From the talk · 5 Ways Every Business Owner Can Use AI to Grow Their Business in 2026

Meet your small business AI team.

There are five people every small business hires sooner or later. The VA. The marketing person. The numbers person. The front desk. The web guy. AI now does all five jobs better, for less than your phone bill. This page is your follow-along and your starting line.

Save my seat · June 27 · $47 Meet the team

Next live workshop: Saturday, June 27 · 10:00 AM Central

Roles covered

The old way

$40K+ / yr

The AI way

~$200 / mo

Training

Once. It never forgets.

The 2026 reality

Everyone is using AI. Almost nobody is putting it to work.

Nearly 9 in 10 small businesses now use AI in some form. Yet most AI efforts never produce a dollar you could point to. The gap is not talent and it is not budget.

Dabblers ask AI questions. Operators give AI a job. The difference is knowing how to hire, train, and manage the five roles below, the same way you would any employee. Except this employee costs less than your phone bill, never sleeps, and never quits.

The team

The five hires, upgraded.

You have either paid for these five people, or you have been all five of them. After 9pm. Unpaid.

Hire Nº 1

The VA

AI upgrade: An executive assistant that never sleeps

Who you hire today

A virtual assistant from Upwork or an agency, or a part-time admin at the front office.

What it costs

$1,200 to $2,500 a month part time. Offshore runs cheaper, but you manage the gap.

The pain you already know

Weeks to train. Needs managing. And when they quit, the training walks out the door with them.

What the AI version does

Runs your morning brief, drafts the emails you keep avoiding, triages the inbox, preps you for every meeting, and remembers everything you have ever told it.

Your Monday move

Voice-dump your whole week into Claude. Ask for a prioritized plan and drafts of the three emails you have been putting off. Ten minutes.

From my desk My version emails me at 8am every day: revenue, client status, what needs me today. It runs whether I am awake or not.

Hire Nº 2

The Marketing Person

AI upgrade: A marketing department in your voice

Who you hire today

A freelance social media manager, a local agency, or somebody’s niece who is “good at Instagram.”

What it costs

$500 to $2,500 a month freelance. $1,500 to $5,000 a month for an agency.

The pain you already know

Generic posts from someone who does not get your business. You still end up feeding them every idea.

What the AI version does

Turns one idea into a week of content for every platform you use. Trained on how you actually talk, so it sounds like you and not a robot.

Your Monday move

Take the question customers ask you most. Have AI turn your answer into a week of posts, two emails, and a short video script.

From my desk At my publishing company, one book chapter becomes a week of author content before lunch.

Hire Nº 3

The Numbers Person

AI upgrade: An analyst who reads your numbers forward

Who you hire today

A bookkeeper, plus a CPA you see every April.

What it costs

$300 to $800 a month for the books. The CPA bills by the hour.

The pain you already know

They tell you in April what happened in January. A record of the past, no read on the future.

What the AI version does

Spots the trend before it bites, runs the what-if scenarios, and tells you which product, client, or job is quietly losing you money.

Your Monday move

Paste last month’s sales or P&L into AI and ask: “What three things am I not seeing?” Then ask what to do about them.

From my desk A real estate investment firm pays me to do exactly this: AI-built deal analyzers that catch what tired eyes miss.

Hire Nº 4

The Front Desk

AI upgrade: A closer that answers in seconds

Who you hire today

An answering service, a receptionist, or whoever happens to be closest to the phone.

What it costs

$150 to $500 a month for a service. $2,500 and up for a human.

The pain you already know

A message taken is a lead gone cold. After 5pm it is voicemail, and voicemail is where deals go to die.

What the AI version does

Replies instantly at 11pm, answers the common questions, qualifies the lead, follows up until there is an answer, and books the appointment onto your calendar.

Your Monday move

Write down your five most-asked questions. Have AI draft the instant reply that answers all five and offers two meeting times.

From my desk Every author who inquires with my publishing house fills out a smart intake. AI hands me a one-page brief before our first call. I show up already knowing their book.

Hire Nº 5

The Web Guy

AI upgrade: An engineering team on call

Who you hire today

A local web designer, a Fiverr developer, or the agency that quoted you five figures.

What it costs

$2,000 to $10,000 a site. Then $150 every time you need a word changed.

The pain you already know

Built your site three years ago and vanished. Custom software for your business? Do not even ask.

What the AI version does

Websites, dashboards, calculators, automations. Built by describing what you want in plain English. This is the 2026 unlock most owners have not heard about yet.

Your Monday move

Name the spreadsheet you rebuild every single week. That is your first custom tool. Describe it to Claude Code and watch.

From my desk Nine live websites, client dashboards, and internal tools across my companies. I have never hired a developer.

The honest part

AI’s first draft is usually garbage.

Anyone who tells you AI runs your business on autopilot is selling you something. AI is an employee. A brilliant, tireless, two-hundred-dollar-a-month employee that still needs a boss with taste. You bring the judgment. It brings the leverage.

But here is what no human hire can offer: you train it once, and it never forgets, never quits, and never takes your training to a competitor. Learning to be that boss, hiring, training, and managing this team, is a skill. It is the skill I teach.

Put your team to work

Three ways in. Start where you are.

Same engine behind all three. Learn it yourself, have me set it up with you one-on-one, or keep me on call.

Step 1 · Live, hands-on workshop

How to Get Started with Claude Code

$47 per seat

Saturday, June 27 · 10:00 AM Central · Live

Claude Code is the engine I use to run all five seats in my own companies. Two hours. Laptops open. Zero technical background assumed. You leave with it installed, trained on your business, and doing real work before you get home.

Install and set up Claude Code together, live
Train it on your business so it stops being generic
Build your first AI teammate before you leave: the morning brief
The exact starter playbook I run in my own companies
Seats are capped, every question gets answered

Live online via Google Meet. Seats are confirmed by payment, first come first served. After you pay, your private calendar invite with the Meet link lands in your inbox; the link only admits the registered guest list.

Step 2 · Done with you · 1-on-1

Set Up Your AI Team With Me

$1,500 one-time setup

Skip the DIY. We get on a private call and I set it up with you, live: Claude Code installed, trained on your business, and your highest-value AI hires actually working before we hang up. You drive, I guide, so you own it after I leave.

A private working session, scheduled around you
Claude Code installed and trained on your specific business
Your highest-value AI hires stood up and running
The exact playbook and prompts I run in my own companies
You leave able to run and grow it yourself

A few setups a month, first come first served.

Step 3 · Ongoing 1-on-1 with Cody

Your AI Consultant, On Call

$250/mo annual engagement · $3,000/yr

Once you are set up, keep me in your corner all year. A monthly working session, direct access between sessions, and a partner who keeps your AI team sharp as the tools change (and they will). Bigger builds get scoped separately. A few owners per quarter, by application.

Why listen to me

I am not an AI influencer. I am an operator.

I run research and asset management for a real estate investment firm, and they also pay me to bring AI into their operation. I run a publishing house and a media agency. I lead a ministry. One person, no employees, four very different worlds.

The team you just met is how. Everything on this page comes off my own desk, tested in my own companies, where being wrong costs me my own money. I am not teaching theory. I am handing you my org chart.

Companies run

Headcount

1 (me)

Sites & tools shipped

Developers hired

Questions owners actually ask

Straight answers.

I’m not technical. Is this for me?

That is exactly who this is for. If you can describe what you want in plain English, you can run this team. The workshop assumes zero technical background, and we set everything up together, live on the call.

Why Claude Code and not just ChatGPT?

ChatGPT is a great chat assistant. Claude Code is an engine: it works with your real files and real systems, and it can build the tools themselves. It is the difference between asking for advice and putting staff on payroll. And everything you learn transfers to whatever tool you prefer.

What does the AI actually cost to run?

Most owners run the whole five-seat team on $20 to $200 a month in subscriptions. Compare that to any single hire on this page.

What do I need to bring to the workshop?

A laptop and a real business problem. That is it. We install, set up, and train your first AI teammate live, so you leave with it working instead of with a notebook full of ideas.

Leaving with notes beats leaving with vibes.

Get the cheat sheet: all five roles, what each one replaces, and the five Monday moves. You will also get The AI Brief, my short newsletter with the latest AI news and tips for business owners. Unsubscribe anytime.