Running Your Business With AI: From Copilots to Operators

Speaker A: Episode 494 of Global From Anywhere podcast. Running your business with AI from co pilots to operators

Speaker B: welcome to Global From Anywhere podcast, where the daunting process of running an international business is broken down into straight up actionable advice.

Speaker A: Welcome back to Global From Anywhere. I'm Mike and and today we're tackling a huge question I keep hearing from business. I use AI, but am I really using it to its full potential? With me is Lisa. Lisa, you talk to entrepreneurs all the time. Does that sentiment sound familiar?

Speaker C: Absolutely, Mike. Everyone is using tools like ChatGPT for emails or brainstorming, but it often feels like we're just scratching the surface. There's a gap between using AI as a clever assistant and truly integrating it to run core parts of a business. It feels like we're missing a key ingredient.

Speaker A: You've nailed it. And that missing ingredient is context. Most people are talking to a blank slate AI with no memory. The real breakthrough happens when you give your AI a brain. Your company's brain. It needs access to your project files, your code, your marketing assets, your entire operational framework.

Speaker C: So we're moving beyond just prompting and into building a dedicated system that the AI lives inside. A system where it knows everything about a project from the start.

Speaker A: Exactly. It's the difference between hiring a freelancer for a one off task versus having a full time employee who understands your goals. In this episode, we're going to break down how to build that system, transform your AI from a simple co pilot into a powerful operator, and start automating your business in a way you never thought possible. Hey entrepreneurs. If you're serious about scaling your cross border business in 2026, don't miss the Cross Border Summit happening November 3rd to 5th in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Network with speakers and fellow advanced sellers who are already navigating AI tools, tariff strategies and new market expansion. Early bird tickets available at 2026.CrossbordersSummit.com I

Speaker B: know we all use AI, but I've been talking to a bunch of you the last couple days and I don't think everybody's using it to the full potential to really run their business. So I'm going to give you some motivation and some insights today to running your business with AI if I can figure this out. Okay, a little bit about me. E Commerce Web3. I know that's not the cool thing anymore or AI knobs. So so we're talking about AI today. But I've been building businesses and brands for 20 years. I left New York City in 2007. Wall street to come to China to build my e commerce brands and I manufacture products and sell around the world. Oh, did AI do that or was that me? So I think a lot of people still use Search the similar as AI. They're asking questions, they're asking for grammar checks, writing emails, writing responses. It seems like it's on automatic. Is this flipping by itself or not? It's like changing without me touching anything. But basically, I think the missing piece that a lot of people I talk to are missing is called context. Hello. So context is your brain. See, neural link. I think something and it happens. Uh, m. Okay, next pack. Okay. So I think we should empower AI more. And the missing piece that I was saying is context or your brain. When people say I asked. Actually the AI made this presentation and made this presentation for me in just one promise. And a lot of people ask me like Milton was like how to do that. And what I do is you set up a whole framework of your project so the AI knows everything about your business already and just been working on this application, it's been working on this project. So then it can just easily create content from it. This morning they asked me for a promotional video. I didn't have a video ready and I just went to the agent and I said, uh, we need a 30 second promotional video for today's conference. And it made it because I set up a folder with all of the files and I've been building inside of this folder to make it. And one of the missing links is I noticed a lot of marketers here today and I have been telling people in my e commerce conferences and in my community, you have to get more technical. There's no more excuses that we're not technical. I've been spending the last year getting more technical. So the way I've been doing it is I merge my code with my marketing. So the apps I've been building at Headless Empire, they maybe see my booth, I built those in repos or folders. But I don't just do code inside of it. I do marketing inside of it. I create content out of it. So what the missing piece that I think a lot of people are missing is they don't have the context. They're just going to chatgpt.com and they're asking the uh, a blank agent with no memory to do something. Whereas what I do is I take the code base and I take the full project I'm working on. And it knows all the logos, it knows the files, it knows what it's Doing, and then it creates from that. And that's something that's been a big game changer for me. Okay, works. And the way that you prompt matters. People keep saying AI doesn't give me what I need. It's not good enough. What I really strongly suggest is I speak openly to it. I write really long prompts. Peter last night said I had a long prompt. I showed him one of my prompts. It was like this long. It was like scrolling for a long time. I did a long voice submission. So I use voice a lot. Whisper flow is one or just any kind of transcription. And I write as the problem. I speak very openly to the agents. I explain what am I. What's my problem. I explain what am I trying to accomplish, what are the obstacles. I write very long form clear explanations with the context. And I get basically the answer usually in the first, maybe the second shot. See, I didn't touch a button. Did somebody do that? I think somebody's pushing it for me. And then number three is I do it over a week time frame. So what I try to do is when I'm developing something new, maybe start on Monday and then hopefully by the weekend, I have that skill done. So I have a weekly video I make about what I do this week. It's called Mike's Blog now. And the way I've been building this is this massive skill. And, uh, in the skill, I keep tweaking it and I keep improving it. It's become such a long process. It takes about an hour to do one shot and I give one input. And it has different processes and access that it does. And it accesses my repo, my folder. And so what I try to do is I do one process a week. Is my goal to really nail down something that takes a lot of time. So that used to take me, I think, three or four hours every week, and now it takes me about 15 minutes. And it's actually better than when it used to be doing it by myself, uh, by hand. Right. So I give input, output. It's like thermodynamics. Dimitri, you like thermo Thermodynamics. You like it? No. M. No problem. Keep you on your toes. But it's input, outputs. I love thermo. When I was in college. So the idea is you give good inputs. Need to get good outputs. Input, output. AI agent. Next slide, please. Human. Okay, so actually I've been using cheaper models. I'm using codecs right now. How many? Any people using codecs? Claude. Claude, Claude, Claude. More Claude. Gimme. Yeah, uh, open source, a couple of hands. But of course the model does matter. But I do think I've been even using cheaper models. So one little hack I've been using is I made a skill where the agent chooses a model so when I give him a prompt, it actually changes the model based on what I give it so I don't have to decide the model. And often it uses a lower model than you think. And I think the hardest thing to do is the planning. So if you're going to use the fable or 5.6 or any expensive model, invest in a plan, invest in the outline. What do you need to do? He's actually doing it is easier and cheaper than actually thinking how to do it. So I would usually do a plan first in an expensive model and then go to cheaper models to actually execute. So a lot of people use Abel or they use Codex and then they use Kimi or they use Grok build to actually do the actual implementation. And one big issue that I faced when I was doing this is the logging in logging into all of these applications. So earlier on like last summer, I really started getting involved in AI development and it was always how do they get access to this tool? How do I get access to that tool? And that's where I started to build what I call Headless Empire is API centric single login, so they can log into multiple applications without me in the middle. Because a lot of the bottleneck is how do they access the information, how do they get access to updating this information? So uh, a copilot, I think a lot of you probably use it as a copilot in your day to day tasks. You're asking it to do something. Edit this blog, write this email, giving a research about this. But what I think you really want is, is operators, people that actually are agents are actually doing the work, getting things done. Right? Okay, I think it's my agent, I think he's my agent. I could tell you to switch. Okay, so I talk to agents and humans now, right? Do you talk to agents more or humans more in your work? I don't usually talk. This has been a lot of extroverted talking today. I'm usually talking to agents all day, but I think the idea is humans. What's the job of a human? What's my son gonna do when he's out of school? What's my daughter gonna do when she wants to do? The idea is goals, taste, risk, relationships. Like today at this expo, building face to face relationships, having a opinion about does this look good or not? The agents are going to do the work, right? Researching, executing, monitoring. But one part people miss is systems. So I know I sound like a geek, but I like the Matrix. Uh, everybody's watched the Matrix. Matrix, yeah. So in the Matrix, if you watch the Matrix, Neo is us, the human, Agent Smith is the agent. And then there's programs. So what a lot of people miss in, in this stack is programs, the Oracle. What are some of these different programs in the Matrix? So a system of record. So I think a lot of mistakes I see people make is they, they complain about the agents not being good, but they don't have a system for the agent to use. So that's the third part I see a lot of people missing. They're just a human and an agent. But you need a system, you need a program just like the Matrix. You need Neo, you need Agent Smith and you need the Oracle. I think he clicked. Maybe I don't use a slide you want to. Okay, there's a slide. So another, another one I use that I highly recommend is it's open source framework. You can copy mine totally free on GitHub@ah, headlessempire.com uh, slavery system I believe, or just the homepage you can copy it, but I call it the CEO operating system. And every morning I check into my agents in this framework in a folder. So you open up this folder with your Agentix system and I write, what did I do yesterday? My top three things I did yesterday and the top three things I'm going to do today. And it doesn't just remember it in the system, it updates my folders in this framework. And it's like my coach, it checks in. It's like you did those three things but you didn't actually finish yesterday. And I'm like, yeah, I had a bottleneck, I got stuck on my slides, I didn't finish the slides or I didn't finish this. So it's basically documenting. It's my CEO assistants and it makes folders of all my projects, right? So I'm documenting every day I go back to my assistant and I'm updating my projects. I'm updating what it is, but not just in the chatgpt.com you need to actually have it on your computer and it's updating your files, it's building your brain and it's just compounding. I think if you watch anybody on Twitter or uh, on anywhere, the biggest thing is building your brain, building your system, and every day it gets smarter Every day gets better. It's invest. It's like the biggest investment you can make, in my opinion right now is building, like, a brain. Building a system that has all of your files, your projects, so I can just talk to it and it can help me all day, every day. Next slide. And as I said, last year, I had a lot of trouble with all these API keys, all these different logins. So I built, uh, a single login with my tool, gfavip. And I can generate API keys for different agents, and then I can give my agents. Arthur Blaise is my CEO coach Arthur. I have Janice Jung. She's my executive assistant. So they all have their own API key. And what they can do is they can log into this network of tools and update and check them as if they were a human. So I've been on panels, I've spoken about this. How do you trust? I know Max does security. I'm excited for his talk later. So, of course security is a concern. The way I deal with security is I think I'm giving this agent access the same as I give a human access. I don't know about you, but I've had humans steal from me. I've had humans make mistakes, delete files. So I treat an agent the same as a human, in my opinion. If I give them access to an application, to a folder, I realize they could also steal from me. Delete, make mistakes, just like a human. So a lot of people say agents, security, but I see humans have security issues, too. So basically, you're designing the handoff. You're trying to empower these AI agents to be able to know what to do without you as a bottleneck, right? So if you look at this, instead of giving them knowledge, you're giving them actions, skills, right? You're building a library of skills. Instead of building a catalog, you're building a channel, A way for them to communicate and connect with each other, not just siloed in one thing. How do they interconnect? And then instead of signals, you give them decisions, let them make decisions themselves, Give them more and more power and ability. But Saturday, maybe by Monday, I plan my week on Sunday. So maybe by the end of tomorrow, you can start to plan your next week. And then you talk to your agents, you tell them your plans, and they start to document it. You can copy my framework for free. You make your own framework, and then it'll start to outline your daily, plan your week, plan your projects, and they will interconnect to your other applications. And I don't know if I'm crazy or not, but I think of agents as humans. I know they're not, but they do make mistakes. They can become agents. Smith in the Matrix, you got to take care of your agent just like you got to take care of your employee or your staff. You have to give them the right information, you have to give them boundaries, you have to give them the right information and then you're logging it. So I make a lot of MD files. When there's a mistake that's made, I document it. When there's a good thing that's made, I document it. So you're building up context, you're building up a handbook, you're building up a knowledge base, and then they do report back to you. It's truly like working with a human being and just a little bit about what we built. It's a totally open source, free system. You can clone it on GitHub and use it yourself without any money or even email from me. You can also use our stack at our academy. We give a free free online classes of how I use it. Uh, my own videos. I built a free video system too. You can watch how I use it for free with the Academy and you can use our tools if you'd like, or you can use your own tools. The tools have a free version and a paid version. So that's our stack. It's a free open source operating system, a free academy, and then free and paid tools. So again, just to recap, we're summarizing copilots, I think where a lot of people are now, they're working with the agent, they're giving them tasks, they're doing things. But I think what you really want is an operator long term. You want them to basically do the task without you, just like a person. Identity is the glue. At least for me. It was a really a pain in the butt. Always a new API key, always a new login. So. So I made a single identity. You could use mine. You can build your own, but have a good way to get an identity for your agent. And then again, I know I call it Headless Empire. But it all starts by taking the first step, which is one skill, one process. What's some big bottleneck every week or every day that you do that you think an agent can help you. Just like productivity. I think the reason I like this is productivity. I love to be productive. So maybe start with one productive thing that an agent could do for you on a regular basis. Okay, that's it. I do have a free Android and iPhone app as well as desktop app and I'd love to talk to you. I uh, have my booths over there and thanks for listening.

Speaker A: What a session. It really drives home the point that the future of running a business isn't just about having AI, but about how deeply you empower it. That Matrix analogy, Neo Agent Smith and the programs is the perfect model. The system is everything.

Speaker C: I completely agree. The biggest takeaway for me was the idea of the CEO operating system. The practice of checking in daily, documenting your goals, and building that context file by file is so powerful. You're not just using AI, you're training it to be your strategic partner. It's compounding knowledge that's the core of it.

Speaker A: You're building your brain and you're giving your agents an identity and a secure way to log in and operate on your behalf. You're designing the handoff so the business can run without you as the bottleneck.

Speaker C: It can feel a bit technical or overwhelming to start for our listeners who are inspired by this. What's that? First single step they can take this week to move from being a copilot user to an operator builder.

Speaker A: It's simple. Start with one skill. Don't try to automate your whole business overnight. Identify one repetitive, time consuming task you do every week, whether it's a report, content creation or data entry, and make it your mission to build a process for your agent to handle it.

Speaker C: Great advice. And they can grab that free framework to get started?

Speaker A: Absolutely. You can find the open source CEO framework and all the resources we discussed at headlessempire.com start building your brain today. Thanks for tuning in to Global from Anywhere. We'll see you next time.

Speaker B: To get more info about running an international business, please visit our website at, uh, www.globalfromanywhere.com that's www.globalfrom anywhere.com. also, be sure to subscribe to our itunes feed. Thanks for tuning in.