Send a question or message to Kate & Sam

Welcome to Episode 8 of the Roadmap to Business Success series!

If you're only using AI for content creation, you're leaving the biggest gains on the table. In this episode, Kate and Sam dive into the AI tools they actually use in their businesses every day, and discuss how to shift from using AI to do more, to using AI to work less.

"AI should handle the 80% of grunt work while you handle the 20% that requires judgment, relationships, and nuance."

In this episode, you will learn:

• Why you shouldn't be loyal to just one AI tool: Different AI platforms have different strengths, and the smartest business owners use multiple tools for different jobs.
• Claude: Why it's Kate's go-to for content creation, critical analysis, data analysis, book writing, and coding tasks, including how she saved $10,000 in website costs by using Claude to write code herself.
• Claude Cowork: Sam's introduction to the agentic side of Claude, how it can organise your entire filing system, build sales pages, and execute complex multi-step tasks on your behalf while you step away.
• Gemini: How Sam uses Google's AI to automate payroll calculations, organise her inbox, add tasks to her calendar, and manage the chaos of a busy brain, all through its deep integration with Google apps.
• Notebook LM: The hosts personal favourite for repurposing content. How to upload a podcast transcript or YouTube link and turn it into blog posts, infographics, slide decks, or even a new podcast episode, in your own voice.
• REVE AI: The free image generation tool Sam uses to create AI-generated images of herself and Kate for podcast thumbnails and social media.
• AI for website SEO: How to enter your URL into an AI and instantly get a plain-English audit of what's missing: H1 tags, meta descriptions, ALT tags and more.
• The tells of AI-generated content: The words, phrases and structural patterns that immediately give away AI-generated copy.
• Automation vs productivity: Why the real opportunity isn't doing more in the same time, it's doing the same in less time.
• How to use AI to figure out what to automate: Why asking AI to review your regular tasks and identify what can be automated is one of the highest-value conversations you can have.

Kate and Sam also discuss the evolution of AI since their first conversation about it in September 2023, why ChatGPT is no longer the only game in town, the rise of agentic AI, and how they've used AI to almost fully automate the production of this very podcast.

Join the Workshop:

Kate and Sam are hosting Profit Unlocked on Wednesday 20 May, 9–10:30am AWST | 11am–12:30pm AEST.

What is it? A LIVE 90-minute coaching session where you can bring your questions on AI systems, profitability, pricing and more.

🐦 Early bird tickets available until Sunday 10 May for just $49 (live attendance)

🎟️ Attend LIVE: $89

🎧 Replay only: $49

Grab your early bird ticket now!

👉 Register here

Connect with Your Hosts:

Kate De Jong, PhD | Inspired Business 🌐 Website: https://katedejong.com/ 📱 Instagram: @katedejong.inspiredbusiness ✉️ Email: kate@katedejong.com

Sam Morris | The O8 🌐 Website: https://www.theo8.com/ 📱 Instagram: @the_o8crew ✉️ Email: sam@theo8.com

Thriving Business Podcast 🌐Website: https://www.thrivingbusinesspodcast.com/

Send a question or message to Kate & Sam

Welcome to Episode 7 of the Roadmap to Business Success series, our second episode in Quadrant 2 of the Thriving Business Wheel: Keep More | Profitable Operations.

Pricing is one of the most emotionally loaded topics in business. Many business owners, particularly women, are significantly undercharging, and it's costing them not just money, but credibility and energy.

"Being the cheapest in the market doesn't make you attractive. It makes you look desperate."

In this episode, you will learn:

• Why under-pricing harms your profits and reputation: Charging too little signals a lack of confidence, and buyers trust you less when your prices are too low.
• The hourly rate trap: Why trading time for money is a burnout trap, and why breaking free is one of the most important shifts you'll ever make.
• How to price based on outcomes: What is the problem costing your client? What is solving it worth to them? These two questions reframe everything.
• The mindset piece: Why so many business owners habitually undervalue their skills, and what it takes to price with genuine confidence.
• Why discounting is rarely the answer: How habitual discounting erodes perceived value and attracts the wrong clients.
• What to do instead: How tiered pricing lets clients at different budget levels access your services, without slashing your rates.
• Reverse-engineering your revenue goals: Start with the income you want and work backwards to what you need to charge.

Coming Up Next: Episode 8 on AI systems for maximum efficiency. How to work smarter, not harder, using the tools available to you right now.

Join the Workshop: Kate and Sam are hosting Profit Unlocked on Wednesday 20 May, 9–10:30am AWST | 11am–12:30pm AEST

You'll get 90 minutes of live profitability coaching.

🎟️ Attend LIVE: $89 | 🎧 Replay only: $49

👉 Register here

Connect with Your Hosts:

Kate De Jong, PhD | Inspired Business 🌐 Website: https://katedejong.com/ 📱 Instagram: @katedejong.inspiredbusiness ✉️ Email: kate@katedejong.com

Sam Morris | The O8 🌐 Website: https://www.theo8.com/ 📱 Instagram: @the_o8crew ✉️ Email: sam@theo8.com

Thriving Business Podcast 🌐Website: https://www.thrivingbusinesspodcast.com/

Send a question or message to Kate & Sam

Welcome to Episode 6 of the Roadmap to Business Success series, and the first episode of Quadrant 2: Keep More | Profitable Operations!

You've done the work to generate revenue. Now it's time to talk about the part most business owners avoid until it's too late: keeping it.

In this episode, Sam takes the lead on one of her favourite topics: money. Not the fluffy version, but the practical, roll-up-your-sleeves kind that actually changes how your business feels to run day to day.

"Most business owners know what they're earning. Very few know what they're actually keeping."

In this episode, you will learn:

• Why traditional accounting often fails business owners: How accounting is largely historical and tax-focused, and rarely designed to help you make better day-to-day decisions.
• Markup vs margin: One of the most common and costly mistakes small business owners make, explained clearly and simply.
• How to make your chart of accounts work for you: Why restructuring how you categorise income and expenses gives you far greater clarity over where your money is going.
• Cost of goods sold vs operating expenses: Why separating these properly is essential for accurate forecasting and understanding your true profitability.
• The Profit First method: How splitting income across separate bank accounts for profit, tax, operating expenses and owner pay creates automatic financial discipline.
• How to build a cash buffer: Why a financial cushion isn't a luxury, it's a necessity, and how to start building one even when cash feels tight.
• Adjusting your Profit First percentages by business stage: Why the right allocation for a startup looks very different to an established business.
• Why you must never "steal" from your profit account: The habit that keeps business owners stuck in financial stress, and how to break it.

Sam and Kate also discuss why money slips through fingers even when revenue is strong, and why the solution isn't always earning more, it's managing better.

Recommended Reading: Profit First by Mike Michalowicz, the book that underpins Sam's entire approach to profitability.

Join the Workshop: Kate and Sam are hosting Profit Unlocked on Wednesday 20 May, 9–10:30am AWST | 11am–12:30pm AEST

You'll get 90 minutes of live profitability coaching.

🎟️ Attend LIVE: $110 | 🎧 Replay only: $50

👉 Register here

Coming Up Next: Episode 7 — pricing for profit, why you're leaving money on the table, and how to price based on value rather than time.

Connect with Your Hosts:

Kate De Jong, PhD | Inspired Business 🌐 Website: https://katedejong.com/ 📱 Instagram: @katedejong.inspiredbusiness ✉️ Email: kate@katedejong.com

Sam Morris | The O8 🌐 Website: https://www.theo8.com/ 📱 Instagram: @the_o8crew ✉️ Email: sam@theo8.com

Thriving Business Podcast 🌐Website: https://www.thrivingbusinesspodcast.com/