AI Cult Leader | AI-Augmented VAs, AI-First Training & Custom AI Solutions | Turning Teams into AI Superstars

AI-First puts humans second. That's backwards.

I believe in Human + AI. Together. Not versus. Not competing. Working alongside each other to create what neither could alone.

That's why I built AI Operator, created the ADOPT Method™, and started the Human + AI Manifesto movement at humanaimanifesto.org.

THE PROBLEM I SOLVE

Your team has AI tools. But adoption is scattered, results are inconsistent, and it's not hitting the P&L. 95% of AI initiatives fail to deliver business value (MIT 2025).

WHAT I DO DIFFERENTLY

The ADOPT Method™ transforms behavior, not just skills. Our Innovation Competition is where teams ship real production AI solutions (not demos) - this alone generates $250K+ in value per client.

Results:
- 1,000+ professionals trained (including Google)
- $21M+ client value created
- Up to 1,211% documented ROI
- 6-Week ROI Guarantee

THE JOURNEY HERE

I've been in AI for 10 years. But before that: door-to-door sales, printed magazine marketing, translator. Many failed entrepreneurial attempts.

Then I found my path:
- 3 years teaching at 2 universities (giving back)
- Growth consultant for 50+ companies and coach to CEOs
- CGO/Head of Growth at multiple Deep Tech startups
- COO scaling a B2B SaaS from $58K MRR to $300K MRR in 18 months
- CEO of a 110-person company

After all that, I finally found my passion. My obsession.

WHAT I'M BUILDING

AI for Better Lives is the vision. AI Operator is where it starts.

If your team has AI tools but isn't seeing real results, that's what we fix: aioperator.com

THE HUMAN SIDE

AI geek who builds systems in spare time—not just for fun, but to push boundaries and bring what I learn to businesses. Dad who partners with Claude on family adventures. Sailor dreaming of sailing the world. Multilingual (EN/FR/ES/TR). Bodrum beachside based, traveling to clients across the globe.

Let's talk: tim@aioperator.com

Tim Cakir

Claude Code just got me an $740 refund.

ActiveCampaign has this trap. You pay monthly, but you're locked into a yearly commitment. 

We switched to beehiiv after a few months. 

Better features, better pricing for creators. 

ActiveCampaign wasn't the right fit.

So I tried to get out.

Every channel I tried: AI bots. I created a support ticket. Got an automated response listing everything I "can't" do. 

No refund for the remaining 10 months. 

Just pay for a tool I'll never touch.

I was wasting my time. 

So I opened Claude Code.

"What do we do?"

Claude Code went to work. It opened their live chat, got past the bot to a human, submitted a formal ticket, found a consumer rights complaint site, filed a complaint there, then went to Trustpilot and left a review. 

All of it. Autonomous.

Less than 24 hours later, I got an email.

"We never do this. These are our rules. But we'll make an exception for you."

$740 back.

They had no idea Claude Code was behind it all.

This is what working with AI looks like. Not just chatbots. Not just content. Real problem solving. Real results.

What's the most unexpected thing you've done with AI?

I owe developers an apology. 

Back when I was head of marketing at a tech company, I took websites AWAY from developers and brought them to a CMS.

And now? I'm going back to pure code. Because AI makes it possible for someone like me to build and maintain a real codebase. 

So, I'm sorry to the developers I pushed aside ten years ago. 

You were right, code is better. 

(I just needed AI to catch up, so I could work with it myself 😉 )

Also in this week's newsletter:
- Why we've officially switched from ChatGPT to Claude. 
- How I'm running TWO AI assistants on my Mac Mini (Mia is back!)  
- We're all becoming developers now. 

What's the one thing you'd automate if you had an AI assistant running 24/7?

The things I'm building with AI would have sounded insane just a year ago. Hi everyone, Did you miss me last week? I missed you. I genuinely wonder if

Open article: Two AI assistants running on one Mac Mini, 24/7 (here's what happened) by Tim Cakir • 6 min read

Two AI assistants running on one Mac Mini, 24/7 (here's what happened)

I loved this quick conversation; it felt so natural. 

Thank you, Adam Torres, for having me on the Mission Matters Podcast with Adam Torres.

View company: Mission Matters Podcast with Adam Torres

On today’s Mission Matters episode, I had fun talking with Tim Cakir, Founder & CEO of AI Operator—and I loved his angle: “Love, not fear” when it comes to AI.

Tim took us behind the scenes of how he went from being a lifelong hustler (yes… even selling exam prep papers at 12 😅) to running teams and ultimately leaving a CEO role after ChatGPT’s early days to build AI Operator—with one clear goal: help people reduce repetitive work and eliminate the boring stuff so they can focus on the high-value work humans do best.
What really stood out? Tim isn’t pushing “AI-first.” He’s pushing human + AI collaboration—where people become the AI Operator (the orchestrator, the decider, the one responsible for outcomes).

📌 What you can learn from this episode:
💠 Why AI anxiety is real—and how to turn it into competitive fuel
💠 How to think about AI as augmentation, not replacement
💠 Why “negative AI news” spreads fast, but the real opportunity is in the upside
💠 A practical way to start building AI capability through Tim’s ADOPT framework

Who AI Operator works with most (hint: private equity portfolio companies + agencies + growing teams)

🎯 Tim’s mission:
 To help every professional become an AI Operator—someone who uses AI to offload low-cognitive tasks, amplify creative thinking, and unlock better performance without losing the human heartbeat behind the work.

🎵 Apple Podcasts: 
https://lnkd.in/gPEhvFdv

🟢 Spotify:
https://lnkd.in/gH73FnZS



#adamtorres #spotify #itunes #podcast #podcasts #missionmatters
#author

Founder | Belkins 🐿️ - #1 Ranked Appointment Setting Agency | TOP-10 Service Companies Globally 2023 by Clutch | Creator 'From Zero to Agency Hero' - Newsletter for Agency Owners

Founder & Chief Growth Officer of Belkins, the #1 ranked B2B Appointment-Setting Agency by Clutch (Top-5 Global Professional Service firms 2025), G2, UpCity, Inc. Regionals, and National Excellence for five consecutive years, I have spent over a decade building Belkins into the powerhouse it is today. I specialize in creating budget-smart strategies that deliver impactful growth solutions for clients.

I am also the driving force behind the newsletter "From Zero to Agency Hero" (read by 2,500 agency owners) and the voice of the popular Belkins Podcast (top 1% marketing podcasts on Spotify and YouTube), where my guests (CROs & CMOs from G2, ZoomInfo, Salesloft, Gong, Zapier and other leading tech firms) and I share our expertise and insights on scaling businesses and navigating the ever-changing marketing landscape.

Michael Maximoff

You shouldn't have to pay to learn.

That's why Vlad and I are backing the B2B Marketing Expo US Miami 2026 as official ambassadors.

The tickets? Actually free. Here's why this matters to me:

✔️ The best marketing conversations I've had weren't behind $2,000 conference paywalls.
✔️ The people who need industry knowledge the most often can't afford premium events.
✔️ Learning and networking shouldn't be a luxury.

This year's lineup is stacked - speakers from Meta, LinkedIn, Google, plus some of the sharpest agency minds in the U.S. 

All talking about what's actually changing in marketing right now. <<---

I'll be there both days. If you're in B2B marketing, sales, or growth grab a free ticket and come say hi.

PS: It's Miami, so you'll definitely enjoy yourself, even if you come just for a few days, as I will. 

Who's joining? 👇

Chief Growth Officer / Co-Founder | Belkins 🐿️ - #1 Ranked Appointment Setting Agency | TOP-5 Service Companies Globally 2025 by Clutch

I'm watching Apollo, Outreach, SalesLoft, Nooks, Instantly and many others all converge into the same tool.

Every engagement software is racing to build the full suite. Calling. Sequencing. LinkedIn. Lead research. In-built CRM.

And I get it.

If you're spending $50K across five specialized tools, cutting that to $10K on one platform sounds like a no-brainer. But here's what I keep asking myself:

Can any company actually build everything well?

Look at HubSpot. They've been at this for years -- sales hub, marketing hub, service hub, content hub. And even they struggle to make every piece best-in-class.

Now imagine a company that started with LinkedIn automation trying to build a calling suite almost overnight. Or a cold email tool bolting on lead research.

AI makes it faster to ship features. It doesn't make it faster to ship good features.

So what happens when Apollo, SalesLoft, Lemlist, Reply, and Instantly all offer the same thing?

IMHO:
↳ Features become commoditized
↳ Differentiation disappears
↳ Buyers can't tell the difference

Meanwhile, software teams are not the best at enabling clients. I rarely meet a software, even among the Tier A list, that actually enables customers well through their CS team. It usually takes months, and the utilization rate is still low.

This is where I think agencies have a shot. Will agencies that build their own software and actually enable customers, be the ones who win this race?

Because at the end of the day, nobody buys software. They buy outcomes.

Our all-hands attendance dropped. Again.

We all know the typical show-up rate sits around 50-70%. The remaining 30% don't attend due to work tasks or urgent calls that need to get done.

Personally, I believe all-hands meetings done right are one of the most effective must-attend events. Whatever we did over the years sometimes brought us to 80%+ attendees. But lately it dropped again. 

Too much work, they say.

Well, having AI and creative people like Vitalii Yatlo provides an opportunity to creatively address this.

So we made a 5-minute cinematic internal video to promote the all-hands.The tagline?

"Johny, johny, we all have tasks. The coffee machine has tasks. But we all show up." 🫡 

What show-up % do you think we'll get next time as a result?

"Enterprise clients want to be impressed." 

That line from Yann Sarfati hit different. Yann spent years at Salesforce selling to big logos. 

What has been the only playbook that worked? -->> ABM

Now he's the founder of Userled, building tools to help companies actually execute ABM properly.

We sat down with Yann in London and went deep on:

↳ What Fortune 500s get wrong about ABM (spoiler: most of them)
↳ AI in ABM - what's real innovation vs. pure noise
↳ The corporate Vs. startup and how it shapes a founder 
↳ The "why did I choose this life" moments every founder knows too well

Yann was vulnerable. Open. No corporate filter. I appreciate him a lot for matching my energy there.

We talked about the entrepreneur's journey, marketing budgets, the lies companies tell themselves about "going upmarket," and what actually moves the needle in enterprise sales.

If you're in B2B, selling to mid-market or enterprise, or just curious what ABM looks like when it's done right, this one's worth your time.👇

https://lnkd.in/d-RSypbg

Open video: The "Upmarket" Trap: What Actually Moves Enterprise Deals | Belkins Podcast Episode #22 on youtu.be

The "Upmarket" Trap: What Actually Moves Enterprise Deals | Belkins Podcast Episode #22

Best hiring advice I can give: look for gravitational pull.

Strong leaders have massive gravitational pull. They attract talent. They energize teams. People around them perform because they're caught in that orbit.

Think Elon. When he's in the room, people are locked in. But what happens when he steps out?

Here's what I've learned:

When I bring someone on, I naturally give them energy. Onboarding, check-ins, direction, I'm pulling them into my orbit.

But then I step back. And one of two things happens:

1. They develop their own gravitational pull. They generate ideas, create momentum, attract others. They don't need my orbit anymore.

2. They stall. Nothing moves. They were running on my energy the whole time.

The more gravitational centers I have at Belkins Inc., the more we can get done.

The business stops depending entirely on my pull, no matter how talented I am.

One center of gravity = bottleneck.
Multiple centers = leverage.

So when I'm evaluating talent now, I don't just ask "can they do the job?" I ask: "Can they become their own center of gravity?"

That's how I'm building Belkins to not need me in every room.

My feed is full of GTM tactics that look great on paper but are almost impossible to replicate for 99% of businesses.

Most companies that I see that most about innovative GTM playbooks:

1. They have runway to burn. You don't.
2. They're optimizing for growth metrics to show a board. You're optimizing for profitability.
3. Their unit economics let them lose money on acquisition for years. Or they're forced to play high-risk, high-reward tactics — overspending in one area to justify savings in another.

These companies, most of them VC-backed software companies, are playing a different game with different rules.

Where most companies actually are? 

I believe truly, the marketing teams need to focus on good old down-to-the-ground marketing. And instead of copying flashy playbooks, focus on pushing the needle in the areas you can actually influence.

I am always asking myself: 

↳ Is my LinkedIn content the best representation of what we do and how we do it?
↳ Does my website truly cover the value I bring to customers?
↳ The blogs I post, does anyone read them? Even my own team?
↳ The webinars I run, am I providing unique value or just promoting myself? Maybe I should cancel them.
↳ Before trade shows, do I connect with potential customers on LinkedIn first to build relationships long before I invite them to meet up at my booth? 

These are the down-to-the-ground questions you should be answering.

I often caught myself thinking that, the first reaction is to chase the next shiny playbook from a cool company whose situation lets them play ball once but doesn't give me consistent, sustainable marketing.

We spend a lot of time on LinkedIn reading really cool cases that feel like they could work for our business. But they can't.

Being inspired to think differently? Great.

Being overly hyped to always try new things while overlooking the basics? That's not good marketing.

The question that I am debating, can I do both? 🤔

I stopped thinking in marketing months. Now I think in marketing weeks.

The timeline compressed. Quarterly planning became monthly. Monthly became weekly. If I am not on a weekly pace, I'll probably lose this month. Furthermore, the cost of delay keeps growing.

My clients who didn't start in February and pushed to Q2? Many won't start at all; they won't make a decision. By Q2, new priorities emerge that they need to deal with.

This is what helps me to survive in this crazy marketing rhythm:

↳ I keep my foundational vision intact (brand, quality, consistency, authenticity, effectiveness), but compress execution into weekly cycles.

↳ Every week has wins and losses. I track them. I try to adjust. I move, I don't wait.

↳ A bad week where nothing converts? It happens. Next week will surely bring good news.

↳ That's when I celebrate. Not at the end of the quarter. After a good week.

In this environment full of uncertainty and anxiety, a good marketing week is a win worth acknowledging.

Does anyone share the feeling?

Can we just have a few good months without a change?

That's what one of my marketing people said yesterday during a marketing monthly meeting. And honestly? I felt that in my bones as well.

If you're in marketing right now, you probably know the feeling:

1. Anxious that you're missing out
2. Decision paralysis on every new tool
3. The ground shifting under your feet every quarter

AI is the biggest shake-up marketing has seen in years. 

We used AI to narrate exactly how the Belkins marketing team feels about this chaos.

We made a 2-min internal video. Our team. Our anxiety. Our reality.

Watch it below (for internal use only... until now 😅).

I don't want to just sit in the anxiety. In 2 weeks, I'm sitting down with Udi Ledergor, Ex-CMO of Gong and author of Courageous Marketing.

This isn't Udi's first marketing crisis. But was any of them as relentless as this AI race?

March 19th. 

Open conversation. Less slides. Less BS. 

Just honest talk about how to find courage in today's marketing.

Two things worth your time:

1. Watch the 2-min video below
2. Register for March 19th 👇

https://lnkd.in/eJ65-HWY

Do both, and that's the best marketing time you can spend this month.

We made this shift 2 years ago, and we still have prospects asking for guaranteed meeting numbers in contracts.

Henry Schuck nailed it. 

Most teams are still optimizing for appointments as the main metric. My team and I changed our mindset from meetings booked to opportunities and pipeline a few years back, and we're 100% aligned on this.

But here's what I keep seeing on sales calls:

Customers want the number of meetings guaranteed in the contract. 

They want certainty. 

The problem? 

Not all meetings are created equal.

You can book 5 meetings that lead to 5 deals at 10x ACV.

Or you can book 20 meetings with high no-show rates, mediocre conversations, and zero pipeline impact.

Same effort. Completely different outcomes.

This is why the metrics that matter now are:

1. Opportunities value
2. New pipeline growth  
3. ACV

CEO & Founder at ZoomInfo | Nasdaq Listed: GTM

Most SDR leaders are focused on DEMOS SET. I couldn't care less! If you want to impress me (or your CEO), you need to focus on something else…

I care about one thing:

ACV generated per SDR.

And whether that number is going up or down.

There's a massive gap between "great demo set" and "closed deal." And as an SDR leader, that gap is your problem too. Your job is to increase ACV per SDR - to do that you almost certainly need a strong relationship and alignment with AE and AM leadership.

Here's what the best SDR leaders actually do:

1. They sit with their AEs weekly to understand where demos break down after handoff
2. They track show rates OBSESSIVELY and own the fix when they're low
3. They ask: does the right demo route to the right AE? Is the AE prepared? Are they following up?
4. They arm their SDRs with context so that when a lead comes in, the outreach is sharp and specific
5. They measure themselves on ACV generated

But to drive ACV you have to collaborate with AEs, sales leaders and marketing from day one. Their problems in driving ACV are your problems too.

Most SDR leaders don't want to hear that.

At ZoomInfo, we track something called "Good Fit Show Rate". It is the % of demos we set with a good fit account that actually show up. Ours hovers around 65%.

That means 35% of the demos our SDRs work hard to set… ghost us.
So whose problem is that? EVERYONES.

The SDR leaders who impress me think about this like a supply chain manager. They are not just managing a team of people dialing phones.

You have a supply chain:
Demo set → demo shows → ACV delivered.

Your job is to optimize every single step of it. Not just the first one.

That means sitting down with your AEs. Understanding where great demos break down. Asking hard questions. And then doing something about it.

"But Henry, what happens after the demo is out of my control."

Tough luck.

Nobody cares how many demos you set if none of them generate revenue.

The SDR leaders who get promoted, get budget and earn a seat at the table are the ones who own the WHOLE pipeline.

That's how you impress your CEO.

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The Battle

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