From Corporate to Consultant: Building an AI-Powered Lead Engine for Small Business

Today's episode is a really good one if you've ever wondered what it actually looks like to step out of corporate life and build something more independent, and how AI fits into that transition. Today I'm talking with Rubyn, who spent 25 years in the consumer products world working with major brands before shifting into consulting for founders and small businesses. Now he helps entrepreneurs bring products to market, build smarter systems, and uses AI to save time, automate outreach, and create more sustainable growth. If you're building something, pivoting careers, or trying to figure out how AI fits into your business without complicating everything, this episode is for you.

All right, Robyn, thanks so much for being with me here today. How are you? I'm good.

I'm good. Thank you. Trying to stay warm.

Yeah. Where are you calling from?

Calling from PA. So Doylestown, Pennsylvania, a little bit south, a little bit north of Philadelphia. So about an hour from Philadelphia.

Cold.

Cold. Very cold.

Colder than usual right now?

Yeah, so we haven't had a bad winter in 3 or 4 years, and we're making up for it all right now, right? So this Sunday we had like 15 inches of snow, and it's, yes, it's been a wild ride. So it's kept me busy.

Wow, wow, wow. Okay, so when you're not shoveling neighbors' snow and being Neighbor of the Year, how do you spend your time?

Oh, running around with my kids. So I have 3 kids, one in college, one on his way to college in August, and a sophomore. So the boys are active, both play football, both run winter and spring track. So I normally have a chair in my car or a seat to sit on cold bleachers because we're always busy.

I love it. I love it. What sports do they play?

Football, winter track, and spring track.

Cool. I love it. I love it. 3, that feels like a good number.

It felt like a good number until the price tag started rising up. But it is a good number. I have no complaints. No complaints at all.

So, I love that's where you started. So, when you're not shoveling neighbors' snow and shuttling kids, how else do you spend your time?

Yeah, I'm trying to— the rest of my time goes to trying to solidify my pivot, right? So background, I spent 25 years in corporate consumer product goods, right? So working for the likes of companies like Johnson Johnson, both on the commercial side and the supply chain side. And then my final role, I took a president role over at a contract packaging organization over in New Jersey. Wife took sick late '24. She's healthy now.. But that made me reevaluate some things, right? And so decided to walk away. Yeah, I like to do that, right? So life is just always lifing. And so took that opportunity to walk away and figure out the next step. So right now I'm running a full-time consultancy while I'm looking to acquire some businesses. And I focus on consulting small businesses and focus on consulting consumer product goods companies, right? So folks who are founders who want to bring products to the marketplace, I helped him understand what that process looks like from concept all the way to retail shelves.

Incredible. So how does a brand know that they need to work with you?

Yeah, so that's what I'm building now, right? So most of it is through referral, right? So, you know, I've spent so much time in the industry, there's always someone saying, hey, I know a guy, right? Yeah. So through some partners with friends who I've worked well with and who who know people who are interested in doing things, they usually come to me. But right now I'm in the process of building out my own kind of systems, right? So I built a lead generation system in a non-traditional source, right? Leveraging AI as much as possible and trying new things, right? So I have this gift of time that allows me to really meditate and make the right decisions versus just rushing and doing what everyone else is doing, right? So through personal referrals Now I'm trying to build my own engine, right? My own lead generation engine.

I wanna, two things that really stood out to me just now is this idea of solidifying my pivot and just what an intentional phrase. And I just thought that was so beautiful. And then this gift of time, no one says that, right? Like everyone, it's, I'm always, I'm trying to not be judgy. I really am. I'm working with a life coach about it. I'm really trying to work on it. And when people tell me they're busy, I'm like, Yeah, we all have 24 hours a day. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We all have the same hours. So what a breath of fresh air to get on here with you and you say, I've got the gift of time. Like, that is awesome. And I don't hear that very often, you know?

So thank you for that. Well, to be clear, right, I'm learning to live into it with affirmation, right? Yeah. You know, you say it enough, you're reminded that we all have the same amount of time. Time, right? My guilty pleasures are watching reruns of Law Order and Law Order: SVU. I'm not on any of the new shows. You're not going to— don't ask me about Bridgerton. Don't ask me about all these other movies that are coming out. Don't ask me about any of that because I don't know, right? My white noise is Law Order and Law Order: SVU. But I recognize, to your point, we all have the same amount of time in a day. We all make choices. And we have to live with those outcomes, right? And so I'm trying to be better about the choices I'm making with the time that we have. And, uh, it, it starts to work out that way. And I'm not, I'm not, I don't win every day, right? But, uh, it's that 1% better every day is what we're after.

Yes. Oh my gosh. I feel like you and I are reading some of the same books. So, okay. Well, okay. So I kind of feel you, like my husband and I are like still real big Seinfeld fans. Um, and you know, with Seinfeld, with Law and Order, it's like you can kind of have this on in the background, like check in every once in a while, kind of engage with it, but you've seen this episode 18 times. Um, you don't have to be fully engaged. You know what's happening, you know what's gonna come next, and you can still kind of be like tinkering on your computer or doing the things. So, so one of the things, um, that I talk about often. And, you know, we know each other through Club Jam and we, you know, one of the things that really stuck out to me when I started working alongside Jam is she said, you know, using AI allows people to be more human. And that's something that she really believes in and something I really believe in. And, you know, it gives you back time to be more human. And I would love to learn a little bit like how you are using AI to give yourself back more time.

Yeah, it's a great question, right? You know, my journey has been a little bit different, right? I think it comes from my own OCD, right? And so my first couple of months being a part of Jamf, it's exciting and it's overwhelming. Yeah. Right? You know, there's so much coming at you, so many new tools, learning with Tony, automations with Kevin and Jamf, sending all these things out. It's like, stop already, right? But it's really, really exciting. But the overwhelming piece is that you have this tendency where you have to build discipline of everything that comes out. You know, you get that shiny, that shiny new toy mindset, right? And you want to play with it. And so the way I've, back to your question, got into this creating more time for myself is doing something that I've learned learned in corporate, right? There's always a new something, new toy, new process, new task, new tool. The question becomes, what are the use cases that these things can be applied to, right? What are the real problems you're trying to solve? And based on the problems you're trying to solve, is there an application that you can use it for to make it more meaningful? Right. So I'll give you an example. Right. I talked about the pivot. I talked about trying to pivot into this new college, second version of career. One of the things, you know, you need to do, you have to do social media and it's, and it's super important to do social media. I wasn't doing it before. Like LinkedIn is my thing. I'm a LinkedIn guy. A lot of followers, a lot of engagement because of the career I've been in. But the Facebook, I stopped that 2 or 3 years ago after the kids got to a certain age because I couldn't keep up. Right. Not doing Instagram, not doing TikTok, all of these things. But knowing that I need to be out there with a high level of frequency, I've been able to automate at least the authoritative parts of social media where I have posts going automatic on a lot of those platforms for me while I sleep. Right. And so I talk about a real use case, right? That gave me a gift of time that I didn't have. I wasn't using already, but I know I need it. And so now it's one less thing to think about. Right?

And how cool is this that, I mean, I wanna pause here and recognize this. You're saying, I don't use Facebook. And then in the same breath you're like, and I've learned to automate my social media while I sleep.

Like, that's a pivot. That's a big leap. Absolutely, right? And so, I have the personal Facebook, the personal Instagram, but I wasn't a consistent poster, right? Because it's just not something I've done, but I know it's important to be out there, right? So I created business accounts, I started those automatic posts as authoritative, tracking my now followers, right? It's a low base, but the point is, is that it's capturing attention, right? We're in an attention economy, right? And so now doing that, when I come with the more authentic me, hey, this is me, hey, this is who I am portion of social media, now between that authoritative and that authentic piece, that building community, they come together and now you accelerate the work that you're doing, hence freeing up time, right? Who has the time to have a business and spend, you know, time on 4 different social media platforms posting 4 to 5 times a day?

Nobody, right? So you're tracking these measures. Are you— I keep coming back to this term pivot, right? Are you— as you're, you know, kind of this like first edition and then do you say, okay, this works, this doesn't, and then you go back and you kind of revise it, you pivot and, you know, you do another version or tell us a little bit about what that growth has looked like.

Yeah, absolutely. So that's the intent, right? So the idea for me, right, is good enough goal, right? So I got, I have to start it, right? So let's start these platforms. So I've done that. I've just started then within the last, call it 5 days, an automatic lead engine, right? So now I'm literally dripping 1 email per hour to this list of leads that I have that then follow up 3 days later for the second email. So now I have those 2 things going. Now I can take a I can take a glass of tea and say, okay, how do we optimize this? Right? I know it's not optimized because I didn't intend for it to be optimized because you know what happens when we want perfection? We lose so much time spinning your wheels trying to get this thing perfect. Analysis paralysis. Analysis paralysis. Right? Now I can go back and optimize and tweak. Here's a great example of that. I just mentioned I created this lead engine that sends an email every hour to a list of leads that I have. 3 days later, I started the second lead engine to send the second email to 3. And then 3 days later, I have a third one. I know I can connect all 3 of those into one system and do the time. I haven't figured that tool out yet. So instead of getting caught up on searching Jamf, searching YouTube and all those things, run the 3 separate engines, come back later, Fix it, optimize it, because it's good enough now, it's serving the purpose, right? And so you have to continue to do that. Iterate, iterate, iterate. You know, put something out there, see what works, see what doesn't, make the iterations, put it back out there. And that's how you build the momentum to do that 1% better every day.

No, I love that. Oh, I love it. Okay, so, so this, yeah, this good enough, go. I love that. This 1% better, I keep coming back to that personally as well.

So, so my—

and I say this all the time— my favorite part of my job is getting to know these, these bits and pieces of different businesses, right? Like, I get to like get a little glimpse. You know, yesterday I spoke to a magician and an astrologer and, you know, and then, you know, I spoke to, you know, it's just, it's just so fun getting to know these worlds that I know nothing about. I know nothing about CBG. So, so, Talk to me a little bit like, you know, you've been fortunate enough and you've, you've put the work in where you have this network, you have this experience. So talk to us kind of about your flow of, of finding, you know, the right client and how it's a, it's a mutual good fit. And then what are some of those questions you ask them to, to make sure, you know, your work aligns and, and what are the ways that you're able to help them?

Talk to us a little bit about that. Yeah, that's a great question, right? So, you know, the key piece here is that this is one thing that AI can't solve for you, right? It can't replace authentic connection, relationship, vibe, making sure that, you know, character and similarities align. Right. And so it starts with the network, with the referral. It starts when they get to know, you know, you get a chance to talk to people, you get to understand who they are, what's their story, what makes them tick. And it creates inspiration. Right. And the question then for me becomes, can I work with this founder? Because you can't work with everybody, right? So some folks want to micromanage down to the every minute, right? So can I work with this person? Number 2, do they have a story that's meaningful and inspiring? And then 3, the idea around the product, is it something that meets what we call a unique selling proposition or a more neat, a market dominating position that, that fits a niche in the marketplace or fits a need in the marketplace that can actually drive sales, right? You know, do I want to launch another ketchup next to Hunts and Heinz? Right. Probably not. Right. And so, so it's really about So those 3 things, is the founder someone that I can work with, right? Are they coachable, right? Because if you're, if you're with a founder that can't be coached, then it's really hard to give them guidance and leverage your experience to help them be successful, right? What's their story, right? Do they have one of those stories that's powerful that really will inspire people? I'll give you a great example. Please. I have a product, I have a product that we're hoping to bring to market here sometime in '26. But the founder is a former D1 athlete, grew up in the Pacific Northwest, spent a lot of time in tanning beds, right? Okay. Now her big challenge is her best friend is her dermatologist, where she's getting these moles removed from her skin, right? And so there's a product she wants to bring to market, uh, for those marks and those scars, right? Uh, and so it's just a super inspirational story to hear that story, to talk about her life and how that impact of going to dermatologist all the time has impacted her confidence and how this product can bring her confidence again. And so those Those are the kind of examples that I look for, right? And then it's, you know, I'm interviewing them, they're interviewing me to see if I have the skillset, if my experience meet what they believe they need to help them be successful.

So, okay, so you say, okay, this is a good match. We're gonna work together. I think, you know, I appreciate the values of the founder and it's reciprocal. I think there's a story here and I think there's a market. So you start working, Give us a snapshot of what that looks like to, to work together with a client like that.

Yeah, absolutely. So it's personalized, right? In that every person is at a different stage of the journey, right? In most cases, most founders who are interested in bringing a product to market, they don't know what they don't know, meaning they don't know this world, right? The closest they've ever been to working and negotiating with Walmart is going in the store and saying, I don't have my favorite soap, right? And so it's about understanding where they are are, really helping them understand the journey to get there, right? Each product has a different journey. For example, is it a product regulated by the FDA, meaning they have active ingredients that are regulated? That journey is different from a product that's a skincare or cosmetic without any true active ingredients that are regulated by the FDA. That's a different journey, right? Versus food, right? Food might be different, or supplements as an example, vitamins, that it's not a regulated environment. So depending on product. The, the key first step is helping them understand the journey and what all the things that need to happen and what needs to be true to get to market and what that looks like in terms of a timeline and process and, and estimated idea of what those costs are gonna look like, right? Because it's not a, it's not an inexpensive process to try to bring a product to market. If you have the capital, great. Most people don't. How are you going to raise capital? In order to raise capital, that first round is usually like a family and friends round. Do you have the network right? Do you have the family that can help you scrape up the capital to get going, to build the momentum, to create that, that, that rave following that people are going to want this product and want to invest in what you're doing, right? So there are a lot of steps in between, but it really is about understanding what it takes to go from concept all the way to market. And are you, are you ready and built for that experience?

No, I love that. And Rubyn, you made me think of something last night. I was at dinner with some girlfriends and we live here in Panama and we have a place called PriceSmart and it's basically our Costco, right? I know PriceSmart. Okay. Yeah, I bet you do. And, you know, I thought it was just the standard because in PriceSmart they will have vendors come in and kind of like, you know, the samples, but it'll often be the owner of their own little company and they've gotten their product into PriceSmart and they're there to kind of push it. And, you know, it's different than the ladies passing out the samples. It's like their booth is branded and you can kind of tell. And I thought like, yeah, you just have to buy their product because it's such a, you know, I'm so proud of them for doing this process to get into PriceSmart. Like, you know, I just— and, you know, my friends are like, oh, I don't like being sold. I'm like, well, they, they don't really have to sell me because I go up to them being like, like, okay, hey, what am I buying? Because I just think it's so cool that they have taken this step to get their product developed and created and then into a store like PriceSmart. Yeah. And I thought that—

I thought everyone just knew that they just had to buy. Like, no, no, that's not how that works. Okay. Yeah, but that's a great example, right? That's, that's them trying to— they've gotten a yes, meaning they've gotten PriceSmart to give them a yes. Now they to build this traction and build this demand. And that's one of the least expensive ways to do it, right?

Given the cost of Meta ads, Instagram ads, and all of the digital media these days. So, so you told us a little bit about your AI use for your company.

Do you use AI for your clients? Yeah, so, so, you know, back to use cases. Yeah, so the social media one is a perfect one, right? So it's a, a simple lift and apply, right, to that business, right? All I'm doing is changing the concept, changing the topics, changing the prompt to create the same engine that will automate to get the businesses started for some of my clients, right? So that's a great example. Some of the other content that's needed, right? A lot of infographics, right, to talk through stages and steps of things that are important, right? So for my small businesses, as an example, one of the infographics that I do is 3 areas that profit leak in your business, right? And I show this infographic that shows that. Well, that's a lift and apply. Now that I've created that, call it agent, that's a lift and apply to change the concept to, I talked about this, this client that deals with the moles and the scars, right? Scars need to be protected from the sun. So how do we do an infographic to talk about how to protect your skin from the sun, right? So again, lift and apply and starting with that use case, those use cases become applicable for me or become applicable for anyone the one that I'm working with in my business to automate some things that we can focus on the other things that require more of a human touch.

Oh, interesting. And I feel like what a full package you're able to offer them. I mean, how many other consultants are also willing to get in their social media?

I mean, that's typically another vendor, right? Yeah. Yeah. Well, I mean, it depends, right? It all depends on the time you have available to stop to do the work that's required. Right. And so I imagine there's some that are doing it right. I think you got to just find a balance and you have to, you have make the appropriate time for it, right?

Yeah. So, so give me a snapshot of your to-do list. Like, what, what is on your to-do list, and what is the next thing that you're gonna focus on in, you know, your, your AI education?

Yeah, but, um, the answer for most of those is one big project. Uh, I actually just posted on Jam, uh, yesterday about this. So I have a software package that, uh, I picked up from my consultancy almost 2 years ago. Uh, it's a— it's one done-for-you systems, right? So, so it manages leads, right? So if I get a lead and put in the system, it's doing all the automation for me for all the leads. It does my invoicing. It has an entire done-for-you list of courses. If I wanted to do digital courses for, for small businesses that I brought in, right, that's in there as well. They did my website, right? All of these things, that's running me a pretty hefty penny, right? Yeah. I'm using Manage right now because I want to replicate all of that stuff, obviously non-proprietary stuff, of course, but I want to replicate that so that I can remove that from my system and create my own. If I'm able to do that, right, just to make it tangible, if I'm able to do that, I'll save myself over $15,000 a Incredible.

How crazy is it that we are in this place now where you can say something like that? Like, I mean, 15 years ago, like no one would say something like, hey, I'm gonna learn how to build my own QuickBooks, you know? Like, and if they did, they were kind of crazy, you know? And now you're like, oh, I just kind of need to do like a few, you know, Build with Kevins and Build with Tonys and, you know, Yeah, you're 100%.

Flora, you're spot on, right? I think that's the piece that people miss, right? Let's take a step back, right? The old adage that's real and true, but we haven't lived into it, is that technology is supposed to make the cost of living and life cheaper, right? When you think about technology, technology comes in, then the cost of doing those things should be cheaper. When you look around our society, it doesn't really feel that way, right? Cost of utilities are up. Up. Cost of food is up. Cost to buy a car is up. Cost to do this is up. All those things are up. AI is really forcing the instance to really make the cost of living, the cost of life, the cost, cost of doing cheaper, right? And so now to your point, I just talked about that $15,000 a year savings by doing it on Managed. That's costing me $400 a a year, right? It's ridiculous, right? By having those tools, by building this tool stack that I can lift and apply now, right, I can choose to really pull clients in by offering them a lower than cost value to prove out my system because I'm confident in my ability, right? And so, but, you know, with all the farmers in the world, right, and the cost of food is going up every day and people, more people are still carving, right? With all the technology out there, electric cars, every car has a screen in it now. Cars cost more. Why? Why is that, right? It's because society has created this environment of I am the only one, and so therefore I can command price. Well, I think AI is gonna be the great equalizer and it's going to really transform stuff.

Imagine me using Manus to create my own car.

I mean, give it a year. It's coming, right? It's coming. And so, so that's my point, right? And so I, I love the disruption. It's one of these disruptions that make a ton of sense. While a lot of people don't like it, it's actually doing what technology is supposed to do, lower the, lower the cost, the cost barrier so that more people can be included and participate. So, so what do you say to people that are afraid to get into AI with intention? Get your popcorn ready because if you don't get into it with intention, it's going to remove the value that you think you own as a unique contributor, period, right? You have to be able to get engaged, figure things out, learn some stuff, right? This is not about any longer about substituting Google for chat, right? To be more precise in terms of how get an answer of what you saw. It's about understanding how this can improve, you know, your lifestyle, give you time back and be— and use that time more valuable. Right. And so, you know, get your popcorn ready. If you're not willing to jump on this evolution, you're going to be on the sideline watching the show.

Yeah. Well, I'm excited to watch your journey and it's just so cool to get, you know, an even deeper snapshot of what you're doing. And where can people find out more information about working with you?

Yeah. So you can find me on my website at Catapult Group. That's catapultgroup.com. That's my website. Or you can, you can reach out there or you can find me on any of the social handles at Catapult Group, either Catapult Group or Catapult Group, or just search me, Ruben Bell, R-E-U-B-E-N-B-E-L-L. You'll find me. Happy to help people. I made a commitment to myself, Laura, this year to service or impact 100,000 small businesses this year. That's crazy. Overwhelming, right? That's a little bit more than half a percent of all the small businesses in the U.S., but I'm hoping whether that's free or paid services to just be able to help people on their journey.

And so help me do that by spreading that message. Let's do it. Cool. Awesome. All right, Robyn, it was a pleasure.

Thank you so much.

Thank you, Flora, for your time.

Okay. Talk soon. Ciao. Take care. Stay warm.