I Gave My Company to AI for 6 Months — Here's What Survived Spoiler: I'm still here. So is my team. But nothing works the same.

 The Experiment That Could Have Killed My Business

If you're interested, I also have a really good article here

Six months ago, I made a decision that sounded insane to everyone around me.

I started handing over pieces of my company to artificial intelligence.

Not just the boring stuff. Not just the email drafts and meeting notes. I mean the real stuff. The systems. The processes. The infrastructure that keeps a 10-person video production company running without collapsing into chaos.

And I didn't stop there.

I moved almost every computer in my office to Linux. I killed Slack. I killed Notion. I replaced them with open-source alternatives running on my own servers. I built custom software. I connected everything to an AI agent that now runs the show.

After six months, I can say with confidence:

We are now an AI-powered company.

But here's the twist. The term everyone uses for this is "AI-first." I hate that term. It's marketing fluff, like "cloud-based" or "blockchain" back in the day.

I prefer something else.

We are Human-First, AI-Powered.

And today, I'm going to show you exactly what that means.

The Problem: Creative People Are Chaos Machines

My company makes YouTube videos. Lots of them.

Every video goes through the same process:

1. An idea

2. Research

3. A script

4. Filming (this video, right now)

5. Product shots

6. Editing

7. Review

8. Thumbnail + title

9. Publishing

Simple, right?

Wrong.

Behind the scenes, there's purchasing, inventory management, finance, project management, sales, IT, and a thousand tiny decisions that keep everything from falling apart. And here's the thing about creative people — we're not exactly known for our organizational skills.

We miss deadlines. We get inspired at 2 AM and change everything. We lose track of gear. We forget what we said in a video three years ago.

For years, I tried to fix this with traditional software development tools.

I implemented Agile. I used Scrum, Jira, Kanban, standup meetings — everything I learned from my years as a programmer. And it helped. A little.

But I always dreamed of something more.

I dreamed of a custom application. One program that controlled everything — tasks, calendars, budgets, scripts, footage, inventory. All in one place. All perfectly organized.

The problem? Building that kind of software costs a fortune. You need a developer for six months, then more to maintain it. Most small companies can't afford that.

I couldn't afford that.

But I could afford something else.

An AI.

How I Built the Impossible

First, I did a full financial analysis of my company. Every expense, every subscription, everything we were wasting money on.

I fed it all into an LLM and asked it to categorize every single expense. It cross-referenced emails, databases, and company names. It figured out what we were actually paying for and whether it was worth it.

That's when I discovered we were spending a ridiculous amount on apps like Slack and Notion.

So I killed them.

I replaced Slack with Element (open source). I replaced Notion with Outline. I built custom integrations. I moved everything to open-source, self-hosted alternatives running on my own hardware.

Then I built Orion.

Orion started as a simple benchmark database. I'd test computers, run performance tests, and store the results. It became an inventory system. Then a task manager. Then a project tracker. Then a full operating system for the entire company.

Today, Orion handles everything:

• Video pipelines

• Team tasks

• Google Calendar sync

• Sales data

• Inventory tracking

• Everything

But here's the thing — I built all of this with AI.

I tell the AI what I need. It writes the code. I review it. We iterate. What used to take me months now takes days.

10x faster. No joke.

The Brain in the Basement

Remember that server I mentioned?

It's a monster. Threadripper CPU. 96 cores. 96GB of VRAM on an RTX 6000 Pro. The most powerful graphics card you can put in a PC before you need a datacenter.

Inside that server runs something called Janus.

Janus is my AI assistant. But "assistant" is an understatement. Janus is the brain of the entire company.

Here's what Janus can do:

• Access every video we've ever made

• Search transcriptions and pull clips instantly

• Know which products we've covered

• Answer any question about company operations

• Transcribe audio

• Send WhatsApp messages

• Alert the team when something is confirmed

• Find things from old videos

• Remember decisions so we don't repeat mistakes

And every Monday morning, Janus runs a routine:

"Here are the videos that should have been published last week. Here are the tasks that didn't get done. Is it realistic to hit this week's deadlines? If not, let's reschedule. And by the way, I checked your calendar — you have a dentist appointment on Thursday. Don't forget."

Janus doesn't just track tasks. It understands context. It knows when I'm traveling. It knows when we're behind. It knows when the team needs breathing room.

And I am the only one who talks to it.

The AI Editor That Saves Hours

Filming this video took me 1 hour and 20 minutes.

That's 80 minutes of me talking, repeating myself, messing up, going off-track, and generally being a human.

My editor used to spend hours cutting this down to a clean 30-minute video.

Now we have an AI tool that:

1. Watches the entire raw footage

2. Transcribes every word

3. Detects repetitions and mistakes

4. Makes a first cut

5. Imports product clips and b-roll automatically

6. Generates a DaVinci Resolve project file

The editor still does a second pass. He still makes creative decisions. But the AI saves him hours of boring, repetitive work.

He can focus on making it good, not making it exist.

The Digital Clone

Here's where it gets crazy.

We have a database that contains everything we've ever said in a video. Every review, every opinion, every benchmark, every off-hand comment.

When I ask Janus about a video I made three years ago, it finds it instantly.

When the team needs b-roll of a specific product, it's already indexed and ready.

When sales needs to know if we've covered a certain brand, they ask Janus.

It's like having a digital clone of the entire company.

And this is where the "Human-First" part comes in.

The Line I Refuse to Cross

People ask me all the time: "Do you use AI to write your scripts?"

No. Absolutely not.

I tried. The AI wrote something generic, predictable, and soulless. It had no personality. No edge. No me.

And honestly? The AI thought my ideas were terrible.

I once made a video about a MacBook Pro and didn't mention the performance at all. I spent the whole video talking about the engineering, the curvature of the chassis, the angle of the edges — and how it represented a return to Apple's PowerPC era.

The AI told me it was a bad idea.

That video got millions of views.

AI can't predict what makes humans connect. It can't replicate your personality, your sense of humor, your weird obsessions, your off-beat takes. That's what makes us creators unique.

So I drew a line.

The creative part is for humans. The boring part is for AI.

Scripts? Human. Concepts? Human. Art direction? Human.

Editing, organization, scheduling, research, data management? AI.

The Team's AI Nudge

Creative people are chaotic. We don't check our tasks. We don't move our cards. We don't update our status.

It drives me crazy.

So I built Fama.

Fama is an AI that follows up with the team. It sends them messages:

"Hey, how's that edit going? Any blockers? Let me know and I'll update your tasks."

They respond with a voice note. Fama transcribes it. It updates the task board. It tells me what's happening.

I don't have to be a manager with a whip. The AI does it for me.

And they don't even mind. It's a bot. They can ignore it if they want. But it keeps things moving.

What This Means for the Future

Look, I'm not saying AI is going to replace everyone.

But I am saying that a single person with technical skills can now do what used to require a whole team.

Before AI, a small company like mine couldn't afford a full-time developer. Building custom software was a luxury. Now? One person with the right knowledge can automate massive parts of the business in weeks, not months.

The new job isn't "programmer." It's "AI implementer."

Someone who understands the business, understands the systems, and knows how to make AI solve real problems.

And that's exactly what I want to teach.

The Big Question

After six months, I've learned something important:

AI will change work. It already is.

People are losing jobs. That's real. But new opportunities are opening too. People who understand how to integrate AI into real businesses — not just prompt engineering, but actual systems — are going to be incredibly valuable.

I built a system that my company couldn't have dreamed of a year ago. I did it with almost no budget. I did it with AI.

And I'm just getting started.

So here's the question I keep asking myself:

Can anyone do this?

Do you need to be a programmer? Do you need a computer science degree? Do you need to understand networking and cybersecurity and databases?

Or can someone with curiosity, determination, and a few good prompts learn enough to build something remarkable?

I think the answer is yes.

And that's what I'm going to explore next.

The Takeaway

Six months ago, I was skeptical. I thought AI might be all hype. I thought it might be like crypto — a flashy trend that fades.

I was wrong.

AI is real. It's here. And it's changing how small businesses can operate.

But it's not replacing humans. Not yet. Maybe not ever.

It's making humans more powerful.

My company is Human-First, AI-Powered.

We do the creative work. We make the art. We have the weird ideas that nobody else has.

And the AI does everything else.

That's the future I want to live in.

Your Turn

Are you using AI in your business? Or are you still waiting to see if it's worth it?

Drop a comment below — I reply to everyone.

And if you want to learn how to build systems like this, I'm working on something. Stay tuned.

The Verdict: AI doesn't replace humans. It replaces boring tasks. And that's a future worth building.

I Spent a Morning Chasing AI Garage Sales — Spoiler: AI Lied, But I Still Won

It started with a TikTok.

A creator named Kenz posted the first AI-generated garage sale ad I'd ever seen. It was beautiful. It was weird. It had a three-legged high heel and a Fred Flintstone toy that looked like it came from another dimension.

The comments went crazy. People were begging her to go. She did. Fred was actually there — and somehow creepier in person than in the AI image.

I was hooked.

That's when I decided to do my own experiment. I grabbed my camera, set my alarm for way too early, and went hunting for AI-promoted garage sales across Southern California.

The Plan (And Everyone's Wishlist)

Before I left, I asked my followers what they dream of finding at a garage sale.

The answers were very specific:

• Designer bags (Chanel, Coach, Louis Vuitton)

• Vintage Lennox Spice Village figurines

• Record players

• Tiffany-style stained glass lamps

• Sanrio stuff (Hello Kitty, Pompompurin, My Melody)

I scrolled Facebook groups for hours, found the weirdest AI ads I could, marked them on my map, and hit the road at 7 AM.

Sale #1: The One That Looked Promising

The ad showed a gorgeous red dress, a cool vintage camera, red heels, and the words "designer clothing."

I was in.

We arrived in the first ten minutes. We dug through every single rack. I was convinced I'd find a Coach bag or at least something from a real brand.

And look... it was fine. Normal brands. Nothing noteworthy. The one thing that caught my eye? Press-on nails. That's it.

No red dress. No camera. No designer anything.

We left.

Lesson learned: AI ads will show you a dream. The reality is often just... stuff.

Sale #2: Hello Kitty (But Make It Weird)

This AI ad was a lot.

At first glance, it looked cute — colorful, full of Sanrio characters, squishy toys everywhere. But the longer you stared, the weirder it got.

• One bow looked glitchy, like the AI didn't know how bows work

• My Melody had what I can only describe as a crab claw for a hand

• Pompompurin in the foreground looked normal

• Pompompurin in the background looked like he was melting in the summer heat

Also — plot twist the ad didn't warn me about — Hello Kitty is apparently not a cat. She's a little girl. I stood there genuinely questioning everything I knew about Sanrio.

The sale itself was packed. People were grabbing squishies before they even hit the tables. I managed to grab:

• Two dumpling squishies (one glitter, one plain)

• Some butter squishies that were all over TikTok

• A pile of Hello Kitty hair clips and stationery

• Random Sanrio accessories

Total spent: $98 for a basket full of stuff.

Also, they gave us shopping baskets. At a garage sale. Felt like luxury service.

Sale #3: The One With Club Music (But No Club)

The ad had loud club music in the background for some reason. I was honestly expecting party vibes.

The actual sale? Completely silent. And a little random, like most backyard sales are.

There was some Calvin Klein. A few cute dresses. A teddy bear. Board games, but not the ones from the ad. Vintage tech, but not a record player.

I was starting to understand something: AI ads will always overpromise. That's kind of their whole thing.

I left empty-handed and started losing hope.

Sale #4: The One That Saved The Day

No AI ad. No promises. No fancy images.

Just a multi-seller sale with a few tables in a yard and a pile of clothes thrown on a blanket.

This is where the magic happened.

I spotted a small blue dresser with stars on it — adorable. A beautiful hanging lamp (not Tiffany, but still great). Then I found dishware — a full set from 1991 with the most perfect berry print I've ever seen.

And then someone casually said "Lennox."

I genuinely could not believe it.

Not the Spice Village specifically, but little Lennox fruit pieces — strawberries, grapes, and more — sitting right there, $5 each. I grabbed a whole set.

Then I started going through the clothes pile that most people walk right past. Hidden in there:

• A vintage Guess velvet dress

• Two beaded jackets from the 80s

• A flower-embroidered vest

Fifteen dollars. For all of it.

And here's the kicker — while setting up for a random shot, I looked down and found a Nintendo DS in the gutter. Someone literally threw it out a car window. It came home with me.

This is the thing about garage sales. The best finds are always in the messy pile no one wants to deal with.

Sale #5: The Unexpected Jackpot

The ad for this one was vague — some AI-generated beauty products floating in space. My first thought was "pyramid scheme." My second thought was "well, let's see."

We almost didn't make it. The line was two hours long by the time we got there. People were lined up around the block.

Here's what was actually happening:

Sephora clears their shelves every few weeks to make room for new products. The old stock goes to wholesalers. This woman was one of those wholesalers — and she turned her garage into a discounted beauty paradise.

We're talking:

• Urban Decay

• Rare Beauty

• Huda Beauty

• Sol de Janeiro

• Summer Fridays

• Olaplex

• Rhode

All between 30 and 75% off.

A $150 eyeshadow palette for **$50**. A huge Sol de Janeiro body lotion for a fraction of retail. Poodle-shaped blushes — yes, really. Free gifts thrown in because we bought so much.

We walked out with over $1,000 worth of products for about $300.

I literally gasped when I saw the prices.

And here's the funny part — if she had just posted real photos of the actual products, I would have been ten times more excited. The AI image somehow made it look less appealing than it actually was.

What I Actually Learned

After a whole morning of chasing AI garage sales, here's what I figured out:

1. AI Ads Are A Coin Flip
Sometimes the stuff is completely made up — beautiful red dresses that don't exist, cameras that were never there. Other times, the real sale is so much better than anything the image suggested.

2. The Best Finds Are Never In The Ad
The Lennox pieces? Not in the AI image. The vintage Guess dress? Hidden in a pile. The Nintendo DS? In a gutter. AI can't predict what you'll actually find — that's the beauty of garage sales.

3. Show Up Early, Dig Deep
The people who get the best stuff aren't the ones who scroll ads all day. They're the ones who wake up early, dig through the messy piles, and keep an open mind.

4. AI Is Great For Attention, Not For Accuracy
AI ads get clicks. They get people through the door. But they're terrible at describing reality. Use them as a starting point, not a promise.

5. Never Skip The Random Blanket Of Clothes
That's where the vintage Guess dresses live. Trust me.

Did I Find The Chanel Bag?

Not at the garage sales, no.

But I did find one later on Whatnot — a gorgeous blue Chanel bag worth $3,500 — and gave it away to a follower during a live stream.

So the dream came true. Just not the way I expected.

Your Turn

Have you ever found something amazing at a garage sale that you weren't expecting?

Maybe a vintage lamp, a designer bag, or something completely random that turned out to be worth a fortune?

Drop your craziest garage sale find in the comments below — I'll reply to every single one.

And if you want to see the full adventure, check out the video on my channel.

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The Verdict: AI garage sale ads are weird, unreliable, and often completely made up. But sometimes, if you show up early and dig through the right piles, you walk away with a Nintendo DS, a vintage Guess dress, and $1,000 worth of beauty products for $300.

Worth it. Every single time.

If this article isn't enough for you, check out the video on YouTube.