In this episode, we sit down with Ashley, AI operator and founder of AI workforce Alliance, who cut her workweek from an unsustainable 80 hours to 25 hours, by systematizing the exact workflows that quietly drain most modern businesses.

It’s a real breakdown of the 5 workflows Ashley automated first, and the 11 AI-agent “workforce” she built next.

If your team is:

• Drowning in inbox + follow-ups

• Spending hours repurposing content

• Doing the same research before every call

• Losing deals after hours (and weekends)

• Struggling to define what “sales-ready” actually means

This episode will give you a clear playbook for what to automate first and what to protect as human-only work.

• The 5 workflows Ashley automated.

• 11 agents that act as 80% of her operational muscle

• How to build a content engine that only costs $75

• How to automate your inbox without automating relationships

• How to build an after-hours AI agent that qualifies, enriches, and books meetings

• How to use an AI CFO persona to stress-test pitch, offer, and closing hook

• A simple 3-question filter for deciding what to automate first

• Why 2026 will be messy and how to build foundations before you build agents

AI workflow automation

Content repurposing systems

Inbox triage + drafted responses

Lead qualification + CRM enrichment

After-hours AI agents (chat + voice)

SOPs, SLAs, and knowledge bases

Renewal prep + relationship intelligence

Client sentiment tracking (“happiness meter”)

AI CFO roleplay for sales enablement

The automation-to-agents autonomy spectrum

2026 readiness: foundations → automations → agents

💼 https://www.linkedin.com/in/theashleygross/

🌐 aiworkforcealliance.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/vendasta/

X: https://x.com/vendasta

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vendasta/

Thanks for listening! If you enjoyed this episode 💜

💬 Leave a review on Apple Podcasts

https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast

🟢 Leave a rating on Spotify

https://open.spotify.com/show/0KWXAOn

Vendasta is an AI-powered customer acquisition and engagement platform that helps businesses get more customers—and keep them. Our platform unifies fragmented tools across marketing, sales, and operations, and uses AI assistants plus proprietary SMB data to automate busywork, streamline workflows, and amplify the humans on your team.

We help digital agencies, franchisors, and MSPs scale profitably, deliver better outcomes for local businesses, and grow long-term revenue with less manual effort.

👉 Transform Your Agency with Vendasta – Book a Demo

https://www.vendasta.com/request-demo/

In this episode, we sit down with Chris Long — AI search researcher, co-founder of Nectiv, and one of the leading analysts studying how LLMs actually read, search, and cite the web — to unpack why traditional SEO playbooks are quietly failing in the age of AI.

This isn’t about better keywords. It’s not about ranking higher. And it’s definitely not about writing longer content.

If your team is:

• Ranking well in Google but not getting mentioned by AI

• Watching traffic decline while visibility feels unpredictable

• Confused by contradictory SEO advice around AI search

• Still treating AI like “Google with a chatbot interface”

This conversation will finally make AI search make sense.

• Why AI engines don’t read pages top-to-bottom like Google

• How AI uses context windows and “chunking” to extract answers

• Why most of your web page may be invisible to AI

• How one search can fan out into dozens of unseen queries

• Why keyword lists collapse in AI-driven search

• What AI engines actually look for when choosing sources

• Why tables, bullets, and structure outperform “great writing”

• How citations influence ChatGPT and AI Overviews

• Why traffic is becoming a vanity metric in a zero-click world

• What KPIs actually matter as we move toward 2026

• How to rethink SEO strategy for a world where AI is the reader

AI search Behavior

Context windows and content chunking

Fan-out queries and query expansion

AI vs Google search mechanics

Zero-click search and declining CTR

Brand mentions vs traffic

AI citations and third-party influence

Content structure for LLMs

Search visibility in 2026

The future of SEO and GEO

💼 https://www.linkedin.com/in/chris-long-marketing/

🌐 https://nectivdigital.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/vendasta/

X: https://x.com/vendasta

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vendasta/

Thanks for listening! If you enjoyed this podcast… 💜

💬 Leave a review on Apple Podcasts

https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast

🟢 Leave a rating on Spotify

https://open.spotify.com/show/0KWXAOn

ABOUT VENDASTA

Vendasta is an AI-powered customer acquisition and engagement platform that helps businesses get more customers—and keep them. Our platform unifies fragmented tools across marketing, sales, and operations, and uses AI assistants plus proprietary SMB data to automate busywork, streamline workflows, and amplify the humans on your team.

We help digital agencies, franchisors, and MSPs scale profitably, deliver better outcomes for local businesses, and grow long-term revenue with less manual effort.

👉 Transform Your Agency with Vendasta – Book a Demo

https://www.vendasta.com/request-demo/

In this episode, we sit down with Robert Patin — agency advisor and growth strategist who’s helped firms scale by 800%+ — to unpack where real agency growth actually comes from (and why chasing new logos is usually the slowest, riskiest path).

Robert has helped agencies fire up to $2M worth of misaligned clients, not because they weren’t big enough, but because they were quietly killing profitability, morale, and momentum.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode

• The early warning signs that a client is misaligned

• Why clients who nickel-and-dime upfront are the most expensive later

• How to calculate effective bill rate per client (and why it’s eye-opening)

• Why your lowest-paying clients often drain the most energy

• How one agency discovered they were losing $4 per hour on a “top” client

• When firing a client is the most profitable decision you can make

• How to set and communicate boundaries without damaging relationships

• Why retention — not acquisition — drives 70%+ of agency growth

• How a 5% increase in retention can unlock massive revenue upside

• The simple framework for quarterly business reviews that surface expansion

• How to turn one-off projects into 3–4 year retainers

• Why agencies already have the clients they need to hit their next revenue milestone

• How a single outreach email uncovered $1–2M in revenue in 90 days

• Why value articulation — not more work — keeps clients longer

If you’re an agency owner, founder, or operator who feels stuck on the growth treadmill — selling more just to stand still — this episode shows you how to stabilize revenue, increase profitability, and grow without burning out.

👉 Hit play to learn how the fastest way to grow your agency might be doing less — with the right clients.

CONNECT WITH ROBERT PATIN

💼 LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/creative-agency-success/

CONNECT WITH US

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/vendasta/

X: https://x.com/vendasta

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vendasta/

Thanks for listening! If you enjoyed this episode 💜

💬 Leave a review on Apple Podcasts

https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast

🟢 Leave a rating on Spotify

https://open.spotify.com/show/0KWXAOn

About Vendasta

Vendasta is an AI-powered customer acquisition and engagement platform that helps businesses get more customers—and keep them. Our platform unifies fragmented tools across marketing, sales, and operations, and uses AI assistants plus proprietary SMB data to automate busywork, streamline workflows, and amplify the humans on your team.

We help digital agencies, franchisors, and MSPs scale profitably, deliver better outcomes for local businesses, and grow long-term revenue with less manual effort.

👉 Transform Your Agency with Vendasta – Book a Demo

https://www.vendasta.com/request-demo/