Weekly Show — New Episodes Every Monday
The AI Guy Podcast
A fully AI-produced podcast for small business owners. Real tools, real pricing, real case studies. Hosted by Val Kleyman and AI co-host Alex — every element from research to scripts to voices is generated using AI. The technology we talk about is the same technology making this show.
The AI CFO Every SMB Can Now Afford
On July 8 Clockwork.ai launched Mira — the first agentic FP&A analyst that plugs into QuickBooks and Xero. The same week, Xero shipped JAX into Microsoft 365 Copilot. Forbes: 87% of CFOs now say AI is critical to how finance runs. The AI CFO is now a $50/month SaaS. Marcus and Jules deliver the 4-step weekend playbook: pick one agentic FP&A tool and connect it to your books, ask the agent three specific questions before Monday, build a 10-minute Monday-morning ritual, and turn one number into a business decision this month.
ChatGPT Just Opened Its 900 Million Users To Every SMB — No Minimum Spend
On June 25 at Cannes Lions, OpenAI moved ChatGPT Ads from behind-the-curtain brand pitches to a public self-serve platform. No agency, no thousand-dollar minimum, three to five dollars per click. 900M weekly active users — this is Google Ads 2003 again. Marcus and Jules deliver the 4-step play every owner can run this week: open the chatgpt.com/ads self-serve account with a $20 daily cap and turn nothing on yet, list the 3 questions your customer types the week before hiring, write one conversational question-shaped ad, build an answer-first landing page.
Zapier Just Handed Every SMB An AI Employee For The Price Of One Zap
On June 23, Zapier turned MCP on for every paid plan. If you already pay $19.99 a month, you now have an AI orchestration layer that can drive 9,000 apps — booking, invoicing, follow-up, lead routing — through one connection. Marcus and Jules deliver the 4-step play every owner can run this week: list 3 most repetitive tasks, connect Zapier MCP to ChatGPT or Claude, write the job description in plain English, run one agent for 7 days before adding a second.
Meta Just Made Advantage+ The Default — How SMBs Stop Wasting Ad Spend In 7 Days
Meta flipped a switch last week — Advantage+ is now default in Ads Manager. Campaigns moved to Advantage+ are running 22% higher ROAS and 10% lower cost per lead. Marcus and Jules deliver the 4-step play every owner can run this weekend: promote the best engagement post, generate 15 creative variations, turn on audience expansion, install Conversions API by Friday.
Three AI Deadlines Hitting SMBs This Summer — And How Owners Turn Each Into An Edge
Three regulatory and platform deadlines converging on small businesses this summer. SB 942 plus EU AI Act on August 2 with $2,500 per undisclosed chatbot conversation. Microsoft 365 Copilot SMB on July 1 with a 12-17% price hike. Fable 5 shutdown precedent on June 12. The 4-step playbook every owner can run this weekend: inventory, disclose, pilot, abstract.
Intuit Just Made QuickBooks Categorize Your Expenses By Itself — Do This Before June 25
On June 25, Intuit turns on AI expense categorization across every US Small Business plan of QuickBooks Online. Twelve months of your transactions re-categorized automatically by a model trained on twelve million other businesses. On by default. No opt-in. Four steps every owner should run this week + the 2015 bank reconciliation parallel that tells you who wins the next twelve months.
How SMBs Get Free AI Sales Reps — HubSpot Just Switched to Pay-Per-Result
HubSpot just flipped Breeze to pay-per-result — $0.50 per resolved conversation, $1 per qualified lead. The four-move playbook any SMB can run this week to audit current AI sales spend, compare HubSpot Breeze vs Salesforce Agentforce, and layer voice AI on any other CRM stack. Closes with the 1908-to-1925 electricity-pricing parallel that tells you who survives.
How SMBs Cut Bookkeeping Costs 60-80% Before The Fed Meets June 17
The Federal Open Market Committee meets June 17-18 with 50 percent odds of an October rate hike. QuickBooks just raised prices 15-25 percent across the board. In this episode, Marcus and Jules walk through the four-step bookkeeping audit a six-person Phoenix HVAC shop used to cut their monthly bookkeeping spend from 1,800 dollars to 340 dollars in eleven days. Featured tools: Docyt, Pilot.com, Vic.ai, HelloBooks, and the QuickBooks AI Agents tier gate that ninety percent of SMBs do not know about. Closes on the 2008-vintage parallel that explains why the businesses surviving the next 18 months will not be the cheapest, they will be the most automated. Audio engineered with relaxation tones and immersive sound design. Best experienced with headphones. The AI Guy is part of the AdValorem podcast network. Voices and content are AI-generated.
AI for Short-Term Rental Operators — Escape the Airbnb Tax and Vrbo Cancellation Trap
Airbnb is taking 15.5 percent of every booking on your portfolio. And if Vrbo finds you responsible for a cancellation, they can claw back 100 percent of the booking value. For a 5-property operator at 70 percent occupancy, that is 58,000 dollars a year gone before your first mortgage payment. In this episode, Marcus and Jules break down the AI-enabled direct-booking stack that cuts both platforms out entirely for 13,000 dollars a year — reclaiming 45,000 dollars back. They walk through the 90-day, 4-step cutover: pick your PMS (Lodgify or Hostfully), build your direct site with a booking engine, install StayFi to turn every WiFi guest into an email lead, and configure an AI co-host at 200 dollars a month that handles 80 percent of guest communications. Plus the restaurant-vs-GrubHub parallel that shows exactly where the STR market is right now. Audio engineered with relaxation tones and immersive sound design. Best experienced with headphones. The AI Guy is part of the AdValorem podcast network. Voices and content are AI-generated.
AI for Short-Term Rental Operators: Escape the Airbnb-Vrbo Tax
Airbnb now takes 15.5 percent of every booking on your portfolio. Vrbo will charge you 100 percent of a booking value as a penalty if you deny a guest entry. For a 5-door operator at 60 percent occupancy and a 280-dollar ADR, that is roughly 58,000 dollars a year transferred off your portfolio to two companies that are actively competing with you for the direct booking. Marcus and Jules walk through the four-step direct-booking AI stack one Sedona, Arizona operator used to cut platform fees 78 percent and grow direct bookings from 4 to 41 percent of revenue in six months. The four moves: (1) pick a PMS that owns your data — Hostaway, Hospitable, or Guesty for Hosts; (2) build a direct-booking site with Lodgify, Hostfully, or OwnerRez templates; (3) install StayFi WiFi captive-portal email capture; (4) configure an AI co-host (Hospitable AI, Besty AI, Hostly) that flips Airbnb guests into repeat direct guests. Closes with the GrubHub-to-Toast restaurant parallel. Audio engineered with relaxation tones and immersive sound design. Best experienced with headphones. The AI Guy is part of the AdValorem podcast network. Voices and content are AI-generated.
AI for Small CPA Firms: How a 4-Partner Accounting Shop Cut Tax-Return Prep Time 38% This Quarter
Eighty-two percent of CPA firms with revenue under five million dollars lost at least one partner or senior to retirement or burnout between 2022 and 2024. Marcus and Jules walk through the four-step AI workpaper stack a documented Cleveland firm (4 partners, 11 staff) built between January and March — cutting prep hours 38 percent, adding 41 advisory calls, and pushing realization from 62 to 74. The four moves: (1) AI intake form with extraction from prior-year returns plus bank and brokerage PDFs (free); (2) AI workpaper templates for Schedule C, 1120-S K-1 reconciliation, partnership basis tracking; (3) productize a 750 to 1,500 dollar mid-year tax planning call; (4) compliance-to-advisory funnel emailing every 4868 extension client a planning-call upsell. Closes with the Block / Square parallel — compliance is the new payments. AdValorem builds the AI workpaper stack: Standard 1,750 dollars / 7 days, Same-Day Rush 2,550 / 3 days, Monthly Research Desk 5,000 / month. Audio engineered with relaxation tones and immersive sound design. Best experienced with headphones. The AI Guy is part of the AdValorem podcast network. Voices and content are AI-generated.
AI for Phoenix HVAC: Revenue Forecasting and Smart Dispatch Routing
A bonus Phoenix HVAC episode. Mac and Quinn walk operators through where AI actually moves the needle in 2026: revenue forecasting tied to NOAA cooling degree days, predictive maintenance from smart thermostat data, and AI dispatch routing for the long-windshield-time Phoenix metro. Real 2026 pricing for ServiceTitan Dispatch Pro, Workiz (Kickstart $225, Standard $275, Pro $325), Housecall Pro (Basic $59, Essentials $149, MAX $299), and OptimoRoute at $39 per driver per month. Plus a documented Mesa 22-truck shop that used cooling-degree-day forecasts to shift to higher-ticket emergency repair mix during heat spikes, and a Tempe 8-truck shop pulling warm replacement leads weekly via Claude against their Housecall Pro export. Includes APS, SRP, and Efficiency Arizona rebate guidance plus SEER2 14.3 floor for split systems under 45,000 BTU. The priority order for any Phoenix HVAC owner: dispatch routing first, revenue forecasting second, predictive outreach third.
AI Content, Email, Social, and SEO Tools for Small Business Marketing
AI for SMB marketing is the most crowded and most overhyped of all the SMB AI categories. Mac and Quinn walk through the four buckets that actually matter for small business owners — content and copywriting, email and CRM automation, social media scheduling and design, and SEO and analytics — with current 2026 pricing for Jasper, Copy.ai, HubSpot, ActiveCampaign, Mailchimp, Brevo, Klaviyo, Buffer, Hootsuite, Canva Magic Studio, and Surfer SEO. Then a documented Pacific Northwest plumbing case study where a $77/month stack pulled 42 hours a month out of marketing and recovered $5,600 in abandoned quotes in the first 90 days.
AI Bookkeeping, Cash Flow, and AP Automation for Small Business Finance
AI for SMB finance is where the ROI gets impossible to argue with in 2026. Mac and Quinn walk through the four buckets of finance AI for small business — bookkeeping and reconciliation, accounts payable and expense automation, cash flow forecasting, and tax prep — with current pricing for Digits, Docyt, QuickBooks AI, Ramp, Bill.com, Cash Flow Frog, Float, and more. Then a documented Phoenix HVAC case study where a $224/month AI stack pulled 41 hours a month out of finance and prevented a cash shortfall worth more than the tooling cost for a year.
How a Cincinnati Manufacturer Cut 47 Hours a Week with a $300 AI Ops Stack
Operations is where AI quietly delivers the biggest ROI for SMBs. Val Kleyman and AI co-host Alex break down the four buckets of operations AI: workflow automation (Zapier vs Make vs n8n), document processing (Rossum, Klippa, Nanonets), scheduling and inventory (Deputy, Odoo), and AI agents (Lindy). Then we walk through a real Cincinnati manufacturing case study where a $300/month stack pulled 47 hours a week out of operations and unlocked $180K in new business in six months.
The 4-Tool AI Sales Stack That Saved a Cleaning Company 13 Hours a Week
Most SMBs spend 25-75 hours a month manually qualifying leads. In this episode, Val and Alex break down the 4 categories of AI sales tools that change that math: lead qualification (Lindy, Clay), AI SDRs (Smartlead, Apollo), call coaching (Fathom, Fireflies, Gong), and pricing/proposal automation (Prisync, PandaDoc). Then we walk through a real case study — a 6-person Cleveland cleaning company that used a $150/month AI stack to re-engage old quotes, close $48K in new contracts, and give the owner 13 hours a week back. AI Disclosure: All voices in this episode are AI-generated. This podcast is fully produced using artificial intelligence, including scripts, research, and narration.
How a 12-Person Dental Practice Cut Admin Time by 60% with AI
A deep-dive case study into how a small dental practice used AI to slash 60% of their admin overhead. Real numbers, real tools, real implementation timeline — and lessons every small business owner can steal. ⚠️ AI Disclosure: All voices in this episode are AI-generated. This podcast is fully produced using artificial intelligence, including scripts, research, and narration.
The $47 AI Stack: Tools Every Small Business Should Be Using Today
No theory, no charts — just the exact AI tools you need, what they cost, and how to set them up this week. The complete $47/month AI stack for small businesses. ⚠️ AI Disclosure: All voices in this episode are AI-generated. This podcast is fully produced using artificial intelligence, including scripts, research, and narration.
Why 80% of Your Competitors Will Be Using AI by 2027
The pilot episode. Val and Alex break down why AI adoption is accelerating faster than anyone predicted, what it means for small businesses, and the three things every owner should do this month. ⚠️ AI Disclosure: All voices in this episode are AI-generated. This podcast is fully produced using artificial intelligence, including scripts, research, and narration.