Mike Schiano In the Queue

You don’t need more leads if you’re losing the ones you already paid for.

Before you spend another dollar on advertising, listen to this episode. Discover how to use AI to follow up faster, reduce manual work, and turn more of your existing opportunities into paying customers.

One focused AI system. Seven days to implement. A clear plan to measure results.

You’re not behind on AI—you need a plan to stop leaking revenue.

In this episode of In the Queue, Mike Schiano breaks down how small and midsize business owners can put artificial intelligence to work where it matters: converting leads, supporting their teams, and growing the business. No coding required. No becoming a “tech person.” No starting over with an entirely new technology stack.

The starting point isn’t another AI subscription. It’s finding the work that slows your business down—and the opportunities that slip away while everyone is busy.

A new inquiry sits unanswered. A quote takes too long to prepare. A promising prospect never gets a second follow-up. Your team spends hours copying information instead of talking to customers.

Mike walks you through his 7-Day AI Implementation Sprint: a practical framework for choosing one high-value workflow, building a focused AI-powered process, and putting it to work with your team.

• Where to look for hidden revenue leaks in lead follow-up, quoting, and repetitive administrative work.

• How to identify your top one or two automation opportunities—and choose the right one to tackle first.

• How to map what actually happens between a customer inquiry and a completed sale.

• How to design an AI workflow around the tools and processes your business already uses.

• Where AI should handle repetitive tasks—and when a person needs to take over.

• How to give your team clear scripts, handoff rules, and standard operating procedures.

• What to measure, including response time, hours saved, lead conversion, and additional revenue.

This isn’t an episode about collecting AI tools or chasing the next technology trend. It’s about building one useful system that solves one meaningful business problem.

If you own a service business, lead a sales or customer service team, or feel overwhelmed by the pressure to “do something with AI,” this conversation gives you a practical place to start.

By the end, you’ll understand how to move from “We should be using AI” to “Here’s the workflow we’re improving, here’s how we’ll launch it, and here’s how we’ll know it’s working.”

Listen with one question in mind: Where does a ready-to-buy customer get stuck in our business?

That’s where your first AI opportunity may be hiding.

Explore Mike’s AI and business operations resources:
https://spscontact.com/blog/

Learn more about SPS Contact:
https://spscontact.com/

Connect directly with Mike Schiano:
[email protected]

Follow In the Queue for practical conversations about AI for business, operations, customer experience, and profitable growth. Share this episode with a business owner who doesn’t need another software subscription—they need a system that works.

Today's guest In the Queue, Sayre Blake, CEO of SkillSaige.com, offers a strong conversation about the human side of AI: how people can safely practice difficult workplace conversations, why most training fails to change behavior, and how game design can make learning stick.

SkillSaige is built for repeatable, role-specific practice across onboarding, leadership, service, and customer-facing work, not generic, one-time workshops.Sayre is the CEO and Technical Founder of SkillSaige, a soft skills learning platform helping people practice real-world conversations and build professional skills through bite-sized lessons and interactive practice with AI-powered trainers.

With a background in video game design and virtual reality, Sayre brings a fresh perspective to how people learn. Her work sits at the intersection of AI, human behavior, and interactive design, which gives her a practical lens onwhere technology is headed and how people can use it well. On this episode, Mike and Sayre discuss key ideas including:

• What AI gets wrong and where it still has real potential
• How AI can support people instead of replacing them
• Why most professional training fails to create real behavior change
• Building a company around practical AI, not hype
• Sayre’s path from game development to founding SkillSaige

The future of corporate training is not a choice between people and AI. The real opportunity is to use AI to strengthen the people who represent your brand every day.If you are a business leader and want higher performance and more revenue, contact Mike at SPS Contact [email protected]. We are here to help you raise your business performance higher than you've ever dreamed.

If you run a business and actually listen to this episode, you will make more money from the leads you already have. One AI system, seven days, real revenue

You’re not behind on AI—you’re leaking revenue.

In this episode of In the Queue, Michael Schiano breaks down how small and midsize business owners can use AI to make more money from the leads they already have, without becoming “tech people” or rebuilding their entire tech stack. You’ll learn how to identify the 1–2 workflows that are quietly costing you the most—slow lead follow‑up, manual quoting, and repetitive admin—and how to replace them with a single, clear, revenue‑focused AI system in just 7 days.

Michael walks through his 7‑Day AI Implementation Sprint step‑by‑step: how to map your real‑world processes, design a simple AI workflow that plugs into your existing tools, implement it with your team, and measure the impact in actual hours saved and extra revenue generated. You’ll hear why most businesses are paying people to do work AI can do in seconds, how to stop leads from dying in your inbox while competitors respond instantly, and how to give your team clear scripts and SOPs so they know exactly what to do when AI hands them a hot opportunity.

If you’re a business owner who feels “behind” on AI, this episode shows you that the problem isn’t you—it’s the lack of a focused plan. By the end, you’ll know where your biggest AI opportunity is, what a practical 7‑day rollout looks like, and how to start turning AI from a vague threat into a concrete revenue system in your business.

SPSContact.com

[email protected]

Recent studies from Carnegie Mellon, Microsoft and MITreveal that over-reliance on AI can narrow our thinking, reduceidea-generation, and lead to less varied and less original outcomes. In other words, if we're not careful, AI can actually make us less creative.

In this forward-looking episode, Dr. André Walton explores why this happens and what we can do to prevent it. Drawing from neuroscience and social psychology, he explains how the brain uses two core modes of thought - one analytical and convergent, the other imaginative and divergent.

Dr. Walton says, AI tools often reward the more comfortable, less effortful convergent approach. The result? We metaphorically "put our feet up," allowing AI to take over tasks that once challenged and strengthened our creative neuralpathways. Like any unused muscle, those pathways weaken over time. But that outcome is not inevitable. It is a choice, and Dr. André shows us ways we can use AI as a catalyst to advance our emotional intelligence, ourinnovative potential and our resilience.

Key Takeaways:

• Strengthen creative thinking habits that keep the brain's innovation networks active
• Use AI as an innovation and decision-making partner rather than a substitute for human ingenuity
• Guide AI towards generating more original, diverse and high-value ideas
• Build "creative resilience" and increased emotionalintelligence through spherical thinking. Valuable assets in an age of rapid technological change

In short, Dr. Waltong believes the inherent laziness of the human brain is leading many users of AI down a rather negative path (as also suggested by research published last year):

 “Microsoft, Carnegie Mellon University,and Harvard Business School research indicates a significant negative correlation between frequent AI usage and critical thinking skills.

This phenomenon, often termed "cognitive offloading," occurs when users delegate complex reasoning and problem-solving tasks to AI, leading to a measurable decline in independent analytical abilities.” Re-creating the ability to thinkcreatively is the answer to combating that.

 How to contact Dr. Andre P Walton  

Speaker, Author, Burnout & Innovation Coach

 TEDx Speaker, International Best-Selling Author

Visiting Professor of Creativity and Entrepreneurship: Newport Business School, Wales, UK

Adjunct Faculty: Justice Management Master’s DegreeProgram, University of Nevada, Reno, NV

Professor, Marketing and Management, BusinessSchool, University of Nevada, Reno, NV

Websites: www.hiredrandre.com       

www.plan4change.org

LinkedIn profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/plan4change

Calendar: https://app.simplymeet.me/hiredrandre

Thank you for listening to this episode of Mike Schiano In the Queue with Dr. Andre Walton.

In this In the Queue episode, Mike Schiano explains how small business owners can use AI like a dependable new employee to streamline operations, write better prompts, create SOPs, and save time without losing the human touch.

Discover how AI can become your business’s best employee. Mike Schiano shares a simple framework for using AI in daily operations, customer service, training, and workflow design for real business results.

Mike’s argument is simple: most small businesses are already better prepared for AI than they think. Why? Because they already run on systems, checklists, schedules, policies, and repeatable tasks. AI performs best in structured environments, and that is exactly how many successful small businesses already operateIn this episode:

• AI for small business

• AI for operations

• small business AI tools

• AI SOP templates

• AI for customer service

• AI workflow automation for SMBs

Get your copy of the SMB AI SOP Starter Kit

A complete set of AI-powered Standard Operating Procedure templates designed for independent business owners - Everything from customer service scripts to inventory processes to employee onboarding. The prompts are pre-built. The Master Context worksheet is included. You plug in your information and you have a professional ops system running in a day.

Are you just "playing" with AI, or are you building a force multiplier for your business?

In this episode of In the Queue, host Mike Schiano sits down with John Munsell, a technology entrepreneur and AI strategist, to discuss why 95% of AI initiatives fail and how you can ensure yours is part of the 5% that succeeds.

John reveals that true AI adoption isn't just about using a single app; it’s about achieving "skill density" where your team builds their own tools to solve day-to-day problems.

We dive deep into Munsell's proven frameworks, including the AI Strategy Canvas and the 10 Levels of AI Mastery, to help you move from basic prompts to managing autonomous agents.

Key topics discussed in this episode:

• The AI Strategy Canvas: Why your organization needs a common lexicon to align leadership, IT, and HR on AI implementation.

• Scalable Prompt Engineering: How to design standardized, reusable prompts using containers and variables so your whole team can collaborate.

• The Three-Axis AI Maturity Model: Balancing AI mastery, architectural complexity, and AI governance to mitigate risk while driving innovation.

• AI Archetypes: Identifying the Producers, Administrators, Entrepreneurs, and Integrators on your team to build a balanced AI governance board.

• Real-World ROI: How one CEO used Claude and GenSpark to reduce a 350-page RFP analysis from six hours to just 20 minutes, potentially adding millions in revenue capacity.

Stop treating AI as a distraction and start building organizational AI fluency. Whether you are a small business owner or a corporate leader, this episode provides the roadmap to turn AI into a scalable capability.

Special Offer for Listeners: John is offering a free digital copy of his upcoming book for those who join the waiting list at ingrain.ai/2026 and mention they heard him on "In the Queue."

Books Mentioned in the episode:

IngrainAI by John Munsell

Traction by Gino Wickman

The Corporate Life Cycle by Asman Damadoran

In the Queue Podcast: Mike Schiano Interviews Laurens Tijssen of Breathpage.com

What does it really take to build a future‑proof, AI‑driven website strategy in today’s digital economy? In this episode of the In the Queue Podcast, host Mike Schiano talks with Laurens Tijssen, founder of Breathpage.com, a European website agency that has designed and launched more than 400 websites for over 150 companies worldwide.

Laurens shares his journey from earning his first online income at just 14 to becoming a digital ecosystem architect, helping entrepreneurs turn their websites into true business engines, not just online brochures.

Even with AI chatbots, social media, and marketplaces, Laurens explains why your website remains the core of any AI‑driven website strategy. It is the only digital asset you fully control, and when optimized, it becomes the hub for traffic, leads, data, and revenue.

Tijssen breaks down his Attention → Interaction → Transaction model for building a scalable online ecosystem:

• Attention – Attracting the right visitors from search, social, email, and other channels.
• Interaction – Using content, design, and automation to nurture trust and engagement.
• Transaction – Converting qualified attention into sales, bookings, or applications with clear, frictionless paths.

This framework shows how to connect every part of your AI‑driven website strategy, so channels reinforce each other instead of operating in silos.

Mike and Laurens compare European and American website and branding strategies:

• U.S. businesses typically favor direct offers, clear CTAs, and conversion‑first design.
• European brands often lean into subtlety, brand storytelling, and long‑term relationship building.

You’ll learn how combining these styles can make your website strategy both high‑converting and brand‑strong.

If you are launching or rebuilding a digital business, this episode gives you a clear, anti‑overwhelm starting point:

• Begin with one core offer and a focused website.
• Add channels and automation gradually as systems stabilize.
• Prioritize consistency and clarity over chasing every new platform or tool.

This is especially valuable for founders and teams trying to build an AI‑driven website strategy without burning out or wasting budget.

Laurens shares how he uses tools like Perplexity, Grok, and Gemini inside his workflow to support research, content, and decision‑making. Instead of collecting dozens of tools, he focuses on a lean stack that amplifies execution and keeps the website at the center of the digital ecosystem.

• Entrepreneurs and founders building an online business
• Coaches, consultants, and creators selling expertise
• Digital marketers, web designers, and agencies
• Business owners overwhelmed by AI tools and marketing platforms
• Anyone serious about building a scalable, AI‑driven website strategy that supports long‑term growth

To learn more from Laurens and explore his resources:

Visit Breathpage.com to:

• Access his free growth blueprint
• Request a power audit of your website and digital ecosystem
• See how his team helps businesses turn websites into revenue‑driving assets

You can also reach him at: [email protected]

• Clear frameworks for structuring your AI‑driven website strategy
• Real‑world lessons from launching hundreds of sites
• Actionable insights you can apply immediately to make your website work harder for your business

If this conversation helps you think differently about your digital ecosystem:

• Subscribe for more high‑level founder conversations
• Comment: Which part of your AI‑driven website strategy needs the most work right now—traffic, engagement, or conversion?

Most Leaders Are Still in Denial of AI workforcetransformation but by the end of this post you will learn what AI workforce transformation actually looks like for leaders today.

If AI is a human transformation and not a tech upgrade, then leadership must change before headcount does. Here is what that looks like in practice.

1. Stop Asking, “How Do We Use AI?” and Start Asking “What Work Shouldn’t Exist Anymore?”

Most AI discussions fail because they’re framed around tools instead of work.

Instead of asking teams how AI can “help” them, ask:

• Which recurring tasks consume time but produce little differentiation?

• Where are humans acting as routers, copy pasters, or compliance buffers?

• What work exists only because systems and processes are outdated?

The goal isn’t augmentation for its own sake. It’s intentional subtraction.

2. Make AI Literacy a Leadership Requirement, not a Training Program

AI fluency cannot be optional, delegated, or confined to Innovation teams.

That means:

• Leaders personally using AI in their own workflows

• Managers being expected to explain where AI fits and doesn’t fit inside their function

• Promotion and credibility being tied to adaptive capability, not just past performance

If leaders can’t model the behavior, the organization won’t follow it.

3. Redesign Roles Before You Resize Teams

Most layoffs framed as “AI driven” are more likely redesign failures.

Before cutting roles, leaders should:

• Deconstruct jobs into tasks and decisions

• Identify which components are automatable, assistive, or still human critical

• Rebuild positions around judgment, accountability, and context rather than activity volume

This is slower than cutting headcount, but it preserves institutional trust and optionality.

4. Bring the Workforce into the Conversation Early

The biggest risk is not fear. It is silence.

Leaders should be explicitly discussing:

• Where AI is already changing how work gets done

• What skills are becoming more valuable, and which are not

• How the organization will support reskilling versus waiting for obsolescence

People don’t panic when they are treated like participants. They disengage when they’re treated like bystanders.

5. Shift From “Change Management” to “Change Readiness”

AI makes continuous change the default state. That breaks traditional transformation models.

Practical signals of readiness include:

• Teams empowered to experiment without lengthy approval chains

• Faster decision cycles with imperfect information

• Psychological safety around redefining roles and workflows

If your organization still treats change as an exception, AI will feel like a constant disruption instead of a capability.

6. Measure What Actually Matters in an AI Enabled Organization

Legacy metrics reward busyness. AI exposes how little it matters.

Leaders should begin shifting metrics toward:

• Decision quality and speed

• Outcome ownership rather than task completion

• Learning velocity at the team level

What you measure tells people what future you believe in.

7. Accept That Waiting Is a Decision

Choosing not to act is still a strategy but not a survivable one.

Organizations that delay:

• Lose internal trust first

• Fall behind in capability second

• Resort to blunt layoffs last

By the time AI forces action, leaders no longer have the freedom to shape the outcome.

The Leadership Test Is Not Technical - It’s Behavioral

AI doesn’t demand perfect foresight. It demands courage, clarity, and consistency.

The leaders who navigate this moment well will not be the ones with the most advanced tools. They will be the ones who:

• Tell the truth early

• Redesign work deliberately

• Treat people as partners in transformation

That’s how you lead through the biggest shift in work we’ve seen and keep your organization intact on the other side.

SPSContact.com

Emmanuel Gobillot is among the world’s foremost thinkers and authorities on leadership. Described as “the first leadership guru for the digital generation” and “the freshest voice in leadership today,” he provides consulting to CEOs across countries and industries.

In his new book, "Alive Inside: Unlock Your Leadership advantage in the Age of AI," Gobillot asserts that today's most effective leaders are thos who lead most like humans.

In this special episode of In the Queue, he helps leaders understand how to resist the pressure to adopt AI before first asking whether it’s appropriate.

Many of today’s leaders, spurred on by headlines warning of the danger of “being left behind,” have come to frame technological progress as some kind of Darwinian process. Anyone questioning its application, value, and worth risksbeing a future victim of natural selection. Decisions that feed leaders’ fears of obsolescence, in turn, drive their need for obedience. This herd mentality drives copycat behavior without clear objectives.When leaders become awestruck by AI and treat its adoption as inevitable, they stop asking whether it’s appropriate. But it’s critical to remember that, as leaders, we are the stewards of the values, purpose, and culture of our organizations. It’s our role to make choices. As leaders, we have to filter, question, and ultimately decide to employ a new tool based on our purpose rather than any pressure we may feel.Drawing from his 20-plus-years of consulting across countries and industries, Emmanuel Gobillot addresses critical leadership concerns, including:

• How to protect our human edge while embracing technology

• How our curiosity, compassion, and imperfections aren’t faults but competitive advantages

• How vulnerability outperforms perfection

• How an ethical lapse in the world of rapid automation will multiply exponentially

• How to recognize when to make the decision to slow down or abandon a pursuit entirely

If you’ve tried AI and thought “this isn’t useful,” the problem often isn’t the model—it’s the prompt. In this 15-minute episode of In the Queue, Mike Schiano breaks down prompt engineering for beginners and business owners using a simple operations mindset: the prompt is your SOP.

You’ll learn a practical prompt framework (Task, Context, Format—plus Role and Constraints) and hear real examples you can copy for marketing emails, customer support replies, and building SOPs faster. Mike also shares the strategies that make AI predictable in day-to-day operations: prompt libraries, guardrails, and QA-style self-checks so your outputs are consistent, on-brand, and usable.

Perfect for: small business owners, operators, service businesses, CX/support teams, and anyone who wants AI to save time without creating more rework.

In this episode:

• Why vague prompts create vague results

• The simplest prompt structure that works across use cases

• “Steal these prompts” templates for marketing, support, and ops

• How to standardize prompts like you standardize processes

 Listen now and build your first “prompt library” for the work you repeat every week.

This episode covers prompt engineering, AI prompts, ChatGPT prompts for business, small business AI, AI for customer service, operations, SOPs, productivity