Join the Life First Business Lab : https://www.deeplyrootedbusiness.com/lfbl

POV: You thought AI was only for tech bros and people with 47 tabs open… but really, you just needed someone to explain it like a human.

In this episode, we’re breaking down:

• the difference between ChatGPT vs. AI agents
• why AI keeps giving you generic outputs
• how to actually train AI to sound like YOU
• the exact 3-step framework for building AI assistants that save time instead of wasting it

If you’ve ever opened Claude or ChatGPT and immediately thought “I can literally do this faster myself”, this one’s for you.

This isn’t about replacing humans. It’s about finally getting support for the 8 jobs you’re already doing inside your business.

Listen now to learn how to:

• identify your biggest bottlenecks
• build an external business brain
• create AI workflows that actually help
• stop starting from scratch every single time

Because AI shouldn’t feel overwhelming. It should feel like relief.

✨ Want the shortcuts instead of starting from scratch?

Check out the Life First Business Lab — a plug-and-play AI skill library designed for non-techy business owners who want systems that actually save time.

https://life-first-lab.lovable.app

Meet Your Hosts

Jessica Walther is the founder and CEO of The Launch Collaborative and Sustainable Success Systems. As a launch strategist and systems consultant, Jess is dedicated to helping solo business owners and small-but-mighty teams build businesses that deliver both peace and profit. She specializes in creating sustainable growth strategies that align with her clients' values and lifestyles.

Rachel Lopez is the founder and CEO of Gal Marketing Agency, a boutique email marketing and strategy firm. With over a decade of experience, Rachel helps heart-driven entrepreneurs craft intentional marketing strategies that attract, nurture, and convert leads sustainably. Her human-first approach ensures that marketing efforts feel authentic and effective .

Together, Jess and Rachel blend systems, storytelling, and soulful strategy to help you grow a business that's deeply aligned with your life—not just your revenue goals.

Connect With Us:

• Jess Website
• Rachel's Website

Hang Out & Say Hi!

• Deeply Rooted Business Instagram
• Jess Instagram
• Rachel's Instagram

If you've spent the last few months watching TikToks of people

2

picking up their kids from carpool

while their little AI assistants build

3

out an entire content strategy, draft

their emails, update their CRMs, and

4

somehow also design a beautiful sales

page, and it's left you thinking,

5

"Wait, did I miss the bus on this?

6

How do I do this?

7

Am I dumb 'cause why

can't I figure this out?"

8

This episode is for you.

9

One, because I have been there.

10

I have been you.

11

I have opened Claude, I have opened

Chat, and I have spent hours trying

12

to get a decent caption out of it.

13

Make the robots do what everybody

else is saying it's this magic tool.

14

And I ultimately had ended up

being in this space where I was

15

like, "I can just do this myself.

16

This is just faster if I do it myself."

17

then entered Jess.

18

Jess, I have seen do the

impossible inside of Claude.

19

That I genuinely thought would

require a software developer or

20

a level of genius that maybe my

brain just doesn't have access to.

21

And today, she's gonna walk us through

step by step how she has processed it

22

out get to that point where you have

AI assistants doing things for you.

23

We're gonna talk about how you can

do it without needing a degree in

24

prompt engineering and without really

burning away all of this not extra

25

time that we all have in our lives.

26

So back to Growing a

Deeply Rooted Business.

27

I'm Rachel, your marketing ecosystem

strategist, and I'm sitting here with

28

the robot whisperer herself, Jess.

29

Jessica: All right.

30

So yes, hi, I'm Jess.

31

I help solopreneurs and tiny teams

grow sustainable systems so businesses

32

can run themselves without running the

owner and the team into the ground.

33

And for the last months or re-really

years though, I've been deep

34

into AI, but most recently I have

gotten into AI agent training.

35

So this episode is

straight from the trenches.

36

I'm gonna be sharing about how I am

growing my growing team of AI assistants

37

that's allowing me to not only productive,

but generate more revenue in my business

38

and then also save a little bit of money

by not having to outsource as much.

39

So I'm super excited to share kind of

everything that I've learned and make

40

it accessible for non-techie people.

41

Rachel: we're gonna all take a collective

deep breath And if you are listening

42

to this on Thursday morning when it

comes out with half of your coffee

43

done, and maybe you have more than a

amount of tabs open, you're maybe living

44

someplace between the I should be working

or I need a nap because yes, same.

45

We're gonna drop our shoulders

and unclench our jaw and just dive

46

into this episode with an open mind

and really see the possibilities

47

of this next stage of business.

48

So it is really, exciting.

49

Let's dive in.

50

Jessica: Okay, so before we get into

the framework, I first wanna kinda go

51

into what is the difference between

ChatGPT or CoWork or Claude Chat

52

and agentic AI or Claude CoWork?

53

Because they're not the same

things, and chat is great but you

54

really wanna think of chat as more

of your brainstorming partner.

55

You open a window, you ask it a

question, and it basically really

56

fast helps you kind of work through a

strategy or generate copy or whatever.

57

And if AI chat is the brain,

then agentic AI is your hands.

58

It doesn't just answer.

59

It can work in your tools, through your

tools, go pull memory from your tools.

60

It can give itself feedback.

61

It can fix its own work.

62

It can do tasks scheduled while

you're not even there, and then

63

ping you when it's ready for review.

64

And this is the version of AI that is

saving me hours a week, and this is the

65

version of AI when I share outputs of it

creating a beautiful brand deck in Canva

66

or a 90-page workbook, or it's scheduling

emails or pulling old podcast episodes.

67

This is the part where people are

like, "How the F did you do that?"

68

So that's what we're gonna go into, how

you use it today and also my framework

69

for systematically doing it because it

is really easy to get that AI overwhelm.

70

I have to ban myself from TikTok

because as a power user as I

71

am, there's always new things

happening, new things coming up.

72

So, one of the things that I've done

is, block TikTok, and then right

73

now I'm going all in on, Claude

because every single tool out there

74

now, Kit or Kajabi has AI tools.

75

But I've found that, keeping it to

this one workspace is really helping to

76

build an actual support infrastructure

versus a one-off dilly-dallying in AI.

77

Rachel: And We wanna name this before

we get even further into the episode.

78

And I know there's this ethical

dilemma when it comes to AI.

79

This is not about replacing the

humans on your team or limiting

80

you from providing jobs for your

community or whatever the case may be.

81

I don't want you to think

of this as firing people.

82

We all exist, and especially Jess and I,

in these small, tiny team, minimal margin

83

type businesses where the margin that

is going to our salaries and are paying

84

us is what we want to really preserve.

85

And so think of this as working

smarter and not harder because a

86

lot of us are already doing the

eight jobs that could potentially

87

be hired out, but we're not, right?

88

So if you still have that mindset

of saying, " I'm probably not

89

gonna hire a social media manager.

90

I'm probably not gonna hire an ops

manager to manage my CRM," but it's still

91

gonna weigh on you as a business owner.

92

It's still gonna fall on the burden

for you and as a person that's

93

gonna have to take those tasks.

94

So I want you to feel it in

that perspective versus trying

95

to understand this endless...

96

AI is going to exist regardless

of if you use it or not.

97

How you exist in your business

is what you can control.

98

So if you already know you're not

gonna hire somebody for this position,

99

but you still wanna provide and

take hours off your plate to do it,

100

this is where we're talking about.

101

So balancing that and adding

that little bit of a preface

102

before we dive into the episode.

103

Jessica: Yeah, and I would

say even take it further.

104

One of the criteria for really good

customized non-generic AI outputs

105

is having a human touch first.

106

So a lot of the way that I'm using AI

is for recurring tasks that I'm done

107

over and over, that I've either paid a

strategist or a brand designer to kinda

108

come in and set the baseline, and AI

is helping me use that strategy or that

109

brand design or whatever they've created

for me to keep kind of getting results

110

without me having to start from scratch.

111

So getting into it, number

one, where do you even start?

112

You're on TikTok, and you're seeing

people do everything with AI.

113

So it can be really, really easy to

go down different rabbit holes that

114

are not actually useful for you.

115

Believe me, I did it.

116

I was super excited about it for a week,

but I built this, whole, AI chief of

117

staff that was custom for my ADHD And it

took me a really long time, but, did it

118

generate anything in my business daily?

119

No.

120

Because it really wasn't helping me

unblock those revenue things that I was

121

in the bottleneck of or the things that

I'm kind of doing on a daily basis.

122

Rachel: Yeah.

123

I always get targeted of the planners,

and I am an ADHD brain type person that

124

has I think half of these books back here

are planners that I've halfway through

125

and then abandoned and never looked back.

126

So it's really one of those

things is that, know where...

127

And maybe this is jumping the

gun here, but know what you

128

actually need, because you don't

always need another cute planner.

129

So keep that top of mind

as we go into step one.

130

Jessica: Yeah.

131

So really some questions you can ask, to

start off, what skill do I start up with?

132

Where does the work tend to pile

up every single week, no matter

133

how great of intentions are?

134

What is causing you the most

amount of friction in your business

135

that AI can help you unlock?

136

So one of the things, and I know Rachel

shared with me too, and I had a VA

137

that actually used to do this to me,

was just taking my meeting transcripts

138

and pulling out, all the information

that I needed and pulling out the task

139

and plugging it into my task calendar.

140

So that was kind of one of the first

really useful AI teammates that I made

141

was Miles where he goes in and he checks

my Google Calendar every single day,

142

looks at the meetings I have for that day

and the day before, and he pulls context

143

from previous meeting notes for me.

144

And then after the meeting, he goes and

grabs the transcript and pulls out all the

145

tasks and puts them into my task manager.

146

That is something that I used

to, you know, pay for or I

147

used to have to do it myself.

148

A lot of days I'll have back to back

to back to back to back meetings,

149

so this saves me so much time

because I'm not having to be like,

150

"Oh, what did I say I was gonna do?

151

And when did I commit to get that done?"

152

Miles is doing it all for me.

153

Rachel: Yeah, it may seem so

insignificant, and maybe just to me

154

as a neurodivergent business owner,

155

Jessica: Okay.

156

Rachel: and those tasks are

still just stuck in my brain.

157

And then at my last final admin

hour of the day, I'm like,

158

"Oh, let's try to get that.

159

Let's go put those tasks in."

160

And nine times out of 10 what happens

is that I'm essentially self-sabotaging

161

my future self because I didn't

put them while I remembered them.

162

They didn't ever make it

out into the external brain.

163

So this may seem so insignificant, but

is actually a huge bottleneck that people

164

are re-reoccurringly setting themselves

up to just fail over and over again.

165

Which brings us to the second

question, which is what is

166

being swept under the rug?

167

And this is the stuff that you mean

to do never actually do, nobody's

168

really gonna call you out on.

169

This can directly connect back to

that task drop when I had hired

170

Jess for to be in my business and

essentially help me manage my chaos.

171

This is one of those things

she did call me out on.

172

She's " Where are your tasks?"

173

And I said, "Oh, just kidding.

174

They're still stuck in my brain."

175

So this could be all of those things

that truly are going to move the needle,

176

but maybe in a smaller type way, right?

177

Those lead magnet captions that you

should be writing, the newsletter resends,

178

that audit you said you were gonna

do internally for your own business.

179

All of these things that really just

make a difference, but not loud enough

180

in order for you to feel that urgency.

181

Jessica: Yeah, and a lot of times

what AI can do is kind of what I

182

used to manually do for my clients,

is that it just gets you started.

183

So for a lot of my clients, when

they're writing their launch copy,

184

I will get started with a draft

for them, and then they just need

185

to go in and put their expertise,

their experience, make it their own.

186

Rachel: Yeah.

187

Jessica: So for me, newsletters

were always a thing, just kind of

188

getting it started pulling in all the

different information that I need.

189

So I have a newsletter agent now that

goes through and pulls up our latest

190

podcast episode and goes through and

looks at what offers I said I'm selling

191

this month and begins to at least

outline and dump all the links and all

192

those kind of annoying things to bring

in too, and it creates a newsletter

193

draft and drops it into my Notion.

194

So that way when I go to Create my

newsletter for the week it is right there,

195

waiting for me, sixty-five percent done,

and I just kinda have to go finish it.

196

And I'm getting pinged that it's there,

so it's that reminder too that and the

197

accountability to actually go do it.

198

Rachel: then the third question you

should be looking at when it comes to

199

all of these areas is, what is it that

you actively are avoiding or dreading?

200

And this is one of those things that

I will use myself as an example again.

201

I love writing content.

202

I love producing in the sense of getting

my ideas out of my brain and putting them

203

in a way that can connect with people.

204

What I hate doing is scheduling

and designing that content.

205

So I have probably an entire book worth

of copy and content that would shine

206

and love the place in the limelight.

207

However, It always bottlenecks right at

designing it, 'cause I spend so much time

208

in my head all of those really tedious

things that it wastes so much more time.

209

So maybe that's scheduling

and designing content for me.

210

What if it's categorizing receipts

for you or repetitive admin work?

211

Things along those lines that

really do make your brain

212

just say "Not gonna happen.

213

I would rather be on five hours worth

of calls than do this type of task."

214

Those are the areas that really can add

value and benefit solving that bottleneck.

215

Jessica: Yeah, yeah.

216

So moving on to the step two.

217

Once you've identified what skills

or what employees you're gonna build

218

first you really need to go in with a

documented standard of how you do this.

219

So AI basically needs four things to

give you really good outputs that are

220

not generic, and that is context on

you, your business, your business goals.

221

So this is why I teach everyone to

build an external business brain so that

222

not only is this a training document

that you can give to your employees,

223

but you can also give it to your AI.

224

It also needs intention.

225

Why are you creating this?

226

What is the goal of

whatever you're creating?

227

What are you hoping to accomplish?

228

Second, it needs to know

your tone, your voice.

229

Again, that's where this business brain

comes in, where you have examples of

230

your writing styles or emails or how you

respond to clients so that it knows and it

231

can sound more like you on the first pass.

232

We do advocate for human first and last

touch, but we're trying to get it as

233

close to possible on the first pass And

then the fourth thing is expectations.

234

So what does good look like?

235

Can you give an example of, you know, a

blog post that you wrote or a proposal

236

that you sent to a client of how you

want it to output every single time?

237

And basically, what all of that

is just an SOP you would create

238

for an employee, you're creating

this for your AI assistant.

239

Rachel: And so this, is a step that you're

skipping and you go to say "Claude give me

240

this workflow," or, "Write me this launch

email," and you get that, that output

241

back that you're like, "Waste of my time.

242

Doesn't sound like me."

243

This is the part that solves that because

you're essentially having to regurgitate

244

every single thing back to the AI, and

that's where really making sure that this

245

work is established and Jess said, very

well documented beforehand so that you,

246

one, save yourself time, but also get

better outputs From your AI conversations

247

and sessions and all of that.

248

Jessica: Yeah, and this is where becoming

really organized, which I'm not a

249

naturally organized person, but using

AI and using these robots and having

250

everything organized to where you can say,

you know, "It's in my Notion deeply rooted

251

business docs, go reference this," or,

"It's here," has been so much more helpful

252

for me, and obviously you would need

that if you're delegating to an employee.

253

So basically, the moral of the story

is, stop treating these chatbots

254

like they are a software tool and

start treating them like an employee.

255

In addition to providing them, you

know, all of the ground foundational

256

documents they need to do their job

right, you need to provide them feedback,

257

and that's really where Claude Skills

shine because you can go back and

258

forth with it while you're using the

skill in the conversation, and then

259

once you get to that output you want,

you can say, "Hey, can you update,

260

you know, your skill document so that

next time we get this output faster?"

261

And basically, it's a really good employee

that doesn't forget the feedback that

262

you gave because it's putting it in

a file and storing it away somewhere

263

where you can kind of remember it.

264

So it's only gonna get better the more

and more that you use it and refine it.

265

Yeah.

266

I think I just accidentally

moved into step three.

267

Rachel: Okay, hang on.

268

Let me wrap it up really quick.

269

This is something that I've also

seen where, like for myself, I've

270

wasted so much money hiring people

to come in and do something,

271

and it's the same output, right?

272

I give them a very low

effort task that's...

273

Or not low effort task, but low

information supplied to them.

274

And then it's "Oh why am I

sitting here having to correct

275

this and do this and this?"

276

When you are trying to get an output

that is of value, you have to, like Jess

277

said, treat it like an employee because

if you were to do this to a human,

278

they're gonna have 100 million questions.

279

They're gonna waste your time 'cause

they're gonna give you the wrong task

280

deliverable back and all of that.

281

So really, treat it not as if it's gonna

know everything from the get, and you

282

really do have to be super intentional

in that or else it's gonna be the same

283

problem if you do hire someone thinking

they're gonna solve all your problems.

284

And then, or if you do deliver it

or drop it into a chat and hope

285

for it to solve your problems.

286

It's the same bottleneck that

is foundational to businesses,

287

which is having that SOP, having

that knowledge base, all of that

288

externalized from your brain.

289

Jessica: Yeah, so we just moved into step

three without saying anything, but it's

290

build, test, give feedback, iterate it

again and make sure you that you save it.

291

The cool part about Claude Cowork is

once you get that skill dialed in, you

292

can start skill or task stacking in a

way that you can do an entire workflow.

293

So what we have here basically stacked

is that, you know, we script our podcast,

294

we record it, but I have a Claude skill

that goes into Descript and pulls the

295

transcript and drops it in Notion.

296

And then the next day, I have a

different skill that grabs the transcript

297

from Notion and drops it into our

tool Content Sprout and gets all the

298

content and pings me when it's ready.

299

And then I move that back into Notion,

and then the next day, the carousel

300

builder comes in and searches my

Notion for carousels that means gets

301

made and does that, and then I can

look, go and tweak the design and

302

post them and then schedule them.

303

But basically, just kind of an employee

where I'm, inserting myself into the

304

different points of the workflow,

that's kind of what you'll have to do.

305

It's not gonna do everything, and I

think any person that promises it's

306

gonna do from A to Z, you're not even

gonna have to touch it, that's not

307

realistic 'cause that's not how you

would run an, an employee either.

308

You need to kind of have

those human insertion points.

309

Rachel: Yeah, and for anybody that's

feeling like, whoa, overwhelmed,

310

'cause anytime Jess creates a new

skill, I'm like, "What did you just

311

say, and what are you talking about?"

312

Maybe let's take one step back and say,

when you are running all of this these

313

are ran as skills in Claude, right?

314

These are the same equivalent to a custom

GPT or a saved prompt inside of chat.

315

I wanna make sure that this

is the ultimate goal is just

316

not starting from scratch.

317

So just adding that layer of context so

that we all are from the non-techy brain

318

over here saying that it's not like you're

sitting in there and doing all of this.

319

This is saved prompts that are building

and compounding on top of each other,

320

Jessica: Yes.

321

Yes.

322

Okay, so let's just recap our

three-step framework 'cause we

323

know we covered a lot today.

324

So one, you're gonna wanna

find your bottleneck, not with

325

someone showing you on TikTok.

326

What does your business actually need to

move it forward and to unlock that next

327

level for you or free up your capacity?

328

Next, you're gonna document your

standards in a SOP format or using the

329

SITE framework that I shared today.

330

And then step three, you wanna build and

test and give feedback just like you would

331

an employee that you're onboarding, and

then make sure that you save and update

332

your skill into Claude, so, or ChatGPT

or wherever, or save it in your prompt

333

library so that you can call on it again.

334

And that is kind of how you begin to

systemize AI in a way that's actually

335

saving you time and not just becoming

a giant time suck in your business

336

Rachel: Yeah.

337

So if this episode got you fired up

about building maybe your own team of

338

AI assistants, but the idea of writing

that foundational business brain or

339

building that first skill makes you

want to just go crawl underneath the

340

table and hide, we've got you here.

341

We have built something called the Life

First Business Lab, where every Monday

342

you get a brand new AI assistant, AKA

skill, delivered straight to your inbox,

343

where you can drag it, drop it, and

install it in less than 10 minutes.

344

It's trained on our best practices.

345

It's already infused to be Rachel-proof,

which means if I can do it, you can do it.

346

And these are all of Jess's and my

actual frameworks from over, collectively

347

running our businesses over time.

348

It's a beautiful thing where you

immediately, when you buy it,

349

you get your first foundational

skill up front, where you build

350

that external brain for yourself.

351

Within five, 10 minutes, you're off

answering questions, and it's populating

352

and creating things over time.

353

And every single skill that you

add on top of it is pulling the

354

context from that business brain.

355

So has truly has changed my business.

356

It is one of those things that

it's saves you so much time.

357

So full details, pricing, list

of the skills that are gonna,

358

that you're gonna get on day one

are linked in the show notes.

359

Jessica: This is the most excited

I've ever been about giving something

360

to the general public because I

see that this is needed so much.

361

Every time I share something cool

that I did online, everyone's

362

like, "Well, how did you do that?

363

How did you do that?"

364

And knowing that a lot of my

clients, they're dieticians,

365

they're wellness practitioners.

366

They know about the gut.

367

They do not wanna be a

software prompt engineer.

368

And being able to build this out for them

and give them a good foundational skill,

369

and yes, you're gonna chat by with it.

370

It's gonna onboard every single

employee, so that you can customize

371

that skill to your preferences.

372

They're trained to do that for you.

373

But I have tech-proofed or

non-tech brain-proofed this.

374

I built this for Rachel, I built this

for, you know, my dietician clients, and I

375

know that's gonna be so useful for anyone.

376

So I know I rambled a bit there,

but I'm super excited about this.

377

Okay.

378

So if this episode hit home, make

sure that you share it with a

379

business bestie especially the ones

that have been struggling with AI.

380

She thinks it's not for

them, maybe it's a time suck.

381

And she just needs somebody

to help unlock this for them.

382

And if you have a particular skill

that you wanna see show up in the

383

lab, DM us, let us know what we'd

unclog your bottleneck for you.

384

And until next week,

we are rooting for you.

385

Okay, that