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: 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: http://jakewoodhouse.io/ai-assessment Links & References: - Via this gdoc:

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JWP 121 - episode links

What I Learned Assessing 5 Australian Businesses for AI in 10 Days (JWP 121) Episode references and links: IG reel - https://www.instagram.com/p/...

Take Action: 1. Run an Australian business? Book a call at http://jakewoodhouse.io/ai-assessment 2. Know someone who would benefit? Forward this episode. Connect: - Web: http://jakewoodhouse.io - Email: hi@jakewoodhouse.io The gap isn't access. It's knowing where to start

New podcast direction discovered this week Recording episode this weekend for release early next week 🙏🏻

Whilst it’s true that AI has hugely compressed the the iteration for a solo entrepreneur Idea> customer discovery > initial product design > offer validation > pricing > launch The defensibility I think will come from - brand (people buy from people) - execution attention (people don’t always have time to actually take action)

When things move, they can move fast… - Weekend: studied a report by Deloitte on AI adoption in Australia, which stated 1 in 3 small businesses had no idea where to even start with AI - Monday: sent 20 or so sms to warm network with Hi xxx, How are you? I'm launching something new and want to test it on people I trust first. It's a free AI Business Assessment — you get a personalised report showing exactly where your business should start with AI and which tools will move the needle. Takes 20 mins of your time, normally $1k, free for my first few. Let me know if that’s of interest? Thanks Best, Jake - Tuesday: hosted and recorded 4x calls - Wednesday: created 4x reports, with the transcripts, bespoke to their scenario, and all recommending 4x “low hanging fruit” options, and 3x longer term AI implementations, and sent over - Thursday: already received 1x testimonial “Working with Jake was exactly what our business needed. As a construction company, the idea of implementing AI felt daunting and we had no clear starting point. Jake took the time to understand our operations and delivered a detailed roadmap outlining the right AI tools for us and a clear, step‑by‑step plan for integrating them. What once felt overwhelming now feels exciting, and we’re confident about bringing AI into our business.” Friday: aim is to finalise an offer, landing page, and pricing The future: - website update - podcast episodes to produce - direct outreach - ads All whilst homeschooling, renovating, and organising a trip… Sending good vibes all. A relaxed evening on the sofa badly needed! 😅

My wife just created an npub 💪🏻

Yday I stumbled upon a marketing channel that has never before been available to small business owners I am calling it “content to call” It leverages the latest forms of AI, and delivers cost effective leads, of much higher quality 👀

What a few weeks of iteration I’ve been through… - small business acquisition from a boomer - digital productisation of your life lessons - AI implementation opportunities Trial. Error. Trial. Error. Trial. Error. Always iterating Key lesson: the humanistic leverage one’s relationship with their wife enables is huge Let’s see where it goes Ps - pod on pause whilst this process plays out 🙏🏻

I guess it’s no surprise that the year AI has proliferated in my life in terms of usage My book reading habit has slowed down dramatically

ChatGPT updating privacy terms to include ads Next big digital product market about to kick off

Action leads to clarity

F*cking magnificent stuff man. 10/10 (JWP120) On New Year's Day 2009 my dad died. Within two years I'd inherited capital I had no idea how to manage. What followed was 17 years of expensive decisions — wealth managers, angel investing, real estate, and Bitcoin, you name it, and I've had a crack at it, whilst recently I've been through a 60% drawdown that brought everything into sharp focus. This episode is the honest story of what happened, what it cost, and what I built from it. Including the text message exchange with a close friend — right at the hardest moment — that has became the foundation of everything I now share. Sound Money. Sound Mind. Sound Marriage. This is The Durable Man. If this resonates, please reach out: hi@jakewoodhouse.io