Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Welcome to the Independence by Design podcast where we discuss what it means to be a business owner and ways to get unstuck from the day to day so we can design a business that gives us a life of independence.
I'm trying to figure out, like, because I want to tell you what I, my experience from last night, but also, like, should we have it on the podcast? I don't know. Like, I mean, I think the conversation around AI hiring, what we're doing and what our clients are doing on real and AI is also just an interesting conversation that we could have. So I don't know if we want to put that on the show because, like, I think sharing just like the very real practical of like, what you want me just quickly share it. I mean, like,
[00:00:36] Speaker B: yeah,
[00:00:42] Speaker A: I don't know how I'm, I'm torn because, like, do we want to put this on the podcast? I don't know. I don't. We don't. You can, I'll tell you this. So I can't write Kim. So, like, the biggest challenge my entire life has, like, the whole world is about written communication. Unless you're in front of someone.
[00:01:01] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:01:01] Speaker A: Like, if you're in front of someone, I, I, I got the situation, like, that's been my whole life, right. Mean, back to, like, whether I was or was not dyslexic in, in, in high school or whether I am or not. I don't know. School has just been a mother for me my whole life.
And if you listen to that podcast with Rich from this LA this week, like, I talk about it, right? Like, there's all these things that, like, I, So therefore my huge bottleneck with my own life has been like, everything is about people reading each other's, in their, their, their communication. I can't write, I can't get my ideas or my emotions or all of my knowledge through the writing, the, the medium of writing to make it impactful the way that I can in person. I just can't. I, it's impossible. Like, because, like, when, here's my example, like, I got introduced to a guy yesterday from Aaron, our client.
Aaron is Nolan's dad from aps. And so like, this guy has, he was the CEO Kirby, and then he started a private equity firm. He's hunting buddies for this guy. So this guy has a big deal, right? And like, the whole thing is like, I want to access to this guy, I want him on the podcast. And everyone's like, insane, like, all of life is everybody saying no to each other unless they have Trust, right. And it's like, okay, now I'm gonna spend my time with you, Kim, or with you, Ryan, or whoever it is because I deem it worthwhile. Well, we only have one shot, right, to get someone to say, sure, I'll take that meeting. Right?
Yeah, I feel good about when I get to that meeting, I'm going to bring hopefully my true self, not ego driven. I'm going to listen and actively listen. I'm going pay attention, beakers, all the things that I've learned in along my life when I'm in that meeting. But if I can't get the meeting, that sucks, right?
[00:02:58] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:02:59] Speaker A: So written language has always been the barrier.
And so like what I was explaining to Megan last night because like what I'm doing now, like, it's writing emails for me that like, I can't, I feel like a blind person who can see.
I don't know how any other way to put it. And with all joking aside because I said to Megan, so I got done with this.
The conversation with Aaron and Nolan were like, it was like massive judgment of like, okay, did what we do what did what we pay for and do. Was it worth it? Right? So went through the whole playbook. They were impressed. Aaron's like, you got to meet my friend Greg because I knew this was coming because no one told me. He's like, you got to meet my friend Greg who grew up to, you know, be the CEO of Kirby. He built this other company that is now international and just prints money. And now he created this private equity firm that's got a long term hold so he can like, it's like permanent capital, right. So it's private equity with, with a soul. Well, of course I want him on the podcast and I've tried for like years, like through different other people that we know.
So Aaron introduces me to Greg.
You should be on Ryan's podcast. Here's a guy, his time is the most valuable thing, right?
How do I get across to him that I genuinely care, right. Like I'm, I'm gonna genuinely spend this time wisely. We're gonna have a fun conversation and I think he'll enjoy it, right?
So I get off the podcast or get off the call with Aaron and I was like, GPT because it, like it has everything
[00:04:31] Speaker B: in
[00:04:32] Speaker A: the right. So I go, GPT, please go in and listen to the pod or listen to the conversation I had with Aaron. So then I said, if you listen to the conversation with Aaron, Aaron, Aaron gives context of Greg, his background.
I give my Explanation to Aaron why I think it's a great conversation that we're going to have all the different topics, like the meet in the middle of like the private equity soul, his background and all this kind of stuff. And said if I, if I was Greg, I would want to know who the Ryan. So like probably link to the podcast and then episode 500 and then we most recently did an episode about forecasting out valuations with meaning him. And then like be flexible with the timeline of like when we can book him. But like also adhere to my calendar. Right. So suggest a couple times and then I want to be flexible but also confident. So like, then I want to add the link to the booking link for like, I want to suggest a couple of our times but if he can't, then he can go to the booking link without giving my wide open calendar.
And then I get this draft. I'm like, it's exactly what I want. It sounds like me. It's thoughtful, it's caring. And I'm like, I've just never been able to do that, Kim, ever. So it wasn't like, oh, like it's slightly better or different. I'm like, no, I just, it's like blind or not blind, you know, I mean like for me, like, I just can't communicate like that. So that's why over the last 10 years I would do like loom videos or I would like do the podcast or I've been in sales. Like I can't write.
So it's like navigating this world of email while not being able to write is impossible.
[00:06:05] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:06:05] Speaker A: And then so it drafts it. I'm like, yeah, it's got the exact links. It's got exactly it like the. So it's got the CRM link, it's got the website links, it's got the exact context. It read the email from Aaron, it puts the notes into Aaron's file, it goes into go high level, grabs the, grabs the link. It has the calendar constraints tied to the calendar, tied to my goals, tied to our forecast. And then it goes into the CRM, logs them in as adds the contact to the CRM, puts them into a stage to like follow up, make. I don't have to. I didn't do anything besides talk.
[00:06:37] Speaker B: It's absolutely insane.
[00:06:39] Speaker A: This is like this. I feel like I have jetpacks right now.
[00:06:45] Speaker B: Yeah, no, it's absolutely insane. Like I said, I was just shocked with how quickly it put this video together today. Like, I'm not a video editor by any means and,
[00:06:54] Speaker A: and it's stuff that you just need to do, and I think that's what's. It's so individual. We're like, you know how hard that has been for your life.
[00:07:03] Speaker B: Mm.
[00:07:04] Speaker A: And now it's easy button. You're just like, what the. And, like, I tried to explain this to Megan. She's like, cool.
[00:07:11] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:07:12] Speaker A: I'm like, you don't understand. I was blind. Now I can see. You know what I mean? Like, it's. It's so subjective. It's a subjective experience.
[00:07:19] Speaker B: Yeah. So
[00:07:20] Speaker A: it's difficult for other people to see that.
[00:07:22] Speaker B: I think the only thing that I could relate it to, Ryan, is back when I told you I started my food journey, like, a year and a half ago or whatever, where I've never been able to eat. Like, I never had an apple before. I never had a strawberry before. I never had a banana before. I never had.
[00:07:34] Speaker A: Never told what.
[00:07:36] Speaker B: Yeah. Like, my whole. I've been allergic to it my whole entire life. And it was like a year and a half, two years ago, where I went back to an allergist. I'm like, okay. Like, we're so far advanced in everything these days. Like, there has to be a way where, like, basically I was told from blood tests. Back in, like, my teenage years, the only thing my body didn't have an adverse reaction to was chicken and rice. Those are the only two things. Everything else, I'd have some level of a reaction, and fruits and vegetables were at the top and seafood of those reactions, like, my face would swell, my neck would swell. Like, it was really bad. And so he started giving me just this different allergy medicine routine, and he slowly started incorporating. So I ate an apple for the very first time. I got a picture of Chloe, took a picture of me eating an apple for the very first time.
Like, eating, hey,
[00:08:24] Speaker A: Eve, the first sin. Watch out.
[00:08:28] Speaker B: It's so funny. I actually have a funny story about this. So I was still. Yeah, it was actually a few years ago now and not even a couple, because I was still at itr and I ate a banana for the very first time. And I was in a meeting, and I was trying to figure out what flavor. I was like, it's not really sour. It's not really sweet. It's not really.
I'm like, what is this flavor that I'm like. So I'm, like, thinking about it. And also I'm like, I bet this would go really well with strawberries. If I meant because I'd had a strawberry at that point.
[00:08:55] Speaker A: Oh.
[00:08:55] Speaker B: And I was Like, I
[00:08:56] Speaker A: think
[00:08:56] Speaker B: bananas would go really well with strawberries. And then I started thinking, like, oh, if I put some, like, rum in with bananas and strawberries, I bet that would taste really good. Like, so I'm thinking about all this. All of a sudden, I realized nobody's in the meeting is talking anymore because we're on zoom. Nobody in the meeting is talking anymore. So I look back, and everybody's just like, kim, where did you go?
And I was just like, I took a bite of banana for the very first time.
[00:09:19] Speaker A: It's like being on mushrooms or having your biggest joint ever for the first time. Like, oh, my God, what if. What if I had a cook?
It was warm with ice cream.
[00:09:31] Speaker B: It was so funny. But. So I think what you're explaining between blind and now being able to see, I think the only way I could personally relate to you said it. Like, you said, it is subjective, is I never felt like I was handcuffed. And the way I explained it to my allergist is like, I. I feel like you released me from a prison that I didn't even know I was living in. Like, that was just my norm that I could keep those things. And I had. I had accepted that. And now I'm outside the prison, and I'm like, oh, crap. I never want to go back in.
Like, I want to eat my strawberries and my bananas with my rum. Like,
[00:10:04] Speaker A: well, and like, how wild. Like, being able to explain color to someone that's colorblind.
[00:10:12] Speaker B: You
[00:10:12] Speaker A: know what I mean? Like, it is so crazy. Like, I think we are not far away where we're just talking like that. Like, it's the natural language. Like, this stupid keyboard that is. Like, this is how I have to communicate with the rest of the world. Like, this is the most unnatural. Like, first of all, like, I don't.
Oh, my God. I just. Like, the freaking English language is infuriating. My daughter's like, you can't start a sentence with. And I'm like, I don't know. Like, why not? Like, says who? And then, like. Like, when they first asked, like, why is not. Why is the Alphabet not in order on the keyboard? Like, God. God, if I know, I don't even use it.
Like, it's so. So, like, if you think about it, we were having this conversation, and the. Like, the bottleneck is like.
Like. Like, this is ridiculous. Like, this is totally and utterly ridiculous that this is how we have to communicate. It's like. It's like hieroglyphics to me.
[00:11:19] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:11:19] Speaker A: And I don't know, like, it so, like, all of software, like, my mind goes so far down. Like, what does this mean for everybody?
Like,
[00:11:35] Speaker B: yeah,
[00:11:36] Speaker A: should we just keep rolling with this or what do you want to do? I don't
[00:11:39] Speaker B: want to. I mean, it's a fascinating topic. I mean, there's so many different things about AI and to your point, with, like, the two sides of it, right? The power and the freedom that I feel like I'm getting. And then every time I acquire a new skill from using it, I feel badly for different people that I know that that's their job. And so I'm like, torn down the middle of, like, this is really cool. And I'm now free and I'm going to save myself a grand a month by not having to purchase this anymore. But on the other side, I'm like, oh, I feel really bad for so and so who I know is in that type of industry.
But at the same time, I get on a meeting with one of our clients last week, and I'm like, all right, pull up your clawed and let's go through this. And so as he's trying to, like, type what I'm telling him, I was like, you know what Ryan does is he just dictates to my Claude. I'm like, so just hit the dictate button and I'm going to do, like, the string of consciousness into the system. And so at the very end of it, one of the gentlemen was on the call. He was like, that was amazing. Like, that was the most awesome prompt ever. And I was just like, well, you can thank Ryan. He's like, taught me the gift of just, like, streaming content, just thoughts to it. And it takes
[00:12:50] Speaker A: a filter is a power. Like, I mean, and I did it to Patty and Jeie too. I was like, they were like, stop, stop, stop, stop. Hit that microphone button. I was like, like, for eight minutes. And then we got done. And Patty goes, that was a lot.
[00:13:07] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:13:08] Speaker A: And then Claude was like, and here's what you said, and here's what we should do next. I was like.
And like, so just a quick counterpoint, like, Jason Porter, you can't unplug your brain.
Like, in like, we should still understand how written language works. That is my weakness. Whether it's my dyslexia or whatever it is makes it unbelievably impossible for me. So we should still know how to read. We should still know how to write. I'm not suggesting that this is. I have had an anchor tied to my feet my entire life, and they Cut it like, Like a Forrest Gump. And it's like, I'm running and all of a sudden, like, the shackles come off like that.
[00:13:52] Speaker B: And
[00:13:52] Speaker A: it's like, whoa.
And oh, my God, I could go so many different ways, Kim, with this. Like, I've been speechless.
Like, where do we want to take this? For the listeners that are listening in right now going, like, what is going on?
[00:14:13] Speaker B: This is behind the scenes bantering with Kim and Ryan about all the different things.
[00:14:22] Speaker A: Let me, Let me propose a, like, frame of reference that I'm trying to. I. I'm trying to figure out right now.
And things that I think that are the conversation that you and I and the whole community had at the summit.
People are concerned about security. People are concerned about governance. There's. They're concerned about protection. And all this stuff. I mean, Paul, like, rightfully so, is like, all the risks that could happen, your brother, all the risks that could happen with this.
So we can talk about, like, ways to think about that. I don't have. I don't have a freaking answer for any of this stuff. And I think what people realize, no one does. There are no adults anywhere.
And so, like, there's all these risks. But then what I was saying to Megan last night, Kim, because I did this too. Like, I was like, oh, my God, like, this is so wild. Because it's like, that was my experience over the last week of, like, taking the IBD framework of time, cash flow. Well, taking my ownership goals, my ownership playbook, our IBD forecast, revenue, cost of goods or earnings, my distribution goals, tying them into everything to my calendar, to my activities, to the functions where now AI has complete awareness of all of my priorities and all of my goals. So for the first time in 12 years, I actually have an assistant that can look at my emails and be like, take that meeting. Don't take that meeting. Pump that one for two weeks. That one's not important. Respond like that. This person's asking for your time. Be polite to them. Put it over here, take these documents. Put the documents in your client folder. Look at the documents, update the client, the client plan, prep for your next meeting. Like, I just feel like I'm fricking Tony Stark.
And like, all I'm doing it is from my phone. And it took me to build all of that.
And so, like, there's like, the insanity of the productivity behind it where there's this phrase going out called headless.
These softwares are headless. I don't know if you've heard that, but, like, like, go high level, which is our CRM. I never log in anymore.
However, it's more accurate, more productive and more, more amazing than it's ever been because I'm just talking into AI and it's building everything out.
[00:16:37] Speaker B: Yeah,
[00:16:38] Speaker A: they call it headless. We're like, I don't want to ever be on a computer.
Like, that's my goal. Like, I want to just talk to you, talk to our clients and talk to people. Like, that's my dream. And like, everything else should happen in this digital ether, but like, the data all has to connect. And so software is just this container around a database is all it is.
[00:16:57] Speaker B: And
[00:16:57] Speaker A: so we should be able to talk into it. And there's all these silos of these softwares and all these services that are tied all over the place. And so here's, here's what I said to Megan. I'm like, I can't believe what it's capable of.
And the genie's out of the bottle, like, in what I said to Megan. And so I'm curious, curious on what your thoughts are on this. I was like, Because I did the same thing. I just do the same thing as he was like, holy. I mean, 2/3 of the economy are services,
[00:17:30] Speaker B: like
[00:17:31] Speaker A: 38 of the 50 states, the top employer is health care for the shittiest health care system on the effing planet.
And the top job is healthcare administrator, which is like, you shouldn't exist by definition.
And like.
And so what I was explaining to Megan and she just is like the devil's advocate and tells me all the reasons I'm wrong and I'm a doomer. I'm just like, that's not. The point is, is in a business, is in business to provide value to their customers, which is the revenue. Like, like, we do insert idea. Provide water treatment, provide boilers that keep buildings hot. Provide asphalt so people can drive. Provide cleaning services so it's not messy. Provide tree trimming so the trees aren't overgrown. And so like, the business should be necessary, like, really necessary, because the consumer thinks it's necessary based on the lifestyle. Right. Like, that's what deems values. Like, you think it's necessary. I think I'm good at it. So I'm going to trade my time for the value that you're going to pay me.
[00:18:38] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:18:38] Speaker A: Everything else in that business, let's use Jason's tree works for the moment. Like, and he's not saying this, so I just, just for everybody listening, again, this is just a good example because I just think Tree trimming is going to be forever needed. That's essentially my point. And so if that's the case, there's kind of that big assumption. If that's the case, that we the. The world needs our services, then everything else in the income statement, Kim, is by actual definition costs or overhead.
[00:19:15] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:19:16] Speaker A: HR is. So that way people's feelings aren't hurt and they have retirements and they've got, you know, whatever HR's function is. And then accounting is billing and payables and receivables and WHIP and, you know, cost accounting and all that stuff. Right. Like, and then all of it is to make sure data and security, like, all of that stuff so we can trim trees.
You know what I mean? Like, so like everything is by definition overhead and expenses.
[00:19:45] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:19:47] Speaker A: And so anybody that owns a company, one is their fiduciary obligation is to reduce expenses.
[00:19:53] Speaker B: Yep. You know, and all you're going with this,
[00:19:56] Speaker A: right? And you're just going like, well, every, like everything. Like, so when I think about people that have payment processing companies, they should never exist.
Like, it shouldn't exist. And same thing with, like, you start to go through the list of companies and industries that shouldn't exist because it's like bloat on top of bloat on top of consultant, on top of consultant.
Because at the end of the day, it's just more human. Like we're just trying to trade our time with valuable services with each other. And all of this is unnecessary if the function can be done effectively. I'm not saying the function doesn't exist or shouldn't exist. What I'm saying, like, Obviously we need
[00:20:44] Speaker B: $1,000 salary, doesn't need to exist with
[00:20:46] Speaker A: on top of like submitting an expense report into NetSuite and then we have to like, send the email for the receivables. And like, we're doing this and then like people haven't submitted their receipts and then where this that no one wants to do anyways.
And then you go, okay, well, what I was saying to Megan is like.
And I was talking to Paul boys. I think what we're going to see, Kim, is like, I don't know if it's possible for a business to take the old way and integrate this.
[00:21:23] Speaker B: Hmm.
What do you mean by that?
[00:21:26] Speaker A: If we have an accounting department that we're trying to optimize with AI, like, it's just like, like, think about that. Like, I don't want the department
[00:21:38] Speaker B: right
[00:21:39] Speaker A: at all. I want all of the utility and all the functions, but, like, And I'm not trying to hurt people's feelings. Like, I don't want an HR department.
I want all of the payroll process, you know, I mean like, I want all, like we need to pay people, we need to make sure we pay them the correct amount. We need to make sure that they're getting the benefits. Like we need all of that stuff to be true. But like, I don't want eight people doing that.
That reduces my ability to compete.
And so like when I look at that, I'm like, okay, so like how do we look at a business through this lens where like you and I and Paul, I said it to you and Paul yesterday. Like, we're going to have a multi million dollar business with three people.
Like, what are we going to be like, well, we got to have Sally for an accounts payable person. Like, let's go get her down the street, come sit her down for 90 grand.
Now you're employed. Like let's like, no, we're going to like build out systems or software or processes to do it. Right. We're not going to like try to protect someone's feelings.
[00:22:42] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:22:43] Speaker A: And like we're gonna have like, I heard this like a long time ago. It's a 2% of the people will be managing the robots and the 98 of the people being t. Taking, taking directions from the robots.
Or you go find your own value to the world so you can go do your highest and best use, whether it's art or creativity or something that like will the world will pay you for it. And so like when I was saying this to Megan, I'm like, if we follow the incentive structure, it's the fiduciary obligation of every single public company to make more money
[00:23:18] Speaker B: to run as lean as possible. I mean, that was always my thing when any business that I tried to help grow, I always do so as lean and efficient and effective as possible. So why spend $80,000 on a salary when you can hire an intern from college to run your AI system and give you the same quality output in some cases, like obviously not all jobs, but in so many different. I mean, that's what I'm recommending to some of my clients right now. I mean, I have one client that he's actually not even a client anymore. It's just I still consider him a friend and he, I'd say he's probably spending, I don't know, $80,000 a year on different people to do different things. And I just did like, I pulled some of his free, like stuff that he has online, threw it into Claude, put together a bunch of videos and stuff, and sent it off to him. Like, look what I just did in under 10 minutes. Like, an intern from Claudia College could do this.
Like, I don't know why you're still spending money and he hasn't made the money that he's looking to make. I'm like, well, I'm not bringing you in more revenue. I'm saving you on your expenses. I mean, those are the two options for growing the business.
[00:24:19] Speaker A: Right? Right. And like, so what? I.
And I'm trying not to be bipolar about it, but, like, so Megan always does a great job of telling me all the reasons that I could be wrong. And I, like, after she did that last, I'm like, okay, I need to understand Megan. Are you thinking out loud and you're trying to be helpful, trying to help me see the other perspect perspective, or do you actually believe that and you want to debate? Like, I have to like her, and I have to do that because I'm like, I. I feel like I should be armed up, ready to debate. But, like, I don't want to debate this. I'm just sharing my pure awe of what's going on. And then what I do is I follow incentive instruct incentive structures to its final completion, which is why I end up at money in the double entry county every time. And then you go, well, what's the incentive instruct. Incentive structure in every single company is to make money besides nonprofits. Like, that is the way the world works, regardless of people's feelings. And so if that's the case, then I, then I go, okay, the genie's out of the bottle. Like, it ain't going back.
[00:25:22] Speaker B: I
[00:25:23] Speaker A: mean, the, whatever, the, Whatever the government wants to do about the frontier models and open models, all that stuff, we can talk about that if we want to. And I don't have a specific answer. I have a lot of questions that I feel like I have more clarity, but I still have a lot of unknowns, but it's not going back into the bottle.
So if that's the case and the entire world's incentive structure is to make more money, this is probably going to accelerate of every single company publicly for sure, trying to drive more money.
So it's either more growth or more savings. Microsoft offered 60,000 people at severance yesterday.
Like, and, and it just so happened to be Kim. The same day that Megan showed me a Instagram video of her friend who is a Microsoft employee who.
The amount of trips that she's done this year that every trip is like the most 10 out of 10 Instagram trip ever that I've never been to. And I'm like, okay, let's say she's making three. This woman's making 350 grand working for Microsoft.
And I saw that I'm like, someone's overpaid. What the are you doing in order to like afford all of that stuff and all the house and all the vacations? Like of course Microsoft is going to offer 60,000 people for instance, because it's like how many coffee makers and how many beanbags and how many foosball machines and how many. You know, like there's a, there's a fiduciary obligation for Microsoft as they're piling reinvestment back into growth to save more money.
So like this incentive instruct, incentive structure is going to accelerate on public companies.
It's going to accelerate with private equity firms who are over leveraged and they haven't made the returns for the pension funds.
So like you're going to start to see I think this get pushed down. And I have no idea what this means to the job market. Like zero. I'm just saying all I'm trying to do and what I was explaining to Megan is like if this is how the world works, incentive is to make more money. And this whole thing is now exist. It now exists.
Now the competitive landscape is like there's that phrase like the enemy has a say.
Like the enemy being your competition.
Just because you don't want to adopt this doesn't mean like you and I are doing it right. You just. And
[00:27:46] Speaker B: all the clients, like they're finding new ways to gain more efficiencies and like, I mean even in like, not even like the outputs of things, but even just analyses that can be done. Like I'm helping all of my clients run all of these analyses on data that they never had time to spend the time to analyze. And they're getting so many aha moments out of these different outcomes of the analyses that now they're smarter and better able to do their job again to maximize, pulling in more revenue, beating the competition or saving on
[00:28:14] Speaker A: their
[00:28:15] Speaker B: expenses.
[00:28:16] Speaker A: Everything's to make more money. I had someone that they sold the private equity and they were paying Deloitte and of all these 24 year old freaking idiots that are making 400 grand and he goes, we paid $240,000 for a PowerPoint about synergies during our M and A.
I mean, but it's over and over and over. And I just don't think people are aware of the bloat. Right. I'm paying my accounting firm 350 bucks an hour that like all of this can do for subpar work.
And then so you just go like, okay, so in the incentive structure, if this is all true, like, it's out of the box, the enemy and your competition has a say. So then you go, who's going to adopt it and to what extent? So they can offer more value at a lower price, which is deflation. Which is what your dad is always him and I have talked about, like, the natural state of the market. I think the natural state of the market is deflationary.
The only reason it's not is because of the money printer.
So, like, we're doing things to create value that should enhance someone else's productivity, that should create more value. Like, which is deflation.
The natural state of the market should be deflation because things are getting better all the time.
And the only reason that's not is because of fake money.
And so you and I are offering more and more value at 2500 bucks a month. And they're constantly going to inject more and more value to that, which I hope we're taking consultants jobs, to be honest, because our clients just want to get more done. They want to trim more trees. They don't want to sit and do expense reports and sit and talk about hr. Sit and talk about it.
And so who's going to adopt this at what rate? I think is the question that I've been noodling with. And what are the ramifications of that? Public companies have a fiduciary mandate by the public and are going to be scrutinized very heavily. Private equity firms can lie about their valuation until they can't sell the business. And then all of a sudden their board is like, give me my money back. So it's going to come to a head where the PE firms have taken on too much debt. They're going to have to like, push this down into the operations, because they have to.
So then you're going to start to see it from a couple of those ownership structures. Then you go, okay, venture capital for sure is because when you look around the podcast, Mark Andreessen and every. Everybody at Sequoia Capital and the all in podcast guys, all these tech bros. They own like, they have the money, so they tell everybody what to do. And if they're on podcast talking about how cool this stuff is, it's because they're like, we don't have to listen to anybody. We raise the money, it's our money, we tell everybody what to do.
So they're, they don't care what anybody says. Their goal is a specific rate of return and they're the ones controlling all the operations. Right. So they're pushing and they're the ones, you can publicly see their opinions.
So you're like, well, if that person has a multi, multi billion dollar fund that believes that and they own these companies, you better damn well believe that they're probably going to roll it through their organization.
[00:31:10] Speaker B: Sure.
[00:31:10] Speaker A: So then you got VC that is going to just pile forward. And that's why they're trying to get their own fingers into the AI bubble.
But then you have people that are startups like you and I, who, like, I just don't care. I have no politics, like, no one's going to tell me I can't do this.
So, like, all of that to be said is, I think it's just going to continue to accelerate what is already possible.
[00:31:35] Speaker B: Yep, yep. I
[00:31:38] Speaker A: don't know what to do with that.
[00:31:39] Speaker B: I do. I agree with that. And to take it a step further, like, one of our clients asked me a couple weeks ago because he was toying on a certain direction. I think you and I already talked about this, toeing on do I use AI for this or do I use CRM or do I use a blend of both? And he asked me, he's like, well, where do you think we're going to be in six months with AI? I'm like, I can't answer that question. Like, six months ago, I wouldn't have known that I was able to do half the stuff that I'm doing with it right now. Like, so who knows another six months from now what we're going to be able to do? Like, it's just, it's absolutely crazy, the speed of which it's been evolving.
And you and I talk about that all the time. Like, not even a year ago where we're using this. And then all of a sudden I remember it came out and you're like, life is about to change.
[00:32:19] Speaker A: February 20th this year, it's only been eight months.
Like, like, Holy.
[00:32:28] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:32:30] Speaker A: The only reason people aren't doing is like, let's have a meeting to talk about what we might talk about.
[00:32:36] Speaker B: It's like,
[00:32:37] Speaker A: there was a post that I saw months ago. It's like, if you're having a meeting to talk about it, you're already too late because it's now cheaper to Just ship the idea.
[00:32:46] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:32:46] Speaker A: And you know me, like, the number one thing I hate is wasting time.
[00:32:49] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:32:50] Speaker A: Because I want to be snowboarding. I want to be hunting, I want to be running, I want to be in the sauna. I don't want to be on my computer going like. Like, I feel like a freaking. I'm in the matrix. I'm a slave. I'm like, I don't want to be on a CRM. I don't want to be in QuickBooks. I don't want to be on a spreadsheet. I don't want to be on any of that.
And so, like, it's such a crazy deal. And, you know, talking to Paul, he's like, well, you know the risks. I'm like, sure.
Palantir is already listening to this podcast and so is Apple, and so is Google, so is Facebook. They're listening to everything. They already have all of my information. What I believe. I want to make sure that legally we're not exposed for client repercussions. Right. Like, there's obvious risks behind this stuff, and there's a ton of risks that need to be. Cons need to be considered. So, like, I'm not flipping and I'm trying to. And I'm trying to be nuanced, Kim, where, like, I get it. Like, I actually get the risks, data security wise. I actually get the risks politically with people's organization and culturally, like. Like, I'm not belittling that stuff at all.
But what I said to Megan is, like, that does not stop the train,
[00:34:02] Speaker B: right?
[00:34:03] Speaker A: Like K
[00:34:04] Speaker B: guardrails,
[00:34:06] Speaker A: right? Because, like, her company, they install athletic facilities.
They need to install more athletic facilities while making more money.
If they choose not to do this, eventually they're going to be overpriced
[00:34:23] Speaker B: and
[00:34:23] Speaker A: they're gonna have a less enjoyable customer experience than their customer. And then their competitors who have project management dashboards that are, you know, educating their clients about exactly where things are at and when they're doing it, what their completion is, and over communicating with text messages and emails and like, like, and if you're not doing that, you're gonna have a less valuable experience for more money.
It's not gonna happen tomorrow. And that's what I was explaining to Megan, like, why I love our community. It's like people doing real. For real people in the real economy. Like, we're going to need the trim trees. We're going to need to heat buildings, we're going to need to pave asphalt. Like, we're going to need to insert all of the clients that we're working with because they have less risk and they're protecting us and paying our bills. Like, I don't want to work with the SEO marketing firm. You're totally SOL. Or the SaaS company or like the HR benefits company or the accounting. I mean like there's a, there's a timeline for that I think.
[00:35:17] Speaker B: And
[00:35:17] Speaker A: there's going to be awesome people that evolve from those organizations. But like, you gotta break and move fast in my mind. Otherwise what are you gonna do? Long term.
[00:35:27] Speaker B: Yeah. Yep. No, and it. And I don't know how long term. Long term really is.
Like we just said, it's been eight months and I'm now doing video editing and under five minutes, like I built out our entire like two month campaign of videos that have intro cards, exit cards, graphics, music, all the things in under 10, 15 minutes.
[00:35:53] Speaker A: Was that a ten thousand dollar project two years ago?
[00:35:59] Speaker B: For what? One
[00:36:00] Speaker A: what? For what? Like, for like when, like when you ship it to a video editor, they're like, well it's a grand a minute for editing. And then do you want B roll and all this?
It's like, no, I just want a clip that goes out like, you know, I mean, take my best idea, put some cool stuff on it so people think I'm awesome and ship it.
[00:36:18] Speaker B: Yeah, you just have to know what you want and like what guardrails to give it what you want for an output and that like you just like you said, like it's just a streaming thought of consciousness of what you like. You have to know what good looks like.
So that way you can give it varied instructions on what you want, want the output to look like in return.
Like, and it's just, I mean, I can't wait to get my hands on the video feed from the summit. Like can you imagine? Like
[00:36:44] Speaker A: I know
[00:36:46] Speaker B: videos, like it's gonna be awesome for me just to throw it in there and see what I can get out of it.
[00:36:51] Speaker A: And like, and like I want us to have videos that are educational videos of like, what do we talk about like when we have like these, these words. Like in our IBD academy there we have something called a glossary, right? Like normalized ebitda, the multiple discounted cash flow. All this people are like, I don't know what that means. It's like, well wouldn't it be nice if you had like cartoons of people explaining it? Like, you know, it's like, yeah, like create me that. But like right now something like that is like 10 grand.
[00:37:16] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:37:16] Speaker A: And the only reason you spend that much money is so you can have a better client experience or you make more money.
[00:37:21] Speaker B: Yeah,
[00:37:22] Speaker A: I mean like, so it always goes back to in it in world we're talking about very basic stuff. But like I was watching Megan, she got an ask from her boss to like update the CRM contact field and she was gonna have to go to her analyst who's making a salary and like he's in Yorker and I'm like in like. And she has to do it in a spreadsheet and manage all this stuff. I'm like, I'm building five company's full three statement model. That's better than any private equity firm has ever built. From my phone while I'm in the sauna, like, what are you doing?
And so it's just like holy. When you just like compare those.
Where I think would be an interesting way to take this is the data security.
Like we own IBD's data. It's not stored in Claude, it's not stored in GPT. And so when Claude started hallucinating and making four weeks ago, I just went into GPT Astro 6, plugged it right into our database and we just kept going. And I now I've got Grockbot, GPT and CLAUDE all going at the same time because just sitting on top of the data, you know what I mean? So we're not like give like people are using these tools as project management and file servers and stuff like that I think is a horrible idea because then they own all your data. And when that tool sucks, you can't have other things use it. And so having data security, having it on, you know, in your network, having the backup and recovery where it's yours, making sure that people are like, you're paying for these services. Like all of ours are the top, top, top subscription. We're paying 200 bucks a month for all of these. For you, me and Paul, it's like we're not the product, we own our data. Because all of this stuff is in a file folder structure.
[00:39:23] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:39:23] Speaker A: And I told Megan yesterday, I'm like that whole response to the email, I couldn't have done that by just logging into Claude.
[00:39:32] Speaker B: Correct?
Yeah, the foundation.
[00:39:35] Speaker A: Why do you know that? Explain that to the audience. Like when you say correct, like I know but like explain why you know that that's not possible.
[00:39:41] Speaker B: Well, from my very simplistic mindset is like the database is the key to everything. Like I'm just like, I could download like say I'm now on GPT But I haven't used it yet. So if I just went on GPT, it's not connected to anything right now. Thank you, Paul, for meeting me later today to do it. But I can go into GPT and I'd be like. In Ryan's tone, I want you to write three social media posts for the business valuation workshop that's coming up on December 2nd. It's not gonna have any idea what I'm talking about because it's not connected to anything versus once it's connected to the database. It has all the filing structure and all the things in there. I've. This is Ryan's tone, this is Ryan's voice. This is the evaluation workshop. Here's the information on it,
[00:40:24] Speaker A: which are just documents,
[00:40:25] Speaker B: which are all just documents, but it's all just a filing system and it's going to go in there and it's going to read it all and then it's going to come back to me with the output. So otherwise it's just. It's a brain that's going to make stuff up on its own. Think trying to guess what it is that I'm talking about versus the, the database that you created is the true founding. I've actually been talking to that with our, with our clients lately because they're like, well, I can't get it to do this or I can't get it to do that. I'm like, that's because where are you saving? It's like, I did an analysis last week and I asked it this week to update it with this new information and it couldn't find the other analysis and I was like, well, where did you save it? Like, what database are you saving this stuff to?
[00:41:03] Speaker A: What?
[00:41:03] Speaker B: Yeah, they're like, well, it's just. It's in this project, in here, in Claude. I was like, no, it's not talking to each other that way. Like, it needs the underlying database where you're saving the information. It's
[00:41:13] Speaker A: just data management.
[00:41:15] Speaker B: It's just you're building the, like the brain, but it. Right. It's just like a filing system.
[00:41:19] Speaker A: Right. And so when we say brain for people listening in, it's like, it's all we have is a file folder structure. It's like people like Data Lake. Like, they're probably picturing Jarvis. Like we were talking about, like, oh, this is pixie dust. It's like, no, it's just a file folder structure and it makes sense where everything goes.
That's it.
[00:41:41] Speaker B: Yeah,
[00:41:41] Speaker A: like, it's a file folder structure primarily with Markdown files, which are text files, because it takes less tokens and less energy to. To process them. That's it. And like, to your point of like, okay, like Ryan's voice, like, all I'm doing is every single day is every. I hate doing twice. So like, every time I'm doing something, I'm just like, build an SOP for that, store it here and put like, it's just nesting, it's just organization. That's why I feel like I can picture the whole file folder structure. Might put it into here, put it into there. And like we do this so that way next time the cascade of information is like going through these links to say, okay, well here's, you know, Kim asked for this and we like, for example, the voice. I'll be giving a very practical example for everybody. So inside of the revenue module, which is our revenue department, it's. We have our milestones with all of the directions and how all the IBD works. Were able to say. You were able to say, okay, we need to write this thing.
Well, it knows because as you're doing the sales and marketing work that you're the CRO. It's got the role because it's just a 14 page job description and then customized for IBD with our strategic plan. And then it knows when you're writing something, go to the voice or the writing style guide.
The writing style guide is a SOP document that says, well, what are we writing emails?
Is it training content? Is it a formal, like, client thing? Or is it an internal email? Like, so it's going through or podcast show notes? So it's going, well, this is what we're writing. So go here.
Right? And no EM dashes ever is like baked like constantly. Right. So it's just that written document that it's just going. It's just you're doing a chain of events like, oh, this is social media. So like, and then in that voice writing style guide, I had it process like all of the material to know how I speak. I don't think it does as many curse words,
[00:43:45] Speaker B: filters those out.
[00:43:47] Speaker A: So it's not true. It's not true to its nature of Ryan's. Ryan's voice.
[00:43:51] Speaker B: It's a censored version.
[00:43:54] Speaker A: So like, it's just those documents and like,
[00:43:58] Speaker B: documents aren't even that. I mean, it's not like they're a mystery to me because I mean, I had never done it before. Like, you explained this to me. You hooked me up with like the database and everything, explained it all to Me. And, like, I do copywriting for a couple of my clients. And so as I'm, like, writing out, like, as I'm talking to the machine to do it, and I'm explaining nuances and, like, thing preferences, and each of them have different preferences of things they like things they don't like. EM dashes, no EM dashes, short sentences, no short sentences, paragraphs versus, versus bullet points and stuff. So I've built like, an overall, like, copywriting sop. Like, as I go, I'm like, remember this and add it to the sop. Remember this and add it to the sop. And then it was like. And now, like, create a sub document by client. So that way you're just referring to the copywriting here. So the master service agreement, basically, that I have in place of this is what I want for my copywriting. And then underneath it here are my nuances by client. And thing just gets better and better every single time. Because I'm just. I'm learning something new. As I get an output and I read it, I'm like, like that. Don't like that. And then I feed it to it so it remembers it again in the future.
[00:45:06] Speaker A: Yeah. And you and I have created a startup prompt, and then they wrap up prompt that says, while we were in this chat session, why don't you mine it all for things that should be standardized?
Right? Because it's like. Because after a while, you're like, did I do something like, twice again? Like, oh, hey, you know what, AI? Why don't you just create an SOP for SOPs?
And that's what I did. Some people like, how did you do all this? I'm like. Like, I swear the competitive edge is being completely inherently lazy and selfish with our time.
I don't want to be doing any of this at all.
Like, and so if that's the case and I'm doing something, like, I've done this twice. Like, what am I doing? I don't want to do this. And I'm sitting here like, I don't want to be doing this. I feel like I'm trapped. And so, like, it's just having that, like, constant, perpetual. I'm stacking on SOPs. And so what I was saying to Megan last night is, so, not only could I just not just go to one of these AI tools and get that email done, but, like, I think we're all gonna have personal AI, like, here. I'll jump into, like, where I think we're gonna go. I think eventually we won't have Screens like this. This is another. I mean this is insane that we, we manage our entire life through this pile of this phone.
Like we should be talking to each other. So at some point we're gonna have an interface talking to something that's doing all of this for us. And what I really hope we land on with the future is I want a individual AI that only looks out for Ryan's interests, that manages the rest of the AI world. That's what's going to happen. It's the digital world, right? Like, like if my car is going to be like, it's the whole self driving thing. Like if my car is going to get in an accident, does it prioritize the other person in the other car or me? Is it judging it by net worth? Is it judging it by race? Is it judging it by age? Like, I don't want another machine making a decision about my life without me.
How would making a decision about my morals and values? Like, no, I don't need Dario or Sam Altman or any of these effers. Like actually making a decision on my behalf.
So I think it's necessary. We have to build these databases about what's important to us because we're going to have our own individual AI. And until these devices go away, I think Apple is going to be the hardware provider because Apple is the most secure hardware provider. And I think that they were, I think they knew this because there's no viable business model in the front. Your models, like they will never make any money. What will make money is the hardware. Because these models, you can get these open source models and you can put it on a Mac mini on your computer. Like so like there's this sci Fi show, his dark materials that I love. And like every, every person's got this Damon and the Damon is essentially is this little AI that just looks out for the person all the time.
It's an animal. But like the, like it's sci Fi. But like it's like the, the concept is based on. I think we're like, I want an AI working with all of the. That I don't want to touch without any screens involved, managing my life. But it needs to know what's important to Ryan, what are his morals and values, what are his goals. Right? I mean like so all the stuff that we've been doing with IBD is like I said this years ago is like the super prompt of super prompt. Because what's my time, cash and wealth goes. It's the, it's the most fundamental principle Constraint time and then cash flow and then wealth.
And unless we have those clear about what we want to do with our time, how much cash flow we need, and how much wealth needs to protect our cash flow, no advisor, no coach, no AI will ever be able to give anybody good advice.
[00:48:55] Speaker B: Yep,
[00:48:59] Speaker A: yep,
[00:49:01] Speaker B: yep.
My brain, I'm just going through
[00:49:06] Speaker A: it
[00:49:06] Speaker B: all. Like it's so wild to me. And then where my brain was going with all that, the Ryan is also back to the other side of the coin that, that we started with, like with the bipolar thinking of it all. Because then I think about back to all the humans and then I just think back to like, my daughter's gonna be graduating high school in a couple of years. And I just keep reading. I'm like law enforcement, medical field, trade.
Like those are the three areas that you need to focus on when you're graduating high school. Because anything else is like question mark in my mind.
[00:49:43] Speaker A: And I think there's, I think there's a very thoughtful way to think about it because like Paul's daughter's graduating too. Like, I'm just like I said, I mean Megan, I'm like our girls graduate high school and 2035. I think the whole money system will be totally reset and all of this will be worked out.
It'll still be accelerating and growing, but like, it's not going to be confusing. Like going and getting an international business degree. Like, what the does that mean? How about I have
[00:50:14] Speaker B: one,
[00:50:15] Speaker A: I
[00:50:15] Speaker B: have a master's in international business. Like, did
[00:50:19] Speaker A: you guys learn about fiat currencies?
[00:50:22] Speaker B: As I told Chloe, I was just like my degree, like, if I was graduating, like going into college right now, I would not be going for the same thing that I went for back then. I mean, thankfully in my career I have a value outside of the paper that I can put on my wall. But it's just healthcare
[00:50:39] Speaker A: administration. Mba. How about that?
[00:50:42] Speaker B: No, like the medical transcriptionists. Like I remember I got an associate's degree in medical transcription
[00:50:47] Speaker A: translators. Or like, like how about hr? Mba? I mean, like I just.
So I think that there's a, there should be a safe space for people to think out loud about what we are going through.
Everyone.
And, and I watched Megan do it yesterday and like she does it more to just be my devil's advocate to help me think differently. But like, like I think it's like everybody, like we need to think like this is here. It's not. We're not in a sci fi movie anymore, right? And I think that's like people go oh, because human beings are technically incapable of thinking about exponential growth.
Like, they. Everybody thinks linearly. Like, that's how our brains think. So we can't think about the fact that, like, lily pads, if you have two and it doubles every day, it's like, if the whole thing fills up, it's like, only halfway full on day 29. And the second day, it's where the 30th day, the all. The whole lake is full of lily pads. Like, exponential growth is hard to process. And we're here. It's not going back in the box.
So if that's the case, we should be having these thoughtful conversations. But what I see, Kim and you and I have talked about it with the money, no baby boomers are talking about, you know, the bond market might be screwed. It's like, well, how's your $5 million of fake money doing?
And, like, you need it to continue.
Commercial bankers need to think about how their job doing fractional banking exists and why it's. You know, they need to think about, like, well, this is providing value. A wealth manager is sucking 1% off of everybody's assets. This is val to sit down and go, maybe what I'm doing is totally irrelevant.
Think about how much psychological confidence you have to have to think that
[00:52:41] Speaker B: that's true. You and I were talking about this the other day. Different topic, but kind of the same vein. And that, like, people kind of just react throughout their days instead of taking the time for deep thought and process. Versus, like, I think our brains work very similar in this way where I got to figure out the why nothing is the way that it is. Like, if I see something that doesn't make sense to my brain, I'm like, why did that happen? Or why did that person respond? Respond that way. And I will, like, think about it incessantly until I can come up with an answer. Like, I'll. Whether that's talking to peers to try to figure it out, whether that's educating, like, on books or something. Like, oftentimes calling, like, my mom or my dad, I'm like, they're trying to.
[00:53:22] Speaker A: You're learning. You're trying to figure out.
[00:53:24] Speaker B: Yes. And I don't know how many people do that. I think, like, like I told you on that call, like, a lot of people call me an overthinker. They're like, kim overthinks everything. Everything. But I think that's what you're getting to in this point, is that, like, you told me on that call, you're like, it's not overthinking like more people should be more thoughtful.
[00:53:40] Speaker A: And the analogy that's been working with Paul is I've been converting him to just like you. We have to look at this big picture about the money. It's like there was a guy that posted it was about the Big Short and the credit default swap collapse through 2009. Watch the big Short, watch Margin Call. Those are wonderful movies. The smartest guys in the room with Enron, like how did this stuff happen? And it's like, well, you realize because no one's thinking it's just incentive. Incentive structures that are just fumbling forward because everyone, it's called game theory. Everyone's selfish and everyone only cares about themselves first. Then they go to their spouse if they're. They have a loving spouse. Then they go to their kids if they're not like a predator where they're like bears and lions eat their kids. Like it's like we all are looking out for ourselves first. And the only reason we end up collaborating together is because it's pure selfishness where we have to work together to survive.
So our brains actually want to provide value to our smallest community because it's self survival mechanisms. So game survival or game theory is all based on this incentives.
So if that's the case, people like when you, when you talk about rolling it all forward, when I said to Paul like just how ridiculous it is how much we have to think differently before I tell the, the story that's been resonating with Paul.
Have you ever heard the ham story?
[00:54:59] Speaker B: I don't think so.
[00:55:00] Speaker A: The ham story has to do with like us just doing stuff over and over again. So it's Thanksgiving. Daughter goes to her mom. Mom, why do we cut the ends of the ham off?
[00:55:10] Speaker B: Oh, I have heard this. Yep.
[00:55:11] Speaker A: Mom goes. I have no idea why she has Grandma, Grandma, why don't we cut the ends of the ham off? No idea. Why don't. She has Great grandma, Great grandma, why do we cut the ends of the ham off? Our oven was only this big four generations. I don't know.
Probably, you know, a huge like commercial oven and just still cut.
[00:55:34] Speaker B: They're buying two separate hams because they need more.
They cut the ends off.
[00:55:40] Speaker A: Oh my God. It's totally insane. And so I think there's so much psychology here because people have, it's called heuristics. In psychology we get these rules called heuristics that allow us to map the whole world because it's too complicated for us and we have to go. I'M going to take that idea and now it's part of my operating system.
[00:56:01] Speaker B: So,
[00:56:02] Speaker A: like, if you think about it like, the way that works is these heuristics, they stack on top of each other over years and years and years. So if you go down to the root operating system, so the more fundamental they are as a child trying to. It's like Jenga, right? Like, if you try to take out that, that first operating system of like, you were taught this as a 9 year old. It's psychological pain.
Our brains are engineered for psychological safety with dopamine, which is why everybody goes to comfort and the easy route versus the hard route. And so you go, hey, Kim, that thing that's not serving you well, it's the, it's like the second layer and I have to pull that out. The whole thing could collapse on you psychologically.
Insert mushrooms or, you know, psychedelics or whatever it is that can help people. Meditation, you know, praying religion to help us realize it's okay to rethink things.
[00:56:54] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:56:54] Speaker A: You know, it's, it's truly okay. And your survival of your money and your community and all these things like that. Because like, if you think about, if all your decisions about spouses and friends and job and career and all this stuff is based on that second layer.
And if you pull that out and you're like, holy shit, I have to rethink about my job, where I live, what I do, what I told my kids, my 529 plan that I've been saving in for 10 years. Like, and it just, it just is too much for people.
And like, people like you and I are like, take the whole thing down,
[00:57:29] Speaker B: rebuild it better. New data point. Yeah,
[00:57:35] Speaker A: we can build five of these at the same time and we don't have to have holes all over the place. This would be great.
And so like, it's just understanding that has been super important to me to understand why is it that people can't see this?
And like, I was talking to Paul. So insert then the conversation, the metaphor with Paul.
This guy was talking about like the, the total fumbling forward of like the entire massive problem with credit. The private credit markets and private equity and then the Japan yen carry trade and then like the AI bubble. And like there's 10 different things that could completely collapse the entire thing. Not just one, but ten. He's like, how is it that no one sees this? And this, this guy, this article that this guy wrote, he's like, everyone's shoveling and they're talking about what kind of what kind of shovel you got. You got a flathead, you got the spear. Like, are. Are you scooping it down? Like are. You do like this. What's your handle? You have a soft handle. You got a hard handle. Is it aerodynamic? Like. And the. No one goes, should we be doing this?
[00:58:34] Speaker B: Do we really need to shovel the.
[00:58:35] Speaker A: Yes. Then I said, paul, now let's insert it. Because we were. Paul and I were just bantering about this in the sauna last weekend. I was like, okay, Paul, now let's insert the. Is our job right? So like, wait a second. Like, no, just gotta keep doing this because this is my family depends on me shoveling. And like, you're just like, I'm gonna hopefully have good conversations while I'm shoveling, but I'm still shoveling.
And like, hopefully maybe I can only do it for four hours instead of six.
We're still shoveling. And then you realize, okay, I'm getting closer to done with the pile of which could be your retirement. Right. So once you're done, you power wash it, which is your retirement party, and then you can go do something else. Well, the Federal Reserve and the US government are adding 10% more to the pile every day. And you're only shoveling 5% a day.
There's no end to the shoveling ever.
[00:59:36] Speaker B: Forever.
[00:59:37] Speaker A: Yeah. And then until you go unsubscribe. How about I go over here?
Isn't that crazy? Because that's, that's the inflation, that's the debasement of the money, is you're adding 10, 10% more every year while you're only shoveling seven. Seven is the average rate of return that people get from their investments.
And so there is no end in this. And this is why people are stressed. This is why people are crabby. This is why people are like, what am I doing? They're angry, like, because they're like, what? What is going on here?
[01:00:12] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:00:12] Speaker A: And so it. All of this stuff is so tied together. And what's crazy is AI is just collapsing the gap between the awareness to like, oh my God, like people are going to have to reckon with. With this because AI is out of the box.
[01:00:28] Speaker B: Yep.
[01:00:31] Speaker A: What's your thoughts about that? Like, some of the psychology and the metaphors.
[01:00:36] Speaker B: I love the metaphors for sure. And I love psychology. Just learning more about why the brain works and how it works and what like people are tend to be more naturally programmed to do. I think, think what blows my mind. And this might not be true. It just might be true to my little circle in my little world is that all of this seems like it's becoming so obvious.
Like there's so many. Like you have the AI that is empowering people to be super doers, but they're not, because either they're still nervous, not willing to train themselves, not willing to break from their mold. I do it this way every single day, and it works for me. So why do I. I need something new. Like I say, like, it's a very small percentage of people that I know that have like, wholly adopted to the level of like, somebody. Like, not even you, because you've like, you're like the Jordan, like the, the Tony Stark, but like me who's like, middle ground.
Like, you
[01:01:30] Speaker A: think you're middle ground. I wouldn't, I would say that's not the case, but keep going.
[01:01:34] Speaker B: Okay, but. So there's very few people that I feel like are as curious and trying to like, use it to better themselves and to better their life and just make their day more enjoyable. And then at the same point, with everything that you were talking about, with the money and inflation and everything going on with that, I feel like I know you have. I have been talking about this for years and there's so many signs everywhere. Like, I feel like I'm driving down a highway and it's like there's a billboard that's telling me what's going on. There's a billboard and there's so many people that still don't see it.
Like, I can even talk with them about it and they'll be like, yeah, that's going to be later on. It's not right.
[01:02:10] Speaker A: Psychological.
You're, you're, you're.
Because I'm doing the same thing, and I have been for a long time, and it is unbelievably maddening. And that's why the allegory of the cave from Socrates is a thing.
Do you know what that is?
So it's sci fi, if we want to know the truth. Just go to sci fi, man. Like, so the Matrix and Silo from the Apple show is based on the allegory of the cave from Socrates. So when. So the way that the, the.
Let me see if I can pull this up real quick.
So there's the.
The allegory of the cave is where people are locked up in a cave and they're locked up in a cave. Look at this right here. Got it.
So they're locked up in a cave right here. Kim.
See it?
[01:03:05] Speaker B: Yep.
[01:03:06] Speaker A: So they're locked up in a cave and they're staring at the wall.
The wall. You can see the fire at the box back. Right? So for people listening in, people are facing a wall, but behind them is a fire. Okay, so then there's a walkway in between the fire and people's backs as people walk as other things and people walk between the fire and people's backs. It has shadows, right, Kim?
[01:03:36] Speaker B: Yep.
[01:03:37] Speaker A: So these people, their whole life have been locked up staring at the wall. So to make sense of the world, they make sense of the shadows. So there might be big ones, there might be small ones, like man, woman, child, dog, whatever it might be. They dance around depending on how things are going.
So they have no idea, and they're just making sense and making gods out of these shadows.
So one person escapes, and they call it the road to ascent to sunlight. So they go up here, like, what the.
[01:04:12] Speaker B: This
[01:04:12] Speaker A: is just.
Just as fire. And it was just people walking by. And then they come back to be like, hey, everybody. Like, there aren't any gods. It's just people in the fire. And they're like, shut up. You're crazy. And then so what happens is the entire, like, cohort of people locked up, ostracized. The person that saw the light and the person that saw the light and saw the whole situation is totally and utterly crazy, according to the population.
Now, the Matrix makes sense where it's like, oh, my God, I got unplugged from the Matrix. Here's your red pill. This is where all of those terminologies come from of, like, the red pill. You're in the Matrix, the silo. I won't do any spoilers for people, but the silo is similar to this. And so we end up becoming crazy because of the psychological safety that our brains are engineered to keep us in.
It's so painful to recognize that, oh, my gosh, all of this was a lie.
And it necessarily wasn't a lie. It was just misinterpreted.
[01:05:16] Speaker B: Yeah, because your brain makes up stories based on data that you have. Like, I've always said that
[01:05:21] Speaker A: it's called a heuristic. Yep.
[01:05:23] Speaker B: Okay, I didn't know, but that's what I used to always tell my team. It's like, never, like, because if you're just building a story off of assumptions, your brain's just going to make stuff up based upon the data that it currently has, which is why I'm always trying to find more data.
It's
[01:05:35] Speaker A: a building block. Right? So, like, people's blind belief that the fundamental building blocks will never change which is why people argue, even if they are presented with facts that counter point them because their identity is matched up with that idea or that model. So it's like identity politics is that thing. It's like, this is so ridiculous that we're arguing about this stuff because we can't even have a conversation of whether we could be right or wrong or what are new ideas. New ideas become threatening to our psychological safety.
And so this is why, I mean, dude, Henry Ford said like the moment that the public were to be aware of the money system and the Ponzi scheme, there would be a revolution today. But it'll never happen.
Henry Ford said that.
[01:06:23] Speaker B: Oh, that's fascinating.
[01:06:25] Speaker A: Oh, and by the way, Rockefeller, who was Rockefeller Morgan's, who were helping behind the Federal Reserve, Rockefeller is behind the entire schooling system, the entire medical distance medical system because he's like, well, we have an industrial revolution and what we need is people to go to work on time and to do their jobs. We don't want artisans and crafts people anymore. We want people to go up and go and just continue stamping. And it's like so like they eradicated our free thinking, which is so interesting because that was 1913 and whoop, now we're on the other side.
What are the most valuable people on the planet now?
Free thinkers.
[01:07:04] Speaker B: Right?
[01:07:05] Speaker A: Because you said that you can't even get people to like look at this, like ask and use this stuff because they don't know how.
They don't even know what to ask. They're, they're so embedded into the matrix, which goes back to like, okay, well what's going to happen to these companies?
Because if we follow the incentives structures like other people are going to be doing this regardless.
It's just such a, like it's wild. Like us in our community when we were sitting at that group at the summit, I was like, I just want to hang out with fun people that are, that are outside the matrix, like instead doing real things for real people in the real economy who are open to new ideas, who have very clear goals, who are willing to be curious and do hard work. Because like the world is full of NPCs, which is just people that are like the video game that they're just computer robots. And like, and I don't mean that in any derogatory way. It's just like, it's so hard to re calibrate someone's thinking because that Jenga piece could collapse their whole psyche. And it's, and I understand the fear, I really do. But it just is so bizarre to me.
[01:08:13] Speaker B: Yeah. I don't know. I don't know if, I mean, I understand the concept. I don't know if I understand living with that kind of a thought process. But I'm also, like, I've also seen some people in my circle that I talked. I've been talking with about all of this for a long time, and now they're also. They're like, yep. Like, we're feeling it. Yep. It started like, so their minds have been opened to it. It's just some people choose to take, I don't know, to not want to listen and live in denial versus other people. But
[01:08:45] Speaker A: I think what I'm. What I've been saying to you is what I'm watching because I realized a long time ago the more I try to push this stuff, the more people have an allergic reaction to me, which has been really lonely, to be honest, because all I do is I want to relate to people and I just want to, like, have more intimate relationships. That's kind of my jam. And like, I'm like, I can't talk about fake anymore. Like, so I have to, like, build a business where I slowly red pill one person at a time. Like, yay, now we're. Now we can. Now we can be friends and talk about fun things. Things.
[01:09:15] Speaker B: That's hilarious
[01:09:16] Speaker A: because it's true. And it's like, so I'm. The business that we're. We're in is my little playground. And like, then I don't have to try and change the whole world.
[01:09:25] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:09:25] Speaker A: But I think it's interesting what I've been watching is the rate of change of normies becoming aware of this.
Because, like, in finance, I always say the moment your Uber driver or your grandma's talking about an investment, the whole thing screwed.
Because, like, the price has already been baked in and it's overvalued. So as we start, like you, I'm watching these mainstream podcasts, like Steve Bartlett, this Diary of the CEO and all, like, all these podcasts starting to talk about it. Mike.
Accelerating into the 2030 timeline. So it's like the reason that this. And they call it gradually, then boom, suddenly because it's exponential. And so I think the rate of change of normies becoming red pilled is happening because, like, when you have a Forbes article that said or Bloomberg article that says one third of people making a half million dollars living paycheck to paycheck, like what? Like, and you go 40 or 6, 60% of the country has a sixth grade education or below and over 60% of the country can't find 500 bucks.
That like, that's so insane. People, I
[01:10:37] Speaker B: think
[01:10:37] Speaker A: like, I think like the boomers that you and the smart people that you and I work with, like your dad or Pat or who all these people are like, I think it's so difficult to wrap their head around. They go, I can't, I can't process that. That there's 200 million people in this country that have no viable day to day career.
You know what I mean? While we're talking about buying buildings and investments and stuff. Like, it's like, it's just too hard to like connect those two.
[01:11:08] Speaker B: Yeah. And I think that brings in just the growing inequality of incomes. Right. Like that's just a growing issue that's not going away anytime soon either
[01:11:16] Speaker A: because of the acceleration of the pile that's going.
[01:11:20] Speaker B: Exactly. The growing pile is causing even greater the divergence between the, the income rates. All right, so we've covered AI.
[01:11:30] Speaker A: What haven't we covered?
[01:11:31] Speaker B: What else have we
[01:11:32] Speaker A: talked about? A cash flow statement. How about working capital debt, reinvestment, double entry, accounting consciousness, the quantum. What else we got?
Just another hump day for us.
[01:11:46] Speaker B: I tell we said so in the very beginning. This is just a peel back of the curtain of a general conversation between Ryan and Kim.
Like and then this, then this. But I think it is all connected together like this. While it may seem like disparate thoughts, I think there is a thread line that goes through all of them which is we are in a, what is a disruptive technological age with AI is the technology.
[01:12:12] Speaker A: Neil, how, how calls it the Fourth Turning? People I, I strongly recommend people just Google Fourth Turning. You can find a YouTube video about it. This is a repeat cycle of generations and different generations. There's four different generations and it repeats over about 100 years. It layers right on top of Ray Dalio's 100 year debt cycle. Right on top of the Fiat shit. So it's.
We're in it. Your point like this. And there's labels, there's words, there's concepts, there's math. There's all this stuff to allow people to go, oh there's. That's
[01:12:45] Speaker B: what's going on.
[01:12:46] Speaker A: I'm not crazy. Like all of my employees want to raise.
Yeah, because, because cars are 100 grand now. Like, like that was as much as my first house. And so to your point, like it, there is a rational explanation to this and I'm hoping maybe Kim, like we can keep having these conversations because if we can provide psychological safety of like, I have been told I'm insane for over a decade.
So that way, hopefully other people don't have to feel that way
[01:13:16] Speaker B: or suffer in silence.
[01:13:17] Speaker A: Right.
[01:13:18] Speaker B: I think a lot of people just tend to suffer inside. They're like, this doesn't seem right, but I'm gonna just keep my head in the sand and keep going to work and keep shoveling the.
[01:13:27] Speaker A: That's. That that metaphor is sticking around.
[01:13:30] Speaker B: It is. It's not sticky.
[01:13:36] Speaker A: Oh, good lord. Well, anybody that's still listening, you're not a normie.
Welcome. You've officially, officially been rent pilled.
[01:13:46] Speaker B: You're in good company.
[01:13:48] Speaker A: And what to come, Kim, is I want to keep having these conversations.
I'm going to figure out a way to put on our website a resource list of all of the, like, how did I figure this stuff out? Like, some of the top money books, some of the top podcasts, some of the people that I trust that I follow are my audiobook list and stuff like that. I think that'll help because I watch people that I go like, oh my gosh, I get it. But I have like, Jason literally was like, I have been thinking this way and feeling this way for a long time. I finally have words to it.
[01:14:19] Speaker B: But
[01:14:19] Speaker A: then he's like, well, where do I go next? And I just want to like, have like a page of like,
[01:14:22] Speaker B: yeah,
[01:14:23] Speaker A: here's just like the rabbit hole if you want to go down it. Otherwise you just start paying attention. I think is,
[01:14:29] Speaker B: yeah, no, I like the idea of a resource library on the subject. And then you had mentioned maybe even a book club eventually. So I think that would be fun too.
[01:14:38] Speaker A: Yep,
[01:14:38] Speaker B: yep,
[01:14:38] Speaker A: yep. And, and I think also as a word of thought for everybody and, and this is me just thinking out loud is the resources, like when I send people like an article or YouTube or a book, it isn't a total 100%.
What would be the right word?
Condone or like, I, I don't completely support all of it. You know what I mean? Like, people go, oh, you must believe everything that was said. I'm like, no. Like,
[01:15:08] Speaker B: but
[01:15:09] Speaker A: if you're willing to have a thoughtful conversation, like, it kind of starts with like, if someone were to listen to an hour long podcast, I'm like, then they're, they're introducing new ideas I'm loving talking about. Like, there are 15 of those things that I am totally against and I think are wrong. But like, there's 85 of that conversation that was super fun, like super valuable.
And so that's kind of like when we have these resources and what I want to have us as we're continuing to have you be the voice of the brand is like bringing stuff to the forefront. Saying hey, here's things to think about doesn't mean we completely Support every single 100 of the idea. It's not, it's not binary like that. This is a nuanced conversation that I just hope we continue.
[01:15:52] Speaker B: Yeah, agreed. And people using their own judgments and values and morals and stuff to pick and choose what it's just awareness, right? Just creating awareness to additional concepts and thoughts.
[01:16:04] Speaker A: And Andrew Huberman always says I don't want to tell you what to do. I just want you to know what you're doing.
That's just like, like this is just tough to think about.
[01:16:12] Speaker B: I like it.
[01:16:13] Speaker A: Well, that was a fun, fun hour. So all right everybody check out the show notes and we'll see you next week.
Sa.
