Desmond Dixon Podcast

Desmond Dixon shows how he uses Claude to spy on competitor ads: pull the Facebook Ad Library with the ScrapeCreators API, read what customers complain about on Reddit, find the gap, and write an ad the competitors are not running. Immigration law is the example.

One pull found 167 ads from 92 advertisers. The longest running ad had been live for 1,685 days. The whole thing took Claude, 36 API credits, and a cup of coffee.

The four steps:
Step 1, pull the ads: every ad in your category, with impressions and days running as the signal for what is likely working
Step 2, read the complaints: Reddit threads for the pain points before and after people hire, in their own words
Step 3, find the gap: a hook that is different from the winning ads, tied to a real pain point and a strong call to action
Step 4, match the creative: make the ad look and sound like the audience you want to reach

Desmond is not affiliated with ScrapeCreators and does not get paid if you sign up. Nothing here is a promise that an ad will perform. Test it with your own ad spend.

What niche should he run this on next? Tell him in the comments.

Free AI business launch kits:
https://github.com/desmond-netizen/ai-business-launch-kits

Chapters
0:00 How to spy on your competitors' ads with AI
0:51 Step 1: Pull the Facebook Ad Library
1:32 ScrapeCreators and Claude instead of the manual way
2:00 How to spot the likely winning ads
2:25 The example: 167 immigration law ads
3:19 Step 2: Read the complaints on Reddit
3:51 Pain points before and after they hire
4:35 Step 3: Find the gap
5:03 Example hook and call to action
5:51 What goes into the ad script
6:11 Step 4: Match the creative to your audience
6:30 The Spanish video ad opening
7:24 Recap of the four steps
7:59 Make the ad look like your customer
8:36 How long before you judge an ad

Claude for business owners: the 5 levels most people never reach, and how my agency uses all five. The company that owns Claude is about to go public, and most people still open it, ask one question, get an answer, and close the laptop. That's level one.

The 5 levels:
Level 1, Claude knows your business: the interview prompt that has Claude Code write your AGENTS.md file
Level 2, connect your tools: connectors for Gmail, your CRM and call recordings, then API keys for Netlify, Cloudflare and ScrapeCreators, a Hetzner server with Hermes and GitHub backups, and Apollo plus Instantly for cold outreach
Level 3, Claude does the work: scheduled tasks that feed my sales team and our content
Level 4, build: trading bot experiments, a family office build, a private deal finder, a research machine, and our own CRM
Level 5, skills that get better: repeatable SOPs plus a loop that learns from real results

Start with level one today: open Claude Code and paste "Please interview me. Create an AGENTS.md file. I want you to know everything about my business and my goals so you can help me achieve them."

The trading bot results are from a paper account experiment. Not financial advice.

Which level are you on right now? Tell me in the comments.

Free AI business launch kits:
https://github.com/desmond-netizen/ai-business-launch-kits

Chapters
0:00 The 5 levels of Claude
0:55 Level 1: Claude knows your business
1:41 The interview prompt for your AGENTS.md
2:50 Level 2: Connect your tools
4:12 API keys: Netlify and Cloudflare
6:19 ScrapeCreators and how this channel runs
8:00 Your own server: Hetzner, Hermes, GitHub
9:57 Cold outreach: Apollo and Instantly
10:23 Level 3: Claude does the work
11:28 Level 4: Build
13:52 Level 5: Skills that get better
15:16 The loop: learning from real results
16:14 Why it matters

Sam Bankman-Fried backed Anthropic before ChatGPT existed. Today he is serving 25 years for fraud, and the portfolio FTX and Alameda left behind would be worth about $63B if it had never been sold.

I break down the five bets that made it: Cursor, Robinhood, Solana, SpaceX and Anthropic. Then the hundreds of bets that lost half their money, why the money wasn't clean, and the one rule the whole story teaches.

All portfolio values are hypothetical, from the SBF Index (sbfindex.com), priced as if nothing was ever sold. They move daily and these are from November 2, 2026. Anthropic has not listed yet, so its value is a private market estimate. Not financial advice.

AI voice (my clone) and AI images, including the crowd shots. Script drafted with Claude, which Anthropic makes.
Photos: Cointelegraph (CC BY 3.0), TechCrunch (CC BY 2.0), Federal Bureau of Prisons (public domain per Wikimedia Commons). Headlines: Fast Company, ABC News. Logos belong to their owners.
Sources: SBF Index, Yahoo Finance, CNBC, The Block, Fast Company, ABC News, Fortune.

Free AI business launch kits:
https://github.com/desmond-netizen/ai-business-launch-kits

0:00 Cold open
0:19 The setup
0:39 The Prison Portfolio
1:21 Bet one: Cursor
1:40 Bet two: Robinhood
1:58 Bet three: Solana
2:09 Bet four: SpaceX
2:37 Bet five: Anthropic
3:23 The power law
4:08 The turn
4:59 The Survival Rule
5:22 Your verdict

Desmond Dixon opens up the 8 AI tools he uses to run his business: Claude Code, Hermes Agent, Hetzner, Trigger.dev, Slack, Cloudflare, ScrapeCreators, and Netlify. Not a roundup of tools he tried once, but the real stack behind his agency, with his own numbers.

On September 27, Claude Code ran 8,395 times in a single day and turned 1,104 franchise filings into a searchable directory. The AI agent behind it lives on a server that costs $8.39 a month. And the one tool he would keep if he lost everything else is free.

The stack, by job:
Job 1, the builder: Claude Code, plus the rules file most people skip
Job 2, shipping: Netlify for websites, Cloudflare for storage and small cloud functions
Job 3, research: ScrapeCreators for social data, Trigger.dev for scheduled jobs, Slack as the control room
Job 4, always on: a Hetzner server and Hermes Agent, a free open source AI agent from Nous Research

Which tool should he break down next? Tell him in the comments.

Free AI business launch kits:
https://github.com/desmond-netizen/ai-business-launch-kits

Chapters
0:00 The 8 AI tools that run my business
0:40 Job 1, the builder: Claude Code
2:12 The rules file most people skip
3:09 Job 2, shipping: Netlify
4:11 Cloudflare
5:08 Job 3, research: ScrapeCreators
6:00 Trigger.dev
6:46 Slack
7:24 Job 4, the house: Hetzner
8:05 The employee: Hermes Agent
8:55 What really ran Claude Code 8,395 times
9:12 Where to start

Desmond Dixon ranks the 19 AI tools people ask him about the most, from S tier down to F, on one question: should a business pay for it? Not a benchmark recap, but what he would actually pay for after using these tools with his agency team.

Round 1, the brains: Claude Opus 5.5 and Fable 5.1, OpenAI GPT 6 Astra and Sol, Google Gemini 4 Argon, Meta Muse Wonder, Grok 4.7, DeepSeek V4.1, GLM 5.3

Round 2, creative tools: Nano Banana 2.1, ElevenLabs, Google Veo 3.1, Seedance 2.5, HeyGen, OpenAI GPT Image 2.5, Higgsfield, Grok's image model

Round 3, AI agents: Hermes Agent, Grok Bot, OpenAI Dots, Meta Muse

Which one did he get wrong? Tell him in the comments.

These rankings are Desmond's opinions for business use as of October 20, 2026. Leaderboard positions mentioned change weekly. Disclosure: Desmond mentions that Meta is his largest investment position. For education only, not financial advice.

Free AI business launch kits:
https://github.com/desmond-netizen/ai-business-launch-kits

Chapters
0:00 19 AI tools, ranked for business
0:55 Round 1, the brains: Gemini 4 Argon
1:35 Grok 4.7
2:02 OpenAI Astra and Sol
2:45 Meta Muse Wonder
3:31 DeepSeek V4.1 and GLM 5.3
4:34 Claude Opus 5.5 and Fable 5.1
5:36 Round 2, creative tools: Higgsfield
6:36 HeyGen
7:04 OpenAI GPT Image 2.5
7:51 Google Veo 3.1
8:28 ElevenLabs
9:54 Seedance 2.5
10:38 Grok's image model
11:16 Nano Banana 2.1
11:40 Round 2 results
12:08 Round 3, AI agents
12:33 OpenAI Dots
13:30 Grok Bot
14:47 Meta Muse
16:04 Hermes Agent
17:17 The final board

Desmond Dixon had AI read 907 of his agency's sales calls, 18 months of recordings, and rank every pain point and objection in the prospect's own words. The run cost about $2, using Jev, a decision API, instead of Claude or ChatGPT.

This episode of AI Mentorship for World Travelers covers what prospects walk in with, the objections that come up most, the objections that turned out to be buying signals, and what the calls that became clients did differently.

The top objections, by share of 907 sales calls:
1. I need to think about it, send me info: 50%
2. Doing it in house or with another vendor: 39%
3. Ad spend on top of the fee: 21%
4. Price too high: 19%

What objection do you hear the most? Tell me in the comments.

For education only. These figures come from one agency's sales calls between March 2025 and September 2026. "Became a client" is matched by email, not CRM data, and the patterns are correlation, not proof. Your results will differ.

Free AI business launch kits:
https://github.com/desmond-netizen/ai-business-launch-kits

Chapters
0:00 The sentence half our prospects said
0:52 907 sales calls, and why not ChatGPT or Claude
1:53 What Jev is
3:42 How AI read every call
5:02 What prospects walk in with
7:54 What changed in the last 180 days
9:46 The top sales objections
13:33 Objection 2: in house or another vendor
15:41 Objections 3 and 4: ad spend and price
18:22 Objections that are buying signals
20:09 What the calls that became clients did
22:12 The AI graded me
22:51 What this data cannot tell you
23:16 Jev plus a reasoning model

Desmond Dixon walks through six internal tools you can build with AI in place of rented software: a CRM, a web scraper, an analyzer, a project management tool, an AI sales and marketing agent, and social listening.

This episode of AI Mentorship for World Travelers covers how his own team replaced a CRM that cost about $15,000 a year with one built in Codex and Claude Code, and an example ten person team that rents about $105,000 a year of software and offshore help.

The six builds:
1. CRM: built around your sales process, with AI agents doing the updates
2. Web scraper: unique data on leads, competitors, and customers
3. Analyzer: your own dashboards, and even your own view of the books
4. Project management: a board that fits how you work, with your own AI inside
5. AI sales and marketing agent: follow up, personalized replies, an AI receptionist
6. Social listening: trends and signals from social platforms, at your own scale

Want a full build masterclass? Comment which one to do first: CRM, scraper, analyzer, project management, sales agent, or social listening.

For education only. The dollar figures are one person's examples and estimates as of October 2026, not a promise of savings. Building has its own costs, prices change, and your results may differ.

Free AI business launch kits:
https://github.com/desmond-netizen/ai-business-launch-kits

Chapters
0:00 Stop renting your software
0:28 Build 1: CRM
1:59 Build 2: Web scraper
3:16 Build 3: Analyzer
5:46 Build 4: Project management
7:44 Build 5: AI sales and marketing agent
8:57 Build 6: Social listening
11:38 The math and the total
13:20 Your turn

Desmond Dixon shares the one AI he would pick for each of 10 jobs: easy research, advanced research, coding, design, computer use, video, images, sales, cold email, and content writing.

This episode of AI Mentorship for World Travelers covers the stack he uses in his own marketing business, why each tool won its job, and what he would buy first if he only had $100.

The cheat sheet:
1. Easy research: Grokbot
2. Advanced research: Hermes Agent on a Hetzner server
3. Coding: Claude Code
4. Design: Claude Design
5. Computer use: OpenAI (ChatGPT with GPT-6 Astra)
6. AI video: Google Veo 3
7. AI images: Google Nano Banana
8. Sales assistant: OpenAI Dots
9. Cold email: Claude with a second brain for business context
10. Content writing: Claude with the ScrapeCreators API

For education only. These are one person's opinions from his own work as of October 2026, not a benchmark. Tools and prices change, and your results may differ.

Download the presentation and cheat sheet (free):
https://github.com/desmond-netizen/the-only-ai-tools-you-need-2026

More free AI business launch kits:
https://github.com/desmond-netizen/ai-business-launch-kits

Chapters
0:00 The only AI tools you need
0:38 Pick 1: Grokbot for easy research
1:55 Pick 2: Hermes and Hetzner for advanced research
3:41 Pick 3: Claude Code for coding
4:27 Pick 4: Claude Design for design
5:42 Pick 5: OpenAI for computer use
6:27 Pick 6: Google Veo 3 for AI video
7:23 Pick 7: Nano Banana for AI images
8:03 Pick 8: OpenAI Dots as a sales assistant
8:47 Pick 9: Claude and a second brain for cold email
10:15 Pick 10: Claude and ScrapeCreators for content writing
11:41 The cheat sheet and my $100 pick
13:32 Your turn

Desmond Dixon spent 48 hours running his business through OpenAI's new dots, the always on ChatGPT agents that work from their own computer. He shares six things he loved, four things that got in his way, and whether he would trust it with his work.

This episode of AI Mentorship for World Travelers covers working from one chat on your phone, browser tasks, sign in and two factor, automations, and proactive morning reviews. It also covers where dots struggled: coding, a computer that has to stay on, manual approvals, and slowing down with heavy use.

For education only. This is one person's experience after 48 hours of use, not a benchmark. Your results may differ.

Join the free AI Mentorship community:
https://www.skool.com/ai-mentorship-desmond-dixon-8355/about

Chapters
0:00 I ran my business from my phone for 48 hours
0:21 How I use AI in my business
1:55 Pro 1: One chat runs every task
2:41 Pro 2: It works from your phone
3:20 Pro 3: It handles browser tasks
4:04 Pro 4: It signs in and clears two factor
4:58 Pro 5: It builds automations
6:32 Pro 6: It is proactive
8:05 The four cons
11:31 My score: 6 out of 10
12:55 Why I canceled my subscription

How can you make money while traveling without running out of savings? Desmond Dixon breaks down three income paths for living abroad: B2B services and software, direct to consumer businesses, and investing in assets.

This episode of AI Mentorship for World Travelers explores flexible work, freelancing, ecommerce, investment risks, and the planning that helps sustain a location independent lifestyle. Desmond also shares his observations on why people return home, including loneliness, overspending, and treating everyday life like a permanent vacation.

For education only. Personal views, not financial, legal, or tax advice. Outcomes vary.

Join the free AI Mentorship community:
https://www.skool.com/ai-mentorship-desmond-dixon-8355/about

Chapters
0:00 Why it has never been easier to travel and earn
0:13 Way 1: Help other businesses make more money
0:45 Way 2: Sell direct to consumers
1:12 Way 3: Invest in assets
3:02 It is not about saving money
4:17 What stops people from starting
7:50 Why people quit: loneliness
9:25 Why people quit: money and forever vacation mode
10:29 Plan for retirement before you settle abroad