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And so what did I get at the end of that?
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It’s like, okay, well,
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actually, have I checked that my domain is verified?
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And will this email just bounce?
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And what are the deliverability potential here?
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And suddenly it’s sending me to,
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where I host my web domain purchases Squarespace and it asked me to update DNS records and it like oh my god what am I doing here and again not a software developer not an email expert but trying to figure out a marketing
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strategy with a marketing funnel built for potential customers when I’m launching something
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new and it’s like okay hang on which DNS records and it was suddenly like highlighting one that I
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specifically didn’t want to touch and then one that actually was totally fine to update and you’re
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like, oh, phew, like, thank God I’ve got someone helping me do this, because the speed that you’re
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able to execute at is, I’m going to say 10x faster, but that’s probably not quite right, you know,
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you’re doing things, you’re achieving the milestones two, three, four times faster than you would have
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done previously, so look, this is what’s so crazy about it, it’s just unbelievably efficient compared
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to before, now, it does require time, does require attention, does require you to make mistakes, but
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but still like, hang on, I’m at this point, what am I doing?
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And so for those of us that haven’t spent years
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figuring out how to do email sequences
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and not have emails bounce,
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playing around with DNS records,
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I don’t wanna get this wrong.
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And thankfully I didn’t.
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So there’s a very nice moment of like,
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oh, that feels better.
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And so that is the process of me using Claude
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to create a ConvertKit footer form
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and then an email sequence
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and then checking the deliverability of it all.
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And so there you are playing around in WordPress.
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It’s like, what’s the next thing I want to do?
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Well, this week I wanted to trial a paid ad campaign.
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So how am I going to do that?
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Okay, well, of the target audience that you’re going to go after,
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it’s an interesting beachhead market to focus down on accountants.
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Okay, well, where do accountants hang out?
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Well, LinkedIn is a good idea.
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Okay, well, how to do a LinkedIn ad campaign?
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And suddenly you’re in LinkedIn.
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It’s like, okay, well, you can actually do a static text image ad campaign, which is basically just like a newspaper advert.
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And I’m on Canva and it’s helping me design an image to put into LinkedIn ads.
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And it’s helping me then, okay, well, hang on.
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Who’s the audience where you want?
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You wanted subsection of Location Australia, one to 10 employees, partner, director, owner.
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And LinkedIn is then telling you the type of audience size you’re likely to get.
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Then you can play around with the type of ad spend.
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So, okay, cool.
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And so I was able, again, using Claude to come up with a strategy, actually implement that strategy.
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And at the end of it, I’ve built an ad campaign with unique identifiable URLs, clicking back to the landing page that I then was like, oh, hang on.
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I’ve got the ad campaign, but I’m sending paid traffic to nowhere.
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I’ve got to go and create a paid traffic landing page.
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So I’m like, all right, jakewoodhouse.io forward slash AI assessment accountants.
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great but then it’s like what’s the copy you’re going to put on there and so I’m suddenly like
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I’m designing a a WordPress page and it’s like you put this widget in there and you put that
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button in there and then you can change the border and actually there’s a space I’m like oh my gosh
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this is like a whole new world of graphic design that I hadn’t done before and it took me longer
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than I was hoping to and is the is the product perfect at the end no but it’s passable and it’s
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The point is that I’m iterating and I’m testing and I’m putting stuff out there.
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And you go, oh, my gosh, if I wasn’t using an AI tool to do this, this would have taken me weeks and weeks and weeks.
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Like I touched on before, like what would you do?
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You type into Google how to create paid ad campaign in LinkedIn.
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You might be able to use some of the LinkedIn info icons that tell you what to do.
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And then you get all these websites and you have to scan the website yourself.
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And you don’t need to do that any longer.
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It’s literally like, okay, I’m stuck at this point.
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I need to go and do, you know, what do I need to do next?
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And you can just, you get the answer back.
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And then it’s stuck again.
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It’s like, do this next.
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Now, what I have found is that the clawed threads clog up and they get a bit full.
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And this is where the structure that I touched on in the past, where it’s like, okay, you
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have a master thread for strategic thinking, sub threads for actual operational deliverability
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of those tasks.
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And then in the project files, you’ve got a master strategy doc that’s like, it’s basically the business plan and the tasks list and the product roadmap and just everything all rolled into one.
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Now, again, let me highlight, like, I’m not a technical guy.
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So it’s like, okay, I’ve seen an opportunity.
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I believe the problem exists.
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I validated it with some trials.
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I can see an opportunity.
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I’ve built a product.
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Now I have to advertise it.
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okay, well, we’re putting cold email out there.
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We’re doing direct outreach on LinkedIn.
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I have some warm contacts that I’ve sent messages to.
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Now I’m doing this paid ad campaign
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and you’re creating landing pages on WordPress.
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It’s like, oh my gosh.
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Honestly, it would have taken me weeks and weeks and weeks.
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So the point being of mentioning all of this it like okay it almost like a case of like you don need to know what it is you need to do in two or three steps time You need to know what to do very next And when you get stuck now you have a tool that you can lean upon that will help unblock that that problem
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And to go back to the dinner that I mentioned on the weekend, a friend of mine works for a construction company and he’s an architect and project manager.
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and he was telling me how they’ve actually got a consultant that’s come into their business via
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their Melbourne office which is the main one and like promoting the use of Claude and in his
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particular case he’s looking at the cost of raw material inputs he’s looking at how you actually
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project manage a build from start to finish and what would have taken you know days and days of
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time is now just it all just goes in and that’s a good example of like if you’re in the construction
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industry, are you using AI tools in that way to help you be more efficient? Have your staff members
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been encouraged to be more efficient? And I would argue like doing an AI assessment as the CEO of
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the business is helpful. But actually, who’s the COO? Who’s the project manager? Who’s further down
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in the nuts and bolts of the business that could be creating a more efficient workflow to then
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focus their time on something else to help you grow your business? So anyway, I’m just checking
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my notes here to make sure I’ve gone through everything. So I’ve talked about the Apollo
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recommendation from the AI assessment itself. I’ve talked about how I then went and built that
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and created the convert kit. I talked about how I have actually gone and made a paid ad campaign
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with LinkedIn and ad copy and ad imagery and then a landing page for any paid traffic to land on to
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sign up for a free call. Like take a discovery call, try a different way of onboarding a customer,
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explain to them in that call the value that they’re going to get from the AI assessment
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and you know it’s like it’s like a slow process of okay well we can we can launch a business
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we can figure out how to get there we can get through the problems that appear using AI the
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whole way through it and if you’re not this open to that if you’re not thinking about how you might
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implement this then that’s where you get someone else to help you to do it and that’s where I would
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argue someone like myself comes in and says okay have you thought about this where do you where do
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you spend your time where does it leak and what would be a helpful upgrade for you in your business
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and where’s the vision where do you want to take this so this is essentially an episode of me
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talking through exactly what I would help you do for your business because I’m actually doing it
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myself and it’s like okay I’ve actually just built a complete marketing funnel from scratch in a week
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with no technical background, having hit a number of different roadblocks, having had a number of
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other things on my plate and table to deal with at the same time, I’m no longer just like googling
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questions. I’m no longer having to listen to a podcast to find out the answer. I’m no longer
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like scrolling through YouTube and finding tutorials. I’m no longer like digging up
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business books and figuring that out from that perspective. It’s literally in the prompt,
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this is the problem right now what do you recommend and that question or that prompt is twice as
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powerful three times as powerful when it has the context of the master document sitting in the
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project file that I touched on from before so I just want to double check that I’ve kind of gone
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through everything that I wanted to but the point being is I’ve hit a number of roadblocks throughout
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the last seven to ten days that previously would have taken me seven days to figure out but now I
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don’t need to do that um and and it’s not like oh i’m really good at this it’s just it’s about i
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think being curious it’s about being open to new tools it’s about um just diving head on in and
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figuring it out as you as you go along so yeah i think that’s pretty much it from what i want to
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run through today thank you very much for your time i’d love to hear from you like if it’s um
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if it’s resonating like where are you at with ai where are you seeing it actually implemented
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in businesses? What use cases are actually happening? And is there something I’m missing?
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Because the real world is where the magic happens. Like anyone can have a plan, but that plan isn’t
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reality. And when plans hit reality, that gray area is then opportunity. So, okay, where do we go
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from here? So, if you’ve made it all the way to the end of this episode, and you’re interested to
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learn more about my AI assessment. There is a number of ways we can work together. Please reach
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out, email, check out my website. I’ll put in the show notes the link to share your email
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because I’d love to hear from you. And I think it’s just a fascinating time to be creating content,
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to be building businesses, to be becoming more efficient, to generate value, and just to get out
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there and try some new things. So thank you so much for your time today. And please reach out.
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if there’s anything I can do to help.