Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Sa.
[00:00:30] Speaker B: Welcome to Power CEOs, the truth behind the business. I'm Jen Goadet, your fearless host, entrepreneur, investor and business strategist. Why are we here? Because iron sharpens iron. And when we bring successful investors, entrepreneurs, industry leaders who are really disrupting what's happening in business today, we all learn and grow. As a result, our businesses grow and the ripple effect impacts not only ourselves and our teams and their families, but also our communities in our world.
We are. You guys are in for a treat today because we are going to go behind the scenes of business and into some of the realities that every entrepreneur eventually faces. How do you actually connect opportunity to capital? Not theoretically, operationally, because the best deal makers are not just selling deals, they're reducing uncertainty. They understand trust, timing, positioning, psychology, and the operational clarity that makes investors sad up and pay attention. My guest today is Alex Biriak, founder of IronRock Consulting and senior managing partner at AI Agency Group. Alec is a former. Alex is a former chiropractor, but he has turned operator, lender consultant, and AI implementation strategist. His background spans healthcare, private lending, real estate, capital advisory, AI infrastructure and system design, which gives him this really unique lens on how companies can become more fundable, scalable, and operationally clear. Alex, welcome to the show.
[00:01:55] Speaker A: Thank you so much for having me.
[00:01:56] Speaker B: I'm really excited about having this conversation, y'. All. Alex and I have talked quite a bit offline. And so as I begin, I want everybody watching to sort of think about the opportunity. You're trying to grow right now. Are you just trying to grow? Are you thinking about an exit? Are you thinking about just pitching what you're doing? Have you been thinking, built enough clarity and trust and repeatability for anybody who's got money to invest in you? And so, Alex, I want to start with your journey because you started as an operator in the medical field and that clinical practice, the operations, all the things that go with that arena. Now you've turned into this deal maker. So kind of walk me through briefly, what did that look like? And when did you decide, I want to do this now?
[00:02:41] Speaker A: Okay, well, what we did was. Well, what I did, I started off in healthcare and medicine because I really, really loved helping people.
So as I went through and I created the PA School pit and I decided to continue on medicine, becoming a chiropractor started having success with that.
But what I noticed was I needed to run my own place. I didn't have the ability to actually start a business with a business loan. So I started teaching myself real estate. Distressed assets and became one of the top producing hard moneyed loan officers around from there I started doing strategies and things like that to try to scale that business. Started running a company there, took them to the top they can go. I said, well, I really need to do this myself.
So how I made the decision was I still wanted to help people. So I took the diagnostic aspect of medicine and seeing patients and I turned it into business. Let's find the root cause of why things are wrong and make sure we can get the right prescription, the right therapy to put you on the right path and heal your company and grow your revenue.
[00:03:54] Speaker B: Hence consulting. So that's clear on the consulting, but you're a deal maker now. And let's just be clear folks, I'm not talking about deal maker. Like everybody went to a five course and they're all dealmakers. I mean a real deal maker where you are bringing the capital together with the founders, ensuring that these deals get done both in real estate as well
[00:04:16] Speaker C: as in the business world.
[00:04:18] Speaker B: So when you hear dealmaker, like what does that actually mean?
And what separates a real deal maker from somebody who's just gone to like a quick course or who's just chasing
[00:04:32] Speaker C: opportunities and happens to network?
[00:04:34] Speaker A: Well, the true aspect is if you're going to be a real deal maker, you have to go to your client, to the business, to what is wrong and have the fortitude enough to say, hey, listen, I know what you're trying to do, but let's get this back down to the very foundation of what's going on. Diagnose their issue and then come up with a solution that doesn't just fix their issue but but makes them more profitable. You understand every aspect of what's going on between them, their business and the capital structure you need. Because if you've ever done a deal, a lot of people will come to you and ask you for something that's not quite what they need.
Your job is to actually look at the issue, hear the person and actually decide what's the right means to get them, what they should have to be successful.
[00:05:22] Speaker B: So talk to me about this because this is psychology. We were talking about psychology and we're talking about sales.
[00:05:26] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:05:26] Speaker B: And on the show before, we've had a lot of capital before, we've had a lot of people who've had exits before. And one of the things that I've noticed in consulting is that they may be really great at sales of their product or their service. Right. That's why they're at the position that Maybe they're looking at an exit or an acquisition or they're dealing in the capital side of things to begin with, but they haven't translated that. When you're partnering with capital, that also is sales.
[00:05:53] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:05:54] Speaker B: So talk to me about raising, particularly raising capital and getting that investor's interest. What does that sales psychology look like? How do we build trust in that arena and how do we reduce uncertainty for the investor? Because that's a. I mean, let's be real. That's why people say no.
[00:06:13] Speaker A: Right. Well, especially when you're raising capital for somebody, one look at your client, what they're trying to build, then do some research on the actual people writing the check. All right? What's insulting to somebody that you're going to bring a deal to, to fund is that you've done no research. You're just throwing things at the wall and you're shotgunning approaches, everything. If you are a deal maker and you spray your deal everywhere, that's the first sign to anybody that would write a check that say, pause. Why is this everywhere? And no one's touched it. All right, so. So you kind of have to have the sniper rifle approach. First thing you do is you go with your sponsor and you figure out what do they need and what do they truly need to be successful.
Then do some research on the people that would write that check. Do some research on similar projects they wrote to check too, and then become friends with them. People do business with people they like.
So not don't go to someone, hey, by the way, here's my deal. And this everything. And you just write everything down, have a conversation, become friends, show them that your interest is their best interest and then just continue that conversation. And one other thing I could say the best thing about sales is if you notice that you're talking more, you're losing the sale.
Become a late night TV show host, keep the conversation going. And if you find the other person's talking more about what they really want, you're doing a good job.
[00:07:39] Speaker B: Oh, if you're paying attention and listening, that little asterisk on there.
So talk to me a little bit about the money side right now.
What are you seeing today that's different than say two or three years ago from the money?
[00:07:55] Speaker A: So depending on what you're doing, whether you're buying hard assets like real estate or something out, or you're trying to fund startups, the money is not tighter and it's more cautious. All right? So what they're really doing is know that it's Going to take a longer time. I call it a long dinner. And you're going back and forth and making sure that it's the right type of deal.
Also know that there's going to be some financial obligations probably towards you and the sponsor side as you're raising money. They want to make sure that you're putting a ring on the finger, that you're doing this relationship. Are you real about doing this, this deal? So today it's not that the money, private credit and money is out there and they're waiting to deploy the capital, but they're a little more conservative with markets in place and other global issues happening. So they want to deploy it, but they may be a little more tight to the chest. And you're going to have to. You're going to have to build that relationship a little bit deeper.
[00:08:50] Speaker B: I would agree. And I'll just speak from. From my. I do a lot of venture capital. I do pre seed and seed funding as well as later rounds. And, and what I used to say yes to, I no longer say yes to. And what I've noticed is founders haven't really shifted that
[00:09:09] Speaker C: sort of strategy.
[00:09:11] Speaker B: And like, whereas they think if I
[00:09:13] Speaker C: go to dinner with you once, I'm
[00:09:14] Speaker B: going to close this deal and then they immediately go into like closing, closing, closing, closing. That's like such a mistake, folks.
Investors, I would say, are more savvy and they're looking for who are you?
Because if everything's great or if I'm feeling like you've got commission, like I call it commission breath in sales. Like if you're pushing the sale, like if you've got commission breath or you're pushing your investment on me. And this is the dating phase.
[00:09:42] Speaker C: What's gonna happen when things go wrong
[00:09:44] Speaker B: or you miss your metrics?
[00:09:45] Speaker C: And I don't want any part of that. Cause I'm already getting the icks from the first conversation. So I think listen to what Alex has said.
[00:09:53] Speaker B: He was really, he was really descriptive.
[00:09:55] Speaker C: This is about dating almost in the business world. It's about really getting to know and building that relationship and building that foundation of trust. And it takes. I have to have. I now have seven conversations with everybody that I will find before I even consider. Like, don't show me your pitch deck. We're have seven conversations. I'm going to see what you're saying. That's different. Where are you contradicting yourself? And each one of those opportunities is an opportunity for me to jet.
And I didn't listen like that originally because we had better outcomes prior to AI.
The reality is you need to do your homework. You need to know and the first thing that puts me off is when they send me a pitch stop. For the love of goodness, people. That doesn't work. People are not writing blank checks because you DM me your pitch deck. That's not what it is.
I just want to recap a little bit for everybody. What I'm hearing is the part of the conversation that we've had today is capital doesn't just want to follow your idea.
It's important for us to understand the problem that you're solving, how you're solving it. Do you have confidence that you're going to solve that and are you building the relationship? Because as an investor, confidence is built for me personally and for a lot of the other investors. I know when a founder can show clarity, when they can show discipline, when they're able to say the same thing with conviction, decisive, they have that ability to say it in a different way. They're not just parroting the words. They we're not funding your idea, we're funding you as the operator.
So we're going to take a short break, but when we come back, we're going to dive a little into the conversation about AI, not as a buzzword, but as the business advantage that is exposing who is operationally ready and who is not. After these messages.
[00:12:03] Speaker B: Welcome Back to power CEOs the truth behind the Business. Stay connected to this show and all of your NOW Media favorites live on demand, anytime, anywhere by downloading the free free Now Media TV app on Roku or iOS.
Prefer podcasts? Me too. Catch the podcast version at www.nowmedia.tv. from business and news to lifestyle, culture and beyond, we are here streaming around the clock. Ready when you are. But now let's get back into our conversation today. I'm here with Alex Buriak. He's the founder of IronRock Consulting. And I now want to shift the conversation that every every entrepreneur is feeling right now.
And it's around AI. Yes, AI.
Listen, AI is not a magic button. Everybody's talking about it, but very few companies are implementing in a way that is meaningful and actually changing business outcomes. Some businesses are accelerating because they know where their friction points are. Others are frozen because they implement something. But AI reveals the weaknesses that they've basically been avoiding for years.
Alex, you have worked deep inside companies. You've been in consulting. You've been a deal maker, matching what investors are looking for along with operators. And now you're working in AI consulting and infrastructure. So how is it that you would like operators, entrepreneurs to think about AI not as a trend or the magic button, but as a tool for throughput, clarity, operational leverage.
[00:13:33] Speaker A: Okay, well, the key thing with when you are in your company and you're using AI, all right, just like Jen said, it's not just a tool, it's not a magic button. It is the way to scale your thoughts and your operations with speed and clarity. Okay? So the first thing, no matter what you're doing, think about what causes a bottleneck in your company. All right, let's bring those systems in place, let's refine those systems. Let's make sure that the AI is running what you would do. It took perfection.
So again, you can't just throw things in AI and expect this output to be your fix. You are the fix. You had the answer the whole time. What AI does is it allows everybody in your business to have that same operation, that same clarity of vision, and your core concepts and cultures driving the same direction, but at speed and efficiency, bringing those revenues up and bringing costs down. So if you're going to put AI in your company, whether you're a deal maker and a lender like myself, who's built virtual banks and virtual loan committees, virtual OM readers, virtual investment pitches, where I actually put it through these virtual banks and have them just destroy it so I can fix it again. There you go. If you're a plumber, if you're H Vac person, like that, same thing. What can I do to my business utilizing the strategies that I made this company fantastic. How can I do it better, how can I do it faster, and how can I do it right every time?
[00:15:07] Speaker B: So let me ask you, let me bridge our conversation before the break to this one, because as an investor, one of the first things I look at is have you kept up with technology? Have you integrated or piloted any AI solutions in your your business? And what I'm looking for is have they thought through the operational bottlenecks or where the friction points are?
[00:15:29] Speaker C: Have they got some sort of a plan?
[00:15:31] Speaker B: Have they looked at where they are and been through a little bit of that process? And here's why I think about it. I want to know that they're not
[00:15:39] Speaker C: sticking their head in the sand. Because, folks, you've heard it before. I firmly believe if you're not leveraging the technologies available today, or at least on a plan that's getting you to implementation. And I didn't say say, I didn't say, I don't usually don't say implementation. I usually say to adoption, because that's really what matters. We want to adopt things that are going to improve and move the needle that are metrics based. And so if you're not even thinking about that or you haven't started that process, you're behind the eight ball in every single industry. And it's really funny. I'd love to hear you your take on this. What has shifted over the last six to 12 months, even that business owners are not fully understanding about AI's business advantage.
[00:16:25] Speaker A: Well, one of the things that they're not really understanding is that everybody's like, why use chat? Or I use cloud, I use this. And they use it just on their phone, but they don't understand how to use it. Okay, so that's the biggest misconception right now. Everybody's hot on AI. And you guys watching this show know this. You could pull up an email, a social post a text message and be like, that's not him.
What the biggest misconception is, I need to jump on AI and I don't care. I just did. As long as it's AI. Just like Jen said, most people on OPS will think, oh, OPS is done. OPS is never done and you're never. And so it's. The misconception is that I don't have to re review my OPS and I can just have AI do it. AI runs on one what you ask it to do and what you ask it not to do. So you have to really go back to a full scope of your company saying, if I had this, how can I do this better? And then put it in place and having the right consultation to show you what to do for your business and how to implement it correctly.
[00:17:30] Speaker C: Well, and let's be frank. If we are putting operational efficiency, if we're putting AI to a system, for example, and it's not got the most effective, most efficient sop.
And what you're doing basically is you're throwing fuel on the inefficiency fire.
And so just to kind of put this in a little perspective, folks, it really requires thought before you apply the tool. And I've been doing this for five years, almost six years now. And it's astounding to me, even the most successful companies have just like garbage data. They haven't cleaned things up or maybe they're running, they think their SOP is accurate. But when you talk to the frontline worker, it's completely different than what's in the manual or what have you. And so one of the Biggest mistakes is I'm going to AI this process, but I'm using the manual version. But that's not how we're doing things. That's how we did things 20 years ago. And so they're surprised and shocked that they have the poor result.
So talk to me about.
Talk to me a little bit about what can people watching do now that. That can prepare them for what we have today? Like, agency is a big conversation. How can they set themselves up? Like, what is the one, two, three things that you would say? Hey, look at these three things. Ask these three questions of your business and do sort of like a cursory audit, if you will, for A.I.
[00:18:55] Speaker A: all right, so one of the things that I. One of the three questions that you should ask yourself today is, am I what is stopping me from growing? Okay, because let's say that you've reached this point in your business. You're making a million dollars a year, $2 million a year. You're like, man, I've made it. Okay, why haven't you reached 10? Why haven't you reached 20? It's time to have a hard look at your company to say, what is stopping the trajectory, growth. We looked at your business through X amount of years. There is this trend upward. Why is it flatlining now? Okay, so the first thing to always go back in your company and say, why are we not growing? There is no such thing as staying the same. You either getting better or you're getting worse. All right? So the first thing we need to figure out is what direction are we going and why? Okay, so that's the first thing you can take a look at your company. The second thing on. On what you can do with AI is actually start getting used to using it the right way. And what is what I mean by that? Dictate who it is, what you want it to do, what you want it to not do, and what type of outcome you want. And use it on information that you know clearly straight out. See what outputs have come in. You'll see what the errors come in at. You'll see how you need to communicate with it. Because if you AI out your company, you'll still have those processes too, and you'll have to refine how to use. And the third thing was, one of the most important things Jen said is go back to your employees. Go back to your front line of defense. How does the company really work?
When you started it, it was just you, a notepad, and a truck. All right? Now there's 15 people, two places, and you know, remote workers, go back to them and say, guys, all, honestly, how does this ship sail? Okay? Figure out what really makes things happen in today's market and what direction you should be going, and. And let's build it to make that ship sail even faster.
[00:20:46] Speaker B: You know, I really like that you brought up the people, because, you know, one of the things we're seeing right now is in the AI failed integrations, is that there was sabotage. And, folks, some of your employees are afraid of this. They're afraid it's gonna take your job away. But part of your role as a leader, and this is something that, like I've been on a soapbox for six years about, is AI is here to amplify you and to take away the stuff you don't wanna do so that you can get back to doing the things that really matter. It's not to replace you, it's really to amplify you so that you can create a better experience for your clients. Because in today's world, people do business with people they like, which Alex said in the first segment, but they also do business with companies that make them feel good. They want to feel like they had a great experience. They want to feel like they got great value for the money that they're spending, especially when economics, like, when we're economically tight, we look at that value more. And so if our people are no longer doing some of the tasks that they don't love, they're already more energized. They're already interacting in a different way. So it's happening in the internal culture. It's also happening externally.
We do have a brief break in a moment, but tell me where you're seeing the strongest resistance to AI right now, and is it really about AI, or is it about a fear of operational exposure? Oh, I don't want them to know that I'm barely holding this together.
[00:22:15] Speaker A: For example, the fear that I'm seeing right now in AI is people fear what they don't know, people fear what they don't understand, and people fear what they don't know how to use. Okay? So the biggest fear is right now that you have a bunch of people knowing you got probably 12 months before you really can nail this down, before you're behind everybody else. So they're feverishly trying to learn. When you're. When you're.
When you have that kind of anxiety about something, you're looking everywhere to try to find who can teach me the right thing. And everybody's saying something different. It's overwhelming. So that is what I'm seeing the biggest fear. And then you said it also.
Where people feel that AI is going to take your jobs.
AI think of this as our industrial revolution.
This is supposed to make your job more efficient, easier.
[00:23:07] Speaker B: This.
[00:23:07] Speaker A: We live in an age now, today you have instant access to any knowledge you want. All you have to know how to do is wield that sword. So once you actually learn this, I think the fears will subside. That's what I'm seeing in the market today.
[00:23:19] Speaker B: Thank you for that. So folks, what's becoming evident, and we've talked about this before, but AI is not just a technology conversation, it really is a leadership conversation. It's forcing companies to look where work's slowing down, where the people are stuck, where decisions are delayed, and where growth
[00:23:34] Speaker C: is being held back by outdated systems. AI is not here to replace your business. It's here to expose inefficient. It is exposing inefficient ones. We're going to take a short break, but when we return, we're going to get a little bit more tactical and break down what AI implementation actually is and why so many businesses are getting wrong and how to fix that after these messages.
[00:24:23] Speaker B: Welcome Back to power CEOs the truth behind the Business. I'm here with Alex beach and we are diving into AI today.
I want to get practical. Many companies still misunderstand AI implementation. They think it means buying subscriptions, testing random tools, building a few automations, or giving the team access to ChatGPT.
But implementation is not the same as experimentation, folks. Experimentation is what we just described. Implementation is operational. It has to connect your workflow, your revenue, your decision making, your throughput, your customer experience and measurable outcomes.
As Alex knows from working with operators, lenders, healthcare and deal driven companies, AI doesn't fix a broken business. We talked about that earlier. It scales whatever already exists.
So what do we do about this, folks?
We want to understand how to be more tactical about this and how to actually leverage AI instead of just playing with it. So Alex, from the perspective of an operator, first, not a, not a software company, but what is AI implementation actually
[00:25:33] Speaker A: just for the user operator? What it is and what it should be is that it is a way for you to scope your day, okay, and figure out how you can make it more efficient. That is it. All right? You can get something that you need to do, any task, any scalability, any metric that you're supposed to do through the day and you create something to make you move faster, more efficient with more accuracy. So you can achieve much, much more with less, less time. So as an operator implementing it, that is your main, main goal. How can I have me or a series of me working all at once in the same direction with the same goal?
[00:26:12] Speaker B: You know, I know we talked a little bit about this before the break, and a lot of AI projects fail, even though the tools themselves are very powerful.
So why are they failing in your arena? Like, what are the biggest reasons that you're seeing AI implementations fail, not be adopted, and what are the. Give me an example of something that's really been successful.
[00:26:36] Speaker A: Okay, so on the implementation side, what I'm seeing fail the most is one, in a global sense of the company, nobody properly scoped the company. What I mean by scoping is that you actually go in and see what they, what you actually need. There's a lot of people out there right now that are implementing companies, but they're just giving you everything. One, that you ask for, which you may not need. Two, they're just giving you these tools. Well, it's like if I came to your house right now and gave you a nail gun and you know how to use it, it's useless.
So the implementation failures a lot of times are putting tools in place with no idea how to use them, no idea how the cost structures are set up, and no idea how to improve them over time. Because I'm going to break the suspense for you. Every time you import software agents or anything AI, you're going to have to retest that and most likely retested monthly. Do you have the team that's doing that for you? Or did you have somebody come to you and say, here's AI. And then you just. And then you're like, okay, now what it was reading my emails and doing stuff that's good, right?
An appropriate implementation team will come into your business, say, this is what we see that you asked for. This is what we see that you need. This is exactly how it works and this is how we're going to support you, because we're not leaving you. You'll never have to be by yourself again. We'll make sure that everything is taken care of and you're trained the right way so you can use this to grow your business. Business.
[00:28:03] Speaker B: You know, I, I'm, I'm giggling over here a little bit because what I'm hearing a lot is, oh, my goodness, my, my chat bot deleted my whole inbox.
Like, wait, like, I call it Bots Gone Wrong. I don't know. Bots Gone Wild. People are Calling it the agents of chaos. But the reality is, is the reason a agents of chaos happen is because they didn't really know the problem, they
[00:28:27] Speaker C: didn't have a very defined scope, and they didn't put the what AI is not supposed to do into the planning. And before, before they even use the
[00:28:37] Speaker B: tool, you need to plan that and
[00:28:38] Speaker C: put those guardrails in place. Because every place where it was happening after the fact, that's where you have your agents gone wild.
[00:28:45] Speaker B: So, so it's really interesting because you,
[00:28:47] Speaker C: you touched on that and it's kind of been a theme throughout today's conversation. So I just want to really break that down. Super simple for you. Step number one, what are the bottlenecks in my business?
And if I fix that bottleneck, what then breaks?
Because if you put AI onto a process and all of a sudden the bottleneck down the road is going to break something else. In your business, you have to understand what needs to happen further down the line as well.
So what are the bottlenecks in your business? And don't just think about the one, think about if I fix that, what are the next three things I also need to fix so that throughput has a way to easily move through your business? And then what is every step in this process? What does this process currently cost in time and or money to run? Hello, metrics. How can we know if we have success if we don't know what it costs to begin with?
So understand before you even think about the tools, what it is that you're going to fix, what the cost of your current system is and what do you expect, or what does success look like more importantly than anything? And Alex has said it and I have said it, and several other guests on the show have said it, what are we not going to let the AI do? That all has to happen before we choose a tool and before we do an integration. So I think that gets us through the scope and the planning process and then say we pilot something and lo and behold, we have good metrics.
Do we just go hog wild and do everything else? Like, what's the next step?
[00:30:21] Speaker A: No, if you have good metrics on what you built, congratulations on that one thing.
So then you have to then look at everything. Jen said something extremely important just now. You fixed one thing that could have broken four other things. Okay. Especially if you run into a company and you haven't changed your operations in a while, now you're bringing AI in that's extremely fast and powerful.
So as we get those good metrics, as something is working well, then we can create even better operations and better systems against that. So no. So no, if you have the win, don't just put it in five and go. Now you took what you did to make that successful. Now let's do it again.
Now let's do it again. And test, test, test. As more things come out and more iterations come out with different operating systems and all these things happen, we always have to make sure we test and verify and make sure those metrics stay the way they are or better, you
[00:31:20] Speaker B: know, and, and let's just bring into the, into the conversation cost so many times because I, I do AI strategy and I, I'm a part of the people side of tech implementations a lot of times and people place plan for the project cost.
One of the things I always talk about is, well, what does the maintenance of this look like on the other side? And they fail to plan for that, even though I bring it up. So talk to me a little bit about, okay, I've put this implementation in. What does it cost to maintain that? What is the time that I have? What does that really look like once the implementation is done and what is the cost, the ongoing cost for that? Because folks, it's not one and done AI, there's tokens, there's electric, there's a lot of costs that go into this. It's not just, oh, I just put a new Excel spreadsheet in my computer.
[00:32:08] Speaker A: Well, so some of the costs that you'll have to really think, well, first thing I always ask anybody before I even attempt to implement something, what have you prepared for your operational cost today to actually implement AI in your company? Because that tells me what we can do successfully for you. What are you planning monthly in costs to upload? Good. So think about this.
If you want to simplify it a bit, think of as a agent is almost like a virtual employee. That virtual employee has to be paid every month you're paying it in its usage. How much money can you commit to this right now as revenue goes up? How much could you commit later if it's working?
So one thing, real thing that you have to really come to terms with is exactly what Jen said. This is not just like some sort of SaaS software words of this monthly fee and everything's fine. Get a good team that builds things, get a good budget for what this hire is going to be because that's what we're really doing. You're hiring somebody, it just happens to be an AI implementation aspect of things. It's running everything for you. Get those company, get those numbers in your company really solid today so you can really stay within your budget when you implement. And you, there's no surprise prizes as you bring this employee on running all these things.
[00:33:25] Speaker B: And ask the question of the vendor. Like a lot of times what I'm finding is people are getting the project cost, like, oh, it's going to cost this to build this agent or this agent system into your business. And they fail to ask, well, what is it going to cost on the other side? Oh, well, it's going to be, you know, $45,000 a month in tokens. Hello, I didn't plan for that. Right. So it's really important to ask that question in the sales process of your tech vendors because I promise, promise you, they know that there's a cost on the other side. And if you're not getting a clear answer then on that, then that's not the right vendor for you. They're, they're just selling you because they're salespeople. You want to understand what it actually entails, what token usage? Because we were talking about this, I think over at lunch, you know, there's some IPOs happening and so token cost is going up and we saw anthropic cutting the amount of tokens that are used in their subscription. So now people are getting hit with these very large bills. So we have to have an awareness of if I put this agenc system in my business, it's going to cost roughly X amount of tokens per month.
[00:34:23] Speaker C: So that way we can sort of
[00:34:24] Speaker B: plan in what that expense is going to be down the line and have a backup plan.
So we're about to have to go to break, but tell me, what is the one thing you want people to
[00:34:33] Speaker C: take away from our conversation so far with regard to AI implementation?
[00:34:37] Speaker A: Please do not do this yourself. Okay. I know that you'll hear a lot of like vibe coding. I'm just going to code it out.
Think of it this way. If you had the answers you had even to run your own operations to scale, you would have done it, you would have implemented it. Now you're having something extremely powerful in your hands. Did you absolutely explain it? What, like the most important what not to do? Look up some of the failure cases of cost structures of people that made their own agents and see how much money they will build. This is not the time to try to learn and do yourself. It's time to get the right team behind you to make you successful rapidly. Because the time you thought you had, you don't have it anymore.
[00:35:21] Speaker B: Definitely that Runway has come to a close. So the biggest takeaway I think here is that AI implementation has to begin with your business reality. Not the hype, not what you hope it is, not fear, not software for the sake of software or AI for the sake of AI. This week, write down the top three repetitive tasks inside your company and ask, does this create revenue? Does this require human judgment? Or is this an operational drag? That's where you start your roadmap. AI is not going to fix your broken businesses. It's going to scale. Whatever exists already. We're about to take a break, but when we come back, we're going to dive into the next competitive edge.
[00:35:54] Speaker C: What happens when small business owners suddenly
[00:35:56] Speaker B: have executive level strategy available 247 after this.
Welcome Back to power CEOs the truth behind the Business. I'm Jen Goday and if you are loving what you're watching, stay connected to power CEOs and all your now media TV favorites. Live or on demand, anytime, anywhere by downloading our app on Roku or iOS on the move like podcasts. Better catch the podcast version at www.nowmedia.tv. from business and news to lifestyle, culture and more, we are here streaming around clock. Ready when you are. Listen, folks, I am in this conversation with Alex Buriak. He's the founder of IronRock Consulting and also a senior managing partner of AI Agency Group. And I want to really focus on the shift that's happening in business right now. AI is democratizing strategic intelligence. For the first time in history, a small business owner can pressure, test decisions, think through financial questions and examine operations, sharpen their marketing, improve sales workflows, and access strategic perspective in a way that used to require a full consulting team or expensive advisory work.
So I want to, I want to turn this to you, Alex, and talk to me a little bit about what is it? What is this idea of having an executive boardroom in your pocket? What does that open up?
[00:37:47] Speaker A: Well, what it opens up is that what we did is we actually have a product that does this corporate platform and it's on JT1. And the reason why we came up with this is that let's say that you are a plumber, a restaurant owner. You know, you may have a great idea, a great product, a great service, but you don't have the money to hire a CEO, a cfo, a CEO, a marketing department.
You don't have the capabilities, you have the ideas, you have the drive, but you don't have the money to Hire the right team to get you to the next level.
We didn't like that. So what we did was how could we get the databases, the knowledge, the infrastructure and all the ideas from top level companies and deals, put them in a knowledge base. So even anybody, whether it was startup, scalability or exit, you had at least the best C suite team behind you, helping you execute, helping you make decisions, helping you grow, helping you challenge your decisions. It was time that everybody had what you could have at McKinsey or Deloitte or anything like that. It was time that anybody had the right team behind them to really scale and really execute.
[00:39:07] Speaker B: So let me ask you, you're a consultant. I'm also a consultant and when I saw AI, I'm just going to speak to what I saw in the consulting arena. People were scared. They were telling their clients, don't use AI because they're afraid that they're no longer going to be necessary. However, it's really excellent to have this advisory board in your pocket, but there's also still a room for consulting.
[00:39:26] Speaker C: Can you share?
[00:39:26] Speaker B: Shed a light on why we would want both?
[00:39:30] Speaker A: Absolutely. So for my coaches, consultants and everybody out there today, AI is actually going to be your best friend for scalability and execution. And let me tell you why. Because now you can actually put your processes, your procedures, the way you think, the way you talk and the way you execute right there in your pocket. What does that mean to you? You're like, well, that means they don't need me.
Incorrect. They're going to need you even more. And what the most important thing is, think about some of your most challenging cases, your most challenging businesses. What happened? You came in and you revolutionized thought process, you changed culture, you changed everything and they loved you for it. But as soon as you walked out that door, went back to day one, you came back in and you had to rebuild with AI behind you as a coach, a consultant or anybody that actually drives people.
Now they have you in their pocket 24 hours a day. Now they have your plan executing and implementing. Now they have everything we've agreed upon in the systems running.
So AI has opened up a whole new world of consulting.
And the reason why your ideas and directions are now being implemented 24,7 and
[00:40:48] Speaker B: they don't require us to get called. I love this.
I implemented AI in my business years ago, as soon as I saw this capability.
[00:40:56] Speaker C: And folks, it was really expensive back then, now it's so much cheaper to do this for yourself.
But what I wanted was my bandwidth back because as a Consultant, when you're having to support through projects and you have multiple projects and people are having fires or whatever, you're always sort of on call and then your team's calling you to get it. That took all of this away. 96% of those calls no longer happen because they're literally accessing my brain AI. And so when you think about this,
[00:41:25] Speaker B: think about all of the people who
[00:41:27] Speaker C: are constantly having to stop what they're doing to go answer someone else's question, that it's a repetitive task because you can take that off of them and keep them high performing all day long just by interacting with the AI. So talk to me about decision making, specifically with this. When you have this AI powered board in your pocket scenario, the strategic support, how does this change decision makers? And what happens when business owners can actually pressure test their ideas before they launch?
[00:41:57] Speaker A: Well, what actually happens is not to sound too like too general, but like business happens. Like right now you have these people have access to infinite knowledge and a lot of people in their businesses, again, they were good at this one thing, they built this business and became something that now they support other people on, but they didn't know how to grow.
So when you have this in your pocket, you can have the right pressure test, the right advice, the right scalability on skill sets. You don't obtain, you don't have these skill sets. You may be a great operator, but you're not a good CEO. You may be a great person at sales and marketing, but you have no idea what operations are like. You may have a great way of doing business, but is it illegal? You know, so now you have all these things in front of you because you didn't have enough money to go coach, you didn't have enough money to buy a consultant, you didn't have enough money to hire a CEO. You didn't have the right equity to get the right people involved on your startup. You didn't have, you didn't have, you didn't have. Well, let me break the suspense for you now. You do you have now the ability to have great knowledge behind you, asking the right questions to the right person. Now so when you challenge that question, you can say, well, let me ask my CEO. How would a CEO do this? Well, how would my marketing department challenge what he or she made? Well, we got marketing and CEO.
How do we actually make it work? Call in ops.
Now you actually have a team to build something that works.
[00:43:33] Speaker C: And so what I immediately go to as almost 99% of small business owners, specifically they have no idea how to link their P and L like their financials to the levers to pull to actually get to the next level. Like, I'm going to just be frank. For years the number one lever I pull is price.
Almost, almost all of my clients in the last decade have not priced their services or their products properly. They didn't realize they were losing profitability, that costs had gone up because they didn't understand how to link their financial statement to what was happening in operations. What if you have in your pocket a tool that you can literally upload your financials and say, okay, well my profitability is down, what do I need to do about this? And it literally will break it down from a financial standpoint and explain it to you and give you a step by step process of what you have to do in order to fix it. That to me is epic for small business owners because it's what you don't have access to. We can't afford it. And everybody, what do they do? They find the cheapest bookkeeper who doesn't explain anything. And half the time the bookkeeping is not even accurate. This can help you.
[00:44:42] Speaker A: And you can't even exit because the books are wrong.
[00:44:44] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yes. So that's a whole other problem.
But it's a sticking point. And it is a sticking point across all industries. Like this is industry agnostic in small business and Main street businesses. And it's because we're really good at what we do or we have a great product but really don't understand the business behind it. So this is a really powerful tool that makes it accessible.
And imagine if you can, if you have an idea and before you implement it, you're able to pressure test it and says no, don't do that. That means you don't spend time and money and waste time and money on something that's going to fail. You are able to do the learning and iterate without the spend so that when you do make the decision, you have a higher likelihood of success. I mean like it's a win win across the way.
So in the next five years, do you believe the biggest divide in businesses are going to be company size or decision speed?
[00:45:33] Speaker A: That's a good question because both are going to dictate on each other.
I think you're not going to see that much change in company size in certain industries. I think it's going to be the speed of implementation. The speed of the decision is going to be the actual thing that gets business across the finish line before the other company can you move at the speed of what business acts today? Can you make the sale faster than the other person? Can you solve your client's problem faster than the other guy? Can you do it more efficiently? Can you do it more cost effectively? So I think it's going to be much more about the speed of the information than it is company size going down. Because if you're doing well and you can have your team use AI, certain industries I think are gonna get hit, but majority, I think it's gonna have to be speed.
[00:46:20] Speaker B: I agree with you. And so Alex, this has been a really powerful conversation. Thank you for, for that. It's not just been about AI, it's been about leverage, intelligence, capital and really the future of business itself. If the audience wants to learn more about AI consulting, AI implementation, core brain or, or bring an executive level strategic advantage to their business, how can they reach out to you?
[00:46:38] Speaker A: You can go to www.ironrockconsulting.com, you can email me at Alex ironrockconsulting.com and you can call our office at 832-584-0986. There's ways to schedule time with me. There are always zooms so I can see you and we can show each other things. So go to the website, book a time, give me a call, a text, go to the website, send me an email, send me a carrier pigeon, whatever you need to do and make sure you get what you need. Okay?
[00:47:06] Speaker B: And make sure you tell them that you found him on Power CEO so that he knows how much you have educated from this conversation. That's always a plus for, for us. I want to thank you, Alex, for being here and sharing your practical look at deal making at operational clarity, at AI implementation and decision speed and advantage. And for everyone watching, I want you to keep thinking beyond the tools and start thinking about your infrastructure. The companies that win are not going to just work harder. They're going to think better, decide faster, and build smarter systems around the opportunities
[00:47:36] Speaker C: in front of them.
[00:47:37] Speaker B: Unfortunately, all good things come to a show, including to an end, including our show.
[00:47:42] Speaker C: But you can stay tuned, stay connected.
[00:47:45] Speaker B: We'll be here same time, same station next week.
[00:47:47] Speaker C: You can connect with me on Facebook
[00:47:48] Speaker B: and the Power CEOs group and we
[00:47:51] Speaker C: will see you go win today, win this week, and we'll see you next time.
