Build AI Agents Before They Replace You | PMAX Scripts and Automation | Mike Rhodes — Transcript
Full transcript
- 0:00So, welcome to a new episode of the
- 0:01Masters of Search Talks. I'm super happy
- 0:04to introduce today's guest, Mike
- 0:06Rhodess, who has become one of the most
- 0:09influential voices around PPC and AI.
- 0:13After building and selling four
- 0:14businesses, Mike has spent a lot of
- 0:17time, probably he will tell us today how
- 0:20much time, building products like the
- 0:22famous PMX inside script. I think like
- 0:25in PPC everybody knows this or at least
- 0:2890% of the people and teaching people
- 0:31how to do the same. So Mike, can you
- 0:34give us a quick intro about your journey
- 0:36and especially your move from agency
- 0:39founder or a business builder to AI
- 0:41builder?
- 0:43>> Yeah. Yeah. Um yeah, I fell into Google
- 0:46Ads by accident. I went to a conference
- 0:49in 2004
- 0:51um and Perry Marshall was in Australia
- 0:53for the first time speaking um ripping
- 0:56into Yahoo or Overture as it was back
- 0:59then and talking about this new thing
- 1:00that he was starting to look at called
- 1:02Google Ads and uh yeah well yeah a quick
- 1:0620 years later here we are I ended up uh
- 1:09doing all of the training for Perry's
- 1:11group and writing the book on Google Ads
- 1:13with Perry which I believe is the
- 1:15world's bestselling book on Google Ads
- 1:16but that was all Perry not me. Um, and
- 1:19then yeah, built an agent, fell into an
- 1:21agency by mistake, too. I took me sort
- 1:23of a year of helping people here and
- 1:25there and swapping advice for a case of
- 1:27beer or a round of golf. Um, and all
- 1:30these people kept saying, "Yeah, but
- 1:32mate, I don't care how it works. I just
- 1:35need you to do it for me." Because
- 1:37apparently my MO is just I like to
- 1:39explain things and I like to teach
- 1:41people how it works. So fell into agency
- 1:44land and all of a sudden turned around
- 1:46and my kids were still both in primary
- 1:50school a couple of years ago and I just
- 1:52thought you know what like this time
- 1:55I've always been very careful of my
- 1:56time. I was never working 70our weeks um
- 2:00maybe right at the beginning before
- 2:01kids. Um but I just thought you know it
- 2:04this is a time I do not want to miss. I
- 2:06know I'm never going to get this back.
- 2:08It's time for someone else to take the
- 2:09baton and and take this forward. Uh the
- 2:12plan was to basically do not too much
- 2:16and that lasted about three weeks and
- 2:19then I rediscovered how to code and it
- 2:22was right around the time that GBT4 was
- 2:25coming out and and growing and I just
- 2:28yeah the the the PMAX script as you
- 2:30mentioned just went gang busters. Um
- 2:34which gave me a lot of leeway then to to
- 2:36just explore. Um, and since then I've
- 2:39been building tools. I've always built
- 2:41tools for, you know, the the PPC
- 2:43community going back to 2008 I think was
- 2:46the first one that I built. I've always,
- 2:48as you said, tried to teach other people
- 2:50how to do what we did back in the agency
- 2:53world. Um, again, starting 2007208, I've
- 2:56had various sort of membership groups
- 2:58and, you know, spoken at conferences and
- 3:01so on. And, um, I just absolutely love
- 3:04it. I love building stuff. I'm not
- 3:07particularly good at managing um people
- 3:10and stuff and things. So like the the
- 3:12running of a mediumsiz business um
- 3:16definitely not my forte. I was I was
- 3:18definitely much happier once I had a
- 3:20sort of a proper general manager come in
- 3:23and and she managed all of the
- 3:24day-to-day and allowed me to to travel
- 3:27more and and speak on stages and so on.
- 3:30But um yeah, I just I just love building
- 3:32stuff. And so now it's just such a
- 3:35wonderful time to be a builder because
- 3:37you can go from idea to impact in the
- 3:41course of a day really and then get a an
- 3:43MVP out there and get feedback on it and
- 3:46and see if it resonates and and that's
- 3:48what I've really been doing most of the
- 3:49past two years.
- 3:51Before we dive into more of the PPC, the
- 3:54AI, the building stuff, I can imagine
- 3:57that there are a lot of people in the
- 3:58audience also either from maybe a
- 4:01freelance background or maybe also uh
- 4:04agency owners to just like to take a
- 4:06very short moment uh to recap um this
- 4:10journey when you were selling the
- 4:11business or when you were transitioning
- 4:13out of the business. Can you just give
- 4:15us a little bit of um an overview of
- 4:18things you were doing in the runup uh of
- 4:22you going out of the business? So, were
- 4:23there certain like key milestones you
- 4:26set for yourself that you have to
- 4:28achieve so the business is sellable in a
- 4:30way? Joe, just I'd like to hear a little
- 4:33bit of this this process.
- 4:35>> Yeah. Right. Um
- 4:37I I mean yes I suppose I so going back
- 4:40gosh more than 20 years I was an ETH
- 4:44consultant. I paid Michael Gerber a very
- 4:46large sum of money a long time ago to
- 4:48become an E-Myth consultant. I'm not
- 4:50sure if you've even heard of or read the
- 4:52book the ETH. It was the small business
- 4:54bible you know 25 years ago. It was the
- 4:58thing and it was the thing that really
- 4:59helped my first business be a success.
- 5:02And I didn't know there were these
- 5:04consultants. I went off to the States. I
- 5:06paid him a huge amount of money and
- 5:07trained and basically it's all about
- 5:09work on the business, not in the
- 5:10business. That's that's essentially it,
- 5:12right? Um, so I've always been a a fan
- 5:16of systems and processes that run the
- 5:19business and the people run the
- 5:20processes and a business is just a
- 5:22system of systems. So the business was
- 5:25was pretty systemized. I mean, it's a
- 5:27professional service business, so it's
- 5:28always going to be a bit messy and
- 5:30especially in the industry that we're
- 5:31in, there's a lot changing all the time.
- 5:34It's not we used to joke you know it's
- 5:35not like insurance where you could
- 5:37probably do the same thing that you were
- 5:38doing 10 years ago you know the halflife
- 5:40of information in the PBC world is two
- 5:43years so I don't know that there were
- 5:46milestones as much I mean getting a
- 5:48general manager like I said which was
- 5:50probably five years to selling but it
- 5:51wasn't like I was like oh I'm I'm going
- 5:53to sell in five years so I'll get a
- 5:55general manager now if you'd asked me
- 5:58then I would have said I'm never selling
- 6:00the way I pictured the business imagine
- 6:02a big sheet of paper in front of you
- 6:04like A3 sheet of paper. I've always said
- 6:06that it's easier to work out what you
- 6:08don't want to do than it is to work out
- 6:10what you do. So you picture all the
- 6:13stuff that you do as this huge sheet of
- 6:15paper in front of you. It's much easier
- 6:17to go, "Oh, I don't want to do that half
- 6:20of the page anymore. Let's let's spend
- 6:22the next year getting rid of that half
- 6:24of the page. Okay, now I'm down to a
- 6:25smaller piece of paper. Now next year I
- 6:27want to get rid of that half of the
- 6:28paper and then this bit and then this
- 6:30bit and then this bit." and you end up
- 6:32with just this little and that's where I
- 6:33was. I was just doing the little bit
- 6:35that I felt I was quite good at and that
- 6:38I really liked doing.
- 6:41But I don't know, it was always a um
- 6:43what I really struggled with, I'm sure
- 6:45many people will relate to this, but I
- 6:47always struggled when when a team member
- 6:50quit or when a client left. I was
- 6:53supposed to be kind of removed from
- 6:56that, you know,
- 6:57>> couple of layers away from that. um
- 7:00that's why you put in a proper general
- 7:01manager, you know, but I I could just
- 7:03never quite remove my my brain and and
- 7:07the feeling of that. It always felt like
- 7:09a kick in the guts and I thought, gosh,
- 7:11if I if I'm still feeling like this now,
- 7:14I'm always going to care and it's always
- 7:16going to hurt. Um
- 7:19ah yeah, I just like I maybe maybe I
- 7:22should try something different after
- 7:24after 17 years. Um, and yeah, I had a
- 7:28chat completely by chance really. I was
- 7:30actually considering maybe expanding and
- 7:33buying a creative agency. Like there
- 7:35were a lot of different sort of options
- 7:36floating around. And then I just, yeah,
- 7:38back to two kids in primary school.
- 7:41Actually, I don't think I want to do
- 7:44that. I really want to hang out with
- 7:45them and spend time with them. We worked
- 7:47out back then that my daughter had 134
- 7:50Monday mornings left in primary school.
- 7:53Um, and we've been counting those down.
- 7:55Um, you know, we don't actually have a
- 7:58chart on the wall, but we both know
- 7:59roughly where we are on that list and
- 8:01we've got about 55 to go at this point.
- 8:03So, you know, it's been counting that
- 8:05down and I was just very very aware of
- 8:07that number. So, yeah, in terms of
- 8:10milestones, I mean, not really. It was
- 8:11just had an amazing team. That was the
- 8:13worst part, you know, being away from
- 8:15your team and missing those
- 8:17conversations and missing the the
- 8:19problem solving part of it. That was
- 8:22definitely the hardest part of of
- 8:23dealing with it all. But um no, it's
- 8:26yeah, dive into a new thing and don't
- 8:28look back.
- 8:29>> Keep moving forward.
- 8:31>> Awesome. I once uh saw this video of
- 8:34yours on LinkedIn where you were telling
- 8:36an analogy or a metaphor about playing
- 8:39table tennis.
- 8:41um you probably remember this maybe and
- 8:44after that question we will definitely
- 8:45move into the AI and the PMGs and and
- 8:48the PPC stuff but maybe can you quickly
- 8:50share the story again with the audience
- 8:51because I think it's so it's so
- 8:53eyeopening.
- 8:54>> Yeah, I like this one. I wish I knew
- 8:56where this came from so I could give
- 8:57proper attribution. It's definitely not
- 8:59mine but um
- 9:01you always feel like you have a lot
- 9:03coming at you, right? And
- 9:07basically I get you picture that as
- 9:10you're playing table tennis and there's
- 9:12just constant there's a ball coming at
- 9:14you all the time and it's all you can do
- 9:16to just keep trying to pick up the bat
- 9:19and just keep smashing the ball back.
- 9:21But no matter how much you do it just
- 9:23keeps on coming at you. and the idea of
- 9:27systemizing a business really and and
- 9:29putting some automation in place and
- 9:31putting letting go a little bit and
- 9:33having other people do some stuff. It's
- 9:35all related. But you notice one day that
- 9:38down by your feet there's a pile of
- 9:40bricks. Oh, I haven't noticed those
- 9:42before. That's handy. The trick is that
- 9:45you have to bend down to pick up a brick
- 9:49to put it on the table to start building
- 9:51this wall at your end of the table. The
- 9:54downside is when you bend down to pick
- 9:56up that brick, inevitably a couple of
- 9:58balls go flying past you. I missed
- 10:00I missed one. And that's you feeling
- 10:03like you literally dropped the ball on
- 10:05something. You You've missed something
- 10:06in the business. Something has gone a
- 10:08little bit wrong. No worries. We'll
- 10:10repair that. We'll fix that. Now I've
- 10:12got to bend down and pick up another
- 10:13brick. And And if you keep on doing
- 10:15that,
- 10:17you keep picking up these bricks. You
- 10:18eventually build a wall such that the
- 10:20ball's coming over the net, bounce off
- 10:22the wall and go back. And to begin with,
- 10:25not very many bounce back. But over
- 10:27time, if you keep building the wall,
- 10:29yes, every time you pick up a brick, you
- 10:31miss a couple. But eventually, you've
- 10:33got this whole wall there, and all of
- 10:34the balls bounce back. And now,
- 10:37freedom, you know, freedom to do what it
- 10:40is that you want to do. freedom to do
- 10:42the thing that you set out to do in the
- 10:44first place. You know, um Gerber used to
- 10:47tell the story about the carpenter. He
- 10:48loves carpentry. He works with wood. He
- 10:50loves the smell of the sawdust. But now
- 10:53he's running a carpentry business and he
- 10:55hasn't touched a piece of wood in six
- 10:56months, but he's wearing 12 different
- 10:58hats and he's hiring other carpenters
- 10:59and he's dealing with invoices and
- 11:01dealing with clients and but he's not
- 11:03doing carpentry. He just wishes he could
- 11:05get back to the carpentry. That was why
- 11:07he got into this in the first place. And
- 11:09it's it's a similar sort of thing,
- 11:11right? But you've just got to you've got
- 11:12to build the wall. You've got to let
- 11:13other people do the stuff that they're
- 11:15great at and you're probably not. And be
- 11:18okay with missing a couple of balls
- 11:20going flying past. Yeah, I have no idea
- 11:22where that comes from, but I love the
- 11:24the picture that it builds in your head.
- 11:27>> Maybe at some point in time we will find
- 11:29the person that originally came up with
- 11:31the story. But yeah, I found it so
- 11:33inspiring. So now let's move over to a
- 11:35little bit more PPC and AI related
- 11:38questions. So your PMX script which we
- 11:41um obviously have already introduced has
- 11:44become some somewhat legendary. I like
- 11:46the term you use it went gang busters. I
- 11:49have to use this too. Um and like for me
- 11:53I feel like um all of the time
- 11:55especially in startup world people are
- 11:57talking about yeah the idea is one thing
- 11:59but execution matters a lot. Now we have
- 12:02this great new tools and obviously
- 12:04execution is still very important but we
- 12:06have stuff where basically our
- 12:08imagination
- 12:10uh can become reality in a much shorter
- 12:12period of time. So I just want to get a
- 12:14feeling of how did you come up with the
- 12:17idea for this product or for the script?
- 12:20>> Oh um oh gosh that's probably going back
- 12:22about three years. Um, it would have
- 12:24been a conversation with Stacy and
- 12:27Calvin and Brent and and the wonderful
- 12:30team that I had back at Web Sabi back
- 12:32then and um just really solving that
- 12:35problem. So, we worked out that you
- 12:37could work out how much of your total
- 12:39PMAX spend, how much you were spending
- 12:41on shopping because you could go into
- 12:43the product groups, but you couldn't
- 12:46just export that and sum it all up,
- 12:49right? Because each line was repeated
- 12:51two maybe three times. So, you couldn't
- 12:53even just sum it all up and chop it in
- 12:54half.
- 12:56If it was a very simple campaign setup,
- 12:58you could just about eyeball it and go,
- 13:00"Yeah, it's probably around about 23
- 13:02grand last month." But it was a bit
- 13:05painful to do and a more complicated
- 13:08setup with more product groups. It was
- 13:10just hard. And then, but we kind of
- 13:12lived with that and we eyeballed it and
- 13:14we moved on. And then we worked out one
- 13:16day that oh actually if you add the
- 13:20columns for the number of views and the
- 13:22CPV, you could multiply those together
- 13:25and you could work out how much money
- 13:26you're actually spending on YouTube. But
- 13:30um gosh, this is really testing my
- 13:32memory. But that worked for accounts
- 13:36that had a YouTube campaign running or
- 13:38had ever ran a YouTube campaign. that if
- 13:41that campaign had never turned on any
- 13:42YouTube campaigns, those columns weren't
- 13:45available. But they were with scripts.
- 13:48And so we've sort of found this magic
- 13:50hack, we thought of like, huh, well,
- 13:52let's save doing all of the maths for
- 13:55the product groups. Let's let the script
- 13:56do that. Let's let the script work out
- 13:59how much we're spending on video because
- 14:01it doesn't matter if they've got a
- 14:02YouTube campaign or not. We can work
- 14:04that out. And then whatever's left is
- 14:06search and display. That was version
- 14:08one. And then I ended up chatting to a
- 14:12wonderful bloke in Copenhagen. I
- 14:14actually met him in uh speaking at
- 14:16Bologna, John Jan Carlo's uh John
- 14:19Paulo's event uh the wonderful AdWorld
- 14:21experience, one of the best events in
- 14:24Europe. Um and Tobias was there. We had
- 14:27chatted maybe two and a half years ago
- 14:29and Tobias showed me how they had
- 14:32figured out how to get a rough
- 14:34estimation of that display spend. So now
- 14:37we could split apart display and search.
- 14:40And I said, "Oh, can I build this into
- 14:42of course you can go for it. It's not my
- 14:44thing. I just But he discovered that,
- 14:46not me." Um, and so built that in, gave
- 14:50away a free version of this 2 and a
- 14:53halfish years ago and still felt like it
- 14:57was a bit of special source um for us as
- 15:00an agency to to do, you know, the big
- 15:03version of this that we had. and that
- 15:04bucketed products um very similar to the
- 15:08what the labelizer script and product
- 15:10hero now do but we had sort of our own
- 15:11janky version of that back then um and
- 15:14when I sold the agency um I kept the IP
- 15:18for the script and so you know four
- 15:20weeks later I was speaking in Italy at J
- 15:23Paulo's event I thought yeah bugger it
- 15:26why not let's see if more people want
- 15:28this and are willing to pay couple
- 15:30hundred bucks for it that's all and it
- 15:33went gang busters Um, so I quickly built
- 15:35a little site and started selling it
- 15:38through that. Um, then built an MCC
- 15:41version because a lot of people like,
- 15:43"Yeah, this is great, but I have to do
- 15:45this for every single account." And
- 15:46every time you keep changing the script,
- 15:48which is all the time because I kept
- 15:50having new ideas and everybody kept
- 15:52telling me what else they wanted. Hey,
- 15:53could we build this in and could you add
- 15:55this? I'm like, yeah, here's a new
- 15:56version. Oh, great. Now I've got to
- 15:58update 50 accounts again. Um, so I
- 16:00created the MCC version and sold that
- 16:02and um, yeah, it just went it went went
- 16:04ballistic. It was great. Um, but yeah,
- 16:07it's it's the it's the community around
- 16:09it that I love. Like all these people,
- 16:10it was back to those conversations that
- 16:12I missed from the web savvy days. Now
- 16:14all of a sudden like I'm having
- 16:15conversations about, oh, how are you
- 16:17using this? Oh, that's really cool.
- 16:19That's really smart. And what would you
- 16:20like me to add to this genius idea? Hang
- 16:23on, let me just let me go and add that.
- 16:25So that's how it sort of built and built
- 16:27and built and we're we're up to version
- 16:2888 now. So keeps on going.
- 16:33>> It's a great story. Now if someone is
- 16:35listening and feels like hey I also want
- 16:38to get started with building
- 16:40automations, building scripts or maybe
- 16:42even building agents although like there
- 16:46are different uh specialtities to to
- 16:49these different um stages of automation.
- 16:51But what would you recommend someone
- 16:53that says, "Okay, Mike, I'm down. Um,
- 16:56next weekend is all like exploration
- 17:00time." How should you get started with
- 17:02building that stuff?
- 17:05Start with a problem. Start by thinking
- 17:08about what are all the tasks that I do
- 17:12rather than try and solve this for
- 17:14someone else. Think about the your own
- 17:15tasks that you do of those. Which ones
- 17:19are sort of data related? And is there
- 17:21anything in there that you're doing on a
- 17:23regular basis? Let's say more than three
- 17:25or four times a month. So maybe you're
- 17:27pulling the same data for your boss.
- 17:29Maybe you're creating some sort of
- 17:31client report and they want to see that
- 17:33every week or or every month, but you
- 17:34got a few clients and it's kind of the
- 17:36same, but you're doing this stuff
- 17:38repeatedly and you find yourself doing
- 17:40the same sort of things over and over
- 17:42again. That's the sort of stuff that a
- 17:45script is perfect for, assuming that
- 17:46it's Google Ads data. If it's some other
- 17:48type of data, you're going to need some
- 17:50other type of automation. Um, where to
- 17:54answer that question
- 17:56a year and a half ago, I would have said
- 17:58something completely different to what
- 18:00I'll say now. Because what I'll say now
- 18:02is just turn on your favorite AI chat,
- 18:05GPT, chord, whatever, and just start
- 18:08having a conversation with it. Here's
- 18:10this thing that I do and I get this data
- 18:12and it looks like this and I find myself
- 18:15doing this and this and this all the
- 18:16time. Like I've heard of this thing
- 18:19called Google ad scripts. I've never
- 18:20created one. I've used other people's
- 18:22never created one. How could I do this?
- 18:25What script could we create? So rather
- 18:27than just diving into chat GPT and
- 18:29saying I need a script that's going to
- 18:30pull this data and do this and maybe you
- 18:33don't know what you don't know yet. So
- 18:35have a conversation with an AI first. Be
- 18:37prompted by the AI. say, "Can you please
- 18:40ask me some questions so that you can
- 18:42figure out, dear AI, what it is that we
- 18:45need to build?" Great. Now, can you
- 18:48build that for me, please? Because guess
- 18:49what? It's seen millions and millions of
- 18:51Google Ads scripts, and it's really
- 18:53quite good at getting it right.
- 18:56Sometimes it'll get it wrong. But the
- 18:57wonderful thing about code, it's a bit
- 18:59like maths, right? There is a right
- 19:01answer. So, you take the script, as you
- 19:03well know, and you go chuck it into
- 19:05Google Ads and it either runs or it
- 19:07doesn't run. And if it doesn't run,
- 19:09there's usually some sort of messy error
- 19:10thing down the bottom. You don't even
- 19:12have to understand what that means. You
- 19:13just copy the whole thing, chuck it back
- 19:15into your favorite AI and say, "Your
- 19:17script got this error. Fix it for me,
- 19:20please." Um, and it does. And you
- 19:22usually only have to go around that loop
- 19:24these days with the powerful AI that we
- 19:27have now, maybe two or three times, and
- 19:29all of a sudden, you've got a working
- 19:31script that solves that problem.
- 19:33Awesome. Use the time that you've saved
- 19:36by automating that thing. Even if it was
- 19:3810 minutes a week, doesn't matter. Use
- 19:41that time you've saved to go build
- 19:43something else. I have a little
- 19:44calculator on my website now that shows
- 19:46like if we only spent 20 minutes a week
- 19:50building some sort of automation. And
- 19:52even if it takes three weeks, it takes
- 19:54three lots of 20 minutes to build one
- 19:57automation that saves me 20 minutes. So,
- 20:00I'm going to spend an hour building the
- 20:01thing that's going to save me 20
- 20:02minutes. It just shows this exponential
- 20:05chart. If you keep doing that week after
- 20:07week after week after week and then you
- 20:09plug in what's my time actually worth,
- 20:13then you very very quickly find out that
- 20:15you can save or make thousands of
- 20:18dollars a year depending on how you
- 20:21value your time or dozens and dozens of
- 20:24hours per year if you prefer to think in
- 20:26terms of time saved just by continually
- 20:29going, "Oh, what next?" And just and
- 20:32once you get the bug for this, it
- 20:33becomes quite addictive, right? because
- 20:35you just start seeing problems
- 20:37everywhere and I just love solving
- 20:39problems. I love the the intellectual
- 20:42part of that of like how am I going to
- 20:43do this? And then you just keep pushing
- 20:46the edge of that of like, okay, what are
- 20:50some more pro? Oh, yeah. Not that, not
- 20:51that. Oh, that's that seems like a a
- 20:53hard problem to crack. How am I going to
- 20:55solve? Oh, yeah. Okay, let's just go
- 20:57attack that problem. And it's just
- 20:59addictive. Like I said before, going
- 21:01from idea to to impact so quickly is
- 21:05just so much fun. And yeah, you don't
- 21:07need to learn to code. It helps to know
- 21:09a little bit about code, but
- 21:13I think it's much much easier to learn
- 21:15that as you go. You don't have to. There
- 21:17are plenty of people using scripts that
- 21:19have no idea about code. That's totally
- 21:21fine. But if you do want to sort of
- 21:24understand a bit about code, it is
- 21:26infinitely better to start by trying to
- 21:29create something. Even if it's like a
- 21:31little 30line script that Claude writes
- 21:33for you and you use and then you start
- 21:36asking Claude like what does this part
- 21:38of the script do and why did you do it
- 21:39this way and and give me three other
- 21:42ways to do this part and you learn by
- 21:44doing rather than learning the way I
- 21:46learned to code a long long time ago. um
- 21:49which is like learning if statements and
- 21:51for loops and and yeah variables and all
- 21:54this kind it was so abstract back then
- 21:57learning from a textbook for 6 months
- 21:59before you could actually write any kind
- 22:01of workable code now it's like give me
- 22:03workable code and I'll follow along with
- 22:06you and learn as we go is a much much
- 22:08more interesting way to do it but of
- 22:10course you don't have to learn to code
- 22:11if you don't want to but you just have
- 22:14to get the bug for solving problems
- 22:16>> yeah I also remember myself 10 years
- 22:18years ago, uh, googling all the time
- 22:21and, uh, hanging out on Stack Overflow
- 22:23and always searching for the part of the
- 22:26code that would help me solve this, uh,
- 22:28nittygritty problem in a WordPress
- 22:31plug-in or WordPress theme. It was such
- 22:33a different time, but
- 22:35>> and it was so painful back then, right?
- 22:37Because you spend I remember when I was
- 22:39a kid type copying out computer programs
- 22:42from a magazine to create some computer
- 22:45game. It's like 18 pages of code. And of
- 22:47course, yeah, one semicolon out of
- 22:49place. Nothing's going to run. I'm like,
- 22:51"Mom, you're a touch typist. Could you
- 22:54just could you Yeah. And she'd do like
- 22:56two, three pages and then go, I'm done.
- 22:58Back to me." D. But it was so painful to
- 23:02to debug those things back then. And you
- 23:05got these weird error messages and you
- 23:06didn't know what they meant. And this is
- 23:07before you could go to Stack Overflow
- 23:08and actually look it up. But now it's
- 23:11just so simple. It's like, here's the
- 23:13error. You know what that means? And
- 23:16even if it doesn't get it right first
- 23:17time, do that enough loops, like I say,
- 23:20two, three, maybe four times, it's going
- 23:22to solve the problem and write working
- 23:25code. That's the wonderful that's why AI
- 23:27is so good at code because there is this
- 23:29kind of binary it works or it doesn't,
- 23:31right? We thought that AI would take
- 23:35years and years to write creative things
- 23:37like poems and songs. Turns out to be
- 23:39quite good at that too because it's just
- 23:41language. But running code and just does
- 23:44it work or doesn't it work? Great. Give
- 23:47it the problem. It just goes round and
- 23:48around that loop until it solves the
- 23:49problem. It's great.
- 23:51>> Now give us a little bit of an um behind
- 23:54thescenes look into the text stack
- 23:56you're using because I mean people I
- 23:58think see GPT are now releasing GPT5.
- 24:03They have they some people I feel like
- 24:06it's still quite unknown have used
- 24:07claude. Then there's Gemini. Then
- 24:10there's whatever all sorts of stuff.
- 24:12>> Rock and Quinn and Kira and
- 24:15>> so what are you using? What are you
- 24:17using or what would you recommend? Maybe
- 24:18even if you're using something that you
- 24:20feel like you wouldn't recommend for
- 24:21somebody that's just starting out. So
- 24:23where would you start? And maybe
- 24:24>> I I someone was just starting out
- 24:26exactly. I would not recommend the tech
- 24:28stack that I'm using today. But that has
- 24:30evolved to this point. But also I I see
- 24:34very much Google ad scripts as just the
- 24:36first step on that bridge of going from
- 24:39ads to AI, right? Of just that's the
- 24:42that's the gateway drug to go, oh this
- 24:46is possible. And the bit that I think
- 24:48might be useful for your audience, the
- 24:50bit that kind of got me over that hump
- 24:52by the beginning was was this
- 24:54realization that code can run in
- 24:56parallel. So, you take the time to you
- 25:01you found that 10-minute task and you're
- 25:03sitting there thinking, "Is it really
- 25:05worth Mike said it's going to take me an
- 25:07hour, so it's probably going to take me
- 25:08two. Is it really worth me spending two
- 25:10hours of messing around with something I
- 25:13do not understand to save 10 minutes?
- 25:16Let me just try it." Okay, it's going to
- 25:18take 12 weeks to pay back that 10
- 25:20minutes, right? Because we have lots of
- 25:2210 minutes. But it was that realization
- 25:26that I've built that little 10-minute
- 25:28thing and that little 10-minute thing
- 25:29and that little 10-minute thing, and I
- 25:32don't have to sit there and wait for
- 25:34them all to run one after the other. I
- 25:36can cram in at 9:00 on a Monday morning,
- 25:38hit the button, and by 10 9 50 of these
- 25:41things are all complete, and I've just
- 25:43done a day's worth of work, and it's
- 25:45only 10 9 and I haven't even had my
- 25:47second coffee yet. Oh my goodness, this
- 25:50is quite fun. And then you again you
- 25:52reinvest that time, right? So at the
- 25:54beginning, yeah, pick one. I think it's
- 25:57I think it's very useful to be aware of
- 26:00a few tools. It's kind of that T-shaped
- 26:03marketer type idea really, isn't it?
- 26:05like being aware of lots of different
- 26:08tools but probably going fairly deep
- 26:12into one because you get a bit of an
- 26:14intuition. You get a bit of a feeling
- 26:15for a particular model which is why last
- 26:18week there was all this um uproar about
- 26:21GP4 going away and GPT5 replacing it
- 26:23because people felt that they kind of
- 26:25they understood GPD4 that the way it
- 26:28spoke to them. It sort of it had a
- 26:30personality if you like. I know we tend
- 26:32to anthropomorphize things, but it does
- 26:34feel like these things have a bit of a
- 26:35personality. You get used to it. You get
- 26:37used to the way of working with it. Um,
- 26:40and then when that disappears and a new
- 26:42thing comes along, people just aren't
- 26:44very good with change usually, right?
- 26:46So, pick one. Yeah, I I agree. The vast
- 26:49majority of people, it's, you know, most
- 26:52stats are made up on the spot, but it's
- 26:53something like 95 90 95% of people are
- 26:56using Chad GBT at this point. Um Claude
- 26:59is a very very very distant second or
- 27:01third and then yeah Google have their
- 27:03Gemini. Gemini is really good at code
- 27:06and you would think oh it's Google ad
- 27:08scripts and Google Sheets so maybe I
- 27:10should use Gemini but their interface
- 27:12like the the website where you go to use
- 27:16this thing is just horrendous. I hate
- 27:18the Gemini website. So I personally
- 27:22would use Claude. I love the way Claude
- 27:25works but also the anthropic team are
- 27:27just they are shipping stuff like all
- 27:30the time. So I now use a tool called
- 27:31Claude code. Um I probably went from
- 27:35just writing code um see when you start
- 27:38and you wouldn't do this today but when
- 27:40you start you start doing it all in the
- 27:42Google ads interface and it's a horrible
- 27:44place to try and edit code or see what's
- 27:46going on. Def definitely don't do that.
- 27:48So today, if you were starting out,
- 27:50you'd probably start in chat GBT because
- 27:52you're probably listening to this and
- 27:53going, "Well, that's what I use." So
- 27:54start there. But if you're open to
- 27:58change, then have a go with claude. As
- 28:01well, and you do that for a bit. And
- 28:04then when you get to the point of, okay,
- 28:06I want a place to save all of these
- 28:08scripts that I'm downloading from
- 28:11LinkedIn and I'm making little changes
- 28:13to, and I just want to build up my own
- 28:14little library of these. I don't just
- 28:17want to save them in an account. What
- 28:19happens if I lose access to that
- 28:20account? Right? You want to be saving
- 28:22those? Don't save them as as Google
- 28:24Docs. That's when you sort of graduate
- 28:26to using a tool like Cursor. So, that's
- 28:29sort of the next step on from just doing
- 28:31everything in a browser like in a chat
- 28:33GBT. A tool like Cursor is fantastic
- 28:36because you can save all of your files
- 28:37in different folders down the left hand
- 28:39side. Your code is in the middle of the
- 28:42screen and then you've got this AI agent
- 28:44over on the right. So instead of copying
- 28:46and pasting code between all these
- 28:48different screens, you've got everything
- 28:49you need in front of you
- 28:52and then eventually you'll get bored
- 28:54with cursor's limitations and that's
- 28:57when you might use a tool like clawed
- 28:59code which I use inside of cursor
- 29:01because I like the visual aspect of
- 29:03cursor and being able to see all of my
- 29:05files and see the code changing but
- 29:07claude code is just the most powerful
- 29:10coding tool and it's kind of almost
- 29:12programmable. It's hard to explain and
- 29:14we definitely don't need to go there,
- 29:15but you can basically take huge big
- 29:18things that you do and automate them
- 29:21down to a word. And so by typing a
- 29:24series of a few words, you can do an
- 29:25amazing amount of work in a very very
- 29:27short time. It's just incredibly
- 29:30powerful. It's what the anthropic team
- 29:32use to build Claude. So, you know,
- 29:34they're quite good at it. They've made
- 29:36it basically freely available and it's
- 29:38just an incredibly powerful tool. But I
- 29:40wouldn't start there. I would start in
- 29:43cloud.ai or chatgbt. Or if you really
- 29:45really love Google, you might try and
- 29:48start in the Gemini app, but it's just
- 29:50it's a bit ugly and it's just a bit
- 29:52geeky and not very nice to use.
- 29:55>> Um, probably you're right. the session
- 29:57we have today is not enough to unpack
- 29:59all this and go as deep as you could or
- 30:02maybe we should also for the audience
- 30:05but you already dropped uh you already
- 30:08dropped an important keyword which was
- 30:10from ads to AI because you recently
- 30:12launched this membership program um I
- 30:15think it's quite new or at least fairly
- 30:17new um
- 30:19>> yeah so actually for me like let's let's
- 30:23maybe talk a lot a little bit about that
- 30:25because I feel like you
- 30:26a vast amount of knowledge and you were
- 30:29already uh telling the audience that you
- 30:31like to teach people stuff etc. So I can
- 30:33imagine this being a really really
- 30:35valuable um program but what's what's
- 30:38the vision here? What have people what's
- 30:40to expect?
- 30:42So I picture this this journey from ads
- 30:46to AI. I think that
- 30:49I think a lot of businesses a lot of
- 30:51agencies are going to be just fine but a
- 30:53lot of businesses are going to feel the
- 30:55squeeze of commoditization over the next
- 30:572 three years. I think that for many
- 31:00just offering the services that they
- 31:02offer today maybe ad management services
- 31:04I don't think that will be enough in
- 31:06isolation and I think there'll be
- 31:08pricing pressure on those services as
- 31:11businesses sort of start to say well
- 31:13isn't the whole thing automated you know
- 31:15pmax and all these things in meta like
- 31:18what what do you actually do they'll be
- 31:20saying they still they were already
- 31:23saying that um so I see this sort of
- 31:26path to
- 31:29offering
- 31:31new services to the same clients. I
- 31:35mean, 15, 20 years ago when I started,
- 31:38small businesses were crying out for
- 31:40someone. If you could spell AdWords back
- 31:41then, you got a client. And it's kind of
- 31:44the same now, right? All these small
- 31:46businesses, they they kind of feel like,
- 31:47"Yeah, we know met ads. We can do that
- 31:49ourselves. Thanks." But this AI thing,
- 31:52they're confused. They're overwhelmed.
- 31:54They're short on time like never before.
- 31:57They need help desperately. So agencies
- 32:00that are on the cutting edge here, and
- 32:02you don't really need to be too far
- 32:04ahead of everybody else to be on that
- 32:06cutting edge right now, have this huge
- 32:08advantage to solve those problems for
- 32:12the same clients they want to delight
- 32:14and surprise today, but they're just
- 32:17going to have to transition their
- 32:19services a little bit. They may still
- 32:20offer those ad services, but there's
- 32:22probably some adjacent services there
- 32:24teaching those small businesses how to
- 32:27get the most out of AI. That the
- 32:28question I hear all the time is, "Yeah,
- 32:30but where do I start?" And so I think
- 32:32for those agencies, they need to start
- 32:34on themselves. You know, what Americans
- 32:36would call dog fooding. You've got to be
- 32:38doing this to yourself and with your
- 32:41team and upskilling and lifting up your
- 32:44whole team, completely changing probably
- 32:47how your agency approaches things. And
- 32:51it's not just about efficiency. It's not
- 32:52just about cramming more work into the
- 32:54same number of people. But it's
- 32:56definitely not about, oh, how can I
- 32:58replace all of these warm bodies with
- 33:00some cold, hard code and save more
- 33:02money, Mr. Burns. It's not about that at
- 33:05all. I don't want to work with those
- 33:06agencies, but the agencies that are
- 33:08like, how do we take the amazing skills
- 33:11that we have in front of us and use
- 33:13these incredible tools like AI and
- 33:15automation to augment all of this to
- 33:18make these guys so much better at what
- 33:21they're capable of doing for our
- 33:23clients. do that to yourself first and
- 33:27then go provide those additional
- 33:29services, maybe extra products to those
- 33:32small businesses because I think those
- 33:34businesses, they're not stupid. They're
- 33:36going to be crying out for that. And if
- 33:38you're going, "No, we we just do Google
- 33:40Ads management because we're really
- 33:41really good at it." And they're going,
- 33:42"Yeah, thanks. I'm going to jump over to
- 33:44this guy who can do all of this stuff
- 33:46and teach us how to use AI and
- 33:48completely revamp the way we do content
- 33:50and change how we do all of these
- 33:52things. build these little tools for us
- 33:54internally. We used to spend 20 grand a
- 33:57year on this SAS tool and this agency
- 34:00over here just built us a little version
- 34:02of that in a weekend exactly to our
- 34:04specs. Um it's the same with the agency,
- 34:07right? You don't then have to if you
- 34:09know how to do this stuff. You don't
- 34:10have to do kind of things to like 80 90%
- 34:14of the way you want to do them because
- 34:16you're trying to fit your system into a
- 34:19tool. Just build your own tool and now
- 34:21you've got it doing it exactly the way
- 34:23that you want and you have the skills to
- 34:26keep changing that and evolving that.
- 34:27And as your team keep coming up with
- 34:29great new ideas of how you can use it,
- 34:30you're like, "That's a great idea. Let's
- 34:32build that in. I'll just spend half the
- 34:34weekend on that." And now we've got an
- 34:35even better tool that everybody can use.
- 34:37And so that for me is that journey. I
- 34:39picture it as a bridge from ads to AI. I
- 34:42think the scripts are just the first
- 34:44step on there. Like I said, the the
- 34:46gateway drug. That's the bit that makes
- 34:47you go, "Oh, wow. This is fun. This is
- 34:50possible. I save all of this time." And
- 34:53I get to solve problems and and build
- 34:55stuff. It's figuring out who on your
- 34:58team. It might be you. It might be
- 35:00somebody three levels down. It might be
- 35:02somebody three levels up. Figure out who
- 35:04the people are in your agency, in your
- 35:07business, or if you're a freelancer,
- 35:09it's probably going to be you. Figure
- 35:12out who those people are and invest in
- 35:14them. I have this line I use on stage of
- 35:185% or 100%. So, think about the amount
- 35:22of income, top line, not bottom line,
- 35:23topline number for last year and take 5%
- 35:28of that. Or if you're a freelancer,
- 35:29think about your income for the last
- 35:31year. Take 5% of that. That is the
- 35:33amount I believe you need to be
- 35:35investing right now in your AI literacy
- 35:38in your education because if you don't
- 35:42you're risking the 100% of that number.
- 35:44You're risking being obsolete and being
- 35:46gone in two three years. So I think
- 35:49that's a pretty easy thing to weigh up
- 35:515% or 100%. But I still see so many
- 35:55people just sort of head in the sand of
- 35:56like no it's it's all a fad. I don't
- 35:58need to learn anything about this. It'll
- 36:00all blow over. I'm going to keep going
- 36:02the way I'm going because it's the way
- 36:03we've always done it. I think those
- 36:05businesses are going to be in trouble.
- 36:06I'm not interested in working with
- 36:08those. But the ones that are really
- 36:10interested in like we know we don't know
- 36:12but we really want to learn. That's my
- 36:14crew. And I'd love I love working with
- 36:16those people.
- 36:17>> And what can people expect from the
- 36:19program? Like how does it work? Because
- 36:21I mean I can imagine a lot of people
- 36:23thinking like, "Hey, this sounds really
- 36:24great, Mike. I where can I join? How
- 36:28much does it cost? What does it include?
- 36:31costs about two bucks a day. That will
- 36:33go up at some point. So, I I love
- 36:34pricing that goes up in tiers. So, I had
- 36:36the first 100 people got it for 500 euro
- 36:39a year. Um, currently it's 650 and it's
- 36:42about to go up to 800 for a year or you
- 36:44can pay I think it's about 300 bucks a
- 36:46month. So, it's clearly aimed at people
- 36:48that want to be with me for a year
- 36:50because I want to massively overd
- 36:52deliver on that year. So, I have weekly
- 36:55videos where I talk about tools and show
- 36:57off how I'm using various tools and how
- 36:59small businesses are using tools. We
- 37:01have a monthly sort of office hours Q&A
- 37:04webinar. Um, just had one a couple of
- 37:06nights ago. It was fantastic. Um, where
- 37:08people can come in, ask questions, maybe
- 37:10show off a little thing, but just get
- 37:12unstuck. Um, and then I'm creating a new
- 37:15course every quarter as well. So, I drop
- 37:17my courses in there. Um, they get
- 37:20courses before anybody else. they get
- 37:22the courses for free and those courses,
- 37:24yeah, maybe I go on and sell elsewhere.
- 37:25So, I've redone just recently my entire
- 37:28scripts and sheets mastery course for
- 37:302025. Completely redid that. Uh, last
- 37:33week I just dropped a Claude code course
- 37:36showing how to use Claude code inside of
- 37:38Cursor, which has proven to be quite
- 37:40popular in the past week and a half that
- 37:42it's been out. Um, I've got so so many
- 37:45plans. I'm in the process of creating a
- 37:47a basically an AI literacy course not
- 37:51just for them but for them to be able to
- 37:53use with their clients so that they can
- 37:55take it white label it pass that on to
- 37:57their client and say here's a course
- 37:59that will teach you and your team in
- 38:02small business world how to use AI and
- 38:04they just get that for free they get the
- 38:05transcripts they get the slides they can
- 38:07tweak it and change it they can use my
- 38:09videos or they can re-record their own I
- 38:11just yeah I just I love overd delivering
- 38:14on value. I hate feeling ripped off and
- 38:16so I'm obsessed with overd delivering on
- 38:19value. So yeah, build the agent stuff.
- 38:21So, you know, done a few build the agent
- 38:23courses. All of that stuff will be in
- 38:26ads to AI in the nearish future by the
- 38:29end of the year. That'll be the next
- 38:30course that I do in Q4. And then yeah,
- 38:33loads and loads of plans for for for
- 38:34more stuff to add for yeah, couple of
- 38:36bucks a day basically.
- 38:38>> It's I think it sounds really good. So,
- 38:40I think we'll just drop the link uh to
- 38:43the landing page in description of the
- 38:44video below so everybody can can check
- 38:46it out.
- 38:49>> Pretty easy. I found the shortest domain
- 38:51I could and it doesn't really matter if
- 38:52you type in from ads to aai t or the
- 38:56number two. I've got them all. I like
- 38:57buying domains.
- 38:59>> Really, really great. Really great. Um,
- 39:02you already mentioned um, build the
- 39:04agent and I also saw you doing this
- 39:06in-person workshop in I think it was in
- 39:08Amsterdam, right?
- 39:10>> Yeah.
- 39:10>> Yeah. So now we we were talking about
- 39:13scripts, we were talking about um,
- 39:16writing code, we were talking about
- 39:18code, automations, agents, all that
- 39:21stuff. Can you give us a little bit of
- 39:23your perspective and your mindset around
- 39:26the differentiation for example between
- 39:29automation general automation maybe also
- 39:32automated workflows and then agents
- 39:36right yeah I think so firstly the
- 39:39definition of agents has changed a lot
- 39:42over the past 12 months um there was a
- 39:44quote I heard once technology technology
- 39:46is is the stuff that doesn't work yet
- 39:48you know it's the stuff that's just out
- 39:50of reach And so the definition of an
- 39:53agent 12 months ago
- 39:55net today we look at that and go of
- 39:57course it can do that but an agent
- 39:59should be the thing that does this. It's
- 40:00the thing that's just over the hill just
- 40:02out of reach. Um I think that well when
- 40:07I first got into AI I'll put it this way
- 40:09when I first sort of went deep into AI
- 40:11about seven eight years ago I came away
- 40:13thinking you know what most businesses
- 40:15don't need AI at all they really need
- 40:18automation. and I wrote this whole
- 40:20business plan out for like an automation
- 40:21agency and then realized I didn't want
- 40:24to do that because automation kind of
- 40:26bores me. Um, and there were lots of
- 40:28those. Um, there's a great guy here in
- 40:31Australia, good mate, who's who's built
- 40:32the automation agency. That's literally
- 40:34the name of his business and it's really
- 40:35good and it does really good stuff. So,
- 40:37we just would send people his way. Um,
- 40:41where am I going with that? Um,
- 40:43automation I think is the place to start
- 40:47because most of the time that will solve
- 40:50the problem. You don't need the latest
- 40:52shiny object. You don't need to be like
- 40:55sending a whole bunch of stuff off to a
- 40:57large language model to get a response
- 40:59in text back. Actually, you kind of need
- 41:02something that works every single time
- 41:03in exactly the same way. and just
- 41:06looking for those opportunities, looking
- 41:08for things we can go automate
- 41:11um is a really good place to start.
- 41:13Really easy way to do that by the way if
- 41:14someone's listening. Um
- 41:17next time like so first of all think
- 41:18about the tasks that you do and think
- 41:20about those that maybe you do fairly
- 41:24often and don't require huge amounts of
- 41:27human judgment. So you can sort of plot
- 41:30all your tasks out on that scale of like
- 41:32really frequent to infrequent and loads
- 41:34of judgment to not very much judgment.
- 41:36Find that quadrant on that little chart.
- 41:39Stuff I'm doing three, four times a
- 41:40month at least. Not massive amounts of
- 41:42judgment. Think about all the tasks in
- 41:45that quadrant and then record yourself.
- 41:47Turn on Loom and record yourself doing
- 41:49that task and just talk your way through
- 41:52it. Maybe it takes you 20% longer than
- 41:54it usually would, but you just talk out
- 41:56loud as you're going through. When you
- 41:58get to the end, Loom will not only
- 42:00create the transcription of that for
- 42:02you, there's a button next to that
- 42:04transcription that turns that into an
- 42:06SOP or a standard operating procedure.
- 42:08Then you take that SOP over to chat GBT5
- 42:12and you turn on thinking mode up at the
- 42:14top and you say, "Here's a task that I
- 42:16do all the time. Can you see any
- 42:19opportunity to help automate any of
- 42:21this? Or are there any steps that we
- 42:23could eliminate or are there any steps
- 42:24you think I'm missing?" But basically,
- 42:26how can you help me automate this task?
- 42:30And it'll give you a bunch of ideas.
- 42:31Some of them will be made up and wrong.
- 42:33Yes, but most of the time a lot of it
- 42:35will be right. And if it's Google
- 42:37Adsbased stuff, you might even nudge it
- 42:39in the right direction and say like, are
- 42:41there any ways to use Google Ads scripts
- 42:43to help with any of this stuff or Google
- 42:45Apps scripts, which is a very close
- 42:47cousin? But if you're working with
- 42:49spreadsheets a lot, you definitely want
- 42:50to look into apps scripts. They're
- 42:52incredible. They're powerful. So, you
- 42:54start there.
- 42:56AI, you mentioned AI workflow. I think
- 42:58most things in AI world right now are
- 43:01workflows rather than truly autonomous
- 43:04agents. There's lots of arguments in the
- 43:06in the AI world about what actually is
- 43:08an agent and how autonomous is it and
- 43:10how agentic is it. I really don't think
- 43:12that matters too much. What matters is
- 43:14does it solve problems for you for your
- 43:16business? And we've all seen those
- 43:19flowcharts on, you know, LinkedIn and
- 43:22drop your thing down below in the
- 43:23comments to get the thing that gives
- 43:24you. Yeah. All that rubbish.
- 43:27Those flowcharts, something like a make
- 43:30or a Zapia or today's flavor of the
- 43:32month is N8N, which I know you know very
- 43:34well. Maybe one or two of the boxes on
- 43:38that big flowchart are large language
- 43:41models and AI doing its thing. So you
- 43:43get to that step and you take all of
- 43:45that information to that point and you
- 43:46send it off to Claude and it comes back
- 43:48with some text. You go great, thanks for
- 43:50that. And then you use the output from
- 43:53Claude as the input for the next step.
- 43:55So you just oh okay. So that's the bit
- 43:57where a human maybe made some sort of
- 44:00decision about something and that was
- 44:02the point where we had to go is it is it
- 44:03more this or or more that. Is this email
- 44:07really urgent or can it wait till
- 44:09tomorrow? If it's really urgent, then do
- 44:11this step next. Otherwise, let's go off
- 44:14on this other trail. Or is this customer
- 44:17review really positive, really negative?
- 44:19Do we need to respond to this urgently
- 44:22or not? Do we need to thank them? Do we
- 44:24need to send them a gift? So, I think
- 44:26thinking about it in those terms, that's
- 44:28exactly the right phrase that you used
- 44:29of an AI workflow. So, it's it's just an
- 44:32automation workflow, but some of those
- 44:34steps might be AI, but I I think they
- 44:38get conflated and I think that what a
- 44:41lot of people call AI is really just
- 44:44automation. And that's totally fine. Um,
- 44:46and more people should be using a lot
- 44:49lot more automation. I've heard some
- 44:51horrendous stats recently about, you
- 44:54know, just the the average number of SAS
- 44:57tools that a small business uses.
- 45:00Apparently, it's on 50 on average, you
- 45:02know, and they're copying data from a
- 45:05sheet into zero to create some invoice.
- 45:08And then they're copying something from
- 45:09Gmail into Asana and they're copying
- 45:12from here and it's just all copying and
- 45:13pasting stuff. And if you find yourself
- 45:16copying and pasting or if you find
- 45:17yourself saying things like, "Oh, that."
- 45:19No, look, to do that, we go over to this
- 45:22spreadsheet and we look over here to do
- 45:24like, "Look for those little phrases
- 45:26being used around the office or by your
- 45:29workmates or by your clients." Like,
- 45:31aha, right? that that's a really good
- 45:32automation opportunity because if you're
- 45:34going over to there to get some
- 45:35information and then going over to there
- 45:37to get some information and then okay
- 45:39maybe you stay being the human in the
- 45:42loop there synthesizing all of this
- 45:44together maybe we don't try and use an
- 45:47AI for that yet but hey it worth trying
- 45:50but but please please it's 2025 please
- 45:54don't be like going and fetching all of
- 45:56this data bit by bit by hand every time
- 45:59you do that task have everything brought
- 46:01to you in the format that you want so
- 46:04that it's always there at the ready
- 46:07whenever you need it and then sure keep
- 46:12making the decision yourself for now but
- 46:14also in parallel be testing that you
- 46:17know be testing can we use an AI to make
- 46:20this decision that I make at this point
- 46:21before we bounce it over to the next
- 46:23step in the automation let let's run it
- 46:25in parallel I'll make the decision 10
- 46:27times let's get the AI to do it 10 times
- 46:29and let's compare results
- 46:30And when we get to the point that the AI
- 46:32is kind of like 9 out of 10 good, maybe
- 46:35that's something else that we can get
- 46:36off our plate and we reinvest that time
- 46:38into working on the next bit and on it
- 46:40goes.
- 46:42>> I remember so well like eight years ago
- 46:44I was working as a student at a big
- 46:46internet company in Germany and I felt
- 46:48like okay I want to so besides all
- 46:50freelance work I was already doing I
- 46:53wanted to get an idea about how uh
- 46:56actual business and internet business
- 46:57works. I remember this colleague and I
- 47:00liked him a lot, but I always felt like
- 47:02when I was looking at his screen, he was
- 47:04literally copying um like impressions
- 47:07and click data from one Excel sheet to
- 47:09the other Excel sheet which was then
- 47:11connected to a PowerPoint um slide deck
- 47:14which was then manually presented to a
- 47:16client and like sent out. And this is
- 47:19exactly like even at that point, I mean
- 47:22AI for me was not a thing back then. So
- 47:26eight years ago I was like hey this
- 47:28can't be the case and then when I for
- 47:31example stumbled upon uh Zapier and felt
- 47:35like oh cool you can exactly what you
- 47:37were telling just uh right now you can
- 47:39connect these tools and send data over
- 47:41there and there and I feel like a lot of
- 47:44people just have to train this muscle
- 47:46more right this um sensitivity for
- 47:50>> it it's been either for me it was kind
- 47:53of a boring thing I could work out how
- 47:55to do it was boring. But but I think for
- 47:57a lot of people up until now, it's been
- 47:59very hard to do that. You've obviously
- 48:01got the brain for it, right? You see it
- 48:02and you go, "Oh, I can see what the
- 48:04pieces of that are. I can see how they
- 48:05fit together." And tools like that, like
- 48:08M10, there's a bit of a lift there. And
- 48:10and a lot of people don't want to spend
- 48:11the 10, 20 hours to learn that up to a
- 48:14decent level. It's the same with
- 48:16Photoshop, right? Like you've got to tip
- 48:18in the time to learn how to use the
- 48:19tool. The wonderful thing is now is so
- 48:23many of those tools just run on code in
- 48:25the background, right? So Claude can
- 48:27create or catch GBT if you want to use
- 48:29it or Gemini, bless you. Um can create
- 48:32that JSON file or that code that builds
- 48:35all of those little boxes on the screen
- 48:37that tells you how to automate the
- 48:39thing. Maybe you need to go in and tweak
- 48:41it a little bit. So you still need to
- 48:42know how to use the tool, but it's it's
- 48:44never been easier and it's going to keep
- 48:46getting easier and easier. So, I think
- 48:50it's about like finding the way to solve
- 48:51the problem that that you enjoy. I just
- 48:55love solving the problem. I like the
- 48:57intellectual challenge of that. I like
- 48:58seeing people's face light up and when
- 49:00they get the bug and it's like, could we
- 49:04really we can do that? Oh my god, that's
- 49:06so cool. And that's that's why I did
- 49:08build the agent because it was just like
- 49:10sheets were getting a little bit in
- 49:13straining, you know, like the the UI of
- 49:15sheets having to do it cell by cell. I
- 49:17would come up with a new version of the
- 49:18pmac script and that was the e bit and
- 49:21then I'd spend like three days fiddling
- 49:23around in the sheet getting all the
- 49:24formulas in the perfect place. That's
- 49:26why I kind of moved to to doing stuff
- 49:29inside of an app. And I I needed to
- 49:31build the app first before I ran a
- 49:33program called Build the Agent before I
- 49:35tried to teach that. And it's just oh
- 49:38it's it's just so much fun like having a
- 49:41a slider. Have we got a minute? I can
- 49:44give you example for your listeners. If
- 49:46you go to 80 at 8020agent.com,
- 49:48you do not have to sign up for an
- 49:49account. Accounts are free, but you
- 49:50don't have to sign up. I've put loads of
- 49:52dummy data in there so you can play with
- 49:54the tool just to experience what it's
- 49:57like. So, go to ad20agent.com
- 50:00and then you can use the sample data.
- 50:01You go up to the top and you find the
- 50:02keyword page. I think it's under analyze
- 50:04account. There's a few pages on there
- 50:06now and there's a keywords page and it
- 50:08shows you a a tree of keywords. It's
- 50:11just a for me a really intuitive way of
- 50:14thinking about campaigns that branch out
- 50:16into ad groups that branch out into
- 50:19keywords. And as you move the slider for
- 50:22cost or impressions, you move the slider
- 50:24up and it shows you, oh, only keywords
- 50:26that have spent more than $10 last
- 50:28month. Move the slider up. Oh, let's
- 50:29just show only the keywords that have
- 50:30spent more than 50, more than 100, more
- 50:32than 500. And so it's a really intuitive
- 50:34way to say, what are the most important
- 50:36keywords in my account? Now, yes, you
- 50:39can go into Google Ads and you can set a
- 50:41filter there, but it's just feels a bit
- 50:43more cold and impersonal. I just I love
- 50:45the the the UI and constantly trying
- 50:48different ways of displaying data and
- 50:50turning it into useful information. And
- 50:53then, yeah, you can try chucking AI over
- 50:55the top of that and turn useful
- 50:57information into insight into actionable
- 50:59insight. We're kind of right on the
- 51:02border to finally answer your earlier
- 51:04question about agents. We're kind of
- 51:06right on the border between insights and
- 51:08action. And I think when we're really in
- 51:12agent mode, maybe next year is actually
- 51:14the year of agents, we'll be trusting
- 51:17the agents to then take those actions
- 51:20and and do much more of the stuff for
- 51:21us. But right now, we're at the point
- 51:23where the AI can help us surface those
- 51:25insights and sort of solve the blank
- 51:27page problem and give us an 80% good
- 51:30enough, hence the name 8020 agent. give
- 51:32us an 80% good enough insight, but then
- 51:36it's kind of still on us at that point
- 51:37to go actually let me let me bring my
- 51:40human brain to bear on that and
- 51:42synthesize it with some other data and
- 51:44think about that and then I'll go take
- 51:46the action for now. I'm not at the point
- 51:48where I'm ready to trust the agent to do
- 51:52everything from where to go, but I'm
- 51:55sure Yeah, I'm sure that that's going to
- 51:57come.
- 51:59>> I think the keyword tree example is so
- 52:00cool. I also obviously tried the 8020
- 52:03agent. I also so I can just recommend
- 52:05everybody signing up for an account and
- 52:07connecting their or one of their uh own
- 52:10Google ads accounts or a client Google
- 52:12ads account. I did it and I found it
- 52:14really useful and I think this is
- 52:16something that I just want to do a plus
- 52:17one for the data visualization part
- 52:20because people I think a lot of people
- 52:22still feel like they have to just
- 52:24tussles through these spreadsheets etc
- 52:27and uncover stuff whereas
- 52:30A well done data visualization can help
- 52:33you see stuff that is just impossible to
- 52:36see from just like campaign campaign
- 52:39campaign some costs some conversions
- 52:42like it's really hard especially if you
- 52:44take in a dimension of time like
- 52:46developments over time. So if you think
- 52:48about like okay hey my campaigns went
- 52:51down the last month why did it happen
- 52:54probably there's something that happened
- 52:56either to the keywords to the ads uh
- 52:58maybe something like in a particular
- 53:00week and like trying to to track those
- 53:04changes down and then revert it or come
- 53:06up with optimizations. I think this is
- 53:08where people confuse their job. They
- 53:11think their job is to hunt down this
- 53:13stuff whereas the the job is to actually
- 53:15uncover this and then come up with ideas
- 53:18to solve it or what's your take on that?
- 53:20Do you find this reasonable approach?
- 53:22>> I love that. I hadn't thought of it in
- 53:24those terms. I it's it's adjacent to one
- 53:27of those things I was saying before
- 53:28about you shouldn't have to go get the
- 53:32data from there. I want the data brought
- 53:34to me. I want those insights presented
- 53:36to me in such a way that I'm going to
- 53:39going to get it straight away and then
- 53:40then we get to action and then we get to
- 53:42what clients really want which is how is
- 53:45the business going to change what's
- 53:46going to happen to my profit when you do
- 53:48all that stuff. They don't want a report
- 53:49with a whole bunch of insights. They
- 53:51definitely don't want a dashboard with a
- 53:53whole bunch of data. What they really
- 53:54want isn't just the list of actions.
- 53:57What they really want is like what's
- 53:59going to happen to my business? How much
- 54:00more profit is this business going to
- 54:02do? How many more people are we going to
- 54:03be able to serve? How many more people
- 54:05am I going to be able to hire when I
- 54:06grow this business? That's what they
- 54:08care about. And yet, you know, Avanash,
- 54:10who was Google's uh digital evangelist,
- 54:13I think was his title for many, many
- 54:15years at Google. He's left Google now.
- 54:17Wonderful guy. If you ever get a chance
- 54:18to see him speak, please do. He's a
- 54:20wonderful, wonderful speaker. But he
- 54:22talks about the data vomit. You know,
- 54:24like all these all these agencies are
- 54:26just vomiting data over their clients.
- 54:28Clients don't want that. What they want
- 54:30is expected business outcome. what's
- 54:32going to happen when we do all of these
- 54:35things. But yes, it it it's very very
- 54:37similar like have it brought to me,
- 54:40make the the getting of the insight
- 54:43way easier and way faster so that you
- 54:46can as you said then go do something
- 54:48about it, make the change, run the
- 54:50experiment. I think most agencies would
- 54:53be greatly served trying to outdo the
- 54:56number of experiments that they ran last
- 54:58month. that that should be the the
- 55:00leaderboard of like no we run 136
- 55:03experiments. That's the thing I think
- 55:05that clients want to hear too. Like we
- 55:06have a a system for running experiments,
- 55:09a system for always trying new creative,
- 55:12trying new things. Sam Tomlinson talks
- 55:14about this a lot in his wonderful Sunday
- 55:17newsletter. Like the the velocity that
- 55:19you can test new creative at is going to
- 55:22be one of the the key things that that
- 55:24matters. Not do you have a really good
- 55:28way of you know looking at engrams that
- 55:31helps but you know it's it's about speed
- 55:33really and and and we're all under
- 55:36pressure to be more efficient. That's
- 55:38that's what I love helping people with.
- 55:41We we will get to the point where like
- 55:42okay so then everybody's using the same
- 55:45tools and everybody's 30% more efficient
- 55:47than they were last year. Yeah true.
- 55:49That becomes the new baseline and then
- 55:51you just have to keep on going to the
- 55:53next bit. I mean, this is this is the
- 55:55bit I don't like saying, but it's true.
- 55:57This is the slowest it's ever going to
- 55:59be. It only gets faster from here.
- 56:02Sorry. This is the slowest the world's
- 56:03going to be for the rest of your life.
- 56:05But it's also this is the worst AI we're
- 56:07going to have. And yes, I'm completely
- 56:09red build on the AI. But I I honestly
- 56:11believe if it never got better from
- 56:13here, we would spend the next 5 years
- 56:16putting in place the AI that we have
- 56:18available today because businesses tend
- 56:20to move slowly. It's incredibly
- 56:22powerful. It's stupid, too, and it does
- 56:25weird stuff and it hallucinates. I get
- 56:26all of that. It's not all singing, all
- 56:28dancing, brilliant at everything.
- 56:31But your job, if you're still listening
- 56:32to me drone on an hour later, your job
- 56:35listening to this is to figure out what
- 56:37it can help with and what it's not good
- 56:39for. And you do that by playing with it,
- 56:41by experimenting, by testing it out. Go
- 56:44spend 10, 20 hours with it. every single
- 56:47thing that you do throughout the week,
- 56:49every task that you do, you're like,
- 56:51"Hm, how could AI help me with this? I
- 56:54wonder." And if you're really unsure,
- 56:56turn on voice mode and chat GPT. Go for
- 56:58a walk and have a chat with it. Ask it.
- 57:01Explain what you do and ask it where it
- 57:04thinks there might be ways to automate,
- 57:07ways that AI can help. I love chatting
- 57:10to the the So, I use the chat GBT mode
- 57:13on the on the phone for for a
- 57:14conversation. I use Claude mostly for
- 57:17for code, but I love that chatbt app.
- 57:20It's um it's quite amazing to listen to.
- 57:23My kids love talking to it as well. It's
- 57:25quite bizarre. What do you know about
- 57:26Mike's daughter Frankie?
- 57:29>> I was having a chat to it.
- 57:31>> I did it too. I did it too. I um had a
- 57:34walk in the park and just was talking
- 57:36like half an hour uh to to chat about
- 57:39some I don't know random problem or or
- 57:42challenge in the business. And I felt
- 57:44like it's it's just it also helps
- 57:46structuring your thoughts. And I think
- 57:48there's just this this key insight. It
- 57:51goes back to an article that a German I
- 57:54don't know if it is was it philosophist
- 57:57or doesn't matter but Hinri Kle is his
- 58:00name and he wrote this article about the
- 58:04yeah I don't know the English term but
- 58:05basically the idea is um that while
- 58:08talking you have to structure your
- 58:10thoughts in a way if you talk to another
- 58:12person you have to structure your
- 58:13thoughts in a way that the other person
- 58:15can understand what you're saying
- 58:18>> and if you do this and it also applies
- 58:20to public speakers, for example, you
- 58:22have this you have this um this wild
- 58:26idea about where you want to go with
- 58:28your thought, but
- 58:30>> like on the go, you have this energy of
- 58:32just your thoughts structuring like the
- 58:34unstructured thoughts in your head
- 58:36structuring around this this really
- 58:38cohesive message. And this this thing I
- 58:40just I can't stress this enough. If you
- 58:43have a complex problem in your head and
- 58:45you feel like, hey, this stresses me
- 58:47out. It's like so confusing. Talk to
- 58:49someone. Talk to a person that at least
- 58:52like generally gets the context. What is
- 58:54this? Okay, you have to tell me what
- 58:56this is in a second. But or talk to AI
- 58:58because it also helps.
- 59:00>> There is a concept in computer science
- 59:03called rubber ducking. The idea being
- 59:04that you have this object on your desk
- 59:07and many people have an actual rubber
- 59:09duck on my desk. I really should have a
- 59:10rubber duck sitting here for this
- 59:11example, but I have this little 3D
- 59:12printed metal thing. I've had it for
- 59:14years and years. It's one of those kind
- 59:16of shapes that you can't make, but it's
- 59:18been 3D printed. And I just have it here
- 59:20and I sort of sit with it. It's not that
- 59:21I talk to this, but yeah, you're dead
- 59:24right talking out loud helps. So, the
- 59:26idea with the rubber duck is you explain
- 59:28your problem to the rubber duck. And the
- 59:30act of talking out loud and explaining
- 59:32it solves like 50 80% solves most of the
- 59:35problem. AI is a rubber duck that talks
- 59:38back
- 59:40and it can ask you questions and yes it
- 59:42can be a bit sicopantic sometimes and it
- 59:44can blow smoke up your ass as we would
- 59:45say in Australia but you can also prompt
- 59:47it and say I want you to play devil's
- 59:49advocate. I want you to push back on me.
- 59:51I want you to think critically about
- 59:52this. Don't just say no to everything
- 59:54but think critically about this and and
- 59:56maybe poke me a little bit where where
- 59:59my argument is weak or yeah you can use
- 1:00:01it to roleplay. If you're going for a
- 1:00:03job interview, you can use it. If you're
- 1:00:05interviewing someone, you can say like,
- 1:00:07"What are they likely to say? And what
- 1:00:09are my questions? What what are a bunch
- 1:00:11of good questions for this particular
- 1:00:13candidate?" Not like, "Give me five
- 1:00:15questions that I'll ask everybody.
- 1:00:17Here's their CV. Here's their work
- 1:00:19history. Here's everything, you know,
- 1:00:20about our business and the role and the
- 1:00:22and the PD and the job description and
- 1:00:26what should I be asking this specific
- 1:00:28person?" It's wonderful for stuff like
- 1:00:31that. It's it's so personalized and
- 1:00:33tailored and yeah, having a chat to it
- 1:00:35to get clear around your thoughts. I
- 1:00:37think it's one of the most underrated
- 1:00:39uses of AI. I'm just in the process. I'm
- 1:00:42trying to build this new app just this
- 1:00:45week. Just been playing with it a bit.
- 1:00:46So, I've no idea when this comes out and
- 1:00:48if it'll be ready on time. Um, but I'm
- 1:00:50going to keep going with it even though
- 1:00:52it's doing my head in as a way to show
- 1:00:54people the power of just adding that
- 1:00:58little bit more context of telling the
- 1:01:00AI a little bit more about yourself,
- 1:01:02about your business or about the
- 1:01:03products that you sell or the services
- 1:01:05that you offer and just how much better
- 1:01:08the response can be if you take the time
- 1:01:11up front, that upfront investment to
- 1:01:15educate the AI. It's it's the old um
- 1:01:17what's the saying? I don't know remember
- 1:01:18who it was, Abe Lincoln or Benjamin
- 1:01:21Franklin or somebody. You know, if I had
- 1:01:236 hours to chop down the tree, I spend
- 1:01:25the first four hours sharpening my axe.
- 1:01:27It's that upfront investment. And I get
- 1:01:29that nobody has the time to do that, but
- 1:01:31oh my god, if you do, the payoff is is
- 1:01:35massive.
- 1:01:36>> Yeah. We also use this concept uh at our
- 1:01:39business that and also for our clients
- 1:01:40that we call a super prompt and it's
- 1:01:42exactly uh what you were just
- 1:01:44emphasizing. So we have this document
- 1:01:46where we just say hey this is the
- 1:01:48business this is the target group these
- 1:01:50are key demographics these are the
- 1:01:52products these are the services these
- 1:01:54are the the core objections that people
- 1:01:56have about the service this is how this
- 1:01:58differentiates and this is like it it
- 1:02:00depending on the client it ranges from
- 1:02:031,500 words to something like three 3k
- 1:02:07words so there might also be like text
- 1:02:09examples in there
- 1:02:11>> yes
- 1:02:11>> and the quality of the output that you
- 1:02:13get out especially like
- 1:02:16>> around strategic thinking it's already
- 1:02:18great but especially if you write like
- 1:02:20content for example if you work with
- 1:02:21landing pages and all that stuff like
- 1:02:23it's just it's a night and day
- 1:02:25difference. Yeah, it's you mentioned
- 1:02:28strategy, right? AI has basically read
- 1:02:31the entire internet. So, it's seen every
- 1:02:33slide deck that McKenzie and Bane and
- 1:02:35BCG and every consulting firm has ever
- 1:02:37put out online. It's read all of that.
- 1:02:39As you say, it is a genius management
- 1:02:42consultant. But if you don't tell it
- 1:02:45about you, about your business, about
- 1:02:47the stuff that you do, you're just going
- 1:02:48to get bland average answers because
- 1:02:51it's just predicting the next token.
- 1:02:53That's all it is. It's just a big bag of
- 1:02:54words and it's just pulling words out
- 1:02:56the scrabble bag and it's just
- 1:02:58predicting the next word. But the more
- 1:03:00context you give it, the more
- 1:03:02information about all of that stuff
- 1:03:04around you, then that helps sort of
- 1:03:06ground it. It helps move it away from
- 1:03:08that that that average has this really
- 1:03:10strong gravitational pull that that
- 1:03:12average. And if you can push it away
- 1:03:14from that center and push it out to the
- 1:03:17edges by explaining all of that
- 1:03:20information that you're talking about
- 1:03:21and drag it away from the boring average
- 1:03:23center, that's where the gold is. That's
- 1:03:25where the really interesting answers
- 1:03:27are, where it can be the best management
- 1:03:30consultant in the world, but on your
- 1:03:31specific business, on that particular
- 1:03:33problem at that moment in time for that
- 1:03:35person, it's incredible. But again, it's
- 1:03:38it's an upfront investment. It's a bit
- 1:03:40of a heavy lift. So I'm building this
- 1:03:41tool to sort of say like here's some
- 1:03:42dummy data again. Play with it. See
- 1:03:46what's possible with and without this
- 1:03:47context. This is the answer you get
- 1:03:49without. This is the answer you get
- 1:03:50with. Try it with different models. See
- 1:03:52which one works best for you. Now bit by
- 1:03:55bit. Add your information to that
- 1:03:58because nobody wants to sit down and
- 1:03:59write a 30,000 word document in one go.
- 1:04:03But you can add that bit by bit. Oh,
- 1:04:05okay. Now I can see the benefit of doing
- 1:04:07that. I'm willing to do the next little
- 1:04:09bit. And yeah, I use a tool Whisper
- 1:04:12Flow. That's part of my tech stack that
- 1:04:13you were asking about before. I I love
- 1:04:15Whisper Flow. Roads.ai if you want my
- 1:04:17affiliate link. Um, it's a wonderful
- 1:04:20tool to just you hold a button down and
- 1:04:22you just talk and you can get so much
- 1:04:25more nuance out that way. Yeah, it's
- 1:04:27four times faster than typing, even if
- 1:04:30you're a good typer. And I'm pretty
- 1:04:31fast, but I can just ramble a bit. As
- 1:04:34you've noticed today, I tend to go on
- 1:04:36tangents and I tend to ramble a bit. But
- 1:04:38just just doing that for three, four,
- 1:04:40five minutes gives the AI so much more
- 1:04:43to play with than just I'm got this
- 1:04:46problem and I'm typing it out and I'm
- 1:04:48going to stop as soon as I can because
- 1:04:49I'm typing and I'm not very good at
- 1:04:51typing and go. But if you just ramble
- 1:04:53for 3 minutes and just talk to your
- 1:04:55computer, gives it so much more to play
- 1:04:57with and the answer will be so much
- 1:04:59better. I'm so glad we got to that bit
- 1:05:02that you reminded me about that because
- 1:05:03it's just it it is night and day. I
- 1:05:05totally agree. And people need to
- 1:05:07experience that. They need to see that
- 1:05:09and go, "Oh my god, really? I I did not
- 1:05:12know. I thought it just wrote Dr. Zeus
- 1:05:13poems. I didn't know it could do that.
- 1:05:15Holy Okay, I'm in. What else can
- 1:05:17it do?" And that's the best question you
- 1:05:19want to get to. Like, what else can it
- 1:05:21do? Not where do I start? Just start by
- 1:05:24playing.
- 1:05:25>> Yeah. Couldn't agree more with that. So
- 1:05:27now to be uh respectful of your time and
- 1:05:30wrapping um our obviously very
- 1:05:33insightful, very great conversation up a
- 1:05:35little bit, you already mentioned speed
- 1:05:37and velocity uh velocity and uh a big
- 1:05:41struggle I hear from either friends or
- 1:05:44colleagues and also other business
- 1:05:46owners is the the speed of change in the
- 1:05:50AI world. So there's all the time a new
- 1:05:52model coming, a new feature release.
- 1:05:54Then there are people obviously on
- 1:05:56LinkedIn and you have so you have the uh
- 1:06:00the confidence to say yeah yeah this is
- 1:06:02an end and a workflow and it yeah it's
- 1:06:04rubbish I go past that but I feel a lot
- 1:06:06of people have uh fear of missing out
- 1:06:09they feel like maybe I should get that.
- 1:06:12So how do you handle this or what's like
- 1:06:14your mindset around all this news and
- 1:06:18information that's just coming at you?
- 1:06:22It's a really good question.
- 1:06:26Answer it this way. Um,
- 1:06:29so I love books. I've got a thousand
- 1:06:31books over there. I've read 80% of them.
- 1:06:35Um, we tend to read stuff or even watch
- 1:06:38a YouTube video just in case. Yeah, it's
- 1:06:42just in case learning. We'll read this
- 1:06:44book because it's come out. We've heard
- 1:06:45good things about it. it just in case
- 1:06:47maybe one day, 6 months from now, two
- 1:06:49years from now, I've got a problem where
- 1:06:51I can use some of that information and
- 1:06:53apply it and yay, feel better about that
- 1:06:55problem.
- 1:06:56And I think we're moving to that world
- 1:06:58of more just in time knowledge. So
- 1:07:02that's certainly what I do with YouTube
- 1:07:04now. I'm not just watching video other
- 1:07:06than all the sports highlights and stuff
- 1:07:08that I watch there. It's mostly like
- 1:07:09I've got this particular problem right
- 1:07:11now. I'm trying to figure out this new
- 1:07:13thing and I can watch something that
- 1:07:15solves that problem right now. And so my
- 1:07:18use of books has changed dramatically
- 1:07:20over the past two years. And so to turn
- 1:07:23that around to answer the really good
- 1:07:25question, I would say like focus on the
- 1:07:28problems. Don't don't get caught in the
- 1:07:31headlights and looking at all of the
- 1:07:32shiny objects and thinking that you need
- 1:07:34every single one and you need to type
- 1:07:36checklist into LinkedIn 15 times a day
- 1:07:38to get all of those things sent to you.
- 1:07:40Maybe
- 1:07:42instead just go like what is the problem
- 1:07:45I need to solve in the business right
- 1:07:47now? I I picture businesses like a pipe
- 1:07:50and there's always a thin point in the
- 1:07:52pipe somewhere, right? It might be over
- 1:07:53here and it's fat pipe over here and it
- 1:07:56goes thin again. It's fat over here.
- 1:07:57There is no point making a fat part of
- 1:08:00the pipe even fatter. There's no point
- 1:08:02taking this part of the business and
- 1:08:03making this part better if there's a
- 1:08:05really thin part of the point. It's the
- 1:08:07theory of constraints. It's the
- 1:08:09bottleneck in the business. You have to
- 1:08:11identify the bottleneck in the business
- 1:08:13and work on that. There is no point
- 1:08:15working on other parts of the business.
- 1:08:17You could have three times the leads
- 1:08:19coming in, but if you have one person
- 1:08:21calling people back, it ain't going to
- 1:08:23matter. You need to work on the
- 1:08:25bottleneck first. So then, okay, what
- 1:08:28specifically can I do right now to work
- 1:08:31on the bottleneck? And yeah, okay. I
- 1:08:33suppose I'm at the point now where I am
- 1:08:36consuming a lot of AI stuff because I'm
- 1:08:38fascinated by it and I want to stay on
- 1:08:41the cutting edge and I have a community
- 1:08:42of people now to serve and I feel that's
- 1:08:44sort of part of my job is to and I've
- 1:08:47always loved this. I've always loved
- 1:08:49running four or five hills out into the
- 1:08:51future and then coming back and not just
- 1:08:53reporting on it. never been really
- 1:08:55interested in that. But like showing
- 1:08:57what's possible and building stuff to
- 1:08:59say like this and making it really
- 1:09:01useful and really practical and then
- 1:09:03running off again into the future. I
- 1:09:04kind of live my life six months in the
- 1:09:06future, four or five hills that way and
- 1:09:08then every now and again pop back into
- 1:09:10the real world and go like look at what
- 1:09:12it can do. It's amazing. I I just love
- 1:09:14that. So I like consuming a lot of
- 1:09:16stuff. But I get it. You're wearing 12
- 1:09:17hats. You're running around like a
- 1:09:20chicken with its head cut off and just
- 1:09:22like you're super super busy running a
- 1:09:24business. Where the hell do you start?
- 1:09:26Pick the bottleneck and exactly what you
- 1:09:29were saying before. Talk it through.
- 1:09:32Have a chat. It may feel ridiculous the
- 1:09:34first time you do this because why am I
- 1:09:36talking to a computerized voice that's
- 1:09:38just a big bag of words apparently? It
- 1:09:40doesn't actually think. It doesn't
- 1:09:42really know. And yet it's actually
- 1:09:45really really good at that. So talk the
- 1:09:47problem through and like give me four
- 1:09:49ways. I have this thing of 141. Here's
- 1:09:52my one problem. Give me four possible
- 1:09:55ways. Make them as different as
- 1:09:57possible, as diverse as possible. Give
- 1:09:58me four different ways that we might be
- 1:10:01able to solve this problem. You're not
- 1:10:02saying like, tell me how to do it, and
- 1:10:04I'll follow what the AI says. Saying,
- 1:10:06give me four different ways that I might
- 1:10:07be able to explore to maybe try and
- 1:10:10solve this problem. And then give me
- 1:10:11your one recommendation. So one, four,
- 1:10:13one. and just pick a couple of
- 1:10:16bottlenecks and try that and then go,
- 1:10:18"Okay, Let's do it. Let's try and
- 1:10:21solve this problem. Let's ask AI for
- 1:10:23help. There's probably some automation
- 1:10:25in there to free up some time." And
- 1:10:27also, if you're listening to this, it's
- 1:10:28not just you. Like, lean on your team. I
- 1:10:31think I think it's absolutely an all
- 1:10:33hands- on deck moment for most
- 1:10:35businesses. It's it's it's got to come
- 1:10:37from the top. It's got to be like this
- 1:10:40is important and yes, we are going to
- 1:10:41fund this. We are going to give you the
- 1:10:44resources to do this. Again, back to 5%
- 1:10:46or 100%, you need to invest in teams
- 1:10:49right now, but also those people on the
- 1:10:52front lines, the people dealing with
- 1:10:53customers all day. Those are the people
- 1:10:55that are going to have the best ideas of
- 1:10:57how to implement these, they're all
- 1:10:59using these tools anyway, boss, sorry to
- 1:11:01tell you. They're just not telling you
- 1:11:02about it because they're worried that
- 1:11:03you're going to tell them off or you're
- 1:11:05going to fire them or they're going to
- 1:11:07end up creating the system that replaces
- 1:11:10them. They're worried about that.
- 1:11:11They're worried that they're breaking
- 1:11:12some AI policy and maybe they shouldn't
- 1:11:14have pasted all of that client data in
- 1:11:16and it's against some policy that your
- 1:11:18lawyer wrote for you and so they're
- 1:11:20worried but they are using it in their
- 1:11:22jobs already. They're just not telling
- 1:11:24you about it. I think you got to get the
- 1:11:26whole business together and say right we
- 1:11:28are taking this seriously. We are
- 1:11:30investing in to start with just basic AI
- 1:11:33literacy. We just all need to just be on
- 1:11:35the same page and then let's invest in
- 1:11:37right who's going to be that sort of
- 1:11:38like the advanced team who's going to
- 1:11:41run one or two hills into the future
- 1:11:43with me as a business. But it has to
- 1:11:46come from the top. There has to be a
- 1:11:47vision of where we're running to. We're
- 1:11:49not just brushing off in different
- 1:11:51directions over different hills. It's
- 1:11:52like here's the mountain we're going to
- 1:11:54climb. This is what the business is
- 1:11:55going to be like two or three years from
- 1:11:58now if we all go do this now. Now, I
- 1:12:00need a few like scouts to come with me
- 1:12:04one or two hills into the future. Like,
- 1:12:06who's going to come with me from base
- 1:12:07camp up to camp one and help build the
- 1:12:10trail for everybody else that's going to
- 1:12:12follow along behind? Like, this is the
- 1:12:14view from the mountaintop, but now let's
- 1:12:17focus on just getting from here to here.
- 1:12:18Let's just get to camp one and then
- 1:12:21let's go build that path and then bring
- 1:12:22everybody else up to camp one. Okay,
- 1:12:24this is the new version of the business.
- 1:12:26Okay, take a moment. Let's have a big
- 1:12:28party. Right, scouts, you come with me
- 1:12:31now. We're going to build the path up to
- 1:12:32camp 2 and we're going to keep on and it
- 1:12:35just keeps on going and going and going.
- 1:12:37But yeah, I I get it. Most particularly
- 1:12:40small business owners who are doing 12
- 1:12:42different jobs, it is utterly
- 1:12:45overwhelming. They don't have a spare
- 1:12:47minute, plus they're trying to be super
- 1:12:48parents, plus they're trying to be
- 1:12:49friends, plus they're trying to do
- 1:12:50everything else. It is really hard. So,
- 1:12:53just don't get distracted by the f the
- 1:12:55uh the shiny object. Focus. And focus
- 1:12:58stands for follow one course until
- 1:13:00successful. That's what focus stands
- 1:13:01for. Follow one course until successful.
- 1:13:04Fi figure out that thing, that
- 1:13:06bottleneck, fix that bit. Get that part
- 1:13:08of the pipe wider and then find the next
- 1:13:11bottleneck and don't get distracted and
- 1:13:14just keep on going. The game is just
- 1:13:16staying in the ring. You will get
- 1:13:18knocked down. The whole game is getting
- 1:13:19back up again and staying in the bloody
- 1:13:21ring. My mentor told me that once. He
- 1:13:23said, "There are many, many days where
- 1:13:24you just want to quit and walk outside
- 1:13:25the ring and just go, I'm done." No, you
- 1:13:28get back up and you stay in the bloody
- 1:13:30ring.
- 1:13:32>> Mike, I can't tell you this has been
- 1:13:34such an enlightening and insightful
- 1:13:36session. So actually I want so everybody
- 1:13:38that has listened until now I can
- 1:13:40actually recommend you just listen the
- 1:13:42whole thing again because there has been
- 1:13:45so much to unpack. So actually the this
- 1:13:49metaphor or this um image of going like
- 1:13:52two three hills into the future I will
- 1:13:56like
- 1:13:57If you ask my team, you will hear this a
- 1:13:59lot. Now,
- 1:14:00>> I've got a whole document I've written
- 1:14:02around that. Happy to send it to you.
- 1:14:03Link in the show notes. Whatever you
- 1:14:04want to do.
- 1:14:05>> Yes,
- 1:14:06>> that's that's how I picture it. I'll
- 1:14:07send it to you.
- 1:14:08>> Let's do it. So, Mike, thanks so much
- 1:14:11for um this insightful session. It has
- 1:14:15been a blast. Um, everybody that wants
- 1:14:18to follow you, um, see more of the stuff
- 1:14:22you're doing, uh, try some of the tools
- 1:14:24that you're doing, what's best to follow
- 1:14:26you, where to find your stuff. Um,
- 1:14:30I'll make it easy for you. Nine
- 1:14:31characters 8020 agent. So 8020agent.com.
- 1:14:37Um, all the courses are there. The link
- 1:14:39to the ads to AI community is there.
- 1:14:41That's the best place to find me. I
- 1:14:43don't really do social media. I'm on
- 1:14:44LinkedIn a bit, but I don't do anything
- 1:14:46else. But yeah, adagent.com.
- 1:14:49Everything's there.
- 1:14:51>> Awesome, Mike. Thanks so much. And uh
- 1:14:54yeah, everybody else, go explore. Try to
- 1:14:57use some of the concepts and some of the
- 1:14:59ideas and some of the thoughts Rogers
- 1:15:02that Mike has given us today and just go
- 1:15:04try it out uh today or tomorrow.
- 1:15:08>> Thanks very much, man. Appreciate.
- 1:15:09Thanks for having me. Been great fun.
- 1:15:11>> Thanks so much.
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