LESS IS THE STRATEGY - EPISODE 22
Let AI Do the Building. You Do the Thinking.
Host: Ant Hodges
lessisthestrategy.com
ANT: More than once recently, I followed up with somebody about building their sales page. We had a great conversation about their message, their offer, and how the page should flow, and then the reply came back: "Oh, don't worry, I've just built it in AI."
That one line has been rattling around my head ever since, because it tells you exactly where the value in your business has moved. And that's why we're talking about it today.
[00:30] INTRO
ANNOUNCER: Welcome to Less Is the Strategy. A weekly show for online business owners who want to simplify and scale, escaping the cult of hustle and complexity forever. Here is your host, Ant Hodges.
ANT: Hello, and welcome to episode 22 of Less Is the Strategy. It's really good to have you here with me, and yes, this show is properly back, every Monday from now on.
This show has a slightly new shape to it, so let me tell you what to expect. Each week, there are three parts.
From the Desk is what I'm working on and what I'm learning as I go through my business, and the stuff I'm working on with clients and my community.
The Conversation picks up something real that business owners are talking about, from my community, my calls, or out there in the marketplace.
And then The Simplify. I want to give you one thing to do this week, and only one. You don't get a long list of tips from me on this podcast anymore. You'll get an honest conversation about building a simpler business that works for you.
So this week on the show, I'll tell you how I rebuilt this podcast so I can turn up every single week, and how a jump in a software bill turned into a brand-new piece of software. Then in The Conversation, we're looking at why the build isn't what people are paying for anymore, and what this means if you sell your expertise. And we'll finish with The Simplify, where we'll work out which decisions only you should be making.
So grab a coffee, and let's get into it.
[02:26] FROM THE DESK
ANNOUNCER: From the Desk!
ANT: Let me start with this show itself, because it's the best example I've got of this week's big idea.
Before bringing Less Is the Strategy back, I sat down and I rebuilt how it actually gets made. When you think about one episode, there's a lot more to it than simply pressing record. There's the planning, and not necessarily a script, but the bullet points that help you with what you're saying. Then there's the editing, cutting out those stumbles and the noises that creep in as you're talking, and getting the sound right. Then there's the music, if you've got adverts or breaks. You've got show notes, you've got interviews, you've got the email to the list, the social posts, and the upload. Each one of those is a job in its own right.
So I split the work into a couple of different piles.
The first pile was the thinking. What is this show for? Who is it really for? What should it sound like? How do I want you to feel when you listen to it, and when the music kicks in? Those decisions are mine, and I spent some real time on them.
Along the way, I listened to a whole lineup of voices and voiceover artists over on fiverr.com, just to get the right one that would work for me. And some people would say, "Just use AI." I'm like, "Yeah, you can use AI," but do you know what? I want it to feel real, because that's what I wanted to produce myself. I could literally just chuck a script into something like ElevenLabs and have it spit out a podcast for you if you want, but that's not me. Genuinely, I wanted to sit here, record, and share. The same goes for the voiceover and the other little bits that we've got in there as well. So I had to do all of that.
The second pile was the building. That's the editing, the levelling, stitching all the pieces together in the right order, and writing up the show notes. That pile now runs on a couple of different systems. I'm using AI to do some of it, and I'm using my team to do some of the other stuff. Effectively, that system, which is part human and part AI, does the heavy lifting, and I just check what comes back.
Before, I did everything, whereas now I'm just doing part. And that's how I'm going to be able to make sure this keeps coming back every week for you. The whole reason you're hearing this episode today is the process I've gone through over the last couple of months. The thinking has stayed with me, and the building went to team and machine. It means I get to spend my time on the part that matters most, which is sitting here in front of this microphone and talking with you each week.
On my community call this Monday, I said something that I keep coming back to in lots of conversations. AI first for the processes and the implementation, and human first for the ideas, the genius, and the expertise. Or to put it more simply, let AI work in the back office, so you can stay in the front office with your people.
Here's another example from my desk, and this one may come as a little bit of a surprise.
For years, I used a tool that helped me mark up websites with feedback and comments. If you build websites and funnels for your clients, you might know the tool I'm talking about. You put your web address in, you send your client a link, and they can put comments straight onto the page. It was simple, and for a long time I was paying around $19 a month for it.
Then, about a year ago, I got an email giving me 30 days' notice that the price was going up to $79. Seventy-nine from nineteen. It was a huge jump for a tool that really just did one job for me.
So I sat there and I thought to myself, "Surely I could build this myself." These vibe coding tools are all out there now, and I could do it. I could use my experience and create the user experience I needed to do the job. So I jumped into an app called Lovable, which many of you probably know, which is an AI app builder, and I made a really crude version. I put the website address in, I sent myself a link and tested it, and it worked really well. I've been using it with clients ever since.
Fast-forward to this last week. I decided to open it up to other people when somebody asked me to recommend this kind of tool. So I spent just two evenings giving it a proper front end. I designed some shapes and user interface in Photoshop, gave it to Lovable, and it's now in a private beta with web designers and funnel builders testing it with their own clients. Alongside them, I've asked a few people I respect to pick it apart, including the head of product for a fairly big software company.
Now, there's a reason I'm telling you this story, and it's about what it shows. Not that long ago, building a tool like that would have meant paying a developer and waiting months. This one went from a crude version, which I'd probably spent about a week and a half getting right, to a first version that people could actually use, in just a couple of evenings.
Yet the idea of what the tool should do, who it's for, and why it matters all came from me and my experience of using a tool like this. It came from years of getting website feedback from clients and knowing exactly where that process goes wrong. AI did the building, but my experience did the designing.
After a quick break, I want to talk to you on the other side about all of this. Because if AI can build so much, what are people actually paying us for now? So stay with me for that one.
[09:18] AD BREAK - THE SIMPLIFY COMMUNITY
ANT: Every Monday, I sit down with a group of business owners on a live call. We look at what's working, what's stuck, and what to do next. It's a relaxed, honest conversation about real business. That call sits right at the heart of the Simplify Community, and it's where busy weeks turn into real progress. Right now, you can join us free for 14 days. Come along to the Monday call, get to know the community, and work through the simplification mindset training that's released through that 14-day trial. If it isn't for you, cancel before day 14 and you won't pay a thing. Start your free trial at simplifycommunity.com.
ANNOUNCER: Now let's get back to Ant!
[10:09] THE CONVERSATION
ANNOUNCER: The Conversation!
ANT: On my community call inside the Simplify Community on Monday, I asked everyone to share one big thing they want to get done before the end of the year. One member, who has more than 20 years of brand experience, talked about getting her three main offers live. There's a build offer, a visual branding offer, and a strategy offer.
She's also just launched something that's a bit of a rescue service for people using AI, because she's seen people using AI to build their websites, particularly on their Kajabi accounts, and they're making a real mess of it. People could always make a mess, but now they can make an even bigger mess a lot faster with AI.
My advice to her was to put the build offer last, and here's the reason behind that advice.
In recent months, I've had a number of conversations with people about their sales pages. We'd talk about their message, their offer, and how the page should be laid out. Then it would all go quiet. So I'd follow up, and then I'd follow up again, and once more, and then maybe I'd get a reply: "Oh, I just used AI to build it."
Let me be honest about how that made me feel. I actually felt really bad. I didn't know quite how to respond. It got me thinking about how people devalue decades of experience in an industry in favour of a brand-new tool that costs them $29 a month. Think of the designers, the copywriters, and the developers who've spent 20 or 30 years learning their craft. Suddenly, the market treats all of that experience as if it's worth the same as a monthly subscription to a tool. To my mind, a lot of people are doing that whole industry a disservice.
But here's what I noticed when I looked a little bit closer, because clearly this is quite close to home for me. Those people didn't really skip the expertise at all. The conversation we had about their message, their copy and the structure of the page was actually the valuable part. They took all of that thinking and fed it into ChatGPT or Claude or Gemini, or whatever they used. The AI only did the very last step.
So the build has stopped being the thing people really want to buy. What they'll pay for, and what people have paid me for, is the thinking that comes before it. That means the message, the copy, and the structure of the page have to be right, and that's where I feel the value has moved to.
Another member of the Simplify Community said something on the call that really struck me: "Even with AI, what you don't know, you don't know." When they said it, I was just like, "What?" Ultimately, you still need the knowledge to tell the AI what to do, and to spot when it's got something wrong. That knowledge comes from your years of experience doing the work.
The same member who runs the AI help service made another great point. She said every AI-edited video in her feed has started to look exactly the same, and it's the same in mine. Everything pops in the same way, with objects spinning around people's heads and all that kind of stuff. When everyone uses the same tools in the same way, everyone ends up looking identical.
The fix is to get clear on your brand first. Build a design system with your colours, your fonts and your style, and then let the AI do the work around it. The brand thinking has to come first, and then the AI follows it.
So if you sell your expertise, whether that's design, copy, coaching, consulting or something else, here's what I would do.
First, lead with your thinking instead of the doing. Package up your strategy, your message work and your diagnosis, and put that at the front of your offers.
Then look at what you've already created for clients in the past. That member with all the branding experience could take all the branding work she's ever done and turn it into a ready-made file for her clients. They could take her brand style guide or design system and give it to their AI. Everything they create would then stay on brand, and that's a brand-new offer built from work she's already done.
You could also become the person who helps people use AI well. When people are making a mess with AI, they need someone who knows what good looks like. That person could easily be you.
That's why this matters so much to me. The disservice bothers me, but it also makes me want to serve the industry in the best way I can and help people make the pivot. AI is the accelerant for your business. It speeds everything up, and you're still doing the steering if you're leading with your experience.
After one more quick break, it's time for The Simplify, and this week it's a nice and practical one for you.
[16:08] AD BREAK - SIMPLIFY THE FUNNEL
ANT: Here's a quick question for you. How many steps does your funnel have right now? A lot of business owners I meet have built something with 100 or more steps, and they're worn out keeping it running. My book, Simplify the Funnel, makes the case for something much smaller. You need one traffic source, one no-brainer offer, one moment where you connect with a real person, and one core offer that delivers the result. That's the whole idea, and it works because you can actually run it every single day of the week. You can start with your first free chapter, along with a full one-hour audio. Head over to simplifythefunnel.com and grab yours today.
[16:59] THE SIMPLIFY
ANNOUNCER: The Simplify... your one thing for this week!
ANT: Here's your one thing for this week. Grab a piece of paper, or maybe a note on your phone.
Write down three decisions in your business that only you can make. For most of us, that's the message, the offer and the brand. That's what you say, what you sell, and how you show up. Those are the front office jobs, so I want you to keep those three close to you.
Then look at everything else on your plate, pick one build task, and look to hand it to AI this week. Make it just one task, nothing more.
For me, the one I'd never take back is reports and dashboards. These days, I've got AI tools plugged into the different platforms I use, pulling data automatically and running a report I can actually read. Then I use that to present things to clients. I used to have to download data, read through spreadsheets, work out formulas in Excel and pull it all together by hand. Now it simply happens, because I've set up tools and agents to do it for me, and I get to spend that time thinking about what the numbers actually mean. Yes, there are checks and balances I do to make sure they're accurate.
Your build task might be a landing page, a batch of social graphics, or tidying up some old blog posts. Pick one, hand it over, and check what comes back. Your thinking goes in at the start, the building comes out the other end, and your thinking comes back in to check it before you publish.
[18:54] CLOSING
ANT: So that's episode 22, and it's good to be back with you. Let AI do the building. Keep the thinking for yourself, and spend the time you save with your people. Thank you for being here at the restart of this podcast, and I can't wait to get on to the next episode for you. I'll speak soon.
That brings us to the end of this week's episode. Thank you so much for spending the time with me. If something you've heard today has helped, please share this episode with one person who needs to hear it. And if you'd like to keep the conversation going, come and join us over at simplifycommunity.com. You can try it free for 14 days. Until next Monday, keep it simple and keep it moving forward.
ANNOUNCER: Less Is the Strategy is a HodgesNet production. Follow the show wherever you listen, so every new episode lands with you on Monday morning. You'll find every past episode at lessisthestrategy.com. And to chat to Ant, please visit anthodges.com.