The four tools I kept, and what AI invents about you
Zack Petrocca · 3 min readThis week's system
The four tools I would keep if I had to run the business on nothing else.
Claude, Granola, Notion and ManyChat: what each one replaced, and the exact sentence I type into it. Plus the one rule that keeps a stack from growing back, and a ten minute test to run on yours.
The Signal
Three things that change how you operate this week.
The Fed hiked, and Albany still sold over list
The Fed raised rates on September 16 for the first time since July 2023, and Freddie Mac has the 30-year at 6.95%. Albany County still closed August at 103.1% of original list price, with inventory down 19.7%, per the Greater Capital Association of Realtors. Down the Thruway, Orange County homes took 50 days and sold at 98.5% of list, per OneKey MLS.
TakeStop quoting the national market to sellers. Bring your own county’s August report to every listing appointment this week. The Capital Region and the lower Hudson Valley are no longer the same market.
AI is telling customers things your business never said
Herringbone graded 1,200 AI answers about 600 small businesses. 27% of Google’s AI answers and 20% of ChatGPT’s contained something the business never published: wrong hours, services it does not offer. Where the website said it plainly, accuracy rose to 84% and 89%.
TakeWrite your hours, your service area, and what you do and do not do in plain sentences on your own site, then open your Google Business Profile. Of 59 businesses with no hours on their site, 46 were listed on Google as open 24 hours.
OpenAI is retiring the custom GPT
OpenAI is moving custom GPTs to plugins. For Enterprise workspaces, new GPTs stop on September 25 and existing ones stop running on December 11, and other plans have been told to expect the same move. A GPT’s instructions carry over. Its custom actions and its chosen model do not.
TakeIf you built a GPT for listing descriptions, scripts or your CMA, copy its instructions into a document you own this week. The instructions are the asset. The GPT was only the container.
In focus
Stop re-explaining your process to AI every single time.
I watched an agent type the same CMA instructions into ChatGPT four times in one week, a little differently each time. Write the process down once and the model loads it for you. What goes in one, and the three worth building first.
AI finds
Five tools doing real work right now.
- ManyChat someone comments a word on your post and it sends them what they asked for, even at 2am. Free plan, then from $14 a month.
- LeadPatrol texts back every missed call within seconds and hands you the lead while it is still warm. $99 a month, plus setup.
- Everest copy it on an email and it proposes times, handles the back and forth, and books the meeting. Free to start.
- Mercury Books turns your business bank account into a P&L and a cash flow report without a stack of receipts. Free through 2026 for Mercury customers.
- Claude docs and slides write the report and the deck in one conversation, then download it as PowerPoint. Beta on paid plans.
Built something an operator should know about? Reply to the email and I will look.
Coming in hot
Every free download, on one shelf.
The Ritz-Carlton culture playbook, this week’s four-tool one-pager, and the Operating Worksheets now live in one place. Each one takes under a minute to get.
Prompt of the week
The Database Wake-Up
Everyone on your list is in exactly one state, and each state gets exactly one message. Paste your states and this writes one email for each: the past client, the sphere, the online lead that went quiet. It is the prompt behind the dormant list playbook from our first issue.
Hit reply on the email with a question. It comes to me. Zack