88. Garbage In, Business Gone: Using AI Productively Without Handing Hackers the Keys

92. The Automation That Pays for Itself in a Week (And Why Security Can't Be DIY)

Hosts: Justin Shelley | Phoenix IT Advisors: https://www.phoenixitadvisors.com/ [https://www.phoenixitadvisors.com/] Mario Zaki | Mazteck IT: https://www.mazteck.com/ [https://www.mazteck.com/] Joshua Holloway | 7th Di Technologies: https://7thdi.com/ [https://7thdi.com/] What if the alerts your IT system already generates every single day could automatically turn into $50,000 in new annual revenue and $200,000 in delivered client value, in about 10 seconds? In Episode 92 of UnHacked, Justin, Mario, and Josh dig into the nuts and bolts of AI integrations and prove the concept live. Justin pulls back the curtain on a real automation he built using an MCP server (Model Context Protocol), his PSA, and an AI agent. The result: noisy RMM alerts that used to slip through the cracks are now converted into plain-English, ROI-backed hardware opportunity proposals that actually mean something to a business owner or CFO. He walks through the math on a single hard drive alert showing a $554/year productivity loss and a $1,385 two-year risk exposure against a $220 fix. That is the kind of conversation that gets a client to say yes. Mario shares how his AI agents Marcus and Maximus are integrated directly into Microsoft Teams and connected via read-only access to his PSA, letting his entire team ask real-time questions about open tickets without touching a report. He also drops a bombshell: by automating his onboarding, offboarding, and license review processes with AI, he saved nearly $40,000 in a single year. Josh brings the compliance and security perspective, reminding everyone that charging ahead without a plan is exactly how you end up in an emergency meeting trying to figure out what you broke. His checklist is simple: one integration at a time, read-only access, and make sure you cannot accidentally delete production data. The big theme running through all of it? Use AI to use AI. Do not start with the technology. Start with the problem you need to solve, then figure out how to fix it. And before you build anything, talk to someone who knows what they are doing. Free consultation (no strings attached): https://www.unhackmybusiness.com/ [https://www.unhackmybusiness.com/]

91. Your AI Integration Is a Lit Match Over a Gas-Soaked Hay Pile

Hosts: Justin Shelley - https://www.phoenixitadvisors.com/ [https://www.phoenixitadvisors.com/] Mario Zaki - https://www.mazteck.com/ [https://www.mazteck.com/] Bryan Lachapelle - https://www.b4networks.ca/ [https://www.b4networks.ca/] Joshua Holloway - https://7thdi.com/ [https://7thdi.com/] You've heard "just make it read-only" and figured you were covered. You're not. In Episode 91 of UnHacked, Justin, Mario, Bryan, and Josh pick up their ongoing AI series and get into the real-world security risks hiding inside AI integrations — the ones that don't show up until something goes wrong. Bryan takes the hot seat this week and walks through what happened when he connected Claude to his accounting software through Xero's MCP server. Spoiler: the data it can access tells a hacker exactly who your best clients are and how much they're paying you. That's not a read-only problem. That's a target. The crew also digs into why "read-only" is only safe at the start, why there's no Control-Z once your AI does something you didn't intend, and why your endpoints are now the biggest vulnerability in your entire security stack. Plus, Brian shares what happened when he tried connecting Claude to DocuSign — and what almost worked. Key takeaways from this episode: * Before you add any connector, understand exactly what it's accessing and whether it launches with guardrails in place (Josh) * If you're not using an integration, disconnect it. Less footprint, less risk. If you're not gonna use it, lose it. (Mario) * Your employees are already using personal AI accounts with your company data. Put a policy in place and give them a sanctioned tool before shadow IT does it for you. (Bryan) * Stop using public AI tools for business. Ditch them and get a secure platform — because everything you put into a free tool, you lose. (Justin) This is Part 2 of the team's multi-part AI series: basic chat setup, integrations (that's right now), and vibe coding is coming next. The series follows a crawl-walk-run framework designed to help business owners actually implement AI without burning it all down. Not sure where to start? Go to unhackmybusiness.com, click any episode, and use the action cards below the player to ask a question or request a free consult.

90. Clone Yourself With AI: The Integration That Saves 1.5 Hours a Day (and $26K a Year)

Hosts: Justin Shelley – Phoenix IT Advisors | https://www.phoenixitadvisors.com/ [https://www.phoenixitadvisors.com/] Mario Zaki – Mazteck IT | https://www.mazteck.com/ [https://www.mazteck.com/] Bryan Lachapelle – B4 Networks | https://www.b4networks.ca/ [https://www.b4networks.ca/] Joshua Holloway – https://7thdi.com/ [https://7thdi.com/] What if you could reclaim 1.5 hours every single day — without hiring anyone? In Episode 90 of UnHacked, Justin, Bryan, Mario, and Josh skip the theory and get into the actual mechanics of AI integration. Josh walks through exactly how he connected Claude's Co-Work feature to his Microsoft 365 mailbox — read-only, locked down, no full system access — and now starts every morning with a fully automated inbox triage, calendar summary, and prioritized action list waiting for him at 7:55 AM. That's just the beginning. He's also built a system that scans every five-star support ticket, drafts a personalized, SEO-optimized Google review request, and parks it in his drafts for a human review before it ever goes out. Result? One Google review for every five emails sent — and a 20% conversion rate he didn't have before. The guys do the math live: 1.5 hours a day × $68/hour (fully burdened) × 5 days × 52 weeks = $26,520 back in your pocket every year. And that doesn't count the new business the Google reviews are driving. But it's not all upside — they also talk about what happens when you give AI too much access (spoiler: someone accidentally bought a $3,700 training course on their own credit card), and why "less access = more control" is the security rule you can't afford to skip. Ready to try it yourself? Download the step-by-step setup guide at unhackmybusiness.com, find Episode 90, and follow along.

89. Your AI Is Lying to You (And You'd Never Know): How to Prompt Smarter Before It Costs You

Hosts: Justin Shelley – Phoenix IT Advisors: https://www.phoenixitadvisors.com/ [https://www.phoenixitadvisors.com/] Mario Zaki – Mazteck IT: https://www.mazteck.com/ [https://www.mazteck.com/] Bryan Lachapelle – B4 Networks: https://www.b4networks.ca/ [https://www.b4networks.ca/] Joshua Holloway – https://7thdi.com/ [https://7thdi.com/] Most business owners are using AI every single day — and most of them are doing it wrong. Not because they're not smart, but because nobody ever showed them the difference between Googling a question and actually working with AI. In this episode of Unhacked, Justin, Mario, Bryan, and Josh break down the AI prompting frameworks that separate vague, hit-or-miss results from sharp, professional-grade outputs. Josh walks through the PTCF framework (Persona, Task, Context, Format) live — and the results speak for themselves: a generic prompt produced a 12-page document. The same request, properly framed, produced a 24-page, policy-ready incident response playbook. The hosts also get real about AI's dark side: hallucinations that send you to the grocery store for the wrong ingredients, wrong time zone answers delivered with total confidence, and why blindly trusting AI output in a business context can be genuinely dangerous. Plus: a live walkthrough of Hatz, a secure AI platform designed specifically for business environments, and a practical challenge to get you building your own custom AI assistant before next week. If you think AI is already working well enough for you — this episode will change your mind.

88. Garbage In, Business Gone: Using AI Productively Without Handing Hackers the Keys

Hosts: Justin Shelley — https://www.phoenixitadvisors.com/ [https://www.phoenixitadvisors.com/] Mario Zaki — https://www.mazteck.com/ [https://www.mazteck.com/] Bryan Lachapelle — https://www.b4networks.ca/ [https://www.b4networks.ca/] Joshua Holloway — https://7thdi.com/ [https://7thdi.com/] AI is the most powerful tool your business has ever had access to — and one of the most dangerous if you don't know what you're doing. In Episode 88 of UnHacked, Justin, Mario, Bryan, and Josh pull back the curtain on what AI really is (hint: it's math, not magic), how to use it to multiply your productivity by 10–50x, and the critical security mistakes businesses are making right now. In this episode: Why AI "hallucinates," leads you down rabbit holes, and how to stop it * Custom GPTs: Real-world examples from the hosts — legal document review, construction reports, quarterly planning, and podcast production * The terminated employee who used AI-generated scripts to keep re-enabling their own access — while being escorted out * Why "vibe coding" already deleted one company's entire database (and how to make sure it doesn't happen to you) * Prompting tips that will immediately make your AI smarter and more useful * How to build your own custom AI assistant — even if you've never written a line of code This is Week 2 of a 12-week AI series designed to take business owners from "I use it like Google" to running a secure, productive AI-powered operation. Subscribe, share, and visit unhackmybusiness.com for resources, tools, and a free security assessment.