Most days, running a business feels like carrying around a fire extinguisher and trying to stay on top of all the things that need your attention. Something breaks, you fix it, you reply to an email, another one comes in right after... and somehow it's 4pm and you haven't touched the thing that would actually move your business forward.
That's a tough spot to be in when you're trying to make room for a summit. This week I'm talking with Karl Staib, founder of Systematic Leader, who helps business leaders swap that fire extinguisher for a growth engine by building AI into their systems and processes. We get into where AI can save you real hours (and real revenue), why it's not a magic switch, and how to pick a first project without getting overwhelmed.
Listen to the episode
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Download the episode transcript here.
Episode at a glance:
[01:23] Firefighting vs. a growth engine
Karl explains that a growth engine is really just systems that work together: your growth, your customer experience, and your marketing all feeding each other. Without that, even a great piece of content (or a great summit) can fall flat when the marketing system around it doesn't work.
"So it has to all work together, and that's the hardest part. It's that domino effect that a lot of people struggle with."
[02:21] Where AI comes in
When you're solo or have a small team, you're firefighting all day, and then a quiet moment shows up and you have no system for it. Karl shares how AI can filter and summarize your emails and even draft replies, and how it can help with post-summit follow-up by researching who's on your email list and who replied. The catch: for potential high-ticket clients, a tailored response beats an automated one every time.
"The people who are integrating AI into their business and systems now are going to see that lift. They're gonna see their time come back to them. They're gonna see revenue increase."
[05:06] Start small (and expect some training)
Karl's advice is to start small with ChatGPT or Claude and download it to your desktop so it can read local files. That makes it easier to train and more likely to remember what you need. My team here at Summit in a Box has been creating a lot of new AI-powered automations, including summit automations, that free them and other team members up to do more things that only humans can do. You can do the same thing with AI!
"Now, I will say this takes testing, it takes training. It doesn't come overnight. It's not like this magic switch that you can turn on."
[07:01] The AI system that doubled a client's affiliate revenue
Karl's client had 6,000 clients sitting in HubSpot, and digging through them for patterns was their main bottleneck. He built an AI system that found those patterns, suggested ways to grow the affiliate program, and even drafted the messages and follow-ups. It was clumsy at first, which is why he works in batches and never blasts everyone at once. He also encourages you to start thinking of yourself as a director, even if you're a solo business owner and aren't directing a team right now.
"I always suggest to people, build it on the side, watch it do its thing, improve it, and once it's at the level that you feel comfortable at, then deploy it."
[11:06] What to hand off first
Start with your bottlenecks! Karl uses membership retention as an example, and also walks through a real-life customer support experience where AI responded within minutes, a human quickly stepped in for the decision, and AI closed the loop. When he asks clients whether they want AI to replace people or help them grow, nine times out of ten they say grow, so AI takes the repetitive work and your people do the work AI can't.
"So if you've got five people per month leaving your membership, and you've got seven coming in, now you're like, okay, if we can reduce that to three, now you've got plus four people per month."
[15:00] One small step to take after listening
Map your workflows and look at where things are working and where they're bottlenecking. Karl suggests starting with customer experience, using a simple chart of what's easy vs. high impact, and ignoring the hard, low-impact stuff. He uses AI to find themes in customer interviews, but says the creative connections still need a human. Then test something for a month or two, measure it, and keep it playful.
"Most people don't think of business as playful when it totally is. It is such a playful endeavor if you allow it to be, if you can kind of step back and be like, "Okay, let's try.""
Ready to take some of the busywork off your plate? Pick one bottleneck, build your AI helper on the side, and give yourself room to play. And when you're ready to hand more off to your team, listen in to what I do and don't outsource, and how I create systems for my team to follow.
About Karl Staib
Karl Staib is the founder of Systematic Leader. He helps business leaders trade their fire extinguisher for a growth engine by integrating AI into systems and processes that retain customers, increase referrals, and save teams time and money.
Karl's website | Karl's guides
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