The first time I came to San Luis Obispo was in August of 2021 during SLO Days (Cal Poly Orientation). I was downtown at night with my Mom on Higuera Street and as we looked at every bar, restaurant, and shop, something caught our eye: what we saw was shocking. People of all ages, seemingly normal looking, wielding axes and flinging them full speed ahead. "HERE'S JOHNNY!" somebody exclaimed, vigorously launching an axe overhead. "Should we get out of here?" we thought. No. We decided to move forward courageously, setting aside our fear of axe-bearing children to further investigate this mysterious scene. We were relieved to find that this wasn't some strange reenactment of The Shining or something – this was Battle Axe! An axe throwing business! We had no idea this was even a thing, but it seemed exciting, so we decided to give it a shot. We booked 30 minutes and had a lot of fun
For my fifth consultation, I met with Neil, the owner of Battle Axe. Neil moved to California from Boston when he was only 3, and then attended Fresno State (not immediately, of course), earning his MBA and then working as a CFO for several years. 10 years ago, Neil decided to trade in the corporate world for a life of entrepreneurship. Neil also owns multiple locations of Tails, a very popular canine supply store right up the street. The origin story of Battle Axe is a great one: In 2018, the mudslides in Montecito caused Neil and his family to miss a cruise that they had arranged, diverting them to vacation in Los Angeles. While in LA, Neil came across axe throwing and "knew that it would work in San Luis Obispo." Battle Axe opened in SLO after pandemic restrictions were lifted in June of 2021. As a busy entrepreneur, Neil handles, with assistance from his wife, all the aspects of running a business that you could think of: finances, training, customer and vendor communication, marketing, and so on. Despite the heavy workload, Neil manages – "I'm on autopilot. Over the years, I've figured out how to stay on top of things." However, that's not to say there aren't ways in which AI can assist Neil in operating his businesses.
Neil doesn't use AI currently: "I don't know enough about AI to give me a reason to use it." Neil mentioned that one of the tasks that consumes a lot of his time is just manually sending confirmation emails to clients: "just while sitting here, I've already sent out a confirmation email." We explored practical solutions to address this. We created a chat with Claude that had context about Battle Axe, safety rules, and other information that customers need to know. With this Template, Neil can utilize Claude to create confirmation emails more quickly; as opposed to first reviewing the customer information, copying their email, and then drafting a response. As I uncovered more information about the business, I asked Neil what sort of events they host: "We have a lot of birthday parties and corporate events, but it's fallen off in the last two years. How can we get this crowd back?" I'm no marketing expert so this was a perfect time to use Claude as a brainstorming buddy. I typed into Claude word for word what Neil had just said. Claude then developed a detailed plan that included partnering with hotels, establishing partnerships with HR firms, connecting with tech companies around Tank Farm Road, and partnering with Cal Poly departments for team-building events. This conversation prompted Claude to create "What to do in SLO" content that positions Battle Axe as a must-do activity for visitors (which it is). While all of this seemed useful to Neil, it didn't solve his biggest problem: "How do we actually get this stuff out into the community? What's an effective outreach tool?" This led to a discussion about outreach strategies. Currently, Neil doesn't have a newsletter, but he recognizes that this would be useful in enticing customers to return: "I don't have enough time to consistently write them." We asked Claude to draft a Valentine's Day themed newsletter. Claude crafted an engaging message, incorporating Battle Axe values, while also offering special promotions, something that Neil said he is always looking to capitalize on. Having welcomed over half a million throwers since opening, newsletters could provide significant reach for Battle Axe as a marketing tool.
Though Battle Axe has an Instagram, it is not as active as it could be. I've realized that social media sometimes seems like an afterthought for business owners, and it's easy to see why. When you're tasked with so many other responsibilities, it's hard to realize the value of an active social media presence. Using AI to help you think creatively here can be a massive time-saver. I think a lot of people are under the impression that AI can't generate truly authentic and engaging content, but I think you'd be surprised. These systems have gotten and continue to get a lot better at understanding the uniqueness of your business, especially if you take the time to iterate on the responses that AI gives you. What helps is providing examples of posts that you like and specifying what exactly it is that you aim to achieve. In Neil's case, he said that "while a lot of our posts are entertaining, I'm not sure they do the best job of actually pulling people in." To address this, we used ChatGPT's search feature. We received 10 content ideas unique to San Luis Obispo in seconds. GPT created an entire social media schedule based around a "Bullseye Streak Challenge." I think this has the potential to generate enough buzz to draw Cal Poly students, families, and tourists alike to Battle Axe to give the challenge their best shot.
Perhaps the most significant pain point that Neil shared was managing inventory across his businesses. When discussing automation, Neil expressed interest in having his inventory be integrated with Clover, his POS system: "If I could have data automatically load into the Clover system, that would be nice." The complexity of working with multiple vendors, tracking reorder points, and managing turnover currently creates a time-consuming manual process for Neil. I showed Neil Claude's computer vision capabilities. This demonstrated how, in the near future, AI could directly interact with systems like Clover to automate many of his manual tasks. I explained to Neil that while these capabilities might seem futuristic, they're likely to become available by the end of this year. I know I've harped on this a lot, but for good reason – learning to communicate effectively with AI now will help business owners like Neil take full advantage of more powerful tools when they arrive, like computer use. I'm thankful for the time that he gave me on a busy Wednesday morning. Neil said that he will begin to work with Claude and ChatGPT. I know where I'll be headed when my family comes to town for my graduation in June!