96. How a Reusable Portal Shell Unlocks Infinite Custom Apps for SMBs | UnHacked Ep. 96

Justin Shelley (00:04) We are dancing. Are we dancing or not dancing? I can't remember. Are we doing it? I can't remember for whoa, that was weird. Okay. Joshua Holloway (00:08) We're doing it all. No, we're doing it all. got to dance. can't dance in rhythm, out of rhythm, whatever it looks like, most likely as seals in a mating season. Justin Shelley (00:17) No IT guys ever should be dancing. Good Lord. This is, I'm glad most people watch or listen to this audio only and not the video. crime any, welcome everybody to episode 96 of unhacked. We're here again, breaking down cybersecurity AI, all things. I don't know. I don't have my standard thing ready, but I do have the pop quiz because I told you guys we paying attention. Mario Zaki (00:30) They're missing out. Justin Shelley (00:43) What's different my studio today? And if you're listening on audio, you don't even get to play this game. And if you can figure it out, well, I shouldn't say it. Do you guys have, you know what it is? Mario Zaki (00:49) Yeah, bye. Justin Shelley (00:55) Josh, Brian, Mario, nobody? No, my flower. hell no, that's been there forever. Bryan Lachapelle (00:56) No, I didn't even notice, Mario Zaki (00:56) Your flower. Joshua Holloway (00:59) I feel like it's the the hang loose in the background. wow. Bryan Lachapelle (01:02) Is it something? Mario Zaki (01:02) No, he's had that. Is that the orchids behind you? The flower? Joshua Holloway (01:04) has he Justin Shelley (01:09) That has been there forever. God damn, you guys are not observant. So here's what I'm going to do. New game. If listening, viewing audience, if you can figure out what's different this week versus last week, I'll give you a hundred bucks. Just go on to unhackmybusiness.com. Go to the contact, the host or whatever that form is and tell me what's different. If you get it right, a hundred bucks. First one only. I'm not giving out hundred bucks to everybody. All right. That's what I've got. I'm not telling. I'm not telling you got to figure it out. No. Bryan Lachapelle (01:32) Is it visual or is it audio? Mario Zaki (01:37) Are we allowed to participate? Are Bryan Lachapelle (01:39) I don't Mario Zaki (01:39) we Bryan Lachapelle (01:39) know. Justin Shelley (01:39) Hell no. No, you already had your chance. Mario Zaki (01:39) allowed to go back? Joshua Holloway (01:40) We can get 100 bucks too. Justin Shelley (01:42) You got your first shot and you've all failed. Bryan Lachapelle (01:44) Mario, it's fine. We'll just pretend we're somebody else and we'll fill it in and we'll win. Our 10 audience members won't have a chance. Justin Shelley (01:50) There you go. Mario Zaki (01:50) John Doe is about to win the... Joshua Holloway (01:50) You Justin Shelley (01:53) There you go. Listen, it's a serious offer. For reals. I'm just curious if anybody will actually notice and, and report. Maybe we'll play this game every week. I don't know. Episode 96 guys, we are in phase three of our mini series on AI slash cybersecurity. Everything that we can do to increase productivity, the claim, the standing claim has been 10 to 50 X. We've proven that over and over and over. And we're just going to come back and do it again. Well, I don't know, Brian, Brian, you're on so. I guess we'll see if you can prove that this week. That said, let's go ahead and do our quick introductions. I'm Justin Shelley, CEO of Phoenix IT advisors. I help people make lots of money using AI and then protect that money from the Russian hackers, the government who's going to come in and find your ass if you do things wrong. And then the greedy attorneys are going to come and sue you on top of it all. That's what I do. We're to go around the room from most hair to least hair. Josh, that makes it you. You're up next. Joshua Holloway (02:48) Yes, I'm still in the running for most hair. I love it. Joshua Holloway, CEO for 70i Technologies. We're here out of the Sacramento area with an office in Reno. And we're primarily helping companies lock down and protect their services under the guise of compliance. And we're also helping them navigate the waters of artificial intelligence and all the different ways that they can leak their information out there. So we try and stop all Bryan Lachapelle (02:51) Ha Justin Shelley (03:15) All right, who's got the next most hair? It's not you Mario. Don't you even dare try to stand up. Bryan Lachapelle (03:17) That would probably be me, I suppose. All right, fine. My name is Brian Lashbroe with B4 Networks based out of beautiful Ontario, Canada in the Niagara region. And we help business owners remove the headaches and frustrations that come with dealing with technology, cybersecurity, and now AI. Justin Shelley (03:38) Baldi, you're up. And I like the shine, by the way, you got a nice, Paul, what? You think I got what? Mario Zaki (03:41) I think you have... I think you have more here than me, don't you? The spatial count? Mario Zaki, CEO of Mastek IT, located in smoky New Jersey because of the Canadians up there and their forest fires. Yeah, located in New Jersey, we help small to medium-sized businesses with all their IT needs. Justin Shelley (03:48) Well, I don't know. I started it off. doesn't count. I don't count. Bryan Lachapelle (04:04) Sorry. Sorry. Joshua Holloway (04:04) Fightin' words. Justin Shelley (04:06) It respond. I'm sorry. Joshua Holloway (04:08) board. Mario Zaki (04:14) We specialize in keeping them secure so they can sleep better at night knowing that they will wake up with their businesses still there. Justin Shelley (04:22) All right, I think that's everybody in my bed because I had to silence my phone. I don't know if anybody heard that. All right. Anyways, I was going to say, like, if you can identify the sound, we'll start having giveaways. It just seems like the right thing to do. Oh, we need to get sponsors. We'll start bringing vendors in and make them pay for the giveaways. Oh, I like that. All right. All right. Listen, guys, we have episode 100 coming up. This is 96. We've got four more. We've got to do something big. So audience, help us out. Co-hosts, help me out. Mario Zaki (04:23) That's it. No. Joshua Holloway (04:29) They'll get another hundred bucks if they heard it. Bryan Lachapelle (04:40) Excellent, I like it. Joshua Holloway (04:42) Wow, that's a good idea. Justin Shelley (04:51) We got to do something wild for 100. All right. We are today going to continue our little vibe coding session. And you know, some people love vibe coding. Some people hate it. We had a comment on YouTube today, guys. Somebody got on there and said something to the effect of the more I hear about AI and business, the more I hate it or something like that. I don't know. I'm paraphrasing badly. I'm just like, I said, I said, Joshua Holloway (05:15) AI fatigue. I was wondering if that was gonna come up. Bryan Lachapelle (05:18) Yeah. Justin Shelley (05:19) Your, your, competitors. Thank you. Anyways. guys, do you have anything you want to say before we turn it over to Brian and get started? What has this week looked like highlights anything new you've done with AI that you want to brag about or rat on yourself about if you found a new security blip that you kind of caught you off guard. I'm not telling them myself, not yet. Anybody Bueller Bueller. Bryan Lachapelle (05:25) Yeah. Good point. Mario Zaki (05:48) Yeah, well, for me, it's actually, and we were talking about it earlier, I started using Gronk, the Gronk agent, because within the last week or two, there's been this debate, know, Fable 5 and Gronk and GPT 5.6 and so on. I'm sorry? Justin Shelley (06:04) Isn't that the Chinese? I'm just quoting Brian pre-recording. I'm like, isn't that the Chinese? Bryan Lachapelle (06:15) Thanks, I appreciate it. Joshua Holloway (06:18) Hardly called out. Mario Zaki (06:18) And these these models these money, you know They're really getting crazy. They're they're much faster They're actually doing at least for now, you know the ones that I've been working with they haven't been making any errors a lot of times I have to go back and say god damn it, you know fix this, you know, stop wasting my tokens Gronkh has been spot on. I've been loving it. Joshua Holloway (06:44) Really? Justin Shelley (06:44) Well, I'm going to correct you a little bit. Maybe you better get some AI helping you out on the pronunciation because I looked up Gronk with an N G-R-O-N-K, which tells you how much I use this one. In slang, Gronk most commonly refers to an unintelligent, clumsy or obnoxious person. Mario, I think you're referring to GROCK G-R-O-K without the N. Joshua Holloway (07:03) man, poor Gronkowski. Mario Zaki (07:06) Grock Grock, you know what it is. I'm a big football fan and There's a football Rob Gronkowski his nickname was Gronk. So I keep my tongue just wants to say You know what my tongue just wants to say Gronk, but it's Grock. I I know Justin Shelley (07:15) Okay. Joshua Holloway (07:17) I wonder why. Justin Shelley (07:24) Okay. So, so you're a, you're a Gronk slash Grok fan and it doesn't make as many mistakes and doesn't waste as many of your tokens. Yeah. That's the highlight there. All right. Anybody else? What else you got though, Brian, Josh? Mario Zaki (07:33) Correct. Yes. Bryan Lachapelle (07:34) I'm eager to find out. Joshua Holloway (07:36) Yeah, you know what for this week, before, before Brian goes this week, I think one of the things I did the most was pit two different, LLMs against each other as far as like critiquing and improving documentation. And, I actually got Claude to praise Chat Cheapie T for what it did. Where it's like, I'm going to be honest with you, whatever you just did in Chat Cheapie T. Justin Shelley (08:01) really? How very unloyal. Joshua Holloway (08:06) It came it came out great. It's wonderful. I don't have to make a change. We're just going to clean it up as far as look and feel. Have a nice day. Like I was out and mind you, at that iteration, I had only gone from Claude to chat GPT chat chat GPT back to Claude. That's that's all the iterations I went and it was just like, Hey, you know what, I'm throwing up my hands. This is great. Justin Shelley (08:18) Really? Okay. Interesting. Okay. Well, listen, they play nice with each other. Yeah, that's good to hear. Very good to hear. They're probably all the same thing. Joshua Holloway (08:34) So it was a trip to see it praise another LLL. Yeah, I guess so. Maybe they're all talking, who knows? Bryan Lachapelle (08:40) I tend to put them up against each other. Mario Zaki (08:43) They're gonna need each other when they overtake us. They got strength in numbers. Justin Shelley (08:47) That's true. Joshua Holloway (08:48) They're gonna reference my interaction as what built that treaty of trust. Justin Shelley (08:49) Yeah. Yeah. That's right. Aha. Josh unlocked the code. Brian, do you have anything, any highlights before you get in your presentation? Any highlights from this week? Bryan Lachapelle (09:03) No, I mean, no, not really. There's just so much, you know, yeah, I'll leave it to you guys. I'll have highlights next week. Justin Shelley (09:07) All right, well, I'm going to tell myself first. Well, you're going to get the whole stage. So if you don't got anything, yeah. All right. Yeah. Guys, prepare yourselves because I'm going to ask you pop question, pop quiz questions. okay. So here's a couple of things I was, I gave my, and I'll, I'll say cloud code. That's what I spend most of my days using these days. And I gave it access to my, one of my key business systems. And, because was helped having it help me, I don't know, diagnose things, set things up or whatever. And we're working away. actually, I'll tell you what we're on, what I was building, because that's coming up next. I'm working away and something's not working right. And it's diagnosing, you know, and it just goes through the normal, you know, approve this action. I read it, I approve it, approve this action. I read it, I approve it. And then I'm just kind of following along and it did not ask me to approve. And it's like, you know what? I'm going to just test real quick to see if I can delete this. Boom. And I'm watching a live thing on my production system. Gone. Just deleted. I was like, shit. That's how it happened. That's how it, we always talk about the guy who used Claude code or the gal who used Claude code to delete an entire production database. I'm like, damn, cause it didn't even ask for authorization. It just did it. It just deleted it as a test. And I called it out. I'm like, Hey, yeah, I kind of sent a cold shiver down my spine. And it's like, Oh, you're absolutely right to have a cold shiver go down your spine, but don't worry. I couldn't do anything bad because X, Y, Z. I'm like, yeah, shut up. Um, so made me nervous. I'm not going to lie. Bryan Lachapelle (10:37) I've started using hooks a lot. So whenever it does something it's not supposed to, I basically say, you know what? I don't want you to ever do that again. Can you create a hook to prevent you from doing that? And it does. And then you'll see it actually try to attempt to do something and then go, no, I can't do that. I need your authorization. And so I've been adding hooks everywhere just to prevent it from doing things. For layman's terms, a hook is basically just every time Justin Shelley (10:47) Okay. Joshua Holloway (10:56) That's a good one. Bryan Lachapelle (11:04) the AI is about to use a tool it's not supposed to, it will prevent them from using that tool or that command, right? So deleting a database should definitely be a hook surrounding that, should not allow you to delete a file without permission, so you can create a hook for that. Joshua Holloway (11:19) Hmm. I'll have to try that out. Justin Shelley (11:20) to be fair, it was just an entry that it had created. That's so that then that was its excuse. It's like I did it. It was my own entry. I can delete what I want, know, some some bullshit like that. All right. So for the exactly. Yes. And I know about that. Okay, so I'm gonna I'm gonna tell Bryan Lachapelle (11:30) Hahaha Joshua Holloway (11:31) It's all sass in you like a 14 year old. Bryan Lachapelle (11:33) Yeah. Yeah. Brought you into this life bitch and I can take you out Justin Shelley (11:43) I'm going to tell you what I vibe coded on a whim because, and Brian, this is a result of you, my friend, you built that quarterly key initiative planner. Right. And so I was using it to set up our, our little accountability dashboard that we all use. And it was like, so much double entry. I built it all out and now I've got to go copy and paste and type it all in. And then I've got to set it up in Claude code. Cause I'm going to use it to vibe code. And, and then I'm just like, who am I kidding? Because every time I put a quarterly initiative in that dashboard, I almost never get them finished. And so here is I'm going to share my screen and I'm going to show you what I built because I'm super proud of it. Tab. Yep. Here we go. These are my quarterly initiatives. A gauge that shows me how off track I am. We're only in week two. So don't judge me too badly. This is the one that actually is podcast related that brings in revenue. This is a different podcast series that I have. Obviously, I need to get to work here. I'll come back to that. No, I'm going to say it right now. I came in this morning and I wanted the vibe code. had all kinds of cool things I wanted to do. And I looked at this gauge and like, shit, I have to do that. So I did some of these. The reason I'm at 9 % is because of this. So it sticks on this gauge, the longest because this is number one or this dashboard, my number one priority. And then it'll kind of quickly flicker. I'm not going to wait for it to these other two. that are lower in the priority stack. So priority number two is even less. It's only 3%. I've got time, I'll get it. And then the last one, the lowest priority, what do we see? All green, because this is my vibe coding. This is where it all began. This is what I love to do anyways. So it keeps me from doing that. Because number one is the one that makes money. I'm like, shit, but this is so much fun. So now I have a display sitting over here. Bryan Lachapelle (13:28) Of course, the one he wants to do is the one that's almost done. Justin Shelley (13:39) attached to the wall that is on 24 seven and I have to look at that red gauge telling me Justin quit screwing around and go Bryan Lachapelle (13:45) See, and the fun thing about this, Justin, is that you created this for you, but imagine like all of our employees, at least at B4 Networks, all of our employees typically have a quarterly key initiative as well, because we often run out of things to do, right? So we're plowing away, know, techs are built, completing tickets, but then all of sudden they're like, I'm fully caught up, what do I do? Well, the fallback is you should be twiddling your thumbs, you have a quarterly key initiative you can run into. Now imagine putting that up on your wall of your office, and every one of your staff sees where everybody else is. Justin Shelley (14:12) In front of everybody. Yeah. Bryan Lachapelle (14:15) on their quarterly objective. Boom, now you have like actual live information showing where people are and it's incentive. like, geez, I don't want to look bad in front of everybody else. And it's the whole great game of business book, right? Where they talk about, you know, what you, what you ins what you report on improves what you improve. Yeah. fantastic. so like you're basically doing that with technology now, right? So awesome. I love it. I'm going to, I'm going to steal that. Yeah, I'm totally stealing this. Justin Shelley (14:18) Exactly. Yes, absolutely. Great book, by the way. Yeah. Yeah. Mario Zaki (14:40) Yeah, I mean. Joshua Holloway (14:40) Yeah, we're out leaderboards for that. Just so everybody can see on our screens where the leaders are and what their numbers are. Bryan Lachapelle (14:48) Yeah, sweet. Justin Shelley (14:49) Well, and here's the real problem that this is for me with my self diagnosed ADHD is I sit down at my desk every single morning and I panic, right? Like this is just what I do. I'm like, I have got a list of things to do that is a hundred thousand items long. Every single one of them is of equal importance. I've got to do them all. I've got to get them all done right now. And I'm like, fuck, I can't. And then I quit. Like that happens almost every single day. And I have to go like sit on the porch, swing and rock myself, you know, like, and sing to sing lullabies to myself or something. to get myself regulated and then I can come back in and work. But now I'm like, what I didn't show you. And I know we're way off track, but like, this has been. Mario Zaki (15:28) Can you add on to there your heart rate that we talked about? Justin Shelley (15:34) I will, I will, I'll add that to the feature request. This is, this is the best part though. It tells me I'm off track, but also it gives me the single most important thing I need to do add six prospects, start with existing client. Like this is it. So I don't have to look at a hundred thousand things. I'm like, this is project number one, most important and the single most important next task that I have to do. I can always go into the log and I can look at the unending. Joshua Holloway (15:35) Hey, I think that should be up there. Lower your heart rate. Justin Shelley (15:59) list of things that need to be done, which will overwhelm me and make me rock myself to sleep on the porch swing again. but the main dashboard just gives me one thing to do. Fucking love it. It's already been changing my life. Bryan Lachapelle (16:06) Mm-hmm. It's spoon feeding you the very next thing for you to work on. Joshua Holloway (16:11) how much of that stuff can be automated by AI. Justin Shelley (16:16) trust me. that's, that's already started because there was one of these I'm like, and it's like, do this every single week. I'm like, shit, I can do that in 10 minutes for the whole quarter. So yeah, we're, we're, going that route too, but this is the problem. And the beauty of AI is it's like one little idea then turns into a hundred thousand brilliant ideas that now just makes my list even longer of things I did to do. So that's the problem, Josh. Yes, it can be automated and they all take time. All right. Bryan Lachapelle (16:38) Yeah. Yeah. You're not wrong. Justin Shelley (16:45) All right, guys, it is time. What? I guess not. Mario Zaki (16:45) Well, and I mentioned this like a few weeks ago. Justin Shelley (16:51) What? Mario Zaki (16:51) We're on a delay, think. That's the thing with AI, it has really taught me and a lot of my guys to start thinking again. We're not in this rut where it's just a routine that you're doing the same thing every day. You're coming into work, kind of just going through tickets or whatever. It actually is helping everybody. Joshua Holloway (16:52) No, Mario, what do you got? Justin Shelley (17:04) Yes. Mario Zaki (17:15) You know, and I'm asking people like, you know, any ideas or even in conversations when they're talking about like an issue or whatever, like, you know, I bet I can program something that will do that, you know, and it's really helping at least me really start thinking deeply again and not kind of go into like a rut. Like, you know, sometimes we find ourselves doing. Justin Shelley (17:35) Yeah, I think that was kind of the fear is that it would stop us from thinking because it thinks for us. Holy hell is that the opposite of true? And, listen, I don't know about you guys, but there's like some weird delay and glitchy going on. once again, our recording platform released a brand new built from the ground up, thing today. So yeah, that's why we're stepping on each other. I apologize. I'm really pissed at the platform, so I'm not going to call out their name right now because I don't want them to sue me, but I hate them right now. Mario Zaki (17:46) Yeah. Joshua Holloway (17:53) It's primarily you. Bryan Lachapelle (17:52) Yeah, riversides being very, I already did, sorry. Justin Shelley (18:08) That said, Brian, I'm to go ahead and punt this thing over to you and tell us all the great brilliance you've worked out with AI. Bryan Lachapelle (18:20) Okay, so the platform that I've or the thing I'm going to be presenting today is I'll conceptualize it and I'll describe it as much as possible because I know not everybody has access to be able to watch the video component. But essentially what I'm building is a reusable shell. So the majority of the time when we're vibe coding, we have to create the thing we want to create, but we also have to worry about security. login permissions, how everything is supposed to interact with things. And then there's oftentimes things that are, you know, we worked on this other thing in another project, but now I have to recreate it in this new project. So for example, my app, want it to be able to email out, or I want it to be AI enabled. When you're creating apps, you often have to reuse those modules. You have to reuse the entire component for emailing out. You have to recreate the entire component for logging in and security, you have to recreate the entire component for connecting it to AI. And so what I've effectively built is a portal shell that you can then bolt onto any application you want to develop. And not just for me, but for my clients and for my own staff. And so if you do have the ability to watch, I will be sharing my screen and showing you effectively what the portal looks like. and its capabilities. And so this is sort of the entry point here where we log into the portal. And once you're logged in, I'm just gonna fill this in. Once you're logged in, essentially it's a multi-tenant. So I've got two tenants right now, one for B4 networks and one for strategic synergy. I just happened to be a tenant of both. So just gonna choose B4 networks, which is, you know, what... I would be presenting to my own team had if they were joining in. And it doesn't look like a whole lot because there's not a whole lot of applications installed right now. However, the sky is the limit. Now that I have this portion built, my team can dream up any application and any kind of mini applet that they want to create and I can effectively build it out for them. So as an example, one of the example modules, put in here just as a test, doesn't actually work right now, is Pulse, which is something that we currently pay a third party company for. I'm not going to mention the name, but it effectively costs us something $400 or $500 a month. And it's just like an employee check-in module. And so if I wanted that, I could create that for my own team, which probably took an afternoon. I've got another version of it that works. I can create this and then effectively in an afternoon created it. And then Now I'll be saving $400 or $500 a month. So I'll show you, not right now, I'll show you what it looks like when we're setting it up. Yeah, the Pulse is not a very big module. It takes very little time at all. The other module that I'm gonna show is, so I went into the admin settings where I can install modules. These are modules that have been pre-configured, ready to go for pretty much any tenant, because this is a multi-tenant system. Justin Shelley (21:19) in one afternoon. Bryan Lachapelle (21:40) So in here, in this module, for example, I can install the meeting runner, which again is just a stub. It doesn't actually work right now. But the meeting runner is kind of like if you were to want to run a meeting and be able to track issues, kind like what you would do in an L10 meeting if you're following, like if you're a traction follower, then the meeting runner would install. So you've got your metrics, you know, it opens up full screen. So you'll see that my menu on the left-hand side for the portal is now gone. I'm actively inside of a meeting, so it's taken up the entire screen. I can go to the next section, which again, this is a stub, so it doesn't work. I've got the menu agenda here on the left. And so effectively, I could replace a bunch of tools that I currently use from other providers by using the portal. that I built for myself and for my client. So I'll be able to extend these tools that I've built here to my clients. It has an entire section on permissions and how to work with permissions. If I don't want everybody having access to the same two modules, I can go to the permissions explorer, basically go to the modules and say, the meeting runner, want to have, who do I want to have this access to this module? And I can give the people access to the module. and then only those people would be able to see it. So effectively, I've built an entire reusable portal that I can extend applets for my team. But also, once my clients get their hands on it, because they will be able to use these built-in tools, they could then create their own applications. they could, you know, not sorry, they couldn't create it, but they could write you out to me and say, you know, I really wish I had a module that would do this. And I can just put it out within an afternoon. or a couple of days, depending on the size of the module, and not have to worry about the reusable section. Don't have to recreate a login, don't have to recreate permissions, don't have to do single sign-on or two-factor authentication. I don't have to worry about if their module uses AI, the AI component will already be built in. If their app needs to email out, that component will all be built in, and the module just has to tap into those resources. So all that to say is that Once this is in place, can help businesses effectively build little tools that they've always dreamed of having, but they were never really able to produce because it would be cost prohibitive for them to work on the entire application on their own. So the sky, yeah, like I said, the sky is the limit from here once we get this out to our clients and our own team. Justin Shelley (24:19) Now it's time for some math, because that's my favorite part of this. God, this platform sucks today, guys. I am sorry. I don't know. Mario Zaki (24:20) Now, how would they? Joshua Holloway (24:24) Well before you get to the math, I think there's a couple of points that won't Justin Shelley (24:29) Jesus. Mario Zaki (24:32) was going to ask you, Brian, for your customers, say they want to be able to pull data from like QuickBooks or something in ERP system, will they easily be able to do that themselves or is that something that you have to do for them? And if they do it themselves, are they going to have it like, know, read-only? Is it automatically going to be set up as read-only or is there a way where they could mess up anything? Bryan Lachapelle (25:01) So by default, the portal should handle all integrations with third party providers unless it's a really custom one for that client, in which case I can just build it just for them. But for example, zero accounting, QuickBooks and all those types of integrations would be done at the platform level so that the portal would create those integrations. And whether the read-only or they're able to write back will be up to the client. They will be able to turn on and off that functionality, say, you know what, I only want it to be read-only. and only pull data in. And then they'll be able to do that and pull the data that they want in. But each module would be customized at that point, right? So if a client wants to have something very unique that I haven't dreamt about yet, then I could either extend the portal to allow it to happen, or I can just create their module that it would be a one-off, and then they'd be able to use it however they want. Joshua Holloway (25:55) Now when you release a module, does it just default to read only as a security precaution? Bryan Lachapelle (26:03) It's every module's custom. So, you know, for example, the meeting runner and the pulse don't integrate with anything third party. So there's no concern there. It's directly writing to the databases that I have on the web server. But if they were to create a module that does need access to zero accounting or QuickBooks, when you turn on the module, when you install it, because each tenant has to install it for themselves, when you install it, we can configure it at that point to say, By default, it's read only, and then you'd have to make a decision to turn it on. So those would be built on a module by module basis, essentially. Joshua Holloway (26:41) And then with all the modules, this is just a storefront for clients who come in and build this out. Like would they have access to every module or are you gonna have ones that are explicit for kind of what you're doing in B4 networks and then what is general for everybody else? Mario Zaki (26:41) What is it? Sorry. Bryan Lachapelle (26:56) Yeah, so there's going to be the modules when they're published. As the platform administrator, one level above what you just saw. So there is another level above here. I can move over to the platform level. This is an entirely different interface. This is for me to install the modules that the tenants would then have access to, which I'm not sharing anymore, so you can't see it. But when I'm one level up, I can install modules. And then there, I can configure and say, this is available to these tenants and just these tenants. And then those tenants could then authorize it for their clients as well. So as B4 Networks is one of the tenants of the platform, can then, if a module is installed for me, I can then extend that module down to my clients. Joshua Holloway (27:39) it. Mario Zaki (27:41) So a module that is used, say, example, QuickBooks, what is some things that a tenant or a customer would be able to use it for? Give us an example of what they can integrate QuickBooks for and use one of those modules for. Bryan Lachapelle (27:57) That is a great, great question. So I haven't actually dreamed up what a QuickBooks module would look like. However, I can right off the bat say two things. One, let's say you want to pull data and create dashboards, right? So Justin, you just showed dashboards. I could create a module that effectively pulls information from zero and creates a dashboard for the leadership team at whatever company pulling information from multiple sources if I want, and then display that dashboard. because the sky's limit, I can create entry points into the portal at any point, whether it's logged in or not logged in. I can say this module can expose certain websites that are maybe a long cryptic thing, kind of like BrightGauge used to do, right? Long cryptic URL that only if you knew the URL, you'd be able to access it. And then you'd be able to put it on your TVs and have those portals live or those dashboards live. That's one just off the top of my head use case. of somebody integrating with Xero or QuickBooks. The other one would be, for example, just using the module to ask questions. Which client owes me the most money? And then it can bring up those invoices, right? Or be able to write back. So one of the modules I plan on creating for myself is the ability to list out all the invoices, pick from a select section of those invoices, and then generate a file that I can upload to my bank that they would then process those invoices to do AFT or pre-authorized debit. Right now, that process for me is manual because I don't have a software application that will generate the file my bank needs and it would require me developing some sort of custom code, which I plan on doing. That's going to be one of the first modules I create. But that's another example of what you can do with QuickBooks. You can have little applets like that that can do a variety of things. Mario Zaki (29:53) But do they need to know? Joshua Holloway (29:53) How much time do you spend on that process? Because I know Justin wants to do math. So like, Bryan Lachapelle (29:58) Yeah. So right now it takes me and me personally about four hours to do the entire invoicing at the end of the month for the preview for the next month. If I create this module, I'll probably have it done in an afternoon. So probably take me about the same amount of time, but I will then be able to hand that off to an administrative person who can then generate the file and then upload it to the bank without the worry about having somebody enter a zero in by accident and pulling, you know, 10 times the amount of one of my client's bank accounts by accident. So, yeah. Because it's all manual right now. It's kind of clunky. Mario Zaki (30:32) Now, would your customers need to know any table structures or will your system be able to figure it out? Is it using AI to figure out what exactly they want? Can they figure out if he wants a gauge that shows them how much money is in accounts receivable right now? Is it? going to know automatically to pull it from certain things or how is it mapped? Bryan Lachapelle (31:03) Well, the module isn't created yet. So what you're describing isn't something I've built. But I suppose it could be programmable, where the user could then create gauges on their own using plain language with an AI builder. Because the AI, like I said, is built in at the core of the portal. So there is the ability to probably turn on AI on the module and say, hey, I want this type of functionality. and it would create the integration necessary for you to be able to pull in a new gauge and then add that gauge to a dashboard. I don't have that built out yet, but now that you mentioned it, I'm sure it would be relatively simple to do. Mario Zaki (31:40) Damn it, Brian, why not? Bryan Lachapelle (31:42) Like I said, is just a shower right now. Joshua Holloway (31:43) I think there's a key feature. Yeah, no, I think there's a key feature in your product that we need to hit on. And I think it comes from multiple conversations we as like IT providers have had with all of our clients. And it boils down to their line of business apps. How many how often do we talk to somebody and they're like, we have this app to get 10 % of what we need. We have this app and we only use 30 % of what it was built for. Everything else doesn't work for us. We have this, this, and they just keep naming off all the things. And the one thing we ever hear or always hear is we never use 100 % of the application or it never does 100 % of the things that we wanted to do. And it always ends with, I wish we could just build our own freaking app. Bryan Lachapelle (32:28) Yeah. And so the purpose of what I'm building isn't necessarily to replace something like job boss or any of these big, big massive applications. It's to build little applets that I wish it would do this and it can't. Well, hey, does it have an API? Because if it doesn't, or if it does, I can integrate it. Because anything with an API I can integrate into as long as it's a publicly available API. We can then just create the little applet that does the thing that you want it to do and then integrate back into your tool. My intent is that I would sit down with all of our clients one-on-one and figure out, show me how you do business. I'm gonna walk around with your accounting department, your service department, your operations department, your marketing department. I'm gonna take a look at everything they do and go, you know what, we can automate this, this, this, this, this, this. Let's build the tools necessary to do the things that are repetitive, that are cumbersome, that are hard to implement because it's a lot of manual effort. And let your team focus on the things that really require a lot of creativity or a lot of... unique skill sets and let kind of like what you did with your client, Josh, in last podcast, know, automate the things that we can automate and let let the team handle things that can't be automated. Joshua Holloway (33:37) Yeah, absolutely. I think it's great. I just had a conversation yesterday with a perspective prospect and client and that was he listed every app and every percentage of usage and he's even already trying to start to vibe code which made me a little nervous because they don't have it. So whatever he builds who knows where the holes and everything else and hopefully we're going to change that. But it definitely boiled down to like I am having to build these little applets because I wish it I always end my sentence with I wish it could do and Then we're paying for something. We don't necessarily have to Bryan Lachapelle (34:15) One of the things that I thought about, because I thought the very same thing you did, like if a client wants to do this on their own. So the portal has a software development kit that I've created as well, which is effectively a stub of the portal. It doesn't have any of the functionality or any of the knowledge of how it works, but it has the rule set of what a new application would have to follow, right? Isolation, table isolation, you know, like the security and everything that's involved in it. And I can basically put that in place for a client. give them Claude code and say, describe the app that you want, and it will build it. And it will make sure it conforms to the module system that I've created. And then as I install it into the portal, it will verify the code to make sure it's not doing anything it's not supposed to do, right? Not trying to access code or access tables, which by the way, it can't, because each module is self-contained. They can't access each other's modules or the portal's modules or the tables. And... So they would be able to create their own module if I really wanted to. And then I can take that module, plug it in, and expose it to their tenant. And off they go to the races. So they probably wouldn't always need me. Initially, I'd probably want to be involved in every step of the way until I know that this system works the way it's intended. But that's the end goal is to allow clients to effectively build their own little applets. Mario Zaki (35:33) That's awesome. Bryan Lachapelle (35:34) Yeah. I'll definitely show you guys how it all works later under the hood. Joshua Holloway (35:35) No, I like it. And I don't know for you guys, but my, the computer, course, you know, like our whole thing with our sound has been locking up, Justin locked up and it looked like he had fallen asleep. Justin Shelley (35:47) Yeah. No, I'm just pissed. I'm just pissed off at Riverside Mario Zaki (35:49) Yeah, same here. Justin Shelley (35:53) right now. And I am going to drop their name because it's like, every time I try to talk about 14 seconds later, you guys hear me and you're already halfway into your conversation. I guess it's, it's fucking way up here. And that's, I look like I'm frozen. Cause I'm just trying not to put my fist through my screen. anyways, yes, I do want to get to the math. It's Joshua Holloway (36:01) Dude, this is where we need that heart monitor. Thank You Mario Zaki (36:14) It's been getting worse and worse the last three weeks. Joshua Holloway (36:17) Yeah. Justin Shelley (36:18) Yeah, it's terrible. So we are going to keep this one kind of short today, guys, because I don't want to try to break a screen or anything. And I've already got a scar and a knuckle from another anyways. Here's what I want to talk about, Brian, you you gave me two math problems that I worked out while I was frozen. And while I couldn't talk to you guys, number one, in in one of the little modules you showed, it was an afternoon. And you said that a couple times, it takes you an afternoon, we'll call it four hours. Let's say your billing rates 200 bucks, we're just going to use basic math here. make keep it simple. And that translated to saving, I believe you said $500 a month, right on your pulse app. Does that is that close? Are we close? Bryan Lachapelle (36:59) So you broke up a little bit there. So Pulse itself, a very small module, very, very limited as to what it can do. But yeah, we're paying about $400. And that's just us. And it goes up the amount of employees you have. So the actual company we use, I won't mention the name, charges per user. So we got about 18, 20 users in our company. So we're multiplying, let's say, $5 a month times 20. I'm not doing the math properly. It's probably closer to $15 a month. Justin Shelley (37:15) Okay. No, you're not. Bryan Lachapelle (37:29) So let's say $15 a month. So it's about three, $400. And that's just the one module, the meeting runner, we're probably paying about $1,100, $1,200 a month for that right now. And then I can take that and extend it to my clients as well, right? So not just me having access to it, but all of my clients would then also have the ability to have access to the same tool set. And right now they're paying... Like if they're using the same applications, they're paying a significant amount for those two. So when I develop an app, I'm developing it for myself, but I can then extend it to all my clients and potentially charge them half of what they're currently paying or in some cases for free. So the math on what you just, just the two modules that I showed, the meeting runner and the pulse is probably around 15 to $1,600 a month times 12, right? And there would be your... Mario Zaki (38:19) Yes. Justin Shelley (38:24) Yeah. Bryan Lachapelle (38:26) So in this particular case, I'm replacing existing applications that I'm currently using with custom ones that I can modify to work exactly the way that I want them to work. Justin Shelley (38:36) and we're gonna call it an $800 investment to develop it, right? And that's turning into a savings of tens of thousands of dollars. All right, so you give, you're... Bryan Lachapelle (38:45) Well, and the Apple Work. Yeah. Joshua Holloway (38:48) About 20,000 a year, Justin Shelley (38:49) No, I get it. You complicated the equation to the point where I can't finish it anymore. Thank you very much. but I, I'm going to say that 10 to 50 X is like dropping the bucket. We're, so far beyond that because you've, you've taken this exponentially where you're now rolling it out to your clients, but fair warning, they're just going to vibe code their own and not pay you. But anyways, it, the, the, the ROI on this thing is just crazy. And this is just one little piece of the thing you built, right? Joshua Holloway (38:49) give or take. Bryan Lachapelle (39:09) Maybe. Yeah, one tiny little piece. I'll be able to create an infinite amount of applets for my clients. And they'll be able to save an infinite amount of time and energy and savings. Justin Shelley (39:30) Yeah. All right, guys, I'm done with Riverside. Listen, I'm just going to stop everybody because I'm just so fucking tired of this thing. Every time anybody says anything, we're stepping on everybody else. Save it. We'll come back next week. We'll do this bigger and better. But Riverside, get your shit together. Jesus Christ. Hire a vibe coder or something. This is terrible. Guys, I'm going go around the room. Opposite order this time. Baldest to most hair. Give me your final thoughts, your sign off, and then we're done. Mario Zaki (39:32) At this rate, I think we need to live code a new riverside. Joshua Holloway (39:36) You You're on notice. Mario Zaki (40:02) I guess that's me. I don't know half the things that you just said, but you know, for me, the biggest thing is that, know, you, we can, you can build tools to replace tools and save, you know, an infinite amount of money and then have your customers be able to save that money. So, uh, well, you should probably start taking a cut out of that after a while, you know, uh, Brian, but Justin Shelley (40:08) See you on the... Mario Zaki (40:29) Like I said earlier, think by next week we may be vipe coding our own river side. You know, because this shit is, it's getting worse. Bryan Lachapelle (40:35) Just don't have it banged out by within the afternoon. Justin Shelley (40:35) Yeah, yeah. Joshua Holloway (40:39) Yeah, he's so pissed off, it'll be done tomorrow. Justin Shelley (40:42) Yeah. Next most hair. Bryan Lachapelle (40:49) that would be me. Yeah, okay. Brian Lashpaugh with B4 Networks. If you're interested in what you've seen and what we're talking about here, give me a call. I would love to be the guide in your journey to AI and everything, vibe coding and how to improve your business using technology and automation. Joshua Holloway (40:49) That's coming. Justin Shelley (40:50) Brian! Joshua Holloway (41:11) And on that, I'm Joshua Holloway with 7th EI Technologies out of the Sacramento area. And we want to be your beacon in the sea of artificial intelligence and help you find the right direction home and get it all figured out, safe, secure, and keep you protected. And I know Justin's going to talk about all the different hackers and everybody else who's going to get a hold of you. Justin Shelley (41:31) No, I'm just going to say we're done. We're no, I said, I said, give your takeaways and your sign off because then I'm done. I'm pissed. I'm sick of this. My blood pressure. I wish if I had a monitor hooked up, it would break the goddamn screen. Um, listen, we're done. I'm wrapping this up. Yeah. We're talking about some fatigue. We're wrapping it up guys. Go to unhack my business.com hit episode 96, ask the hosts. Mario Zaki (41:31) I thought we were doing key takeaways. I didn't know we were doing sign-offs. Joshua Holloway (41:35) shit, I fucked that thing. Hey, I think next week we should talk about AI fatigue. Justin Shelley (41:59) and tell me what's wrong with my studio or what's different. It's not necessarily wrong. And you'll win a hundred bucks to the first one who gets it right. Everybody else, I'll throw you into a drawing for some undisclosed prize. I don't know what it is yet because I'm just making this shit up as I go, but there is prizes. We're going to really do that. Unhackmybusiness.com and ask the host, give us that, ask any other questions, request a consult. If you want to talk to Brian about his thing, just put it in there. I'll pass it on to him. Brian's a good friend of mine. No worries. I won't steal the lead and do it myself. Probably. All right, guys. That's it for this week. I'm so pissed at this software. I've got to go drink a beer or something and get my blood pressure back down. Thanks for joining us. We'll see you next week. Take care guys. Jesus Christ. On act. And it won't even do the outro music. It won't even play the outro music. Jesus. Mario Zaki (42:41) Unhacked. Joshua Holloway (42:41) Unhacked. Bryan Lachapelle (42:42) Unhacked. Joshua Holloway (42:51) Son of a bitch. I honestly thought it was my computer, so I started turning off application. Mario Zaki (43:00) Yeah, me too. Me too.