FridAI - Replit + CoPilot

Business brain, episode 663 for Casual Friday, July 4, Alice in Wonderland Day, and also Independence Day here in the US 2025. Greetings, folks, and welcome to Business Brain, the show where we take several ideas, we crunch them, we dissect them, we use them to best tune our business brains individually and collectively every single time we get together so that we all have a great opportunity to lead that charmed life. Sponsors for this episode include eversight.com BB where you can go to get started today of getting your own in house web team for just 3.99amonth. And square.com gobrain where you get 200 bucks off of Square Hardware when you sign up. We've all seen it at Merchants and you can have it for your business too. We'll talk more about both of those in a little bit. For now, here in Durham, New Hampshire, I'm still Dave Hamilton.

Hey. I'm still Shannon Jean. I'm still in Northern California. I'm still living a charmed life.

Love that.

And happy Independence Day.

Happy Independence Day. Happy Alice in Wonderland Day. I didn't even know there was such a thing.

Kind of makes sense, right?

I love that.

Yeah, me too.

Alice in Wonderland was a pivotal movie of my childhood. My parents would actually. I didn't know where it came from at the time, but we would occasionally celebrate our un birthdays as kids.

Oh, that's cool.

Yep. And you know, when I saw the movie later, I'm like, this is where this came from.

How many parents do I have? Good ones. Creative. Yeah.

But it was like, you know, the three kids, we had birthdays in the fall. And there was one year where our parents wanted to get us bikes in the spring. Cause, you know, it was like, that's it. Going to write them. And so it was just, it was a surprise unbirthday party for everyone. And it was like we had cake and the whole thing. It was like, I love this. Yeah, why not?

Yeah, me too. That's really cool.

Today is. Today is actually my unbirthday, Shannon.

That's. Well, pretty good.

Yeah, I think it's your unbirthday too.

Unbirthday too?

Yes.

You get to choose. Yeah.

You get one birthday a year, but you get 364unbirthdays every year.

I like that. I like that.

So happy unbirthday everyone who is not celebrating a birthday.

Yes. That's awesome. What are we talking about today?

I am guessing. And it's just odds. There's no data that I actually have about this, but I am guessing that the person who identifies themself on Apple Podcasts as we are PID is also celebrating their unbirthday today and we will celebrate with you with by sharing your review which is 5 stars a must Listen for anyone with a Growth Mindset Business Brain is easily one of my favorite podcasts and one of the few where I listen to every single episode. This one not just the ones that match my current interests. Each episode delivers a mix of practical tips, thought provoking insights, and motivational quotes that keep my mindset sharp and inspired. Even though I work in education rather than running my own business, I find immense value in keeping an entrepreneurial mindset at work.

Oh, that's good.

That's really interesting and this podcast feeds that part of me every week. What I appreciate most is the show isn't just for business owners. Anyone can benefit from the wisdom, strategies and fresh perspectives shared. It's consistently full of food for thought that I often share with colleagues and friends. Since incorporating AI into my own workflow, I found the Friday Eye episodes especially valuable. Yeah, we hear this a lot as you know.

Yeah, we do.

They provide clear, practical ways to think about and use AI in daily work. If you're looking for a podcast that will energize your brain, spark ideas, and equip you with insights you can immediately use, do yourself a favor and subscribe to Business Brain. Highly recommended.

I know it's a great review. You know I need to go screenshot some of those reviews and start putting them up on my feed like I suggest everybody else do. Oh yeah, I need to go do that. Yeah, that was great. Thank you very much. Be sure to email us feedbackusbrain show so we can get your email address so you can be entered to win the MacBook that we're giving away.

Yep, yep. Yes, exactly. And if you want to leave a review, of course, BusinessBrain show review. We have one other that left a review on Podchaser. Their their handle is first in the race. Five stars. I found this podcast from another project of host Shannon Jean. He is just as great here as he is in the five Dollar Mastermind and his numerous appearances on the Corner Office podcast. Here you truly will tune your Business Brain. The Friday I segments are very actionable and set this show apart. So again, thank you and Happy unbirthday to you. Or Happy Birthday, whatever it turns out to be.

And another mention of I don't know that we've had a review lately that did not mention the Friday I I know, and you were right. You're like, this is going to be crazy popular. I'm like, okay, we'll see.

I even registered some Friday domains because I'm like, you know, a year from now.

Yes.

This might just be the Friday I show. I don't. I don't know.

You never know.

We've evolved. The show could be times, could be.

Monday I, Tuesday I, Wednesday I. You just don't know. And this, that's the key thing is the experiments with this show, because hopefully it keeps it interesting for our listeners, but it also keeps it interesting for us. You know, I don't want to be doing the same show that I was doing 11 years ago. And we want to introduce. I mean, it wasn't even called Business Brain anymore. And back then, it was a small business show.

It was the DBA podcast.

Dba. That was in the beginning. Yeah. Then.

Then we got a whole bunch of people that were pissed that we weren't database administrators. That checks out.

Yeah, yeah, it was good, but. Yeah, that's awesome. But, you know, we. The reviews really help move us up the charts so we can get more people in here. And that's. That's a great way to say thank you. So we appreciate it.

Yeah. Yeah. Thank you so much, folks. I. I know we want to talk about some AI things here, too. I. I want to. I want to have a short conversation about the Chat GPT desktop app. Shannon. Yeah, yeah, I've started using it. Yep. And one thing. If you are just using ChatGPT on the web, one thing that you are missing out on is that the Chat GPT app can integrate with other apps on your computer.

Oh.

And so if, like, if I have a file open in Apple Notes, for example, I can let ChatGPT see that file.

How do you let it see that?

If you're in the ChatGPT app, at the bottom, there are five little icons right below where it says ask anything.

Yeah.

The leftmost one is a plus sock with apps.

That's sweet. Correct.

Just float over them. The leftmost one is the plus sign that lets you attach content. Then you've got Search the Web, and then you've got Deep research, which is a whole other thing to use. But working with apps, it's not. I've used it for coding where I let it see my coding editor, and it's fine. But it can't make changes to your code. It can propose changes that you then have to make, but it can't make them, which, like GitHub's VS code with. With copilot can actually, it'll tell you, I think you should do this. And you look through it and you're like, yeah, go ahead and do that. And then it will make like it will. It will just edit your code for you and show you the changes and all that stuff. So it's not quite that it's a one way thing with, with the Chat GPT app, but it, it works with, with way more apps than I would think. Like I need to just force myself to keep using it because it works with more things than I ever expected. So highly recommend that.

Terrific.

Yeah. Yeah. Yep. All right, we have your replit. Speaking of apps. Oh yeah, this is mind blowing to talk about here. So I want to do that. The next thing that I want to do though is talk about our sponsors because. All right, look, Square, our sponsor isn't just for the business owners using it. It's for all of us trying to live that charmed life and move through our days without friction. Just recently, I grabbed Thai food with my daughter at Bame here in Durham. Paid with Square Seamless. Then you know, I got this fever. I gotta cool off. Cowlick's Dairy Bar Tap done, ice cream in hand before the brain freeze hit. And of course, no summer's complete without Tideline Public House where I grab a beer inside, then hit Tim's drunken sauces and rubs out back for barbecue Magic Square powers it all. It's easy to use, flexible for any kind of business, and intuitive from the jump. No long manuals, no tech guy required. Just smooth sailing and smart tools that grow with you. Inventory, payroll, loyalty programs. They've got it all. Square keeps up so you don't have to slow down. Get everything you need to run and grow your business without any long term commitments. And why wait right now there's. You can get up to $200 off Square hardware at square.com Go Brain. That's S Q U-A-R-E.com Go Brain. Run your business smarter with Square. Get started today. And our thanks to Square for sponsoring this episode. And you ever try to build a business website and wind up accidentally launching a slow motion dumpster fire? Yep, Been there. That's why I love telling you about our sponsor, eversight. For just 3.99amonth, you get your own dedicated web team. No $10,000 upfront fees, no long term contracts, and absolutely no sorry, our ticket system is down. Excuses. Eversight actually picks up the phone. They reply to texts and if something breaks, they fix it before you Even knew it was broken. They proactively manage hundreds of business sites so you can finally stop duct taping your digital pres. Focus on growing your business like the entrepreneur you are. This is how we live the charmed life, folks, by surrounding ourselves with teams that actually deliver. And you're living that charmed life, Shannon. With. With. By being a customer of. Of Eversight.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I've managed forever. My site's on my. On my own. But then I got hacked. You know, I wasn't paying close enough attention to updates and all this kind of stuff that I, you know, I don't have time for that. That stuff like that meme is. Nobody's got time for that. Yep. But so, you know, just. I got into a bad situation, like I said, a site got hacked, a bunch of stuff got put on my server. I didn't know anything. And they just kind of just came in and rescued me over a weekend, no less.

Amazing.

And got, you know, temporary pages up and running, redirects working. It's amazing. You know, you love to find good, good people like this.

Indeed. And you can find those good people when you visit eversight.com bb ev E-R-S-I-T-E.com bb you get started today, and our thanks to Eversight for sponsoring this episode.

All right, man.

Tell me, man.

Yes. Okay, let's talk about replit. So replit is like, you've. You might have heard, I got to find it here. You might have heard, you know this term vibe coding.

Yeah. Right.

Where you can basically, you get into the AI and it. It works with you, and you just describe what you want, what you need. And. And here's my use case. Like, I, I've. I've. I followed these things, but like I mentioned, I. Sometimes I get crazy following, like, shiny objects. So I haven't jumped into this space yet. So I need to build this thing, essentially a dashboard for my. My. For. For a couple of businesses that I have. I want to just try. I don't need a huge accounting package. I don't want to pay somebody to enter data. I want to just track income and expenses. That's all easy where it's coming from. Easy, right? No problem.

Yeah.

Yes, very easy. However, Dave, here's how I want to do it. I want to be able to forward an email, and I want the data extracted from the email. Okay.

So you want, if you're familiar with the service, TripIt, for travel data, you just forward emails to TripIt. It parses through, it pulls out your plane reservations, your hotel, your rental cars, all the stuff. And then it populates its own database with whatever that data looks like. Okay. So you want this for your business. Your simple business accounting.

It's just. And I'll like. But I also want it to categorize and all this kind of stuff that I can export to my larger accounting package at some point.

Right.

So I could go, hey, I've been tracking. I don't want to keep track. I'm not a good accounting person. I'm a. My accountant's nightmare. So when I get emails or they come into an account that from certain sources, income expenses. Here's. Here's payments, this. I just wanted to auto cap direct to this app and I couldn't find anything, of course, obviously. So I went to Replet and what is it?

Is it replit.com r, p, l I t dot com? Yeah.

Thank you. Thank you.

You're welcome.

And I sat there and I described just like I had this conversation with you to AI and I said, hey, you know, is this possible? And of course, the AI said, absolutely, Shannon. This is totally possible.

Of course.

Because it lies, right? It lies.

Well, sometimes it lies.

Sometimes. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So it. But what I was impressed with is it kind of brought me along. I've never written a line of code in my life.

Okay.

It. It queried me and started asking me questions. And it's like, okay, well, what about this and what about that and what happens if X happens and what do I do with Y? And it was great because it kind of quizzed me and brought me along and asked me questions that I had not anticipated. Sure. And it created this app, this web app. I shared a screenshot with you, Dave, if you want to share it on. If you're watching the live stream or a repeat of this up on YouTube, you can go look at this. I haven't named it yet. It's called Financial Dashboard. And it created this page, this app, however you want to call it. And it works. It. But. Well, let me see. It works. And it created this kind of test environment where it first said, hey, look, I get what you want to do. There's. I'm going to tell you how to automate the email part of it, but let's create the app and let's do the testing with you. Cutting and pasting the content of an email directly in the app.

Okay. Because cut out the one layer of potential friction and problems. That's really smart. That's how I would develop it. Yeah.

I Don't know these things. So I'm like, yeah, okay, great, whatever. Yeah, right. We walked in it, it gave me the whole thing and it had to iterate a bunch of times because it was like, oh, okay, try it now. And I'd try it now to like, did it work? And I'd say, no, it didn't work. And it says, yes. But then it could go back and say, oh, I see where the problem is.

Yeah.

And it would do a thing and it would republish the app and then it would come back and say, try it again. So I worked with it for about 40 minutes.

Okay.

To make that screenshot. And it works. I can cut and paste it in there.

Yeah.

And then it gave me all the instructions how to automate the email. There is another service that it suggested I use.

Yep.

It, it told me how to use Google Workspace to monitor for this type of thing. So you could route it to them?

Yes.

And that is the next step.

Sure, of course. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And I was blown away that it could create this thing that's going to make my life way easier because I could just send this email and you can make as many apps as you want. It's 20 bucks a month. So I, I look and like, huh. Because my, my assistant is, my executive assistant, she's always asking me, can we get this service? Oh, I need a service because I want to create this. Yeah, I want to create that. And I said, well, maybe I can create this stuff. And again, I'm not trying to sell it.

Right, right. You're just trying to save yourself from paying 85 bucks a month times eight services.

And just even to get it to work. I don't know of it. Now, maybe you know of a service that you can forward an email to and it'll parse out data, it'll save an income or expense category, it'll capture the category, the dollar amount and the vendor, and put it up in a dashboard. Maybe you know of that if you do send it feedback at BusinessBrain.

I don't know of it, but maybe somebody out there does. Yeah.

But certainly could it.

That sounds like a realistic service to offer.

Kind of. For sure. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And I'm sure they have it like, oh, we just tie into your bank account. We do this and we do that. But sure, I charge because I want the points. All these services go on my credit card. So, you know, I'm sure there's ways around it. But anyway, I just thought for a non, you know, programming person, Entrepreneur person that just needs this kind of thing. I'm going to use this thing for all kinds of stuff.

Yes.

Now I feel like I could replace my. I have a database that I use that I've been struggling to create kind of a light version of this database without having to buy an expensive app.

Yes.

To run it. And I've been like, man, I've been trying to do it in a few other services and I just haven't been able to get it to work. And I think I might be able to get it to work with this. So it's going to be interesting to see. I recommend if you've played around with it, replit.com rep l I t come tell me what else I can do with it and. And let me know.

That sounds amazing. I love this. Yep. Because it's the next level of vibe coding, right?

Yeah.

Like, the first wave of vibe coding was it's going to write the code for you and then you kind of need to know what to do with it or at least be willing to learn from it. How to go implement it.

Yeah. It was Italy. It was like, okay, well, here's how we're going to deploy it. Like, that's the one thing I'm like, how do I. I even use this?

Yeah. What does that mean?

But they do it. They do it for you. And there's other plans if you're going to sell it or, you know, get people to subscribe to it, they charge you more and all that kind of stuff. Of course. But yeah, I'm excited about it, man. I think it's great. Yep.

Amazing.

Good stuff.

That really is good stuff. And as someone who has built countless things that I only ever use for myself, I highly, highly encourage you, once you get this thing working for you, that you put the extra 10% of polish on it and market it, because there's another business owner, there's 50 other business owners just like you that will pay for this.

That's good to know.

I'm happy to know that. I mean, you know, I love.

I don't love why not?

But I tell the story about how I developed a content management system from scratch. Didn't have any vibe coding, but I had to learn PHP sometimes. So that was the day I did. And I never. It never even dawned on me to sell this to other people. And, you know, and then Matt Mullenweg came out and put WordPress out and now he lives on a private island. And it's like, you know. Yeah, obviously, obviously I wasn't the only one that needed this. Duh.

Yes.

Yeah.

That's awesome. Yeah. Well, I hope you have a great Independence Day, everyone listening. We appreciate you and we'll see you next week.

Absolutely. Feedback at BusinessBrain Show. And go check out BusinessBrain show review to leave your review and get entered to win a MacBook. Have a great weekend, folks. We'll see you on Wednesday.

See you.