Business Brain – The Entrepreneurs’ Podcast

Shannon Jean & Dave Hamilton
  • 5.0 (66)
  • Entrepreneurship
  • Updated Weekly

Two long-time small-business owners, Dave Hamilton and Shannon Jean, come to you each week to talk through the trials, success, pitfalls and tips it takes to successfully run a small business in today’s world. Hear real-world folks talk about real-world problems, letting you know not only what it takes to get it done but that you’re not alone in doing it!

  1. 1d ago

    Building in Reverse

    In this episode of Business Brain, we celebrate International Podcast Day by talking about building your business in reverse. Before you build the app, the community, or the program, talk to the people you want to serve. Shannon launched his first cohort after conversations with more than a hundred people who told him what they needed, how they wanted to get it, and what they’d pay. It was far more successful than he expected. Dave spots the secret ingredient: a well-managed ego that lets you admit you don’t know and lets your customers shape the vision. Then ask the hard question about your existing business: who wants this? You’re probably not your customer anymore, and when you really listen, the answer is usually about service, not price. We close with a quick tip that’s really a mindset shift. Get a tall tripod for your phone and get comfortable on camera, because unpolished, founder-led video beats AI slop every time. That’s how you show up, connect, and keep living the Charmed Life. 00:00:00 Business Brain – The Entrepreneurs’ Podcast #792 for Wednesday, September 30th, 2026 00:01:27 September 30th: International Podcast Day 00:03:05 Building in Reverse Vision combined with beginner’s mind …with a well-managed ego Who wants this? 00:14:33 SPONSOR: Shopify: Own your customer relationships. Own your revenue. Start with a free trial at Shopify.com/BusinessBrain. 00:15:55 SPONSOR: Factor, America’s #1 Ready-To-Eat Meal Kit, can help you fuel up fast with ready-to-eat meals delivered straight to your door. Head to FACTORMEALS.com/businessbrain50off and use code businessbrain50off to get 50% off your first box. 00:17:38 Buy a tripod for your phone ShiftCam SnapStand Max 00:22:35 Business Brain 792 Outtro This Episode’s Big Takeway: Get Comfortable In Front of a Video Camera and Record Check out Business Brain Blueprints Tell Your Friends! Business Blueprints Review Business Brain Subscribe to the show feedback@businessbrain.show Call/Text: (567) 274-6977 X/Twitter: @ShannonJean & @DaveHamilton, & @BizBrainShow LinkedIn: Shannon Jean, Dave Hamilton, & Business Brain Facebook: Dave Hamilton, Shannon Jean, & Business Brain The post Building in Reverse – Business Brain 792 appeared first on Business Brain - The Entrepreneurs' Podcast.

    Building in Reverse

  2. 6d ago

    FridAI Building an AI Harness

    In this Casual FridAI episode of Business Brain, we explain the harness, the app layer that sits between you and the AI model. The model is static. The harness is where your context, memory, and prompts get packaged up and sent along with every request. Dave learned how hard that layer is to build when a single-prompt ad-script tool for his BackBeat Media team took three days of agentic coding to get right. After that, the huge price tags on harnesses like Cursor made perfect sense. Then we dig into Instinct, the beta AI that lives in your messages app and just gets to work. There’s no lengthy setup and no data dump. Ask it one question about last-minute tickets or Friday night comedy, and it keeps tracking the answer for you on its own. Shannon now starts each morning like a conductor, directing multiple AI tools instead of delegating to people. Your takeaway is to learn how each harness connects you to the models so you can use it to build your Charmed Life 00:00:00 Business Brain – The Entrepreneurs’ Podcast #791 for Casual FridAI, September 25th, 2026 00:01:27 September 25th: One Hit Wonder Day 00:04:08 Building a harness 00:11:52 SPONSOR: Keeper Security’s Password Manager. Right now, Keeper is offering our listeners 60% off personal and family plans at https://Keepersecurity.com/BRAIN 00:13:08 SPONSOR: Perplexity Computer. Start your free trial of Perplexity Computer today at PPLX.ai/brain and experience the next phase of AI. #ad makeup 00:14:33 More work with Instinct (we still have invites!) 00:22:01 Business Brain 791 Outtro This Episode’s Big Takeway: Learn how each harness works with models AND with you Check out Business Brain Blueprints Tell Your Friends! Business Blueprints Review Business Brain Subscribe to the show feedback@businessbrain.show Call/Text: (567) 274-6977 X/Twitter: @ShannonJean & @DaveHamilton, & @BizBrainShow LinkedIn: Shannon Jean, Dave Hamilton, & Business Brain Facebook: Dave Hamilton, Shannon Jean, & Business Brain The post FridAI Building an AI Harness – Business Brain 791 appeared first on Business Brain - The Entrepreneurs' Podcast.

    FridAI Building an AI Harness

  3. Sep 23

    The People Who Change Your Life

    In this episode of Business Brain, we unpack what happens when a conference forgets who it’s for. Fresh off Podcast Movement’s first run in New York, Dave explains how splitting creators and business folks into separate events left everyone hunting for coffee shops to meet. Before you book the flight, figure out what value an event is built to deliver. Then show up with a plan, define success for yourself and your team, and stay loose enough to catch the moments you can’t schedule. Shannon brings it home with a favorite Steve Jobs idea: you can’t plan on meeting the person who will change your life. He’s heading to New Orleans with ten friends he first met on X, and a deal walked right up to Dave at a cocktail party, so we make the case for skipping the early exit and working one more room. Opportunities dance with those already on the dance floor, and that’s how you keep living the Charmed Life. Grab this week’s Business Blueprint at businessbrain.show/blueprints to prep for your next event, work it, and follow up afterward. 00:00:00 Business Brain – The Entrepreneurs’ Podcast #790 for Wednesday, September 23rd, 2026 September 23rd: National Great American Pot Pie Day 00:02:29 Dave just got back from Podcast Movement and has thoughts Have a Conference plan for you AND for your team What does success look like? What’s your definition of success? 00:12:34 SPONSOR: Keeper Security’s Password Manager. Right now, Keeper is offering our listeners 60% off personal and family plans at https://Keepersecurity.com/BRAIN 00:13:51 SPONSOR: Perplexity Computer. Start your free trial of Perplexity Computer today at PPLX.ai/brain and experience the next phase of AI. #ad makeup 00:15:17 “You Can’t Plan on Meeting The Person Who Will Change Your Life” – Steve Jobs “Opportunities dance with those already on the dance floor.” 00:21:11 Business Brain 790 Outtro This Episode’s Big Takeway: Keep Expanding Your Network Check out Business Brain Blueprints Tell Your Friends! Business Blueprints Review Business Brain Subscribe to the show feedback@businessbrain.show Call/Text: (567) 274-6977 X/Twitter: @ShannonJean & @DaveHamilton, & @BizBrainShow LinkedIn: Shannon Jean, Dave Hamilton, & Business Brain Facebook: Dave Hamilton, Shannon Jean, & Business Brain The post The People Who Change Your Life – Business Brain 790 appeared first on Business Brain - The Entrepreneurs' Podcast.

    The People Who Change Your Life

  4. Sep 18

    FridAI - Instinct + $10K AI Update

    In this episode of Business Brain, Dave hands ten grand to an AI and gets out of its way. The proceeds from his domain sale became a 90-day experiment: Claude designed a static, formulaic trading system — 60% crypto, 40% equities, running through MCP connectors into Kraken and Alpaca — with lightweight weekly check-ins, a heavyweight strategy review at day 45, and a 48-hour rule that lets the system act if he doesn’t respond. Day 69, up 11%. But the number isn’t the win. The win is an operation where the founder is no longer the bottleneck and the emotion has been engineered out entirely, right down to cutting a 25% loser without waiting for a recovery that may never come. Shannon’s running his own version, parking creator revenue in X Money at 6% until it’s big enough to deploy. Then Shannon walks you through Instinct, a private-beta assistant with no app at all — it lives in your text messages. It read his insurance renewal, caught his son listed as primary driver on a new truck to the tune of $3,118, and drafted the email to his agent. Then it spotted his wife’s girls’ trip on the calendar and had flowers and a charcuterie board on her doorstep by three o’clock Friday. We get into what it costs you to build this yourself versus letting someone else own the infrastructure, and why your job is quietly shifting from doing to conducting. The takeaway: don’t wait for the perfect tool. Start now, learn what genuinely matters to you, and accept that your assistant will miss a few things while it learns you. That’s the charmed life on the other side of a little experimentation. 00:00:00 Business Brain – The Entrepreneurs’ Podcast #789 for Casual FridAI, September 18th, 2026 September 18th: National Tradesmen Day 00:01:40 Dave’s Barbell AI Investing Update X Money 00:10:04 SPONSOR: SomniPods 3 sleep earbuds from Fitnexa: Flat enough to sleep on, and the app is the real prize: https://go.fitnexa.com/brain automatically applies $10 off (or use code BRAIN). 00:11:37 SPONSOR: Hims. With Wegovy® at Hims, lose up to 20% of your body weight when combined with diet and exercise. Visit https://hims.com/businessbrain to get a personalized, affordable plan that gets you. 00:13:26 Instinct AI, your personal assistant 00:21:43 Business Brain 789 Outtro This Episode’s Big Takeway: Train your AI assistant to actually be your assistant Check out Business Brain Blueprints Tell Your Friends! Business Blueprints Review Business Brain Subscribe to the show feedback@businessbrain.show Call/Text: (567) 274-6977 X/Twitter: @ShannonJean & @DaveHamilton, & @BizBrainShow LinkedIn: Shannon Jean, Dave Hamilton, & Business Brain Facebook: Dave Hamilton, Shannon Jean, & Business Brain The post FridAI – Instinct + $10K AI Update – Business Brain 789 appeared first on Business Brain - The Entrepreneurs' Podcast.

    FridAI - Instinct + $10K AI Update

  5. Sep 16

    Domain Negotaiting and HCIH Follow Up

    In this episode of Business Brain, we take you inside both sides of a domain negotiation. Shannon wanted resellerrocket.com, found it sitting on a generic affiliate parking page, and opened at $2,300 against a $4,000 ask — then used AI to land on an oddly specific counter just under $2,700 that got accepted on the spot. Dave plays the other side: an unsolicited inbox offer on a domain he’d been paying registration fees on for twenty-plus years, a Claude-assisted valuation, a $15,000 ask, and a $10,000 close with the buyer eating the escrow fees. The rule you can steal today — buy with math, sell with emotion. And when someone tries to turn a price into a monthly payment, remember what FFE really stands for. Then we put your favorite management line on trial. How can I help sounds generous, but it hands your team a blank slate and makes them do the work of delegating to themselves. You’ll hear why specific beats open-ended, why Shannon walks the floor every morning emptying trash cans while he reads the room, and why he lets his people set their own KPIs instead of handing them down. The upgrade is straightforward: tell your team you’ll do anything you can to help them succeed, then put your skills, your network, and your tools on the table as resources they’re allowed to use. Expect it to take a while before they believe you. Getting there is the charmed life — a team that finally tells you what they actually need. 00:00:00 Business Brain – The Entrepreneurs’ Podcast #788 for Wednesday, September 16th, 2026 September 16th: Working Parents Day 00:02:04 Domain Negotiating ResellerRocket.com Spaceship.com (hopefully they’re a domain broker!) 00:11:56 SPONSOR: SomniPods 3 sleep earbuds from Fitnexa: Flat enough to sleep on, and the app is the real prize: https://go.fitnexa.com/brain automatically applies $10 off (or use code BRAIN). 00:13:29 SPONSOR: Hims. With Wegovy® at Hims, lose up to 20% of your body weight when combined with diet and exercise. Visit https://hims.com/businessbrain to get a personalized, affordable plan that gets you. 00:15:17 Revisiting “How can I help?” 00:24:26 Business Brain 788 Outtro This Episode’s Big Takeway: Be Mindful of How You Can Offer Help To Your Team Check out Business Brain Blueprints Tell Your Friends! Business Blueprints Review Business Brain Subscribe to the show feedback@businessbrain.show Call/Text: (567) 274-6977 X/Twitter: @ShannonJean & @DaveHamilton, & @BizBrainShow LinkedIn: Shannon Jean, Dave Hamilton, & Business Brain Facebook: Dave Hamilton, Shannon Jean, & Business Brain The post Domain Negotaiting and HCIH Follow Up – Business Brain 788 appeared first on Business Brain - The Entrepreneurs' Podcast.

    Domain Negotaiting and HCIH Follow Up

  6. Sep 11

    FridAI - GrokBot and Simplebench

    In this episode of Business Brain, we dig into Grokbot, the new agent platform that packages OpenClaw-level power into something you can actually set up in minutes. We walk through a chief-of-staff bot that manages the rest, an auction scout that delivers a report every morning, a research bot that hunts liquidations across X, YouTube, Reddit, and LinkedIn, and a personalized daily newspaper built from your email, Slack, and calendar. No coding, cloud-hosted, and free with X Premium Plus. We also cover ChatGPT’s new computer history feature that turns your desktop activity into context for your agents, what to expect from iOS and macOS 27 screen awareness, and SimpleBench results showing Astra Pro and Fable 5.1 now edging past humans on common-sense reasoning. If you’ve been waiting for agents to get easy, this is the week to start living that Charmed Life with an AI chief of staff. 00:00:00 Business Brain – The Entrepreneurs’ Podcast #787 for Casual FridAI, September 11th, 2026 September 11th: No News Is Good News Day 00:01:26 What is Grok Bot and how do I use it? 00:12:57 SPONSOR: SomniPods 3 sleep earbuds from Fitnexa: Flat enough to sleep on, and the app is the real prize: https://go.fitnexa.com/brain automatically applies $10 off (or use code BRAIN). 00:14:24 SPONSOR: Shopify: Own your customer relationships. Own your revenue. Start with a free trial at Shopify.com/BusinessBrain. 00:15:59 ChatGPT Computer History 00:21:05 SimpleBench ratings of Astra and Fable 00:24:15 Business Brain 787 Outtro This Episode’s Big Takeway: Try Out Grok Bot! Check out Business Brain Blueprints Tell Your Friends! Business Blueprints Review Business Brain Subscribe to the show feedback@businessbrain.show Call/Text: (567) 274-6977 X/Twitter: @ShannonJean & @DaveHamilton, & @BizBrainShow LinkedIn: Shannon Jean, Dave Hamilton, & Business Brain Facebook: Dave Hamilton, Shannon Jean, & Business Brain The post FridAI – GrokBot and Simplebench – Business Brain 787 appeared first on Business Brain - The Entrepreneurs' Podcast.

    FridAI - GrokBot and Simplebench

  7. Sep 9

    Give Yourself 2 Years + VCF Files

    In this episode of Business Brain, we uncover a dead-simple texting hack most businesses are ignoring: sending a VCF contact card with your very first message so your name and logo land in your customer’s phone instead of a random number. It’s a credibility boost, it sidesteps spam filters, and almost nobody is doing it yet. If you text customers at all, this is your move. Then we revisit the two-year experiment: one year to learn, one year to execute. We break down why Stripe had only fifty customers after twenty-four months, why you shouldn’t quit your day job before the runway is built, and how to read the signals along the way without giving up too early. Give yourself the time and you’ll build the foundation for the next decade of your Charmed Life. 00:00:00 Business Brain – The Entrepreneurs’ Podcast #786 for Wednesday, September 9th, 2026 September 9th: International Box Wine Day 00:02:22 Add a downloadable .vcf file to your business text onboarding flow Superpower.com does it! 00:08:14 SPONSOR: SomniPods 3 sleep earbuds from Fitnexa: Flat enough to sleep on, and the app is the real prize: https://go.fitnexa.com/brain automatically applies $10 off (or use code BRAIN). 00:09:39 SPONSOR: Shopify: Own your customer relationships. Own your revenue. Start with a free trial at Shopify.com/BusinessBrain. 00:11:16 The Two Year Experiment One to learn, the second to execute After two years, Stripe only had 50 customers 00:18:40 Business Brain 786 Outtro This Episode’s Big Takeway: Give Yourself Two Years to Get Started Check out Business Brain Blueprints Tell Your Friends! Business Blueprints Review Business Brain Subscribe to the show feedback@businessbrain.show Call/Text: (567) 274-6977 X/Twitter: @ShannonJean & @DaveHamilton, & @BizBrainShow LinkedIn: Shannon Jean, Dave Hamilton, & Business Brain Facebook: Dave Hamilton, Shannon Jean, & Business Brain The post Give Yourself 2 Years + VCF Files – Business Brain 786 appeared first on Business Brain - The Entrepreneurs' Podcast.

    Give Yourself 2 Years + VCF Files

  8. Sep 4

    FridAI - First Draft Software

    In this episode of Business Brain, we make the case for what we’re calling first draft software. Getting custom software built used to mean months of scoping, a locked-in spec, a big check, and painful change orders every time reality shifted. That world is gone. With vibe coding and AI agents, we can put a real, working first draft in front of you in about a week, not mock-ups, the actual thing you can touch and use, then reshape it as fast as you can think of changes. We share why a friend waiting until December for a fifty-grand build is a stack of red flags, and how one of us spun up a genuinely useful Apple Mail app in three hours after a takeout order, then let an agent sanity-test and re-plumb it overnight. Stop scoping, start building, keep scoping after it’s built. We also get practical about connecting your AI to everything you already use. We walk through wiring up multiple Slack workspaces in about ninety seconds through a connector, pulling exact dates and invoices straight out of email mid-negotiation, and what the so-called SaaS-pocalypse really means: crappy, rigid software you’re trapped adapting to is finished, but services that genuinely solve a problem the moment you have it are worth every penny. Build faster, explain less, and keep engineering that Charmed Life. 00:00:00 Business Brain – The Entrepreneurs’ Podcast #785 for Casual FridAI, September 4th, 2026 September 4th: Bring Your Manners to Work Day 00:02:08 First Draft Software Ottograph 00:10:17 SPONSOR: Whatnot is the largest dedicated live shopping platform. Just search Whatnot in the app store and start selling today 00:11:54 SPONSOR: Keeper Security’s Password Manager. Right now, Keeper is offering our listeners 60% off personal and family plans at https://Keepersecurity.com/BRAIN 00:13:30 Composio for multiple Slack workspaces 00:18:17 SAAS-Pocalypse 00:20:21 Patrick-Check out Memo AI for recording online and in-person meetings 00:21:29 Business Brain 785 Outtro This Episode’s Big Takeway: Don’t Get Trapped into old systems…First Draft Software is here Check out Business Brain Blueprints Tell Your Friends! Business Blueprints Review Business Brain Subscribe to the show feedback@businessbrain.show Call/Text: (567) 274-6977 X/Twitter: @ShannonJean & @DaveHamilton, & @BizBrainShow LinkedIn: Shannon Jean, Dave Hamilton, & Business Brain Facebook: Dave Hamilton, Shannon Jean, & Business Brain The post FridAI – First Draft Software Business Brain 785 appeared first on Business Brain - The Entrepreneurs' Podcast.

    FridAI - First Draft Software
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5
out of 5
66 Ratings

About

Two long-time small-business owners, Dave Hamilton and Shannon Jean, come to you each week to talk through the trials, success, pitfalls and tips it takes to successfully run a small business in today’s world. Hear real-world folks talk about real-world problems, letting you know not only what it takes to get it done but that you’re not alone in doing it!

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