Delegation + AI: How to Scale a Home Service Business

If you’re the owner of a home service biz, you already know this truth:

At the start, you are the business.

You sell the jobs. You answer the phone. You do the work. You fix the problems. You figure it out.

But at some point, the same work that built the business becomes the thing that caps it.

That’s what I talked about with Bodhi Gallo from Stryker Digital on the OWNR OPS Podcast.

His biggest lesson from 2025:

Let go. Go from player to coach. Delegate at the right time.

Not day one. Not the first month. Not because some “business guru” told you to hire a VA immediately.

Delegate when you’ve earned the right to delegate—because you’ve done the reps.

The trap: “Working 12 hours” feels productive (until it doesn’t)

Bodhi said he spent a long time in the trenches.

• 2.5 to 3 years doing the dirty work
• ~120 sales calls per month
• At one point: Monday–Saturday sales calls

That grind built the skill. Built the confidence. Built the business.

But then he hit the wall that a lot of owners hit:

“That’s not sustainable.”

And here’s the key shift:

He realized he could get more done in 6 focused hours than in 12 distracted hours.

Not because he became lazy.

Because he stopped doing low-leverage work that someone else could do almost as well… and eventually better.

Delegate for one reason: you’re the bottleneck

Bodhi’s “aha moment” was simple:

He looked at his day and realized he was the bottleneck.

• He was doing the sales
• He was creating the content
• He was handling too many tasks that didn’t require “founder brain”

And he said something most owners need to hear:

Sales can become low leverage for the owner once the business hits a certain stage.

Early on, yes—sales is everything.

But later? If you’re taking every call, you’re not building systems, training people, improving delivery, strengthening relationships, or growing the brand.

You’re just staying busy.

The balance: Don’t skip the “zero to one” phase

Before we go any further, I want to make this clear:

Do not hear “delegate” and think you should outsource everything immediately.

Bodhi and I both agree on this:

If you’re brand new, you need to do the work first.

You need the reps.

Because if you don’t understand the job:

• you can’t train someone
• you can’t hold quality
• you can’t spot mistakes
• you can’t fix problems fast

Bodhi’s rule of thumb was basically:

Give it at least a year of real reps before you try to hand it off.

Think about it like this:

If you want to start a roofing company, you should do roofing sales for a year first. Learn the process. Learn the objections. Learn the operations. Learn what “good” looks like.

Because as soon as an employee quits—or you fire someone—you need to be able to jump right back in the seat and keep the business moving.

The real unlock: “Clone yourself” with SOPs (simple ones)

Most owners hear “SOP” and think:

• 300-page manuals
• corporate jargon
• documents nobody reads

Bodhi’s approach is the opposite:

Simple SOPs. Short videos. Quick memos.

The goal is not to create a textbook.

The goal is to get what’s in your head into a format your team can follow.

Here’s the best way to think about it:

If someone can’t do the job without asking you 10 questions, the system isn’t done yet.

And there’s another hard truth here:

If someone messes up and you never trained them properly, that’s on you.

That’s not being harsh. That’s just ownership.

Use AI to train faster (without losing quality)

This is where the episode got really practical.

Bodhi is using AI as a training machine—especially for sales.

His core stack:

• ChatGPT
• Claude
• Replit

The workflow that matters most: “Calls → Objections → Handbook”

Here’s the simple version:

1. Pull 10–30 recent sales calls
2. Drop them into ChatGPT
3. Ask: “Give me the top objections and patterns across these calls.”
4. Take the output and move it into Claude
5. Ask: “Turn this into a clear objection-handling handbook for my sales rep.”

Why do it like this?

Because Claude is great at turning information into clean, structured training docs—but it can struggle when you dump huge raw data in all at once.

So the move is:

Let ChatGPT extract the patterns → let Claude turn it into a playbook.

And this part matters:

Bodhi said AI can save you 5–6 hours of listening and note-taking by hand.

That’s real time back.

That’s founder time you can reinvest into the highest leverage work.

A simple rule for owners: repeat yourself more than you think

One of the most overlooked parts of delegation is this:

Your team needs repetition.

You might say it once and think it’s clear.

But the average employee hears:

• half of it
• forgets the other half
• and gets distracted (same as all of us)

So the real leadership skill is repeating the same standard over and over until it becomes the culture.

If you want consistency, you don’t get it from one training session.

You get it from repetition + tools + accountability.

Build checks and balances (so deals don’t fall through)

Bodhi shared a painful example:

A sales rep closed deals but skipped the post-close process (forms, onboarding booking, etc.).

Two deals fell through. Refunds happened.

And the lesson was:

If it’s not documented, it doesn’t exist.

So they fixed it with:

• a clear post-call SOP
• automation alerts (Slack notifications, CRM checklists)
• weekly review calls to catch issues before they become expensive

This is the game:

You don’t build systems because it’s fun.

You build systems because the cost of not building them is real money.

Content: build a machine, not a mood

We also talked a lot about content—because content is leverage now.

Bodhi’s point was simple:

It’s never been more important to build a brand.

Why?

Because people don’t just pick the company that shows up on Google.

They pick the company they trust.

And trust comes from a footprint:

• videos
• posts
• reviews
• visibility in your community
• consistency over time

The practical content system for blue-collar business owners

Here’s what I told listeners (and I’ll say it again here):

1. Record one long video (5–15 minutes)
2. Speak to your local customer directly
   
3. Walk the jobsite, show the work, introduce the crew
4. Post it on YouTube with service + location keywords in the title
5. Clip it into short-form and post everywhere (FB/IG/TikTok/YouTube Shorts)

This isn’t complicated.

The hardest part is just doing it consistently.

And Bodhi’s advice on content creation is solid:

Create on the platform you enjoy most, then repurpose everywhere.

If you like writing on X, write there.

Then turn your best posts into:

• LinkedIn posts
• short scripts
• reels
• newsletter content

Do what you’re naturally good at.

Delegate the rest.

The real 2025 takeaway

Bodhi summed it up perfectly:

Go from player to coach. But do it at the right time.

And the actionable step?

Create simple SOPs. Use video. Use voice memos. Teach what you know.

If you want a clean way to start this week, do this:

Your 7-day “Let Go” plan

• Day 1: Write down your top 10 repeated questions from your team
• Day 2: Record 5 short Loom videos answering them
• Day 3: Turn those into checklists (1 page each)
• Day 4: Use AI to turn your sales calls into an objection handbook
• Day 5: Assign ownership (who owns what process)
• Day 6: Add one automation (Slack alert / CRM checklist / form completion)
• Day 7: Weekly review call: what broke, what confused people, what needs a better SOP

🎧 If you’re serious about growing your land clearing business, don’t skip the full episode—we walk through delegation for better operations.
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Keep pushing. Keep improving.

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