QFF: How Julie Holmes, Founder of Smarter HQ, Empowers Small Business Owners to Scale Fast with AI—From Smarter Processes & Personalized Experiences to Her 20-60-20 Framework & Treating AI Like an Intern. (Episode 655 - Julie Holmes)
Release Date: 04/10/2025
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QFF: How Julie Holmes, Founder of Smarter HQ, Empowers Small Business Owners to Scale Fast with AI—From Smarter Processes & Personalized Experiences to Her 20-60-20 Framework & Treating AI Like an Intern. (Episode 655 - Julie Holmes)
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QFF: Quick Fire Friday – Your 20-Minute Growth Powerhouse! Welcome to Quick Fire Friday, the Grow A Small Business podcast series that is designed to deliver simple, focused and actionable insights and key takeaways in less than 20 minutes a week. Every Friday, we bring you business owners and experts who share their top strategies for growing yourself, your team and your small business. Get ready for a dose of inspiration, one action you can implement and quotable quotes that will stick with you long after the episode ends! In this episode of Quick Fire Friday, host Amanda Jones...
info_outlineQFF: Quick Fire Friday – Your 20-Minute Growth Powerhouse!
Welcome to Quick Fire Friday, the Grow A Small Business podcast series that is designed to deliver simple, focused and actionable insights and key takeaways in less than 20 minutes a week.
Every Friday, we bring you business owners and experts who share their top strategies for growing yourself, your team and your small business. Get ready for a dose of inspiration, one action you can implement and quotable quotes that will stick with you long after the episode ends!
In this episode of Quick Fire Friday, host Michael Denehey interviews Julie Holmes, founder of The Smarter HQ, who provides valuable insights on achieving success in business through the strategic use of AI. Julie explains how AI can help small businesses become more efficient and effective, enabling them to scale and compete with larger organisations. She introduces the 20-60-20 framework for utilising generative AI and emphasises the importance of human oversight in the process. Key takeaways include treating AI like an intern and practical first steps for small business owners to start experimenting with AI tools like ChatGPT. Ultimately, the podcast underscores that embracing AI is crucial for small businesses to avoid falling behind their competitors.
Key Takeaways for Small Business Owners:
Start with Your To-Do List to Apply AI: AI enables small businesses to scale and compete with larger organisations in ways they couldn't before. Julie states that AI can help businesses "sell smarter, serve better and save time"
.
To get started with AI, small business: Owners should look at their "to do list" for tasks that are not in their "zone of genius" or are time-consuming, such as emails, social media, and writing proposals. Julie notes that AI can help overcome the difficulty of starting these tasks.
Use the 20-60-20 Framework: Julie Holmes introduces the 20-60-20 framework, also known as "you do you", for using generative AI. The first 20% is on the owner for strategy and prompting, the AI does 60% of the work, and the final 20% is crucial for personalisation and ensuring the output aligns with the brand.
Treat AI Like an Intern, Not a Magic Wand: AI isn’t magic—it needs context. Train it like you would a new hire: giv.e it background, examples, and feedback to get the best outcomes.
Solve Real Problems First—Then Choose the Tool: Don’t start by exploring tools. Start with a problem (e.g., note-taking, content creation, or customer personalization) and then find the best AI tool to solve it.
Enhance Customer Experience with Smart Personalization: AI can help tailor messages, proposals, and services by researching customer details and needs, letting small businesses deliver big-brand experiences.
One action small business owners can take:
One immediate action small business owners can take is to identify tasks on their "to-do list" that are not in their "zone of genius" or that are time-consuming, such as emails, social media, and writing proposals, and consider how AI could assist with these.
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Quotable quotes from our special Grow A Small Business podcast guest:
AI is like electricity—it powers everything, but only if you plug it in — Julie Holmes
Small businesses don’t need more arms, they need smarter tools—and that’s AI — Julie
Holmes
You don’t need to be tech-savvy to use AI, but you must be technique-savvy — Julie Holmes