- 28 minutes 36 secondsBusiness Expenses and To Do Lists

In this episode of Business Brain, we dig into a to-do list rethink that’s saving a ton of mental energy. Dave realized his business-by-business categories were forcing him into dozens of tiny decisions all day long, so he moved that decision to the front end with two lists: Must Do and Might Do. The Must Do list is ruthlessly gatekept, and the Might Do list stays switched off until the essentials are handled and there’s room to wander. We also talk through Shannon’s take on calendars, reminders, and the to-did list, plus why the names you give your lists actually matter.
Then we tackle a listener question about the tax benefits of owning a small business. We cover why a great expense account can beat a big paycheck, how having two accountants with different risk tolerances helps you make smarter calls, and the gut-check questions we ask before taking a deduction, including whether it’s a penalty decision or a prison decision. From vehicles and tech to travel, conferences, and accelerated depreciation, the real takeaway is building an ongoing relationship with your accountant and planning before December, not after, so you can keep building your Charmed Life with fewer surprises at tax time.
- 00:00:00 Business Brain – The Entrepreneurs’ Podcast #796 for Wednesday, October 14th, 2026
- October 14th: World Standards Day
- 00:01:45 Business Brain Blueprints
- 00:03:25 Creating two to-do lists: Must do, Might Do.
- The names are important.
- The To-Did List
- 00:15:30 SPONSOR: Whatnot is the largest dedicated live shopping platform. Just search Whatnot in the app store and start selling today
- 00:16:58 Deductions, Depreciations, Write-Offs are the reasons to own multiple businesses!
- @Norcalmensnetwork asks: what are the tax benefits of owning a small business?
- Living a pre-tax lifestyle
- Is this decision penalty or prison?
- Accelerate Depreciation
- 00:22:25 Expense items
- Travel
- Conferences
- Curriculum
- Vehicles
- Cell Phone service
- Technology
- 00:26:42 Business Brain 796 Outtro
- This Episode’s Big Takeway: Be Ruthless with your To-Do List, and get a good accountant!
- Check out Business Brain Blueprints
- Tell Your Friends!
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14 October 2026, 7:35 am - 00:00:00 Business Brain – The Entrepreneurs’ Podcast #796 for Wednesday, October 14th, 2026
- 32 minutes 16 secondsFridAI - Muse and AI Dumbing Down

In this episode of Business Brain, we dive into Muse, the new agent-first AI platform that does things for you instead of just answering questions. You’ll hear why QuickBooks and Shopify are opening their doors to it while Amazon is shutting it out, how we think about security when connecting an agent to your email, and why you own every mistake your agent makes, just like you would with a human assistant. Connect it to Slack, Zoom, and Notion, and your morning dashboard practically builds itself.
Then Dave raises a concern that’s not the one you’d expect: he’s learning less now than he was six months ago, and he can draw a straight line to AI. We debate whether that’s a real problem or just the calculator argument all over again, what it means for the people who won’t adapt, and whether we’re headed for a new renaissance. The question for your Charmed Life: are we learning less with AI, or just learning differently?
- 00:00:00 Business Brain – The Entrepreneurs’ Podcast #795 for Casual FridAI, October 9th, 2026
- October 9th: Curious Events Day
- 00:01:56 Muse (vs. Instinct)
- 00:11:12 SPONSOR: Eleven Labs: ElevenAgents can help build experiences that your customers will actually love. If you handle customer interactions, you can start with a demo at https://elevenlabs.io/businessbrain
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- 00:14:56 Dave has some concerns about AI
- 00:30:58 Business Brain 795 Outtro
- This Episode’s Big Takeway: Are we learning less with AI? Or just learning differently?
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9 October 2026, 7:35 am - 00:00:00 Business Brain – The Entrepreneurs’ Podcast #795 for Casual FridAI, October 9th, 2026
- 27 minutes 49 secondsReview Inflation + Intentional Deprioritization

In this episode of Business Brain, we tackle the broken five-star review system and why it holds your business hostage. You’ll hear how Airbnb can pull a listing that dips below 4.3 stars, why five stars has become the baseline instead of the ceiling, and why responsiveness, not perfection, is what earns you those top marks. We also dig into Airbnb shifting fees onto hosts, the growing push to book direct, and why the contractor who never calls back is about to get their lunch eaten by competitors using AI to respond instantly.
Then we get into intentional deprioritization. You can’t grow everything at once, so why not choose what lives in maintenance mode instead of letting it happen by accident? We share how a monthly check-in on what gets your focus, and an honest look back at the last 30 days, can lift the mental load that wakes you up at 2 a.m. Make room to think, wander through your projects, and get back to living your Charmed Life.
- 00:00:00 Business Brain – The Entrepreneurs’ Podcast #794 for Wednesday, October 7th, 2026
- October 7th: National LED Light Day
- 00:03:41 Revisiting 5-Star Reviews on AirBnB
- 00:07:29 Responsive hosts are the key
- 00:13:57 SPONSOR: Eleven Labs: ElevenAgents can help build experiences that your customers will actually love. If you handle customer interactions, you can start with a demo at https://elevenlabs.io/businessbrain
- 00:16:07 SPONSOR: Hims. With Wegovy® at Hims, lose up to 20% of your body weight when combined with diet and exercise. Visit https://hims.com/businessbrain to get a personalized, affordable plan that gets you.
- 00:17:40 Intentional de-prioritization
- Managing your own mental load
- Leave some free time for creative business thinking
- Pebble Ring
- 00:25:57 [email protected]
- 00:26:21 Business Brain 794 Outtro <https://businessbrain.show/>
- This Episode’s Big Takeway: Learn to lesson your mental load with intentional deprioritization
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7 October 2026, 7:35 am - 00:00:00 Business Brain – The Entrepreneurs’ Podcast #794 for Wednesday, October 7th, 2026
- 20 minutes 35 secondsFridAI - The What am I Missing Prompt

In this Casual FridAI episode of Business Brain, we kick off National Body Language Day with a reminder that your business should keep evolving until its current version is its best one. Then Shannon shares his favorite prompt for getting beyond your own brain: what am I missing? Left alone, AI inherits your biases and tells you what you want to hear. Push it past your blind spots and it will surface things like sponsor categories you’d never considered, or a consulting contract where everyone was indemnified except you.
Dave takes it a step further: hire yourself an AI agent. Give it a name and its own inbox, then forward it the maybe-opportunities you’d normally delete. It follows up on your behalf and only pulls you in when it matters. If it speaks out of turn, you step in and smooth things over, just like you would with a human hire. You chase down more leads without spending more of your time, and that’s the Charmed Life. Get Business Blueprints on both ideas at businessbrain.show/blueprints.
- 00:00:00 Business Brain – The Entrepreneurs’ Podcast #793 for Casual FridAI, October 2nd, 2026
- October 2nd: National Body Language Day
- 00:02:31 Always be your favorite version
- 00:03:24 Beyond Your BrAIn
- Ask your LLM: Are you Sure?
- Also ask: What am I missing?
- 00:09:40 SPONSOR: Shopify: Own your customer relationships. Own your revenue. Start with a free trial at Shopify.com/BusinessBrain.
- 00:11:01 SPONSOR: Factor, America’s #1 Ready-To-Eat Meal Kit, can help you fuel up fast with ready-to-eat meals delivered straight to your door. Head to FACTORMEALS.com/businessbrain50off and use code businessbrain50off to get 50% off your first box.
- 00:12:45 “Hire” an AI Employee, give it an inbox, and a name!
- 00:18:45 Business Brain 793 Outtro
- This Episode’s Big Takeway: Ask your LLM, “What am I missing?”…and Hire an AI employee!
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2 October 2026, 7:35 am - 00:00:00 Business Brain – The Entrepreneurs’ Podcast #793 for Casual FridAI, October 2nd, 2026
- 23 minutes 27 secondsBuilding in Reverse

In this episode of Business Brain, we celebrate International Podcast Day by talking about building your business in reverse. Before you build the app, the community, or the program, talk to the people you want to serve. Shannon launched his first cohort after conversations with more than a hundred people who told him what they needed, how they wanted to get it, and what they’d pay. It was far more successful than he expected. Dave spots the secret ingredient: a well-managed ego that lets you admit you don’t know and lets your customers shape the vision.
Then ask the hard question about your existing business: who wants this? You’re probably not your customer anymore, and when you really listen, the answer is usually about service, not price. We close with a quick tip that’s really a mindset shift. Get a tall tripod for your phone and get comfortable on camera, because unpolished, founder-led video beats AI slop every time. That’s how you show up, connect, and keep living the Charmed Life.
- 00:00:00 Business Brain – The Entrepreneurs’ Podcast #792 for Wednesday, September 30th, 2026
- 00:01:27 September 30th: International Podcast Day
- 00:03:05 Building in Reverse
- Vision combined with beginner’s mind
- …with a well-managed ego
- Who wants this?
- 00:14:33 SPONSOR: Shopify: Own your customer relationships. Own your revenue. Start with a free trial at Shopify.com/BusinessBrain.
- 00:15:55 SPONSOR: Factor, America’s #1 Ready-To-Eat Meal Kit, can help you fuel up fast with ready-to-eat meals delivered straight to your door. Head to FACTORMEALS.com/businessbrain50off and use code businessbrain50off to get 50% off your first box.
- 00:17:38 Buy a tripod for your phone
- 00:22:35 Business Brain 792 Outtro
- This Episode’s Big Takeway: Get Comfortable In Front of a Video Camera and Record
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30 September 2026, 7:35 am - 23 minutes 25 secondsFridAI Building an AI Harness

In this Casual FridAI episode of Business Brain, we explain the harness, the app layer that sits between you and the AI model. The model is static. The harness is where your context, memory, and prompts get packaged up and sent along with every request. Dave learned how hard that layer is to build when a single-prompt ad-script tool for his BackBeat Media team took three days of agentic coding to get right. After that, the huge price tags on harnesses like Cursor made perfect sense.
Then we dig into Instinct, the beta AI that lives in your messages app and just gets to work. There’s no lengthy setup and no data dump. Ask it one question about last-minute tickets or Friday night comedy, and it keeps tracking the answer for you on its own. Shannon now starts each morning like a conductor, directing multiple AI tools instead of delegating to people. Your takeaway is to learn how each harness connects you to the models so you can use it to build your Charmed Life
- 00:00:00 Business Brain – The Entrepreneurs’ Podcast #791 for Casual FridAI, September 25th, 2026
- 00:01:27 September 25th: One Hit Wonder Day
- 00:04:08 Building a harness
- 00:11:52 SPONSOR: Keeper Security’s Password Manager. Right now, Keeper is offering our listeners 60% off personal and family plans at https://Keepersecurity.com/BRAIN
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- 00:14:33 More work with Instinct (we still have invites!)
- 00:22:01 Business Brain 791 Outtro
- This Episode’s Big Takeway: Learn how each harness works with models AND with you
- Check out Business Brain Blueprints
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25 September 2026, 7:35 am - 22 minutes 6 secondsThe People Who Change Your Life

In this episode of Business Brain, we unpack what happens when a conference forgets who it’s for. Fresh off Podcast Movement’s first run in New York, Dave explains how splitting creators and business folks into separate events left everyone hunting for coffee shops to meet. Before you book the flight, figure out what value an event is built to deliver. Then show up with a plan, define success for yourself and your team, and stay loose enough to catch the moments you can’t schedule.
Shannon brings it home with a favorite Steve Jobs idea: you can’t plan on meeting the person who will change your life. He’s heading to New Orleans with ten friends he first met on X, and a deal walked right up to Dave at a cocktail party, so we make the case for skipping the early exit and working one more room. Opportunities dance with those already on the dance floor, and that’s how you keep living the Charmed Life. Grab this week’s Business Blueprint at businessbrain.show/blueprints to prep for your next event, work it, and follow up afterward.
- 00:00:00 Business Brain – The Entrepreneurs’ Podcast #790 for Wednesday, September 23rd, 2026
- September 23rd: National Great American Pot Pie Day
- 00:02:29 Dave just got back from Podcast Movement and has thoughts
- Have a Conference plan for you AND for your team
- What does success look like? What’s your definition of success?
- 00:12:34 SPONSOR: Keeper Security’s Password Manager. Right now, Keeper is offering our listeners 60% off personal and family plans at https://Keepersecurity.com/BRAIN
- 00:13:51 SPONSOR: Perplexity Computer. Start your free trial of Perplexity Computer today at PPLX.ai/brain and experience the next phase of AI. #ad makeup
- 00:15:17 “You Can’t Plan on Meeting The Person Who Will Change Your Life” – Steve Jobs
- “Opportunities dance with those already on the dance floor.”
- 00:21:11 Business Brain 790 Outtro
- This Episode’s Big Takeway: Keep Expanding Your Network
- Check out Business Brain Blueprints
- Tell Your Friends!
- Business Blueprints
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23 September 2026, 7:35 am - 00:00:00 Business Brain – The Entrepreneurs’ Podcast #790 for Wednesday, September 23rd, 2026
- 24 minutes 29 secondsFridAI - Instinct + $10K AI Update

In this episode of Business Brain, Dave hands ten grand to an AI and gets out of its way. The proceeds from his domain sale became a 90-day experiment: Claude designed a static, formulaic trading system — 60% crypto, 40% equities, running through MCP connectors into Kraken and Alpaca — with lightweight weekly check-ins, a heavyweight strategy review at day 45, and a 48-hour rule that lets the system act if he doesn’t respond. Day 69, up 11%. But the number isn’t the win. The win is an operation where the founder is no longer the bottleneck and the emotion has been engineered out entirely, right down to cutting a 25% loser without waiting for a recovery that may never come. Shannon’s running his own version, parking creator revenue in X Money at 6% until it’s big enough to deploy.
Then Shannon walks you through Instinct, a private-beta assistant with no app at all — it lives in your text messages. It read his insurance renewal, caught his son listed as primary driver on a new truck to the tune of $3,118, and drafted the email to his agent. Then it spotted his wife’s girls’ trip on the calendar and had flowers and a charcuterie board on her doorstep by three o’clock Friday. We get into what it costs you to build this yourself versus letting someone else own the infrastructure, and why your job is quietly shifting from doing to conducting. The takeaway: don’t wait for the perfect tool. Start now, learn what genuinely matters to you, and accept that your assistant will miss a few things while it learns you. That’s the charmed life on the other side of a little experimentation.
- 00:00:00 Business Brain – The Entrepreneurs’ Podcast #789 for Casual FridAI, September 18th, 2026
- September 18th: National Tradesmen Day
- 00:01:40 Dave’s Barbell AI Investing Update
- 00:10:04 SPONSOR: SomniPods 3 sleep earbuds from Fitnexa: Flat enough to sleep on, and the app is the real prize: https://go.fitnexa.com/brain automatically applies $10 off (or use code BRAIN).
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- 00:13:26 Instinct AI, your personal assistant
- 00:21:43 Business Brain 789 Outtro <https://businessbrain.show/>
- This Episode’s Big Takeway: Train your AI assistant to actually be your assistant
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18 September 2026, 7:35 am - 00:00:00 Business Brain – The Entrepreneurs’ Podcast #789 for Casual FridAI, September 18th, 2026
- 25 minutes 52 secondsDomain Negotaiting and HCIH Follow Up

In this episode of Business Brain, we take you inside both sides of a domain negotiation. Shannon wanted resellerrocket.com, found it sitting on a generic affiliate parking page, and opened at $2,300 against a $4,000 ask — then used AI to land on an oddly specific counter just under $2,700 that got accepted on the spot. Dave plays the other side: an unsolicited inbox offer on a domain he’d been paying registration fees on for twenty-plus years, a Claude-assisted valuation, a $15,000 ask, and a $10,000 close with the buyer eating the escrow fees. The rule you can steal today — buy with math, sell with emotion. And when someone tries to turn a price into a monthly payment, remember what FFE really stands for.
Then we put your favorite management line on trial. How can I help sounds generous, but it hands your team a blank slate and makes them do the work of delegating to themselves. You’ll hear why specific beats open-ended, why Shannon walks the floor every morning emptying trash cans while he reads the room, and why he lets his people set their own KPIs instead of handing them down. The upgrade is straightforward: tell your team you’ll do anything you can to help them succeed, then put your skills, your network, and your tools on the table as resources they’re allowed to use. Expect it to take a while before they believe you. Getting there is the charmed life — a team that finally tells you what they actually need.
- 00:00:00 Business Brain – The Entrepreneurs’ Podcast #788 for Wednesday, September 16th, 2026
- September 16th: Working Parents Day
- 00:02:04 Domain Negotiating
- ResellerRocket.com
- Spaceship.com (hopefully they’re a domain broker!)
- 00:11:56 SPONSOR: SomniPods 3 sleep earbuds from Fitnexa: Flat enough to sleep on, and the app is the real prize: https://go.fitnexa.com/brain automatically applies $10 off (or use code BRAIN).
- 00:13:29 SPONSOR: Hims. With Wegovy® at Hims, lose up to 20% of your body weight when combined with diet and exercise. Visit https://hims.com/businessbrain to get a personalized, affordable plan that gets you.
- 00:15:17 Revisiting “How can I help?”
- 00:24:26 Business Brain 788 Outtro
- This Episode’s Big Takeway: Be Mindful of How You Can Offer Help To Your Team
- Check out Business Brain Blueprints
- Tell Your Friends!
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16 September 2026, 7:35 am - 00:00:00 Business Brain – The Entrepreneurs’ Podcast #788 for Wednesday, September 16th, 2026
- 26 minutes 22 secondsFridAI - GrokBot and Simplebench

In this episode of Business Brain, we dig into Grokbot, the new agent platform that packages OpenClaw-level power into something you can actually set up in minutes. We walk through a chief-of-staff bot that manages the rest, an auction scout that delivers a report every morning, a research bot that hunts liquidations across X, YouTube, Reddit, and LinkedIn, and a personalized daily newspaper built from your email, Slack, and calendar. No coding, cloud-hosted, and free with X Premium Plus.
We also cover ChatGPT’s new computer history feature that turns your desktop activity into context for your agents, what to expect from iOS and macOS 27 screen awareness, and SimpleBench results showing Astra Pro and Fable 5.1 now edging past humans on common-sense reasoning. If you’ve been waiting for agents to get easy, this is the week to start living that Charmed Life with an AI chief of staff.
- 00:00:00 Business Brain – The Entrepreneurs’ Podcast #787 for Casual FridAI, September 11th, 2026
- September 11th: No News Is Good News Day
- 00:01:26 What is Grok Bot and how do I use it?
- 00:12:57 SPONSOR: SomniPods 3 sleep earbuds from Fitnexa: Flat enough to sleep on, and the app is the real prize: https://go.fitnexa.com/brain automatically applies $10 off (or use code BRAIN).
- 00:14:24 SPONSOR: Shopify: Own your customer relationships. Own your revenue. Start with a free trial at Shopify.com/BusinessBrain.
- 00:15:59 ChatGPT Computer History
- 00:21:05 SimpleBench ratings of Astra and Fable
- 00:24:15 Business Brain 787 Outtro
- This Episode’s Big Takeway: Try Out Grok Bot!
- Check out Business Brain Blueprints
- Tell Your Friends!
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11 September 2026, 7:35 am - 00:00:00 Business Brain – The Entrepreneurs’ Podcast #787 for Casual FridAI, September 11th, 2026
- 20 minutes 30 secondsGive Yourself 2 Years + VCF Files

In this episode of Business Brain, we uncover a dead-simple texting hack most businesses are ignoring: sending a VCF contact card with your very first message so your name and logo land in your customer’s phone instead of a random number. It’s a credibility boost, it sidesteps spam filters, and almost nobody is doing it yet. If you text customers at all, this is your move.
Then we revisit the two-year experiment: one year to learn, one year to execute. We break down why Stripe had only fifty customers after twenty-four months, why you shouldn’t quit your day job before the runway is built, and how to read the signals along the way without giving up too early. Give yourself the time and you’ll build the foundation for the next decade of your Charmed Life.
- 00:00:00 Business Brain – The Entrepreneurs’ Podcast #786 for Wednesday, September 9th, 2026
- September 9th: International Box Wine Day
- 00:02:22 Add a downloadable .vcf file to your business text onboarding flow
- Superpower.com does it!
- 00:08:14 SPONSOR: SomniPods 3 sleep earbuds from Fitnexa: Flat enough to sleep on, and the app is the real prize: https://go.fitnexa.com/brain automatically applies $10 off (or use code BRAIN).
- 00:09:39 SPONSOR: Shopify: Own your customer relationships. Own your revenue. Start with a free trial at Shopify.com/BusinessBrain.
- 00:11:16 The Two Year Experiment
- One to learn, the second to execute
- After two years, Stripe only had 50 customers
- 00:18:40 Business Brain 786 Outtro
- This Episode’s Big Takeway: Give Yourself Two Years to Get Started
- Check out Business Brain Blueprints
- Tell Your Friends!
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9 September 2026, 7:35 am - 00:00:00 Business Brain – The Entrepreneurs’ Podcast #786 for Wednesday, September 9th, 2026
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