Episode Transcript
PODCAST: Real AI Use Cases — Business Owners Roundtable
EPISODE: 9
GUEST: Saahil Mehta
ADDITIONAL GUESTS: Brady Sticker, Tom Wragg
HOST: Elizabeth Gearhart, Richard Gearhart
TOPIC: Practical AI use cases for entrepreneurs and small business owners
KEYWORDS: AI in business, ChatGPT, custom GPT, AI automation, mortgage AI, AI coaching, AI productivity, AI tools, entrepreneur, small business
[ELIZABETH GEARHART]: This is Real AI Use Cases Business Owners Roundtable with host Elizabeth Gearhart, podcast consultant, marketing expert, and PhD researcher using AI every day. And Richard Gearhart, entrepreneur, seasoned business owner, and intellectual property attorney specializing in innovation. Here's how real companies are using AI right now. This is AI in business.
I am here with Saahil Mehta, Brady Sticker, and Tom Wragg. Saahil Mehta at sahilmata.com — what is one way you are using AI in your business?
[SAAHIL MEHTA]: I've created a Sahil Bot. I've put in everything I've ever said in the public domain — all my research, all my posts, everything — and I fed that all into ChatGPT. How that's helping is my team doesn't always have to depend on me to get an answer. In fact, I would even go as far as saying that Sahil Bot is probably better than I am, because it doesn't forget anything I've ever said.
[ELIZABETH GEARHART]: The second person that I've heard do this. How much time do you think that saves?
[SAAHIL MEHTA]: Every time my team has to depend on an answer from me, now they can just go to Sahil Bot and ask the question and it'll respond on my behalf.
[ELIZABETH GEARHART]: So they don't have to track you down, they don't have to write an email back. Wow.
[SAAHIL MEHTA]: And it's not just internal — it's even external. The folks who coach with me, in between sessions, because I coach people around the world — what if I'm sleeping? They can go to Sahil Bot, ask the question, and get an answer.
[ELIZABETH GEARHART]: So how did you implement that? Is there special software that helps people create their own bot inside ChatGPT, or did you just start feeding it your data?
[SAAHIL MEHTA]: This is where I have to give my team credit. The folks who manage my website and the back end of everything I do — I'm going to be honest and say I don't have all the details. However, I do know that they fed all my content into ChatGPT and put in some guardrails. Because if you ask about mortgages, for example, my bot will say, "I'm sorry, I'm not an expert in that field. Please ask another question." That's what I mean by guardrails — as opposed to being completely open to answering anything.
[ELIZABETH GEARHART]: Brady Sticker with churchcandy.com — what's one way you're using AI in your business?
[BRADY STICKER]: When AI first really came on the scene, I was a little intimidated. People were saying you don't have to have your employees do all this stuff anymore. We have a pretty big team and a great company culture, and I didn't want to replace my team with AI. One of my business coaches really helped me change my mindset. Don't use AI to replace your team — use AI to make your team more efficient.
Now, one of my team members — with the help of AI — has the efficiency of three or four team members. Here's a practical thing we did to implement this. We had all of our team take this prompt and give it to ChatGPT:
"I want you to act as an AI and automations expert. Ask me questions about my role, responsibilities, KPIs, and how I'm currently accomplishing all of this. Make sure you have a good understanding of my role, and then create a plan for me on how I can use AI to become more efficient."
We had our entire team do this. Now we have a custom ChatGPT bot that takes all of our proven ad copy templates and scans our client's website to write custom copy for them. Instead of my team spending several hours researching the client and rewriting templates, ChatGPT does that in seconds.
[ELIZABETH GEARHART]: That's great.
[BRADY STICKER]: They love it because it's making their job easier. They're hitting higher numbers. Rather than being scared of AI taking their job, they're embracing it — and it's made us as a company way more efficient.
[ELIZABETH GEARHART]: Tom Wragg with loandepot.com — what's one way you're using AI?
[TOM WRAGG]: AI has become very quickly, very influential. Mortgage originators can use AI across the entire loan life cycle to close more loans faster with less friction while staying compliant. AI helps with lead generation, prospecting new clients, new borrowers, new realtors. AI also helps analyze income, asset verification, and personalize follow-ups with specific customers.
It's all rolled into origination and customer retention. AI doesn't nap, sleep, or get tired. When it's someone's birthday and I'm asleep, AI can wish them happy birthday — makes me look like I'm awake when I'm not. It also helps with social media posts, email campaigns, and first-time homebuyers. It's really helped me automate customer retention and make new customers happy with a smooth, seamless process to get to the closing table.
[ELIZABETH GEARHART]: I'd be scared if I was your competitor. You're doing a lot with it and anybody that's not is falling way behind.
[ELIZABETH GEARHART]: Richard Gearhart with Gearhart Law — what's one way you're using AI?
[RICHARD GEARHART]: I've lost weight using AI. I started tracking all my meals in AI and it creates a list of what I've eaten, the calories, the macronutrients, and then it suggests dinner possibilities. I've been doing this for four days and I've lost two pounds. I'll put in that I had a couple of sugar cookies, and it says, "Okay, you've had enough cookies for today." It coaches you and discourages you from overeating. And if you eat more anyway, it says, "No judgment, but I think you've had enough if you want to reach your goals." It's been great — a perfect use for AI.
[ELIZABETH GEARHART]: I've been using AI extensively for research — not just ChatGPT. I also use Perplexity and Gemini. In Perplexity you can access Claude and different large language models. What I'm finding is the most important part of AI research is knowing what queries to come up with. I love what Brady said — pretend like you're this person, then give me an answer that works. Do you guys think AI will displace your employees?
[RICHARD GEARHART]: I think some, depending on the role. In the legal profession, there are a lot of attorneys who are concerned — especially younger attorneys who spend their time drafting contracts and documents. What used to take a young attorney three or four hours can now be done in seconds. There's still a role for experienced professionals to review work and apply judgment. But what I get concerned about is that there won't be enough young attorneys who work through the system and develop the experience to give good guidance.
[ELIZABETH GEARHART]: I think the people who are going to have jobs in the near term are going to be the people who can introduce AI to businesses and help them do automations. That's why I was asking you, Saahil, about how you actually did it in your business — you had a team that worked on it, right?
[SAAHIL MEHTA]: It was a team that put it all together. It's almost like you have a team that are the architects — they execute on the plan. But I want to say: with everything that comes out in the world, there's always an element of love and there's an element of fear. There's always duality. Whether it was the industrial revolution or nuclear energy — any major breakthrough has caused a lot of benefit, but also a lot of pain. Each day you have a choice of how you wish to show up. You can operate from a place of fear thinking the world's falling apart, or you can operate from a place of love. I feel you operate at a much better frequency when you're operating from a place of love. Yes, I see AI taking roles away — but there will be new roles created and new opportunities that come up as a result.
[ELIZABETH GEARHART]: That's what I think. And Tom — the jobs are going to change. You don't see people driving horse carriages everywhere anymore. Those people had to learn to drive a car. Their job changed, but things didn't disappear. What do you think, Tom?
[TOM WRAGG]: AI will not replace trust building or structuring complex deals. It certainly will not replace negotiating terms of contracts between people, and it will never replace person-to-person, realtor-to-mortgage-originator relationships. AI is amplifying good originators, but not replacing us. Once you get into the $500,000 to multi-million dollar transactions, people want a human being on the other side of the phone — because the implications of making the wrong decision are much greater.
[ELIZABETH GEARHART]: I agree strongly with Saahil — I don't think we need to be afraid. We're not all going to be sitting in line at the soup kitchen because of AI. We'll find creative ways to use it. Things will shift, but humanity will shift with it.
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