How to Get AI Running Your Business Backstage (Free Training)
A free recorded training for professional service business owners who want AI handling the day-to-day running of their business, not just writing their emails.
Why does your business still depend entirely on you?
You're good at what you do. Clients get real value from working with you. But behind the scenes, you're the one holding everything together- approving things, answering the same questions from your team, chasing processes that should just happen on their own. Every day, more of your time goes on keeping the business running than on the work that actually grows it.
Most business owners have already tried using AI to write a bit of content or draft an email here and there. That's useful, but it barely touches the real problem: you are still the bottleneck. Every decision, every new client, every process still has to pass through you, which means the business can only ever grow as fast as you can personally keep up.
The longer this goes on, the more it costs you
While you're stuck approving proposals and answering repetitive questions, you're not doing the strategic, high-value work only you can do, and you're certainly not taking the time off you'd like to. Worse, businesses that have already put AI to work behind the scenes are pulling ahead. Some are breaking straight through limits that used to be fixed: one financial services firm profiled in this training runs 14,000 clients with a team of just 25 people, because AI, not headcount, runs their operations. If nothing changes, you stay the bottleneck. The business stays reliant on you being switched on, every day, indefinitely.
What if AI could run your backstage operations for you?
In this free recorded training, Charlie Reading shows you exactly how he's used AI to take over the repetitive, process-driven parts of running his own businesses- the parts that used to eat his time but never actually needed a human doing them. This isn't about using AI to help you write things faster. It's about getting AI to genuinely operate parts of your business, so you can focus on the handful of things you're actually best at.
Charlie built the AI CEO framework specifically to guide business owners through this: starting with using AI to analyse and ideate, moving through creation and engagement, and finishing with the stage most businesses never reach, using AI to operate.
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The AI Operator
What you'll learn in this free training
How to identify what's actually costing you time- the exercise Charlie uses with his own team to spot which backstage tasks are worth automating first.
How to build software without knowing how to code, using tools like Replit to build custom internal tools, demonstrated with a real example that cut a weekly two-hour task down to minutes.
How to turn your processes into standard operating procedures automatically- using Loom AI and Scribe to record a process once and have AI turn it into a documented SOP.
How to keep training videos permanently up to date, using text-to-video tools like Synthesia so a six-month-old induction video never goes stale again.
How to let agentic AI handle multi-step tasks end-to-end- the difference between AI that drafts one step at a time and AI that goes away and finishes an entire task, illustrated with a real 300-firm prospect database built almost entirely by AI.
How to bring AI into your inbox properly- practical tools for filtering, summarising and drafting email replies, including an approach that's cut Charlie's own email time by roughly half.
How to choose backstage software that's already building AI in for you- why plugging into platforms already embedding AI can beat building everything yourself.
How to use AI note-takers to multiply the value of every meeting, turning recorded conversations into follow-ups, training material and pattern-spotting across successful versus unsuccessful sales calls.
A practical AI Operator tool- a structured exercise to identify your biggest time-drains, decide what to automate first, and agree who in your business owns making it happen.
Who this training is for
Consultants, financial advisers and other professional service business owners.
Anyone spending more time on operational admin than on strategic, client-facing work.
Business owners who've already dabbled with AI for content, but haven't used it to run anything yet.
Anyone ready to build a business that keeps running smoothly whether they're in it that day or not.
Your Host: Charlie Reading
Charlie Reading built and sold Efficient Portfolio, a financial planning practice named among the UK's top firms, and has founded several businesses since. Along the way, he documented and systemised his own operations long before AI existed and has since applied AI to take that systemisation much further.
He now runs The Trusted Team, helping professional service business owners build scalable businesses that grow without depending on the founder, and is host of the Business of Endurance podcast. Charlie has delivered 50% year-on-year business growth while taking three months off work every year for over a decade.
What You'll Come Away With
By the end of this training, you'll have:
A clear view of which of your backstage processes are the best candidates for AI automation.
Specific tools matched to real tasks- documentation, email, video training and multi-step automation.
An understanding of the AI CEO framework and where "operate" fits alongside analyse, ideate, create and engage.
A practical structure for deciding what to automate first, what your team needs to learn, and who owns the project.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Do I need any technical or coding experience to do this?
Isn't this just about using AI to write content?
What kind of tasks can actually be automated this way?
Is this only relevant to financial services?
Is this training free?
Are you ready to build a business that works for you?
We only work with a handful of firms at any given time to ensure maximum strategic focus. Book a Coaching Call to see if we're the right match.
