In this episode of The Free Agent Podcast, host Beau Billington sits down with industry veteran David Mantica, a 30+ year leader in the training, leadership, and executive development space. David has built and led multimillion-dollar product lines, founded and scaled ASPE to a $13M exit, and now runs his own consulting practice—alongside ownership of SoftEd’s North American operations.

Together, Beau and David dive deep into the evolving world of fractional work and how AI is reshaping the toolkit of modern executives. From the rise (and frustrations) of meeting note-taker bots to David’s go-to tech stack using Whisper, ChatGPT, and Claude, they unpack practical use cases that every fractional executive should be testing today.

David shares how he manages multiple clients using AI-driven transcription workflows, sentiment analysis, and action-item tracking—cutting hours of post-meeting work down to minutes. He also breaks down how AI can support ICP development, bio creation, content building, headshot generation, trigger-based research, and even automated prospect discovery.

The pair also explore the tension between human outreach and AI automation, how personality traits affect fractional success, and why embracing creativity and context-switching is essential for thriving in this world.

If you’re a fractional executive, consultant, or leader navigating AI’s impact on workflow, marketing, and client delivery, this is a must-listen conversation packed with tactical insights, lessons learned, and forward-looking perspective.