AI-Proof Your Future | Jonathan Mast

Creation or evolution? 

Have we created something completely new with AI, or are we simply evolving as a more capable species?

Jonathan Mast, an AI consultant, made his case as a guest on my show, the Content Capitalists. 

If you have a job or if you have employees, this is for you! You need to learn to infuse AI into your daily life and start evolving today–if you haven’t already.

Will jobs be lost? Entire industries destroyed? Yes–we cover which job sectors and industries are at risk, but more importantly, how you can stay one step ahead.

Side note: Jonathan actually does this for a living. 

Businesses hire him to consult on how to implement, integrate, and streamline EVERYTHING with AI. (you should probably reach out to him if you own a business).

If you’re a geek, nerd, business owner, or just curious, listen to this episode. Guaranteed to not suck!

Follow Jonathan Mast at:
https://jonathanmast.com/linktree/
https://www.facebook.com/jonathanjmast
https://www.instagram.com/jonathanmast/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathanjmast/

Follow Ken Okazaki at:
https://www.instagram.com/kenokazaki/
https://www.youtube.com/c/KenOkazaki
https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-content-capitalists-with-ken-okazaki/id1634328251
https://open.spotify.com/show/09IzKghscecbI7jPDVBJTw

Content Capitalists YouTube

Transcript

Jonathan: we'll see changes and AI is going to certainly take over some aspects of that. 

Ken Okazaki: Can you think of any online businesses that will be perfectly safe to continue completely ignoring AI?

Hey guys, welcome to another episode of the Content Capitalist Podcast, where I have conversations with business owners who are using content in their businesses and really pushing their business forward with that. these are the kinds of people I call content capitalists. Quite clearly today we have Jonathan Mast.

Here's a really short bio I picked up from his social media. He's an AI consultant and coach helping businesses and organizations leverage artificial intelligence for growth. Jonathan, welcome to the show. 

Jonathan: Well, thank you for having me. I'm excited to be here. 

Ken Okazaki: I'm excited too. I've been watching the stuff you're putting on social media, training people about AI, especially business owners or people who want to be business owners.

And you have a Facebook group, don't you? Which recently hit over 100, 000 followers, which tells me that what you're doing is actually really, really interesting for the kind of people who want to use it. And I want to kick this off with one question that I get a lot because there are people who are not business owners and they may not think like we do.

And their question is, is this going to replace all the jobs that people are doing virtually right now? And what are your thoughts about that? 

Jonathan: Well, it's also probably the most common question I hear. So I'm not surprised if it's one you're getting a lot. You'll learn through the podcast. I'm rather opinionated and no, I don't think it is going to replace those jobs.

In my mind, Ken, this is very similar to when the internal combustion engine came out or I'm not that old. So I'll date myself. I'm probably older than you, but I remember when the PC came out and we had PCs start showing up in the offices and we had people going, I'm not going to use those because I don't want to.

And for a few years, that was fine. It didn't really hurt them. But over time, those people either aged out or decided to go in other routes. And yes, some people. Just as with AI, lost their jobs, and some people will lose their jobs due to AI. But it's not because of AI, it's because of their unwillingness to use a new tool that will help them do a better job, and when the rest of their peers start using that tool, the bar is going to be raised as far as productivity and things that need to be done, and as a result, those that don't use the tool and aren't willing to learn, will likely lose their jobs.

Is that going to be a large number of people? No, I think it'll be a relatively small number, but yes, there will be some that probably will lose their jobs. 

Ken Okazaki: And what type of jobs have you seen so far that are the most, uh, let's just say the level of job security is, dwindling with the progression of AI?

Jonathan: I believe ultimately that AI amplifies experience and skill and so I think those jobs that are relatively low skilled and relatively low experienced say nothing bad about the individuals but you know taking a look at maybe somebody who's younger without experience or just hasn't developed certain skills yet they're probably at the highest risk of losing their jobs simply because of the fact that those are things that AI can relatively simply replace.

If you're skilled You're not going to be losing your job due to AI. You're going to have to learn to use it as a tool to help you deliver better quality, to deliver more value, to do a better job at what you do, but you're not going to lose your job simply because AI is not going to be able to take that over.


Ken Okazaki: if I think back a few years, I used to run a business where I did these large scale events in Japan, and a part of that is we had a whole department of live interpreters. So we'd bring, world class speakers to Japan, and they'd be sitting in the booths. All 2, 000 to 8, 000 people in the audience, they'd have these wireless transmitters or receivers, right?

And then we had a transmission office. And we'd have, like six people rotating and they're literally live interpreting. So the speaker never has to pause, but everybody's hearing it in real time. And I thought to myself, that's impossible to ever replace. I literally thought it. And then I realized it's not.

And this is while I was in that business. And I told them, I told my team, I said, Hey, I'd I think this is going to get replaced by AI one day. And they're like, no, it's impossible. It's impossible. And now it's happening. It's, it exists. And there are still people who do that job who feel very, very scared because they spent years and years getting there.

What is something that you think most people, maybe not you, but most people think is impossible to replace today that actually will get replaced? 

Jonathan: I actually think it's going to be some of the more complicated medical procedures believe it or not. I think that with the, vision capabilities that AI has and the fact that it will be able to do those certain things like that without any emotion involved, I think will provide a better outcome.

I don't want to say a value, but we'll provide opportunities that don't exist today. not going to say that's going to apply in all circumstances by any means, but especially for your more standardized procedures, I think that's, going to become more commonplace. I think Anytime that a person needs a personality to do their job, they need to do any storytelling to do their job, they need particular historical expertise to do their job, I think those jobs are a long ways away from being replaced.

I do think a lot of our jobs, including yours and mine, Ken, we'll see changes and we're going to see evolution of what we do and AI is going to certainly take over some aspects of that. on the most simple basis, you and I probably have both dealt with some of the tools that can look at long form video and can create pretty good shorts out of that.

Is it perfect? No. But is it getting significantly better every few months? Yes, it is. And that just a year or so ago required me to have a larger team of video editors to do that and spend more time going through it than what I need to do now. We still need human involvement in it. Humans have not been removed from the equation, but the amount of involvement and what we need to do in that process has changed.

And I think we're going to see a lot more things like that moving forward than we are simple, oops, your job's been, you know, terminated. Will it happen? It will. I hadn't thought of translators, but there's a great example where it certainly could happen. yeah, so I think it will happen, but I think we're all going to see changes and have to be open to the fact that, Hey, these are new tools that we have available and will allow us to do a better job.

Ken Okazaki: Love that perspective. 

I went through your, your space at group, just kind of looked at who's engaging, what kind of people are there. And I think for the majority of the members, I'd say probably 90 percent plus, they're going to be younger than you. 

Would you agree? 

Jonathan: Oh, I'm an old man in this area. There's no doubt about it.

Yeah, I would say that's about right. Yeah, I would say about 90 percent of them are probably younger than me. 

Ken Okazaki: And here's what's interesting. I had my father in law visit a lot long ago, probably about the same age as you, and I was trying to show him how to use ChatGP and he was, thrilled. And he kept saying over and over, I'm too old for this. I'm too old for this. Like, I can't learn this. Like, this is your generation. So it seems like some people are really jumping on and actually leading the shift. And some people are really being dragged along and me and they keep using the reason that they're too old and, I found this quote on Twitter from you.

He wrote here, the path to mastery is paved with failures. You will suck at first when learning something new, but the biggest mistake is letting the fear of sucking stop you from ever starting. Can you talk about that a little bit? Because I think this is a really important point that you made there.

Jonathan: Well, I believe, and I need to thank you, Ken, for part of this. You were part of The motivation that caused me back in 2022 to really decide to build my personal brand. you and I had, uh, I had the opportunity to meet you virtually through a mentor of mine, Josh Nelson, and, uh, really loved what you shared, started following your content, and you were one of those very key influencers.

And one of the things that I learned in that process, and I see happen every day is, people think that they need more of something before they can start. Mastering anything, or on the other hand, they're expecting everything to be a silver bullet, easy button, that there's this, they're, they're searching for this one thing that they can do that will solve all of their problems in life.

Neither of those exist in my mind, and I don't believe they do. I've been around for 55 years. I've not found either of those to exist, but I believe, especially when it comes to video and, Again, video is what causes a lot of my content to engage with my audience. That's how I get a, that's kind of my top of funnel.

A lot of people come into my, ecosystem. And if I wasn't afraid of just stinking it up on occasion in my videos, even today, sometimes I do just, it's like, wow, I can't believe I did that. I put that video out and that consistency of answering questions and saying, I'm okay with not being perfect. You know?

I'm overweight, I've got a long white beard, I'm an old guy, I've got glasses, I'm losing my hair. There's all kinds of reasons I shouldn't be on camera. I've done it now for a year and a half, virtually every single day, making sure that I'm publishing video, I'm publishing content, and I absolutely sucked at first, and I still do on occasion, but I don't care.

And what's interesting is some of the worst quality videos that I've ever recorded are actually some of the most Watched and commented on and have driven business back to my agency from that because it's authentic and it's real and I put that quote out there because I find so many business owners in particular are afraid to get in front of the camera and they use the excuse that I need better equipment, that I need a better studio, that I need, more practice.

And while all of those can improve and should, You need to start today because as my grandfather told me when I was a younger child, the best time to plant a tree may have been 20 years ago, but the second best time is today. And so if you're looking at creating content and building your brand, and especially if you're going to use video, which I can't imagine not doing in 2024, especially with AI, We need that video to prove who we are and be authentic.

You need to start today. And just as Sean Cannell says, you just need to press record and go. 

Ken Okazaki: Thank you for that. And how would you see that quote applying to AI or do you see it applying? 

Jonathan: I do. I think that there's a lot of people that look at it with AI. And again, as you mentioned with your father in law, just thinking they're too old for it, or it's not something that's going to be relevant to them.

There's so many things that AI can do. first of all, it's not too late. I've, I heard that today from somebody. They said, Jonathan, it's too late. I missed the AI bandwagon. I'm like, no, you have it. It's just barely getting rolling right now. There's ample time. and I don't care what industry you're in.

If you want to become an expert and you are willing to invest the time to learn and understand how what you want to learn is going to assist others, there's room in any industry. And I absolutely believe that in AI, because there's, things are changing so. Rapidly, so fast. I hate to admit how many hours a day or week I spend learning about AI and there's always more to learn.

There's always more things that are happening. And what I would encourage anybody who feels that way about AI, that they're just too old or that, you know, that it's not for them, that no, This is a great equalizer. In fact, the older you are in many ways, the more opportunity AI has to amplify your experience.

Because I've learned that, you know, businessmen that are five or 10 years older than I have, or that have walked through different things that I'm now facing, they can provide me with tremendous value based on their experience. And AI helps us Put that together, especially for a lot of entrepreneurs like myself, that may be either believe or have been diagnosed as I have been with ADD.

We don't, we're, we tend to get bright, shiny object syndrome. We see everything and we go, Oh, what's that? What's that? And AI has been a great tool for me because. It allows me to ideate very quickly. It allows me to find out whether or not I want to pursue things and then believe it or not, because I get further down that path, it makes it easier for me to stay focused on those winning ideas that I have.

So I absolutely believe that AI can be a huge boon if you're young, but it's even more impactful and more powerful if you've got some years of experience that it can amplify because you've got something that's going to vault you ahead of so many other people because of that. 

Ken Okazaki: Hmm. I never thought of that.

That's a bit of an unlock for me where. Because like you, I've been diagnosed with ADHD and, or you said ADD for yourself. 

Jonathan: Yeah. I'mI'd be thinner if I moved more. 

Ken Okazaki: That sense of momentum is what gives you the energy to keep at a task. And it is true that AAI is kind of like being on. Talk about the walk a later rather than trudging up the hill with your Costco cart, right?

So yeah, that's that's really interesting. What's been a surprise on lock for you in this journey so far? Something you weren't expecting but that was pleasantly amazing. 

Jonathan: For me, I think it has been the ability to train the AI to reflect my perspectives, reflect my tone, my styles, and have it help me expedite that process.

When I first heard about AI, I thought, Hey, this is just simply going to be a faster way to write a report, a faster way to create an SOP, a faster way for me to create social media. And all of those are true. What I didn't anticipate and what's been a really surprise for me is how much. More, I can still improve that by instilling my tone and style in that by still staying involved.

I often refer to it being a marketer as AI assisted content, not just AI generated, whether that, no matter what format that is and whether I'm doing it for marketing or for operations or just for fun, it gives me an opportunity to improve on what I was doing. Sometimes it's very personal. Just the other day I did, I'm a grandfather and I'm proud to say I've got a seven year old granddaughter and a year and a half old grandson and they don't live near me so I don't get to talk to them as much as I'd like and I used AI in about 30 minutes to create an animated storybook for them that I sent them that was done just by me, that had my voice over, that had images I'd created in AI and a story that I wrote in AI and fortunately they loved it.

And that's something I could have never done. And it's an experience I could have never had. I would have never had that opportunity for my granddaughter to reach out and thank me for that and know that that's not something she can get anywhere else. She can't replace that. She can't find that. And so even on a very personal level is AI has had a dramatic impact to help me increase those relationships and improve those relationships by demonstrating. In this case, just the care and love that I had for my grandchildren. 

Ken Okazaki: I think the way I see it too, is it's like having a personal assistant who knows you better than anybody else. and anticipates and helps you do the task. Kind of like Pepper Potts was to Iron Man. And, what was Batman's, butler's name?

I can't remember. 

Jonathan: Boy, you're, you're asking a guy who's remember I said before the call, I'm like the deer in the headlights. When the teacher asked the question, I knew the answer until you asked, but yeah. 

Ken Okazaki: Well, I think someone's going to remember and comment down below and we're going to be the two forgetful dudes. 

I really imagined the way AI works with creatives is how Disney built his team of artists where he set the vision. He really set the style. he was very, very descriptive about exactly how he wanted it. He drew the key frames and he had a ton of other artists doing all the in between frames and the coloring and all that.

And I think if people look at it like that, then they can see themselves more as a creative genius with a team rather than somebody who's just abdicating their, humanity to, machines. And that I think would give people a more better sense of AI is transforming the industry or many industries for that matter.

Jonathan: Well, I couldn't agree with you more. I love that analogy. 

Ken Okazaki: Thank you. Thank you. I picked up something here from, from your LinkedIn post, and you wrote something about a quick guide to boost your online presence using AI. There's 10 steps. I'm going to read through these really quick and I've got a couple of questions about some of these that I'd like some clarification on.

Is that all right? All right. You said, number one, understand AI capabilities. Number two, use AI for targeted content. Three, analyze data for insights. Four, automate routine tasks. Five, personalize user experiences. Six, optimize SEO strategies. Seven, engage with chatbots. Eight, monitor brand reputation.

Nine, leverage data. predictive analysis, 10 enhanced ad targeting, and 11 track performance metrics. Now, I think most people are going to understand at some level what all these mean, especially if you're a business owner, but a couple of these, number five, it says personalized user experiences. How are you doing that with AI?

Jonathan: One of the things we're doing there is we're able to respond to clients in a more personalized manner, based upon what they're asking. A good example, I'll use my Facebook group as an example. So I manage most of that group on my own. I do have a little bit of help from my admin and I appreciate it greatly, but we're able to answer a lot of questions that are asked in there because of AI, because we have AI to help us do that.

So when we're asked a question, That may be a very unique question that we know nobody else is going to ask and maybe in the big picture a year ago we would have said we don't have time to answer that because we've got too many other questions. Now we have the ability to create a more personalized experience and to provide them with a response.

From another perspective in a business, let's say we're using a chat bot. And that chatbot is, engaging with a prospect. We have the ability for that chatbot to reflect back to that prospect, that user, things that are going to be important to them based on the data that we've already received. So in the old days, when we just had a script and either we as humans or wherever, whoever was just followed the script.

We've all been on those calls are frustrating when we go, Oh, it doesn't matter what we say. We're hearing that script. Now, AI gives us the ability to personalize that, to look at my, client record, if I'm calling in as a client to look at my client record and know about me based on my age and my demographics, where I live, any information that it's gathered about us and customize.

The response is not, to make them untrue, but to make them more applicable to me because of the data that's known about me. 

Ken Okazaki: and what platform is, are you using to bring it all together in terms of, you know, the customer experience, retaining the customer data and then analyzing and feeding it back to them?

Jonathan: Generally, we're integrating that with different APIs, so we're connecting, we're, typically using OpenAI's engines, although we have started using Gemini, we've started using Cloud, we've started using, Facebook's or Metaslama, so those we're in, testing with, but for the most part, we've been using OpenAI's API, we're then using automation tools like Zapier and Make and things like that to send data back and forth, and then That's causing essentially a conversation to happen with AI very quickly and then allows it to respond back to the client.

I don't think it's at the point yet. There are some exceptions, but very few that we can do real time responses. So voice like you and I are chatting is difficult because there's a noticeable lag while that data has to be processed. Not long, little delay we had right there is too much and people don't like that and we're getting that with AI.

But when it comes to text messages, social media messaging, anything like that, that delay doesn't bother us one bit because I don't expect a response immediately from you. So we're using just standard commercial tools to do this and integrating it with company databases to be able to, for example, pull from the CRM, information about this client or prospect.

understand maybe what they've purchased or haven't purchased in the past. Understand what we can about them personally and share that data in a way that matters. 

Ken Okazaki: And are these custom solutions that your company's building, like as far as the zaps and everything, you know, the processes. That goes together or is this stuff that you find off the shelf and then just test and see if you can use it?

Like, where are you as far as like geekiness in terms of like, are you the coder? Are you kind of the idea guy? Or are you the, the. Let's just say the hunter gatherer, hunting and gathering tools and bringing them together. 

Jonathan: I'm definitely more the idea guy myself, so we have a great team that helps do that.

Although in most cases, when we're working with companies to develop that, they've got staff to do a lot of the integration. They simply need the ideas on how to connect things and make things work. So in most cases, what's happening is I'm working with organizations and helping them See what's there to make the connections and then their teams generally are going ahead and implementing that.

We do have people on our team that can do that as well, but that's most of our work is focused on taking a look, being that visionary, taking a look at that bigger picture, taking a problem, solving for that problem, and then allowing the client to do a self implementation of that. 

Ken Okazaki: And if there was somebody listening to this right now, and they're interested in getting your help for setting up something like you just described, is there some place where they could find out more about you and get some resources around that?

Jonathan: The single best way is just to go to my website at jonathanmast. com slash linktree. And they'll have everything they need to connect with me from there. 

Ken Okazaki: Perfect. We'll put that link down below. If you're on YouTube, check out the description. If you're listening to the podcast, go to the show notes and We'll have that there.

Now, I've got a couple more questions and then one big one, which is going to be about making money. The question I have for you, you've, you've mentioned some of these tools, which I'm also familiar with, ChatGBT, Gemini, Cloud, you know, Llama, and there's a few more. Does America for now seem to have a monopoly on this, or are we just kind of blinded by the fact that we're using things that are available in English, to the best of your knowledge?

Jonathan: That's a great question, Ken. I think right now it is mainly because a lot of the development's been done in English and therefore a lot of that technology is starting in America. I think that we're going to very quickly see that change, because I think, Whether you like it or not, I think regulatory things are going to get in the way and cause problems for that innovation.

And, um, I'm not saying regulations are bad, but I, I see that happening. And I think that you're going to start seeing a lot of other countries do very well in AI. Especially those that embrace it. and again, governments are not known for their ability to embrace new technologies, and I think we're going to see some shifts, some fairly dramatic shifts happening there over the next couple of years.

the other thing that obviously concerns me about that is that in, at least in the United States, it seems like the people guarding the hen houses are indeed the foxes themselves. you know, the people that are sitting on the boards of, all these committees, and while I think it's important. that they get that vetting.

I don't necessarily know it's good to have the same people that are trying to be monitored, do the monitoring, if that makes any sense. so I know that's probably more than you were asking. 

Ken Okazaki: Yeah. A little bit of a conflict of interest there. 

Jonathan: Yeah, I think so. Um, so ultimately, yes, I think right now we're seeing a preponderance of those tools that are quote unquote US based because of the fact that that's where a lot of the innovation started.

I absolutely believe that over the next couple of years that, that, that dynamic is going to change and that, that balance of power is going to change as well. 

Ken Okazaki: Can you think of any online businesses that would be perfectly safe to continue completely ignoring AI? and not using it at all. 

Jonathan: That's a great question.

I've not given it any thought, to be honest with you. And I guess, no, I can't, because even if it's not, even if we can't use AI to drive the business, there's still things we can use AI in the background to make the business more efficient, to help us with processing. I, for example, I know a lot of people are convinced that, movies are going to be replaced because we're going to be able to do write a script and have AI produce it.

I don't think we're near as close to that as other people do. I think we're much further away from that. Yet at the same point, I absolutely can envision the film industry beginning to use AI to help with script writing, to help with operational items in the back, to help with just managing the logistics that go along with that.

So I. don't know that we're going to see AI on the forefront of every industry, but I definitely think we're going to see it in the background. You know, e commerce would be another great example. We're still going to buy physical products. I'm still going to buy my favorite spices online because it's the only place I can find what I want when it comes to certain spices. Those spices are never going to be replaced by AI, but the companies that are providing them Their logistics, the operational aspects can likely be improved by embracing AI. And I think if, we have two competitors, one who embraces AI technology as ways to improve their operations, improve their delivery, improve their efficiencies, that company is going to dominate over the one that says, well, we don't have to worry about it because we deliver a spice that can't be replicated.

And it has nothing to do with AI.

Ken Okazaki: Those are good points. 

Now, the question I'm kind of building up to here is. Let's say somebody comes on there, let's say 18 years old, they got a ton of energy, they got a ton of ambition, zero experience or skills, and they come to you and say, look, I want to get to a million dollars a year as quickly as possible. Where should I start in terms of online business? How would you kind of map out, let's say, a year of learning, executing, and building a million dollar business? 

Jonathan: I love that question. I think the first thing that they need to do is they need to do an inventory of things that they're passionate about and interested in.

Because I don't believe it's likely, or I won't say possible. Anything's possible, but it's not likely. You're going to build a million dollar business in a year. If you're focused on something that doesn't excite you, if it doesn't bring you any, enjoyment whatsoever. Uh, so one, I think we need to take an inventory of what their skills and interests are then, and the beauty is AI can help us do this.

Then we, I would want to take a look and say, okay, based upon those skills and interests, what services might you be able to provide to businesses And I say businesses in most cases, because businesses have money to pay to solve problems. you can make money selling things to individuals, but you have to sell a lot more of it than if we're selling to businesses.

So if our goal is to create a million dollar company in the first 12 months, I want to focus on a problem that businesses are willing to pay to solve. And then hopefully an expensive problem that business with lots of money are willing to pay to solve. And then I want to identify. Can I leverage AI to help me deliver that faster and more efficiently to give me a market advantage?

Possibly even better than is being done now because of the way I can integrate AI with that. That whole process was what sounds like it could take a long time. I really believe could be done in a couple of days to at least narrow it down to two to five options that that 18 to 20 year old could pursue and then.

The next thing I would do is tell them, get a great mentor, more than just AI, but get a mentor that's been through this before to help you see the things that you don't know you should be paying attention to. But I would heavily encourage them to leverage AI, to help brainstorm that process, to help with ideation, to help come up with ideas, to bring problems such as, here are the current market leaders, here's what I want to do, here's the audience and their pains.

How do we. Coalesce this all together to create something that is better than exists in the market today. That 18 year old's likely going to need someone with a bit of experience to help them through that process to add maybe just a checkpoint of validation. But a lot of that they could do again, assuming they had some decent training and they were pursuing something they were passionate about that businesses could afford to pay them to fix.

I think in my mind, Ken, the biggest aspects of that is something they care about. That's a problem that businesses are willing to pay for. if they're interested and businesses are willing to pay you to solve it, you can make a lot of mistakes along the way and still be successful. 

Ken Okazaki: Jonathan, I'm going to mess with your, reasoning here for a second.

Add a couple more parameters because you have experience. You've kind of seen the scope of what's working and what's not. Let's say now we change this to a reality show. You've got a dog in the race. It's this 18 year old and you're their mentor. There's five other people. Who are also like you and who have their 18 year olds, and your guy has to be the first one to get to a million dollars in their online business. So because you know what you know and because you're highly motivated for him to make that money quickly, whether or not. It's what his passion is for life. He can sprint on adrenaline until he gets there and you have the experience. Where is he going to go? What's he going to do to get there fastest?

Ethically. 

Jonathan: Great question. I think there's a lot of options that could be pursued and I'm going to fall back to things that I know because that's the areas I'd be most confident in. And I believe that AI has tremendous opportunities in the digital marketing field to absolutely scale. and skill very quickly because there's a lot of people in the marketing field that are, as you've probably heard there's the AI can do everything for us.

Not true. And you should never touch AI because if you do, you're going to regret it for the rest of your business life, which will be really short because you embraced AI. Also not true. And I think there's a spot for somebody that can sprint and work hard and isn't trying to work a 32 hour work week every week, but is willing to put in the time and energy.

I think I would look into the digital marketing field and identify a specific niche and a specific service that I could offer that niche that again, I could leverage with AI. And there's a lot of those out there. I'll just give one example that comes to mind, may not be a good one, but you know, if we said, we're simply going to focus on creating more compelling ads so that when you're running ads, we're going to be able to create better ad copy and better landing pages.

for those people that land on those ads to go to, knowing that I can use AI to do that quickly, which means if we have a problem, I can create one multiple variations very quickly, but I also then can address if I have a page that's not converting, I can make sure I fix that. Probably more importantly, and I'm not an ads expert, so this is not my area of expertise, but I know most businesses that run ads, whether Google or social media or anything else, they often don't run those ads to a Specific landing page.

Many times they just run back to the home page on their website. Just the ability to take those businesses and teach them how quickly and fast and inexpensively That could be done as a done for you service where they could pay this 18 year old to do that. I think they could generate a million dollars in the first year just by focusing on one avenue like that and mastering it and doing it well.

Ken Okazaki: Would you recommend they go on a performance type of pay or a service fee structure? 

Jonathan: I've found it really hard in the marketing business to get people that actually want to do performance. They do up front until you explain that if, I'm taking a greater risk, I need a greater reward to go along with that.

they're really good if you'd say, if let's say my fee is 10, 000 for the year, they're really good with saying, well, let me pay you that 10, 000 if we hit certain objectives. What they're not good about saying is, well, if I'm going to do it based on performance, I need to make 40, 000 if I achieve the objectives. then all of a sudden they don't want to do that because it's more money. So I would encourage these people to focus and anybody trying this to focus on getting paid for the services they're providing. the other thing is there's often a lot of variables. So in the example that I just thought of, let's say we're doing ads and we are creating ads that convert and are creating more leads.

What I can't control is how that those ads, or those leads are being handled by the company. So if they're not being addressed, which I've certainly seen with clients in the past, or if the customer service is just poor and they're not following through and shipping or whatever the case may be, that is something I don't have control over in that role.

So I would want to get paid for the work I was providing, and I might try to negotiate a bonus. Based upon or maybe a tiered compensation structure that here's my base that I get for doing the work and here's the bonuses I get if I can achieve certain objectives that you deem important up front. 

Ken Okazaki: Well, there's a roadmap and I'm kind of thinking of the Format of the show undercover billionaire where there was Grant Cardone and a few other entrepreneurs Competing to build a million dollar business and when I saw that I realized you know what all the stuff that they're doing hustling around Online could be done in a fraction of the time.

A fraction. he was going door to door, knocking, shaking hands, looking in shop windows, you know, kicking tires, literally. Whereas online you could blast, a thousand emails to, prospects on LinkedIn. And if you have a 1 percent open rate, you, you've got 10 prospects right there and then start conversations.

So it's a completely different ballgame. I think also that there's a, a sense of entitlement and laziness that comes because of the ease that the internet and AI brings. And I realize I'm starting to sound like some of these guys who are saying, Oh, all these young people are lazy. And it's, hard to not when I remember what it was like pre internet.

I lived before the internet was invented and so did you. Yes, I did. And I want to take us back there for a little bit. When did you realize that you were like an entrepreneur at heart? That you were not cut out to be working for someone else? That at some point you just had to break out of this routine and do your own thing?

Jonathan: I grew up in a family of small business owners, so I always had that kind of, predilection, but I didn't really realize it until I got in my late twenties. I'd worked for a successful regional IT services company, had grown with that, had a lot of fun along the way. Made some major mistakes along the way, as well.

Then realized that, I really wasn't a very good employee. I was a much better, and I don't want to say self employed, but you even being self employed is, you know, you have people you have to report to. You've got your clients, you've got to make them happy. But my clients don't generally care whether or not I'm doing a podcast at five in the afternoon or five in the morning or what I'm doing at 11 o'clock.

And probably more importantly, they just want results. And so marketing has always been a great field for me because if I can deliver results, and I can do so ethically, there were very few concerns with exactly how I did it or how much time I spent doing it. and I realized in my late twenties, I'd been in sales most of my life that I was terrible at Populating CRMs.

I was terrible at filling out reports. I was terrible at all that. I was pretty good at talking to people and getting people that had an interest in our product or our service to engage with the company I worked with because I wasn't afraid of hard work. As you mentioned, I wasn't at all afraid to work the hours and to put my shoulder to the grindstones, so to speak, to make that happen.

so yeah, I don't know if I'm answering your question or not, Ken, but I think that's. That's probably what I see there and what was key. I would say I was probably 27ish years old when I realized that I needed to go out on my own at some point in the very near future. 

Ken Okazaki: Well, 

I'm glad you did because now we get to have this conversation.

I'm going to end with a bit of a philosophical question and I got to get a little bit, give it a little bit of context here. Sure. There's a story. I'm probably getting some of the details wrong, but when Michelangelo was carving a statue of David, you know, that very, very famous statue of David, beautiful carving, right?

And he's up on the scaffolding and he's doing the finishing touches. And then the guy who's sponsoring it, I believe he was a duke or something in the area. He comes to inspect the work and the guy, he is walking around inspecting it, looking at this thing. That's beautiful. It's amazing. And he tells Michelangelo, he says, there's just one thing I need you to fix.

And he says, what is it? And he goes, the bridge of his nose is, doesn't quite have the right aesthetic. I need you to just trim off this tiny little thing. This little tiny protrusion and Michelangelo says, okay, sure. I'll fix it. So he picks up his chisel and his hammer. He climbs up the scaffolding and on his way up, he picks up a handful of.

dust, you know, like marble dust. And he goes up there and then he starts tapping the back of his chisel without actually touching the sculpture. And then he starts dropping the dust and then it looks like he carves something, nothing really changed. He gets back down and then the sponsor looks and he says, that's it, that's perfect.

You've achieved my vision. And that story brings up the issue of what if, and I believe a hundred percent this is going to happen. What if every single thing AI generates for you. With your voice, it looks like your very best work you've ever done. Like, let's say you made you wrote a paragraph. And this ad performs like nothing's ever done.

But that was five years ago. And every time you look at it, it's like, Oh man, that was my best work. And you know it, and you read it, and you get the chills. So, because. It was your best work, but now AI is generating that quality every single time, but you don't know if you can actually get to that quality without it.

Would you go and change it just to say, I did that? Or would you just let it go? Feeling like AI actually gets me better than I get me, is thinking faster than I'm thinking and is outperforming me. Would you let it go? And then would you still feel like theirs? 

Jonathan: I get, I believe AI amplifies skill and experience.

So I would have, I would personally feel the same sort of satisfaction that I would get, whether I did it with AI or without AI. Um, your example of Disney, I think was a perfect way to do that. I don't think for a moment that Walt Disney didn't consider that he had been successful in creating these cartoons and these movies and these characters, even though he may not have drawn.

every frame, in fact, we know he didn't draw every frame. He had the vision, and he, then had a team to make that vision a reality. That's really very much how I look at AI. And I do think AI will raise the bar on a lot of that. I think again, we're going to be able to analyze things and we did it. There will be fewer bad days.

So to speak when it comes to delivery, because AI is going to help us be much more consistent in that process. But personally, does that bother me? No. I, that fact that excites me. Because that means maybe I'll have more time to go on a motorcycle ride, or I'll have more time to spend with my grandchildren, or for that matter, maybe just more time to surf and learn something new that I want to learn about.

So for me, I don't see that as a downside at all. and I also am not afraid of, of sharing that we're using AI as a tool to do that. That's a question I get a lot of times. Do I tell my clients I'm using AI? And I'm like, well, why wouldn't you? It's, you tell them you're using a computer. You know, nobody's surprised about that, are they?

Well, no, they expect that, you know, or that you use a tablet. Nobody's surprised about that. AI is just another tool that is part of the arsenal. and it's just at this moment in history, it's unique in that we can actually probably get more attention by saying we're using it and being an expert and a master of that. Then we could, or we will be able to, two to three years down the road. Nobody cares anymore if you're an expert at using a MacBook when it comes to, you know, doing marketing. They don't care. They do care right now if you're an expert at using AI. And people are intrigued by that. So I think we do have a window of opportunity.

Not that that window is going to close, but I think that window will shrink over time as more people get involved and as again, we get more comfortable with AI and what it's capable of doing. 

Ken Okazaki: That's great. 

Well, I've got to wrap this up. What I do want to appreciate about you and tell you to your virtual face as we're on the other side of the world is how you captured the opportunity early on, just like Gary Vee always says, you know, like when there's a new platform, a new opportunity, and then you actually start talking about it more than the people around you, you are the perceived expert and you've done a great job of that.

You've set yourself up early stages so that as new people are coming in, they're going to look around and say, who's, who can I learn from? And you're one of those pillars. I really admire you for that. And I want to say, I'm, I think that's great, positioning, great entrepreneuristic move. And in the meantime, you're helping a ton of people to get started faster.

Jonathan: Well, thank you. That means a ton. 

Ken Okazaki: I think that a lot of people might be tinkering just as much as you and might have the same amount of knowledge, but they're not being as public about it and they're missing out. Yes. They're really missing out. You made the distinction where you're doing it, all your tinkering in public.

And that is what sets you apart. And I think, uh, we could all learn a lesson and nobody, when they first get into it as an expert, like, you know, we started using it probably around the same time as probably, you know, I'd say 500, 000, probably other entrepreneurs, some tinkering in public, some trying to perfect it and then share it, they're missing out and no one's ever going to perfect that because it's, the technology's evolving too quickly.

Jonathan, I want to thank you so much for being on here and is there anything you'd like to share with the listeners about AI, about entrepreneurship, to leave them with something to chew on? 

Jonathan: Well, thank you for having me. It's been a true honor, Ken. I appreciate it. One message I'd like to leave everybody is that you can do it.

Achieve the success that you desire. If you're willing to put the work into it and AI can help minimize that it can do a lot of the heavy lifting. And I encourage you regardless of what you're interested in, figure out how AI can help you learn and can help you share with others. But ultimately what I want to leave everybody with, Kandis is very simply add value to the people around you.

If you add value to their lives, they will then that will build your credibility. And they will come back when they have a need that fits that, they'll come back to work with you. that's the best advice I can give. 

Ken Okazaki: All right. You heard it. 

Jonathan, thank you so much for sharing your wisdom and your experience. I really do appreciate having you on the show and for everybody else, thank you for sticking around to the end and I will see you next week.

No hassle, worship here, we're a different breed. Action is what we got if action is what you need. Us content capitalists, we're breaking the flow. Cuz the old ways stay, new stories to be told. So content capitalists, get to the press.