I went to The Fifth Day, a workshop by The Do Lectures, on Friday 23 October. It was my first Do Lectures event. I've followed them for years, so I was really looking forward to it.
It was at Cecil Sharp House in Camden Town, such a lovely part of London. It rained all day, but I didn't mind. I was excited from the moment I got there.
The morning of the event, David and Gemma sent a prompt pack and a short list of what to bring: our own AI tool, mobile data in case the wifi was slow, and ideally our email connected so the AI could look through invoices and receipts. If you didn't want to do that, you could use a bank statement with the personal details taken out, or some dummy data they'd prepared. I liked that they thought about privacy and about people who weren't set up.
The day was about using AI to find where a small business quietly loses time and money. The prompts had names like Subscription Audit, Profit Detective, The Invisible Leak and The 5% Detective. Each one sends the AI off to look for something specific, and then you look at what it found. The question we kept coming back to was:
What is my 5%?
It was an interactive workshop, so you could ask a question while David was speaking, not just at the end. It felt like a conversation, not a lecture. And there was always something to eat or drink: breakfast, cookies, coffee, lunch. Nobody had to wonder what was next.
What I took away
I use AI every day, so I knew a lot of the tools already. What I enjoyed was seeing them used on real money problems, with a whole room trying things at the same time. These are the things I wrote down:
- Do not try to do everything. Find your 5%.
- There are visible leaks and invisible ones, in money and in time. There's also the cost of underperformance, so it's worth asking what an underperformer really costs you.
- Use AI for detection. One idea I liked was taking a screenshot of your home page and asking it what's going wrong.
- Does your AI agent know what you actually do? What is it, and who is it for? If you can't say that clearly, it can't help.
- Be clear about your outputs, and keep only what's necessary.
- Old gold is the new gold. Look back at the old things you've already made and bring them back.
- There are no good ideas when you're busy. Do the chores, go outside, and let the ideas come.
A few apps were mentioned that I want to look at again: Riverside for podcasts, Loom for screen recording, ElevenLabs for voice, Zapier for automation, Runway, Scrivener, and Shopify Sidekick.
For me, the key thing was the structure. Seeing how each prompt is set up, what you ask the AI to look for and how you read what comes back, is something I'll reuse in my own work. The time leaks and the 5% idea are the other half. I want to find my own leaks and put my effort into the 5% that matters most.
The people
The best part was the people. I made new friends and had some lovely conversations. It was all kinds of people, at very different stages of life and business. Where I could, I used my AI experience and helped a few people with their questions. I really enjoyed that.
It was great to finally meet David Hieatt. I've followed his journey since the Hiut Denim days, and he's thoughtful and generous. He's got an incredible team too. I met Gemma Screen for the first time, and I saw Ian Laming from Do Radio again. We'd last met a couple of weeks ago at the Poetry Pharmacy, the poetry-on-prescription shop run by Deborah Alma, at the launch of Anna McCracken's new book, Do Wildness: Myth, mystery and mischief. It's published by Do Book Co. and sets out ten practices for reconnecting with the natural world. Anna is an Australian writer, wilderness guide and systems thinker.
A day well spent. I'm building my own company now, and I'd like to take from it how they make people feel looked after. Thank you, David, Gemma, Clare and the team.
When, where, what
- When: Friday 23 October 2026
- Where: Cecil Sharp House, 2 Regent's Park Road, London NW1 7AY (open in Google Maps)
- What: The Fifth Day, a one-day AI workshop by The Do Lectures on using AI to find where a small business quietly loses time and money