The AI Profit Lever

Since rebuilding my consulting firm around AI enabled operations, no strategy has added more profit for our clients than the one I'm about to walk you through.

I call it:

The AI Profit Lever 

I wont be holding anything back. This is the exact strategy we used within the last 90 days to help an SEO agency create the capacity to sign an extra 40k/mo in new sales without making a sign hire (500k/year in profit!) 

So, without further ado, here’s exactly how you can implement it internally:

Step 1: Find The Lever

Your operation has several repeated manual tasks/processes that eat your margin.

For the SEO agency we are working with, there were several: 

Citation, reporting, KW research, briefs, GBP optimization spec,  backlink gap  (and so much more).

Each one of these processes has the opportunity to be turned into a skill (at least partially). 

To get started, get all your fulfillment processes on paper.

Brain-dump every process your team runs each week into a Google Doc. Next to each one, write a rough estimate of the hours it takes weekly, and a single line on what the task actually is.

Then hand that list to an LLM. Ask it to rank your processes from easiest to hardest to build a skill for. Put that ranking next to the hours each one costs you.

Pick the one you think may be both somewhat easy to make and impactful.

This is the first skill you build.

Not sure which one of your processes is the constraint? That's the first thing find out on a free consultation.

Book a call here → and we'll map what that path looks like in your business to generate an extra 50k/mo in new profit.

Step 2: Write Out The Process

This is the step people skip and overly rely on LLMs for. It's also the one that decides whether the skill works.

Pick the best person in the company (this could be you) to build an in-depth training on how to do this process.

Don’t overthink this step. Open loom, record an in-depth training & pull the transcript.

Step 3: Build The Skill

Open Claude Code and type: "Use the skill-creator to build a new skill." Don't hand-write the file — the skill-creator walks you through it.

If you are non technical like me, I would recommend writing:

“I want to use the skill-creator to build my first Claude skill, and I want to learn how it works while we do it. I've never built one before — explain each step in plain language as we go, like you're teaching me from scratch.

The skill I am seeking to build is [enter your skill here] our content briefing process. A great result looks like: [describe your ideal output here — e.g., a complete SEO content brief with search intent, the H2/H3 structure, target entities, internal links, and a title tag + meta description].

I have a Loom transcript that shows exactly how we run this process. I'll paste it when you're ready for it.

To begin, interview me one question at a time so we capture the right details: the trigger description, the steps in the process, what "good" looks like, and any house templates or examples we should bake in. Don't start building until you have enough to do it well.

Once we've mapped it, walk me through the setup — the folder, the SKILL.md file, the description that tells Claude when to use the skill, and one example of a perfect [output] brief to anchor the output. Tell me the why behind each piece so I can build the next skill with better context into how this works.”

To know you’re on the right track, Claude will help you build a  folder like this:

seo-content-brief/

  SKILL.md        ← the instructions

  reference.md    ← your house template and style rules

  examples/       ← one perfect brief you've already shipped

The single most important line is the description at the top — it's how the AI decides when to use the skill. Write it like a trigger: "Builds an SEO content brief from a target keyword. Use when a writer needs a brief or someone asks to brief an article." Vague description = the skill never fires.

Two rules that save you:

• Keep the main file tight. Push the heavy detail (full templates, style rules) into the reference file the skill pulls in only when needed.

• Show one example of perfect output. Drop your best real brief in the examples folder. The AI matches what it sees — one great example beats ten paragraphs of instructions.

Don’t have the time to build this on your own?

Book a call here → we’ll get this implemented 10x faster than if you did it in a DIY format.

Step 4: Pull The Lever

Run the skill on a process you’ve already done, one where you know what good looks like. Compare the skill's output against your own.

Don't chase perfection. The bar is better and faster than starting from a blank. Ship V1, then fix what you spot in real output.

For my founders that still haven’t touched Claude code yet, type something like: “The output is not what I wanted. Can you ask me one question at a time so we can fix the skill files to ensure the output moving forward meets my criteria?” 

Remember, your processes can be moved from hours to minutes now and the outputs will be elite (when built well). Multiplied across every department, every week, your business capacity (or profit) will radically change.

Our SEO client stacked five of these (research, brief, voice, writing, editing) and compressed a one-week deliverable into two hours. Skill by skill. They started with one.

Step 5: Keep Improving

Two things to turn a one-time win into permanent profit lever:

Share it. 

Put the skill folder somewhere central (we use a shared GitHub repo — everyone runs the same version, update once and everyone gets it). For teammates who never touch technical tools, the same skill can be uploaded straight into Claude and work for them too. (One source of truth).

Maintain it. 

A skill drifts three ways: your process changes but the file doesn't (update it the day the process changes), it stops firing or fires too much (sharpen the description), or you pile up too many with overlapping descriptions (prune). The file is the single source of truth for how your agency does the work. 

Building processes to maintain it are non-negotiable. 

One safety rule: read any skill line by line before your team runs it — especially one downloaded from the internet. Never put passwords or keys in the file. Treat it like code, because it is.

Final Thought

This is the new shape of an agency. 30% net margin should be the bare minimum when leveraging a skills library across your business.

You either run it this way, or you watch the market pass you by.

If you want help building your new operations the right way to grow your profit, I will personally audit your business and map out how to generate an extra 10%-20% to the bottom line.

Book a call here to connect with me personally (I don’t have many slots open & the ones I do fill up quick).

Want to see how we train team members on AI systems without all the downside of change management?

Book a demo and we’ll walk you through how to get your team on the AI train so you don’t get left behind.

Whatever you do, do not click this; it’s a trap to catch bot clicks here.