AI for Entrepreneurs
Download MP3Hello everyone and welcome to another episode of, uh, future Proof Views podcast, uh, f yourself. Uh, I'm your host today, John lvi, and I'm joined by my co-host Aaron Makelky.
john-lovig_1_03-07-2025_130538: Mine worked.
aaron_2_03-07-2025_110538: it to go.
john-lovig_1_03-07-2025_130538: So, uh, today we're gonna talk about, uh, entrepreneurism and the, and the journeys that we have in, in solving problems as an entrepreneur. Um, Aaron, you're relatively, well actually we're both relatively new entrepreneurs for that matter being, I'm not even a year in to founding my own business, but you know what, what's been some of your challenges that you face?
aaron_2_03-07-2025_110538: Yeah, I'm just over a year and I don't know what I'm doing yet, so you're probably still ahead of me. I think the biggest challenge is you instantly become responsible for a bunch of things that you have no clue how to do, and you don't have a team
john-lovig_1_03-07-2025_130538: I,
aaron_2_03-07-2025_110538: help you do that, or a [00:01:00] department for that. It's like, oh, well
john-lovig_1_03-07-2025_130538: yeah.
aaron_2_03-07-2025_110538: it out.
john-lovig_1_03-07-2025_130538: Yeah. Uh, either that or pay someone to do it, and then, then you're wasting a lot of money and it kind of defeats the purpose, right? You're, you're essentially bootstrapping yourself in a way.
aaron_2_03-07-2025_110538: and the, and the hard thing is you go, well, I'm not making any money yet. How would I pay someone to do a thing when I have no
john-lovig_1_03-07-2025_130538: Mm-hmm. Yep. Yep. Yeah. I mean, we were talking about it earlier, but it's like you are simultaneously doing a job while. Being your designer, being your marketer, being your sales person, being your Google admin, setting up all your tools, so your own, your IT support. Um, it's, uh, it's definitely different experience from being in a, in a, a structured environment.
aaron_2_03-07-2025_110538: Yeah. With your, with your year experience, what, what have been those areas that you realized, man, this is a drag on my time, or, I'm not skilled at, or, this [00:02:00] is not something that I'm good at doing.
john-lovig_1_03-07-2025_130538: Yeah. Um, I'm pretty well-rounded, luckily, but I think it's always a challenge to just kind of just get things going. Right. And, and for me it's, it typically lies in
aaron_2_03-07-2025_110538: I.
john-lovig_1_03-07-2025_130538: it generating enough content that, that's a huge part for me because I know content is really a good sales engine. Um, and, you know, I just.
john-lovig_1_03-07-2025_130538: Don't do it enough, uh, even though I should just be setting aside the time and just nailing that down. Um, and just like sticking to it. I think that's the biggest challenge for me. Um, I. Also just, you know, some of the little things that, that creep up, like, you know, I had to build my own website. Um, luckily I, I did use an AI tool to do that, and it was very quick, but now I have to iterate on it.
john-lovig_1_03-07-2025_130538: So it's like, all right, now that I'm building out more stuff on my website, how can I make it more functional, more usable, more searchable? Um, and, and that kind of [00:03:00] stuff is challenging for me.
aaron_2_03-07-2025_110538: Yeah. Well, for our audience, what AI tool did you use for your website?
john-lovig_1_03-07-2025_130538: hoster, so. You can prompt it about, you know, you train it, what you, what your business is for, what your website's for the intention. Um, give it an example of like kind of your style or brand and it will just build the site for you. Um, and then it, it took me literally, I stood up a website in an hour, um, and I just had to edit some imagery, change some styles, uh, you know, put my own logo in and, and all that fun stuff.
john-lovig_1_03-07-2025_130538: And. It was up and running, but now I'm just adding features to it as I go along. Next I have to try and integrate, like I'm trying to get, uh, integrate a newsletter into it and have that newsletter be career tips as well as like any of the jobs that I have posted so that people can see that. But I wanna find a way to automate that as much as [00:04:00] possible.
john-lovig_1_03-07-2025_130538: So that's what I've been investigating.
aaron_2_03-07-2025_110538: Yeah, that's, uh, that's an interesting use of ai. I'm sure a lot of people don't know you can prompt a web builder
john-lovig_1_03-07-2025_130538: It. I mean, and look, it's not like the most beautiful site, but you know, if someone's buying my services because of my website, I'd be shocked. You know, it, it's just a place to, to send people and, and continue to add some more value in content. Um. Yeah, it, it's, um, it's interesting 'cause I was using Wix before and I absolutely hated that experience.
john-lovig_1_03-07-2025_130538: Just was terrible. And, uh, a designer actually who I work with, or I think it was a product manager actually, who I, who I, um, was talking to said, Hey, you should check out Hosting Arts Super easy. That's what I use. And, uh, yeah, I, I jumped on board immediately. I do have a discount code I could probably share on the podcast notes.
aaron_2_03-07-2025_110538: Yeah, we'll put that in there. Mine, [00:05:00] I don't know, it has templates, but when I've had to. Throw up a website or do a simple thing. I've used card C-A-R-R-D, and I'll put my link there. I think you get 10 or 20 single page websites for like 10 or $20 a year. It was super cheap, and I had some people ask to throw up a website that wasn't worth the full, you know, WordPress or I don't know what hosting your costs, but
john-lovig_1_03-07-2025_130538: It's reasonable. It's very reasonable.
aaron_2_03-07-2025_110538: Yeah.
john-lovig_1_03-07-2025_130538: I think it's $10 a month.
aaron_2_03-07-2025_110538: Yeah, that's, that's really reasonable. Yeah. I used, I use card C-A-R-R-D, and that's like to just get started, which I think one of the lessons you learn early as entrepreneurs, you have to live with things that aren't beautiful and perfect because you'll never get anything
john-lovig_1_03-07-2025_130538: well that, I mean that's our whole philosophy here. Like let's just do it right, like. Aim later, just do [00:06:00] something, just start shooting. You know, it's because if not, you know, you will, you'll get analysis paralysis. You get stuck in a loop. Uh, I, I also like, uh, another tool that I started using that I love is, is, uh, there's a, a presentation software called Beautify or Beautiful AI that is an AI presentation tool.
john-lovig_1_03-07-2025_130538: The, the actual, um. Uh, slides are just kind of like simple, gorgeous, like really easy, but you can, you can prompt it to do anything. One of my coworkers is, uh, fancies himself a chef. He's really good cook. And he was like, Hey, can you have it make, uh, a slideshow about making, uh. Uh, soup stock. And it did, and it, it was interesting because it, it included things that I wouldn't have thought to put in there, like different types, methods, and then uses for it.
john-lovig_1_03-07-2025_130538: [00:07:00] And it was actually really well done. Like you would've thought it, and it chooses really great imagery. So, you know, it's something I use, um, to create slideshows, you know, pitch decks. Um, I've used it for case studies.
aaron_2_03-07-2025_110538: Yeah, I've, I've used Gamma app since June of 2024. For that. Use case, like I have a prompt or just a text outline. I need a slide deck set up and it's, they upped what you get with a free version just in February of 25. And it's, pretty good.
john-lovig_1_03-07-2025_130538: Hmm, what was that again?
aaron_2_03-07-2025_110538: gamma
john-lovig_1_03-07-2025_130538: Gamma Gamma app.
aaron_2_03-07-2025_110538: It is great. I did a, I did a sponsored TikTok with them last week actually.
aaron_2_03-07-2025_110538: So,
john-lovig_1_03-07-2025_130538: Nice sponsored TikTok. Look at you.
aaron_2_03-07-2025_110538: One of the reasons why, uh, you gotta make content, man.
john-lovig_1_03-07-2025_130538: That's right.
aaron_2_03-07-2025_110538: you're, you're hosting her and your beautiful ai, once [00:08:00] they see you're a power user or you make content around it, they'll start reaching out to you and paying you to do that.
john-lovig_1_03-07-2025_130538: Mm. Yeah, I guess I have to do that. Uh, video content in particular. I know, I know.
aaron_2_03-07-2025_110538: Yeah. It's not like we've had that talk 10
john-lovig_1_03-07-2025_130538: No, no, I know.
aaron_2_03-07-2025_110538: Yeah, it's, and it's funny because one of my favorite things about entrepreneurship is you meet people. So like we've met each other and worked together now for a while, and your biggest weakness is probably one of my
john-lovig_1_03-07-2025_130538: Yeah.
aaron_2_03-07-2025_110538: Like I'm nowhere near as good at every other part of my business as I am at just cranking out content, uh,
john-lovig_1_03-07-2025_130538: Yeah.
aaron_2_03-07-2025_110538: like, which I think more people are in your shoes for sure.
aaron_2_03-07-2025_110538: Where they, they say. I have customers, I have revenue, I have a product. But man, just making content seems like a pain,
john-lovig_1_03-07-2025_130538: Yeah.
aaron_2_03-07-2025_110538: been the other way. Like I spend so much time making content and focusing on making it better that I should get better at the product and the service and the revenue
john-lovig_1_03-07-2025_130538: [00:09:00] Yeah. Well, I mean, it's, it's not easy. It's, it's uh, you know, like content is, uh, and what's funny is I, I would venture to say my content is fairly good when I put it out there. Like, you know, I write decent articles. I'm a pretty. Decent writer. I think I have a fun tone of voice. It's just that because of that, I, you know, again, it's like, just get the B minus out there, John.
john-lovig_1_03-07-2025_130538: Just do it. Don't, don't worry so much. If it adds value, that's enough. It doesn't have to be perfect. And so that's, that's where I struggle. I think I just have to sit down and just, it'll be easier if I just pre-plan it out, um, you know, take two hours and just plan out a couple weeks worth of stuff.
aaron_2_03-07-2025_110538: Yeah, I Should we talk about some strategies and leverage points to make that less painful?
john-lovig_1_03-07-2025_130538: Yeah, definitely.
aaron_2_03-07-2025_110538: valuable?
john-lovig_1_03-07-2025_130538: Definitely.
aaron_2_03-07-2025_110538: I. Um, of 'em that I [00:10:00] would say is entrepreneurs always want the tool that is the best leverage point. It can do the most different things or is the easiest to use, but what I would say is transcribing is a superpower,
john-lovig_1_03-07-2025_130538: Yeah.
aaron_2_03-07-2025_110538: most entrepreneurs are having conversations like on Zoom meetings or with clients or on a podcast, a mic or the notes app on your phone. Which can now transcribe even without an internet connection. It transcribes in real time in your notes app. A lot of your content you already have, you just don't capture it.
john-lovig_1_03-07-2025_130538: Yeah. Yeah.
aaron_2_03-07-2025_110538: And one of my, one of my favorite things to do is I, I even do this when I teach. I, you know, people think it's weird. I don't care.
aaron_2_03-07-2025_110538: It's content for me. I put a microphone on and I teach a lesson. I pull the transcript as a text file. Or you can just copy and paste it because the context window in most AI tools is, is large [00:11:00] enough and go, Hey, here is a conversation I had with blank. I want to turn it into blank content, like a LinkedIn article, a blog post, an email newsletter, a Twitter thread, whatever it is, and just use AI and say, I already captured this. Conversation.
john-lovig_1_03-07-2025_130538: Hmm.
aaron_2_03-07-2025_110538: take out, take out the client, take out the other people on the call.
john-lovig_1_03-07-2025_130538: Yeah.
aaron_2_03-07-2025_110538: will be labeled
john-lovig_1_03-07-2025_130538: Yeah.
aaron_2_03-07-2025_110538: and go turn it into five lessons. Now I have a carousel and
john-lovig_1_03-07-2025_130538: that's a,
aaron_2_03-07-2025_110538: just use.
john-lovig_1_03-07-2025_130538: that's like both of us, you know, we, um, we both use fathom. For transcribing Zoom calls, and I love it because recruiters struggle with, one of the big things that I get asked about by colleagues who are a little less tech savvy is how do you get your write-ups out so quickly? And you know, it's just a quick snippet of.
john-lovig_1_03-07-2025_130538: A summary of a candidate. I have my chat, GPT trained to take my transcription from my interview and [00:12:00] the resume and turn it into a candidate writeup that summarizes in my tone of voice. 'cause I've trained it that way and it's like it saves so much time. So I, why don't I do that when I'm coaching career coaching people?
john-lovig_1_03-07-2025_130538: I should, I should do that every time I career coach. I should record it and turn that into content. You're absolutely correct.
aaron_2_03-07-2025_110538: And, and here's how I would make that even of a friction point. Fathom. If you listeners are not familiar, it's a, an AI powered recording tool. It comes into a Zoom or a Google meet, like a person. It records the video and the audio, and then as you end the meeting, like within minutes, you get the video, the transcript, you can get these follow up items and a checklist. And then you can go back and even interact with an LLM layered on it and say, uh, maybe John was coaching me and I'm looking for a job. I go, Hey, what three tips did John have for me in that call? And it's gonna go boom, boom, boom. And you can go to the spot on the transcript to re-watch
john-lovig_1_03-07-2025_130538: Mm-hmm.
aaron_2_03-07-2025_110538: What I would do is I would label [00:13:00] those in your email. So say it's like client calls or coaching calls, and then every Sunday, let's say you have five of those this week. Take the transcripts and paste them into your LLM of Choice like chat, GPT or Google Gemini and say, find five key takeaways that can retain all of my own words from the transcript, but be more broadly appealing to my LinkedIn audience in an article. There you go.
john-lovig_1_03-07-2025_130538: Hmm. And then you could even make it, Hey, I, I also want to run some of this content on X or, you know, threads or blue sky and have it adapt it for that, that medium.
aaron_2_03-07-2025_110538: Yep. And I've been trying to get better at doing carousels, and with your help in Canva and setting up some things, I'll take transcripts and say, instead of a listicle, which I can still do, give me a five tile carousel. give me like a headline and some brief copy that's, you [00:14:00] know, one to two sentences and I'll turn things into carousels and then just go into Canva and take a template, apply the brand colors, just edit the copy to fit what my transcript spit out from like Google, Gemini.
aaron_2_03-07-2025_110538: And boom, you got an intro slide and an exit slide and then your content slides in the middle. And you could do all of that in like 15 minutes.
john-lovig_1_03-07-2025_130538: Yeah. Yeah. Hmm. I'm gonna have to start doing it.
aaron_2_03-07-2025_110538: Yes.
john-lovig_1_03-07-2025_130538: Well, it's like Dan says, we just created content. He always says that like, and he's right. 'cause we talk about things and we forget to hit the record button and it's like, you know, we should just record talking about things
aaron_2_03-07-2025_110538: Yeah. Yeah. That's why I mean, just turn on your notes, app hit, hit the audio
john-lovig_1_03-07-2025_130538: I. Mm.
aaron_2_03-07-2025_110538: talk into your iPhone. Just hold it up. If you don't have Fathom or a mic that has internal recording, like the, your phone can do 99% of this
john-lovig_1_03-07-2025_130538: There's also that cool one I've seen on TikTok a lot. The it's ppl
aaron_2_03-07-2025_110538: Mm-hmm.[00:15:00]
john-lovig_1_03-07-2025_130538: that one, either it sticks to the back of your phone or they have a, now they have a necklace dongle type thing.
aaron_2_03-07-2025_110538: Yep.
john-lovig_1_03-07-2025_130538: That one's kind of cool. I was, I, I thought about that, but then I'm like, eh, fathom's fine for me.
aaron_2_03-07-2025_110538: Yeah.
john-lovig_1_03-07-2025_130538: And I use the free one.
aaron_2_03-07-2025_110538: yeah, I pay, I, I did the October deal for a year and it's been such a great investment. I had one meeting the next month that won me, uh, a consulting gig because I went back and I was like. When you said this and I just copy and pasted the fathom transcript and they're like, damn, you took good notes. And I didn't tell 'em, but I was like, no, that was the recording. Bought
john-lovig_1_03-07-2025_130538: Yeah.
aaron_2_03-07-2025_110538: Like I don't, I don't actually, I take notes for fun now. Not 'cause I need to,
john-lovig_1_03-07-2025_130538: Yeah.
aaron_2_03-07-2025_110538: uh, what, what's a, what's a friction remover for you as an entrepreneur? What's, what's your most broadly appealing one you think that people could use?
john-lovig_1_03-07-2025_130538: Oh, it's a good question. Um, yeah, I, I do think, I do think it, [00:16:00] it's that combination of AI tools that I use to just. Quickly get stuff out the door because really it's such a time savings and so many people, so many people in my industry, it's like they save it to the end of day. They can't. They just don't.
john-lovig_1_03-07-2025_130538: They're going, going, going, going, going. And I get the hustle part, I get it. But at the same time, if you're not sending your client people. What are you doing? And if you're waiting till the end of day, you could have done it earlier and, and had feedback and already scheduled an interview. So, um, that's, that's really one of the big, uh, takeaways for me.
john-lovig_1_03-07-2025_130538: And just, I, I just have automated my life to a degree. That's like, interesting. Like I, I have three different calendars that get automated on a, with a tool called One Cal. I have, you know, Calendly, although I wanted to check out cal.com. cal.com.
aaron_2_03-07-2025_110538: cal.com is amazing and it's free [00:17:00] until you get on the team version.
john-lovig_1_03-07-2025_130538: Yeah. So, um, I was going to investigate that. Um, I've heard of some other tools that I think would be helpful, like email management, um, tools that I also actually really like. Strangely enough, I use LegalZoom for my, um, invoicing and document. Um, management and they have a good ai, um, reader for, it'll highlight all the key points of a contract so that when I'm looking at a client's contract, I can quickly see what are the, what are the points that I might need to pay attention to, and without having to laboriously read through everything, even though I still do.
john-lovig_1_03-07-2025_130538: But what about you?
aaron_2_03-07-2025_110538: So I, I mean, I think AI tools are what I do best, but I've been on a huge Google Workspace kick. I've been making content about it too. I pay $14 a month, you get your Gmail on your custom
john-lovig_1_03-07-2025_130538: Mm-hmm.
aaron_2_03-07-2025_110538: you, you know, at Ampersand Talent. Mines at aaron [00:18:00] Makelky dot com. You get the Google Docs, drive, slides, slides.
aaron_2_03-07-2025_110538: Just got an AI update this week.
john-lovig_1_03-07-2025_130538: Oh.
aaron_2_03-07-2025_110538: you get two terabytes of storage with that. So until you start doing a ton of video content, at least you're good. You get Gemini built into all of those apps. It's in your sidebar. I do think Gemini, at least until 4.5, came out chat g PT 4.5. I think Gemini two, uh, advanced is the best language model out there for most people right now.
aaron_2_03-07-2025_110538: And it's built into your Google Drive, your slides, your docs, your emails. And then, um, you, you look at the like highest end use cases, Google Docs added a DocuSign feature and I was paying 15 bucks a month to sign. very many contracts. Uh, I, my wife and I have a real estate side hustle and so like, there's always leases and things. And I was paying for a tool that you have to send it back and forth. It was just a one-off SaaS tool. [00:19:00] Google Workspace has a place to sign as long as you are on a paid account, like the $14 a month, one that entrepreneurs would be on, and you just go to the insert menu on your Google Doc and there's now a drop down to add a date and a signature. And allow people to digitally sign Google Docs. And I go, that saves me 15 bucks a month in a tool I'm using and I can go cut that subscription. And I'm just always finding, you know, Google is the one-stop shop because we didn't even talk about Google meets. It's the best video tool out there that I have used.
aaron_2_03-07-2025_110538: I'm on Zoom more often 'cause the business world is still Zoom, I think in the recruiting world. Is it still 90% Zoom or greater?
john-lovig_1_03-07-2025_130538: It's a lot. Yeah. Unless it's in, if sometimes in-house people use teams, which is the worst,
aaron_2_03-07-2025_110538: Oh, I hate teams.
john-lovig_1_03-07-2025_130538: it's, it just doesn't run well on. On browser, Google. Google Meet is the best browser based meeting platform for sure, because it just, it's [00:20:00] compatible all, always, it's like people never have an issue with it.
aaron_2_03-07-2025_110538: Yep. I I think it's better on mobile than Zoom as well. But here's what's funny. I'm paying for Zoom. For the intro level account, it's 16 bucks a
john-lovig_1_03-07-2025_130538: Mm-hmm.
aaron_2_03-07-2025_110538: Okay. For 14 and change, I get a better video tool plus everything
john-lovig_1_03-07-2025_130538: Yeah. Email calendar storage. Yeah. It's funny. It, it is very useful. I, I've, I've enjoyed using Google Workspace. It's, it's, it feels like a great investment for me.
aaron_2_03-07-2025_110538: Yeah. And since December it's gotten
john-lovig_1_03-07-2025_130538: I,
aaron_2_03-07-2025_110538: right? I know there's industries, you know, the business world is still very Microsoft centric. the legal world. I think 99% of law firms use. Teams and Word and
john-lovig_1_03-07-2025_130538: mm-hmm.
aaron_2_03-07-2025_110538: Outlook. The medical world that my wife is in, they've always been Microsoft Disciples,
john-lovig_1_03-07-2025_130538: Yeah,
aaron_2_03-07-2025_110538: but man, for an entrepreneur, I would never, ever use teams.
john-lovig_1_03-07-2025_130538: no, [00:21:00] that's the last thing I would use.
aaron_2_03-07-2025_110538: Yep. And, and even if you want to cheap on a, on a website, you can do a. A Google site
john-lovig_1_03-07-2025_130538: Yeah.
aaron_2_03-07-2025_110538: as long as you own the domain, throw down a placeholder. They have a couple decent templates. I haven't done that in a while. A couple years ago, I, I used that for my basic websites 'cause it was free. It's just built in.
aaron_2_03-07-2025_110538: And so if you're just looking for your leverage with your money and being in one platform, really think Google Workspace is the best investment an entrepreneur can make.
john-lovig_1_03-07-2025_130538: Yeah. Yeah, definitely. ~Um, well, I. I do have an appointment after this, so I think we should probably wrap it up, but to, to plug. Um,~ for entrepreneurs, we're hosting a session, um, in a few days, uh, based on using AI for entrepreneurs.
aaron_2_03-07-2025_110538: Yep. March 14th of Friday at noon Eastern time where all three of us are entrepreneurs, so we are our own audience with that and sharing some AI and tech leverage you can gain if you're listening to this, after March 14th, 2025, it'll be on the [00:22:00] website as a digital download as well.
john-lovig_1_03-07-2025_130538: Excellent. Well, that's been another episode of future Proof use. Uh, go f yourself. Uh, we'll see you next time.
aaron_2_03-07-2025_110538: Yeah. Thanks John.
john-lovig_1_03-07-2025_130538: ~Thank you.~
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