This AI Setup Transformed His Business in Just 6 Months (Part 2/2)

We use Claude every single day at Millionaire University, and I don't mean once in a while, like, hey, write me a caption. It has honestly become like another team member for us. We use it for research, podcast prep, editing ideas, thumbnails, visuals, website pages, brainstorming offers, and it even helps us build our app, the 5-Minute Business Idea. Because when you're a business owner, you usually have a million ideas, a million things you want to do, and somehow they all feel urgent at the same time. It can get really overwhelming. With Claude, I can throw all those messy ideas in there and it helps me sort through them. It helps prioritize, brainstorm, break things down, and make the whole thing feel less chaotic. Claude is the AI for minds that don't stop at good enough. It's the collaborator that actually understands your entire workflow and thinks with you. Whether you're debugging code at midnight or strategizing your next business move, Claude extends your thinking to tackle the problems that matter. It's like it does half the thinking with me, and then I can take what it gives me, personalize it, and add our voice, and suddenly the idea feels clear and actually achievable. For problems worth solving, get started with Claude at Claude.ai.mu. That's Claude.ai.mu. And check out Claude Pro, which includes access to all of the features mentioned in today's episode. Claude.ai.mu. Welcome back to the Millionaire University Podcast. I'm your host, Brogan Williams, bringing you a part two in our conversation today. If you haven't heard part one yet, be sure to check that out at the link in our show notes. Otherwise, let's get right into it. Now, should everybody go buy a Mac Mini, install Hermes? Probably not. I mean, that is a little bit of a technical setup. You know, not everybody has the budget to just go buy a new computer either. And so the easiest way to get started is within the Claude app. So sign up for the $20 a month subscription if you don't have that already. Download the Claude app. There are three tabs in the Claude app. There's chat, there's co-work, and there's code. Most people that use Claude are living in that chat tab, which makes it a chat bot, which is fine. It's a really good chat bot. But I would encourage people to at least go over to that next tab of co-work. Because code is very intimidating. Even that word code is intimidating, right? And so it is more for coders, but that's not the only use case of code. But what Claude did was they made a agentic, right? AI agents portion. That's what Claude code is, is their agentic portion where it's actually doing work for you. They made it more user-friendly for everyday people in that co-work tab. So things are a lot more straightforward there. So if you want to just dip your toe in the water with doing something with AI agents, then go to the co-work tab and attach it to some tool you're using. I would suggest maybe your email. Attach Claude co-work. And there's these connectors. It makes it really easy. Connect it to your Gmail. Just give it read-only access and give it a prompt to help you start managing your inbox. Give it examples of emails that maybe can be auto-archived or give it context around how it could maybe draft replies for you and just start there. Or maybe an area you could connect it to is your calendar. And then it can help you each day, brief you on what your day is going to look like. And if you give it right access as well, you can just prompt it there in co-work to create a new meeting, right? Hey, set up a meeting with Brogan next week. It's in the invitation to it. And you can... That's what I'm... When I said earlier, I'm just prompting agents all day. That's what I'm saying. I'm not creating calendar invites. I'm saying, hey, go create this calendar invite. Or I'm not creating landing pages or sales pages anymore. It's like, hey, go create it for me. And then I'll oversee the process. Yep. Yeah, that's awesome. Oh, and another thing I wanted to say too is you mentioned you got your Claude chat and co-work is a little bit easier to kind of dip your toes into. But even with Claude code, you can still use natural language there. You don't need to really even know how to code. You can just be like, even if you did want to code, you could say, hey, Claude code, write me out this code that does this specific task. And then you can have Claude code check that for you, right? So we've talked a little bit. Yeah, but you don't have to... Brogan, you don't have to get Claude. The code tab doesn't mean you have to get it to write code, right? So you could do the same thing I'm talking about with the emails and the calendars and the code tab. It's just a little bit more intimidating of an environment for a lot of people. Yeah. So it's just like a... It's like a little scary to look at basically, right? Yeah. Yeah. But once you start using it, people fall in love with the code tab because it's so powerful. Yeah. I started using it about a week ago. So it's been super short. I've just been kind of messing around with it. And I use VS Visual Studio Code for my Claude code because that makes it look a little bit less scary too. I don't know if you're doing that or if you're just using the Claude code like directly in the app. But that's something I've seen a lot of people say makes that barrier to entry a little bit easier as well. Cool. Yeah. Personally, I'm just using it right in the app, but I know plenty of people that are using VS Code as well. I think that having fewer tools to install and the lowest possible barrier to entry is important. So that's why I would steer people more towards just go to the desktop app and click on the code tab because a lot of people are maybe using the chat tab already. Okay. Yeah. That makes sense. And yeah, it's just all in one place. I think you, I could be wrong on this, but I think you also get more access to skills and connectors that are already in there that you would have to download in VS Code. I'll have to fact check that, but I think, yeah, that would be a lot easier, especially if you don't want to have to go download different apps and stuff like that. So I'm interested. You said you've been helping people set up these AI systems for themselves. Are you having people do like the Hermes agents, get the Mac mini, set up a Hermes agent with it? Or are you more just kind of getting them set up with Claude Code? Because I know a lot of people just, or co-work, I mean, because I know a lot of people get extreme amounts of value from even that. So like I said, I was behind on AI for a while and I set up this open claw agent, Rocky, in January, and I felt like I was starting to catch up. In February, I went to this retreat that was hosted by Kajabi, who's the online course software that I use. And there was eight other course creators there at a very high level, very successful people. And it was great to meet those people. And over the weekend at that retreat, I was showing them a little bit about what I was doing with Rocky and thinking that they maybe had something similar and just wanted to compare notes. And everybody there was like blown away. They were like, oh my gosh, this is the coolest thing. I need this. We are doing nothing like this. Right? And so that was an aha moment for me is, wow, in just a couple of months, I went from behind to ahead of my peers. Because that's the space that I live in is like helping digital product creators, course creators, because that's the area I've lived in for a long time. And so that was my moment where I'm like, huh, there's a need here. I need to be serving people like this. So I created a bootcamp helping people set up what I had with Rocky. And so I ran the first bootcamp with one cohort of five people, getting them set up the way that I'm set up. So they all bought a Mac mini. They, at the time, Hermes hadn't existed yet. They set up OpenClaw and we use Claude code as well. And so kind of having those two agents running together is really the best of both worlds in my opinion. So I'm helping them with the full setup. By the end of that bootcamp, Hermes had come out and it was better. So we migrated everybody to Hermes. And now we are running the second round of that bootcamp. It's an eight week program and we're five weeks in this time we have 10 people, two cohorts of five. And everybody started on Hermes this time and Claude code. And so I'm just, I'm helping them set up their agent team and work the way that I work. And it's been a lot of fun and it's been very successful. That's awesome. So is that essentially another online course that you recently started kind of like piano in 21 days, but specifically for teaching people how to set up these types of systems? Yeah. I mean, it's not a course. It's an online coaching program because there's a lot of, there's a lot of live meetings and there's very little prerecorded content. So it's me walking them through, handing, holding their hands step-by-step in the process of setting this up. More hands on. But to answer the spirit of your question, yes. So I've got my two businesses. I've got piano in 21 days. And then my other brand is called the online course guy. And I'm slowly transitioning that second brand to just my name and being more AI focused and less on online, like the word online courses and just helping, you know, digital product owners to be able to scale with AI and AI agents is kind of the direction that I'm going as a business. Okay, cool. And that's a pretty, I mean, a year ago, you probably would not have said that, right? It would have just been, yeah, I'm sticking with teaching people how to set up online courses, but it seems like that's, that would be a pretty big shift since our last episode we had you on here. Yeah. Massive shift. Massive shift. Yeah. And I mean, part of it is like being unclear and unknown about truly the direction of online courses. I have wrestled with that term because it's critical to my branding in terms of, you know, my brand is the online course guy. My podcast is the online course show. I've had those for a long time. But even before AI, it's like, well, does this guy help with memberships? Does he help with coaching programs? Does he help with other sorts of digital products? And I, and the answer is I do. I just early on, you know, in 2017, online courses were blowing up and it made sense to just like nail that as my niche. But as, as time has gone on, it's made less and less sense. And I'm like, well, should I just brand it with my name to begin with? I don't know. Uh, and so I'm just like, I'm transitioning to just like, let's just make it my name, personal brand. And I can still help digital product creators, but with more of an AI focus. Okay. So yeah, you're doing what any good business owner would do and you're rolling with the punches, kind of adjusting with what's new. And I think that's super cool. Would you say that the online course kind of space is headed more towards like general, what's the word? Would you say it's more headed towards kind of like AI being run with AI? And do you think that that's making a big kind of difference in how an online course maybe would be a few years ago, as far as, I mean, maybe being able to sell the online courses just with all this information that people have? Yeah, exactly. I mean, that's the big deal is information is becoming more and more free with AI or very, very low cost. And so as a course creator or a digital product creator, we need to be focused on the transformation and not simply the information because you can get the information almost anywhere, right? You can go to Claude or Chai GPT and say, Hey, I want to learn piano. Help me put together a curriculum, you know, teach me every step of the way. Great. Awesome. It can kind of do that now. So where does that leave us as digital product creators? Well, we need to focus on the transformation because people still are willing to pay for transformation. They're willing to pay to be somebody who knows how to play their favorite songs on the piano. And so we need to figure out the best way to get them there. So community is more important than ever. Live events are more important than ever. Giving people a good experience is more important than ever. 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Head to Wayfair.com right now to shop all things home and get your space ready for less. That's W-A-Y-F-A-I-R dot com. Wayfair, every style, every home. Okay, cool. So you're using AI for your benefit and you're trying to basically do the things that AI can't replace, like the human aspect of it. You've got your groups. I know you mentioned school earlier. I'm actually in a couple of school groups that I love just because you get that real human interaction. Someone who's in the same boat as you, they're like, hey, I've got this issue. And you're like, oh, I have that issue too. You know, just that connection. But yeah, that's super cool. Kind of leaning into that, if you had to start your business journey over today, if you were starting piano in 21 days or some sort of digital product business, what do you think you would do different now that you wouldn't have done 13 years ago when you started? And that could be something that everything. And I'm sure you've been in this for a long time. So I've only been, I've only had my business for less than a year and I can, I would probably say the same thing, but I'm sure. I mean, it's literally more than 10 times more for you, but that could be whether it's like, you obviously didn't have AI back then, but also just things that you did back then that if you were starting back in, you started in 2012, right? Yeah. 2013. 2013. Yeah. So if you were starting back in 2013, what would you have done differently in that aspect? But I have the tools available to me today. So yeah, you have the tools available to you today, but also that aside, just like some, I guess what I'm trying to say is when you started piano in 21 days, you probably had it for eight years and you would have known what you would have done differently from the start. And now that we have AI on top of that, what would you do differently? Cool. So AI or not, the most important thing is your audience is building an audience because I could create the world's greatest course. You know, I could create the world's best software product, whatever. If I don't have an audience to sell it to, then it doesn't matter. And so I would definitely start there here in 2026. You know, if I had never started my piano business and I got the idea today to start it, knowing everything that I know though, I would start a YouTube channel and start building up an audience. I think YouTube is still as relevant as ever. It's just that I would be using AI to help me with that initiative. And so I would help it. I would get it to help me with ideation. I would get it to help me with creating thumbnails, to help keep me accountable, to posting regularly, consistently, helping me with the analytics of what's working and what's not working so that we can keep doing better and better. And I would just, that would be all of my focus. I wouldn't worry about the course. I wouldn't worry about, you know, what I'm going to price it out or anything like that yet. I would be completely and totally focused on building my audience. And for this niche, I would absolutely still make the decision to do that on YouTube. Okay. Awesome. So most important thing though, build that audience, get people in front of you. And then obviously in this day and age, we want to be leveraging AI as much as we can. So with YouTube, is YouTube the main way that people find you or is it maybe ads that they see or how are people actually ending up finding out about you and giving you business? Yeah. And you want to know about Piano in 21 Days specifically? Yeah. Yeah. So it's still through my organic YouTube channel. So we recently crossed over. I mean, it's not huge. I mean, 13 years, we recently crossed over a hundred thousand subs, right? I got my silver play button after 13 years. I mean, kids like yourself for coming in and getting that in two months. So it's a modestly sized YouTube channel that still drives the majority of the traffic to my website, to the course and whatnot. So yeah, that's it. We do. We have some SEO traffic. We have a little bit of Google ads traffic. But the vast majority is still coming from YouTube. And given that it's YouTube, the vast majority of that traffic comes from one video that I made eight years ago. So yeah, it still brings me like that one video brings me the most of my traffic to my business. Yeah. I think I checked out your YouTube channel before this. Are you talking about the piano in four minutes one with the millions of views? Is that the one that's bringing in all the traffic? Yeah. That's the one. Yeah. That's awesome. I mean, that's super cool. Yeah. I know a guy who used to teach flips. I got into doing flips during COVID. He had these videos, how to do a flip in five minutes and they went crazy. So, but yeah, that's super cool. You still got that. I mean, asset essentially, that's still bringing you business, but that's so cool. All right. So we will wrap up here in a second, but before we do so, what's next for you, Jacques? And what's next for your business? What are you excited and what are you passionate about going forward? And it doesn't necessarily need to be like entirely business focused, but maybe something that you're able to do now because of the success that you've found in business? Yeah. So I appreciate the question. I'm comfortable in the education space, right? So I'm not looking to create a bunch of SaaS products. I'm not looking to do a bunch of services, you know, go in and set up agents for you. I'm interested in teaching people how to do this. Agents are, AI agents are blowing up right now, but like 0.1% of people that even truly know what an agent is, right? So helping people, continuing to train people to do this. So watch this new side of my business where I'm educating people and showing them how to do this and get this output is where my passion lies. And that's what I'm going to continue to focus on is with this rebrand and continuing to help people in this area and staying up to speed on the latest and greatest for myself so that I can share it with others and use this stuff to run my own businesses and then share it, you know, educate other people around it. That's my focus going forward, but things are changing so very fast that who knows what things look like in just six months from now. Yep. Yeah, that's so true. That's awesome. Yeah, I can really relate to loving the teaching aspect of things. I, my dream would be to have some sort of business where I'm teaching people. I've had a ton of hobbies and I love to bring that, that light and that joy that I've experienced from that to other people and help them find success in whatever it is. And so I'm sure you can feel the same way real quick. How are you staying up to date with all this AI stuff? I feel like there's so many different apps, updates, and things that are coming out every day. What kind of helps you stay on track as far as not getting distracted by the shiny objects? And especially as someone who a year ago wasn't really using AI to its full extent. Yeah. So now that I am in this space and I have clients that rely on me for the latest and greatest information, it is very important that I stay up to speed on what's going on. And so for me personally, I use X for that. So there's some key like AI influencers that I follow. And then of course I follow like the Claude and open AI accounts as well. And I have a list in X. I don't know if you're familiar with lists, but that I don't just go to X and look at my feed. I have lists of the, of like 10 or 12 people that I follow or accounts that I follow. And that is what keeps me up to speed on the latest and greatest information. Okay. Awesome. Well, Jacques, it's been super awesome to have you on here. I mean, after this podcast, I'm immediately going to go start researching stuff. I'm going to go see how much Mac minis are and start getting a Hermes agent set up. But before we close off here, where can our viewers find you if they want to check out your stuff? Yeah. So we've got piano in 21 days.com. We've got my podcast I've mentioned, which is called the online course show. In fact, the episode we released yesterday was I've done a lot of interviews on my podcast. Obviously this is an interview based show right here. The one I did yesterday was interviewing my AI agent, Rocky. So that's so cool. He's on the hot seat in the latest episode of the online course show, episode 280. So check that out. And then the last thing, and I appreciate the opportunity to share links and whatnot would be this, these bootcamps that I've been running, helping people do this is called the it's AI operator bootcamp.com. So I, you know, really I call Rocky my AI operator because he's doing so much on the operations layer in my business. And so that's the name of that program, AI operator bootcamp.com. That's awesome. All right. Well, thanks so much, Jacques, for being on here and we will see you later. Thanks, Brogan. Appreciate it. Woo. I am mind blown after that episode, you guys. I actually had the opportunity to talk with Jacques a little bit after we stopped recording and he mentioned to me that you can also host a Hermes agent on your private server. And so I already have a private server, which was perfect. And so in between the time of recording the episode with Jacques and recording this outro, I already built my own Hermes agent. I've been messing around with it and talking to it with Slack, which I connected, which is super cool. But if you guys are in the millionaire university forum and you're a millionaire university member, I'll be making a post there asking what you guys think I should name my AI agent. Anyways, hope you guys enjoyed this episode as much as I did. And I will see you in the next one.