Episodes

  • # 166 AI agent focus groups are the future of marketing

    # 166 AI agent focus groups are the future of marketing
    May 19 2026

    I sat down with Justin Brooke, a 20-year advertising veteran who turned a $60 Google Ads campaign into a seven-figure agency — and then built an AI-powered prediction system that has since generated $260,000 for him personally. In this episode, Justin walks through his "predictive wear" framework: a multi-agent workflow that runs your ad copy and sales pages through a synthetic focus group of 13 detailed AI personas before a single dollar is spent on ads. We break down how the workflow is built in Mind Studio, why persona quality makes or breaks accuracy, and how Harvard, Stanford, and the New York Times have all validated this exact approach. By the end of this episode, you'll understand why running your marketing through a virtual focus group before it goes out the door may be the single highest-ROI move you can make right now.

    Timestamps
    03:29 – What "predictive wear" is and why Justin built it
    05:00 – Why you need multiple personas, not just one
    08:00 – How the 13-persona focus group workflow runs
    09:00 – The prediction engine: picking the winning ad variation
    10:00 – Harvard, Stanford, and the New York Times validate the method
    13:15 – The ROI: $260K personally, 4 to 6X ROAS for clients
    19:00 – What makes a persona accurate: the 1,400-word dossier
    24:04 – The copywriter prompt and "embody" vs. "pretend to be"
    33:00 – Sales page version: PDF upload and yes/no buyer scoring
    41:00 – Why some personas are successful and others are struggling
    45:00 – A $36,000 offer launched using this exact process
    48:00 – Final advice: do the work on the persona quality

    Key Points

    The old way of advertising is learning by spending money — you write copy, run ads, and find out if it works after the budget is gone. Justin's predictive wear system flips this by running copy through a synthetic focus group of 13 AI personas before any ad spend, so you know what will convert before you go live.

    Harvard, Stanford, and the New York Times have all independently validated this approach. The New York Times uses the same synthetic audience process to test headlines and found 92% accuracy compared to their human focus groups — meaning this is not a fringe experiment, it is becoming standard practice for major publishers and brands.

    The cost is 13 to 20 cents per run. A top 1% copywriter charges $100 to $500 per ad. Justin's workflow produces three optimized variations in about 10 minutes for 13 cents, performs at or near the level of the best human copywriters for most use cases, and allows unlimited iteration — you run it until the copy converts.

    The system is also a copywriting trainer. Even with 20 years of experience, Justin says the feedback regularly surfaces blind spots and teaches him better approaches. A recent $36,000 offer used bullet points the AI rewrote because its version was simply stronger than what he had originally written.

    Anyone can use this, not just expert copywriters. Because the workflow takes whatever you input — even a bad ad — and improves it based on real persona feedback, non-copywriters like a front-desk employee or a local business owner can now produce top-10% ad copy without prior training.

    Join the Build With AI community built for non-technical entrepreneurs: https://www.skool.com/buildwithai/about

    If this episode was valuable to you, it would mean a lot if you left a rating and review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. It helps more entrepreneurs find the show.

    FIND ME ON SOCIAL
    X/Twitter: https://x.com/coreyganim
    Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/coreyganim/
    LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/coreyganim/
    YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@coreyganim

    FIND JUSTIN ON SOCIAL
    https://x.com/IMJustinBrooke
    Website: https://adskills.com
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    53 mins
  • # 165 I BLEW UP Instagram With AI Content (4M Views in 30 Days)

    # 165 I BLEW UP Instagram With AI Content (4M Views in 30 Days)
    May 15 2026
    I sat down with Nick Puru to break down the exact Claude Code setup he used to pull 4 million views and ~6,000 newsletter signups in the last 30-45 days for his AI consultancy. Nick walks through his short-form content factory inside Claude Code — the CLAUDE.md "brain," his ICP file (an avatar he calls Patrick), his foundations doc full of algorithm lessons like "negativity always wins," and the three skills he uses to write captions, generate scripts, and review them. We get into how he tests three hooks per video with Instagram trial reels, the humanizer skill from Bader on GitHub that strips out AI tells like em-dashes and "it's not X, it's Y," and why he treats every Claude project like onboarding a new employee. By the end of this episode, you'll have a clear blueprint for building your own short-form content system in Claude Code — starting from a single CLAUDE.md file and expanding from there. Timestamps 00:00 – Intro 00:37 – 4 million views in 30 days 01:53 – Reels to ManyChat to newsletter funnel 03:31 – Tour of the Claude Code folder structure 05:02 – How the write script command works 06:29 – Why human-in-the-loop matters for content 07:38 – Inside the CLAUDE.md brain file 08:11 – Meet Patrick, Nick's ICP avatar 10:04 – Foundations file and "negativity always wins" 13:43 – Live generating a Claude Cowork script 15:44 – Testing three hooks with Instagram trial reels 18:48 – Most bare-bones version to start with 22:36 – Why ICP and brand voice are foundational 24:28 – The humanizer skill from Bader on GitHub 27:01 – Treating AI like a new employee 29:35 – Context beats prompting in 2026 31:13 – Where to find Nick Key Points Nick's short-form system drove ~4M views in 30 days and ~6,000 newsletter signups in 45 days for his AI consultancy — every video CTA pushes a lead magnet via a ManyChat flow that collects emails and hands off to an appointment setter. The whole system lives inside Claude Code as three skills: one writes scripts, one reviews them against a quality checklist, and one generates captions. Trigger them by typing things like "write script" in the terminal. The CLAUDE.md file is the brain. It holds the output format, writing rules, key principles, and a pointer to an ICP file built around an avatar named Patrick — a small-to-mid market business owner ($few hundred K to $15M, 2-50 staff) who has tried ChatGPT once or twice but doesn't know Claude Code. One of Nick's foundations is "negativity always wins" — the algorithm rewards a stronger emotional charge, but he warns against using it on every video or audiences pick up on it. He calls it in only when the angle fits. He tests three different hooks on the same body and CTA using Instagram trial reels, treats it like A/B testing titles and thumbnails on YouTube, and feeds the winners back into the system as analytics context. To kill AI tells like em-dashes, bullet points, and "it's not X, it's Y," Nick runs scripts through Bader's humanizer skill from GitHub. Corey adds a similar instruction in his agents.md to never use dashes. Treat Claude like a new employee, not a magic box. You wouldn't expect a hire to crush it on day one — you'd give them SOPs, business context, your website, and an ICP. Same playbook for building any Claude project, whether it's short-form, long-form, or LinkedIn posts. Bader's humanizer skill on GitHub - https://github.com/bader-research ManyChat for Instagram DM automation - https://manychat.com FIND ME ON SOCIAL X/Twitter: https://x.com/coreyganim Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/coreyganim/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/coreyganim/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@coreyganim FIND NICK ON SOCIAL YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@nickpuru X: https://x.com/nickpuru LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nickpuru/
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    32 mins
  • # 164 How I Built an AI Voice Agent With Claude + Voiceflow (Zero Code)

    # 164 How I Built an AI Voice Agent With Claude + Voiceflow (Zero Code)
    May 12 2026
    Build your voice agent in 10 minutes (No code required) https://corey-ganim.kit.com/18da152cf4 In this episode, I sat down with Susan Westwater, co-founder of Pragmatic Digital and a conversational AI veteran since 2017, to build a working voice agent in Voiceflow live, with zero code. Susan walks through her exact prompt template for an appointment-scheduling agent, explains the difference between in-the-loop, on-the-loop, and fully autonomous agents, and shows how to separate your agent instructions from your knowledge base so you can update facts without breaking the whole build. We test the agent live (it called her cell phone mid-episode), connect it to a Google Sheet to capture customer intake, and talk about competitors like VAPI, ElevenLabs, and Voiceify. By the end, you'll have the exact playbook (and the template Susan is giving away) to spin up your own MVP voice agent in under an hour. Timestamps 03:42 – Inside Voiceflow and what makes it different 04:23 – Chatbot vs voice agent: listen, decide, act 05:30 – In the loop vs on the loop vs fully autonomous 09:09 – The system prompt: identity, purpose, and boundaries 11:54 – Voice, persona, and speech sculpting 13:22 – Separating agent instructions from knowledge base 17:14 – Stopping the agent from troubleshooting electrical issues 20:31 – Rules for collecting info one question at a time 23:21 – Pasting the prompt and one-shotting the build 26:34 – Voiceflow competitors: VAPI, ElevenLabs, Voiceify 30:22 – Connecting tools at each conversation step 33:13 – Why faster builds give up control 38:21 – Adding the knowledge base as a Word doc 43:13 – Sending customer intake to a Google Sheet 45:57 – Live phone call with the voice agent 50:09 – Branching, exit conditions, and iteration 54:52 – Custom voices, ElevenLabs integration, and voice security Key Points Keep two documents separate: agent instructions (how the agent behaves, its identity, persona, escalation rules) and knowledge base (the facts about your business). If pricing or hours change, you update one cell in your knowledge base instead of digging through a giant system prompt. The strength of a Voiceflow build lives in the prompt. Susan pastes her full instructions doc into the new project prompt and Voiceflow generates the entire conversation flow — greeting, qualification, intake, confirmation, escalation — with no coding. Be explicit about what the agent does NOT do. LLMs are trying to "win the game" (Susan's War Games analogy), so if you don't tell the electrical-appointment bot "do not troubleshoot," it will try to problem-solve its way out of every conversation. Collect intake one question at a time, use explicit confirmation on critical fields like callback numbers, and tell the agent to be empathetic but not apologetic — nobody wants a bot that says "I'm sorry" five times instead of solving the problem. Voiceflow — https://www.voiceflow.com Pragmatic Digital — Susan's agency helping brands operationalize conversational AI and applied AI for CX - https://www.pragmatic.digital VAPI — alternative voice agent platform - https://vapi.ai ElevenLabs - https://elevenlabs.io Voiceify — centralized library for chatbot, voice agent, and telephone deployments across web and mobile - https://www.voiceify.com Twilio — phone number and telephony layer for connecting Voiceflow agents to real phone calls - https://www.twilio.com Make.com — automation platform that can connect to Voiceflow as a tool integration - https://www.make.com Robert Scoble on X https://x.com/Scobleizer Brian Roemmele on X https://x.com/BrianRoemmele FIND ME ON SOCIAL X/Twitter: https://x.com/coreyganim Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/coreyganim/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/coreyganim/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@coreyganim FIND SUSAN ON SOCIAL X: https://x.com/sjw75 Website: https://www.pragmatic.digital
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    58 mins
  • # 163 I Built the ULTIMATE AI Second Brain (Karpathy's LLM Wiki Setup Guide)

    # 163 I Built the ULTIMATE AI Second Brain (Karpathy's LLM Wiki Setup Guide)
    May 8 2026

    🔗 Deploy your own Hermes agent on Hostinger -10% off any plan with code COREY10: http://hostinger.com/corey10 (use code COREY10)

    Grab the free step-by-step Hermes Second Brain setup guide here: https://corey-ganim.kit.com/60fc0fe6d9


    In this solo episode, I walk through exactly how I built the ultimate AI second brain using Hermes and its built-in LLM Wiki skill — inspired by Karpathy's wiki setup. I break down the three core operations of the Hermes agent (ingest, query, lint), the three layers of the knowledge base (raw sources, the wiki, schema/tags), and why I chose Hermes over Claude Code, OpenClaw, or Obsidian for this build. From there, I show the full one-click deploy on a Hostinger VPS, the OpenAI model setup, the Telegram bot integration via BotFather, and the Markdownload Chrome extension trick I use to feed any tweet, article, or webpage straight into the wiki. By the end of this episode, you'll have a clear, step-by-step path to deploy your own self-improving second brain that gets smarter the more you use it.

    Key Points

    Hermes ships with a built-in LLM Wiki skill that handles the second brain function out of the box — your job is to curate sources, the agent's job is to summarize, tag, and file them away.

    The knowledge base has exactly three layers: raw sources you give it (read-only), the agent-owned wiki of markdown files, and the schema/tags Hermes builds to make querying low-friction.

    Run the Lint command roughly once a month — it audits your wiki for contradictions, sources older than 90 days, and oversized files that should be split for more accurate retrieval.

    Deploy on a Hostinger VPS instead of locally — it's a one-click install with no terminal, cheaper than a Mac mini, always-on, and your data stays private.

    The simplest workflow for feeding the wiki: use the Markdownload Chrome extension to clip any tweet, article, or webpage to markdown, drag it into your Telegram chat with Hermes, and tell it to add it to the wiki.

    This is a compounding asset — on day 1 the knowledge base is the dumbest it'll ever be, but feed it consistently and by day 90 it becomes incredibly useful for retrieval.

    Hermes agent VPS deployment on Hostinger (use code COREY10 for 10% off) - https://www.hostinger.com/vps/hermes-agent-hosting

    Markdownload Chrome extension - https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/markdownload-markdown-web/pcmpcfapbekmbjjkdalcgopdkipoggdi

    Telegram BotFather - https://t.me/BotFather

    OpenAI Codex - https://openai.com/codex

    FIND ME ON SOCIAL X/Twitter: https://x.com/coreyganim Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/coreyganim/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/coreyganim/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@coreyganim
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    19 mins
  • # 162 Cracking the X algorithm with Claude Code

    # 162 Cracking the X algorithm with Claude Code
    May 5 2026

    Tom Crawshaw (8+ years in automations, $25M+ in attributed e-com revenue) cracks open the content system that's pulled him millions of views. We walk through the Claude Code skill he built that handles voice profile, copywriting principles, hook scoring, image prompts, and a humanizer pass from one slash command. He also surfaces a hidden Claude Code feature called /insights that audits your full usage history and tells you what to build next. You'll learn how to turn messy ChatGPT workflows into a real skill, why Whisperflow is non-negotiable, and the one slash command 99% of Claude Code users are sleeping on.

    Timestamps

    00:00 Intro

    00:30 Tom's automation background

    03:30 Skills vs. Projects on context

    08:30 Auto-updating voice profile from X

    11:00 Nano Banana plus Canva workflow

    23:30 Live demo: a Whisperflow post

    34:30 Hook scoring with copywriting principles

    46:30 The hidden /insights command

    54:30 Skills vs. n8n vs. Lovable

    Key Points

    Skills beat Claude Projects on context. Projects load every reference file on every message. A skill works like a book: Claude pulls only the chapter it needs, so a full pipeline runs in one chat.

    Tom's skill auto-updates his voice profile weekly. The X API pulls his last 7 days of posts, ranks by engagement, and rewrites the profile so the skill keeps drifting toward what's working.

    /insights is the most slept-on feature in Claude Code. It audits your full session history and hands back a real report: what's working, where you're breaking your own rules, skills to build, and prompts to run.

    Image gen is 80% Nano Banana, 20% Canva. Generate fast in the AI tool, then finish in Canva with magic grab and magic erase.

    Whisperflow changed how Tom and Corey think, not just type. Speaking forces tighter thinking and makes prompts richer because adding context costs almost nothing.

    Links

    Claude Code: https://www.anthropic.com/claude-code

    Whisperflow: https://wisprflow.ai/

    Nano Banana: https://gemini.google.com/

    Canva: https://www.canva.com/

    n8n: https://n8n.io/

    Tom's site: https://learnn8nautomation.com/

    Build With AI: https://www.skool.com/buildwithai/about

    FIND ME ON SOCIAL

    X: https://x.com/coreyganim

    Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/coreyganim/

    LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/coreyganim/

    YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@coreyganim

    TOM ON SOCIAL

    X: https://x.com/TomCrawshaw01

    YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheAIGrowthLab

    Website: https://learnn8nautomation.com/
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    57 mins
  • # 161 How I'm AI-maxxing boomer businesses to make f*ck you money

    # 161 How I'm AI-maxxing boomer businesses to make f*ck you money
    Apr 29 2026
    Free audit template Corey is giving away — https://audittemplate.ai In this episode, I sat down with Chris Koerner and outlined how I sell AI assessments to small businesses. Timestamps 00:00 – Intro 00:33 – The $1,000 AI audit pitch 01:10 – The lunch conversation that started it all 02:23 – Why 99 out of 100 owners need this 02:57 – Why Loom screen recording failed 04:25 – From Zoom calls to a voice agent 05:31 – Meet Annie, the AI interviewer 06:17 – Live demo of the voice agent 08:06 – How the voice agent was built (Retell + skills) 10:18 – Walking through a real assessment in Gamma 12:00 – The effort vs impact matrix 13:00 – Wedding venue saves 8 hours with Dash This 15:16 – Pricing journey: free to $1,000 17:30 – Why charging more makes upsells easier 18:02 – The full upsell menu breakdown 22:00 – Custom GPT knowledge system for a business broker 24:46 – Which industries this works best for 25:53 – Seven ways to find clients with no followers 26:39 – Hosting a local AI meetup 27:30 – Door-knocking businesses in 2026 29:25 – Using free audits to land warm contacts 30:30 – Running free AI office hours 31:30 – Hard-won lessons and the speed-to-lead upsell 34:36 – The simple Claude prompt that builds the audit 35:33 – Where to find Corey Key Points The business started from one lunch where a friend said he'd pay $1,000 just to be followed around for a day. After validating with 50–100 owners, Corey found 99 out of 100 small business owners need this — they just don't know which AI tools to use. The upsell menu is built into the report. Common follow-ons: process optimization ($3K–$5K), Zapier or Make automation builds ($1K–$3K), custom GPT knowledge systems, CRM setups (high-level CRM at $3K–$5K), and speed-to-lead AI agents tied directly to revenue. The seven-way client acquisition playbook works with zero followers: host a local AI meetup on Luma or Meetup.com, door-knock local businesses, run free audits for your network, host free AI office hours at coworking spaces or realtor offices, partner with well-connected locals, and lean on warm intros from your CEO peer group. You don't need to be an AI expert. As Corey puts it, you just need to be one step ahead of your average client — which is about seven days of studying. The realtor's office where he hosted his free AI meetup turned into paying assessment work. The Claude prompt to generate an audit is dead simple: attach the transcript, tell Claude to find off-the-shelf tools that fix the pain points, and point it at directories like Futurepedia or There's An AI For That. FIND ME ON SOCIAL X/Twitter: https://x.com/coreyganim Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/coreyganim/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/coreyganim/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@coreyganim
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    36 mins
  • # 160 EASY Claude Cowork Setup (full beginner tutorial)

    # 160 EASY Claude Cowork Setup (full beginner tutorial)
    Apr 23 2026

    In this solo episode, I walk through the exact process of setting up Claude Cowork from scratch — the right way — using the free Cowork Onboarding plugin I built and made open source. I go step by step through the full onboarding flow, from picking your workspace folder and connecting tools, to building three core context files (About Me, Brand Voice, and Working Style), generating global instructions that tie everything together, setting up scheduled tasks like a daily morning briefing and quarterly context review, and running an optional security review to lock in sensible rules.

    Timestamps

    00:00 – Why Cowork is useless out of the box

    02:22 – Starting the onboarding flow from scratch

    03:30 – Choosing workspace folder and onboarding path

    04:37 – Workspace structure and file access permissions

    05:45 – Connecting Google Workspace tools (Gmail, Drive, Calendar)

    06:56 – Building context files: About Me, Brand Voice, Working Style

    10:58 – Linking existing brand materials from Google Drive

    12:44 – Generating global instructions from your context files

    15:00 – Skills and plugin recommendations from the marketplace

    17:24 – Setting up scheduled tasks: morning briefing and quarterly review

    19:46 – Running the optional security review

    23:23 – Wrapping up: what we built and the two manual steps left

    Key Points

    • Most people skip the onboarding and then wonder why Cowork feels generic. The entire point of setting it up properly — building context files and global instructions — is so Claude never has to ask who you are again. Every session loads with that context automatically.
    • The three context files (About Me, Brand Voice, Working Style) are the foundation of the whole setup. Without them, Cowork is writing responses for a stranger. With them, it knows your business, how you communicate, and how you like your deliverables structured.
    • Global instructions are the piece most people miss. Once you paste your generated global instructions into Cowork's settings, every single session loads that context from the start — no repeating yourself, no re-explaining your preferences.

    Links Mentioned

    Free Cowork Onboarding plugin — download it to run the full guided setup described in this episode: https://return-my-time.kit.com/f00d78554c

    Build with AI community — get the full onboarding plugin including the self-assessment, workflow audit, and custom skill blueprints tailored to your business: https://www.skool.com/buildwithai/about

    WisprFlow — the talk-to-text tool used during the onboarding to answer Claude's questions faster: https://wisprflow.ai

    Find Me on Social

    X/Twitter: https://x.com/coreyganim

    Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/coreyganim/

    LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/coreyganim/

    YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@coreyganim
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    27 mins
  • # 159 Build STUNNING Websites with Claude Code + Google Stitch (full walkthrough)

    # 159 Build STUNNING Websites with Claude Code + Google Stitch (full walkthrough)
    Apr 17 2026

    I sit down with Leon van Zyl, who ran a web design company for 10 years and now teaches over 700 people how to build real applications with coding agents. We walk through his exact workflow for building professional, client-ready websites using Google Stitch for the design system and Claude Code for the build — no coding skills required. Leon shows the difference between a one-shot AI-generated site and what you get when you front-load the design system before touching code. By the end, you'll have a repeatable workflow for going from design concept to finished website — including custom AI images that match your brand.

    Links Mentioned:

    Google Stitch: https://stitch.withgoogle.com

    Claude Code: https://docs.anthropic.com/en/docs/claude-code

    Cursor: https://www.cursor.com

    Next.js: https://nextjs.org

    Stitch MCP Server Docs: https://stitch.withgoogle.com/docs/mcp

    Stitch Skills: https://stitch.withgoogle.com/docs/skills

    Timestamps

    00:00 – Intro

    00:06 – What you'll learn: design systems for client-ready websites

    02:04 – Jumping into the screen share

    02:25 – The problem: one-shot AI websites look terrible

    03:52 – The Stitch workflow result: side-by-side comparison

    07:32 – Starting from a vanilla Next.js project

    08:50 – What is Google Stitch and how to get started

    10:00 – Prompting Stitch with brand details, fonts, and colors

    13:00 – Why design systems matter for coding agents

    16:00 – Iterating on the homepage before building more pages

    17:44 – Sharing Stitch designs with clients for approval

    21:23 – Setting up the Stitch MCP server in Claude Code

    23:18 – What an MCP server actually is (simple explanation)

    25:56 – Pulling the design system into your project

    28:47 – Memory files: Claude.md vs Agents.md explained

    33:24 – Converting the Stitch design into a working website

    35:06 – Installing the Stitch React Components skill

    41:11 – When to use this workflow: client work vs personal projects

    44:27 – Viewing the finished website vs the Stitch mockup

    48:27 – Downloading and converting images to WebP for performance

    53:46 – Generating custom AI images with Nano Banana Pro

    58:14 – Final result with branded AI-generated hero image

    01:00:48 – Key takeaways and wrap-up

    FIND ME ON SOCIAL

    X/Twitter: https://x.com/coreyganim

    Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/coreyganim/

    LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/coreyganim/

    FIND LEON ON SOCIAL

    YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@leonvanzyl
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    1 hr and 5 mins