The Practical Prompt

misraapurva
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The Practical Prompt is a weekly sit-down with real small-business owners. Each episode starts with the real-world rhythms of a small-business owner, what’s buzzing, what’s breaking, and what keeps the lights (and livelihoods) on. Then we pivot to possibility, swapping stories about the AI hacks they already swear by or experimenting live with new prompts and tools they’ve never tried. Whether you’re AI-curious or already automating, you’ll leave every show with at least one ready-to-run idea to make your everyday a little smarter and your business a lot stronger.

Episodes

  1. AI, Market Bubbles & Institutional Roadblocks | Apurva & Ed Harris on Finance, Education & Strategy

    11/29/2025

    AI, Market Bubbles & Institutional Roadblocks | Apurva & Ed Harris on Finance, Education & Strategy

    Today, I sit down with seasoned investment banker Ed Harris to dissect the intersection of Artificial Intelligence, finance, education, and market cycles.This thought-provoking conversation explores: 🤖 AI in Finance Vast potential, but adoption lags behind the hype; Harris sees more headlines than real-world transformation. 📉 Market Cycles & Speculation Circular financing and speculative behaviors may signal a looming bubble, echoing past crises. 💰 Investment Discipline Harris advocates a conservative approach, emphasizing index funds over risky stock-picking. 🎓 AI in Education Tremendous promise for innovation, yet stifled by bureaucratic rigidity and entrenched institutional models. ⚠️ Systemic Resistance The greatest hurdle to radical change isn’t technology, but the inertia of institutions themselves.This episode blends financial wisdom, market caution, and the future of AI in education offering a clear-eyed look at how innovation collides with reality. Subscribe for more founder stories, industry insights, and strategies to navigate disruption. Connect with me:Linkedin: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/misraapurva/⁠ Website: ⁠https://apurvamisra.com/⁠ Consulting: ⁠https://www.sentick.com/⁠ Instagram: ⁠  / sentickai  #ApurvaAndEd #AIInFinance #MarketCycles #InvestmentStrategy #IndexFunds #AIInEducation #TechTransformation #BusinessWisdom #FounderInsights

    25 min
  2. From Tech Pioneer to Cookie King Lou Gazzola on AI, Franchising & Sweet Lou’s Story

    11/20/2025

    From Tech Pioneer to Cookie King Lou Gazzola on AI, Franchising & Sweet Lou’s Story

    Lou Gazzola, founder of Sweet Lou’s Cookies, shares his remarkable journey from early internet innovation to building a gourmet cookie brand that’s winning hearts and scaling fast.In this episode, Lou reveals: 🍪 How spotting trends in travel inspired Sweet Lou’s Cookies 💻 Why his tech background and AI expertise drive everything from strategy to content creation 🏗️ The move toward franchising and launching a new protein cookie line.🌟 How core values and “moments of delight” shape the brand’s identity and community impactThis conversation blends entrepreneurship, technology, and food innovation, perfect for founders, operators, and anyone curious about how AI can sweeten business growth. Subscribe for weekly founder stories, AI playbooks, and creative business transformations.Connect with me: Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/misraapurva/ Website: https://apurvamisra.com/ Consulting: https://www.sentick.com/Instagram:   / sentickai   #SweetLousCookies #FounderJourney #AIForBusiness #FoodInnovation #FranchiseGrowth #StartupStories #BusinessTransformation #CookieBusiness #EntrepreneurLife

    26 min
  3. AI in the Restoration Business: How PuroClean Victoria Uses Tech to Save Properties

    11/15/2025

    AI in the Restoration Business: How PuroClean Victoria Uses Tech to Save Properties

    In this episode, Apurva chats with Navtej Pannu mechanical engineer, millwright, and PuroClean Victoria franchise owner about the invisible world of building maintenance and property restoration. Navtej breaks down what really happens when a pipe bursts at 2 a.m., why water is a building’s worst enemy, how technology and AI are changing restoration, and the practical things every renter or future homeowner should know but is never taught.We cover: 🔧 The shift from 24/7 food production maintenance to emergency restoration work 🚨 How PuroClean handles water, fire, mold, and biohazard damage for insurance claims 📲 The role of tech tools like Encircle and Xactimate in streamlining restoration workflows 🏗 Why a franchised business model offers structure, scalability, and trust 💡 The importance of preventative measures and operational readiness in high-stakes environmentsThis episode is packed with insights for entrepreneurs, operators, and anyone curious about the restoration industry’s evolution.Subscribe for more founder stories, industry breakdowns, and tech-powered business transformations.Connect with me:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/misraapurva/Consulting: https://www.sentick.com/Website: https://apurvamisra.com/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sentickai/#RestorationBusiness #FranchiseOwner #PuroClean #FounderJourney #TechInOperations #Encircle #Exactimate #BusinessTransformation #ImmigrantEntrepreneur #PropertyRestoration #EmergencyResponse

    38 min
  4. AI’s Impact on Jobs, Business, and Education: Lance on Automation, Ethics & Global Shifts

    11/02/2025

    AI’s Impact on Jobs, Business, and Education: Lance on Automation, Ethics & Global Shifts

    In this episode, We talked with Lance Gillies, the founder and CEO of EarthCruiser Overland Vehicles.Lance dives into the real-world effects of AI across the workforce, education, and global business.We explore: How AI boosts productivity in marketing and sales • Why it still struggles with human nuance and communication • The urgent need to rethink homework and curriculum in the AI era • Ethical concerns around job displacement and declining entry-level hiring • The trust gap in AI systems and inconsistent outputs • Open-source models vs industrialized AI priorities and what it means for developing nationsThis is a grounded, global look at how AI is reshaping the systems we rely on and what needs to change next. Connect with me:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/misraapurva/Consulting: https://www.sentick.com/Website: https://apurvamisra.com/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sentickai Connect with Lance: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lance-gillies-3393a828/

    42 min
  5. Constrained Agents & Measurable Loops: What AI Consultants Can Ship Today

    10/25/2025

    Constrained Agents & Measurable Loops: What AI Consultants Can Ship Today

    Marcus Gaughan owner of Minds on Fire joined us and we covered the systems he uses to run an AI/automation consulting practice across retail, insurance, fintech, and healthcare. Practical takeaways for consultants:Translate asks to systems: Map lead → conversion → fulfillment → retention, then pick levers.Data triage first: Pull from POS/payment exports/inboxes; standardize as you go.Narrow loops, human review: Chat-assisted intake, event-driven email, dashboards; humans approve money-moving/outbound promises.Constrain agents: Keep LLM actions inside the product’s API surface; require confirmations and action summaries.Measure what matters: Revenue/conversions first, then dwell/click paths and AOV; iterate on what moves those.Subscribe for more founder interviews, automation strategies, and real-world AI breakdowns. Guest: Marcus Gaughan LinkedinHost: Apurva Misra ⁠Linkedin⁠ ⁠Consulting⁠ ⁠Website⁠

    27 min
  6. From Crypto Chaos to AI Productivity

    10/21/2025

    From Crypto Chaos to AI Productivity

    In this episode, Lee Humeniuk (CTO of What’s the Deal) shares his journey from leading a Bitcoin ATM company to building AI-powered restaurant marketing tools.He reflects on the volatility of crypto regulations, the pivot to finance, and how advanced AI tools like Claude Code and GitHub Copilot now supercharge his coding workflow and consulting pricing.We also dive into “What’s the Deal” a two-sided marketplace tackling the cold start problem for restaurants using geofenced offers, with future plans for AI-driven recommendations and content automation.🔔 Subscribe for more interesting Podcasts with entrepreneurWebsite: https://www.whatsthedeal.ca/explore https://www.cash2crypto.ca/Host: Apurva Misra, The Practical PromptLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/misraapurva/Consulting: https://www.sentick.com/Website: https://apurvamisra.com/

    24 min
  7. Learning the Coffee Process From Teacher to Global Coffee Producer

    10/17/2025

    Learning the Coffee Process From Teacher to Global Coffee Producer

    From seed to sip, with data. In this episode, Kingsley Griffin (founder of Kingha Coffee) walks us through building a truly vertical coffee company: growing 20,000+ trees in Uganda, exporting and importing, roasting in British Columbia, and now serving customers directly. We dig into what it takes to “own the stack” as a small business: supply-chain ops, government paperwork, POS and inventory, and why the highest ROI often hides in unsexy processes. Kingsley shares how he scaled from pen and paper to cloud dashboards across low-connectivity environments, why customer relationships are the ultimate growth loop, and how to measure marketing beyond vanity metrics. We explore where AI fits today for content, attribution, and outreach, and where it matters most tomorrow with apps, loyalty, and first-party data to close the online-to-offline loop. We also touch on regenerative practices, climate risk shifts in harvest timing, and the tech mindset behind resilient operations. If you’re a founder or operator wondering how to turn story into systems and likes into lattes, this one’s a playbook.Guest: Kingsley Griffin, Kingha CoffeeWebsite: https://kinghacoffee.comHost: Apurva Misra, The Practical PromptLinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/misraapurva/Consulting: https://www.sentick.com/Website: https://apurvamisra.com/

    28 min
  8. The Indie Uprising: Can Small Studios Conquer the Gaming World with AI?

    09/07/2025

    The Indie Uprising: Can Small Studios Conquer the Gaming World with AI?

    Are the days of massive, triple-A studios dominating the gaming landscape numbered? A new generation of agile, independent developers is rising, and they're armed with a powerful weapon: Artificial Intelligence. In this episode, we sit down with indie studio CEO and industry veteran Rafael to explore if we're on the verge of an indie takeover. Rafael reveals the lean strategies that allow small teams to outmanoeuvre giants, from rapid prototyping and market analysis to leveraging direct, unfiltered user feedback. We dive deep into the ultimate equalizer AI. Discover how generative AI is closing the massive resource gap, allowing small teams to tackle ambitious projects once reserved for thousand-person studios. We also explore how indies are pioneering new frontiers in VR and creating "AI-native" games that are impossible to build with traditional methods. Is the line between a blockbuster and an indie hit about to be erased forever? Tune in to hear the case for the indie revolution. Guest: Rafael Vazquez Linkedin Host: Apurva Misra ⁠Linkedin⁠ ⁠Consulting⁠ ⁠Website⁠ Game mentioned in the episode

    33 min
  9. Cold Email That Converts: Tools, Tactics, and Frameworks You Can Copy

    08/31/2025

    Cold Email That Converts: Tools, Tactics, and Frameworks You Can Copy

    In this episode, Apurva sits down with Sawyer and Igor, co-founders of Concrete, to unpack how they turned scrappy university side hustles and a whirlwind year in the fashion world into APOS, their automated, personalized outreach system. They share the early days, Shopify jewelry experiments, high-ticket Fashion Week sales, and sending 3,500+ bespoke emails, to the modern playbook: scraping live data, crafting tone-matched copy with today’s models, and keeping domain health pristine so messages land in the primary inbox, not spam.You’ll hear the NEPQ sales framework in action, why brand coherence beats “sell everything” stores, and a candid look at tools (Browse AI, custom scrapers, Mailmeteor, GPT-3.5→5, Claude) and tactics that booked double-digit daily meetings and helped a new beverage brand break into dozens of retail locations. Guests: Egor Golopeatov: https://www.linkedin.com/in/egor-golopeatov/ Sawyer Paul: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sawyer-p/ Host: Apurva Misra ⁠Linkedin⁠ ⁠Consulting⁠ ⁠Website⁠

    32 min
  10. The Constraint Is the Strategy: Joe Siecinski’s Playbook for SMBs

    08/24/2025

    The Constraint Is the Strategy: Joe Siecinski’s Playbook for SMBs

    Engineer-turned-operator-turned-coach Joe Siecinski (25 years at HP, now BrainSHARE) joins host Apurva Misra to break down how small businesses actually scale: allocate resources before you plan, build systems that “Save Yourself Time, Energy, Money,” and use AI where it delivers measurable ROI, not hype. Joe shares real numbers (e.g., cutting social workflows from 40 hours to 3 and turning 3-hour admin tasks into 30 minutes), how to get teams on board, and why the Theory of Constraints should guide your roadmap. We also cover security considerations, fractional expertise, and Joe’s go-to books for every stage of the journey. Guest: Joe Siecinski https://www.linkedin.com/in/joesiecinski/ www.brainshare.us Host: Apurva Misra ⁠Linkedin⁠ ⁠Consulting⁠ ⁠Website⁠ Books: TheLeanStartup, Traction, TheE-MythRevisited, GoodtoGreat, AtomicHabits, EatThatFrog

    28 min
  11. Harnessing AI in Project Management

    08/22/2025

    Harnessing AI in Project Management

    In this conversation, Grant DeCecco shares his extensive experience in project management, entrepreneurship, and the integration of AI into project management practices. He discusses his journey from starting his own company to working with major firms, emphasizing the importance of adaptability and innovation. Grant highlights the potential of AI to enhance project management efficiency while also addressing the challenges and misconceptions surrounding its use. He reflects on the future of technology and the evolving landscape of work, encouraging a balanced approach to leveraging AI as a tool rather than a replacement for human skills. Blog post: https://fisherpeakai.com/are-you-outsourcing-your-thinking Guest: Grant DeCecco fisherpeakmanagement.com fisherpeakai.com Host: Apurva Misra Linkedin Consulting Website

    44 min
  12. Alexus Washington on Creativity, Community & Everyday AI

    07/31/2025

    Alexus Washington on Creativity, Community & Everyday AI

    In this debut episode of The Practical Prompt, host Apurva sits down with serial entrepreneur, brand strategist, and creative director Alexus Washington, founder of TrellVision Studio. Alexus traces her journey from shooting weddings with a borrowed camera at 15 to launching multiple ventures, including smoothie start-ups, jewellery lines, and even a mother-daughter business. She explains how curiosity (and plenty of YouTube “courses”) turned her into a multifaceted marketer who now helps service providers craft memorable brand experiences. Whether you’re a founder wrestling with new tech or a creative looking for fresh inspiration, Alexus’s story proves that big visions and a few smart prompts can turn everyday challenges into standout brands. Relevant links: Environmental impact of AI Is using ChatGPT bad for the environment? Alexus Washington (Linkedin) Alexus Washington (Instagram) Trellvision studio Host: Apurva Misra ⁠Linkedin⁠ ⁠Consulting⁠ ⁠Website⁠

    47 min
  • 12 Episodes

About

The Practical Prompt is a weekly sit-down with real small-business owners. Each episode starts with the real-world rhythms of a small-business owner, what’s buzzing, what’s breaking, and what keeps the lights (and livelihoods) on. Then we pivot to possibility, swapping stories about the AI hacks they already swear by or experimenting live with new prompts and tools they’ve never tried. Whether you’re AI-curious or already automating, you’ll leave every show with at least one ready-to-run idea to make your everyday a little smarter and your business a lot stronger.

Information

  • Creator
    misraapurva
  • Years Active
    2K
  • Episodes
    12
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © misraapurva
  • Show Website
    The Practical Prompt