The Jake Woodhouse Podcast

Behind the Scenes: Using AI to Build a Real Business in Real Time (JWP125)

Most people using AI are re-writing emails or summarising documents. That's fine. But this episode is about something different — using Claude as a daily operational co-pilot to actually build things. Over the last week and a half I built two separate marketing funnels from scratch. One organic, one paid. Different audiences, different entry points, different conversion paths. I'm not a software developer. I'm a podcast host running a productised consulting business from Byron Bay, whilst homeschooling three kids. Every time I hit a wall — a WordPress setting I didn't understand, a DNS record I was terrified to touch, a ConvertKit automation I couldn't figure out, a Linkedin Ad setting I didn't understand — I took a screenshot, sent it to Claude, and got unstuck in minutes. That's the episode. Not theory. Not a tutorial. What this actually looks like in practice. What's covered: * The two-funnel structure: organic (podcast + Apollo cold email → lead magnet → nurture sequence) and paid (LinkedIn ads → dedicated landing page → free discovery call) * The "screenshot workflow" — the simplest way to use AI when you're stuck in an unfamiliar tool * Building a lead magnet page in WordPress with no prior experience * Creating a five-email nurture sequence in ConvertKit, including the automation logic * The DNS records moment — being told exactly which one not to touch, and why * Designing ad creative in Canva, setting up audience targeting, and building the landing page for paid traffic * Why the master thread / sub-thread / project file structure makes every prompt more powerful Links: * Download the free AI self-assessment: jakewoodhouse.io/self-assessment [https://jakewoodhouse.io/self-assessment] * Book your AI Assessment ($999, Report-Pays-For-Itself guarantee): jakewoodhouse.io/ai-assessment [https://jakewoodhouse.io/ai-assessment/]

I Ran My $999 AI Assessment On Myself — Here's What I'm Doing (JWP124)

I sell a $999 AI Assessment to Australian small businesses. Last Thursday I ran it on my own business — same call, same interview questions, same Claude prompt, same Gamma report, no shortcuts. The report told me to do something I hadn't seriously considered: cold email outreach to Australian accountants using a tool called Apollo, with my own self-assessment PDF as the proof piece. Something that wasn't even on my radar a week ago, just this morning at 9am, fired out it's first batch of 10 emails. Honest point: I don't know if it works. Two weeks left in the proof window to find out! The entire report — the exact PDF a paying client receives — is linked below. Read the self-assessment: https://jakewoodhouse.io/self-assessment/ [https://jakewoodhouse.io/self-assessment/] Book an AI Assessment: jakewoodhouse.io/ai-assessment [http://jakewoodhouse.io/ai-assessment] Timestamps 00:00 — Ran the product on myself last Thursday 01:30 — The product: $999, 20-min call, 48hr bespoke PDF, Report-Pays-For-Itself guarantee 06:00 — Did the interview on WhatsApp in the car, on the way to pick up my daughter 08:00 — Four pain points the report flagged 11:30 — The recommendation I didn't see coming: Apollo + Claude 12:30 — Why standard hourly-rate maths doesn't fit a productised service 16:00 — Building Apollo Friday/Saturday: 3,346 verified accountants, three-touch sequence 17:30 — Monday 9am: first 10 emails out. One I sent twice by mistake. 19:30 — Honest uncertainty: I don't know if any convert 22:00 — Why pay $999 if the PDF is free? Template is the format. Product is the bespoke version for your business. 27:00 — Ideas have never been cheaper. Execution has never been more important. 28:00 — "You've got to do paid ads" — what if you're amplifying the wrong thing? Connect: Website: jakewoodhouse.io [http://jakewoodhouse.io] X / Twitter: @jakewoodhouseio LinkedIn: Jake Woodhouse YouTube: @jakewoodhouseio Instagram: @jakewoodhouseio Email: hi@jakewoodhouse.io [hi@jakewoodhouse.io]

The Pool Workflow: What AI Just Made Possible for Local Business (JWP 123)

A friend mentioned a story to me last week. Somewhere in suburban Texas, a pool builder has allegedly built an autonomous AI agent that scans satellite imagery for affluent homes without pools, renders a luxury pool into the actual backyard, estimates the build cost, and mails a personalised postcard with a QR code. No human in the loop. Tens of thousands of homes. Inbound qualified leads. I haven't independently verified the operator. What I have verified is that every component of the workflow is real, accessible, and being discussed openly across Reddit, LinkedIn, and the AI builder community. And the deeper insight — the one that actually matters — is that AI has just collapsed the cost of hyper-personalised outbound marketing by four to five orders of magnitude. For the first time in marketing history, this kind of campaign is economically viable for local-service businesses. In this episode I walk through the workflow step by step, dig into the unit economics, name the ethical pushback, and pull it into what it means for Australian small business owners — landscapers, fencers, solar installers, granny flat builders, kitchen renovators. Someone is going to do this in your industry in 2026. The only question is who. Chapters 0:00 — Intro 0:55 — A phone call with a technical friend 1:50 — What's allegedly happening: the pool workflow 3:30 — How it actually works: the tech stack 6:00 — Why I haven't verified the operator (and why it doesn't matter) 6:55 — The unit economics — traditional CAC vs AI-powered outbound 9:50 — The real unlock: pre-AI vs post-AI cost maths 10:45 — Where else this applies (solar, landscaping, granny flats, kitchens) 13:15 — The surveillance question 15:50 — What this means for your business 20:00 — The AI Assessment — what's actually in it 21:15 — Why incentives inside large companies will hold them back 25:30 — Why solo operators are about to become more viable 27:55 — Wrap Resources & references: * Reddit — Someone built an OpenClaw agent that sells pools on autopilot (r/GenAI4all): https://www.reddit.com/r/GenAI4all/comments/1spxp9g/someone_built_an_openclaw_agent_that_sells_pools/ [https://www.reddit.com/r/GenAI4all/comments/1spxp9g/someone_built_an_openclaw_agent_that_sells_pools/] * Reddit — Tearing down OpenClaw sales bots (deeper technical teardown, r/openclaw): https://www.reddit.com/r/openclaw/comments/1skze1w/tearing_down_openclaw_sales_bots_from_scraping/ [https://www.reddit.com/r/openclaw/comments/1skze1w/tearing_down_openclaw_sales_bots_from_scraping/] * LinkedIn — Charly Wargnier on the workflow: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/charlywargnier_this-guy-litterally-uses-openclaw-to-sell-activity-7449478233202475008-HIt9 [https://www.linkedin.com/posts/charlywargnier_this-guy-litterally-uses-openclaw-to-sell-activity-7449478233202475008-HIt9] * LinkedIn — Warren Jolly on the CAC economics: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/warrenjolly_as-a-marketer-this-is-one-of-the-best-uses-activity-7450187118213160960-qFVb [https://www.linkedin.com/posts/warrenjolly_as-a-marketer-this-is-one-of-the-best-uses-activity-7450187118213160960-qFVb] * YouTube — OpenClaw AI agent explainer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PlrwKgH8bXE [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PlrwKgH8bXE] * OpenClaw GitHub: https://github.com/openclaw/openclaw [https://github.com/openclaw/openclaw] Get an AI Assessment for your business: If you're a small business owner and you're thinking "this is exactly the kind of thing I should be exploring but I have no idea where to start" — that's what the AI Assessment is for. $999 AUD. A 20-minute call. A bespoke PDF report within 48 hours identifying the highest-leverage AI opportunities specific to your business — both quick wins and longer-term builds like the one in this episode. Report-Pays-For-Itself guarantee: if the monthly ROI identified doesn't exceed $999, full refund. Three slots per week. 👉 jakewoodhouse.io/ai-assessment Connect: * Website: jakewoodhouse.io [http://jakewoodhouse.io] * X / Twitter: @jakewoodhouseio * LinkedIn: Jake Woodhouse * YouTube: @jakewoodhouseio * Instagram: @jakewoodhouseio * Email: hi@jakewoodhouse.io [hi@jakewoodhouse.io] If you've seen a workflow like this being applied to a different industry — landscaping, solar, fencing, granny flats, anywhere — I'd love to hear from you. Reach out on any of the channels above.

The AI Stack I'm Running From Home With Three Kids and No Team (JWP 122)

Three months ago, at 4am, my net worth had just halved. Bitcoin had crashed and I'd been heavily exposed. Three kids asleep upstairs, wife asleep. I sat at the laptop and typed one question into ChatGPT: how do I make money? That rabbit hole became the AI Assessment business I now run, and it became this episode. This is the actual workflow. The system I copied from my wife. The verification layer that handles AI hallucination. The exact stack producing this podcast — and why I cancelled Buffer this morning. Why the next decade of business building looks nothing like the last one. And the real numbers from real clients: Pete the chartered accountant, $17,400 a month found in a 20-minute call. Mat the landscaper, $1,500 a month sitting in his invoicing alone. If you run an Australian business and you've known for a while that AI matters but haven't really started — this is for you. Chapters 00:00 — Welcome 00:33 — 4am, three kids asleep, one question 02:15 — Who this is for 02:35 — Why February changed everything 04:35 — The system I copied from my wife 07:30 — The verification layer (AI hallucinates) 09:45 — The founder journey at 10x speed (vs Entrepreneur First) 12:00 — Rod Bishop: solo founder, no CTO, no VC 13:10 — Why bespoke beats generic 15:30 — Sam's boxing gym 17:30 — The Johnny lighting story 19:00 — The stack (Dale asked) 23:00 — Why organic content first 26:30 — What this means for you (Pete and Mat) 28:30 — Outro Resources mentioned * AI Assessment: jakewoodhouse.io/ai-assessment * Tools: Claude, ChatGPT, Perplexity, Riverside, Opus Clip, Higgsfield AI, Gamma * Books: Zero to One by Peter Thiel; The Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz * Entrepreneur First (talent-first accelerator) * Previous episode with Rod Bishop on the Jake Woodhouse Podcast Call to action If you run an Australian small business and want clarity on what AI could actually do for you — book an AI Assessment at jakewoodhouse.io/ai-assessment. 20-minute call. Bespoke report in 48 hours. $999 with a guarantee it pays for itself in month one. If it doesn't, full refund.

What I Learned Assessing 5 Australian Businesses for AI in 10 Days (JWP 121)

Ten days ago I sent an SMS to my warm network offering a free AI Business Assessment. Five business owners said yes. By Friday, I'd run five 20-minute calls, delivered five custom AI roadmaps, and identified between $1,560 and $17,400 of monthly value waiting to be unlocked. Lewis, a construction and landscaping director in Melbourne, replied: "What once felt overwhelming now feels exciting." This episode is the story of those 10 days — the SMS that started it, the five calls, the numbers, and the offer that's now live at jakewoodhouse.io/ai-assessment [http://jakewoodhouse.io/ai-assessment] Chapters * 00:00 — Lewis testimonial * 02:00 — Why I paused The Durable Man * 04:30 — The Deloitte stat that flipped a switch * 06:30 — The SMS experiment * 09:00 — The five calls * 14:00 — The numbers * 17:00 — The system: Zoom → Claude → Gamma * 19:30 — The offer & the guarantee * 22:00 — The Rova experiment and AI slop * 25:00 — Final thoughts & how to take this up In This Episode * Why I paused The Durable Man and what my wife saw that I didn't * The Deloitte Nov 2025 stat that flipped a switch (1 in 3 Aussie businesses don't know where to start with AI) * The 60-word SMS that got an extraordinary reply rate * Five businesses, five roadmaps: * Mat (landscaping) — automating labour metrics on invoices * Lewis (construction & landscaping) — AI for design mockups * Paul (retail) — winning back time for marketing across 300 suppliers * Tom (mould inspection) — compacting 12 hours of reporting * Pete (accounting) — $17,400/month of billable time leaking into admin * The system: 20 min Zoom → Claude → Gamma → 48-hour PDF * Why the report pays for itself in month one (and why I'll refund if it doesn't) * The Rova experiment and why human stories still beat AI slop The Offer AI Business Assessment — $999 AUD * 20-minute Zoom call * Bespoke PDF report delivered within 48 hours * Two tiers in every report: 4 low-hanging-fruit you can implement this week, 3 longer-term projects worth scoping * Report-Pays-For-Itself guarantee — full refund if the monthly ROI identified doesn't exceed the cost Book yours: jakewoodhouse.io/ai-assessment [http://jakewoodhouse.io/ai-assessment] Links & References * Via this gdoc [https://docs.google.com/document/d/1l2NWf_ex_zZ_Nx3cuGdC0ApPyPpmEbVkS83RQ_wtaNE/edit?tab=t.0] Take Action: 1. Run an Australian business? Book a call at jakewoodhouse.io/ai-assessment [http://jakewoodhouse.io/ai-assessment] 2. Know someone who would benefit? Forward this episode. Connect * Web: jakewoodhouse.io [http://jakewoodhouse.io] * Email: hi@jakewoodhouse.io [hi@jakewoodhouse.io] The gap isn't access. It's knowing where to start.