Episode 8 – Customizing LLMs Using No-Code Tools & Using AI for Automation
15 min · February 26, 2026
Business owners on automating busy work, customizing LLMs with no-code tools, and knowing when AI is the wrong fit for your industry.
Key Takeaways
- AI can rank and cross-reference public claims against actions at scale — useful for spotting inconsistencies a person would take hours to find manually.
- Fine-tuning an LLM on your own brand voice turns it from a generic chatbot into something closer to a specialized consultant.
- No-code platforms like Make.com, Zapier, and N8N let non-developers connect tools like Google, Microsoft, Airtable, and Slack into real automation pipelines.
- AI isn’t the right fit everywhere — for some businesses (like a dating app for a specific community) human-to-human trust is the actual product.
- Some of AI’s highest-ROI uses are unglamorous: a short PowerShell script for file cleanup can save real time on every single episode.
- Before a big presentation, AI can help anticipate the audience’s likely questions — turning prep time into rehearsal time.
Main Topics
See how no-code tools turn manual email and CRM tasks into a hands-off pipeline.
Learn how fine-tuning an LLM on your brand turns it into a real consultant, not just a chatbot.
Discover why the right call is sometimes keeping AI out of the product entirely.
Featured Guests
Meet the Hosts
Elizabeth Gearhart, Ph.D. is the host of Real AI Use Cases: Business Owners Roundtable, where she explores how businesses are actually putting AI to work. She is also CMO of Gearhart Law and co-host of the nationally syndicated Passage to Profit radio show and podcast.
Richard Gearhart, Esq. is co-host of Real AI Use Cases: Business Owners Roundtable and founder of Gearhart Law, a full-service intellectual property law firm. A longtime podcaster, he hosts Intellectual Property News and is the host of the nationally syndicated Passage to Profit radio show and podcast.
Whether it’s ranking celebrities, automating a CRM, or deciding to keep AI out entirely, the panel agrees AI is becoming as ubiquitous as the personal computer — but the human touch is still what closes the deal.
Episode Summary
Elizabeth and Richard Gearhart lead a roundtable on customizing AI to fit real business needs. Jim Beach uses ChatGPT to rank public claims against real actions and to spot blind spots in business plans; Joe Massa fine-tunes LLMs and connects no-code tools like Make.com, Zapier, and N8N to eliminate busy work; and Nicky Wake explains why she’s deliberately kept AI out of her dating app for the over-50 community.
Richard shares how a simple ChatGPT-written PowerShell script now saves him roughly 30 minutes of file cleanup per show, and Elizabeth describes using AI to anticipate audience questions before a big conference talk. The group lands on a shared theme: AI is becoming as common as the personal computer, but a genuine human touch is still what makes a business stand out.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does it mean to “fine-tune” an LLM like ChatGPT or Claude?
What are no-code automation tools like Make.com, Zapier, and N8N used for?
Is AI always the right fit for a business?
Can non-technical business owners really automate their operations?
How can AI help with public speaking or presentations?
Episode Recap
View Episode Recap
Jim Beach – Ranking Claims Against Actions: Jim uses ChatGPT to rank public figures on two lists — how much they talk about a cause versus how much they’re actually involved in it — to surface real discrepancies. He applies the same lens internally, using AI to review business and marketing plans and flag the blind spots that haven’t been fully thought through.
Joe Massa – From Busy Work to Real Automation: Joe built systems that automate responses, email sequences, and form submissions straight into his CRM, eliminating what he calls the daily “hamster wheel” of repetitive tasks. He fine-tunes LLMs like Claude and ChatGPT to reflect his brand voice rather than sound like a generic chatbot, and connects tools like Google, Microsoft, Airtable, and Slack using no-code platforms including Make.com, Zapier, and N8N.
Nicky Wake – Choosing Not to Use AI: Nicky’s dating app for the over-50 demographic intentionally leaves AI out of the matching experience — she believes human-to-human connection is what her community actually needs. She acknowledges AI could help screen for scammers, but prefers a personal vetting process, and notes that AI-written dating profiles are becoming easier, not harder, to spot.
Richard Gearhart – Small Automations, Real Time Savings: Richard had ChatGPT write a PowerShell script to clean up junk files and rename media files for Passage to Profit, saving about 30 minutes per episode. He also uses AI to draft first-pass YouTube scripts, then rewrites them so the final version still sounds like him.
Elizabeth Gearhart – Prepping for Podfest: Elizabeth used ChatGPT, Google Gemini, and Perplexity together while developing her presentation for the Podfest Expo, and — on a tip from the organizers — had ChatGPT analyze the deck and generate likely audience questions ahead of time.
Closing Thoughts: The group lands on a shared read: AI is quickly becoming as ubiquitous as the personal computer. It’s a serious force multiplier for automation and efficiency, but keeping a genuine human touch and personal voice is still what separates a business that uses AI well from one that just sounds like AI.
Keep exploring the show
Hear how more business owners are putting AI to work in their day-to-day.