Corporate is using AI to eliminate jobs. Escapees get to use it to multiply themselves. In this solo episode Brett pulls back the curtain on exactly how he runs his entire business with AI — the tools, the use cases, and the honest truth about what it can and can’t do.

He also covers the single biggest opportunity most escapees are missing right now — helping small and midsize businesses actually leverage AI. Not programming. Not building agents. Bringing the business judgment that 20+ years of corporate experience gives you and marrying it with the right tools. That’s the superpower. And right now, the market is wide open.

What You’ll Learn

• How Brett uses AI daily — content editing, research, strategy, operations and more

• Why AI is a content editor not a content creator — and why that distinction matters

• The SMB opportunity — 88% of small business owners know they need AI, only 14% are doing something about it

• Why the real value is pairing business judgment with AI — not programming

• The EAD framework — Eliminate, Automate, Delegate

• Brett’s current AI stack and exactly what each tool is used for

• Why he switched from ChatGPT to Claude — and what that decision taught him about auditing your tools

Key Timestamps

• 00:00 — Intro: Corporate is using AI against you. Here’s how to flip it.

• 01:00 — How Brett uses AI in his own business every day

• 02:00 — AI as content editor not content creator — keeping your voice

• 03:30 — Podcast production: from a full day to under an hour

• 05:00 — AI as strategy and thought partner

• 07:00 — The SMB opportunity — the 74% gap nobody is filling

• 09:00 — Flex staffing + AI — why small businesses don’t need full-time hires

• 11:00 — The EAD framework: Eliminate, Automate, Delegate

• 14:00 — Brett’s AI stack: Claude, Perplexity, Gemini, Canva, Riverside

• 16:30 — Close: The one-person army is here. Are you using it?

Brett’s AI Stack

• Claude — Primary thinking partner, content editor, strategy, writing, business frameworks

• Perplexity — Deep research, stats validation, sourced intel

• Gemini — Currently testing; Google ecosystem integration

• Riverside.fm — Podcast recording, editing, transcription, show notes

• Canva — AI-assisted graphics and visuals

• Durable — AI website builder (used for Small Business Hotline landing page)

Enjoyed This Episode?

If you’re using AI in an interesting way as a solopreneur or escapee Brett would love to hear from you — and potentially have you on the podcast. Drop him a note at BT@BrettTrainor.com.

Please share this episode with someone who needs to hear it — and subscribe on your favorite podcast platform. The old school way still works.

Welcome back to the Corporate Escapee podcast. I'm your host, Brett Traynor. And today I'm going solo and I want to talk about AI and the escapee or AI and the solopreneur in two ways. It's creating incredible value for solopreneurs. One you can probably imagine is automating a lot of the tasks. But, but here's the thing corporate is using AI to eliminate jobs. And honestly, that's just one more reason to stop depending on corporate for your income. But that's a separate conversation because the same AI they're using against workers, escapees get to use it for themselves.

And when you combine that 20 plus years, 10 years, four years of experience sometimes with the right AI tools, you become a one person army. And that's what today's episode is about. So let's get into it. All right. So the first thing is I want to talk about is how I use AI in my own business. And I am not a power user. So if you're looking for somebody to teach AI and

the 2.0 version of it, that's not me, but I will share with you that I use it every day, probably an hour a day, it really depends, and in multiple ways. The first is around content creation, and really not creation, because I like to keep the content in my own voice, but now I've got a built-in editor that can take my concept, take my voice, and help me format it.

and edit it because I contend if you listen to the podcast, you know, I can get wordy sometimes and continue on and it just helps me get to the point quicker using that from a content editing more from an editing standpoint than actually creating the content. I'm not a big fan of that because one, it's just you got to go back and review every edit it says to make sure you agree right in the lines with your point of view, even as AI gets to know you. And like I said, it gets to know my voice.

and has a pretty good idea where I stand on corporate. don't trust it nor would I want to put a post out there just drafted by AI. I want it to come from my ideas and then they can help me just refine that. I also use it for the podcast. I was sharing this the other day with somebody when I first started the podcast six years ago. I had to send the files basically to Australia where they could edit.

take, improve the sound, all those. And this was just an audio podcast back then. And, um, now with the tools that are actually built in, and I'll share that when I talk about the tools at the end, uh, but with the riverside, it basically helps me edit the entire thing. So where I used to have to spend a day or outsource it to have it edited, I literally will record this, this call. So for example, I'm recording this podcast on a Friday afternoon.

By later this afternoon, I should have it edited, cleaned up, produced, and ready to go and distribute it into the podcast platform. So literally we're talking an hour or less to basically do this. So if you're thinking about starting a podcast, there's no better time to do it. As long as you've got the right ideas, don't let the tools or the production throw you off. So.

Podcast again, I talked about content newsletter But that's basically again I would encourage you to look at it from an editing standpoint refining and not necessarily Writing it for you. I will ask it for ideas based on some of the more recent Posts that I did or what my newsletter article was and helped me think through

if I'm missing anything, which is a good segue into where I'm also using it as a strategy and thought partner, right? It gives me, somebody or something in this case, and in my case, I use multiple tools, right? I'll use perplexity. Then I also use Claude and just starting to test Gemini, to bounce. use it for different ideas. So for example, like perplexity, I'm using it to help me do research.

Right. If I find an article or some stats on when I was looking at pensions, when those ended to see when basically the shift in loyalty stopped with corporate does a really good job of digging the stats out. If I wanted to look at how many layoffs that were happening, it can give me and verify the news that I do from research. So I also look at it from an operations standpoint to help me clean up.

again, my thoughts and my strategy thoughts on what I'm doing. Because again, I can write four pages, write in a notebook of what I'm thinking and it can help me pare it down, organize it and get me focused on the right thing. So there's there's an accountability piece of this. And I know with coworker and perplexities computer, there's some other ways to really start to make this more of a strategy partner. I'm still

leading it, what I have found is it's really good at thinking through what other people have done. Right. So if I'm testing it with my community and some of the other ideas of how to improve this, it's only going to give me what it's able to learn, which makes sense. Right. So it's pulling from other communities and what they're doing where I want to think outside of the box. It's not giving me outside of the box ideas. I have to come up with those and then

We kind of bounce off to help me make sure I'm thinking through, uh, the right questions that I should be asking. And as I go forward, so speed to market on new ideas. And if you follow my newsletter, you know, I'm keeping you updated as I'm the drive for 500 members into the collective and things I'm trying. mean, literally it's a week by week, um, update because I'm able to move that much quicker again, without moving too quick. we're not giving it enough time for.

strategy to set in, there's just ways you know where it can move much quicker. And honestly, it's just a really good tool to keep me organized. Because if you looked at my notes and I use note, Apple's note all the time, it just again helps me keep things simpler, organized, and outlined. So.

That's how I'm using it personally. And again, I'm just scratching the surface. There's power users that have taken this to the next level that can create. Well, I guess I should take that from a graphical standpoint. does help me with, you know, some logos. So just about anything I w again, I wouldn't bank and go have it go unchecked, but, definitely can act as a small team for you. So if I'm a solo, which I still am right after with everything I've been building and what I'm doing with the collective.

I'm still the only person now I'm getting ready to off outsource a few pieces of what I'm doing in the business. But again, I, I'm more comfortable with testing it myself. And then when I really get to a comfortable place with refinement, then I'll look to either completely automated or delegated. So, so that's how I'm using the tools, but where I real opportunity for, you know, escapees corporate escapees, solopreneurs is.

helping small business owners leverage the power of AI. And it's a, there's research and thanks Paul Dorelli for sharing the research that probably for the next 18 to 24 months, there's a real opportunity from an AI consulting standpoint. I'm not talking about programming. You can learn how to code and program and do all those things.

where the real opportunity lies is teaching other people and leveraging quite honestly, your experience and your wisdom to provide value to those SMBs. And again, I think this is going to be a really big opportunity for probably two to three years, right? The early movers are starting now, but you know, one of the reasons why I shifted my emphasis to launch the small business hotline earlier than I probably would have was planning on.

was just because the market is ripe for it right now. There is a demand for folks that can help small business owners think through how to use it, not just think through how to use it, but actually leverage experience that corporate escapees have to help them get the value from what they're doing with the tool. So I think there's a couple of pieces there. The one is,

One, getting a business owner comfortable with it. And it's again, it's not going to be programming. I'm not going to do any programming myself. I am going to work with small business owners to two things that I'm doing with the small business hotline. Just to give you an example is one, a flex staffing, right? That's what I've been doing for six years. It's the fractional work, solo consulting, right? Solo agencies, these types of things. There's so many flexible specialists available to small businesses.

They do not need to hire full-time people. Right. So, so part one of my equation is finding the right resources for that business. It doesn't have to be a full-time equivalent. Right. We talked about talent density and all of us, but for the sake of this podcast, I want to focus more on the AI. And I think this really comes down to, two things that these business owners have to get right. First, first one is the data.

Right. If you don't have clean data, you're really going to struggle with leveraging the power of AI. And two is the processes. Are they even documented? Now, some of the things like with agents, with answering your phone and doing some other things, I still really like to have a process in place before I do that. So again, I think there's a real opportunity to help educate the small business owners because the data shows.

I think at the last note I saw was 88 % of small business owners are interested or know they should be doing something with AI, but only 14 % are actually doing something right now. So that gap is 74%, which can be filled ideally by, you know, corporate escapees who can leverage the power of experience with, the technology. And again, if you've been in corporate for a while, you've been through the, the evolution of technologies from the internet to mobile and now AI.

and understand how to start to build processes around that to really leverage the tool. So I think this is an underappreciated and under marketed opportunity right now. And again, don't be afraid of it because if you don't know it, it's okay. I have resources. I know that no AI inside out that can actually build me agents if I need to do this. But to me, the real value is building the right model for these businesses.

So they can then leverage the AI. Then if I want to stick around and help them with it, fine. Or I can introduce, you know, an AI specialist that can help them build some of the tools, but the real value so they don't waste money and optimize for it is going to be, building the processes, right? Get the data, right? Get the processes, right? Then you can start to think about it. So the, the accurate acronym I'll use with this is right. Eliminate it.

Think about it. they doing tasks today? They just don't need to be done. Eliminate it, automate it. And this is where AI can come in. Or if you can't even use AI to do it and you do have to get a human, then it's delegate. So, so again, I think that the real value is going to come from not just the technology, but the human and the technology married together. And eventually corporate is absolutely going to step up into this because they're going to realize the real opportunity.

to save money and at the end of the day, all they care about is that bottom line of the profitability, shareholder value, and that's gonna come from reducing expense. So I think there's also a whole podcast I can do on the future of work and why one solopreneur or single business owners is gonna be the future because at some point corporate is gonna stop wanting to pay all the benefits and the overhead for 30 % of a corporate worker's time. And again,

This is no fault of the worker. It's just the way corporate set up and it's inefficient, ineffective. And like the last point I'll make on this before I move back to the AI is, you know, in a given week, if a corporate employee is spending 20 to 30 % of their time on the actual job they were brought in or hired to do, that's a good week. So think about that. The company's paying 70 % of your salary and all of your benefits.

for 30 % of your time. And again, this is on them because you're invited to unnecessary meetings, the fire drills, all that other busy work that you have to do, right, to run the reports, et cetera, et cetera. So at some point, corporate's gonna figure this out, but for now, the real opportunity is to help these small businesses and mid-sized businesses grow, leveraging again, I'm using Flex Staffing.

and AI because the automation piece is absolutely so powerful for this. So, so those are the two areas that I see escapees being able to leverage it. And so don't be afraid of it. Again, if you're still in corporate, if you're still there, you're probably having to figure out AI to pick up the slack from the other folks that have been laid off because all of sudden you've got a lot more work to do. So, all right. So the third and final part of this, this abbreviated podcast is

My, my current stack, right? So I'm currently using, I mentioned earlier was, Claude is kind of my, my thought partner, my writing coach, my, editor. And, I'm also using perplexity from the research standpoint. It's a much easier tool for me to go deep. I can plug in the deep research and it really does a nice job of pulling the sources and I can go dig in to understand.

where they're getting the data from to make sure it's validated. And sometimes when I'm doing a deeper research, I'll actually bounce it off of, both of the, the, the AI's to validate that the research is, is right. And the data points make sense. so those two I use, I'm just starting to use Gemini, which, haven't quite unlocked that one or figured out how to use it, but everything else I do is in.

in Google. So it just makes sense that it's got access to my email and some of the other ones and a couple of the features that I'm looking at. I just tested today was a computer on perplexity, which is kind of a more integrated approach to, to AI. Again, I'm not far enough down the path to give any insights on that. And Claude's also got coworker.

That's a, it looks to be super interesting. So maybe this weekend I'll spend some time in this Gemini. And I'm also using a bunch of other tools that leverage AI like Canva has got it built in Riverside, which is my podcast platform. It allows me to create show notes super easily because it's pulling from the transcripts. And I'm trying to think if there's anything else that I'm using right now.

No, but I'm sure again, some of the other tools already do have it built in. I'm just not familiar. I guess, you know, I've just built a new website for, small business hotline. was durable. It was all created through AI. have to go in and edit and clean it up. But man, I created a landing page and circle, for a new offering I'm offering there. And it just gave me the HTML code to plug and paste in there.

and or paste it cut and paste into there and it turned out absolutely beautiful. So like I said, I'm only a I'm not a power user yet, but it's becoming more and more a part of my day. And again, we can build. think you're going to see and we're starting to see right. Two million dollar solo businesses have already seen a couple of examples of that, but probably no reason you can't get to 10. Right. You may have to use some more specialist and fractional folks on some things, but.

And as an owner, if you can keep things optimized, you can really break through some of that. The owner, your capacity issues are going to be gone. So I still believe in the who, not how approach, right? This is not your strength. I mean, there's definitely the finance aspect. I can run the numbers, create different tabs. So curious if folks are.

using it in other ways. If there is anybody out there in the audience that's, that's, doing some interesting things with AI, please do drop me an email at bt at bretttrainer.com and let me know because I would love to have you on the podcast and have a conversation about it. And if there's other topics in other areas that you guys want to see, I'm more than happy to, to bring them out as well. So anyway, that, that's it for this, power version of the escapee podcast. just,

I've been getting a number of questions on AI, so I thought it was about time that I shared what I'm doing and then to introduce the opportunity. If you haven't thought about the small business and AI opportunity, it is absolutely out there. again, welcome to comments. If you do enjoy the podcast, please do share it with somebody else that may enjoy it and subscribe. It's still an old school way, but you know, the podcast platforms still recognize the subscription. So thank you for listening and we'll catch up with you soon.