Small Business & Local

Ask ChatGPT for the best coffee shop nearby and Starbucks never comes up. My notes from Matt Goren of RunOctopus on why AI recommends the local expert, and what a small business should do about it this quarter.

I’ve watched SEO get declared dead every two years since 2007. Matt Bailey has watched it since AltaVista. My notes on what he says survives, from enterprise red tape to a blog that was 90% AI.

24 people on one call from 8 a.m. through lunch. Alfred Poor on meetings by default, camera rules by information flow, and his three I’s of improvement. Recorded March 2025.

I hired a writer, read a windy intro and felt 98% sure it was AI. Then Jon Gillham explained why people are poor judges of that. My notes from our September 2024 conversation, including a two million dollar budget that disappeared.

I’ve owned a job while telling myself I owned a business, more than once. Kimberly Fischer’s energy money matrix shows where your hours really land, why you raid the wrong box first, and the hamburger buns test for whether you own a job.

My early transcript-to-article workflow invented parts of conversations that never happened. Business and tax attorney Delina Yasmeh says AI has made her more necessary, not less. What I’m taking from her on checking the work, shared SOPs and disclaimers.

Barry Moline thought teamwork was his superpower until his book research showed him the facilitator-hero is the wrong model. What I’m taking from him on hosting a team, hiring for get-along ability and what responsibility asks of a leader.

My eight-year-old says he’s stupid after a mistake, and I thought I had the right answer. Anil Gupta, The Love Doctor, coached me on the spot, then handed me the right shoulder rule for clients, critics and home.

I wanted to drop my bank CSV into Claude Code and call it bookkeeping. Maya Weinreb of Solvency Now explained why AI only helps if you know enough to check it, and what freelancers should track from the first dollar.