AI Is Rewriting the Rules of Business | James Edgell on INsights & Straight Talk

00:00 Now [music] this has been an experience of amazement

00:08 to me.

00:16 [music] Before you leave, if you'd like [music]

00:21 to watch another one of the podcast, click the first link in the description. We love having you here and we

00:28 appreciate all your support. And with that, producer Barbie and I are out. [music]

00:38 Welcome to Insights and Straight Talk. I am uh Rodd Duff alongside producer

00:45 Barbie. And and today we're going to talk about something that I believe is

00:51 much bigger than artificial intelligence. Yeah, believe it or not,

00:57 we're going to talk about access because for most of my business career,

01:05 if you had a an idea for a piece of software, a system that could make your company

01:12 faster, uh solve a customer problem, automate a uh a process, or maybe even

01:19 uh become a business of its own, well, you needed something elseh

01:27 money, right? Programmers, developers, uh what do you got? You got consultants,

01:34 you got months, you got eternity, sometimes years and years of

01:39 development. And if you were a small business, small business owner or a entrepreneur sitting

01:47 at the kitchen table with a great idea, you might never get past the great idea.

01:55 Um, AI may be changing that equation.

02:02 Hold on to that right there. AI. So that equation that equation of needing all that money

02:09 may be changing. AI is doing that. All right. Now hold on to that. We were

02:15 just talking about it. It's important man. The money difference is huge.

02:21 And if [sighs] if it is if it is changing that equation

02:27 that could have enormous consequences for for entrepreneurs and for for the

02:34 great middle class as a whole. My guest today has watched technology

02:40 evolve from inside several very very large organizations

02:46 and and he has also experienced um what it means to build something from from

02:53 the ground up. James Edgell is a technology executive,

02:59 entrepreneur, product builder and founder of soft

03:05 exit. His career has included IBM, right? Deloitte and McDonald's along with

03:14 startups, social networks, largecale technology projects and engineering

03:21 organizations. Today he's building an AI enabled

03:28 business application platform designed around a fascinating idea. we

03:34 were talking. I I've been I just been fighting. You know, the last show I was just on, I was fighting my bit to get

03:39 over here and talk to James because I've got a bunch of ideas about this thing.

03:45 Uh but that's what we're going to learn more about today. So, what if you could, you know, this is the thing that

03:51 fascinates me. I mean, what if you could describe what your business needs in ordinary

03:58 language and technology could help turn that idea

04:03 into a to an application, a business application.

04:09 Think about what that could mean. I mean, fascinating. Not not only for software

04:16 developers, for for the restaurant owner, right? for the manufacturer, for

04:22 the contractor, the in the independent consultant,

04:27 you know, the person starting a company in their garage.

04:34 And you know what? Maybe the 22year-old that has an idea but doesn't have

04:39 $500,000 to build it, but also

04:46 want to get I want to get underneath all the excitement of of this AI stuff, right?

04:54 I I want to know what it really can do. Where where's the hype? You know, what

05:00 what can't it do? Where does human experience where does that human

05:05 experience still matter? We're going to get into that because it's important. What happens to software developers?

05:13 What happens to jobs? What happens [clears throat] to the cost of starting

05:18 a business? And could a small company in Megaum, Oklahoma or anywhere else across

05:25 America, certainly in America, soon soon have access to technology

05:33 capabilities that once belonged almost exclusively

05:39 to corporations with enormous budgets.

05:44 Those are the conversations I want to have because the further it's something

05:51 that's just something that happens to us, you

05:56 know, the future isn't just happening to us. It's it we're building it right now,

06:03 right? James, welcome to Insights and Straight Talk. Let's let's have a let's

06:09 have a conversation. Hey, Todd. How you doing, brother? Great, great to be here. Thanks.

06:16 So, so I've been excited about those and and I was telling you because, you know, we talk a lot about uh AI. We have

06:23 talked a lot about it and and we've been talking a lot about it for a while. And anybody who isn't

06:30 uh is just being irresponsible with either their own lives or or you know, whoever they're associated with. And

06:36 that's that's anybody's privilege, but you know, there's just a lot of things on the on the horizon. And there's a lot

06:44 of things at stake about [clears throat] those things in the horizon. And I asked you when I when before I brought you

06:50 back out from the green room, I said, uh, let's start with your your journey. Where did that journey begin? Uh, what

06:58 put you on the path? What was that that inflection point put you on the path to

07:04 bring you here today uh with us today? I I have a feeling I know where it's going to come from because we had that that

07:11 core conversation, but why don't you jump on that? I've got to do a little bit of housekeeping in the background.

07:17 Sure. So, I mean, I'm a tech guy, right? I started out as a programmer. So, I've

07:23 I've been doing tech for a long time. And then I jumped from programmer to manager and I've worked for various

07:28 companies and built a lot of things. Some of the things you already heard of uh that you mentioned, right? Uh from

07:36 there what I've noticed is you know big companies and little companies they

07:41 operate very differently. The the large companies have lots of money and they can throw money at problems and the

07:47 small companies have the hands-on and the upfront experience. And I think that

07:54 um there's some there's some interesting parallels between the two and then there's some definite differences and I

08:00 would say you know small companies they get successful and sometimes they plateau out because of the way they're

08:06 handling things process the paperwork the spreadsheets and then large companies know how to deal with massive

08:14 problems by using data and process right and you know basically I'm releasing

08:20 this software to be available to smaller companies to put that process and power

08:26 in reach at affordable price. Um, if you compare it to something like if you you

08:32 want to start a company and you want to keep track of your your clients, your leads and everything else like that, you

08:37 got to go out and buy something really expensive like a salesforce. And I think, you know, a lot of people can't

08:43 justify that price. It's very expensive, but they could really use those kind of tools. And that's why I'm bringing this

08:49 to market and that's where I am now starting SoftEXIT bringing SoftEXIT Studio and uh I believe that a lot of

08:56 people will like this and it's a a reasonable price. It's very affordable but very valable. You you and I are going to talk

09:02 quite a bit about this off you know after the uh after the episode obviously and u because I I could not agree with

09:09 you more. Um and and and and that's exactly the point. you know, Streamyard

09:16 got its first of all, they're a great marketing company. Um, and and they they

09:22 got it their they got their their push because they were so ahead of the market

09:29 capabilities for databases. They put some stuff together that really made them

09:39 a step ahead. Basically made them on the frontier of what AI is. that we talked

09:45 about uh some of the add-ons that uh a part and others that that you could do

09:51 and build on this this thing, but but they're still that freaking expensive.

09:57 and and create and and this isn't, you know, we're not here marketing one thing

10:02 or the other, but uh but I have personal experience in this and I I talked to you about it before and and it was funny

10:09 because we we we're we were going to go down this conversation, but we we we had

10:14 to jump in right away because we both had the same experience with uh with Salesforce and why why we're here

10:21 talking about this today. Um, we've already got several hundred people on.

10:26 Um, so uh everybody please uh uh like the show and and uh and uh u please uh

10:34 comments and so forth in in uh in the uh as as the show opens up and and you you

10:43 start having some questions about this because well let's let's let's go back to that point. Let's let's start at the

10:50 beginning. Let's go where that inflection point was. Let's get let let's get some people uh several hundred

10:57 of them get in get ready and kind of settle in for the for the next little bit of time here with us. How did how

11:03 did how did we get together? How did we get the opportunity to sit down here

11:08 together today? What was that ride? So, uh I you reached out to me, right,

11:15 through uh I believe it was matchmaker.fm FM and uh that's kind of a cool it's it's like a dating service for

11:22 podcasters and guests. So yeah, I I really liked I signed up uh a

11:27 couple of weeks ago after I I never thought of doing podcasts. somebody out of the blue called me up uh for Tech

11:33 Unhinged and we did a interview and uh I thought wow this is this is really great

11:38 to interact with people this way and share ideas and get get some exposure at the same time and I really liked it and

11:45 uh so I started doing some investigation and one I I needed to improve my

11:51 background which I have so because it looked like I was working out of my basement and then uh now

11:58 I love your background by the way we were talking about earlier. I love the backdrop there. And that's not a that's

12:04 not a one of these blue or green screen things. It's like me. It's a real background. That is beautiful, man.

12:12 Thanks. Well, I just cleaned it up. I rearranged my my crap, so to speak. [laughter]

12:18 I And I bought a couple of lights, so that's about it. And then uh then you know then I found out about matchmaker

12:24 and I tried that and then you reached out to me and I got a couple of other people reach out to me and it's a great

12:31 way to make connections right and uh even though I did shows with some of these individuals it appears that I'm

12:38 going to stay in contact with them because you know we really you know hit it off. They're really nice people and

12:43 uh you know it's one thing I noticed about the entrepreneurial community is you think they'd be cy and trying to

12:50 keep their ideas to themselves. I am just amazed by how people are willing to share ideas, help you out, right? It's

12:57 not a crabs in the bucket scenario. It is it is everyone is trying to help everyone else out and I'm pretty

13:03 impressed by that. This is a whole new experience coming from the corporate world into an entrepreneurial

13:09 environment. Yeah, I think the world is evolving in a lot of different ways and and and I think what what you're talking

13:16 about now is really developed out of um the the the folk open AI ChatGPT

13:26 the the the programmers and coders for probably half a dozen years now maybe

13:33 more and more and more over the last couple of years but I I've noticed this this continuing story and I'm older So I

13:40 I caught on to it. Maybe a a lot of other people just take it for granted, but there's a lot of I like what you

13:47 said about that because it is an entrepreneurial even though capitalism is getting beat up a little bit right

13:53 now. the world itself, human beings are are much more entrepreneurial right now,

14:00 especially like coders and that becau well I shouldn't say they are more entrepreneurial but if you you recognize

14:07 it because that spirit of entrepreneurship is is got to be in somebody that spirit

14:14 of wanting to help because that's what entrepreneurs have always built done is they built from nothing right they built

14:22 from an idea and and and and that's kind of how they develop their life. So, it's it's kind

14:29 of funny how how all that that that comes together, right? I mean, does that make sense what I just said?

14:35 Yeah, completely. Yeah. And and and and that's what I love

14:40 about this now is is is it as it goes back to what we were originally talking

14:46 about, the cost of of of like these programs. Uh, I was talking about

14:52 StreamYard. I used this $14,000 number for this thing. You know what I'm

14:58 talking about. Uh, that I had to put together. Basically was training and installing of another thing that cost a

15:05 whole another set of money. But, but doing that now is micro pennies of a

15:14 kilobit or you know whatever. I mean, you know, it's it's a very different structure. So now people are able to

15:21 afford your software that is probably the next level above what I I I again

15:30 I'm not beating up Streamyard or anything but we're just using this for example is probably next level. So where

15:36 did all this come about and and and tell us this story um and let's get into this

15:41 subject because it's possible this is real. This is entrepreneurs

15:47 now being able to compete against IBM. Okay, that may not be real, but but you

15:52 get the scale. Yeah, 100%. Um, you know, I used to work at another company and I used to

15:58 complain a lot by how expensive some of this these SAS applications are and Yeah.

16:04 And I don't know how they justify it. I mean, enormous cost, right? Storage, you

16:09 know, I I talked to one company. I'm not going to keep trashing names out here, but one company was charging us

16:14 something like $20,000 for 500 meg storage just for files. And I asked

16:20 them, how do you justify that? I can go down the street and buy a thumb drive for 50 bucks with, you know, 10 times

16:26 that storage. How about I buy a box of them, ship them to you, and you shove them in your computer? And they, you know, obviously they, you know, they

16:33 laughed, but the point is is they keep turning up the

16:38 heat, right? and they keep turning up the price because what they do is they get you hooked and then they just

16:44 continuously drive the price up and and they either drive you out or they they put themselves in a position where

16:51 smaller companies just can't afford to have those kind of tools available to them. And I used to threaten that, hey,

16:57 you know, I've delivered a lot of worldclass applications. I may just quit my job and go start and go compete with

17:03 them because they're charging so much. I know I can still make money and charge half or a quarter of what they're

17:10 charging. Uh we don't have as many miles to feed as, you know, like a big company like some of these 100,000 employee

17:16 companies. So we can offer a much more economical approach and we're taking

17:22 kind of an oath that we're not going to jack up the price. We're we're going to stay bootstrapped. You know, I'm funding

17:29 this personally my business. I'm not going to take private equity so I don't have to appease stockholders or

17:35 shareholders uh and equity owners that uh I have to continuously double and double my

17:41 business. Right. Right. So I don't have to turn up that that uh heat on the on the customers. So I can

17:47 keep it affordable and I'll make the volume money is is my approach. Yeah. that that's you know that that

17:54 starts to open up that starts to peel back the layers of the onion of of how

18:00 this new business model is in some cases and and you know what it all really

18:05 depends on access like I said in the opening and and all of that depends on

18:11 how involved we get in in our own lives and u you know I tell the story every

18:17 once in a while I I have two granddaughters um well I raised five

18:22 boys, me and producer Barbie. She uh two and two and one one I had adopted uh

18:30 myself, but I raised five boys and um and and we now we're having

18:36 granddaughters. Uh I I like the the example of my oldest granddaughter and my youngest granddaughter. My oldest

18:43 granddaughter is 16 and she Oh, no, I'm sorry. She just turned 17 a month ago,

18:49 but she uh she and I did the show and she's going into nursing school. It's a

18:56 whole long story. She's really busy right now. So, we're not we're not uh doing the show anymore, but we do a show

19:01 every Saturday called uh Insights and Straight Talk with Emma Lynn and Grandpa

19:07 Rod. So, she could communicate with me in discussions about what kids go

19:14 through, what and it's a weekly thing. We step parents and adults are and young adults and all that coming up. And then

19:21 my youngest granddaughter is just about to turn three at the end of uh a month

19:28 and one week from now. While I was at her birth

19:33 uh in Texas, um I was I was uh my son, my oldest son uh taught me AI, taught me

19:42 open jeep chat. Dad, start with this, right? Uh maybe write some emails out or

19:48 do do something, but start with this. You're going to need this. You'll see after you get involved. And my I'm a

19:54 real curious person, so it wasn't hard for him to talk me into it. Well, exactly a year later, at my

20:02 granddaughter's first birthday, her first birthday party, I was staying there. I was sitting across the the

20:09 aisle or the island and uh my son's

20:14 wife's mom. So, what would that be? My mother-in-law

20:20 something. Um but she and I were talking really really wonderful lady about my

20:25 age, a little bit older. But we were talking about AI because I've been doing this over the last year and been started

20:31 doing some shows and all that and she's like I don't want to know anything about it. I'm gonna stick my head in the sand.

20:37 It scares me. Da da da da da. And there's too many people thinking that

20:43 way. How do you get them to correct that? How do you start steering people, especially in my generation? Because

20:49 this this is now allowing me to compete with IBM. So, I think your experience is what I

20:57 think is probably the best way to get exposed to it that somebody needs to show them. Uh I you know I'm a ham radio

21:03 operator and we have an expression called an Elmer that an Elmer would show you how to use the radio, right? Because

21:08 you've never ever seen a radio. It's got all these fancy dials on it. Very very intimidating, right? So somebody would

21:16 show you and what I found is people are rather surprised that there is nothing to learn about AI. You basically ask it

21:25 questions, it will it'll tell you. You can you can use it in so many different ways. It's I I don't know how to explain

21:32 it. You really almost have to experience it and then you know people do the kind

21:38 of the hello world type of with it and I think if you go to AI with

21:45 okay I I could figure it out but what do you mean by they do the hello world kind

21:50 of thing with it? They'll ask it like, you know, what's the population in the United States? You know, things like

21:56 that, right? They'll get data. But what they don't know and what [snorts] people do with Siri when

22:02 it first came out, the same sort of thing, just goofball stuff, whatever.

22:07 What what they need to be what they need to see is it doing something like, you

22:13 know, you you give it a a bunch of numbers. You you give it all your expenses and everything. Say, can you

22:18 tell me which bill to pay first? And then it does and then it tells you why. And that's where it starts to get

22:25 amazing. You start to really see what it's capable of and it starts to actually solve problems

22:31 for you and it works with you. And in the end, you know, you are still in control. You are the person. It's just

22:37 somebody advising you, right? People can, you have friends that advise you. You listen to them. You don't. It's your

22:43 choice, right? Same thing with ChatGPT. You can listen to it or you cannot. But

22:48 usually advice is pretty good and it's wellinformed unlike uh unlike some of my friends. They don't know everything in

22:55 the world. You know, they haven't been trained on every single book in the world and every single thing. And AI

23:01 has, you know, you you bring up a a freaking awesome point there because it it even

23:07 goes deeper in my opinion. It even goes deeper than that because um so here's

23:13 and we talked about cost earlier and we we haven't even really got into the whole rabbit hole as the old saying

23:19 goes, but there's so many things about this that make uh make small entrepreneurs better. Um

23:29 we talked about the cost of software, you know, it was $20,000, it was $14,000, it was this much or that much.

23:37 Now it's fractions of a penny per whatever digi point. Um, but there's

23:43 also the the person cost. So, so I'm an entrepreneur. So, producer Barbie always

23:50 wanted an assistant, right? Uh, you know, assistants are expensive. So, so

23:57 Daisy gets um So, so that assistant would cost you 20 bucks

24:04 an hour, 30 bucks an hour, 80,000 a year, whatever that is.

24:09 You know what AI is? You know what? You know, I hope you're probably knowing where I'm going right now. It it's it

24:16 works with agents and you give them prompts, right? That's that relationship.

24:22 Now, there's automation. It's a little different. Um my son calls it like this.

24:27 Automation is like when you want something repeated time after time after time and done perfect.

24:33 Uhuh. AI is like you want to bounce something off your best friend. So in using that

24:40 explanation um what what happens with AI these agents is they also get to know you over

24:48 time. So I I instead of hiring an $80,000 assistant, you said not all your

24:54 friends know everything. They also don't care as much about your mission maybe or

25:01 about um how you want something to happen or how you want it worded or how

25:07 the emphasis wants to go or whatever those tweaks are that are decision after

25:12 decision after decision that that lead to something, right? Isn't all of that true about where we're going in this

25:20 conversation? Yeah, I mean AI it does it kind of does

25:26 it feels like it gets to know you. It stores things so that has it can retrieve and uh your history and give

25:33 you better answers, right? Your own interests more the way you it's your it's developing its personality

25:41 from you. It's well it's aligned. It it will always be aligned with you. It's been designed to be aligned. It's supposed to

25:48 make you happy, right? Um I I will make this suggestion. If you're like a an entrepreneur and you're

25:55 like a founder, I I treat a like it's a co-founder to be honest with you. And you know what what's a good

26:01 co-founder? Someone who has knowledge that you don't, right? But one of the things I do is sometimes I

26:07 ask AI not to be aligned with me. I ask it to challenge me and to critique my

26:14 ideas. And that's where AI becomes very very powerful because now it's changing

26:19 you, right? It's it's you have an idea and you think it's great and everybody thinks their ideas are great and then

26:25 you have to challenge it and then you find yourself in the position where you have to defend yourself and your idea

26:31 starts to get stronger. Is isn't that what they teed or isn't that what they taught in debate club? take the opposite

26:37 side and argue the point. So you strengthen your own your own viewpoint.

26:42 Harvard Harvard business involved where you've got to uh create the argument uh against

26:49 uh your your own uh uh thoughts, right? But to your point, yeah, it gets

26:54 very aligned. It learns you. It its goals are aligned with you and it's trying to achieve it, which you know

27:00 sometimes the human counterpart that isn't necessarily the case, right? It could be a hidden agenda. You put it

27:06 better. Much better way to put it. But that's exactly right because AI its whole mission is to please you.

27:13 Yes. The human doesn't necessarily that isn't necessarily their top point. Right.

27:19 They may be saying they're trying to please you and internally they're not right. So

27:25 that may be on purpose or not. That may be on purpose or not. They [laughter] they may be trying but just can't do it.

27:31 Or they may be like I'm jealous of this I'm going to help it, but I'm going to, you know, right?

27:37 The other thing I noticed about AI is when you ask it to do something, there have been times when I asked it to build

27:42 something for me. And I knew if I asked a human counterpart that they would roll their eyes and complain because they

27:49 just got done building something and now you're asking it to undo it. So, it's it's really nice in that aspect of

27:55 there's no resistance. You tell it to do something, it does it.

28:00 You write the prompts, right? You know, as a matter of fact, you you brought this up earlier, but when I first started working with AI, I wasn't really

28:07 getting there. I was getting frustrated because I have my own way of communication and I you may or may not

28:13 be able to tell, but I say words differently and you know, I have my own style.

28:18 So, finally, what I did and I asked I asked my son this. I go with He goes, "Here's what you need to do.

28:26 Tell your AI agent, create a prompt that says something to

28:33 the effect of, "Now create the perfect prompt. I want to be able to accomplish

28:38 this rule. I want to accomplish this thing and I want you to remember the uh

28:45 I don't know the rule and and keep building on that pack." So basically what I did is I created I said create

28:52 the perfect prompt that that that creates that result which is basically

28:58 the company we're talking about today right yeah I well the the

29:04 the way the you're talking about studio studio works a little different than I've taken a different approach to it

29:10 you know a lot of people are trying to back into AI and and check the box and say hey we're using AI right that's

29:16 their sales pitch in my opinion I because they've run out of things to sell. But, you know, I I use it as how

29:23 can I use this to solve a problem? Because people buy solutions to

29:29 problems. They don't buy solutions, right? It they need to have a problem that you need to solve. So,

29:36 the approach I took was not to build a product around AI, but to use AI as a

29:41 tool. And that's why we call it AI architect because it's the architect essentially. So our platform is very

29:49 stable. It's very defined, right? You have the standard database tables, forms, dashboards, Kanban boards, all

29:57 the things that you normally see. But when we ask our AI architect to build something for us, it's not generating

30:04 code. And there's a huge difference between the two. And now they look the same, the results.

30:09 Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, wait, wait. So it's not Okay. As I understand it,

30:15 there's code. no code and some code or low code, right?

30:20 So when I thought like so when I'm doing ChatGPT and I'm asking it to do something,

30:26 [clears throat] there's a little button you can click over here and you can see the code side of what's being written to

30:33 create what you're doing. So what did you just say? Did you just say something

30:38 differently than that? Yeah. What you use uses no code whatsoever, right? We designed this specifically not

30:45 to generate code because what does code bring? Code brings bugs. Code brings security vulnerabilities. And every time

30:52 you ask it to add a new thing, even a word or capitalize a letter, you're getting a whole new program. And you're

30:58 basically you have to regression test the whole thing if you're going to be in a serious business environment.

31:04 So what we did is we built a platform that gets configured. So everything our AI agent could do you could do by hand

31:12 but it does in 10 minutes what would take somebody two days. Yeah. And essentially you know like Salesforce

31:19 right Salesforce was really complex and you have to hire yourself an Apex programmer or or a you know a functional

31:26 consultant to set it up and configure it. Yeah. [laughter] And that's why it gets so expensive.

31:31 It's not only is the service expensive but the resources to power it are expensive. Insane. It is insane. It is

31:39 unbelievable. And they're in such high demand and they make top dollar. Um, so

31:45 we decided that we were gonna do away with all that that one, we were going to make our product very simple to use. I

31:51 noticed that one of your viewers, uh, Ellen Silverman said, "How much how much technical background do I need to use

31:58 SoftEXIT Studio?" And it's virtually none. We we've designed it like comparing the Mac to to the uh to

32:05 Windows, right? It's a much more simpler environment. You don't have to understand concepts for like relational

32:11 databases. We have relational tables where you [snorts] know you have a customer that has orders right and

32:16 that's a one to many relationship. You don't have to understand how any of that works. All you have to do is think of it

32:22 in folders right customer has folders with data in it. And essentially that's how we built it out. Now if you like

32:30 let's say somebody was building out a Salesforce or an Airtable system might take several days to build out a system

32:37 on ours we could do it in a day or a half day by hand or we can just ask the AI agent to do it for us in less than 10

32:45 minutes. So, and then not only does it configure everything for you, unlike an

32:51 AI code generator, it configures everything for you in a way that you want to be able to process

32:58 the results or run the numbers or extract the the data. Yeah.

33:04 By telling it this is what I want to do, it'll just build the program for you in 10 minutes. Yeah. Give you an example. Say

33:11 and then you say, "Oh, wait. I didn't like the way it did that. Can you do it this way differently?

33:16 Yes, 100%. So you can you can create unlimited solutions and you can use these solutions like sandboxes and you

33:23 can say uh AI hold on hold on hold on we need to we need to talk about this right now. So

33:28 sandbox I know what it is now. I I I've heard it forever but I've recently heard

33:34 about it. Uh sandboxes because of is it Huggy face?

33:40 Uh I I haven't looked at that one yet. I've heard a lot about it, but I haven't looked. There's that thing going on there. And

33:46 what was supposed to be about that is uh these agents that they were testing uh

33:54 it escaped. They escaped from the sandbox. So, what the only reason I bring that up, we

33:59 don't have to go down that whole thing unless you want to. Um but the sandbox just means that it's this program inside

34:08 of its enclosed environment, right? That's right. Right. We we have nothing we have

34:14 nothing that will escape. I guarantee you that. Um, essentially it's a sandbox outside of your production environment.

34:20 So, right, if you want to tinker around with what AI can do, but you want to you don't want to interfere with your mainline business

34:26 because that's all stable and and operating the way you want it, then you create another solution. You ask AI to

34:32 generate something. So, I'll give you an example. Let's say, you know, I you know, I I you can generate the CRM right

34:39 off the bat. We have a se customer relationship model right now. If you want to extend it and say, you know

34:45 what, I need some basic inventory. I can't keep track of the things on my shelves. I don't know when they're

34:50 running low. That's the hardest point. You know, that's that's a point where a business

34:55 changes from from a mom and pop shop from a micro company into a small

35:03 business. Uh, but that's the that right there is that's that's a big thing right

35:08 there, right? Yeah. So, instead of going out and buying another expensive SAS, you just say,

35:13 "Hey, AR architect, I need this accounting system. I just want to track POS's suppliers and inventory level and

35:19 you just type it like the way I said and then it builds all the tables. It builds the data entry forms. It builds the

35:25 dashboards and then you you have it all configured in the solution and then

35:31 let's say you don't like it. you say, you know, I need a few more tables or I just need to add this tweak. Well, a lot

35:38 of people can't do tweak the code that AI is generating, but you can tweak this because it's an application now. You

35:44 just open up the table and say you press the add a field button and you could do it right there without regener.

35:51 Yeah, it's all in the cloud. All in the cloud. Dude, I love this thing. I'm loving it

35:57 better and better. Every once in a while we get a a podcast on here, but I I

36:02 haven't seen the real estate podcast, so this probably a business owner. Very interested in what you're talking about

36:08 here. That's my guest. Um um uh so what I normally do is I have people when

36:14 somebody's making a comment, I have a guest read the comment and I'll

36:20 I'll read questions because I like to adjust them slightly. So let's let's keep that agreement along the way here.

36:27 Um, but I'm good. This one has both. So, for the first ones here, I'll I'll I'll I'll also read the comment. Um, so great

36:34 show. Thank you very much. I appreciate it. Um, please uh subscribe and like the

36:40 like the episode. How is AI ch and and I want to change this comment or this

36:46 question a little bit. How is AI changing the way entrepreneurs build businesses today? Reason I said that is

36:54 because obviously it is. But I think it's what we're talking about is a AI is

37:00 changing how entrepreneurs do things in their business and how much they can do

37:05 and how much they can compete and how maybe I can sell uh my product far

37:12 beyond Greer County or Mangum Oklahoma across the the United States is in a

37:17 much easier way because all of this can be now non-code. But but also how are

37:25 they changing the way people think about building their businesses or is that a

37:30 bridge too far? People already changing the way they think about building a business because of AI.

37:37 It's completely changed the way I would approach it. Right. Like Okay. Okay. That's interesting.

37:42 I spoke earlier that I I consider AI like my co-founder, right? And I don't

37:48 have to pay that co-founder or argue with them or fight over the business. and we split at some point in time

37:54 because AI is not going to take my business away. But it does bring expertise I don't have.

37:59 So that's one the size of the company has changed, right? I don't have to hire an army of programmers now.

38:06 I can have AI build that out. So it and then I could take the money that would go there and focus it

38:12 somewhere else. and where I think if you if you're an entrepreneur entrepreneur

38:18 today, I think there's going to be a lot more of us and I think it's going to become a lot noisy and a harder more

38:25 more difficult to get attention, right? So, I think the the this is a big future

38:30 for marketing people because if there's more of us, how do we stand out from the crowd? And it's usually we have to turn

38:37 to marketing. Yeah. They have they have to help us out, right? It's like like just take the apps on the app store. There's two million of

38:43 them on Apple alone, right? You you can't even be found now unless you advertise, right? So, I I think

38:49 that's what's going to happen with all businesses. You're going to see some amazing small

38:54 businesses that are going to eat the lunch of larger corporations because they can't be as nimble now and

39:00 especially with the smaller uh businesses with AI as a tool and they

39:06 have a lot of miles to feed. So, they have to probably cut people, which is to compete because they're not going to be

39:12 able to compete because their product is so expensive that they can't afford to to fight the small guy anymore.

39:19 Exactly. I was just going to say it's funny because it's kind of the tables have all almost all basically changed in

39:27 that we we haven't been able to compete with the big guy the IBMs and and and

39:32 not in the world because you know if we're going to get anywhere with anything we need a team of people or

39:37 like I said or that 22 year old that's got an amazing idea but he or she just

39:43 doesn't have half a million dollars to develop it. Well, with an application

39:48 that that statement that when I was writing the the monologue that statement, remember I told you I got off

39:55 on this whole other idea. I want to start this contest. Can your can you create an application that creates a

40:02 contest? I want to create a company. This is what I wanted to do. How can I

40:08 how can I get it there? And then it it creates something and then you go back and you challenge it and it creates

40:15 something more and you challenge it and and you create this contest for the city of Mango. Um there's some way to

40:23 obviously do that. But this right here is once you have that company I can now

40:31 and and pro actually probably can help you build a business in within itself. You know, I have my I

40:39 have my mechanics business here. I want to be able to develop a better mark. You talked about marketing. Marketing is

40:45 going to be huge because the way to market is also different. You know, the tools, it's not just back magazine ads

40:52 now. You know, it's a whole different Tik Tok and the algorithms and the AI is

40:57 going to help with that. And and then there's going to be things looking for AI to help fight against that. So, it's

41:03 going to get a lot more complicated uh as as time goes along. But, yeah, I I I I appreciate the way you put that is

41:11 that your reaction to me was was my my

41:16 exposure being a novice because you said I wouldn't think of I I totally think about business as different now because

41:23 of AI. And and when you said that, I went, "Oh, duh." Yeah. Okay. I I get

41:29 some I get some things that make sense here. Cody here. He says, "This is fascinating. Can small businesses really

41:37 compete with larger companies using AI?" We were just talking about it. So, just put a little color in there between the

41:44 layers for uh for Cody, would you? So, 100%. Right. We can compete on

41:49 price. We can compete on a personal touch, right? How many times have you

41:54 tried to even You can't even find a phone number for a large corporation. They don't want to talk to you. I hate that. they you know so you know

42:02 there's so many different ways that we can take the business away from these large companies they can't get out of

42:07 their own way. That's a great point. That is a great great great point. Literally the tables

42:15 are turning. Yeah. Just just think about all the people that they're laying off and you

42:22 know these large companies. They have no idea that they are creating they're they're creating weapons that are going

42:27 to come after them with AI because they have the knowledge of how those companies work. They know their

42:32 shortcomings. Yeah. They they know how to beat them and they're going to be able to do it at

42:38 a smaller scale and uh it's going to be interesting to watch.

42:44 Well, what's what's going to be really and Yes, it is. Absolutely. That makes I mean just from a just from a different

42:50 standpoint, I love the way you just said that. It's going to be interesting to watch how the economy evolves and

42:56 changes over the years because now everything's everything's flipped back.

43:02 I mean, h how has most successful larger companies been developed? It's

43:09 because they were at another company and didn't like the way that the other company was doing it or saw a better way

43:15 that they could do it. But do you know how many is a percentage at least probably of those people who wanted to

43:24 but couldn't because of the example of the 22year-old that had a has a great idea sitting at their kitchen table but

43:31 doesn't have a half a million dollars to start it. Right now what you said it's going to be

43:36 interesting to watch. Imagine this right now. I think I think small businesses

43:42 I think and small business is not what you would imagine it. Small business is defined as like probably a hundred

43:48 million dollar a year company. So, you know, a $30 million a year, you know,

43:53 whatever. It's a very, it's not a mom and pop. So if you have a bunch of small

44:01 businesses, entrepreneurs now starting these companies competing with these larger companies,

44:08 uh if you have 60% I think is of employed by of of people are employed by

44:15 small business, I bet you I bet you that number is going to dramatically shrink

44:21 because of opportunity. I mean, can you imagine making seven figures and just

44:27 being able to do it at home and not have to deal with employees or at least only a couple of them? I mean, the the

44:34 widening of that of that playing field is probably going to happen, isn't it?

44:39 Well, I think I I think you're going to see a lot of things. You're going to see smaller companies that that will be on the rise. I think some smaller companies

44:47 will actually expand and start to hire some of these experts, right? And you

44:53 know they they want to bring on people with knowledge because as we all know AI

44:59 remember the old adage right garbage in garbage out for computers. Yeah. Yeah. It's just AI is no different database. It's just a

45:06 right garbage in garbage out. Exactly. You're you're you might want to hire

45:11 someone from one of these larger companies because they have insight. they will be able to ask the better

45:16 question of AI and build you better processes, better tools, uh things of

45:21 that nature. So, I think it I don't think this is going to go in one

45:27 direction. I think we're going to watch it play out and then you're going to see some introductions of new technologies

45:33 that'll change the game, right? And people are learning how to use AI. You know, we we got past the memes. We got

45:40 past the, oh, look at the funny video. I can make this guy do this, right? It none of that's going to generate a dime.

45:46 It's very interesting and great discussion, but people are starting to leverage AI in ways that businesses can

45:54 monetize and use. And I'm seeing some really interesting things and they're

46:00 making everything affordable for the smaller businesses so they can operate on a level that they've never been able

46:06 to operate before. this is the time to to bootstrap and this is the time to

46:12 start your own company. I really do. I think it's going to be incredibly exciting.

46:18 Or you're going to be dear in the headlights and you're going to miss the opportunity. There it is. And you're going to be one of those guys

46:24 that said, "Oh, why didn't I think of that?" Right? Because we all know those people. We've all been those people.

46:29 Right? So, this is a everyone should just jump into this and just start playing around.

46:35 You you can't break anything. You're not going to get hurt. Just start playing with ChatGPT and see what it does. It'll

46:41 generate ideas. Yeah. And you can actually have a like a a sidekick to be safe. You know, having

46:48 the side hustle is much more uh relevant and easy to do nowadays because you

46:53 don't have all that that extra time needed. You're saving a lot of time and money. So, this is this is where we're

46:59 going to get into it a little bit here. Ellen here. It looks like Ellen's a uh pretty pretty uh obviously a success.

47:08 Obviously a business person of some sort. So uh let's get into some of the

47:14 the the bolts and nuts here. Let's So we've talked about how much it can help

47:19 and what it can do. So in in running this a little nuts and bolts here. How

47:27 much technical knowledge I know what it takes to learn uh some of these other

47:33 other ones. How much technical knowledge is actually needed to use softex exit

47:39 effectively? Uh very very little. Uh if you understand the basic concepts of a database right it's it database is

47:46 uh is a different representation of a spreadsheet. The spreadsheet has columns and rows. The databases have the same

47:54 names. They call them records and fields. Right. A field is a column. A row is a record. That's right.

47:59 The the thing about databases is they can stitch like 12 different uh related

48:05 spreadsheets together for you and you don't have to visualize it all at once. So, you can have all this data in

48:11 different tables or different spreadsheets, so to speak, and then you say, "Hey, I need to know every single

48:18 interaction with my client in the last two months because I can tell they're calling. They they look like they're upset. I don't want to answer the phone

48:24 cold." Right? So, you can go into the database and see all those interactions. or you can see

48:30 all the things they purchase or I need a list of customers where all their contracts are expiring this this month

48:37 so I can call them up and remind them right and and be of good service to my clients some of them say hey thanks

48:43 because I would have let that expire it anything you track could be tracked in this tool and it

48:49 doesn't need you don't need a developer you don't need to have a technical appointment this is making scheduling

48:56 appointments this is are are we doing automated ated systems like I'm sending

49:02 a letter out of my out of my uh out of my uh SRS

49:07 automations are coming uh and they won't be far off. We're going to do uh some integrations. Uh one of the main

49:14 integrations we want to do is Zapier. Uh so that Oh, I love Zapier. Okay, that connects you to like 9,000

49:21 different things. So you can connect it to QuickBooks and things like that. So that is coming. Um, we feel that there's

49:28 a large uh a large set of clients out there that aren't doing that yet that they just want to keep track of stuff

49:33 because they're losing track of of their their items that are important to them because they because of all the

49:39 spreadsheets and but but you're doing appointments. We can do appointments in it. It doesn't

49:45 have a scheduleuler yet, but that is also on the way. We're getting some requests for that where you actually

49:50 have a calendar. Um the reason why we didn't tackle that first is you can do all that in Outlook.

49:56 Yeah. No, no, absolutely. I get that. So, so I I'm asking about the calendar

50:01 because um in in the database and in and let's say maintenance uh issues that are

50:09 quarterly versus by-early, right? I mean, we're we're we're building that's

50:14 part of this, right? That you're you're able to has to have a calendar to it.

50:20 Yeah. You add a field, right? You add a field that says due date and you put in there uh the the date it's due, right?

50:27 And then we have our our grids that could filter data that says there give me everything that's going to be

50:34 due in the next 30 days, right? And it's a drop down. You don't have to program that in. You just it literally says last

50:40 30 days or last seven days and you pick it. You don't have to program any of that. And then once you

50:46 So you just tell it the last seven days and then boom, that thing happened. Yep. It filters it all out. It creates a

50:51 separate list for you. You could have Yeah, you could have two different lists. You can say, "Give me a list for last 30 days. Give me a list that's

50:58 going to expire in the next 90 days." And then and then you work off that list. You create any view that you want.

51:05 And essentially all you do is you go into the dashboard and you do create create a create a widget and create a

51:11 view. It's we call it a component and it creates a grid and you tell it what you want the grid to show.

51:18 You're just doing this. What's that? You're just doing this. Yeah, you're telling it what you want it to do.

51:24 Well, you can It's easier just to go in and create the widget and then and configure because it's not programming.

51:30 It's it's literally you say add a grid and it adds the grid and it says add a grid from this table and that takes

51:36 literally one second as opposed to waiting for AI to turn it up. Customize it down to that level.

51:43 Yeah. Then you say then you then you've got your grid and it's got everything in it. And then you go up to the filter command and you say I want to know this

51:51 date everything that will be expiring in the next 30 days and then it just creates that grid and then you say save

51:57 that and you put it on a tab and then you create that as a menu item and it's always there so you can go view

52:03 it every month. It it's really easy to use it. You know there's we need to

52:08 create some tutorial videos. Those are coming. So, we're racing the market. So, we don't have all our our documentation

52:15 things. But, but here's the here's the thing is we have a consistent way on how we do everything. So, once you kind of

52:21 learn one concept, you can apply it everywhere and it's not very complicated.

52:26 Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Now, just to add add to that a little bit. So,

52:33 Danny, thank you. This is a fascinating discussion and I'm I'm loving this. I'm loving the, you know, you know how when

52:39 you get into something and your mind is like, "Oh, you can do that. You can do that. Oh, oh, and that, you know, and

52:46 because I'm relating this like I I had in an earlier conversation today, you

52:52 and I we're sitting there watching the same conversation. We're having this conversation, but there's going to be

52:58 certain aspects of it that I react different or accept or or hear differently than you do because all of

53:05 the sum total of my life today is has been all the sum total of the events of

53:11 my life, right? And and my reactions to that and all that's filtered through this brain that doesn't really know the

53:18 truth of anything. It just knows what what my synapses say I'm experienced

53:23 life like. And and and this is is is just that ability to continue to

53:30 experience that next level and and we really owe

53:35 ourselves a responsibility to do this because the world is not going to not

53:41 continue evolving. And so Danny, really fascinating discussion here. How do you

53:47 think AI will change the way small businesses build and launch new products? So, we

53:54 talked about how they'll even create their businesses, but I didn't think about this because it's got to be easier

54:00 to build and launch products 100% than it ever has been ever in the history of

54:06 time before, right? Yes, absolutely. I the way we used it is

54:12 uh for deployments, right? We have it write our deployment scripts. We don't need we don't need uh operations people

54:20 anymore. I mean really, you know, when when we didn't let anyone go, but we just didn't build up

54:26 SOPs, right? Yep. And uh essentially, you know, we do deployment with a tool called Jenkins.

54:33 And it's really great. It's a push of a button. We write the code. We check the code into GitHub. I know this isn't

54:39 going to make a lot of sense to a lot of people, but essentially GitHub is a repository where the source code goes

54:45 and it keeps it keeps every single version for you. And then we tell this tool called Jenkins, go get the latest

54:52 and put it out on the servers and it just does it. We just literally push a button. It it automatically backs up our

54:59 data. It automatically puts a message out to everyone, hey, we're having scheduled maintenance. So, we don't have to do any of this anymore. We literally

55:07 we hit a button and that's all it takes to do a deployment. I remember when I

55:13 worked for Motorola, we would do a deployment. We'd have a hundred leaders, team leaders in a room and people would

55:20 scream out whether they were ready or not. It was like NASA, right? You know, operations check, right? Is this is the

55:27 temperature in the suit okay? Yes. Check. Move on to the next thing. And it would take all day to release something.

55:34 Now it takes like five minutes. I push a button, I go have a cup of coffee, it's

55:39 done. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, the the world the world is has really changed a lot.

55:46 Now, there's also, you know, there's there's good to bad, right? There's good there's good and bad. Um, and and really

55:52 it it depends. I'm assuming you're a uh you're a Elon Musk fan. I'm guessing. I

55:58 would I would assume. I would guess. I don't know. whatever you want to say. I I uh I'm I'm a fan person. I uh you

56:07 know, some of the things that politics has gotten into and and and you know,

56:12 made some things uh more challenging to understand

56:18 why you wouldn't listen to some of those concepts and some of those thoughts. And

56:24 I agree, he's a he's a he's an unusual character. is the by far the wealthiest man in the world by tons of far. Um, and

56:32 he's got some amazing concepts, but he talks about the world eventually became

56:39 having the ability to he talks about eventually having the

56:44 ability to have a utopia on earth. And he says that because in his belief over

56:50 time uh automation, AI, robots they they all are creating

56:57 the cost of providing business and and and services. The cost of those those

57:05 being supplied are going lower and lower and lower and lower and lower to the

57:10 point of the really the only concern in the future will be never inflation. it'll be deflation. Uh but with that

57:19 said, I I I I think there's there's some real

57:24 um there's some real truth to that. The concept there's a lot of arguments that

57:30 can be made one way or the other. But but the biggest thing to me that's critical is what we're doing right now

57:37 and learning about this stuff. being able to take advantage of a a scenario,

57:42 a situation where we can become a better society. We can become uh more

57:49 entrepreneurs, we can the more and more that we as a society and and and as a

57:54 people and as a a species, the more we protect ourselves about the bad side of

58:00 all this potential. I said there's good side and bad side of happening. And and

58:06 that potential is the one where oh those are several movies where the robots kill and eat all the people and

58:14 you know there's that kind of potential AI but then there's also to me the more

58:19 relevant and concerning one is the governments and officials and so forth uh uh you know regulating

58:26 may be the wrong word in this in this example but u having a scenario where

58:33 the the great middle class the B's and U's in the world. Rod, I'm elevating

58:39 myself by saying me and you, but please excuse me for that for now. But um the

58:44 the the ability for us to have uh that result can be really challenged if we

58:51 don't pay more attention to how the leaders of our our countries and our

58:57 government are are taking care are or how they're addressing and and listening

59:02 to uh what what's going on in in this world. So, one of the things that people

59:09 talk about is how jobs may shift and change. So, what do you think this is

59:14 like like Clayton says here, how do you see AI changing the role of software developers uh in the next few years? I

59:21 mean, my my son and I have talked about this quite a bit. What do you think? So, okay. So, that's kind of the not so,

59:29 you know, one of the glamorous side of this because Well, well, you know what it is and it

59:35 isn't. And and I hope you're saying because it's just hasn't been talked about enough. My one of the things my

59:42 son and I talked about is there's an evolution in the economy because jobs

59:47 aren't necessarily going away, but they are going to be changing. Maybe you don't have a developer, but you have

59:52 somebody who's managing a bunch of AI agents. Well, there's there's a lot of software

59:59 developers who've invested, you know, you know, four, six, eight years of college

1:00:04 and um I'll be honest, you know, well, I'm a coder, so I can review the stuff that's coming out of AI and I do really

1:00:11 closely to make sure to design as well, but we're not hiring programmers. That's

1:00:17 got to be an impact. And I think that's a real problem. you're gonna have a ton

1:00:23 of people that are going to be out of uh out of employment. Now, a large portion of them are could have an

1:00:29 entrepreneurial spirit and start their own companies and well that's what you were alluding to earlier on. Yeah. So,

1:00:35 yeah. So, I mean these guys can look at the tech and say, "Hey, I could do this better. I know how to do this." Right.

1:00:42 But not everyone's an entrepreneur, right? you have in a lot of these companies that are the equivalent of

1:00:48 pacer a paper pusher programmers that I'm not sure they have an idea they've

1:00:54 been they've been following instructions for so long I think those people are are

1:00:59 going to have to consider a career change or get really good at being an entrepreneur because I think developer

1:01:06 jobs are going to be a thing of the past I don't think you're going to see a lot of them five 10 years from now for sure

1:01:12 because the code that these things start producing. I know a lot of people have wishful thinking and they they joke that

1:01:18 it creates garbage code and all that. Um, yeah, it's a risk, right? You have security risks and all that. You have to

1:01:25 review it, but if you start telling it to look for those certain things, it does adjust and it gets better. And it's

1:01:31 back to the garbage in, garbage out. If you're a good programmer, you can have AI produce incredible things. If you're

1:01:37 a lousy programmer, yeah, you're going to write code or ask for code that's that because you didn't think about

1:01:43 asking for security. You didn't think about asking for certain features or you didn't create or you didn't provide

1:01:50 input for the design that you see a year out because it can't read your mind, right? So yeah, it's going to there's a

1:01:56 lot of crap programmers programmers out there creating a lot of crap programs from AI and you're going to see a lot of

1:02:03 that, but it's the good ones that are going to create amazing things. So where

1:02:08 do those people land? I don't know. I don't have a good answer for that. And and you know, it's a it's a real concern

1:02:14 in the industry. So, and if you really want to check the barometer,

1:02:19 a lot of people are like, well, you know, tech in in the United States has, you know, one of the lowest unemployment

1:02:25 rates, right? You're right. But where do we get all our programmers from? The the

1:02:30 majority of them overseas. And no one's tracking the unemployment

1:02:35 rates of technology in overseas. And I am been picking up vibes that some of

1:02:41 these companies in Latin America are getting huge hits in their stock because they can't land these big contracts

1:02:48 anymore because companies have wised up and they say, "Well, you should be able to do that with one quarter to the

1:02:54 developers." And they're right. And so they're having to let go a lot of people because they can no longer justify

1:03:01 hundred people teams when they know that, you know, five guys with AI can do

1:03:06 almost the same thing now. So yeah, I think you're going to see some turmoil in the tech industry and

1:03:13 then we'll figure it all out and then I think the danger is that'll spill over to the rest of the world. Once tech

1:03:20 figures it out, everyone copies us. Yeah. Well, no doubt. and and when it

1:03:25 comes realistically there's a lot of competition in this but realistically I think the US is still well ahead in in

1:03:32 the AI world of of of of where we stand in compared to say a China or or e the

1:03:40 EU and others but that's because of what our fabric is our fabric what what is the United

1:03:46 States right it's the place where people come to start a business right because there's no restrictions like there are

1:03:52 in their own country this where the home of the entrepreneur is. This is why we should fare better

1:03:58 than most countries. The only the only thing that's going to be and yes, I agree with you because of

1:04:04 that exact thing. What you just said is so very true. Um and the the only thing that that uh is interesting to me is

1:04:13 that you said it's going to be interesting is is see how this all plays out. So, and

1:04:20 the entrepreneurship and and big business versus small business and and and big emerging technologies that have

1:04:28 come out, you know, the industrial revolution, which has basically been the last revolution that that the human

1:04:35 species has gone through. Um, you know, there's the the internet coming on and that's obviously

1:04:41 kind of took the industrial revolution and fed it sped that whole concept up.

1:04:48 Stop it. Um the uh she's not usually this bad. She's just very demanding

1:04:53 today. The uh but but the AI this revolution the robots the the Jetsons

1:05:01 are coming. This is happening. I mean the industrial revolution was generations of people right three four

1:05:08 five generations 1920s the 1940s 1950s

1:05:13 you know 1990s you know you there there's a slowish

1:05:19 progression of technology and and what Americans and people are building and

1:05:24 and and business and how a business is evolving now that's counted by minutes

1:05:31 instead of decades Now it's counted by days instead of

1:05:36 generations. And that's going to be what's going to be curious about how when AI

1:05:44 the advantages and the disadvantages come together and how much the entrepreneur sorts all that out, isn't

1:05:51 it? Yeah. And like I said, I don't have a crystal ball here. So I'm on the side. I'm

1:05:58 watching too. And the only thing that I can do is is I'm not going to be able to

1:06:03 change it. I'm not going to be able to stop it. So, I better learn how to navigate it. And you're only going to be

1:06:10 able to do it by keeping your eyes open. If if you're Yeah. If you're going to fool yourself

1:06:16 and say, "Oh, this will never do this," or, "Haha, here's another poor example of what it does bad." Yeah. I could That

1:06:23 makes you feel good, right? But at some point, this thing will steamroll you if

1:06:28 you don't get out of its way. And it's better to be on top of it than under it. So, I would rather be on top.

1:06:36 I couldn't agree with you more. And it's funny because there's several people here that are obviously really buying

1:06:41 into the entrepreneurship. I'm just going to bounce on a couple of these comments here. Um, and then we'll we'll

1:06:47 continue. There's a couple of really good ones coming up. But but Jack here says what what should entrepreneurs run

1:06:54 learn learn from today to stay competitive in an AIdriven market? We were just talking about how how the

1:07:01 entre entrepreneurial spirit is actually probably going to be really driving this

1:07:06 in the right direction and the fact that here in America we're kind of built that

1:07:12 way um you know really helps us in the overall and bigger picture. This is such

1:07:18 an important conversation for business owners. What should entrepreneurs focus on first when adopting AI? So, let's

1:07:25 let's bring those two together a little bit in in a question in in that we've

1:07:31 already kind of talked about this. What should entrepreneurs learn today to stay competitive in this market that AI is

1:07:38 driving as well as what they should would should be focusing on when they f first start using it. A lot of people

1:07:45 have a lot of people haven't though, right? I think I think the success in the long

1:07:52 run will be don't look at AI as AI. Look

1:07:57 at you need to have business sense to be an entrepreneurial. Don't lose sight of that. That's the most important thing

1:08:03 about your business. You're solving somebody's problem. No one's going to pay for a solution if it doesn't solve

1:08:09 their problem. So you want to look for a problem and you want to provide the solution for it. Then consider AI. How

1:08:16 can I leverage this to make the solution faster to market? How I can make it with

1:08:22 less friction on my customers? How can I how can I improve their experience

1:08:28 overall and you know and still provide a personal touch, right? Because we're all

1:08:33 tired of the IVR systems. You know what I mean? IVR where you touch one for this, touch two for that. Now we have to

1:08:38 speak it. But it's a very impersonal experience. And I think that I think that if we allow AI to become the new

1:08:47 IVR, I think those businesses won't do as well as as entrepreneurs have that

1:08:53 opportunity to be closer to their clients and provide them more tailored service. Using AI will enable them to

1:09:01 provide that service at a greater speed and and a greater accuracy and and and

1:09:07 that's what they should focus on. Don't lose sight of being a business person because you know I get sales guys who

1:09:14 call me all the time because of my title and I hold up fingers. Everyone jokes when I hold up fingers because I'm like

1:09:21 here's the first sentence. Here's the second sentence. Up there's AI because that's all they got to sell because they

1:09:28 don't know how to sell me a solution for my problem that they just all they do is blurt out AI and they're hoping to catch

1:09:34 companies that need to. So here's the other side of the coin, right? There's there's companies that need to implement

1:09:40 AI because they have a CEO says we need to be more efficient and we need to get

1:09:46 AI in here. He's he hasn't identified a problem to be solved. He just wants to put his flag on AI and most likely the

1:09:54 motivation is to increase efficiency or reduce staff. So that's your only motivation.

1:10:00 I think AI can help but it's not going to be a differentiator. Right? And this is where I think entrepreneurs should

1:10:08 use AI as a differentiator, not a cost cutter, because they're already

1:10:13 operating at, you know, usually maximum efficiency because they're small. They're, you know, they're kind of

1:10:18 scrappy, right? And they're not going to hire everyone for every single uh issue that they've they can't seem to solve.

1:10:26 So they'll that's when you use AI to your advantage and think about the

1:10:31 business, think about your clients, then think about AI. If you're thinking I need to get in the AI business, it's the

1:10:38 wrong way to go because you're not going to replace anthropic. You're not going to replace open AI, they've cornered

1:10:44 that market. You're going to use those tools to solve business problems for your clients. That's the way I look at

1:10:50 it. I mean, I'm sure there will be exceptions to my viewpoint, but I I

1:10:56 don't think it changes business. It changes how we operate as a business. Great, great point. you know, you were

1:11:02 talking about a little bit ago about um you don't really know how it's going to change the the the software developers,

1:11:09 you know, what's going to happen to to that job to that uh that that all those

1:11:16 people that that uh went to college, they they may have some new uh new directions to to to think about. So, but

1:11:25 let's add to this. What what do you see AI changing the role? You know I had

1:11:31 said my son had mentioned that you know companies are going to evolve our jobs are going to evolve over time. Um what

1:11:38 do you how do you see AI changing the role of software developers in the next few years? And uh I'm on my sixth fifth

1:11:47 straight uh show hour. So extend your your talk because I'm going to do

1:11:52 something I did when you first popped in. Okay. I got you. All right. All right. So AI for software developers. If I were

1:12:00 you, you know, I I give the same advice I gave, you know, decades ago to my

1:12:05 software developers that, you know, if if you're going to, you know, stay in technology, you're going to hit a

1:12:11 ceiling where you're not going to get any higher. So, I encourage them to get into management because they're the the

1:12:16 sky's the limit, right? There's only so much they're going to pay the smartest technical guy in the room. So, I I have

1:12:23 the similar advice for software developers. They need to get more into architecture.

1:12:28 uh they need to get more into management decision on how to shape a company through technology as opposed to

1:12:36 actually hammering out the code. So as you start out as a developer and as much as fun as software development is you

1:12:44 you want to eventually move up and you don't want to plateau. So you want to

1:12:49 get more involved with the business discussions and that that's where you lead into management. So management can

1:12:56 have an influence on how technology is used in a company. So that's that's the recommendation I have for you is start

1:13:03 to learn how to become more of an architect. Designing systems integrations is a big thing. How to get

1:13:08 systems that are are not the same talking to each other. That is a massive

1:13:14 market out there. There are some businesses that have crappy products and they're still thriving today because

1:13:20 they have a thousand integrations. They can make this system talk to that system. And that's essentially like a

1:13:26 system architect. Those are the kind of things you want to start focusing on because I think at some point in time I

1:13:33 don't think people are going to be asked to write code. Uh the other thing is you know I would bring back older languages.

1:13:40 Okay. Wait, what do you mean by that? Uh some people have been asked to write code. I don't No, I said I don't think people

1:13:47 are going to be asked to write code at some point in the future. I think they're going to trust the AI generator

1:13:52 better. I I've noticed in the last year how much it's improved. You know, when I

1:13:58 first started building with it, I used to have I used to be screaming at the computer. My

1:14:03 wife's like, "What are you screaming at?" I go, "This thing just screwed me." So, there's a thing called feature

1:14:09 drift. So, I'll put it in layman's terms. So, I want to build a car, right? And I tell it, "Build me a car. I want

1:14:16 four wheels, a steering wheel, four doors, you know, a windshield, a hood, and a trunk." Right? So, it builds the

1:14:22 car. And then I tell it, "Hey, you know what? I want power steering." And it puts in the power steering. You know, I

1:14:27 want leather seats. So, it puts in the leather seats. And then say, "Okay, I wanna I want to have a battery in a

1:14:33 trunk. Wait, where'd the trunk go? There's no trunk door here. What the hell? I just I asked for it to put a

1:14:40 trunk door. Put the trunk door back." That's called feature drift. So then you say, "Okay, I got the trunk back. So now

1:14:46 I want some, you know, tires with white walls." And then, "Hey, where's my steering wheel? Where'd it go?"

1:14:52 So it was really bad with that and it was you had to keep an eye on it. And so

1:14:58 I would tell I would tell the the generators to only focus on small areas

1:15:04 and then I would control what it would have access to so that I know it wasn't removing something because it would it

1:15:10 would I I think it would prioritize things. If you hadn't asked for a particular thing in your system, it

1:15:16 would remove it because it figured you you didn't ask for it. You must not value it. So it took it out and put

1:15:22 other things in that you were asking for it recently. That's called feature drift. Yeah. In the last year,

1:15:29 I've experienced that. I know now thinking back now I know what you I didn't know what it was at the time, but

1:15:35 actually got really frustrated. I spent four weeks on a feature.

1:15:40 It's like what the To find out that, you know, I went to demo it and it was gone. And I'm like,

1:15:45 "Oh my god, I better get this thing into a version system so I can make sure I can go back and get that code." And that

1:15:52 helped. But over time, you know, cuz I didn't trust it. So I would I would inspect

1:15:59 everything it generated. I would make sure nothing was missing. Uh I would have to regression test almost every

1:16:05 time it builds something. But in the last year, I've noticed that's been drifting away and there's been less and

1:16:11 less feature drift. So, I can see the trend over time that eventually I'll

1:16:17 have 100% trust in this thing. And I know that's that sounds risky, but if it's doing it this well now and it stays

1:16:24 on the same trajectory, I can imagine that it writes incredible code

1:16:30 five years from now. I I Yeah. And I to add to I I think on the same trajectory, nothing. I think

1:16:36 that trajectory is even coming up. I mean it's the the the the ability of

1:16:43 they they say that you know five years from now or maybe 10 years from now somewhere in there um AI is going to be

1:16:51 writing better AI than than humans you know it's going to be writing itself that's where a little concern also sits

1:16:58 but that's another conversation. Um, so yeah, I I could see like you said that

1:17:04 that example. What a great example you use because I could connect to the feature drift thing because I I've seen

1:17:11 it, been there, done that. David here, what what what is one business process

1:17:18 you should think that somebody should automate first? And God, this is a great

1:17:23 question because when it comes to automation and what I tell you before and my son at least explained it like

1:17:29 this to me, if you want it repeated time after time after time after time and

1:17:34 exactly correct, write an automation, right? That's exactly it. If if it's a

1:17:41 repetitive process and you can you can put it if you can write it in instructions, right? Then

1:17:48 you want to automate that. You know what this is? You know what? You know what uh automation is? It's

1:17:54 probably the very first uh Henry Ford um No, it's the it's the evolution.

1:18:01 Sorry, I said that backwards. It's the evolution of the very first Henry Ford assembly line, isn't it?

1:18:08 Yeah, it is. It's like that concept. It's kind of bizarre to think about that. Um but

1:18:14 what's the what's the first thing? What's the first thing somebody should automate? I think you know support is a

1:18:22 good one. Um support takes a long time. It requires a huge investment in

1:18:27 knowledge a knowledge base and you know when somebody leaves your company when you say a knowledge base in other

1:18:34 words potential things that could happen that are being supported by a support

1:18:39 team. Yeah. Or by an individual. Right. You know it's like you know Bob is the only

1:18:45 one who knows how that works and if Bob leaves we're screwed. Well, you might want to take a look at what Bob's doing

1:18:50 and try to automate some of that stuff because one day Bob's going to retire and you know, you're going to do a

1:18:56 knowledge transfer in what, two weeks? You're going to transfer a guy's lifetime knowledge of a particular

1:19:02 process that no one paid any attention to because Bob handled it quite well and

1:19:08 it wasn't exciting. It it wasn't an upward mobile career path for what Bob does. So, but when Bob leaves, you're

1:19:15 going to really find out really fast what he's done for the company. And sometimes they're missionritical, right?

1:19:21 Uh I remember I I consulted with this one company and they were shocked to

1:19:27 find out that literally hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars of every

1:19:32 single piece of merchandise they had went through this guy's spreadsheet. And

1:19:40 unbelievable. and it was the spreadsheet was an absolute mess and they had to automate that and it took months to

1:19:48 figure out how to automate it. Those are the things I would look for is missionritical things that that if they

1:19:55 you know these are the cogs that if they disappear you could be out of business quite literally because no one knows how

1:20:02 those functions work and these are the things that need to be sought out and automated first right so support is a

1:20:10 big one because you have a lot of people that have domain knowledge and and it's it's not a it's not an exciting job

1:20:17 right you're not going to it's hard to attract people to support or people maybe haven't even thought about it. You know, the Bob's been doing

1:20:24 it for so long. Um, oh Bob's gonna retire. When's he retiring? Next week. What? How are

1:20:32 you going to get that that that's that's a big one right there. You just don't think about it. It's not that it's not

1:20:37 even the not so exciting thing in the world to do. It's not upwardly mobile. It's just not in the SOPs.

1:20:44 Yeah. And and also maybe no one wants to do Bob's job. you know, how are you going to find someone to do that job,

1:20:50 right? You know, no one or to do more than what they're already doing.

1:20:55 Now, like in software development, no one no one uh went to software developing school to learn how to be a

1:21:02 support agent. So, we kind of made that the pathway in because we couldn't attract people who wanted to do

1:21:08 technical support. So, we'd say, "Hey, come in, learn the business, learn through technical support." It was a

1:21:14 great path too because you got exposure to clients to to customer issues to internal issues and you learn the

1:21:20 business before we threw you at the code that was going to be running the company so to speak, right?

1:21:26 Yeah. So, I mean that was a great way to bring people in and help them learn. But let me tell you, it wasn't glamorous, right?

1:21:32 No one was excited. They wanted the the software development job. They wanted the glamorous job. So if you can

1:21:39 automate some of that and then it pulls from a database that has all of your knowledge, you know, all the cases and

1:21:46 all that, that would really cut down on on jobs that people aren't excited to

1:21:51 have. It would increase your ability to service your customers, right? How many times you waited on a phone for an

1:21:58 answer? How many times have you talked to a guy goes, I I don't know. I got to get a senior guy to, you know, and

1:22:04 basically the senior guy, well, that's Bob. So you got to wait till Bob gets to

1:22:09 it. That's the kind of anticipation. He he'll get to it in probably a couple of weeks, right?

1:22:15 Yeah. And then, you know, if you could automate that stuff, right, and then you could reduce those jobs that really no

1:22:21 one is excited to take, you could shift that money and hire other real people to do things that are

1:22:27 really going to make a difference. And my last boss used to always say, you know, hey, I don't want to build

1:22:32 anything that doesn't bring value, right? He wasn't big on process. he wasn't big on on paperwork and all that.

1:22:39 So, you could take that money and and create value for your company instead of

1:22:45 having to hire a bunch of people that are pushing paper. Yeah, it just gives you so much more uh

1:22:50 leverage and options as well. Now, we we talked about this earlier. Um, can you expand on this a little bit because I I

1:22:57 almost didn't reask the question, but we've kind of already talked about this in in your application, your no coding

1:23:06 uh application. So, could somebody uh literally um with zero coding experience

1:23:12 and I already know the answer is yes, of course, realistically build a useful business application. Uh the reason I'm

1:23:20 only I'm adding this because again I'm a novice here when she's saying useful

1:23:26 business application. Um uh uh so I would need a business

1:23:32 application to create these databases, these uh uh Excel spreadsheets, these lines. Um

1:23:41 but if she's talking about building a business application, wouldn't your application just be that thing that

1:23:46 would create the application? Is that place that question? I think

1:23:52 the whole purpose the whole purpose of soft SoftEXIT studio is so you don't

1:23:57 have to build these internal applications so you can focus on your business and that's where that's where

1:24:03 you want your attention. You don't want to get in and start communicating. You remember you remember there was an IBM commercial that where there was a

1:24:10 guy in a boardroom and he's like okay the server's down. What's going on with the servers? Are the databases working

1:24:16 right? and he's going through all these technical lists and everyone says, "No, there's nothing like that to discuss."

1:24:22 And then they push a shirt in front of the guy and he goes, "What's this?" He goes, "Sir, that's what we do. We sell

1:24:28 shirts." Right? Because he's been so focused on technical issues supporting his business. He's lost focus of what

1:24:35 they actually do as a business, right? That's the whole purpose of SoftEXIT Studio. It's supposed to put that in

1:24:42 reach of smaller companies. It's an affordable solution. So they can have it

1:24:47 build the solutions for them. Now that question could be interpreted two ways. Can somebody take no no code and build a

1:24:54 business solution and sell it? That's a totally different beast. So that's what

1:25:00 we've done, but our expertise is doing that. And AI can replace some aspects of

1:25:06 that. It can replace some of the coders and and bring down your cost. But man

1:25:11 there is a whole bunch of challenges that come with running a software business. There is uh you have to deploy

1:25:18 it. You have to know how to deploy it. You have to know understand security. You have to be compliant. You have to um

1:25:25 you have to have insurance you know cyber security insurance so in case you get breached that you don't get sued

1:25:31 into eternity. You've got to you got to have um you got to have so many things

1:25:37 that come along with it. You got to have availability of resources cuz you go online, you're a 24 by7 company now.

1:25:43 That thing goes down at 3:00 in the morning. You don't have the luxury of sleeping till the morning. You're now married to that thing

1:25:50 and you have to support it constantly. So it's it's a greater burden. Now you

1:25:56 could write an app, right? If it the app doesn't require a backend or a database,

1:26:01 those you can churn out. But now you're also competing with two million apps per app store and you're going to be faced

1:26:07 with the same challenges of marketing and a marketing budget and making sure that you're creating the solution that

1:26:13 people can can use to solve a problem. So you're going to have all the same challenges of a regular business. So AI

1:26:21 lowers the barrier, lowers the bar, but it doesn't completely open up the gates.

1:26:26 It's not a manifest destiny of hey, this is the only thing that's been holding me back for a successful business.

1:26:34 Yeah. No, that that that makes that makes a lot of sense. And it it's funny to hear these back and forths. I mean,

1:26:41 we talked about the industrial revolution took this amount of time. This revolution's taken

1:26:47 God, it's just like momentum c catching up. But it it's interesting to hear the back and forth and in the new and the

1:26:54 old and a lot of things still hold true. Sound business, sound business

1:26:59 decisions, sound actions. Um, at the end of the day are are still things that are

1:27:06 absolutely true and and aren't going to change just because AI is doing something. there's that human

1:27:12 perspective that really needs to be that that guidance because AI is a it's a

1:27:18 database, right? It's a memory base. It's a it's it's not a creation event.

1:27:24 Why don't you read what Clayton has to read here? I got a couple of comments I'm going to have you read. Sure. He's uh he wrote, "Really enjoying

1:27:30 the live discussion. James brings a unique perspective." Yes, I have a unique perspective.

1:27:37 [laughter] I've worked um you know I've worked for a couple of very different types of companies.

1:27:42 Hold on before you go on down this road. One of the biggest unique uh things that

1:27:47 you bring is the incredible um AI the incredible technology

1:27:55 na knowledge base. But what's really also important and maybe equally

1:28:01 important is the communications abilities that you have. the ability to

1:28:06 communicate in a way that let's face it not all people the nerds you know

1:28:12 there's the term right the nerds there's a they're running the world but uh I I

1:28:19 really appreciate your communication abilities and putting this this conversation into his way so go ahead

1:28:24 with what you were saying but I think that's really a big thing that I wanted to bring up because I talked to a lot of

1:28:31 people and you communicate well my friend thank you uh well that's a first because I usually stumble on my words. So maybe

1:28:38 this live format is is more conversational and it's less rigid. So I think maybe that's why I'm loosening up.

1:28:44 Some of my earlier podcasts I wasn't even sure if I was answering the question right. But [laughter] so I appreciate that. And then when I watch

1:28:50 it, I'm like, "Oh my god, I really did terrible." But anyway, awesome, dude. Go ahead. I I have a diverse background. I think

1:28:57 that's my huge advantage, right? I started out as a programmer. I got into uh management because I was frustrated

1:29:03 with managers at that time. This is way back in do days when these guys didn't know a lot and I thought I could do

1:29:10 better because I had a technical background. Um I learned I learned that I didn't know how to manage. The first

1:29:16 year was terrible, right? You you put the nerd in charge of everything and he made things worse. And I was lucky

1:29:23 enough uh to get a job at Motorola where there was a guy named Pete Porton who

1:29:28 really took me under his wing and taught me about process and everything. He says, "James, you're a great you're you're a great technical guy. You're a

1:29:34 great lead. You got skills, but you can't manage." And he taught me how to manage. And and that's what made the

1:29:40 pivotal change for me. And then I But I'll tell you one thing, even though I've been managing, I've worked for some

1:29:46 very large companies as you put out, I'm still hands-on technical. I never

1:29:52 stopped coding. So, I've always maintained that technology perspective. I think I showed you this earlier. I'll

1:29:58 show your visual audience this. Here's here's my office with uh all my

1:30:04 Hold on. Hold on. I'm going to jump off while you do this little demo. I'm

1:30:09 listening. This is This is actually me live. Um those are old computers that I still

1:30:15 tinker around with because there's still some old concepts that people have let go that are still quite valuable. And if

1:30:21 anyone knows what those are, there's an Altter there. There is an IMSI. ISI was

1:30:26 the the game that or the machine that made War Games famous. These are really

1:30:31 old flip switching computers that uh run old command line only programs. Those

1:30:38 are wise terminals on top of there. If any of you are old enough to know what those are, those are all restored by me.

1:30:44 I I built these things from the component up. Uh there's an old Mac that I completely restored there. And then uh

1:30:51 then I have various other machines in the office. And you can see I'm a real tech nerd. There's my life-size

1:30:58 Mandalorian that I built with uh me and my son. We, you know, to bond we did

1:31:03 some cosplay stuff. So I've actually worn the Mando costume at some of these ComicCon uh places. And it's it's it's

1:31:10 really cool. And I guess I really relate with the tech people because I'm still kind of the nerd and uh I've always been

1:31:17 that way. But I also have a very strong background in management and process

1:31:23 that I have gained from these large companies. But I've never let go of you

1:31:28 know there we have a saying you can take the boy out of the lab but you can't take the lab out of the boy. Well I'm

1:31:34 still in the computer lab mentally and I still you know I still tinker around

1:31:39 with these old systems. Now, I have a upstairs I have a an incredibly modern system with with three 36-in monitors

1:31:46 and it's uh it's it's water cooled gaming system that I have. I mean, it's really advanced stuff, but I still like

1:31:54 to keep my hands on all these types of technologies. And my wife laughs. She goes, "You work all day on computers and

1:32:01 then you come home and you play on computers." I go, "This is a job I love." You know, and

1:32:07 there there's an old saying, if you if you love what you do when you work, you never work a day in your life. And I

1:32:13 don't believe I've ever worked a day in my life. [laughter] I've just been doing the things I love. And the and the future has got an

1:32:20 amazing because this isn't going anywhere but forward and the linear on

1:32:25 it. It's just a matter of what the angle is. It's this isn't even the stock market. This is this is this kind of

1:32:31 angle. I don't know which one. It's exponential. The exponential. Great word. I I've I've experienced a couple of

1:32:38 these curves in my life. You know, one was the the.com days. There was another the Y2K was a big thing for a niche

1:32:46 market, right? And uh there's been various exponential curves, but this one I'd say

1:32:53 is going to be the biggest impact and it's gonna beyond technology. It's going

1:32:59 to touch everything. It's it's it's not anything we can fathom at at this point.

1:33:06 It's just a matter of we're guessing. You know, we've got a flashlight in a very dark room. So, would you read what

1:33:12 Maria um Maria has here? We got a few couple more comments and I want to get get

1:33:19 these before uh before my uh my city council members start uh screaming at

1:33:24 us. Okay. Says, "Thanks for such informative and forwardthinking conversation. Thank you. I'm glad you find value in it. Um

1:33:32 I'm just enjoying talking here to Todd. So we're just, you know, kind of

1:33:37 shooting. Yeah. No, and and by the way, this is such an important topic and it's current. Uh we we should on other

1:33:45 subjects people want to come back. I I want to stay in conversation and definitely want to definitely have uh

1:33:50 people come back on to the show. Uh, this one I think we can do fairly quickly. Um, versus other shows that I

1:33:59 mean we're we're out into November. I think we've got one or two shows already

1:34:04 scheduled in December. But I I would like to do another show, a followup. I think we should stay in contact because

1:34:11 this is something we can do quite a bit of. Be happy to do. I think there's a lot to do here. Um,

1:34:17 Faz here. what what skills will become more valuable as AI handles more

1:34:22 technical work. You know, the the plumber isn't going to go away anytime soon. I don't think the electrician

1:34:29 isn't going to go away anytime. I mean, robots are going to change a lot of things, but that's further down the road. Uh I'm not talking about factory

1:34:35 work. I'm I'm talking about, you know, the the skilled labor. I I think those things are are are going to are

1:34:43 definitely, you know, look at the the value in those skill sets. people are still building and repairing homes. Um,

1:34:50 hey, you can they can go into the high demand business that I came from. Um,

1:34:55 which is, uh, incredible. It's a trucking industry. They're always they

1:35:00 always need drivers and it pays really well. And they're not going to replace, you know, trucks with self-driving

1:35:06 trucks anytime soon. I I And even if they do, the first truck the most about is trucks. Is that true? That's so

1:35:12 that's really true that that industry is because the paying is going up and all.

1:35:18 So you you agree with that? Yeah, they need drivers there. You know, I came from

1:35:23 all over they do. I came from one of the largest CDL trucking schools in the country. Um the

1:35:29 founder of that company is is is branched off and started another company called Sighteline CDL. Uh they're at

1:35:36 sightelinesc.com. You can start your career in four weeks. She can go from flipping hamburgers to making 90,000 a

1:35:42 year. That's that's a lifechanging experience. Um this this founder

1:35:48 Go ahead. And it's fun. You get to see the world. Like it's like the people used to join the military to see the world. I mean,

1:35:54 you could see the United States and and it's it's kind depends on your family situation, but I' I'd love to do that.

1:36:01 That'd be cool. Hey, it's a tough job. I I I'm not gonna I'm not going to try to kid anyone, but

1:36:07 it's a life-changing job because you can make a lot of money and really help

1:36:12 secure your family's future, right? You can go in as a truck driver after four weeks of education, make 80, $90,000,

1:36:20 put your kids through college, and they can go off and do, you know, dentistry or something like that, you know, and

1:36:26 you can change the trajectory of your entire family by doing that. It's not an easy job, though. I I've learned from uh

1:36:33 all my exposure to that. Um but it is a very good job and there's a future and

1:36:39 you know a lot of people throw out there, hey, you know, these self-driving trucks are going to replace everyone. I don't think so. And the first time one

1:36:46 of those trucks hits a school bus, that's the end of that. Oh yeah. No. Yeah. No. Yeah. That that's

1:36:52 definitely uh that's definitely I get people moving people around. Um, and I

1:36:57 think it'd do a better job than people. Uh, especially we have a there's a whole

1:37:02 people getting illegal licenses now and all that. So, that's another part of the story. But, um, yeah, it's interesting

1:37:10 you say that because I believe that. I think it'll eventually happen. For sure. It has to, but but at some point, I

1:37:16 think, uh, that that's way down the road. But Todd, they haven't thought it out, you know? I mean, picture this, okay?

1:37:23 Oh, we're saving money with the getting rid of the drivers. All right. So, you're going through a questionable

1:37:29 neighborhood and one guy stands in front of the trucks with his arm spread. The truck has to stop. So, the next guy has

1:37:35 got the bull cutter in the back and their TVs are going out the back. That's a great point.

1:37:40 They haven't thought of this. Yeah. And really, now that I think about it, how does self-driving

1:37:48 really compete? because your the basically the gas mileage that's your biggest expense. You know, maintenance

1:37:54 and gas and all that stuff. The driver itself is is an expense, but but you're not

1:38:01 really saving the bigger numbers just by putting a

1:38:06 self-driving thing in there. And your example, there's no way that the the car

1:38:13 can anywhere near make decisions that a that a human being can make. Uh, you know,

1:38:19 especially with that situation you just said, they got to they got to protect an inventory. You know why these guys don't

1:38:24 stay in hotels? They have to sleep in the back of the cab because they are responsible for what's in the truck.

1:38:31 Oh, never. So, you're going to park one of these somewhere while it charges and then

1:38:37 somebody comes with the bolt cutter again. [laughter] Good luck with that.

1:38:42 I like that. They're not thinking about the reality. They're going to implement all this and then they're going to say, "You know

1:38:48 what? We need somebody in the truck." Yeah. Yeah. No, that makes sense, man. I

1:38:54 never even thought about that. I mean, and they haven't either. Great. Great. Hey, by the way, I don't think I ever told you, you know, there's

1:39:01 542 people on Oh, great. on on the in the audience today. So, please subscribe and like the episode.

1:39:08 And um we do have a couple more questions here. So, before we get to the the big uh God, it's already five

1:39:15 o'clock. This this has got by really fast. I love it. Um what advice would

1:39:21 you give an entrepreneur? Is a great idea. Um but no technical team.

1:39:27 I would uh I would hire at least one one person who knows the technical space,

1:39:33 right? And that could be kind of your co-founder, so to speak. And I mean, if

1:39:39 you're going to go that route, there there's a lot of nuances that are going to be bubbled up by a person who has

1:39:47 experience, who's gone through, you know, it's a tech is a typical job. I

1:39:52 mean, it's very demanding. Yeah. And and you know, no one pays any attention to us till something goes

1:39:58 wrong and then everyone's screaming on the phone at us, right? And then we're trying to solve the problem while

1:40:03 getting yelled at. It's, you know, it we've got the battle scars to prove it.

1:40:08 And uh it it's challenging. It's fun. I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world, but I'll I'll tell you, if you're

1:40:15 going to go into the if you're going to offer up technology as your core product, bring someone along who knows

1:40:22 the business. If you're just building something internally, you don't necessarily need

1:40:28 that because if it looks ugly or if it fails internally, your clients don't know about it. that's your problem, not

1:40:34 causing, you know, friction to your clients, then it's okay. Great point. Great point. So, I uh we

1:40:42 have we have about three more comments here. Uh before we do that, I take great great pride in my copy and paste skill

1:40:50 sets. So, I I want to get some feedback from you and say, have I done a good job

1:40:56 in copying and pasting your contact information here? Can you look at that?

1:41:01 Yeah, that looks that looks right. Do I pop? It should be it should be right. Either you can reach me there or you can you know

1:41:08 you can reach out directly to to SoftEXIT.com, right? It's two words softer xit.com

1:41:15 and uh I monitor all communications. So if you submit something, I'll see it. I I also have that uh that link in the

1:41:24 description to your your company. So they they can catch you there or on the LinkedIn as as we've got it here. And I

1:41:31 think if I remember right, I I think I had it on another one. Uh no, that was a

1:41:37 different thing. Anyway, um so we've got three more comments before you leave uh

1:41:43 leave your your your new fan base here. Your your uh you got a fan party. You

1:41:48 got a bunch of you got a bunch of uh That's great. What do they call them? Groupies. You

1:41:54 got some groupies following you around now. So before we do all that, uh let me

1:41:59 why don't I have you read these three comments unless another one pops up between now and then. Um read these

1:42:05 three comments and then comment on them. Read them out loud and comment on them and then we'll go right into your uh

1:42:12 your closing statement and then I'll wrap this puppy up in a bow and and send you to the green room and follow you

1:42:18 there. And you didn't touch the green uh green colored M&M's, did it? No, not

1:42:24 okay, Barbie. Okay, good. So, I'm safe. Okay. Thank you. So, um let's go here to

1:42:32 this comment. Ellen Silverman. Wow. Okay. Very, uh

1:42:38 very well put together young lady here. Uh why don't you start off and read this comment here?

1:42:43 Well, it says, "Thanks for this valuable conversation. I'm elated that you find value in it. I I really uh

1:42:50 Oh, I could I see that. I'm glad.

1:42:57 I love helping people. I love uh sharing ideas. You know, I sometimes uh my wife

1:43:04 accuses me. Well, she doesn't accuse me, but it implies that I like the sound of my own voice sometimes, but I said

1:43:10 that's all managers, you know. [laughter] Absolutely, 100%. But it's not necessarily all uh automation and AI

1:43:17 people. So your combination, your gift to go from God. Uh trust me, that's a

1:43:24 for sure thing. And remember I said earlier the real estate podcast. So this person's obviously stir here one of the

1:43:31 last questions or comments. Uh obviously this is a a real estate business. So why

1:43:37 don't you read his comment and uh you respond to them if you would. Sure. It says, "I appreciate the focus

1:43:43 on practical AI applications rather than hype." And that's what I'm all about.

1:43:48 Like uh you know if you looked at SoftEXIT Studio, we do not put AI in the

1:43:54 forefront. We're bringing value to companies by offering something that's easy to use. It's powerful and it's

1:44:01 inexpensive. And AI is a tool. It's not the product. And we're here to solve

1:44:08 people's problems, not invent solutions just because it has the letters AI on.

1:44:14 Yeah. Yeah. And and thank God you're not one of those folks during the gold rush

1:44:20 that just put something up that was flashy and uh could make some quick bucks and and we're one of the people

1:44:26 actually being the Levi Strausses of the world and and providing a you know a

1:44:31 good solid product that that's actually needed out there because there's going to be a lot of scammers. There's going

1:44:36 to there already is a lot of scammers. There's already the danger and and the

1:44:42 and the possibilities. So final comment here before you give your last comment and give everybody a big wave uh for the

1:44:49 day. Sure. So it says thanks for such an informative and forwardthinking

1:44:55 conversation. Uh thank you for uh tuning in and listening and really appreciate

1:45:01 your comments and uh hope you got something out of it. I know I did. I I enjoyed talking to Todd and uh

1:45:07 I did too. Yeah, it was great. Great conversation. All right. So, last comment, last what do

1:45:13 you want to leave everybody with is as far as uh leaving this conversation.

1:45:19 Obviously, one of the probably the more critical ones anybody could have, period. And that's just not hype. That's

1:45:26 I mean, we're at that time. So, what do you want to leave everybody with? Give a big wave. I'll wrap it up and come meet

1:45:33 you in the green room. Okay. So, I would say if you're an entrepreneur and there's never been a

1:45:38 better time to start a business. Um, if you want to leverage AI, I highly

1:45:43 encourage you to do so and get a handle on it. I I think you should not lose

1:45:49 sight of the focus that you need to run a business, not run an AI, you know, not try to get on the AI bandwagon, but use

1:45:56 it as a tool, not as as a product, right? And I think you'll have a huge

1:46:02 advantage if you're solving somebody's problem as opposed to creating a solution that has no problem. Nobody

1:46:08 buys those. You can watch any of these SAS YouTubers and they'll all tell you the same thing I'm telling you. So

1:46:14 that's the thing. And you know, if you are starting a business and you find yourself overwhelmed with spreadsheets

1:46:20 and paperwork, take a look at our product. SoftEXIT Studio is really easy to learn and it's just extremely

1:46:27 powerful and it's very inexpensive. We're offering uh actually right now it's kind of exciting. We're trying to

1:46:33 get people to sign up as early adapters and we're offering literally uh you know you talked about earlier that people are

1:46:39 in it for the money. We're not obviously because we're offering 50% off lifetime

1:46:45 licenses. In other words, if you sign up today, you'll get 50% off for as long as

1:46:51 you own uh a license on SoftEXIT.com. And that extends to when you expand.

1:46:58 We'll we'll give it those license. It's 50% off. We'll lock you in. And already the the current price is very

1:47:04 affordable. It's $14 a month per user. That's it. Compared to like Salesforce,

1:47:10 which starts at 25, and that's that's a very limited edition. You you almost

1:47:15 always get ushered into the $100 a month per user system before you can do anything useful.

1:47:21 Yeah. You you can't you can't do it. That makes a lot of sense. Yeah. In my opinion, we've got a better

1:47:26 product to be honest. It's a better CRM. Oh, and I didn't even talk about the app store. We're building apps in this. And

1:47:33 it's not only a CRM. It's it's other things. And we're going to releasing them in our app store that you can

1:47:38 download every single app for free. So over time, you're going to get more value. We create an inventory system.

1:47:44 It's there. Download it. We create a, you know, a contract tracking system. It'll be there. Download it. It's free.

1:47:50 you can continuously expand your business applications without having to purchase five or six additional SASes

1:47:58 and so it's going to be incredible. It's gonna have high value uh for small businesses and that's our target. We we

1:48:06 think that you know smaller businesses are underserved and that's what we're here uh to provide this kind of

1:48:11 technology and make it available for everybody. That's awesome. That is awesome. Well, I I've been

1:48:16 looking forward and excited uh to do this show. Um, and now we have um, and

1:48:23 why don't you give everybody a big wave and I'll meet you in the in the green room. Keep your hands off those M&M's.

1:48:28 Okay. All right. Thanks. That was awesome, guys. I told you, you

1:48:34 know, I every once in a while I can I can just tell um that that this is going

1:48:39 to be a really good show. And and there were some there were some curiosities that I had of which direction this was

1:48:46 going to go because I don't know everything. I I do a lot of research when we do these shows, but you know

1:48:52 what? I just wanted I I I knew this was going to come out. This I knew this was going to be uh exactly what everybody

1:48:59 needed and wanted to hear in today's world. So, James, thank you. I mean,

1:49:04 because I think there's a I think there's something much larger underneath

1:49:10 everything that we talked about today. you know, um, for years we've heard that

1:49:17 technology we will de democratize opportunity.

1:49:23 Uh, sometimes it has and you know what, sometimes it it really it hasn't. Um,

1:49:29 but what we're watching with with artificial intelligence

1:49:34 may represent another major shift in who who we get access to the tools required

1:49:43 in building something. It's exciting, man. And that's what matters to me

1:49:50 because this show has always been about empowering the brave middle class one

1:49:56 conversation at a time. You know that when people hear artificial

1:50:01 intelligence, I don't want them automatically thinking that's that's for Silicone Ball

1:50:08 or I don't want my dog messing around in the background or or or that's for

1:50:15 programmers, right? Or or that's for billiondoll corporations.

1:50:21 I want people asking I want people asking a different question. What

1:50:27 problem do I understand that need do I have and and do I understand that needs

1:50:33 solving? Because maybe the maybe the entrepreneur of the future isn't necessarily the

1:50:42 person who knows how to write thousands of lines of code.

1:50:48 Maybe the it's the mechanic who who knows exactly what's broken

1:50:54 about managing his shop. Maybe maybe maybe it's about the nurse

1:51:00 who sees an inefficient process every single day.

1:51:05 Maybe it's the manufacturer, right? Who knows where the production

1:51:10 where that line gets bogged down. Maybe it's the the teacher, the farmer,

1:51:18 restaurant owner, the the truck driver. We're just talking about the truck driver, right? The salesperson, or the

1:51:25 kid sitting at the kitchen table who sees a problem, everybody else has just

1:51:32 finally learned how to tolerate it. Technology doesn't create that

1:51:39 understanding. People do. AI doesn't give you decades

1:51:45 of of experience, right? It doesn't give you the judgment. It doesn't

1:51:52 automatically give you courage and it it certainly doesn't guarantee

1:51:58 that that an idea is is a good one. But if technology continues lowering the

1:52:07 barrier between having a good idea and actually building it, then we're going

1:52:14 to have opportunities and questions that previous generations of

1:52:22 entrepreneurs, they never had. And James, I appreciate you coming here.

1:52:31 [clears throat] Damn dogs. Knock it off. Don't lay down. Stop it.

1:52:38 Sorry, they just went a little too far today because this is important. James, I appreciate you coming here and helping

1:52:47 us explore both sides of that future. to everybody watching uh live or or

1:52:54 catching us later in the conversation, don't ask yourself, right? What's AI

1:53:02 going to do to my job? Ask yourself,

1:53:07 what could I do with AI that I couldn't do before?

1:53:13 That's a very different question, right? And somewhere out there tonight,

1:53:18 somebody has an idea scribbled on a piece of paper, sitting in a notebook or

1:53:24 buried in a old computer file. You saw you saw James's old computer. Or maybe

1:53:31 just living in a teenager's head. Maybe the technology finally exists now to

1:53:37 help them build it. And maybe that's somebody is you.

1:53:44 I'm Rodd Duff alongside producer Barbie. Uh, and this has been Insights and

1:53:50 Straight Talk, empowering the great middle class one conversation at a time.

1:53:58 Sorry. Until our next conversation, stay curious, ask better questions, and don't

1:54:03 be afraid to build something.

1:54:09 You know what? With that, before you leave, if you'd like to watch

1:54:14 another one of the podcasts, click the first link in the description. We love having you here and we appreciate all

1:54:21 your support. And with that, producer Barbie and I are out.