All plays › Agencies and marketing

Agencies and marketingHermes agent + Claude Code

Use a research agent so every client call starts with the homework done

Picked and checked by Olga Pearson, host of The Practical AI Show · Published

Result

self-reported

A solo design practice hit $50k MRR in one month with two to three clients at a time and no team. He says better work, made possible by AI, landed him two $20k+ retainers plus smaller fixed-fee consulting gigs.

gunni (@rungunni) runs a design practice alone. A Hermes agent lives in his Slack, and he talks to it like a chief of staff. It writes a brief, hands it to a background worker and reports back. ‘Research how five products handle onboarding’ comes back 20 minutes later as a report with screenshots. Tools he built himself sync tasks, time and docs, meeting notes become task updates he approves with one tap, and his design file is a repo that becomes a client link. His honest note: AI didn’t buy him free time. It bought him better work.

Who did it

gunni (@rungunni)Solo design practice (2–3 clients at a time)gunni on X (article: The system behind a $50k MRR solo agency) · Oct 9, 2026

Try it now

  1. Put one agent where you already work (Slack, email or chat) and talk to it like a chief of staff.
  2. Before every client call, give it a research brief, e.g. ‘how five competitors handle onboarding, with screenshots.’
  3. Send meeting notes to it, and have it turn each client request into a task you approve with one tap, so nothing asked on a call gets lost.
  4. Use the agent to send clients real, working drafts sooner. He says AI bought him better work, not free time.
Copy-paste prompt
You’re my research chief of staff. Before my call with [client] on [date], research [question, e.g. how five competitors handle onboarding]. Give me a one-page brief: what each one does, screenshots with links, what works, what doesn’t, and three ideas for [client]. Then list the five questions I should ask on the call. Only use sources you can link. Don’t contact anyone.

Make it run every week

A play works once. Turn it into a routine in three small steps:

  1. Run it once and check the result yourself.
  2. Give your AI a schedule. Tell it when to run this play (every week, or every month) and to message you with what it found before you act.
  3. Keep a log. One line per run: what was checked, anything flagged, what you did.

See how owners turn plays into systems →

What to watch out for

Self-reported. He says he still works a lot, and his setup includes tools he built himself, so start with the research brief alone. Never put client secrets in tools you don’t control. Build it with Page: a case-study page for each retainer you win.

Did it work?

PageMotor keeps this site free.