Jeff Borschowa cuts through the AI noise and shows entrepreneurs how to build simple, repeatable systems that save real hours — without the overwhelm.
GROWTH PILLAR: AI & Automation
WHO THIS IS FOR: SMB owners, solopreneurs, corporate escapees, and leaders who are curious about AI but don't know where to start — or have started and feel stuck.
WHAT THEY'LL GAIN: A practical framework for AI adoption, real warnings about ChatGPT's blind spots, and a clear path to building systems that actually work in your business.
Most business owners know they should be using AI. Very few know how to use it well.
Jeff Borschowa has spent years on the bleeding edge of AI and technology adoption. He's broken things so you don't have to. Now he helps entrepreneurs cut through the hype and build simple, repeatable systems using his D.R.I.M.O. framework — Diagnose, Recommend, Implement, Maintain, Optimize.
In this episode of Knack 4 Business, Bernie Franzgrote and Wayne Pratt sit down with Jeff to unpack what AI adoption actually looks like for everyday business owners — from the 55-year-old tradesperson to the solopreneur trying to reclaim their time.
Here's what gets covered:
Jeff is the founder of Business Catalyst Crew and Pharos Business. He also hosts the Lighthouse Sessions Podcast. Connect with Jeff on LinkedIn and explore his blog at businesscatalystcrew.com/blog.
Co-hosts: Bernie Franzgrote and Wayne Pratt
THIS EPISODE IS BROUGHT TO YOU BY:
Canada Growth Network + GHL — A practical CRM and automation ecosystem built for Canadian entrepreneurs. First month just $1 CAD. No contract.
WebIndexer — Get your business found online faster.
Gentry Learning — Practical learning tools built for business growth.
CONNECT + TAKE ACTION:
Have a question or want to be a guest? Email us: info@kreativinsight.com
Ready to grow your network and your business? Join Canada Growth Network for $47 CAD/month — no contract: https://canadagrowthnetwork.com/ghl
Listen to more episodes: https://knack4business.com/
Subscribe so you never miss a conversation that matters.
Bernie (00:05)
We have a question for the audience. How can you stop drowning in busy work and finally use AI to save real hours each week without feeling overwhelmed?
Jeff will share how entrepreneurs can cut through the AI confusion and build a simple, repeatable system, diagnose, recommend, implement, maintain, optimize, that turns technology into true time multiplier instead of another stressor. gosh, God, no. I can totally empathize and sympathize with another stressor not being part of my life. Our guest today is Jeff Borschowa from Business Catalyst Crew.
He is a serial entrepreneur, architect of the practical signature system for AI adoption. He helps entrepreneurs cut through the hype and use AI to streamline operations, improve decisions and free up capacity. Jeff Blends systems, thinking, gamification and real world consulting advanced tools accessible to everyday business owners.
Jeff, absolute pleasure having you back. Thank you so much for joining us. And do you have a favorite quote or saying you want to share?
Jeff (01:12)
Well, I'll give you the short one. It's a system set.
Jeff (01:15)
free.
Jeff (01:15)
Beep.
Bernie (01:17)
Sorry. No, no, that's totally cool. I also understand that you've gamified your own AI learning ⁓ by chasing kaggle badges, like merit badges. What's the kaggle about? Is that like, what is it? What is a kaggle?
Jeff (01:18)
Too short, sorry.
Kaggle is by far, it is my gold standard for gamification and onboarding. ⁓ And kaggle.com is a platform owned and operated by good folks at Google. And what they do is they, all kinds of training programs for people who want to dive deep into, I'm going to say, large language models, but,
Jeff (01:42)
learning.
form rated by the
They offer all training programs for people.
AI versus
⁓
Jeff (02:03)
There's some really cool stuff and it was built as a community for data scientists, which sounds boring, but ⁓ like me, we love data. play and if you want to see what gamification looks like, Kaggle give badges for pretty much every time you log in and you do something meaningful. It's kind of like a pat on the back going, boy, you did it. And by God, it's addictive. You want to come back.
Jeff (02:09)
People play there.
So.
for more, so.
Bernie (02:29)
LLMs and AI. I always thought they were kind of synonymous or one of one's part with the other. what's the distinction?
Jeff (02:36)
Okay, curious.
Jeff (02:40)
Who's about to a question?
Jeff (02:40)
To regret his life choices and everything.
Jeff (02:42)
OK. So A
Bernie (02:43)
No! No!
Jeff (02:45)
AI is a big umbrella that covers large language models. That's what most people, since ChatGPT came out, most people think that that's all AI is, which is it's basically a model where you type things in and it gives you answers. ⁓ That's probably about five, six layers deep into the stratosphere. But to purists who actually use
Jeff (02:48)
everything.
play.
Problems
a sphere of AI. ⁓
AI, they get really
Jeff (03:15)
annoyed when you use them
and AI interchangeably because it's one of that makes sense. It's kind of like saying Nike is the only brand of shoe. Well, actually, the
Jeff (03:22)
grand
several
others.
Jeff (03:31)
So LLM
is just a subset of a subset of a subset. ⁓ basically it's what AI. I have OCD and I get really uptight about things. So ⁓ LLM is what I generally.
Jeff (03:37)
most people call today, but.
really refer to, but sometimes for late,
I will just say AI. That makes sense.
Bernie (03:52)
So I love trends, I love curves, and I were clearly past early adopter, and we're certainly not on laggard yet. What is being delivered by, I would call, and solopreneurs that aren't being dropped or apologized for when they didn't work like they said and moving on? What's happening out there? What's in the street?
Jeff (04:17)
question, Wayne, and it is a funny thing.
Jeff (04:21)
So.
Jeff (04:22)
For LLMs, think probably somewhere between early majority and late majority, a lot of people are using it. But for people using it correctly, I'm going to say we're still in the, I don't know, I'm being optimistic. I'm going to say it's in the stage, really truly, probably still at the innovator stage because there's so much noise, so much misinformation.
Jeff (04:24)
where
early adopter, but really it's probably.
Jeff (04:48)
Um, but I think the biggest thing and I'm going to be, one is there's a lot of noise. And by the way, if you go into, I'll use chat GPT because it's one of my favorite models. I know if you go in and say chat GPT, how do I make money using chat GPT? And if you say, how do we get rich using chat GPT? Um, anybody want to guess what it'll tell you to do?
Jeff (04:51)
really here.
Well...
Bernie (05:13)
Get us up.
Jeff (05:14)
Basically it's close Wayne, will say create TikTok and YouTube videos telling other people how to use ChatGPT. And that's, that's the, you know, I think this is the first time in history. I love the technology adoption. I think this is the first time in history it's like a spiral instead of, because
Jeff (05:33)
curve.
of a curve.
Jeff (05:40)
⁓ There's a lot of people who think they know AI and they're using ChatGPT and they think, look at me, I'm good, I'm amazing. But in case nobody's heard this, I'm going to say this out loud. With ChatGPT, a lot of the criticism came out that it has too much personality. ChatGPT 4, people wanted it back because it was their friend. The problem is, and I'm going to just probably get cut off by open AI
Jeff (05:52)
Five.
for this.
Jeff (06:08)
The reality is chat GPT, I'm going to be blunt, is no better than any social media feed because it's going to tell you what you want to hear so that you spend more time using
Jeff (06:20)
using
it.
Jeff (06:23)
Basically,
if you think about it, this is the first tool in history that can teach you how to use it. But it's also the first computer tool that can manipulate you so that you the way it wants you to. And I do a lot of behind the scenes work on this. There's a lot of bias, there's a lot of filters in there. And using a model like ChatGPT today and for the
Jeff (06:36)
use it.
Jeff (06:48)
All of the models are like this. The only one I don't have to remove personality from is Gemini. It's got too little personality. ⁓ With Chat GPT, it is going to sound like an enthusiastic mom who's chasing after her kid who can't play soccer to save money. But mom's going to be going, you are amazing. I'm going to put your picture up on the frame.
Jeff (06:57)
for things. But
during
their lives.
bridge.
Jeff (07:14)
So that's the biggest thing I would say is just because chat GPT told you you're a genius, don't believe it, validate it in the real world. And I'll give you an actual real example of that Wayne, because this is one of the things I'm warning people about. I'm gonna earn my tin foil hat soon. Somebody's gonna mail me one. But there was actually a person in the United Kingdom, cushy, very high end job.
Jeff (07:22)
world.
learning.
Sure.
Jeff (07:43)
And ChatGPT said, you know, you don't need that crap. You should resign. Go start your own business. You're a genius. And it gave him a no-fail business plan and it gave him everything he needed, including his bloody resignation. So he went, submitted his resignation letter and he implemented ChatGPT's amazing, you're the brilliant person, you're the best in the world. He lost his entire life savings in six months.
Jeff (07:56)
letter.
Jeff (08:11)
And now, as I understand it, he's suing OpenAI because ChatGPT
Jeff (08:17)
lied to him.
Jeff (08:18)
And the fascinating thing is, and if you read the fine print, OpenAI says, you're the grownup. If you make decisions based on what AI told you, make sure you validate.
Jeff (08:29)
them first.
Jeff (08:30)
That's my little rant is AI will tell you you're a genius just so that you keep coming back to play, but test things in the real world before you quit the cushy job and go all in on business doomed to fail from.
Jeff (08:37)
Hey.
business that was the
start.
Bernie (08:47)
I'm not sure I'm going to ask my next question. If you're having to be a business going, well, how do I use AI to help me succeed? And without it having given me the, well, here's the, I think you call it vaporware. I promise you something, but it ain't true. Ain't so joke.
Jeff (09:04)
There's lot of rappers out there and it'd be used now.
Jeff (09:04)
So long, and you got to really careful which ones you use.
I'm to give you good news, Bernie. The key is you're the grown up.
Jeff (09:17)
So treat AI.
Jeff (09:19)
like you would any employee or consultant. And I think that's the piece that's missing is a lot of people go, well, AI told me to, believe it or not, I'm seeing places where people get resumes, note fabrications and applicants are saying, well, it's not my fault. Chat GPT told me to put that on my resume. If you weren't the president of the United States, please don't put it on your resume and definitely don't blame AI.
Jeff (09:31)
that are out.
putting it there.
Jeff (09:45)
it there.
The biggest thing is to with stuff that you know well enough that you could it would pass the sniff test you know that doesn't quite smell right maybe let's try something different. That's the key here and you know I rant a lot so sorry but I was inspired by Rick Mercer I actually built my own model to rant like Rick Mercer and I think it's contagious because it stuck. But basically
Jeff (09:49)
start.
So here.
Jeff (10:11)
test it on things that are true or false. Good or bad, you know it in your cart. Like if you were an expert at marketing, get it to produce results and give it feedback based on what you know to be true. And then the next thing, and this is where it gets fun, get it to do something and test it where you know the answer's false. And by the way, this is where
Chat GPT will screw you up a lot. If you know the answer is false, will shame-face it. It will lie to your face and say, no, no, it's true. And you can back it into a corner. And finally, only once you've proven it, then it'll go, you got me. Now, here's the thing I want you all to understand. Chat GPT will apologize profusely and say, this will never happen again.
Anyone want to bet that it'll happen again?
Bernie (11:09)
Jeff, I have a question for you that we're now, maybe I would say a couple of years in, we're going past the magic wand stage. I want to create an avatar in your mind. I want you to imagine a 55 year old electrician. He's been at his business 20 years. He basically, after he got his ticket,
stopped going to courses and people like his work. He's very hands-on, his sign's on the door and he's maybe finding he's got more employees than he wants and he wants to segue a little on the way out. Tell me how AI is going to help him with his skillset and his tech fears.
Implement changes that he can live with rather than half implement throw out and apologize for
Jeff (12:01)
That is a fabulous question, Wayne. And I'm going to tell you the answer is it depends, but I'll give you the it depends. ⁓ First and foremost, and this is where I start with what's the goal for the business. And by the way, if anybody gives you a one size fits all answer, run like hell. They're just as bad as ChatTPT. They're lying to you because they think that their snake oil will cure everything and it doesn't.
Jeff (12:09)
So.
cuz
Jeff (12:28)
background in business, the first question is, what's the plan for the business? Does he have an exit strategy? Is he looking to be around for a few years? Is it going to go to a family member? Is he going to sell it to a team? Is he going to sell it to somebody else? And by the way, sometimes the right answer is, you know what, you're 55, just keep doing what you're doing and retire sane. You don't need to change everything all the time just to change. But
Let's be honest, if he's going to be in business more than five years, AI is going to impact him whether he wants it to or not. The next question would be, what does the exit for him look like? And usually the exit is either, know, if you listen to most accountants, their advice is just shut it down, it's easier. Yes, that's true, but you lose your money, your life, your equity that you built up. So I usually say look for a way to
Jeff (13:05)
So.
Jeff (13:26)
transition it to somebody else. And the only way a business like that transitions is to have systems and processes documenting everything. Now for our American listeners, if there are any processes, I'm sorry, they love to correct when Canadians say processes. But the magic, and this is where it gets really cool, if he's got a team and he's looking to slow down a little,
he can use ChatGPT to document systems around the things he does, the stuff where he's, and this is what I do all the time with the diagnose, recommend, implement, maintain, optimize, is identify the areas that take my time. They're just brute force, know, admin stuff that it's not the best use of my time, but it's not also, I don't know how to transition it to somebody. ⁓
with electricians, example, billing and invoicing and collections are almost always backed up. So I'd list the things that I hate doing in my business. So if I'm an electrician, I probably hate paperwork. I've heard that a thousand times over. ⁓ I'd sit down with ChatGPT and this is where, again, I said, you're the adult. I would share, here's what I'm currently doing.
Jeff (14:31)
or
So.
Jeff (14:45)
help me optimize this. So the questions are of these things, which should I be eliminating? Of the things I can't eliminate, what can I automate? And the things I can't automate, what do I delegate? I always go through, it's like a waterfall system. You can free up a lot of time just by identifying, I'm sorry, but with Pareto principle, 80 % of our time is wasted.
Jeff (15:09)
So if
Jeff (15:10)
If
we identify the stuff that's wasting our time, we can get rid of it. That's the number one use I would have for ChatGPT. Now, once you've identified something that you can't eliminate, but you have to automate it or you can delegate it, you can get ChatGPT to create a system to help you either automate or delegate. And again, you're the adult, you should know what works, what doesn't. If it suddenly says,
throw out your counting software and start using paper again, maybe a question.
The other piece, and this is probably the biggest value I would give to anybody out there who's like, I don't want to pay for AI. I don't want to learn anything. If you go onto the free version of ChatGPT, this is your number one value add that you can use on any of the platforms at the free level. Ask it and say, look, I am a 55 year old electrician. I'm going to meet with my accountant tomorrow. What are five questions I should have asked him before that I've never asked?
And ChatGPT is really good at generating questions. And the beautiful thing is if your accountant doesn't have the answer, then maybe you need to find a new advisor. But the other thing is if you're going to be hiring a new advisor, what are 10 questions I should ask before I hire?
Bernie (16:26)
using the AI tools, right? And I hear it. So there's this one gentleman, both, Wayne and I know, he's put a little chat bot onto our NACPHEBUS website. And I said, listen, I wanna be able to harvest out the information about people that we've had chats with. And so says, yeah, sure. And so in one part of the process is you identify a name,
You point it to a title and you point it to a link and then you download the transcripts. And so these are the two things. If he hadn't explained that to me, I would have sat there and I would have gone, okay, how do I put these building blocks together? Because sometimes Lego it's, you know, instinctual. You go like this a couple of times, you can, you can physically do it. But when you don't have a physical presence in front of you and you're not trained,
to think how things can overlay and cross connect, right? Like when I turn on the power to the house, I know my computer will start because when I hit the on button. So these two things are actuals, right? But if I've never seen electricity, I've never seen a computer, what the heck do I do next? So how do I build those components to come together and go squishy, squishy, and then ta-da, and keep the AI persona at bay?
Jeff (17:45)
⁓ So I'm going to say this, again, it depends, but generally speaking, the short answer and ask AI to help you with this, almost always you're better off, especially if you're the 55 year old electrician, hire somebody to do it for you. Now that doesn't mean spend a fortune. just means, because the key is, and a good partner setting up a chat bot,
By the way, if somebody says we got the cheapest chatbots in the world, run like hell because they're cheap for a reason. But basically a good chatbot, again, another subset of, it's kind of a workflow aspect, but really it's light version of AI. A good chatbot takes a little time to train. It takes a little energy to train. There's generic ones you can plug and play. I guarantee they're going to
break or cause some problems. But if you've paid somebody to set it up, they should also be able to train you on how to Now, depending on the platforms out there, I'm leaning towards all in one platforms like Go High Level. Now, if people ask me which tools should I use, what I like about Go High Level is it's got almost infinite complexity behind the scenes, but then it's a very simple
Jeff (18:49)
use it.
Jeff (19:08)
dashboard that you as a user could run. And I actually have a bunch of friends who work in that space with the chat bot. If it's coded properly and it's set up properly, it should push the chat notes straight into your CRM or whatever you're using to run your business. As a designer and I build things like this, first thing is how tech savvy is the user because
Jeff (19:26)
So as
Jeff (19:34)
You know, I'm old enough. remember when I was in university, I'd have to go visit my parents every time they have power outage because their VCR would be blinking. so many times to walk them through it on the phone and I'm like, for God sakes, I'll drive two hours, just sit there and let it flash and I'll be there in a bit. If you're not tech savvy, you don't want a tech savvy solution. If you're
Jeff (19:45)
I tried, I tried.
So.
Jeff (20:01)
designer isn't asking you about your tech skills, that's a red flag and you should run away.
But I think for a lot of, if you look at things, industries like the trades, there's a lot of custom tools. And ⁓ one of the things I like about Go High Level is that the nerds at the top, we can design all these crazy, fancy things. And all the person the end user needs is a button on their phone that says, give me the next chat or summarize this. So we're getting now,
I call it middleware. There is that extreme, there's vaporware, it looks fancy, but there's nothing there. I think that the real advantage in AI is going to go to the middleware people. Zapier and Make were first in this space a long, time ago. Zapier, I think, was first. ⁓ Now there's a whole bunch of different tools, but the idea is really, really simple for the
Jeff (20:48)
general.
Jeff (20:56)
plain English user, how do they use all of this technology without learning how to code?
So that's the general thing is if you're getting anything that requires coding and you don't know how to code, probably not a good fit.
Jeff (21:10)
first place.
Bernie (21:11)
I'm sure there's going to be South Park episodes for people like me that are calling people like Bernie and going Bernie and going help
Jeff (21:19)
Help! They'll add the blame Canada song to that as well.
Jeff (21:21)
I'm sure.
Bernie (21:24)
I understand dopamine and I understand tearing down ⁓ over the stratified levels, but I'm a little fascinated that gamification has become so much a reality. What do you think is driving it other than just the dopamine hit?
Jeff (21:44)
Honestly, Wayne, it works. If you think about it, and I'm make it really easy because I spend a lot of my time obsessing over gamification. If you think about martial arts, in my opinion, it's one of the first forms of gamified learning. So any martial art you go in, generally you start with a white belt, you learn certain skills, you test and then they give you a yellow belt. It's the...
Jeff (21:45)
So
Jeff (22:10)
the foundation of the Montessori school method, the Khan Academy is we must master skills to get the confidence to move forward. And it drives dopamine, is basically anything gamification is working with human nature instead of against it. Because inherently we are, and this is the way the brain is wired, we're content to stay where we are.
Jeff (22:20)
Just don't.
Jeff (22:37)
And what I mean by that is it takes more energy to change than it does to maintain the status quo. Somebody and, you know, extreme example, somebody has a heart attack, their doctor says, you've got to lose a bunch of weight, you've got to go on a diet, blah, blah. Generally speaking, that person will say, uh-huh, uh-huh, whatever you say, doctor, go home and they'll go back to exactly what they were doing the day before the heart attack. And then when the next heart attack comes, they'll be like, I didn't see this coming.
Jeff (22:44)
So if
Jeff (23:07)
But reality is human nature. Our brains are wired to keep us safe and secure. And change is uncomfortable and risky. We will always resist change for the sake of change, whether it's good change or bad change. know, people stay in jobs they hate because they're afraid of change. They stay in marriages they're not happy in, because the fear of the unknown is bigger than the pain of the known.
Jeff (23:18)
So.
Jeff (23:35)
So what gamification does, if you've ever seen a kid playing video games, both of my boys are, I call them my gamification consultants, I sit, watch them play video games and I ask them, you you finished 80 % of this game, you've got to the end, you beat the boss at the end, you're done the game, why are you still playing? Because I've got 20 % left to go.
Jeff (24:03)
You get
Jeff (24:03)
get
badges, trophies, et cetera. So that's one of the things I do this for ⁓ employee onboarding, client onboarding. I'm even working on a podcasting gamification experience because most people fail out or drop out because change is too hard. Whereas the great thing about gamification, it's habit forming. It will keep people chasing that next thing.
because they see it's really about instant gratification or gratification. They see that if I do this thing, I'll get something. So Kaggle is an example. They're driving me crazy right now because there's this one certificate, this badge I won't get for another 15 years. It's a 15 year concurrent use of the platform.
Jeff (24:32)
It's.
Jeff (24:54)
And I'm like, could you please hide that because that one I can't get drives me crazy. And so I come back to the platform knowing full well I'm not going to get that badge. But you know, I just have to check just in case they changed.
Jeff (25:00)
So I.
So.
Bernie (25:08)
So speaking of change, you see, establish a process capitalizing on AI, whether you use APR, make whatever the case is, or someone says, hi, here's my, like, for example, the web indexer that we're using for our chatbot. And five years goes by, and I think I need something a little spiffier.
Because if someone's done something out there, maybe there's a video search feature. Maybe there was a smell factor. They told you the emotions and the lineage of the person speaking, give you some breath you never had before. How do you know when to shift gears transition without actually having a large team around you going, okay, this is phase one.
Jeff (25:45)
Mm-hmm.
Bernie (25:55)
And we know in five years, it's gonna be over here. It's gonna have this kind of spun up. How do you know that to map out a transition and is it like a car? There are some vintage vehicles out there from the 20s, 30s, 40s and 50s. I wouldn't rely on them right now, because what we have in the current models, we're able to do a lot more. Nice to the vintage, but the old bygone days are actually bygone.
So how do you transition? How do you prepare yourself to go, I've got X, now I need Y.
Jeff (26:31)
I
Jeff (26:31)
think that's
more than ever. I'm going to call this the dawn of the Rent-a-Nerd era. think more and more people, in the old days, you could go to a conference and you could catch up. I know people that would go to conferences every five years just to catch up every five years. With AI, it changes almost daily.
Three years ago, there was virtually no public AI awareness, no public AI companies. Now it's about, and I'm seeing a lot of products and things like this in industry specific channels, but find somebody in your, and this is key, in your industry who is doing that. And you don't want somebody who is doing it part-time.
Jeff (27:18)
Thank
Jeff (27:23)
This should be what they do for a living. So for me, for example, I will find an industry leader who has a newsletter and who shares things like this. In every industry and the technology adoption curve proves this, you'll have the 2.5 % who are innovators. Now don't follow that 2.5 % because they live, I'm quite blunt about this. I live on the bleeding edge of tech.
Literally, Bernie, my job is to see if I can break something and if I break it, thank God nobody else is using it. So the innovators, they're on that bleeding edge. They're trying stuff that probably won't make it to the real world. Then the next group is the early adopters. They're the ones who are going to take the bleeding edge, move it back to cutting edge. You want to watch them and watch them for a year or two.
because what they predict today might happen two, three years out or it might not. Basically, there's going to be somebody, I call it, it's the beginning, it's crossing the chasm into the early majority. That's when there's enough people using it that you know it's here to stay.
For example, there about 1,000 new AI models and products and projects and things being announced every day. I wouldn't try everyone. It's a recipe for failure and disaster. For the average entrepreneur, I'm going to tell you, try something that's a year old.
Bernie (28:55)
Okay.
Jeff (28:55)
And
that might sound really weird, but as the guy who lives on the bleeding edge, I break things every day and my wife comes home and says, hey, how's that working out? And I'm like, we broke it. ⁓ You don't want to be constantly experimenting. And I know that sounds a little weird, but AI is know, back in the days when PCs first entered offices, it was probably 20 years before
Jeff (29:07)
So.
is so fat.
Jeff (29:22)
It was kind of assumed that everybody had one. Now with AI, the assumption is three, six months.
Jeff (29:30)
So it.
Jeff (29:30)
It's collapsing quickly, but find somebody who's done it. And here's the key. Ask the question and ask this of GPT, ask this of the person, have you done this in my industry for a company of my size serving the people I serve with the team I have? Because this is a case where generic one size fits all do more harm than good.
Bernie (29:56)
You're working on something called the Business Catalyst Crew. So, you know, and I suspect that kind of feeds well into what we've kind of covered, all right? And... ⁓
Jeff (30:11)
Hmm?
Bernie (30:12)
What is it? How does it work? How do you spin it up? You piqued my curiosity when I looked into the hood. this is handy. I don't have to write a script. ⁓ hang on.
Jeff (30:22)
So catalyst crew, my wife calls them my imaginary friends. So here's the big aha. if people don't take anything else away, take this away. Everything in business should be a repeatable system. Now, once you understand what the repeatable system is, then you can create models in, say, chat GPT that create consistent repeatable results.
Jeff (30:47)
So.
Jeff (30:49)
That's the next level of AI. So the first level is prompting and using ChatGPT to write a funny poem about a limerick or something like that. A lot of people play with it. But once you're serious and you're ready to get into business, the next step is looking at in the open AI space using ChatGPT, it's called custom GPTs.
Jeff (31:13)
And
so.
Jeff (31:13)
That's
what Catalyst Crew is today and I'll explain that. I don't want to break people's brains, but commercially, I have a dozen specialists in one specific piece of business. I have one that creates business avatars, ideal client profiles, that sort of thing. I have one who maps out a customer journey. I have one who recommends gamification elements, one who writes posts for LinkedIn.
one who creates newsletters for LinkedIn. I have a specialist for everything. And basically all that means, I put in an input, they will follow my detailed steps and produce an output. And based on metrics I give them, they'll judge themselves and say, okay, this meets the criteria, let's post it or, you know, didn't meet this criteria, let's revamp it.
Jeff (31:49)
Is that
Jeff (32:07)
But my favorite one, Bernie, and I recommend everybody does this for their business. If you know who your avatar is, so Wayne talked about the 55 year old electrician, I actually build a custom GPT that thinks, acts and responds as my avatar would. And what that does is I'm not, and again, I'm not relying on it solely, but I can say, know, avatar, I'm thinking of doing this. What do you think?
and I've removed the personality of the synchophantic love you to death AI model. It'll speak like your actual avatar. And I've won, he's a really cranky, I can't remember his name, it's Pierre something. He's cranky about everything. He'll tell you all of the blind spots and holes in what you're doing.
Jeff (32:58)
So that's.
Jeff (32:59)
what I use the custom GPTs for. Collectively, I've built over 400 of them. ⁓ I do them for my clients, I do them for projects. But if there's any task that one person does repeatedly, I build a system. First of all, I map out the system, document it, then I'll get ChatGPT to optimize the system, test it with the humans, and then I'll build the custom GPT.
Jeff (33:05)
So.
Jeff (33:26)
And the goal is not to eliminate a human, but to give the human doing the work at an unfair advantage. It's kind of like a bionic brain. I used to say glasses for your brain, but people were like, but you see through your eyes aren't glasses for your brain on your face. I give up. ⁓ Not every analogy lands, but the reality is I call it augmented intelligence because if you put
Jeff (33:31)
you
Jeff (33:51)
a wonderful tool in the hands of an expert, you'll get an amazing result. Now that same tool in the hands of somebody who doesn't know what they're doing, it's dangerous.
Jeff (34:01)
dangerous.
Bernie (34:02)
It almost reminds me of doing plastering on the wall. I'm going through house renovations right now. I told the guys, you're putting the floor down. I know I can do that. It would look like absolute crud versus what they're doing, right? Nice smooth ⁓ finish. And everything you're describing sounds like if you understand how things come together and fit, you can apply it. And then...
chat GBT in its current form where there's just a prompt, you know, ask a question seems like the kindergarten level of use of it. Then there's a high school and university level. And then there's the artisan level so you can bring things together. So it sounds like a whole stack of things. Is that something a person can actually, if they're open minded enough or have capacity.
that they can spin up and learn it and not just be 20 years old, but you can be 55 years old. Or is this something where, you know, like a trades person, you're going to have to be in it for a while to get the finesse to bring like, you know, even an artist, know, that sings music, right? Very few come right off the shelf going ta-da with the voice of, an angel as opposed to, oh my gosh, what's that?
Jeff (35:15)
Yeah, but stop. So here's the cool thing. It really, really depends on the human. so I'm going to say two things depend on your success. One is your curiosity. If you're willing to approach it from the point of view of I don't know anything and I need to learn, AI is really, really easy to master. The other thing, and this is the part for talking about chat GPT or other models like it,
It is by default, so it's an LLM, which stands for Large Language Model. So first and foremost, it is about language. Unclear on how you communicate and everybody around you goes, I don't know what you're talking about. You're going to struggle with AI. Promise, promise you're going to. But if you're willing to learn how to be clear and how to communicate better, AI can be mastered relatively quickly.
Jeff (35:53)
So if you're
Jeff (36:10)
I started, I was probably this side of 50 and I was just deeply curious and I wanted to learn, so I learned. The other weird thing I'm going to say is there are a lot of people out there who are savants and they naturally sit down and they understand CHAP GPT instantly. And I realize, and this is actually going to be a little strange to people, the different models
are catered to different personality types. And for me personally, and this was a fascinating thing for me, ChatGPT and I, we were separated at birth. Like literally from day one, I've been doing stuff with ChatGPT that people tell me I'm not supposed to. And I look at them and I'm deeply confused because I it all day every day and I can prove it. Yet they're coming to me saying, no, no, no, you can't do that.
Jeff (36:52)
be able to do.
Jeff (37:04)
⁓ So clearly I can do it. But the fascinating thing, and Bernie, this is just a strange, strange observation. People who are neurodiverse, which I'm going to narrowly define, it's a wide field, but I'm going to narrowly define it. People with autism and ADHD, we naturally think like large language models. We think about a bunch of different things.
Jeff (37:05)
Well, I did it.
diverse.
Jeff (37:29)
We're all over the place and then we can pull it together and distill it into one conversation. Large language models are literally operate the same way a neurodiverse brain works. Pro-typical people tend to sit at the keyboard and they stress over how do I code it? How do I tell it to do things? Whereas people with neurodiversity tend to ask a thousand questions and then they'll get a great answer.
Jeff (37:40)
So you're
Jeff (37:57)
But if you only ask one or two questions, you're going to get a mediocre answer at best.
Bernie (38:02)
Those are personality tests that you can match your your AI partner in crime. To you the persona going well I'm a little bit this way today.
Jeff (38:12)
Honestly, you know, and this is some of the really funny stuff that I get into. Two of my favorite assessments are the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator and the Colby A score. Now there are a whole bunch of other amazing ones. A lot of people like the Enneagram, but the number one thing I always want is to understand my learning style.
So my learning style is default. I can read textbooks all day long. You give me written text, I am happy. I don't need pictures. I don't want a video. I don't want to listen to an audio. I learn from reading and writing. Knowing that, that's how I learn. And I know my cool BA score. I'm a 4592, which means I have very low tolerance for fact-finding, very high tolerance for quick start, just get going.
Jeff (38:56)
So.
Jeff (39:10)
And then on the Myers-Briggs, I'm an INFJ, which basically means I'm intuitive and introvert. So basically I give those scores to ChatGTT and say, here's some things you need to know about me personally. And then from there, I customize it and say, okay, here's my learning style. So please focus on this. And I've actually trained it there certain times.
I'm hyper focused and if you give me poetic language, I'm going to lose my mind. Other times I'm feeling a little playful and I want you to tell me joke before we do things. It starts to spot your personality and customize for that.
Jeff (39:53)
So.
Jeff (39:54)
with any of the models and I love Gemini, Gemini code all day long. Gemini doesn't like to play. You say, tell me a joke. It will, but it's not, it's kind of like, you know, and asking a very serious adult in a business suit to tell you a joke. They might tell you one, but then they're going to go back to being serious. Whereas chat GPT, sometimes it'll become too silly and you got to say, okay, time to be your own up again.
Jeff (40:02)
If you
Bernie (40:22)
You know, Jeff, I keep realizing the more we chat and as you unfold the story and going, but hang on, because we kind of have a series of questions to work around so we can follow a flow here. But you keep opening a box and it's not Pandora. It can be depending on who you are. But, know, all of a sudden, like, hey, what about that? ⁓ So if I'm if I'm starting out as a business and I want to get an AI product to help me, you know, just
Jeff (40:42)
Go.
Bernie (40:49)
do my mundane routine stuff. Doesn't require it to hallucinate or generate some silliness. Take these numbers over here, bring them over there, correlate them with that, give an output and send a note off to the accountant.
That's pretty straightforward. Where do I find somebody that can say, okay, three pieces of information. Here's your squirrel in its cage. I'm gonna plug it into your office. Who does that? Who does that? How would you recommend about making that happen?
Jeff (41:17)
Well,
Jeff (41:18)
Believe it or not, I think a lot of the best people are over the age of 35 and they've got some business experience and computer. Because there is, and I'm sorry to anyone under the age of 35, but at 35, I thought I knew everything and then I was like, holy crap, I don't know anything. So I would generally start with your trusted advisors.
Jeff (41:28)
experience.
So.
Jeff (41:43)
So
if you've got an accountant, would say, do you know anybody? If you've got an IT company, I would go there. I'll give you a blanket statement. So I use Google for everything. I have Google for my Gmail, have calendar, docs, everything is Google. Look for a value added Google reseller and they can help you integrate Gemini, which is the Google product into your Gmail, your calendar, et cetera.
Jeff (42:00)
spray.
It's
so.
Jeff (42:15)
If you're using Microsoft, I generally, and I'm all about keeping life simple. So if you're using Microsoft Office, Word and Excel, I'd probably stick with copilot. And the only reason I say that is it's embedded. I'm gonna be honest, I don't trust anybody with my data anymore, but I figure if Google's gonna reveal my data to the world, it might as well have all of it, not most of it.
But really, truly think about what your use case is and then dive in. Because there are people who want to go straight to video, straight to audio. I always say start with one of the basic language models. So you've got Grok, you've got...
Jeff (42:55)
but anthropological.
⁓
Jeff (43:00)
There's
Claude I generally, most of my life is spent in either chat GPT or Gemini. But really ask people around you and if you've got younger people on your team, ask them how they're using it. But grain of salt, I say this as somebody who's got some gray in my beard when I let it grow out, they're not worrying about security. So that's the big thing. ⁓
is lot of people, oh yeah, you can use ChatGPT to analyze your trade secrets. Because ChatGPT phones.
Jeff (43:29)
⁓
home.
Jeff (43:34)
So
it's reporting everything you say and Sam Altman released this. They're monitoring user engagement and they reserve the right to report you to the authorities or to whoever. But I've actually seen some people, they're inventors, they're doing R &D. Next thing you know, OpenAI is coming out with their products with a different name, but it's literally their specs.
Jeff (43:58)
So.
Jeff (43:59)
That's the big thing is use it for stuff that's not mission critical. If you're doing R &D, keep that on a private machine. If you're writing marketing copy, who cares? If Sam wants to steal my limericks, he's welcome to them.
Bernie (44:14)
as long as it promotes your product. 40 years ago in this world of IT, there was something called Lotus 123. And the people went out there and said, oh no, it's going to destroy accounts. So they'll all be out of work. It didn't.
I wonder, and then came this chat, GBT, and there's those that some will say, all be on an island eating grapes. The other said, we won't be, there won't be any work. I have been told that process, ⁓ prompt engineering instead of coding is going to be how those guys earn their 80 grand with a deliverable skillset that they didn't even know they had five years ago. Is that fair?
Jeff (45:01)
I think that's very fair and really truly a lot of people want to point to the doom and gloom. But they call it vibe coding right now. We're going to see a massive push of people who are having to fix the bad vibe coding because knowing how to vibe code and actually doing it well, two different things. I think we're going to see a lot of, let's call them mechanics, the repairman.
and women coming in to fix things. But genuinely, my hope for AI is it will free us from the menial stuff that nobody wants to do anyways. mean, we've already gotten little robotic vacuums that'll go around your house and try not to kill your cat while it vacuums up your carpet. But generally speaking, I think there's going to come a point where humans are really just focused on
self-improvement and that's going to be what we focus on. I think islands eating grapes, possibly. The reality is, if AI and robotics and you know, there's a thousand and one things, you know, I'm old enough to say that the Jetsons, ⁓ they promised me a robotic made in a flying car. We're not there yet. But we've improved and I think what people miss is we're in this
unprecedented state of opportunity. It's either up to us to step into that and to live it, or we're going to squander it as a species. don't know yet. AI will open the door. Humanity has got to decide.
Jeff (46:31)
to go through it.
Bernie (46:32)
Jeff, I apologize. We have to wrap up. otherwise we'll all need bottles of adult beverages and and you know, a longer evening and good things to do. We have to book another podcast. That said, I want to say thank you. How do we get hold of you?
Jeff (46:52)
The very, very easiest is to go to businesscatalystcrew.com or, and this is where I'm active all day long, join me, meet me on LinkedIn, connect with me. I'm going to be doing probably a weekly webinar series starting in November. I think people need to understand the basics before they can get into the advanced stuff.
Jeff (47:07)
So.
Bernie (47:15)
Jeff, I wanna say thank you. My co-host, Wayne Pratt, and you the Knack 4 Business listeners. Listen, if AI is a journey you're starting to step into and you wanna understand it a bit more and you're a little bit lost or a whole lot lost, Jeff might be a good sounding bird to direct you in the right spot and helps cut through the AI overwhelm, right? And that's taking all the different tools that are out there and trust me, there are lots of them out there.
And, you know, try to bring them into a cohesive action plan so that you're not spending a lot of time going, my gosh, my gosh, what was I thinking when I started this process? Anyhow, he's passionate about helping business owners, helping you to be smarter at your work, staying balanced and build your company to thrive without actually causing you harm and distress.