CressioBeyond ChatGPT Workshop 00:00 Export PDFAll decks
Cressio PRESENTED BY
JOSHUA AGUIRRE · CEO, CRESSIO
The HIVE, Virginia Beach Business Resource CenterCressio
THE HIVE × CRESSIO · HANDS-ON WORKSHOP

Beyond ChatGPT

AI Agents for Business Operations
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 5 · 9:30 TO 10:30 AM · THE HIVE, VIRGINIA BEACH
BBB Accredited Business
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Cressio PRESENTED BY
JOSHUA AGUIRRE · CEO, CRESSIO

Welcome. Let's meet.

Open your laptop and sign in to the AI assistant you already use. ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini or Copilot all work today.

Your name, your business, and the one task you would hand to a new hire tomorrow morning.
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Cressio PRESENTED BY
JOSHUA AGUIRRE · CEO, CRESSIO
WHO IS TEACHING

Joshua Aguirre

CEO, CRESSIO · AI SYSTEMS ARCHITECTAn AI systems firm serving 500+ organizations since 2012. Clients own their agents outright. No vendor lock-in.
BBB AI HUB TRAINERTeaches Mastering ChatGPT and the owner-level AI classes for the Better Business Bureau's AI Hub.
OPERATOR FIRSTAutomation since 2014, AI since 2022. Over $5M saved or generated for clients in construction, real estate, nonprofits and finance.
SoCo Business Digest 40 Under 40, 2026.
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Cressio PRESENTED BY
JOSHUA AGUIRRE · CEO, CRESSIO
THE PROMISE

One hour. Three things you take back to the office.

ONE WORKFLOW WORTH AUTOMATINGScored, not guessed. You will rate two real jobs from your business and pick the one that pays off first.
ONE WORKING AGENTBuilt in the assistant you already use: a job, standing instructions, one real example, and a gate.
ONE SET OF GUARDRAILSWhat it may read, what it may send, and who approves. Written down before it touches customer data.
Move from AI experimentation to practical implementation.
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Cressio PRESENTED BY
JOSHUA AGUIRRE · CEO, CRESSIO
WHAT BEYOND CHATGPT MEANS

A chat answers. An agent does a job.

CHAT

You type, it answers Starts from zero every time You do the remembering and the checking

VS
AGENT

Has a job and standing instructions Keeps your examples and your rules Runs from a trigger to a result Stops at a gate you set

Beyond the chat window, not beyond the tool you already pay for.
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Cressio PRESENTED BY
JOSHUA AGUIRRE · CEO, CRESSIO
ANATOMY OF AN AGENT

Five parts. Every agent you will ever use has them.

01

Trigger

What starts it. A new email, a form, a calendar event, or you pressing go.

02

Agent

The job and the standing instructions. Who it is, what good looks like.

03

Tools

What it may touch. Your files, the web, a spreadsheet, your inbox.

04

Result

What comes out. A draft, a sorted list, a filled form, a summary.

05

Human gate

Who looks before it leaves. In your business, that is you or someone you name.

If it has no gate, it is not ready for your business.
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Cressio PRESENTED BY
JOSHUA AGUIRRE · CEO, CRESSIO
PART 1 · 8 MINUTES

Identify workflows worth automating

Not the flashiest idea. The one that pays off first.

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Cressio PRESENTED BY
JOSHUA AGUIRRE · CEO, CRESSIO
THREE FILTERS

Pick the first win with three filters.

IMPACTDoes it save hours, protect revenue, or make a customer happier this month?
REPETITIONDoes it happen often enough that a fix compounds? Weekly beats quarterly.
REVIEWABLE RISKCan a person check the result before anything consequential happens?
HIGH IMPACT × HIGH REPETITION × REVIEWABLE RISK
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Cressio PRESENTED BY
JOSHUA AGUIRRE · CEO, CRESSIO
SCORE IT · HANDOUT, TOP SECTION

Score two workflows before you build one.

01Urgent: it costs you time this week, not someday.
02Repetitive: you have done it the same way at least ten times.
03Clean inputs: the facts live in an email, a form, or a document you can hand over.
04Low risk: a wrong draft is embarrassing, not expensive. A person reviews before it leaves.
05Measurable: you can say how long it takes now and what done looks like.
Score two workflows, 1 to 5 each. The higher total is the one you build today. Five minutes.
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Cressio PRESENTED BY
JOSHUA AGUIRRE · CEO, CRESSIO
WHERE AGENTS PAY OFF FIRST

Three places most owners find their first agent.

CUSTOMER FOLLOW-UPTrigger: a lead goes quiet or an invoice ages.
Job: draft the next touch in your voice.
Gate: nothing sends until you read it.
INTAKE AND TRIAGETrigger: a new inquiry lands.
Job: pull out what matters, score it, draft the first reply.
Gate: you decide who gets a call.
NOTES AND REPORTINGTrigger: a meeting ends or the week does.
Job: turn notes into decisions, owners and dates.
Gate: you approve before it goes to the team.
Real inputs only. A made-up example teaches you nothing you can use tomorrow.
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Cressio PRESENTED BY
JOSHUA AGUIRRE · CEO, CRESSIO
PART 2 · 25 MINUTES

Get hands-on with AI agents

Watch one get built. Then build yours.

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Cressio PRESENTED BY
JOSHUA AGUIRRE · CEO, CRESSIO
BUILD IT IN 20 MINUTES

Five steps, same in every assistant.

01

Name the job

One sentence. Quiet-lead follow-up. Inquiry triage. Meeting notes to actions.

02

Instructions

Who it is, what it is for, the rules. The template is on your handout.

03

One example

Upload one real file: your best past email, proposal or set of notes.

04

Set the gate

Draft only. It never sends, posts or pays. You approve every result.

05

Test it

Run one real input. Fix one instruction. Run it again.

Custom GPT in ChatGPT · Project in Claude · Gem in Gemini · Agent in Copilot. Same five steps.
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Cressio PRESENTED BY
JOSHUA AGUIRRE · CEO, CRESSIO
THE INSTRUCTIONS MAKE THE AGENT

Same job, two sets of instructions.

THE USUAL WAY

"Help me follow up with customers." Generic. Sounds like every other vendor. You rewrite most of what it gives you.

VS
STANDING INSTRUCTIONS

You are the office manager at a six-person HVAC company. When I paste a thread, draft the next follow-up in our voice, under 100 words, one clear next step, no discounts. Use the attached examples as the standard. If anything is missing, ask me before you draft.

Persona, context, job, rules, and permission to ask. Write it once, reuse it every day.
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Cressio PRESENTED BY
JOSHUA AGUIRRE · CEO, CRESSIO
20 MINUTES · BUILD

Your turn.

Use the agent worksheet on your handout. Build the workflow you scored highest.

Name it. Paste the instructions. Add one real example. Set it to draft only. Run one real input and fix one thing.
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Cressio PRESENTED BY
JOSHUA AGUIRRE · CEO, CRESSIO
PART 3 · 7 MINUTES

Protect business data with human oversight

The rules that let an agent into your business without giving it the keys.

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Cressio PRESENTED BY
JOSHUA AGUIRRE · CEO, CRESSIO
THREE GATES

Decide these before it touches a customer.

WHAT IT CAN READOnly the files you hand it. Never customer financials, health details, passwords or anything under contract.
WHAT IT CAN SENDNothing, until it has drafted twenty in a row you would have sent unchanged. Then one channel at a time.
WHO APPROVESA named person, every time. If the approver is nobody, the answer is not yet.
Human oversight is a setting you choose, not a hope.
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Cressio PRESENTED BY
JOSHUA AGUIRRE · CEO, CRESSIO
ETHICS AND GUARDRAILS

Five rules before it leaves the building.

01Privacy first: no customer financials, health details or passwords in a prompt or a file.
02Responsibility: a human names the goal and judges the result. Every time.
03Intent: tell people when AI drafted it, if they would want to know.
04Model fit: the right size tool for the job. Not every task needs the biggest model.
05Equity: check the draft for who it leaves out or talks down to.
That is the PRIME policy. It is on your handout.
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Cressio PRESENTED BY
JOSHUA AGUIRRE · CEO, CRESSIO
AVOID VENDOR LOCK-IN

Before you subscribe, make sure you can leave.

EXPORTABILITYCan you take your instructions, examples and history with you, in a format another tool reads?
PRICING CLARITYDo you know what next month costs before next month?
30-DAY EXITIf you cancelled today, what breaks in your business a month from now?
If it is not portable, it should not be a core tool.
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Cressio PRESENTED BY
JOSHUA AGUIRRE · CEO, CRESSIO
6 MINUTES · SHARE

Show us your agent.

Two volunteers, two minutes each.

The workflow. The agent. What it got wrong on the first run. The gate you set.
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Cressio PRESENTED BY
JOSHUA AGUIRRE · CEO, CRESSIO
THE NEXT-MORNING PLAN

Make it work tomorrow.

01Run it on the first real one tomorrow at 8 AM. Fifteen minutes on the calendar.
02Keep it on draft only for twenty runs. Count them on the worksheet.
03Log every miss. The misses are your next instruction.
04Fix one instruction at a time, then run it again.
05Name the approver and tell your team where the agent lives.
An agent is a workflow you have reviewed twenty times.
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Cressio PRESENTED BY
JOSHUA AGUIRRE · CEO, CRESSIO
TAKE IT WITH YOU

Get the templates.

The agent worksheet, the AI Fit Finder, the PRIME policy and the vendor scorecard. Scan, enter your email, and they are yours.

forms.cressio.ai/ai-toolkit
QR code to forms.cressio.ai/ai-toolkit
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