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AI Agents Doing the Work of a Hire · Profitable Christian Business

• 0:00
  Quick question before we start.
• 0:01
  If you needed to hire someone to build your software tools, run your research,
• 0:06
  and take your meeting notes, what would that cost you every month?
• 0:10
  Hold that thought because I want to tell you what I'm paying for the same work.
• 0:14
  $135 a month.
• 0:14
  I'm Doug, and this is the Profitable Christian Business Podcast.
• 0:18
  It's a solo episode today.
• 0:21
  I want to walk you through what AI has actually done inside my business.
• 0:25
  Not hype, not a prediction, what it did and what it costs.
• 0:29
  Let me set the scene.
• 0:30
  This week I went through my expenses line by line.
• 0:34
  One of them is OpenAI.
• 0:34
  It shows up at $235 a month, but that account is combined with my wife's.
• 0:39
  Split it honestly, and my business share is $135.
• 0:40
  So what does $135 a month buy?
• 0:44
  First, it buys the thing that builds my agents.
• 0:44
  I use a tool called Codex.
• 0:45
  Through it, I've built the SEO, ads, and social agents that run inside Sales
• 0:51
  Site, which is the platform I own.
• 0:54
  These are working systems I use for myself and for clients.
• 0:57
  Instead of hiring a developer and waiting, I describe what I need, and it gets
• 1:01
  built.
• 1:01
  Second, a funding research agent.
• 1:04
  I built this for a client, a company that works in funding.
• 1:05
  The agent pulls together research on funding options.
• 1:09
  It runs on Mind Studio and Make and connects into the CRM.
• 1:12
  Before something like that, a person would sit and do that research by hand over
• 1:16
  and over.
• 1:17
  Now the agent does the repeat work.
• 1:19
  Third, an AI meeting notes pipeline.
• 1:21
  A call happens, and what was said turns into notes I can use.
• 1:24
  I don't sit down afterward and try to remember what we agreed on.
• 1:27
  Three jobs.
• 1:27
  One builds the tools, one does research for a client, one keeps my notes.
• 1:32
  Each of those is a piece of work a person could be hired to do.
• 1:36
  Now let me be careful because I don't want to oversell this.
• 1:39
  A hire is not the same as a tool.
• 1:42
  A person brings judgment, care, and relationship.
• 1:47
  A person can sit across from a client and pray with them.
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  No agent does that, and I wouldn't want one too.
• 1:50
  What an agent does is take the repeatable work off my plate so I can spend my
• 1:56
  hours on the things only I can do.
• 1:58
  And I'll tell you what it still takes from me.
• 1:58
  It takes my time to set up.
• 2:02
  It takes me checking the work.
• 2:03
  It does not run itself, and it isn't free.
• 2:05
  I'm still the one responsible for what it does.
• 2:10
  But here's the comparison I keep coming back to.
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  Think about what even a modest part-time hire would cost you each month.
• 2:13
  Run your own number.
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  Wages, taxes, the time to train, the time to manage.
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  I'll let you do that math with your own situation because I'm not going to guess
• 2:23
  at yours.
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  Then set it next to $135.
• 2:24
  That gap is why I'm talking about this at all.
• 2:27
  Now the faith part because this is a stewardship show.
• 2:30
  In the Parable of the Talents in Matthew 25, the master gives his servants
• 2:35
  different amounts and goes away.
• 2:37
  The ones who put what they were given to work are called good and faithful.
• 2:38
  The one who buried it out of fear gets called out for it.
• 2:42
  I think about that when I look at AI.
• 2:44
  Fear says, bury it.
• 2:45
  It's new, it's strange, I'll stay away.
• 2:47
  But we've been handed a tool that can multiply our hours.
• 2:52
  The question isn't whether it's exciting.
• 2:52
  The question is whether I'm being faithful with what I've been given.
• 2:57
  And faithful cuts both ways.
• 2:59
  It means I put the tools to work.
• 3:00
  It also means I don't waste money on tools that don't earn their place.
• 3:04
  I know my full tool spend was about $2,073 in September.
• 3:08
  I know my true floor is around 1650 a month.
• 3:10
  I watch every one of those lines, including this one.
• 3:15
  So what should you do with this?
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  Here's your assignment this week.
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  Keep it simple.
• 3:19
  Step one, write down the tasks you do every week that are repeatable.
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  Not the thinking, the repeating.
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  Things like writing up notes, researching the same kind of question, sending the
• 3:29
  same follow-ups.
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  Step two, pick one.
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  Just one.
• 3:31
  The one that costs you the most hours or makes you the most tired.
• 3:34
  Step three, put a price on your hour.
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  Be honest.
• 3:37
  Multiply it by the hours that task takes each month.
• 3:39
  That's what that task costs you right now.
• 3:42
  Step four, try to hand that one task to an AI tool this week.
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  Use a free or low-cost plan to start.
• 3:47
  Don't build a whole system, just test one task.
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  Step five, check the work.
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  Every time.
• 3:53
  You're still the steward.
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  Step six, at the end of the month, compare.
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  What did it cost and what did it give back?
• 3:57
  If it saved you hours, you found something worth keeping.
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  If it didn't, cancel it and move on.
• 4:05
  No guilt.
• 4:05
  That's good stewardship too.
• 4:06
  One more thing.
• 4:06
  Don't use AI to avoid people.
• 4:06
  Use it to free up time for them.
• 4:09
  The reason I want hours back is so I can spend them with guests, clients, and my
• 4:13
  family.
• 4:14
  If the tool gives me hours and I spend them scrolling, I've buried the talent
• 4:17
  anyway.
• 4:18
  Friends, you're not being asked to be a tech expert.
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  You're being asked to be faithful with what's in your hands.
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  This week that might mean one small experiment and one honest look at the
• 4:29
  numbers.
• 4:29
  Thanks for being here.
• 4:31
  I'm Doug Greathouse.
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  Put one task to work this week, and I'll see you next time on the Profitable
• 5:08
  Christian Business Podcast.