The Jo Show · 27 January 2026
Episode 11: “It’s not just a product. It’s revenge.”
Julian Smit runs his company from a barn in rural Canada.
Not a co-working space. Not a tech hub. A literal barn.
When I asked why he built Studio J, his answer was sharp: “It’s not just a product. It’s revenge.”
Revenge on the subscription model that bleeds small businesses dry. Revenge on platforms that jack up prices the moment you’re hooked. Revenge on seat-based pricing that punishes you for growing.
The problem most businesses have with AI
We started the conversation with what’s going wrong right now. Julian nailed it:
“People are desperately looking like, we need AI. Okay. What do you want it to do? We don’t know. We just want more of it.”
That’s the first mistake. Chasing AI because everyone else is — without a plan, without clarity, without thinking through what it actually solves.
The second mistake? Using AI as an excuse to cut people, then wondering why your reputation turns cold and heartless.
Julian’s approach is different: “AI will never replace me. AI is my gap filler.”
He uses it to fill weaknesses. To automate what he’s already good at. To build tools that fit how he works — not the other way around.
The 2-step prompt that actually works
If you’re stuck on where to start with AI, Julian offered a simple framework:
Step 1: Tell the AI your pain points from this year, your objectives for next year, how you want to handle things, and how you don’t want to handle things. Ask it for a plan.
Step 2: Look at the plan it gives you. Identify what you can handle, what you don’t understand, and what you don’t want to do. Ask it to adjust.
That’s it. No courses required. The AI can teach you how to use AI. You just need to know the right questions.
His bigger point: stop competing against AI. You’re not going to keep up with it. Compete with yourself instead. Use it to fill your gaps and up your game.
What’s actually working in marketing
When I asked Julian what’s moving the needle right now, his answer wasn’t a hack or a platform. It was the oldest strategy in business:
Real relationships. Real engagement. Zeroing in on a few core people who are genuinely interested in your success.
He’s even considering radio — a medium most people have written off.
But the line that stuck with me was this:
“One conversation with a real person is better than 10 social media posts.”
Tactics change. Algorithms shift. Attention fragments. But relationships compound.
Why he built studio j
Julian was paying for project management, client portals, analytics dashboards, AI tools — all separate subscriptions, all adding up.
His frustration with WordPress: fantastic but chunky, heavy, slow. Shopify: cheap to start, expensive to scale, plus transaction fees. Basecamp: seat-based pricing that punishes growth.
So he built one platform. You buy it once. You own it.
Studio J is a self-hosted company portal. Project management, client interface, Stripe integration, AI module builder — all in a lightweight file you drag into a folder on your website.
The key difference: you’re not renting. You own your tools and your data.
When I summarised what he’d built, it came down to three things:
- Cashflow protection — no monthly bleed, no surprise price hikes
- Data protection — you control it, not a platform
- Systems that fit you — build exactly what your business needs, not what someone else decided you should have
Julian’s response: “That’s why I knew talking to you would be so good. You’re so good at narrowing down these things.”
On “building a personal brand”
This is where Julian got fired up.
“Build your personal brand is a pet peeve of mine. Aren’t we just talking about traditional reputation management? Why do we want to be brands? We’re not cows.”
His point: somewhere along the way we allowed ourselves to become the product. He refuses.
“I will not let the technology be the master of me. I will be the master of the technology.”
Success is yours to define. Don’t let other people tell you what it looks like.
If you feel behind
I asked Julian what he’d say to someone who feels behind because their business doesn’t look like what they’re seeing online.
His answer: “Everybody feels like they’re catching up right now.”
AI is already PhD-level in every academic field. But that doesn’t mean it replaces us. It doesn’t think holistically. It doesn’t piece things together the way humans do. It’s targeted, not creative.
If you’re feeling stuck, get past the inertia. Start. Ask the AI. You don’t need lessons or courses — you need good questions.
And when it comes to marketing: one real conversation a day will do more for your business than 10 social media posts.
Watch the full conversation
We covered a lot more in this episode — the technical details of how Studio J works, why Julian moved out of the city, and what it really takes to build a business that fits who you are.
Connect with Julian:
- LinkedIn: Julian Smit
- Studio J: studio-j.app
At McKee Creative, we work with founders like you to bring bold ideas to life through strategy, marketing, and creative that converts.
Book a free strategy call to explore how we can help you double your revenue—without doubling your workload.
Transcript
Julian Smit, Studio J (00:00)
It’s not just a product, it’s revenge.
There are no rules, especially today.
Jo McKee (00:05)
This episode will show you how to distill a complex product into one simple idea so that your customers get it. We’ll also talk about why relationships beat tactics right now and how to build a business that actually suits you. I’m speaking with Julian Smit – multimedia artist, producer and software developer who also understands what it takes to
a highly successful
strategy.
Julian Smit, Studio J (00:27)
So great to see you again.
Jo McKee, The Jo Show (00:28)
Most business owners feel like they’re working really hard, but still losing ground. What do think they’re getting wrong?
Julian Smit, Studio J (00:34)
Good question.
People are desperately looking like, we need AI. Okay. What do you want it to do? We don’t know. We just want more of it.
The other one, is, hey, we can use AI now to do this and that lets us fire all of these people. Well, OK, that’s great. But a lot of people who are doing it that way are going to find very quickly that their reputations become very cold, heartless, inhumane.
I think there’s so much opportunity with AI, but people need to take some time and be thoughtful about how are we using this and what is sensible and can we, repurpose those people in a way that’s, that’s constructive. you know, let’s be ambitious ourselves and either find new, projects, new things to do and
direct those people find new things for them to do and innovate.
Jo McKee, The Jo Show (01:21)
You’ve moved out of the city and got some land around you A lot of people would be interested in how you’re making it work, simplifying your life. You are running a business and you’re very skilled in many areas. What would a day in the life of Julian looked like these days out on the land?
Julian Smit, Studio J (01:37)
Yeah. Well, there’s a bit of time in my day with Shep the dog. He needs a good run ⁓ outside. As you can see, I’m in an old barn as my office temporarily at the moment.
So there is some property management in the summer. I’m on my John Deere tractor running around mowing the lawns and that kind of thing. And as I said, now I have my own water systems; there’s been a bit of a learning curve in terms of doing that.
And then I’ve become pretty efficient at identifying the things that are important, that are must do’s in my day that are the next steps for the company.
There’s a whole bunch of things that are, complex, involved projects that are iterative, that are going to take blocks of time. And I’ll work on those when I know that I can dedicate some time to it and on that block and focus on it.
Jo McKee, The Jo Show (02:31)
I’m looking forward to getting into your main project soon. Part of the reason I do this podcast is to inspire business owners to build businesses that suit who they are, not fitting into some sort of template. And you’re clearly doing that. You’re designing your lifestyle, your location, your business. You also need to market that business.
What are you finding is working right now to get the word out about your products and your services?
Julian Smit, Studio J (02:58)
It’s the tried and true, classic networking, real relationship building, zeroing in on a few core people that you know are interested in your success and that you can work with.
It’s real connectivity, it’s real engagement.
In addition to the classical networking, I’m likely to go back to some traditional marketing medium like radio. I think radio is fantastic.
Jo McKee, The Jo Show (03:22)
Approaching it from a bunch of different directions is very important.
If somebody could focus on one thing this quarter, so if they were going to do a 90-day sprint for their business, what would you recommend would be the most powerful thing they could do to grow their business?
Julian Smit, Studio J (03:36)
Good question. I would want to know what are they doing right now. Where do they feel stuck? So obviously, everyone’s talking about AI. And if you are not excited by it, if you’re not using it, if you haven’t found a way to make it work,
for you, then I would focus on that. And maybe it’s just a simple question of this, take a step back and I can think of it as a sort of a two-step prompt: Here’s what my pain points have been this year. Here’s what my objectives are for this coming year. Here’s how I know that I wanna handle it. Here’s how I know I.
don’t want to handle it. Can you help me with a plan? Right. And the AI will spit back and answer to you saying, sure, here’s your plan. Do this, this, this, this, and this. And you’ll look at that plan and you’ll say, okay, I can handle this. I can handle this. I don’t know what that is or how do I do that? Or I don’t want to do that. Is there a way I can get around that? And it’ll say, yeah. Right. So,
I think it’s, would say, the first thing you could do is be clear. What are your pain points? What are your objectives? And then prompt it and figure out a plan and fill in your gaps. AI will never replace me. AI is my … gap filler. And maybe this is an answer to
your original question about what are people doing wrong? think one, it’s too early to say, I see a lot of posts, if you’re doing this with AI, you’re doing it wrong. I think it’s a little early to say what’s doing AI right. And in fact, if that’s your attitude or you’re coming at that, I see a lot of people who are angry at AI, right? And, and, my thought about that is you’re competing against it.
Not with it. Stop competing against AI. You’re not going to keep up with it. GROK already is PhD level in every subject. You’re not going to catch up to it.
Jo McKee, The Jo Show (05:34)
You’re mad if you don’t augment your IQ each day by tapping into that.
Julian Smit, Studio J (05:37)
Yeah. And you’re not competing with everybody else either. You’re competing with yourself, right? Like it’s just a matter of how can I use this as a tool to up my game? How can I use it to fill in the gaps where I’m weak? How can I do the things that I do and bend it to do what I do and automate it to make it a product or a service? There’s so many ways.
Jo McKee, The Jo Show (06:02)
It
ties right back into building the way that suits you. You know, it’s so personal to be able to use an AI and train it with the information you want it to have and then have it create something unique with you. I mean, what an opportunity, what a time to be alive and building a business really, even in tough times, you know.
Julian Smit, Studio J (06:18)
Yeah, there are things that are just that were never possible a few years ago that weren’t possible to me as a developer, as a programmer. And now it’s opened up a lot of opportunities and options. My experience exactly is that there’s so many tools out there and in many cases they might be great but in most cases people are like, but I want it.
to do this, I want it to do that, or it doesn’t quite do it the way I, you know, people have their way and their process. And for the first time, you don’t have to have an out of the box solution. You get to choose where you insert yourself and where the AI is an assistant.
Jo McKee, The Jo Show (06:58)
So you’ve given small agencies, a jumpstart: you’ve created Studio J. I love that it’s not subscription based, that you just buy the thing and it’s yours, but it’s still flexible. So I need you to explain.
Julian Smit, Studio J (07:11)
It’s a self-hosted platform that has three tiers of admin staff users with security controls. Like a WordPress ⁓ in that
you have certain tools and you can add them on. What this lets you do is plug in your own API keys with AI.
Then build your own module and say, I need a calendar tool that operates this way. I want a system that would track this. I want it to use the AI that will assist me with my own little app here. You immediately plug it in and it knows it has rules. And so the AI knows how to build modules for the platform itself.
Jo McKee, The Jo Show (07:53)
So in one sentence, if you have, you know, on the box before you unpack it, pretending we have a physical box, what does that say? Like, what does this do for me?
Julian Smit, Studio J (08:03)
It is a company portal in a box. This is a self hosted, resource for staff and teams to collaborate with each other. It has pre-baked project management tools, sales.
and licensing tools, creative tools, and then a module builder and a module installer so that you can say, hold on, our administrative team needs something that will do this. And then you say, I want that with a little dashboard card to appear on the admin dashboard, or I want all the staff or all of my clients to have a tool or this interface that they can interact with that will do this.
and then you tell it to do that and then you can create that module and that tool. So you’re creating the interface for you to operate with people, with clients or with staff. It’s a sales platform if you want it to be. You can plug in Stripe and then if you have products already, those will immediately populate in there and you can use it to track and…
and sell items. What it takes away for agencies is all of these subscriptions.
Jo McKee, The Jo Show (09:14)
Exactly. In a world of subscriptions, you’ve created a project management system and analytics system and a client interface system and a product system integrated with Stripe that is a lightweight file that people buy once. Can they plug it into their existing site back end or do they need to build a new website for it? Just plug in or how does that go?
Julian Smit, Studio J (09:32)
Yeah. So all of it, all you need to be able to do, is to take the installation files and drag it into a folder onto your website. And then you just navigate to that location on your website and the installer will immediately start to run.
Updating it is actually super easy because all you have to do is just save your data folder. And then you re-install that anytime you want it. If you have API keys, there’s a whole bunch of pre-baked, whether that’s Stripe,
Cloudinary, Claw.ai, 11labs for voice tools and so on. If you have those API keys, there’s an API keys manager, and then those are now secure. And so that’s a barrier for a lot of people developing a tool with AI. They’ll say, build me a tool where you help me, you it interacts and it does that and it works. You know, the AI is helping you do something and you’re like, okay, now I want to put that out to the public.
And it’ll say, yeah, but your API key is not secure. It will be exposed. And so what this does is create the security layer, for you to go and build your own app. And you don’t have to deal with creating that security layer, creating those tools. And you can go in and…
Jo McKee, The Jo Show (10:35)
be exposed, yes.
Julian Smit, Studio J (10:50)
customize the tool the way you want to. You’re not beholden to me or anyone. There’s an ecosystem where other people are building modules and sharing modules and selling modules over time. But if you want to say like, no, I’m on my own. I’m going to run this and build my own tools and turn this into what I want to turn it into. Great. Go for it.
Jo McKee, The Jo Show (11:10)
I hope anyone listening to this can just bear with me while I tease this out of you, because I think it’s really important. It is a little bit technical. And usually I don’t get into that on this show, but for this one, we have to. For those listening who know what N8N is, where you can build flows and you have your API keys stored separately so they’re not exposed in the flow. So you’re essentially building little apps, I suppose I could call them that.
If they buy Studio J and they’ve got their project management, their client portal, their Stripe integration for products they want to sell, they’ve got the analytics if they buy the level that includes that, it’s a one-time fee; they own it. So it’s fantastic because it frees you from the subscription misery that everybody’s facing in their bank accounts. It just lets you own this properly. And you will be developing a community where people can share ideas.
Can people use it in a similar way as N8N to build these kind of apps or flows or have I got that right?
Julian Smit, Studio J (12:04)
Yeah, okay, yeah, that’s right. So, and by the way, I didn’t really quite answer your question in terms of who is it for. Agencies was the first audience that I went for in the sense that I have been running my own agency for years. It’s the world I knew. And so I knew the project management, some of the project managements, the tools that would be useful, some of the things that would help with scope creep for things like video projects. But to your
point, it’s not really just for them because there’s a lot of user cases for this. Developers themselves certainly could benefit from that, that they can go and build their own modules and then use the Stripe integration to sell that. If it was like a user-based system, right, where they wanted to be their own, they wanted to be the software as a service.
then they could create that system in Studio J. It’s in many ways like Shopify, it’s a little bit of WordPress, it’s a little bit of Shopify, it’s a little bit of Basecamp, a little bit of Wix.
It’s not your front end of your website. And the reason why I haven’t bothered with that yet, it really is one, that one that actually would be fairly simple, but at this point you’re building, you’re customizing things yourself anyways. So your front end website, why not, you know, if you’re already working with AI, why not build the front end web page to say, I want it to do this, I want it to have this, I want it to look like that.
you can customize your homepage any way you want as standalone. And StudioJ does let you, it’s mostly contained into where you’ve installed it. But for example, I’ve got a built-in chat agent inside the system that can help you with the system that answers some questions when you’re logged in.
And then there is also a module that is your public chat widget, right? So if you want it to have a public sales widget or, or sales support widget, so that’s more on your public side. And so that little tool, you can train it inside. say, you know, here are the frequently asked questions and, and knowledge that I need you to have. And then it’ll say, okay, here’s the little code to put onto your homepage. Right. And so.
you can, integrate that backend into your front end the way you want to.
Jo McKee, The Jo Show (14:26)
And for a client portal, you could build a dashboard that shows whichever ads they’re running on paid traffic. could have analytics showing there and pulling their Google analytics as well. Would that be right? Yeah. Google search console to show how people are finding the site and the most, you know, all that sort of
Julian Smit, Studio J (14:44)
To your point, what you could do is whatever it is that you’re envisioning right now, you could it.
Jo McKee, The Jo Show (14:50)
You
whole shebang in my mind. If you’re going to download this, you build it all out, wouldn’t you? You’d have staff management and client.
Julian Smit, Studio J (14:57)
Yeah, well, however, whatever it is that you’re envisioning for that interface. What I’ve done is I’ve built a basic module for a bunch of things that gets you started. But if you don’t like the way I did my tool, then build your own, right? Build a new one.
Jo McKee, The Jo Show (15:12)
I mean, I just remember the money I used to spend on Agency Analytics which was pretty good, but I could never pull, for instance, with the email marketing from ActiveCampaign, it would show me opens and clicks, but I could never pull in the revenue generated. And that’s what I want to show the clients. And they kept saying, if you hook up a spreadsheet and use the API and back in that day, that was just like, I was banging my head going, but this is the, this is the main KPI. Why isn’t that showing?
Why do I have to go and build? Like now I would be more confident to probably go and do that. But so when I think of Studio J and I’m thinking of your Facebook ads module, I’m thinking, okay, can I just create these other modules on my dashboard? Is that sort of the right way I should be thinking about this? Or am I running ahead?
Julian Smit, Studio J (15:52)
Yeah, that’s right. No, no, you’re absolutely right. That when you get Studio J, there are two main dashboards. There’s a main one that is for everybody, admin staff and clients potentially. And then you have an admin dashboard. Anytime you want to build a new tool, it either goes on the
everyone dashboard or just the admin, you decide where. That’ll create a card on that main dashboard. And then that card will now go to the tool.
Jo McKee, The Jo Show (16:23)
It’s fantastic. Just to sum it up again for those listings, Studio J is an out of the box project management system that can have client interface and staff interface and analysis for campaigns. I do think from the agency point of view, because that’s my world, but it could definitely be used for other instances as well. And you pay once.
And you can adapt it and iterate it to suit your needs, instead of having to put a feature request on a list that might get done next year. I want to commend you for what you’ve built. Looking forward to hearing what the beta testers say in their feedback. So for anybody listening to this episode, if you’re interested in that kind of thing for your business, do get in touch with Julian.
It started as a bit of a frustration, I suppose, for you. You know, what triggered you to build this?
Julian Smit, Studio J (17:08)
Yeah – this endless software as a subscription model that you run into this, this constant pay to play. And they all suck you in, the same way: a free tier at the beginning or it’s low cost. But then as soon as you’re kind of hooked, right. Then they’re jacking up the price or.
Jo McKee, The Jo Show (17:25)
It’s
terrible. Hundreds of dollars a month.
Julian Smit, Studio J (17:29)
Right. So,
so my issue with WordPress is it’s, fantastic, but it gets very chunky, very heavy and very slow. It’s like 50 megabytes for the initial download. And then once you start adding things on, it gets slow. Shopify, they’ll say, Hey, you know, it’s a cheap.
initial price, but all of sudden when you want to make Shopify work for you, then they hold on. you want a calendaring system or you want it to look, you want this kind of storefront to look this way. Then that’s jacking up the price and you already have your monthly fee on top of that. And then they’re going to take off the fee for each transaction. For something like Basecamp, it’s even worse in terms of the price increases is seats based.
So every time as you grow and you bring on more staff or more clients, well, the price goes up and it gets more and more expensive. It makes it hard for you to scale your own business when the cost of doing business is always going up.
Jo McKee, The Jo Show (18:28)
I actually find it unacceptable too, in an environment where software is getting so much cheaper to create and intelligence is the price is plummeting. And yet these platforms are hiking their prices up. As I said to you before we hit record, you know, I was paying $850 a month for Samrush and I did not have the full suite of tools. And then they kept trying to sell me more and I just find that unacceptable.
I just, I cheer you on in building something that’s a one and done price that also lets businesses be flexible.
Julian Smit, Studio J (19:00)
I have said that, you know, It’s not just a product, it’s revenge. And you can have it too. I see more people doing what I’m doing, moving towards independence and either building it just for themselves or building tools that deliver that.
freedom. You’re seeing a return to software ownership. Back in the day when you would buy that CD in a box and you would own it.
Jo McKee, The Jo Show (19:27)
So it’s three things, you know, it’s cashflow protection, which everybody is looking for right now. It’s data protection. And it’s also designing a system that fits perfectly into the personality and the processes of your company.
Julian Smit, Studio J (19:41)
Yeah, and this is why I knew talking to you would be so good because you’re so good at narrowing down these things. that I’m working on and trying to communicate. But I think you nailed it right there.
It’s an open platform for people to build whatever they want. And its ability to become anything is what makes it special. Yeah.
Jo McKee, The Jo Show (20:00)
It does. It’s, actually a scary thing as a human to take responsibility for ourselves. We know this, and as I said to you before our call with Bitcoin for me, you know, for my partner and I to essentially create our own bank, it means you have to take some responsibility. And if you want to do it properly, you take self custody. And there’s a bit of a learning curve involved in that because you don’t have the structure of the institutions and we naturally want somebody to look after us.
I’m sensing a little bit of that with StudioJ, you’re taking responsibility for your, architecture of your systems, but the benefits of the cashflow and the data that come with that, would be absolutely worth it. You’re building something that is extremely valuable for small businesses. So bringing it back to,
building a business to suit ourselves?
Julian Smit, Studio J (20:47)
Just be authentic. For, I think for yourself and myself that’s actually easy. You and I can’t be, can’t not be authentic. We just are who we are kind of a thing. For other people that’s harder to do. It’s easier said than done.
So there’s a lot of those expressions that like, you know, phrases of going around. Build your personal brand is a pet peeve of mine. To me that, aren’t we just talking about traditional reputation management? Why do we want to be brands? We’re not cows, right?
Jo McKee, The Jo Show (21:17)
Well said.
Julian Smit, Studio J (21:18)
People don’t have a positive association with that word anyways, actually. Brand is not a positive word, but somehow along the way we’ve allowed ourselves to become the product. And that’s where I refuse.
I will not let the technology be the master of me. I will be the master of the technology. Thank you very much. And it’s more about life. Success or happiness is for you to define. Don’t let other people tell you what success is.
That’s going to be different for every individual, for every business owner. So There are no rules, especially today.
Jo McKee, The Jo Show (21:56)
Well said. You’re reminding me of Sarah Ferrant, who’s a chiropractor living in New Zealand on Waiheke Island. She wrote a book called The Vital Truth and she talks about living above or below the line, but how it fluctuates with health and also with every other aspect of our life. As you say, it’s not something that’s static. It’s something that you’re always working to optimize and…
bring in as much of, how do I say, the real experience of living life to the full in every aspect of your life.
Julian Smit, Studio J (22:21)
My well-being is not just defined by my work success, it’s defined by my health, as you mentioned, it’s defined by the well-being of my family and the people that I love in my life. The more that I see my friends and family and everyone thriving, the better I am, right?
There are so many aspects to what is success or what is happiness. This is why somebody can go to a beach and be absolutely delighted for a day and after three days, maybe they’re bored.
Jo McKee, The Jo Show (22:51)
This has been a very effective conversation from a few angles. Thinking about thinking about building a business to suit ourselves. What’s working in marketing for you right now. and it’s all about human and connection for you.
Julian Smit, Studio J (22:56)
I hope so.
Jo McKee, The Jo Show (23:07)
If anybody listening feels a bit behind, because their business doesn’t look like what they’re seeing online, what would you say to them right now?
Julian Smit, Studio J (23:14)
Everybody feels like they’re catching up right now.
GROK already is a PhD level in every single academic field of study. But that doesn’t mean that it replaces us. I don’t think that we’re ever gonna run out of things to do and nor does the AI think holistically big picture.
or is it creative? It’s not thinking in the way that you and I are thinking and piecing things together. It’s very kind of targeted. So on one hand, everybody’s catching up in some way or other. It’s just a matter of getting past any inertia if you’re feeling that you’re stuck.
Get started and then just ask the AI. You don’t need a lesson. You don’t need courses. The AI can teach you how to use AI. You just need to know what are the good questions. And then as far as what’s working, there’s the advertising,
techniques and there’s the organic reach, I think it is again, relationship oriented. think, you know, just, I think one conversation with a person a day is going to be better than 10 social media posts.
it’s not just posting, but engaging with people,
and finding the people that are cheering you on, want you to succeed, work with them, build those relationships, make them deep connections, make them real connections.
Jo McKee, The Jo Show (24:34)
Get out there and have one real conversation with a real human being every day. I love that Julian. Thank you so much for your time today. It’s been great.
Julian Smit, Studio J (24:42)
much
for having me. It’s so great to see you doing this.