Marketing 4 Business

Everyone is talking about AI. Almost nobody is telling business owners what to actually do on Monday morning.
In this Marketing 4 Business episode, Scott chats with Blake Harkness, the AI engineer behind Harkness AI, about what AI can actually do inside a normal New Zealand business right now. Blake started a mechatronics degree, watched ChatGPT answer his entire coursework, and pivoted. He now works as a fractional AI partner, runs a 300-strong community called Young Kiwis in AI, and recently went to China on a national delegation to see where this is all heading. No hype, just the practical version:
Blake explains how AI took his proposal process from 4 hours to 5 minutes, with a human review at the end
Why you must pay for your AI tools, and the confidential contract story from the States that shows what happens when you do not
Blake's rule for connecting AI to your systems: read-only first, add permissions gradually, never go full ham from the start
Scott shares why he scrapped his AI chatbot and AI phone answering project and hired a call centre of real people instead
The full breakdown of how a one-man fencing supplier automated Xero invoicing, repeat inquiries and calendar booking using Claude and a set of skills
What Blake saw in China: room-service robots riding elevators, AI triage in hospitals, and scan interpretation cut by 80%
Why job roles shift rather than disappear, and the two risks Blake sees: using no AI at all, or using AI for everything and learning nothing
Blake's 5 steps to get AI ready, including the testing mistake almost everyone makes
Scott's take on the AI bubble from an investor's seat, and why retail investors usually wear it
The intern who posted 5 Instagram Reels and had a job by day 5

If you are a business owner drowning in admin, unsure which AI tools are worth paying for, or being pitched six-figure AI projects you suspect you do not need, this episode is well worth your time.
Download the Local Business AEO Playbook HERE. A free, step-by-step guide showing you how to position your business to be recommended by AI.
If you found this episode valuable, please share it with another business owner who could benefit. Don't forget to follow Marketing 4 Business on your favourite podcast platform, and if you enjoyed the episode, we'd really appreciate a five-star review. Your support helps us reach more business owners with practical marketing insights.
Connect with us:
Follow the Marketing 4 Business podcast on Instagram HERE.
Follow Digital Influence on Instagram HERE.
Visit Digital Influence's website HERE.
Book a complimentary marketing strategy session HERE.
Connect with Scott Wilson on LinkedIn HERE.
Connect with Blake Harkness on LinkedIn HERE.
Have Fun & Take Action

You are busy. Your business is not growing at the rate it should. Those two things are connected, and this episode explains how.
Scott has been saving up business lessons. 21 of them, held back until the right person walked through the door. In this Marketing 4 Business episode, he sits down with Darren Pratley, business coach and speaker, who walks into companies across New Zealand and asks the question most owners avoid: what actually creates your success? No interview structure. Just 21 lessons, one at a time, with two people who do not always agree.
Lessons you can put to work this week, including:
Why Darren tells smaller businesses to focus on profit over cash flow, and the question the bank asks first that explains it.
Scott's counter: cash keeps you alive during the year, profit is what you show at the end of it.
The three week diary test that reveals whether your success is planned or just hoped for.
Why Scott pulled AI off his phone lines and put a real call centre back on, and where Darren openly disagrees with him.
The scoreboard question Darren asks in every business he walks into, and why it is not a financial question.
57 touchpoints, and how one CEO used clarity alone as his competitive advantage.
Why Scott tells clients to let go of marketing results for the first 12 months, and what happens at month 13.
Darren's 10 calls a day rule, worth millions over his career, and the exact opening line he uses.

If you are a business owner who keeps finishing the week exhausted with nothing moved forward, this is the hour that fixes it. Pick three lessons, act on them this week, and see what changes.
Download the Local Business AEO Playbook HERE. A free, step-by-step guide showing you how to position your business to be recommended by AI.
If you found this episode valuable, please share it with another business owner who could benefit. Don't forget to follow Marketing 4 Business on your favourite podcast platform, and if you enjoyed the episode, we'd really appreciate a five-star review. Your support helps us reach more business owners with practical marketing insights.
Connect with us:
Follow the Marketing 4 Business podcast on Instagram HERE.
Follow Digital Influence on Instagram HERE.
Visit Digital Influence's website HERE.
Book a complimentary marketing strategy session HERE.
Connect with Scott Wilson on LinkedIn HERE.
Connect with Darren Pratley on LinkedIn HERE.
Have Fun & Take Action

They set a goal of 100 members by the end of 2026. They hit 750 in six months.
In this Marketing 4 Business episode, Scott chats with Milo Coldren and Rore Morgan, third-year students and co-founders of the UC Marketing Society, about what the next wave of marketers actually wants from an employer, what internships should really pay, and where AI is quietly damaging brands. If you employ young people, are thinking about an intern, or want an honest read on how AI is landing with the people who grew up with it, this one is worth your time.
Including:
What a marketing internship actually costs
Why a degree on its own no longer gets you hired, and why students need experience before they graduate
Why dropping the membership fee took the society from 70 members to 750, and what that says about barriers to entry
What young marketers really want from a job, and why "the same day twice" is the fastest way to lose them
Why AI-generated imagery is turning customers off, and the one thing Rore says you never hand over to AI
The AI chatbot experiment that cost Digital Influence a deal, and why Scott went back to a call centre
How one agency owner cut website builds from 45 days to 3 hours with a single source of truth, and why he's now hiring more account managers, not fewer
Why Turnitin's AI checker doesn't work, and how universities are still figuring out the rules
The free certifications students can do right now to stand out
The plastic toothpick cold call that taught Scott the biggest marketing lesson of his career: people buy what they want, not what you think they need
How Lucas got hired at 17 by saying yes to 10 hours a week, and how to de-risk yourself for an employer

If you are a business owner trying to hire young talent, work out whether an intern is worth it, or figure out where AI belongs in your marketing and where it absolutely doesn't, this episode is well worth your time.
Download the Local Business AEO Playbook HERE. A free, step-by-step guide showing you how to position your business to be recommended by AI.
If you found this episode valuable, please share it with another business owner who could benefit. Don't forget to follow Marketing 4 Business on your favourite podcast platform, and if you enjoyed the episode, we'd really appreciate a five-star review. Your support helps us reach more business owners with practical marketing insights.
Connect with us:
Follow the Marketing 4 Business podcast on Instagram HERE.
Follow Digital Influence on Instagram HERE.
Visit Digital Influence's website HERE.
Book a complimentary marketing strategy session HERE.
Connect with Scott on LinkedIn HERE.
Connect with UC Marketing Society on LinkedIn HERE.
Connect with Milo Coldren on LinkedIn HERE.
Connect with Rore Morgan on LinkedIn HERE.
Have Fun & Take Action

He turned up to a job interview in jandals and shorts, and walked out running events for 80,000 people. That was the start of 22 years offshore.
In this Marketing 4 Business episode, Scott chats with Darren Sandford, CEO of Accessman, about strategy, brand and customer experience learned the hard way across South Africa, Botswana, Dubai and New Zealand. Hilti, Bobcat, Versatile, Caterpillar, and now one of New Zealand's largest access equipment hire businesses. This is a proper strategy episode with the scar tissue included. Darren shares:
Why structure follows strategy, and why a manager who changes the org chart without touching the strategy is being lazy
The reason 85% of strategies fail, and why it is almost never the strategy itself
Why the best strategies come from the bottom up, not handed down from the corner office like a gift from the gods
How to break your customer journey into touch points (Accessman found 58), and the four questions that tell you which ones to fix first
Why Accessman hires the exact same gear as its competitors, and where the white space actually sits
The six ways to differentiate, why you can only pick one, and what it costs you to hold the line
Why a rebrand has to be sold internally first, from the Gough Cat to Terra Cat change Darren led
The $10 million equipment call he made against his own manager's advice, and the rule he took from it: you can tolerate failure, you cannot tolerate poor performance
Why he calls BS on "I know in the first five minutes if they are right for the job," and the structured process his leadership team uses instead
What top sales performers do that low performers say they have not got time for

If you are a business owner trying to build a strategy your team will actually implement, find room to compete when your product looks the same as everyone else's, or work out where you genuinely differentiate, this episode is well worth your time.
Download the Local Business AEO Playbook HERE. A free, step-by-step guide showing you how to position your business to be recommended by AI.
If you found this episode valuable, please share it with another business owner who could benefit. Don't forget to follow Marketing 4 Business on your favourite podcast platform, and if you enjoyed the episode, we'd really appreciate a five-star review. Your support helps us reach more business owners with practical marketing insights.
Connect with us:
Follow the Marketing 4 Business podcast on Instagram HERE.
Follow Digital Influence on Instagram HERE.
Visit Digital Influence's website HERE.
Book a complimentary marketing strategy session HERE.
Connect with Scott on LinkedIn HERE.
Connect with Darren Sandford on LinkedIn HERE.
Have Fun & Take Action

She was made redundant while on maternity leave, worked three jobs to keep the house, and now runs two businesses at once…
In this Marketing 4 Business episode, Scott chats with Andrea Cockburn, director at Thermoglaz and one of the newest agents at Harcourts Gold Papanui, about 40 years in sales, buying and selling businesses, and what she is only now learning about leading a team. Andrea grew up in a state house, became a Canterbury coxswain at nine, and has lived in roughly 50 houses and renovated 15. She shares the tools and the mistakes, including:
Why over-giving as an employer ends in disappointment, and the line from her own management team that reset it: not everyone is your family or your child
The glass ceiling mistake Andrea owns up to, wanting every team member to push through theirs without ever asking if they wanted to
Stop, start, recreate: the three-part review her directors and GM run on the business, and on their own weak spots
The tank: how her management team scores mindset, health, family and personal life out of 10, out loud, twice a month, and the only question they ask afterwards
What happened when they swapped the junk food pantry for fruit and water, kept the chocolate biscuits and the beer, and one staff member decided to get a haircut
Why buying a business with great long-serving staff means keeping their traditions first, and what it cost the new owners of her IT company when they did not
Nought to around 500 clients in six months selling makeup at parties, and why she still says growing fast can quietly over-commit you
Turning $82,700 into $182,100 in 18 months on her first house at 20, on a renovation budget of roughly $2,000
Why after 40 years she calls herself a communicator rather than a salesperson, and why she has never counted commission as income
Her two-word answer on what makes a good student of a mentor
Scott's own take on culture: small hinges swing big doors, plus the daily stand-up and "teach me" ritual he runs at Digital Influence

If you are a business owner who tends to give more than you get back, or you are trying to build a team strong enough that you can step out and do something new, this episode is well worth your time.
Download the Local Business AEO Playbook HERE. A free, step-by-step guide showing you how to position your business to be recommended by AI.
If you found this episode valuable, please share it with another business owner who could benefit. Don't forget to follow Marketing 4 Business on your favourite podcast platform, and if you enjoyed the episode, we'd really appreciate a five-star review. Your support helps us reach more business owners with practical marketing insights.
Connect with us:
Follow the Marketing 4 Business podcast on Instagram HERE.
Follow Digital Influence on Instagram HERE.
Visit Digital Influence's website HERE.
Book a complimentary marketing strategy session HERE.
Connect with Scott on LinkedIn HERE.
Connect with Andrea Cockburn on LinkedIn HERE.
Have Fun & Take Action