Jim Reilly built a brick-and-mortar AI consultancy in Charleston — and it's going viral

Speaker 2: next, we have Jim Reilly from Charleston AI. You've seen him on the Internet. We've discussed him multiple times through his partnership with San Blancs Monaco. And now we are pleased to be joined by Jim Reilly from Charleston AI. Jim, how are you doing? Welcome to the show. I'm I'm doing real, really well. Thank you. Thank you very much. I appreciate it. For taking the time to come chat with us. I would love to know a little bit of the back story. I'm sure a lot of people have seen the viral video, but, what what is your career story? How did you get into this particular business? And then, of course, we can talk about where it's going from here.

Speaker 3: Okay. Well, I've been doing different things for many, many years. Know, the only boss I ever had was my father other than when I was a busboy and worked in a movie theater. Wow. So it was a family business I grew up in, I did many things. Yeah. And where do I go from there? Recently, Yeah. During pandemic What what got you what got you in at least interested in AI? Yeah. Okay. Well, my partner, we started this produce delivery business during the pandemic because the farmers couldn't sell produce. There were no farmers markets and people were kinda locked down. So we saw a need. We saw something that we could do together. And he's the geek. I'm not. And, so we put together, you know, delivering produce directly to people's houses. We put it right on on their, you know, front porch by their door. Our model is that we deliver it. We they don't come pick it up. We deliver. Seven days a week, three hundred sixty five days a year.

Speaker 2: And so then he's Yeah. Did this business grow out of that?

Speaker 3: Yes. Well, we're partners in Rainbow Packaging, and he's always been into AI. You know, he was an engineer from IBM. So he's like I said, he's a geek. Mhmm. And this is one of his, like, pet projects. He's really into AI. So he got he infected me a little bit with it. Okay. And, we saw the opportunity. We thought it was time. Let's open up up a storefront. Mhmm. That's what we have here. It's basically a storefront even though it's a nice office Yeah. To just introduce people to AI, help them where they need it, and that's what we've been doing. We started January 1. Amazing. Jordy? So January 1, what what who were the who were your first, like, customers, clients that were When coming when when we originally saw the viral video, you know,

Speaker 1: it it made so much sense to me to actually put something like a storefront because everyone in Charleston is, I'm sure reading about AI, watching videos online. Some of them are excited, some of them are scared. And give people the opportunity to come in and just talk to somebody who's actually in their local community and learn about it actually makes a ton of sense. Right.

Speaker 3: In the beginning, it was slow. I have to admit, it's taken a while, but what I've come to realize, this is the FUD period, is fear, uncertainty, and doubt when it comes to AI. And, people are gradually getting over it. So my partner, he he can do the elaborate stuff. He can do the, you know, systems integration. I'm the one that can talk to people and tell them how it's benefiting me. And that's what I do.

Speaker 2: Do you see more people coming in with sort of a consumer lens on? They wanna know how to use AI products in their personal lives,

Speaker 3: or is it mostly other businesses in the Charleston? It's a combination of both. Okay. Okay. So, like, I'm pretty good at talking to people, and I'm asking you using AI. So, you know, I don't wanna plug it, but my favorite is, OpenAI work right It's fantastic. So I'll tell people about my little experiences, how I spend save time by using it. And they said, really? So I'll say, here, load ChatGPT Mhmm. You know, play with it for a week or two and I'll come back and I'll show you how it can benefit you. Okay. And mostly, you know, they're small business owners, so it's easy for them to, you know, adapt to it. I mean, a lot of people would like to do it in my opinion, but they don't have time. And they're so used to doing what they do that this is just not natural to them. Yeah. And then the other side of the corner, the people that have larger sized businesses who are really into AI, so they spend two or three days two or three hours a day doing it, and then they realize they're falling behind on their work. Mhmm. And so that that's why they need us to come in and help them, you know, put it together and make it work for them.

Speaker 2: What is your business model? Do you charge people hourly for training sessions, or do you work on affiliate commission if you refer someone to a particular product?

Speaker 3: No. We're just we we're, like, vendor neutral. We Okay. Will work with any anybody's AI. You know, my partner will learn it Mhmm. And he'll install it. And, it our customers choose the AI AI they want. Sure. And we just help them make it work. So training implementation. Correct. And, you know, we charge. The first visit's free. Yeah. We're not you know, you come in, sit down, let's talk about it, see what you want, what you need, and, you know, we'll come up with a plan for them.

Speaker 2: Do you think the model will be scalable? Do you think you'll be able to hire technicians and educators in other markets and set up similar franchises?

Speaker 3: Absolutely. Yes. Yeah. That's exciting. I think it has appeal. Yeah. The time is now, we have a few years. Yeah. And AI is changing so drastically, so quickly, in my opinion, you know, and people can use it. And the other thing I noticed, like with individuals, we take this, OpenAI work, which I refer to it as. I went I away on vacation for a few days, and, I get up at five. I normally get up at four, so I slept in late. And then for two hours, I would do my work. Yeah. Found it. And then five days, I did more than I would do in six months previous. So that sold me. Yeah. You know, so I have an agent that works for me every day. Yeah. And if I don't have her working on something, then that's my fault. That's my, you know, my bad. Yeah. And it's just I I find it fabulous. I think it's tremendous. And it with that too that I I noticed personally is that I'd be uptight with I gotta do this, I gotta do that. I'm short on time. I'm thinking about it. But now, this AI companion might she does it, and I'm free to think about other things during the course of the day. Yeah. I'm freed up. And I think a lot of people, once they adapt it and start using it, they're gonna be the same way. They won't be so uptight and so, you know, bothered with what they think they have to do because it's already done. Mhmm. Or it's being worked on. Mhmm. What's,

Speaker 1: what's business been like since the the video that broke the Internet?

Speaker 3: Which was A lot of attention. People stopping by, you know, Sunday you know, I work seven days a week. So Sunday and we're still continuing our produce business. So, you know, we have customers there. We gotta satisfy. So I come in early, pack, pick pack, go deliver, then I start working, you know, contacting people, responding to emails. And, you know, people stop by randomly. We're in Charleston and we're going back to Florida. We're in Charleston. We're going back to Charlotte. Yeah. Well, come on in. Let me give you a little tour. Let me talk to you. Tell me about your story. What is it? That's great. Because I I like to talk to people myself. Yeah. Beautiful. Are the most common concerns that people cite when they're talking to you? What what they worried about? What are they nervous about in terms of AI? Mostly unknown fears. Sure. You know? And they, you know, they they read something, they hear something that somebody said, and they're not they're not real. So until they get to know it, hold it, see it, and use it, they'll have that. But I'm trying to break that barrier down, you know, and kind of infect them with the, you know, the benefits of it. Yeah. That's good.

Speaker 1: How much do you wish you had Today's AI when you were starting your career and your family business?

Speaker 3: I can't do that. It's not realistic.

Speaker 2: I like this. It's super grounded. Grounded. So grounded. Mean, because

Speaker 3: Yeah. Did I have it, I wouldn't be here now talking to you. That's true. You'd be retired, man. You know, I had to I had to experience everything I experienced to get to this moment. Yeah. All my mistakes, all my failures, my victories, things I did right, things I did wrong, but, you know, I needed all to do all that. And I know I could save a lot of time and be more efficient by using my agent in the morning. Yeah. That's My AI agent. Yeah.

Speaker 1: When's when's the second location opening up? How how aggressive do you guys wanna get around expansion or are you still kind of dialing in the the curriculum?

Speaker 3: Well, everything has to be done in its proper time and place. This has to be up and running functioning, and then we can devote a little time to the next one. I I believe there's gonna be demand for it. I believe there is demand for it. Mhmm. Awesome. And now that it's arriving at the point where AI is being more accepted by people and being used, they're still confused and AI is changing so much with all these different applications they have, they're gonna need some help. So, I wanna get a firm foundation and then we talk about expanding.

Speaker 1: Yeah. Do you do you pay much attention to the to the conversation around AI fear and doom and safety that's happening, you know, primarily in in San Francisco or do you kinda ignore all that mumbo jumbo? No. It's noise in my opinion. Yeah.

Speaker 3: I'm looking at the benefit. If I spend an hour or two hours and it takes care of six or seven hours worth of work, I I don't have to worry about that. I'm not I can enjoy life. I could spend more time in the moment and weren't having my head filled with things that are not gonna happen that may happen, but now it's done. So next?

Speaker 2: Yeah. No. It's a good good mindset. Great mindset. Well,

Speaker 1: congratulations on the progress. Yeah. This has been amazing. You're welcome on the show anytime. Yeah. Let us know. How we do. However we can help. If there's any AI founders that you wanna meet, there's a good chance that that we've spoken to them at some sort. We'd love to we'd love to support and hopefully, we can we can stop by the store at some point.

Speaker 3: Please do. You're always welcome. Thank you so much. And Charleston's a nice city to visit. Yeah. I've heard. The restaurants are really good. Fantastic.

Speaker 1: Amazing. And the people are friendly. I love it. I can see that. It's great to meet you, Jim. Thanks so much for coming on and congrats on all the success. Have a great rest of your week. Thank you so much. I really appreciate it. Have a wonderful day. Talk to you soon. Cheers. Goodbye.

Speaker 2: Let me tell you about CrowdStrike. Your business is AI. Their business is securing it. CrowdStrike secures AI and stops breaches.

Speaker 1: Amazing story. Amazing mindset. Yeah.

Speaker 2: And I've seen enough. Give him 200 on a billion. There are some wild posts in the in the chat,