AI Is Rewriting the Rules of Business (ft. James Edgell)

Can artificial intelligence give small businesses the same technological advantages once reserved for major corporations?** What happens when entrepreneurs can build powerful software, automate operations, and launch new ideas without traditional programming experience or enormous development budgets?

Now, this has been an experience of amazement

to me. Before you leave, if you'd like to watch

another one of the podcasts, click the first

link in the description. We love having you here.

We appreciate all your support. And with that

producer Barbie and I are out. Welcome to insights

and straight talk. I am rubbed up alongside producer

Barbie. And today, we're going to talk about

something that I believe is much bigger than

artificial intelligence. Yeah, believe it or

not. We're going to talk about access. Because

for most of my business career, if you had an

idea for a piece of software, a system that can

make your company faster, solve a customer problem,

automate a process or maybe even become a business

of its own. Well, you needed something else.

Money, right? Programmers, developers, what do

you got? You got consultants, you got months,

you got eternity, sometimes years and years of

development. And if you were a small business,

small business owner, or entrepreneurs sitting

at the kitchen table with a great idea, you might

never get past the great idea. AI may be changing

that equation. Hold on to that right there. AI,

so that equation, that equation of needing all

that money may be changing. AI is doing that,

all right? Now hold on to that. We're just talking.

It's important, man. The money difference is

huge. And if it is, if it is changing that equation,

that could have enormous consequences for entrepreneurs

and for the great middle class as a whole. My

guest today is watch technology evolve from inside

several very, very large organizations. And he

has also experienced what it means to build something

from the ground up. James Edgel is a technology

executive, entrepreneur, product builder, and

founder of Soft Exit. His career has included

IBM, Deloitte, and McDonald's, along with startups,

social networks. large -scale technology projects

and engineering organizations. Today, he's building

an AI -enabled business application platform

designed around a fascinating idea. I've just

been fighting. The last show I was just on, I

was fighting my bit to get over here and talk

to James because I've got a bunch of ideas about

this thing. but that's what we're going to learn

more about today. So, what if you could, you

know, this is the thing that fascinates me. I

mean, what if you could describe what your business

needs in ordinary language and technology could

help turn that idea into an application, a business

application. Think about what that could mean.

I mean, fascinating, not only for software developers.

for the restaurant owner, right? For the manufacturer,

for their contractor, the independent consultant,

you know? The person starting the company in

their garage. And you know what, maybe the 22

year old that has an idea but doesn't have $500

,000 to build it, but also want to get, I want

to get underneath all the excitement. of this

AI stuff, right? I want to know what it really

can do. Where's the hype? What can't it do? Where

does human experience, where does that human

experience still matter? We're going to get into

that because it's important. What happens to

software developers? What happens to jobs? What

happens to the cost of starting a business? And

could a small company in Magum, Oklahoma or anywhere

else across America and certainly in America,

soon have access to technology capabilities that

once belonged almost exclusively to corporations

with enormous budgets. Those are the conversations

I want to have because the further it's something

that happens to us. Now the future is that just

happening to us. We're building it right now.

James, welcome to Insights and Straight Talk.

Let's have a conversation. Hey, Todd. How are

you doing, brother? Great. Great to be here.

Thanks. I've been excited about this and I was

telling you because we talked a lot about AI.

We have talked a lot about it. And we've been

talking a lot about it for a while. And anybody

who isn't is just being irresponsible with either

their own lives or whoever they're associated

with. And that's anybody's privilege. But there's

just a lot of things on the horizon. And there's

a lot of things at stake about those things in

the horizon. And I asked you before I brought

you back out from the green room, I said... Let's

start with your journey. Where did that journey

begin? What puts you on the path? What was that

inflection point that put you on the path to

bring you here today with us today? I have a

feeling I know where it's going to come from

because we had that cool conversation. But why

don't you jump on that? I've got to do a little

bit of housekeeping in the background. Sure.

So, I mean, I'm a tech guy, right? I started

out as a programmer. So I've been doing tech

for a long time and then I jumped from programmer

to manager and I've worked for various companies

and built a lot of things. Some of the things

you already heard of that you mentioned, right?

From there, what I've noticed is, you know, big

companies and little companies, they operate

very differently. The large companies have lots

of money and they can throw money at problems.

And the small companies have the hands -on and

the upfront experience. And I think that there's

some interesting parallels between the two. And

then there's some definite differences. And I

would say... You know, small companies, they

get successful and sometimes they plateau out

because of the way they're handling things, process,

the paperwork, the spreadsheets. And then large

companies know how to deal with massive problems

by using data and process, right? And, you know,

basically I'm releasing this software to be available

to smaller companies to put that process and

power in reach at affordable price. If you compare

it to something like if you you want to start

a company and you want to keep track of your

your clients your leads and everything else like

that you got to go out and buy something really

expensive like a sales force and I think you

know a lot of people can justify that price it's

very expensive but they could really use those

kind of tools and that's why I'm bringing this

to market and that's where I am now starting

soft exit bringing soft exit studio and I believe

that a lot of people will like this and It's

a reasonable price. It's very affordable, but

very valuable. You and I are going to talk quite

a bit about this after the episode, obviously,

because I could not agree with you more. And

that's exactly the point. StreamYard got its,

first of all, they're a great marketing company.

And they got their push. because they were so

ahead of the market capabilities for databases.

They put some stuff together that really made

them a step ahead, basically made them on the

frontier of what AI is. We talked about some

of the add -ons that Aparnaut and others that

you could do and build on this thing. But, but,

but. They're still that fricking expensive. They're

in craze. And this isn't, you know, we're not

here marketing one thing or the other, but I

have personal experience in this and I talked

to you about it before. And it was funny because

we were going to go down this conversation, but

we had to jump in right away because we both

had the same experience with Salesforce and why

we're here talking about this today. We've already

got several hundred people on. So everybody please

like the show and please comments and so forth

as the show opens up. And you start having some

questions about this because let's go back to

that point. Let's start at the beginning. Let's

go where that inflection point was. Let's get

some people, several hundred of them, get ready

and kind of settle in for the next little bit

of time here with them. How did we get together?

How did we get the opportunity to sit down here

together today? What was that ride? So I think

you reached out to me right through I believe

it was matchmaker .fm and That's kind of a cool.

It's good. It's like a dating service for podcasters

and guests. Oh Yeah, I really liked I signed

up a couple of weeks ago after I never thought

of doing podcasts somebody out of the blue called

me up for tech unhinged and we did a interview

and I thought wow, this is this is really great

to interact with people this way and share ideas

and get some exposure at the same time. And I

really liked it. And so I started doing some

investigation and one, I needed to improve my

background, which I have. So because it looked

like I was working out of my basement. And then

now I love your background, by the way. Well,

thanks. I love the backdrop. And that's not a

that's not one of these blues or green screen.

No, it's like me. It's a real background. That

is. Beautiful, man. Thanks. Well, I just cleaned

it up. I rearranged my crap, so to speak. And

I bought a couple of lights. So that's about

it. And then, you know, then I found out about

Matchmaker and I tried that and then you reached

out to me and I got a couple of other people

to reach out to me. And it's a great way to make

connections, right? Yeah. Even though I did shows

with some of these individuals, it appears that

I'm going to stay in contact with them because,

you know, we really, you know, hit it off. They're

really nice people. And, you know, it's one thing

I notice about the entrepreneurial community

is you think they'd be cagey and trying to keep

their ideas to themselves. I am just amazed by

how people are willing to share ideas, help you

out. Right. It's not a crabs in a bucket scenario.

It is. is everyone is trying to help everyone

else out. And I'm pretty impressed by that. This

is a whole new experience coming from the corporate

world into an entrepreneurial environment. Yeah,

I think the world is evolving in a lot of different

ways. And I think what you're talking about now

is really developed out of the open AI, chat

GPT, the programmers and coders. for probably

half a dozen years now, maybe more and more and

more over the last couple of years. But I've

noticed this, this continuing story, and I'm

older, so I caught on to it. Maybe a lot of other

people just take it for granted. But there's

a lot of, I like what you said about that because

it is an entrepreneurial, even though capitalism

is getting beat up a little bit right now, the

world itself, human beings are. are much more

entrepreneurial right now especially like coders

and that because well I shouldn't say they are

more entrepreneurial but if you you recognize

it because that spirit of entrepreneurship is

is got to be in somebody that spirit of wanting

to help because that's what entrepreneurs have

always built done is they built from nothing

right they built from an idea And that's kind

of how they develop their lives. So it's kind

of funny how all that comes together, right?

I mean, does that make sense what I just said?

Yeah, completely. Yeah. And that's what I love

about this now is as it goes back to what we

were originally talking about, the cost of like

these programs. I was talking about Stream York.

I used this $14 ,000 number for this thing, you

know what I'm talking about, that I had to put

together. Basically, it was training and installing

of another thing that cost a whole other set

of money. But doing that now is micro pennies

of a kilobit or whatever. I mean, it's a very

different structure. So now people are able to

afford your software. that is probably the next

level above what, again, I'm not beating up string

yard anything, but we're just using this for

example, is probably next level. So where did

all this come about and tell us this story? And

let's get into the subject because it's possible.

This is real. This is entrepreneurs now being

able to compete against IBM. That may not be

real, but you get the scale. Yeah, 100%. You

know, I used to work at another company and I

used to complain a lot by how expensive some

of these SaaS applications are. And I don't know

how they justify it. I mean, enormous cost, right?

storage, you know, I talked to one company, I'm

not going to keep trashing names out here, but

one company was charging us something like $20

,000 for 500 mega storage just for files. And

I asked them, how do you justify that? I can

go down the street and buy a thumb drive for

50 bucks with, you know, 10 times that storage.

How about I buy a box of them, ship them to you

and you shove them in your computer? And they,

you know, obviously they laughed. But the point

is, is they keep turning up the heat right and

they keep turning up the price because what they

do is they get you hooked and then they just

continuously drive the price up and they either

drive you out or they they put themselves in

a position where smaller companies just can't

afford to have those kind of tools available

to them and I used to threaten that hey you know

I've delivered a lot of world -class applications

I may just quit my job and go start and go compete

with them because they're charging so much. I

know I can still make money and charge half or

a quarter of what they're charging. We don't

have as many mouths to feed as, you know, like

a big company like some of these hundred thousand

employee companies. So we can offer a much more

economical approach. And we're taking kind of

an oath that we're not going to jack up the price.

We're we're gonna stay bootstrapped. You know,

I'm funding this personally my business. I'm

not gonna take private equity So I don't have

to appease stockholders or shareholders And equity

owners that I have to continuously double and

double my business, right? So I don't have to

turn up that that heat on the on the customer

so I can keep it affordable and I'll make the

volume money is my approach That starts to open

up that starts to peel back the layers of the

onion of how this new business model is, in some

cases. And you know what? It all really depends

on access, like I said, in the opening. And all

of that depends on how involved we get in our

own lives. And I tell the story every once in

a while. I have two granddaughters. Well, I raised

five boys, me and producer Barbie. two and two,

and one I had adopted myself. But I raised five

boys, and now we're having granddaughters. I

like the example of my oldest granddaughter and

my youngest granddaughter. My oldest granddaughter

is 16, and she had, oh, I'm sorry, she just turned

17 a month ago. But she and I did the show. And

she's going into nursing school. It's a whole

long story. She's really busy right now. So we're

not doing the show anymore, but we do a show

every Saturday called Insights and Straight Talk

with Emma Lynn and Grandpa Rod. So she could

communicate with me in discussions about what

kids go through. And it's a weekly thing. We

used to have parents and adults and young adults

and all that coming up. My youngest granddaughter

is just about to turn three at the end, a month

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

in Texas, my son, my oldest son, taught me AI,

taught me open, deep chat. Dad, start with this,

right? maybe write some emails out or do something,

but start with this. You're gonna need this.

You'll see after you get involved. I'm a real

curious person, so it wasn't hard for him to

talk me into it. Well, exactly a year later,

at my granddaughter's first birthday, at her

first birthday party, I'm gonna stay there, I'm

sitting across the aisle, or the eyelet, and

my son's wife's mom, So what would that be? My

perv law or something. But she and I were talking

really, really wonderfully about my age, a little

bit older. But we were talking about AI because

I've been doing this over the last year and started

doing some shows and all that. And she's like,

I don't want to know anything about it. I'm going

to stick my head in the sand. It scares me. Da

da da da da. And there's too many people thinking

that way. How do you get them to correct that?

How do you start steering people, especially

in my generation? Because this is now allowing

me to compete with IBM. So I think your experience

is what I think is probably the best way to get

exposed to it, that somebody needs to show them.

You know, I'm a ham radio operator. We have an

expression called an Elmer. An Elmer would show

you how to use the radio, right? Because you've

never ever seen a radio. It's got all these fancy

dials on it. Very, very intimidating, right?

somebody would show you. And what I've found

is people are rather surprised that there is

nothing to learn about AI. You basically ask

questions. It will, it'll tell you. You can,

you can use it in so many different ways. It's,

I don't know how to explain it. You really almost

have to experience it. And then, you know, people

do the kind of the hello world type of with it.

And I think if you go to AI with them, I could

figure it out, but what do you mean by they do

the hello world kind of thing with it? They'll

ask it like, you know, what's the population

in the United States? You know, things like that,

right? They'll get data, but what they don't

know and what people do with Siri when it first

came out, the same sort of thing, just goofball

stuff, whatever. What they need to be what they

need to see is it doing something like. You know,

you give it a bunch of numbers, you give it all

your expenses and everything and say, can you

tell me which bill to pay first? And then it

does. And then it tells you why. And that's where

it starts to get amazing. You start to really

see what it's capable of. And it starts to actually

solve problems for you. And it works with you.

And in the end, you know, you are still in control.

You are the person. It's just somebody advising

you. Right. People. can you have friends that

advise you you listen to them you don't it's

your choice right same thing with chat tbt you

can listen to it or you cannot but usually the

advice is pretty good and it's well informed

unlike uh unlike some of my friends they don't

know everything in the world you know they haven't

been trained on every single book in the world

and every single thing and ai has you know you

you bring up a freaking awesome point there because

it even goes deeper in my It even goes deeper

than that. We talked about cost earlier. We haven't

even really got into the whole rabbit hole. But

there's so many things about this that make small

entrepreneurs better. We talked about the cost

of software. It was $20 ,000. It was $14 ,000.

It was this much or that much. Now it's fractions

of a penny for whatever DigiPoint. But there's

also the person cost. So I'm an entrepreneur.

So Producer Barbie always wanted an assistant,

right? You know, assistants are expensive. So

easy, get. So that assistant would cost you a

20 bucks an hour, 30 bucks an hour, 80 ,000 a

year, whatever that is. You know what AI is.

You're probably knowing where I'm going right

now. It works with agents and you give them prompts.

That's that relationship. Now there's automation.

It's a little different. My son calls it like

this. Automation is like when you want something

repeated time after time after time and done

perfect. AI is like you want to bounce something

off your best friend. So in using that explanation

What happens with AI these agents is they also

get to know you over time So I instead of hiring

an eighty thousand dollar assistant you said

not all your friends know everything They also

don't care as much about your mission maybe or

about how you want something to happen, or how

you want it worded, or how the emphasis wants

to go, or whatever those tweaks are, that are

decision after decision after decision, that

lead to something, right? Isn't all of that true

about where we're going in this conversation?

Yeah, I mean, AI, it does, it kind of does, it

feels like it gets to know you, it stores things,

so it has... it can retrieve your history and

give you better answers. Your own interests more.

It's developing its personality from you. Well,

it's aligned. It will always be aligned with

you. It's been designed to be aligned. It's supposed

to make you happy, right? I will make this suggestion.

If you're like an entrepreneur and you're like

a founder, I treat A like it's a co -founder,

to be honest with you. And what's a good co -founder?

Someone who has knowledge that you don't, right?

But one of the things I do is sometimes I ask

AI not to be aligned with me. I ask it to challenge

me and to critique my ideas. And that's where

AI becomes very, very powerful because now it's

changing you, right? you have an idea and you

think it's great and everybody thinks their ideas

are great and then you have a challenge it and

then you find yourself in the position where

you have to defend yourself and your idea starts

to get stronger isn't that what they teed it

to or isn't that what they taught in debate club

take the opposite side and argue the point so

you strengthen your own your own viewpoint looks

like that harbored business in love where you've

got to create the argument against your own thoughts

right but to your point it gets very aligned

it learns you it its goals are aligned with you

and it's trying to achieve it which you know

sometimes the human counterpart that isn't necessarily

the case right that could be an agenda you put

it better much better way to put it but that's

exactly right because ai its whole mission is

to please you yes the human doesn't necessarily

that isn't necessarily their top point right

They may be saying they're trying to please you.

Internally, they're not, right? And that may

be on purpose or not. That may be on purpose

or not. They may be trying, but just can't do

it. Or they may be like, I'm jealous of this

partner. I'm going to help him. The other thing

I noticed about AI is when you ask it to do something,

there have been times when I've asked it to build

something for me. asked a human counterpart that

they would roll their eyes and complain because

they just got done building something, and now

you're asking it to undo it. So it's really nice

in that aspect of there's no resistance. You

tell it to do something, it doesn't. You write

the props, right? You know, as a matter of fact,

you brought this up earlier. When I first started

working with AI, I wasn't really getting there.

I was getting frustrated because I have my own

way of communication. You may or may not be able

to tell, but I say words differently. You know,

I'm my own style. So finally what I did, and

I asked my son this. I go, come with it. He goes,

here's what you need to do. Tell your AI agent,

create a prompt that says something to the effect

of, now create the perfect prompt. I want to

be able to accomplish this rule. I want to accomplish

this thing. and I want you to remember the rule

and keep building on that fact. So basically

what I did is I created, I said, create the perfect

prompt that creates that result. It's basically

the company we're talking about today, right?

The way the you're talking about studio studio

works a little different and I've taken a different

approach to it You know, a lot of people are

trying to back into AI and and check the box

and say hey, we're using AI, right? That's their

sales pitch in my opinion I think because they've

run out of things to sell but you know, I I use

it as how can I use this to solve a problem because

People buy solutions to problems. They don't

buy solutions, right it They need to have a problem

that you need to solve. So the approach I took

was not to build a product around AI, but to

use AI as a tool. And that's why we call it AI

architect, because it's the architect essentially.

So our platform is very stable. It's very defined,

right? You have the standard database tables,

forms, dashboards, Kanban boards, all the things

that you normally see. But when we ask our AI

architect to build something for us, it's not

generating code. There's a huge difference between

the two. Now, they look the same, the results.

As I understand it, there's code, no code, and

some code or no code. When I'm doing chat GPT

and I'm asking it to do something, there's a

little button you can click over here and you

can see the code side of what's being written

to create what you're doing. So what did you

just say? Did you just say something differently

than that? What you use uses no code whatsoever?

Right, we designed this specifically not to generate

code because what does code bring? code brings

bugs, code brings security vulnerabilities. Every

time you ask it to add a new thing, even a word

or capitalize a letter, you're getting a whole

new program. Basically, you have to regression

test the whole thing if you're going to be in

a serious business environment. So what we did

is we built a platform that gets configured.

So everything our AI agent could do, you could

do by hand. But it does in 10 minutes, what would

take somebody two days? And essentially, you

know, like Salesforce, right? Salesforce was

really complex and you have to hire yourself

an Apex programmer or a functional consultant

to set it up and configure it. Yeah. And that's

why it gets so expensive. It's not only is the

service expensive, but the resources to power

it are expensive. It is insane. It is unbelievable.

And they're in such high demand and they make

top dollar. So we decided that we were going

to do away with all that. One, we were going

to make our product very simple to use. I noticed

that one of your viewers, Ellen Silverman, said,

how much technical background do I need to use

SoftExit Studio? And it's virtually none. We

designed it like comparing the Mac to Windows,

right? It's a much more simpler environment.

You don't have to understand concepts. for like

relational databases. We have relational tables

where, you know, you have a customer that has

orders, right? And that's a one -to -many relationship.

You don't have to understand how any of that

works. All you have to do is think of it in folders,

right? Customer as folders with data in it. And

essentially that's how we built it up. Now, if

you like, let's say somebody was building out

a Salesforce or an Airtable system might take

several days to build out a system. On ours,

we could do it in a day or a half day by hand,

or we can just ask the AI agent to do it for

us in less than 10 minutes. And then not only

does it configure everything for you, unlike

an AI code generator. It configures everything

for you in a way that you want to be able to

process the results or run the numbers or extract

the data by telling it. This is what I want to

do. It'll just build the program for you in 10

minutes. Yeah, give me an example. And then you

say, oh wait, I didn't like the way it did that.

Can you do it this way differently? Yes, 100%.

So you can you can create unlimited solutions

and you can use these solutions like sandboxes

and you can say AIR. Hold on, hold on, hold on.

We need to talk about this right now. So sandbox,

I know what it is now. I've heard it forever,

but I've recently heard about it. sandboxes because

Is it huggy face? I? I haven't looked at that

one yet. I've heard a lot about it, but I haven't

there's that thing going on there and what was

supposed to be about that is These agents that

they were testing. Oh, yeah escaped They escaped

from the sandbox. So the only reason I bring

that up We don't have to go down that whole thing

unless you want to but the sandbox just means

that it's this program inside of its enclosed

environment, right? That's right. We have nothing

that will escape. I guarantee you that. Essentially,

it's a sandbox outside of your production environment.

So if you want to tinker around with what AI

can do, but you don't want to interfere with

your mainline business because that's all stable

and operating the way you want it, then you create

another solution. You ask AI to generate something.

So I'll give you an example. Let's say, You know,

you can generate the CRM right off the bat. We

have a customer relationship model right now.

If you want to extend it and say, you know what,

I need some basic inventory. I can't keep track

of the things on my shelves. I don't know when

they're running low. It's always the hardest

point. You know, that's a point where a business

changes from a mom and pop shop, from a micro

company into a small business. But that right

there, that's a big thing right there, right?

Yeah, so instead of going out and buying another

expensive SaaS, you just say, hey, AR, I need

this accounting system. I just want to track

POs, suppliers, and inventory level. And you

just type it like the way I said. And then it

builds all the tables. It builds the data entry

forms. It builds the dashboards. And then you

have it all configured in the solution. And then

let's say you don't like it. You say, you know,

I need a few more tables or I just need to add

this tweak. Well, a lot of people can't do tweak

the code that AI is generating, but you can tweak

this because it's an application. Now you just

open up the table and say you press the add a

field button and you could do it right there

without regenerating. Yeah, it's all in the cloud,

all in the cloud. I love this thing. I'm loving

it better and better every once while we get

a podcast on here, but I Haven't seen the real

estate podcast. So this probably a business owner

very interested in what you're talking about

here. That's my guess So what I normally do is

I have people when somebody's making a comment

I have a guest read the comment and I'll read

questions because I like to adjust them slightly

So let's let's keep that agreement along the

way here. But this one has both. So for the first

ones here, I'll also read the comment. So great

show. Thank you very much. I appreciate it. Please

subscribe and like the episode. I want to change

this comment or this question a little bit. How

is AI changing the way entrepreneurs build businesses

today? The reason I said that is because obviously

it is, but I think it's what we're talking about

is AI is changing how entrepreneurs do things

in their business and how much they can do and

how much they can compete and how maybe I can

sell my product far beyond Greer County or Mandum,

Oklahoma across the United States in a much easier

way because all of this can be now non code.

But also, how are they changing the way people

think about building their businesses or is that

a bridge too far? Are people already changing

the way they think about building a business

because of AI? It's completely changed the way

I would approach it, right? Okay, that's interesting.

I spoke earlier that I consider AI like my co

-founder, right? And I don't have to pay that

co -founder or argue with them or fight over

the business and we split at some point in time,

because AI is not going to take my business away.

But it does bring expertise I don't have. So

that's one. The size of the company has changed,

right? I don't have to hire an army of programmers

now. I can have AI build that out. So, and then

I could take the money that would go there and

focus it somewhere else. And where I think if

you're an entrepreneur today, I think there's

going to be a lot more of us. And I think it's

going to become a lot noisy and harder, more

difficult to get attention, right? So I think

this is a big future for marketing people, because

if there's more of us, how do we stand out from

the crowd? And it's usually we have to turn to

marketing. They have to help us out, right? Just

take the apps on the App Store. There's two million

of them on Apple alone. You can't even be found

now unless you advertise, right? So I think that's

what's going to happen with all businesses. You're

going to see some amazing small businesses that

are going to eat the lunch of larger corporations

because they can't be as nimble now, and especially

with the smaller businesses with AI as a tool.

and they have a lot of miles to feed. So they

have to probably cut people, which is to compete

because they're not going to be able to compete

because their product is so expensive that they

can't afford to fight the small guy anymore.

Exactly. I was just going to say it's funny because

it's kind of the tables have almost basically

changed in that we haven't been able to compete

with the big guy of IBM's and that in the world

because you know if we're going to get anywhere

with anything we need a team of people or like

I said or that 22 year old that's got an amazing

idea but he or she just doesn't have half a million

dollars to develop it well with an application

that's that statement that when I was writing

the monologue that statement remember I told

you I got off on this whole other idea I want

to start this contest can you create an application

that creates a contest I want to create a company.

This is what I wanted to do. How can I, how can

I get it there? And then it creates something.

And then you go back and you challenge it and

it creates something more and you challenge it

and you create this contest for the city of Mangum.

There's some way to obviously do that. But this

right here is once you have that company, I can

now And then private actually probably can help

you build a business within itself. You know,

I have my mechanics business here. I want to

be able to develop a better market. We talked

about marketing. Marketing is going to be huge

because the way to market is also different.

You know, the tools, it's not just back to the

magazine ads now. you know, it's a whole different

TikTok and the algorithms and the AI is going

to help with that. And then there's going to

be things looking for AI to help fight against

that. So it's going to get a lot more complicated

as time goes along. But yeah, I appreciate the

way you put that is that your reaction to me

was was my my exposure of being a novice because

you said I wouldn't think, I totally think about

businesses different now because of AI. And when

you said that, I went, oh, duh, yeah, okay. I

get some things that make sense here. Cody here,

he says, this is fascinating. Can small businesses

really compete with larger companies using AI?

We're just talking about it. So just put a little

color in there between the layers for Cody, would

you? So 100 % right, we can compete on price,

we can compete on a personal touch, right? How

many times have you tried to, you can't even

find a phone number for a large corporation.

They don't want to talk to you. I hate that.

You know, so, you know, there's so many different

ways that we can take the business away from

these large companies. They can't get out of

their own way. That is a great, great, great

point. Literally the tables are turning. Yeah,

just think about all the people that they're

laying off. And, you know, these large companies,

they have no idea that they're creating, they're

creating weapons that are going to come after

them with AI because they have the knowledge

of how those companies work. They know their

shortcomings. Yeah, they know how to beat them

and they're going to be able to do it at a smaller

scale. And it's going to be interesting to watch.

Well, what's what's gonna be really it? Yes,

it is. Absolutely. That makes I mean just from

a just from a different standpoint I love the

way you just said that it's gonna be interesting

to watch how the economy evolves and changes

over the years because now everything's every

things flip back I mean How is most successful?

Larger companies have been developed because

they were at another company and didn't like

the way that the other company was doing it or

saw a better way that they could do it. But you

know how many is a percentage, at least probably,

of those people who wanted to but couldn't because

of the example of the 22 -year -old that has

a great idea sitting at the kitchen table but

doesn't have a half a million dollars to start

it. Now, you said it's going to be interesting

to watch. Imagine this. Right now I think, I

think small businesses, I think, and small business

is not what you would imagine it. Small business

is defined as like probably a hundred million

dollar a year company, you know, a 30 million

dollar a year, you know, whatever. It's a very,

it's not a mom and pop. So if you have a bunch

of small businesses, entrepreneurs now starting

these companies, competing with these larger

companies, If you have 60 % I think is employed

by people or employed by small business, I bet

you that number is going to dramatically shrink

because of opportunity. I mean, can you imagine

making seven figures and just being able to do

it at home and not have to deal with employees,

or at least only a couple of them? I mean, the

widening of that. playing field is probably going

to happen, isn't it? Well, I think you're going

to see a lot of things. You're going to see smaller

companies that will be on the rise. I think some

smaller companies will actually expand and start

to hire some of these experts, right? And, you

know, they want to bring on people with knowledge

because as we all know, AI, remember the old

adage, right? Garbage in, garbage out for computers.

AI is no different. Right, garbage in, garbage

out, exactly. You might want to hire someone

from one of these larger companies because they

have insight. They will be able to ask the better

question of AI and build you better processes,

better tools, things of that nature. So I don't

think this is going to go in one direction. I

think we're going to watch it play out. And then

you're going to see some introductions of new

technologies that will change the game, right?

And people are learning how to use AI. You know,

we got past the memes. We got past the, oh, look

at the funny video. I can make this guy do this,

right? None of that's going to generate a dime.

It's very interesting and great discussion, but

people are starting to leverage AI in ways that

businesses can monetize and use. And I'm seeing

some really interesting things. they're making

everything affordable for the smaller businesses

so they can operate on a level that they've never

been able to operate before. This is the time

to bootstrap and this is the time to start your

own company. I really do. I think it's going

to be incredibly exciting or you're going to

be deer in the headlights and you're going to

miss the opportunity and you're going to be one

of those guys that said oh why didn't I think

of that right because we all know those people

we've all been those people right so this is

a everyone should just jump into this and just

start playing around you can't break anything

you're not going to get hurt just start playing

with cat tv t and see what it does it'll generate

ideas yeah and you can actually have a like a

sidekick to be safe you know having the side

hustle is much more relevant and easy to do nowadays

because you don't have all that that extra time

needed, you're saving time and money. So this

is where we're gonna get into it, a little bit

here. Ellen here, it looks like Ellen's a pretty,

obviously a business person of some sort. So

let's get into some of the bolts and nuts here.

So we've talked about how much it can help and

what it can do. in running this, little nuts

and bolts here, how much technical knowledge,

I know what it takes to learn some of these other

ones, how much technical knowledge is actually

needed to use SoftExit effectively? Very, very

little. If you understand the basic concepts

of a database, right? Databases is a different

representation of a spreadsheet. A spreadsheet

has columns and rows. The databases have the

same names. They call them records and fields,

right? A field is a column, a row is a record.

That's right. The thing about databases is they

can stitch like 12 different related spreadsheets

together for you and you don't have to visualize

it all at once so you can have all this data

in different tables or different spreadsheets

so to speak and then you say hey I need to know

every single interaction with my client in the

last two months because I can tell they're calling

me they look like they're upset I don't want

to answer the phone cold right So you can go

into the database and see all those interactions,

or you can see all the things they purchase,

or I need a list of customers where all their

contracts are expiring this month, so I can call

them up and remind them, right? And be of good

service to my clients. Some of them will say,

hey, thanks, because I would have let that expire.

If anything you track, could be tracked in this

tool. And it doesn't need, you don't need a developer.

You don't need to have a technical degree. This

is appointments. This is making scheduling appointments.

This is, are we doing automated systems? Like

I'm sending a letter out of my, out of my, out

of my SRS. Automations are coming there and they

won't be far off. We're going to do some integrations.

One of the main integrations we want to do is

Zapier. So that connects you to like 9 ,000 different

things. So you can connect it to QuickBooks and

things like that. So that is coming. We feel

that there's a large set of clients out there

that aren't doing that yet, that they just want

to keep track of stuff because they're losing

track of their items that are important to them

because of all the spreadsheets. But you're doing

appointments? We can do appointments in it. It

doesn't have a schedule yet, but that is also

on the way We're getting some requests for that.

We actually have a calendar The reason why we

didn't tackle that first is you can do all that

and outlook. Yeah So I'm asking about the calendar

because In the database and let's say maintenance

Issues that are quarterly versus bi -yearly,

right? I mean we're we're building that's part

of this right then you're you're able yeah you

can and you can add a calendar yeah you add a

field right you had a field that says due date

and you put in there uh the the date it's due

right and then we have our our grids that could

filter data that says Give me everything that's

going to be due in the next 30 days, right? And

it's a drop down. You don't have to program that

in. You just, it literally says last 30 days

or last seven days and you pick it and you don't

have to program any of that. And then once you

just tell it the last seven days and then boom,

that thing. Yep. It filters it all out. It creates

a separate list for you. You can have, yeah,

you can have two different lists. You can say,

give me a list for last 30 days. Give me a list

that's going to expire in the next 90 days. And

then you work off that list. You create any view

that you want. And essentially all you do is

you go into the dashboard and you do create a

creative widget and a creative view. We call

it a component. And it creates a grid and you

tell it what you want the grid to show. You're

just doing this. What's that? You're just doing

this. Yeah. You're telling it what you want it

to do. Well, it's easier just to go in and create

the widget and then configure it, because it's

not programming. It's literally, you say, add

a grid, and it adds the grid. And it says, add

a grid from this table. And that takes literally

one second, as opposed to waiting for AI to churn

it out. So you can customize it down to that

level. Yeah. Then you've got your grid, and it's

got everything in it. And then you go up to the

filter command, and you say, I want to know this

date, everything that will be expiring the next

30 days. And then it just creates that grid.

And then you say, save that. And you put it on

a tab. And then you create that as a menu item.

And it's always there. So you can go view it

every month. It's really easy to use. We need

to create some tutorial videos. Those are coming.

So we're racing the market. So we don't have

all our documentation things. But here's the

thing. we have a consistent way on how we do

everything. So once you kind of learn one concept,

you can apply it everywhere. And it's not very

complicated. Yeah, absolutely. Now, just to add

to that a little bit. So Danny, thank you. It's

a fascinating discussion. And I'm loving this.

I'm loving the, you know, you know how when you

get into something and your mind is like, oh,

you can do that. You can do that. Oh, oh, and

that, you know, and because I'm relating this,

Like I had an earlier conversation today. You

and I, we're sitting here watching the same conversation.

We're having this conversation, but there's going

to be certain aspects of it that I react differently

or accept or hear differently than you do because

all of the sum total of my life today has been

all the sum total of the events of my life, right?

And my reactions to that and all that's filtered.

to this brain that doesn't really know the truth

of anything, it just knows what my synapses say

I've experienced life like. And this is just

that ability to continue to experience that next

level. And we really owe ourselves a responsibility

to do this because the world is not going to

not continue evolving. Danny, really fascinating

discussion here. How do you think AI will change

the way small businesses build and launch new

products? So we talked about how they'll even

create new businesses, but I didn't think about

this because it's got to be easier to build and

launch products 100 % than it ever has been ever

in the history of time before, right? Yes, absolutely.

The way we used it is for deployments. We haven't

write our deployment scripts. We don't need operations

people anymore. We didn't let anyone go, but

we just didn't build up. SOPs, right? Yeah. Essentially,

we do deployment with a tool called Jenkins,

and it's really great. It's a push of a button.

We write the code, we check the code into GitHub.

I know this isn't going to make a lot of sense

to a lot of people, but - Essentially, GitHub

is a repository where the source code goes, and

it keeps every single version for you. Then we

tell this tool called Jenkins, go get the latest

and put it out on the servers, and it just does

it. We just literally push a button. It automatically

backs up our data. It automatically puts a message

out to everyone, hey, we're having scheduled

maintenance. We don't have to do any of this

anymore. We hit a button. That's all it takes

to do a deployment. I remember when I worked

for Motorola, we would do a deployment. We'd

have a hundred leaders, team leaders in a room,

and people would scream out whether they were

ready or not. It was like NASA, right? You know,

operations check, right? Is the temperature in

the suit okay? Yes, check. Move on to the next

thing. And it would take all day to release something.

Now it takes like five minutes. I push a button.

I go have a cup of coffee. It's done. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. I mean, the world, the world has really

changed a lot. Now there's also, you know, there's

there's good to bad, right? There's good. There's

good in that. And really, it depends. I'm assuming

you're a you're a Elon Musk fan. I'm guessing

I would I would assume. I guess. I don't know

what you want to say. I I'm I'm a fan person.

I you know, some of the things that politics

has gotten into and, you know, made some things

more challenging to understand why you wouldn't

listen to some of those concepts and some of

those thoughts. And I agree, he's an unusual

character. He's the by far the wealthiest man

in the world by tons of far. And he's got some

amazing concepts. But he talks about and the

world eventually having the ability to, he talks

about eventually having the ability to have a

utopia on earth. And he says that because in

his belief over time, automation, AI, robots,

they all are creating the cost of providing business

and services, the cost of those being supplied.

going lower and lower and lower and lower and

lower to the point out that really the only concern

in the future will be never inflation. It'll

be deflation. But with that said, I think there's

some real truth to that. The concept, there's

a lot of arguments that can be made one way or

the other. But the biggest thing to me that's

critical is what we're doing right now and learning

about this stuff. Being able to take advantage

of a scenario, a situation, where we can become

a better society, we can become more entrepreneurs.

The more and more that we as a society and as

a people and as a species, the more we protect

ourselves about the bad side of all this potential.

I said there's good side and bad side. of happening.

And that potential is the one where, actually,

there's several movies where the robots kill

and eat all the people, and there's that kind

of potential AI. But then there's also, to me,

the more relevant and concerning one, is the

governments and officials and so forth. Regulating

may be the wrong word in this example, but having

a scenario where the great middle class, the

me's and you's of the world. Rod, I'm elevating

myself by saying me and you, but please excuse

me for that for now. But the ability for us to

have that result can be really challenged if

we don't pay more attention to how the leaders

of our countries and our government are taking

care or how they're addressing. and listening

to what's going on in this world. So one of the

things that people talk about is how jobs may

shift and change. So what do you think this is,

like Clayton says here, how do you see AI changing

the role of software developers in the next few

years? I mean, my son and I have talked about

this quite a bit. What do you think? So, okay,

so that's kind of the not so, you know, One of

them, yeah. Glamorous title this because... Well,

you know what? It is and it isn't, and I hope

you're saying because it just hasn't been talked

about enough. One of the things my son and I

talked about is there's an evolution in the economy

because jobs aren't necessarily going away, but

they are going to be changing. Maybe you don't

have a developer, but you have somebody who's

managing a bunch of AI agents. Well, there's...

There's a lot of software developers who've invested,

you know, four, six, eight years of college.

And I'll be honest, you know, well, I'm a coder,

so I can review the stuff that's coming out of

AI and I do really closely to make sure to design

as well. But we're not hiring programmers. That's

got to be an impact. And I think that's a real

problem. You're going to have a ton of people

that are going to be out of. uh, out of employment.

Now, a large portion of them are, could have

an entrepreneurial spirit and start their own

companies. And so that's what you were alluding

to earlier on. Yeah. Yeah. So, I mean, these

guys can look at the tech and say, Hey, I could

do this better. I know how to do this. Right.

But not everyone's an entrepreneur, right? You

have in a lot of these companies that are the

equivalent of Pacer, a paper pusher programmers

that I'm not sure they have an idea. They've

been, they've been following instructions for

so long. I think those people are going to have

to consider a career change or get really good

at being an entrepreneur. Cause I think developer

jobs are going to be a thing of the past. I don't

think you're going to see a lot of them five,

10 years from now for sure. Because the code

that these things are producing, I know a lot

of people have wishful thinking and they, they

joke that it creates garbage code and all that.

Yeah, it's a risk, right? You have security risks

and all that. You have to review it. But if you

start telling it to look for those certain things,

it does adjust and it gets better. It's back

to the garbage in, garbage out. If you're a good

programmer, you can have AI produce incredible

things. If you're a lousy programmer, yeah, you're

going to write code or ask for code. that because

you didn't think about asking for security you

didn't think about asking for certain features

or you didn't create or you didn't provide input

for the design that you see a year out because

it can't read your mind right so yeah it's gonna

there's a lot of crap programmers programmers

out there creating a lot of crap programs from

AI and you're gonna see a lot of that but it's

the good ones that are gonna create amazing things

so where do those people land I don't know. I

don't have a good answer for that. And it's a

real concern in the industry. And if you really

want to check the barometer, a lot of people

are like, well, tech in the United States has

one of the lowest unemployment rates. Right.

You're right. But where do we get all our programmers

from, the majority of them? Overseas. And no

one's tracking the unemployment rates of technology

and overseas. I have been picking up vibes that

some of these companies in Latin America are

getting huge hits in their stock because they

can't land these big contracts anymore because

companies have wised up and they say, well, you

should be able to do that with one quarter of

the developers. And they're right. And so they're

having to let go a lot of people because they

can no longer justify hundred people teams when

they know that, you know, five guys with AI can

do almost the same thing now. So, yeah, I think

you're gonna see some turmoil in the tech industry

and then we'll figure it all out and then I think

the danger is that'll spill over to the rest

of the world. Once tech figures it out, everyone

copies us. Yeah, well, no doubt. And when it

comes realistically, there's a lot of competition

in this, but realistically, I think the US is

still well ahead in the AI world of where we

stand in compared to... say China or the EU and

others. But that's because of what our fabric

is. What is the United States, right? It's the

place where people come to start a business,

right? Because there's no restrictions like there

are in their own country. This is where the home

of the entrepreneur is. This is why we should

fare better than most countries. The only thing

that's going to be, and yes, I agree with you

because of that exact thing, what you just said

is so very true. And the only thing that is interesting

to me is that you said it's going to be interesting

to see how this all plays out. So in the entrepreneurship

and big business versus small business and big

emerging technologies that have come out, you

know, the industrial revolution, which has basically

been the last revolution that the human species

has gone through. You know, there's the internet

coming on, and that's obviously kind of took

the Industrial Revolution and fed that whole

concept up. Stop it. She's not usually this bad.

She's very demanding. But the AI, this revolution,

the robots, the Jetsons are coming. This is happening.

I mean, the Industrial Revolution was generations

of people, right? three, four or five generations,

1920s, the 1940s, 1950s, 1990s. There's a slow

-ish progression of technology and what Americans

and people are building and business and how

a business is evolving. Now that's counted by

minutes instead of decades. Now it's counted

by days instead of... generations. And that's

going to be what's going to be curious about

how when AI, the advantages and the disadvantages

come together and how much the entrepreneur sorts

all that out. Isn't it? Yeah. And like I said,

I don't have a crystal ball here. So I'm on the

side. I'm watching too. And the only thing that

I can do is, is I'm not going to be able to change

it. I'm not going to be able to stop it. So I

better learn how to navigate it. And you're only

going to be able to do it by keeping your eyes

open. If you're going to fool yourself and say,

oh, this will never do this, or ha ha ha, here's

another poor example of what it does bad. Yeah,

that makes you feel good, right? But at some

point, this thing will steamroll you if you don't

get out of its way. And it's better to be on

top of it than under it. So I would rather be

on top. I couldn't agree more. It's funny because

there's several people here that are obviously

really buying into the entrepreneurship. I'm

just going to bounce on a couple of these comments

here and then we'll continue. There's a couple

of really good ones coming up. But Jack here

says, what should entrepreneurs learn from today

to stay competitive in an AI driven market? We

were just talking about how the entrepreneur

spirit is actually... probably going to be really

driving this in the right direction. And the

fact that here in America, we're kind of built

that way really helps us in the overall and bigger

picture. This is such an important conversation

for business owners. What should entrepreneurs

focus on first when adopting AI? So let's bring

those two together a little bit in a question

in that. We've already kind of talked about this,

what should entrepreneurs learn today to stay

competitive in this market that AI is driving,

as well as what they should be focusing on when

they first start using it. A lot of people have,

a lot of people haven't though, right? I think

the success in the long run will be, don't look

at AI as AI. Look at you need to have business

sense to be an entrepreneurial. Don't lose sight

of that. That's the most important thing about

your business. You're solving somebody's problem.

No one's going to pay for a solution if it doesn't

solve their problem. So you want to look for

a problem and you want to provide the solution

for it. Then consider AI. How can I leverage

this to make the solution? faster to market.

I can make it with less friction on my customers.

How can I improve their experience overall and

still provide a personal touch, right? Because

we're all tired of the IVR systems. You know

what I mean, IVR, where you touch one for this,

touch two for that. Now we have to speak it,

but it's a very impersonal experience. And I

think that... If we allow AI to become the new

IVR, I think those businesses won't do as well

as entrepreneurs have that opportunity to be

closer to their clients and provide them more

tailored service. Using AI will enable them to

provide that service at a greater speed and a

greater accuracy. And that's what they should

focus on. Don't lose sight of being a business

person because You know, I get sales guys call

me all the time because of my title and I hold

up fingers. Everyone jokes when I hold up fingers

because I'm like, here's the first sentence.

Here's the second sentence. Oh, there's AI because

that's all they got to sell because they don't

know how to sell me a solution for my problem

that they just all they do is word out AI and

they're hoping to catch companies that need.

So here's the other side of the coin, right?

There's there's companies that need to implement

AI. because they have a CEO says we need to be

more efficient. We need to get AI in here. He

hasn't identified a problem to be solved. He

just wants to put his flag on AI and most likely

the motivation is to increase efficiency or reduce

staff. So that's your only motivation. I think

AI can help. But it's not going to be a differentiator,

right? And this is where I think entrepreneurs

should use AI as a differentiator, not a cost

cutter, because they're already operating at

usually maximum efficiency because they're small.

They're kind of scrappy, right? And they're not

going to hire everyone for every single issue

that they can't seem to solve. So that's when

you use AI to your advantage. think about the

business, think about your clients, then think

about AI. If you're thinking I need to get in

the AI business, it's the wrong way to go because

you're not going to replace Anthropic. You're

not going to replace OpenAI. They've cornered

that market. You're going to use those tools

to solve business problems for your clients.

That's the way I look at it. I mean, I'm sure

there will be exceptions to my viewpoint, but

I don't think it changes business. It changes

how we operate as a business. Great, great point.

You know, you were talking about a little bit

ago about you don't really know how it's going

to change the software developers, you know,

what's going to happen to that job, to that all

those people that went to college, they may have

some new directions to think about. So, but let's

add to this. What do you see AI changing the

role? You know, I had said my son had mentioned

that, you know, companies are gonna evolve, our

jobs are gonna evolve over time. What do you

see? How do you see AI changing the role of software

developers in the next few years? And I'm on

my sixth, fifth straight show hour. So extend

your talk because I'm going to do something I

did when you first popped in. Okay, I got you.

All right. So AI for software developers, if

I were you, I give the same advice I gave decades

ago to my software developers that if you're

going to you know, stay in technology, you're

going to hit a ceiling where you're not going

to get any higher. So I encourage them to get

into management because they're the sky's the

limit, right? There's only so much they're going

to pay the smartest technical guy in the room.

So I have a similar advice for software developers.

They need to get more into architecture. They

need to get more into management decision on

how to shape a company through technology as

opposed to actually hammering out the code. So

As you start out as a developer, and as much

as fun as software development is, you want to

eventually move up, and you don't want to plateau.

So you want to get more involved with the business

discussions. And that's where you lead into management.

So management can have an influence on how technology

is used in a company. So that's the recommendation

I have for you, is start to learn how to become

more of an architect, designing systems. Integrations

is a big thing. How to get systems that are not

the same talking to each other. That is a massive

market out there. There are some businesses that

have crappy products and they're still thriving

today because they have a thousand integrations.

They can make this system talk to that system.

And that's essentially like a system architect.

Those are the kinds of things you want to start

focusing on. Cause I think at some point in time,

I don't think people are going to be asked to

write code. Uh, the other thing is, you know,

I would bring back older languages. What do you

mean by that? Some people have been asked to

write code. I said, I don't think people are

going to be asked to write code at some point

in the future. I think they're going to trust

the AI generator better. I've noticed in the

last year how much it's improved. When I first

started building with it, I used to be screaming

at the computer. My wife's like, what are you

screaming at? I go, this thing just screwed me.

So there's a thing called feature drift. So I'll

put it in layman's terms. So I want to build

a car right and I tell it build me a car I want

four wheels a steering wheel four doors, you

know windshield a hood and a trunk, right? So

it builds the car and then I tell it hey You

know what? I want power steering and it puts

in the power steering, you know I want leather

seats who puts in the leather seats and then

say okay I want to I want to have a battery in

a trunk. Wait, where'd the trunk go? There's

no trunk door here What the hell? I just, I asked

for it to put a trunk doors, put the trunk door

back. That's called feature drift. So then you

say, okay, I got the trunk back. So now I want

some, you know, tires with white walls and that,

Hey, where's my steering wheel? Where'd it go?

So it was really bad with that. And it was, you

had to keep an eye on it. And so I would tell

I would tell the generators to only focus on

small areas and then I would control what it

would have access to so that I know it wasn't

removing something because it would it would

I think it would prioritize things. If you hadn't

asked for a particular thing in your system,

it would remove it because it figured you didn't

ask for it. You must not value it. So it took

it out and put other things in that you were

asking for it recently. That's called feature

drift. in the last year. I've experienced that.

Now thinking back, now I didn't know what it

was at the time. Really frustrating. I spent

four weeks on a feature to find out that I went

to demo it and it was gone. I'm like, oh my God,

I better get this thing into a version system

so I can make sure I can go back and get that

code. That helped. over time, you know, because

I didn't trust it. So I would I would inspect

everything it generated and I would make sure

nothing was missing. I would have to regression

test almost every time it builds something. But

in the last year, I've noticed that's been drifting

away and there's been less and less feature drift.

So I can see the trend over time that eventually

I'll have 100 percent trust in this thing. And

I know that that sounds risky, but if it's doing

it this well now. and it stays on the same trajectory,

I can imagine that it writes incredible code

five years from now. Yeah, to add to that, I

think on the same trajectory, nothing. I think

that trajectory is even coming up. I mean, it's

the ability of they say that five years from

now or maybe 10 years from now, somewhere in

there, AI is going to be writing better AI. than

humans. It's going to be writing itself. That's

where a little concern also sits, but that's

another conversation. So yeah, I could see, like

you said, that example, what a great example

you used, because I could connect to the feature

dress thing, because I've seen it, been there,

done that. David here, what is one business process

you should think that somebody should automate

first? God, this is a great question. Because

when it comes to automation, and what I tell

you before, and my son at least explained it

like this to me, if you want it repeated time

after time after time after time exactly correct,

write an automation, right? That's exactly it.

If it's a repetitive process and you can put

it, if you can write it in instructions, right,

then you want to automate that. You know what

this is? You know what? automation is, it's probably

the very first Henry Ford. No, it's the evolution.

Sorry, I said that backwards. It's the evolution

of the very first Henry Ford assembly line, isn't

it? Yeah, it is. It's like that concept. It's

kind of bizarre to think about that. But what's

the first thing somebody should automate? I think,

you know, support. is a good one. Support takes

a long time. It requires a huge investment in

knowledge, a knowledge base. And, you know, when

somebody leaves your company. When you say a

knowledge base, in other words, potential things

that could happen that are being supported by

a support team. Yeah, or by an individual, right?

You know, it's like, you know Bob is the only

one who knows how that works and if Bob leaves

we're screwed Well, I might want to take a look

at what Bob's doing and try to automate some

of that stuff because one day Bob's gonna retire

and You know, you're gonna do a knowledge transfer

in what two weeks? You're gonna transfer a guy's

lifetime knowledge of a particular process that

no one paid any attention to because Bob handled

it quite well and it wasn't exciting. It wasn't

an upward mobile career path for what Bob does.

So, but when Bob leaves, you're going to really

find out really fast what he's done for the company.

And sometimes they're mission critical, right?

I remember I consulted with this one company

and they were shocked to find out that literally

hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars

of every single piece of merchandise they had

went through this guy's spreadsheet and unbelievable

and it was the spreadsheet was an absolute mess

and they had to automate that and it took months

to figure out how to automate it. Those are the

things I would look for is mission critical things

that that if they you know these are the cogs

that if they disappear You could be out of business

quite literally because no one knows how those

functions work. And these are the things that

need to be sought out and automated first, right?

So support is a big one because you have a lot

of people that have domain knowledge and it's

not an exciting job, right? It's hard to attract

people to support. Or people maybe haven't even

thought about it. You know, the bot's been doing

it for so long. Oh shit, Bob's gonna retire.

When's he retiring? Next week. What? How are

you gonna get that? That's a big one right there.

You just don't think about it. It's not that

it's not even the not so exciting thing in the

world to do. It's not upwardly mobile. It's just

not in the SOPs. Yeah, and also maybe no one

wants to do Bob's job, you know? How are you

gonna find someone to do that job, right? Or

to do more than what they're already doing. Like

in software development, no one went to software

developing school to learn how to be a support

agent. So we kind of made that the pathway in

because we couldn't attract people who wanted

to do technical support. So we'd say, hey, come

in, learn the business, learn through technical

support. And it was a great path, too, because

you got exposure to clients, to the customer

issues, to internal issues. And you learn the

business before we threw you at the code that

was going to be running the company, so to speak.

Right. So, I mean, that was a great way to bring

people in and help them learn. But let me tell

you, it wasn't glamorous. Right. No one was excited.

They wanted the software development job. They

wanted the glamorous job. So. If you can automate

some of that and then it pulls from a database

that has all of your knowledge, all the cases

and all that, that would really cut down on jobs

that people aren't excited to have. It would

increase your ability to service your customers,

right? How many times have you waited on a phone

for an answer? How many times have you talked

to a guy who goes, I don't know, I got to get

a senior guy to, you know, and basically the

senior guy, well, that's Bob. You gotta wait

till Bob gets to it. He'll get to it in probably

a couple of weeks, right? Yeah. And then, you

know, if you could automate that stuff, right?

And then you could reduce those jobs that really

no one is excited to take. You can shift that

money and hire other real people to do things

that are really going to make a difference. And

my last boss used to always say, you know, hey,

I don't want to build anything that doesn't bring

value, right? He wasn't big on process. He wasn't

big on on paperwork and all that. So you could

take that money and create value for your company,

instead of having to hire a bunch of people that

are pushing paper. That just gives you so much

more leverage and options as well. Now, we talked

about this earlier. Can you expand on this a

little bit? Because I almost didn't re -ask the

question, but we kind of already talked about

this in your application, your no coding application.

So could somebody, literally, with zero coding

experience, and I already know the answer is

yes, of course, realistically build a useful

business application? The reason I'm only adding

this, because again, I'm a novice here, when

she's saying useful business application, so

I would need a business application to create

these databases. Excel spreadsheets, these lines.

But if she's talking about building a business

application, wouldn't your application just be

that thing that would create the application?

Is that a way to place that question, I think?

The whole purpose of SoftExit Studio is so you

don't have to build these internal applications

so you can focus on your business. And that's

where you want your attention. You remember,

you remember there was an IBM commercial that

where there was a guy in a boardroom and he's

like, okay, are the servers down? What's going

on with the servers? Are the databases working

right? And he's going through all these technical

lists and everyone says, no, there's nothing

like that to discuss. And then they push a shirt

in front of the guy and he goes, what's this?

He goes, sir. That's what we do. We sell shirts,

right? Because he's been so focused on technical

issues supporting his business, he's lost focus

of what they actually do as a business, right?

That's the whole purpose of SoftExit Studio.

It's supposed to put that in reach of smaller

companies. It's an affordable solution, so they

can have it build the solutions for them. Now,

that question could be interpreted two ways.

Can somebody take no code and build a business

solution and sell it? That's a totally different

beast. So that's what we've done, but our expertise

is doing that. AI can replace some aspects of

that. It can replace some of the coders and bring

down your costs. But man, there is a whole bunch

of challenges that come with running a software

business. There is, you have to deploy it. You

have to know how to deploy it. You have to know,

understand security. You have to be compliant.

You have to have insurance, cybersecurity insurance,

so in case you get breached, that you don't get

sued into eternity. You've got to have so many

things that come along with it. You've got to

have... availability of resources because you

go online you're a 24 by 7 company now that thing

goes down to three in the morning you don't have

the luxury of sleeping till the morning you're

now married to that thing and you have to support

it constantly so it's it's a greater burden now

you could write an app right if it the app doesn't

require a backend or a database those you can

churn out but now you're also competing with

two million apps per app store and you're going

to be faced with the same challenges of marketing

and a marketing budget and making sure that you're

creating the solution that people can can use

to solve a problem. So you're going to have all

the same challenges of a regular business. So

AI lowers the barrier, lowers the bar, but it

doesn't completely open up the gates. It's not

a manifest destiny of, hey, this is the only

thing that's been holding me back for a successful

business. Yeah, no that that that makes that

makes a lot of sense and it's funny to hear these

back and forth I'm you know, we talked about

the Industrial Revolution took this amount of

time this revolution stated Okay, it's just like

momentum catching up But it's interesting to

hear the back and forth and in the new and the

old and a lot of things still hold true Sound

business sound business decisions sound actions

at the end of the day are still things that are

absolutely true and aren't going to change just

because AI is doing something. There's that human

perspective that really needs to be that guidance

because AI is a database, right? It's a memory

base. It's not a creation event. Why don't you

read what Clayton has to read here? I've got

a couple of comments over that we read. Sure,

he's he wrote really enjoying the live discussion

James brings a unique perspective Yes, I have

a unique perspective I've worked, you know, I've

worked for a couple of very Different types of

color. Hold up before you go on down this road.

What are the biggest unique? Things that you

bring is the incredible AI the incredible technology

not knowledge base, but what's really also important

and maybe equally important is the communications

abilities that you have the ability to communicate

in a way that let's face it not all people the

nerds you know there's a term right the nerds

there's a they're running the world but uh i

really appreciate your communication abilities

and putting this this conversation into its way

so go ahead with what you were saying but i think

that's really a big thing that I wanted to bring

up because I talk to a lot of people and you

communicate well with my friend. Thank you. Well,

that's a first because I usually stumble on my

words. So maybe this live format is more conversational

and it's less rigid. So I think maybe that's

why I'm loosening up some of my earlier podcasts.

I wasn't even sure if I was answering the question

right. So I appreciate that. And then when I

watch it, I'm like, oh, my God, I really did

terrible. But anyway, awesome. I have a diverse

background. I think that's my huge advantage,

right? I started out as a programmer. I got into

management because I was frustrated with managers

at that time. This is way back in dot com days

when these guys didn't know a lot and I thought

I could do better because I had a technical background.

I learned that I didn't know how to manage the

first year was terrible, right? You put the nerd

in charge of everything and. He made things worse.

And I was lucky enough to get a job at Motorola

where there was a guy named Pete Porton who really

took me under his wing and taught me about process

and everything. He said, James, you're a great

technical guy. You're a great lead. You got skills,

but you can't manage. And he taught me how to

manage. And that's what made the pivotal change

for me. But I'll tell you one thing, even though

I've been managing, I've worked for some very

large companies, as you put out. I'm still hands

-on technical. I never stopped coding, so I've

always maintained that technology perspective.

I think I showed you this earlier. I'll show

your visual audience this. Here's my office with

all my old - Hold on. I'm going to jump off while

you do this little demo here. I'm listening.

This is actually me live. Those are old computers

that I still tinker around with, because there's

still some old concepts that people have let

go that are still quite valuable. And if anyone

knows what those are, there's an Altair there.

There is an IMSAI. IMSAI was the machine that

made war games famous. These are really old flip

switching computers that run old command line

only programs. Those are wise terminals on top

of there. If any of you are old enough to know

what those are, those are all restored by me.

I built these things from the component up. There's

an old Mac that I completely restored there.

And then I have various other machines in the

office and you can see I'm a real tech nerd.

There's my life size Mandalorian that I built

with me and my son. You know to bond we did some

cosplay stuff So I've actually worn the Mando

costume as some of these comic -con places and

it's it's it's really cool and I guess I really

relate with the tech people because I'm still

kind of the nerd and I've always been that way

But I also have a very strong background in management

and process that I have gained from these large

companies But I've never let go of you know there

we have a saying you can take the boy out of

the lab but you can't take the lab out of the

boy well i'm still in the computer lab mentally

and i still you know i still tinker around with

these old systems now i have upstairs i have

a incredibly modern system with with three 36

inch monitors and it's uh it's it's water -cooled

gaming system that i have it means really advanced

stuff but i still like to keep my hands on all

these types of technologies and my wife laughs

she goes you work all day on computers and then

you come home and you play on computers I go

this is a job I love you know and there's an

old saying if you if you love what you do when

you work you never work a day in your life and

I don't believe I've ever worked a day in my

life I've just been doing the things I love and

the and the future has got an amazing because

this isn't going anywhere but forward and the

linear on it It's just a matter of what the angle

is. It's this and even stop market. This is this

is this kind of angle. I don't know which one.

It's exponential. It's a great word. I've experienced

a couple of these curves in my life. You know,

one was the dot com days. There was another.

The Y2K was a big thing for a new market. Right.

And there's been various exponential curves.

But this one, I'd say, is going to be the biggest

impact. And it's going to, beyond technology,

it's going to touch everything. It's not anything

we can fathom at this point. It's just a matter

of we're guessing. You know, we've got a flashlight

in a very dark room. So would you read what Maria

has here? We've got a couple more comments and

I want to get these before. before my city council

members start screaming at us. Okay. It says,

thanks for such informative and forward thinking

conversation. Thank you. I'm glad you find value

in it. I'm just enjoying talking here to Todd.

So we're just, you know, kind of shooting. And

by the way, this is such an important topic and

it's current. We should, on other subjects, people

want to come back. I want to stay in conversation

and definitely want to, definitely. have people

come back onto the show. This one, I think we

can do fairly quickly versus other shows that,

I mean, we're out into November. I think we've

got one or two shows already scheduled in December.

But I would like to do another show a follow

up. I think we should stay in contact because

this is something we can do quite a bit of. Be

happy to do. I think there's a lot to do here.

Faz here, what skills will become more valuable

as AI handles more technical work? The plumber

isn't gonna go away anytime soon, I don't think.

The electrician isn't gonna go away anytime.

I mean, robots are gonna change a lot of things,

but that's further down the road. I'm not talking

about factory work. I'm talking about the skilled

labor. I think those things are going to... are

definitely you know look at the value in those

skill sets people are still building and repairing

hubs. Hey you can they can go into the high demand

business that I came from which is incredible

it's a trucking industry they're always they

always need drivers and it pays really well and

they're not going to replace you know, trucks

with self -driving trucks anytime soon. And even

if they do, the first truck that hits - That's

what I'm hearing the most about is trucks. Is

that true? So that's really true. That industry

is, because the pain is going up, and also, you

agree with that? Yeah, they need drivers. You

know, I came from - Wow, all over they do. I

came from one of the largest CDL trucking schools

in the country. The founder of that company is

branched off and started another company called

Sightline CDL. They're at SightlineCDL .com.

You can start your career in four weeks. You

can go from flipping hamburgers to making $90

,000 a year. That's a life -changing experience.

And it's fun, you get to see the world. It's

like the people used to join the military to

see the world. Well, you can see the United States

and it depends on your family situation, but

I'd love to do that. That'd be cool. Hey, it's

a tough job. I'm not gonna try to kid anyone,

but it's a life -changing job because you can

make a lot of money and really... help secure

your family's you can go in as a truck of education,

make $80, $90 through college and they c know,

dentistry or someti you can change the traject

family by doing that. It' but it is a very good

job and there's a future and you know a lot of

people throw out there hey you know these self

-driving trucks are going to replace everyone

i don't think so and the first time one of those

trucks hits a school bus that's the end of that

oh yeah no yeah no yeah that that's definitely

uh that's definitely i get people moving people

around and i think it'd do a better job than

people especially we have a there's the whole

people getting illegal licenses now and all that

so that's another part of the story, but That's

interesting you say that because I believe that

I think it eventually happened for sure it has

to but but at some point I think But Todd they

haven't thought it out, you know, I mean Picture

this, OK? Oh, we're saving money with the getting

rid of the drivers. All right. So you're going

through a questionable neighborhood and one guy

stands in front of the trucks with his arms spread.

The truck has to stop. So the next guy has got

the bolt cutter in the back and their TVs are

going out the back. That's a great point. They

haven't thought of this yet. And really, now

that I think about it, how does self driving?

Because basically the gas mileage, that's your

biggest expense, your maintenance, the gas, and

all that stuff. The driver itself is an expense,

but you're not really saving the bigger numbers

just by putting a self -driving thing in there.

In your example, there's no way that the car

can anywhere near make decisions that up. a human

being can make, you know, especially with that

situation you just set. They got they got to

protect an image. You know why these guys don't

stay in hotels? They have to sleep in the back

of the cab because they are responsible for what's

in the truck. Oh, so you're going to park one

of these somewhere while it charges and then

somebody comes with the bolt cutter again. Good

luck with that. I like that. They're not thinking

about the reality. They're going to implement

all this and then they're going to say, you know

what? We need somebody in the truck. Yeah, yeah.

Well, that makes sense, man. I never even thought

about that. I mean, they haven't either. Great,

great. By the way, I don't think I ever told

you, you know, there's five hundred and forty

two people on. Oh, great. I mean, in the audience

today. So please subscribe and like the episode.

And we do have a couple more questions here.

So before we get to the. the big, it's already

five o 'clock. This got by really fast, I love

it. What advice would you give an entrepreneur

is a great idea, but no technical team? I would

hire at least one person who knows the technical

space, right? And that could be kind of your

co -founder, so to speak. And if you're going

to go that route, there's a lot of nuances that

are going to be bubbled up by a person who has

experience, who's gone through, you know, it's

a tech is a typical job. I mean, it's very demanding.

And, you know, no one pays any attention to us

till something goes wrong. And then everyone's

screaming on the phone at us. Right. And then

we're trying to solve the problem while getting

yelled at. It's, you know. We've got the battle

scars to prove it, and it's challenging, it's

fun, I wouldn't trade it for anything in the

world, but I'll tell ya, if you're gonna go into

the, if you're gonna offer up technology as your

core product. Bring someone along who knows the

business. If you're just building something internally,

you don't necessarily need that because if it

looks ugly or if it fails internally, your clients

don't know about it. That's your problem. Not

causing friction to your clients. Then it's okay.

Great point. Great point. So we have about three

more comments here. Before we do that, I take

great, great pride. in my copy and paste skill

sets. So I wanna get some feedback from you and

say, have I done a good job in copying and pasting

your contact information here? Can you look at

that? Yeah, that looks right. Do I pass? It should

be right. Either you can reach me there or you

can reach out directly to the softexit .com,

right? It's two words, S -O -F -T -E -X -I -T

.com. and I monitor all communications, so if

you submit something, I'll see it. I also have

that link in the description to your company

so they can catch you there or on the LinkedIn

as we've got it here. I think if I remember right,

I think I had it on another one. No, that was

a different thing. Anyway, so we've got three

more comments and before you leave, Leave your

new fan base here. You got a fan party. You got

a bunch of... It's great. What do they call them?

Groupies. You got some groupies following you

around now. Before we do all that, why don't

I have you read these three comments, unless

another one pops up between now and then. Read

these three comments. and then comment on them,

read them out loud and comment on them. And then

we'll go right into your closing statement, and

then I'll wrap this puppy up in a bow and send

you to the green room and follow you there. He

didn't touch the green colored M &Ms, did he?

No, he did not. OK, Barbie. OK, good. So I'm

safe. OK, thank you. So let's go here to this

comment. Ellen Silverman. Wow. Okay, very well

put together young lady here. Why don't you start

off and read this comment here? Well, it says,

thanks for this valuable conversation. I'm elated

that you find value in it. I really... I see

that. I see that. I'm glad. I love helping people.

I love sharing ideas. You know, sometimes my

wife accuses me. Well, she doesn't accuse me,

but... It implies that I like the sound of my

own voice sometimes, but I said that's all managers,

you know Absolutely a hundred percent, but it's

not necessarily all Automation and AI people

so your combination your gift to get from God

Trust me. That's for sure. Okay, and remember

I said earlier the real estate podcast So this

person's obviously still here one of the last

questions or comments Obviously, this is a real

estate business So why don't you read his comment

and you respond to him if you want. Sure. It

says, I appreciate the focus on practical AI

applications rather than hype. And that's what

I'm all about. Like, you know, if you looked

at SoftExit Studio, we do not put AI in the forefront.

We're bringing value to companies by offering

something that's easy to use, it's powerful,

and it's inexpensive. And AI is a tool. It's

not the product. And we're here to solve people's

problems, not invent solutions just because it

has the letters AI on. Yeah. Yeah. And thank

God you're not one of those folks during the

gold rush that just put something up that was

flashy and could make some quick bucks. And we're

one of the people actually being the Levi Strausses

of the world in providing a you know, a good

solid product that's actually needed out there

because there's going to be a lot of scammers.

There's going to there already is a lot of scammers.

There's already the danger and the possibilities.

So find a comment here before you give your last

comment and give everybody a big wave for the

day. Sure. So it says thanks for such an informative

and forward thinking conversation. Thank you

for tuning in and listening. We really appreciate

your comments and hope you got something out

of it. I know I did. I enjoyed talking to Todd

and I did too. Yeah, it was great. Great conversation.

All right. So last comment. Last, what do you

want to leave everybody with as far as leaving

this conversation? Obviously, one of the more

critical ones anybody could have period. And

that's just not hype. That's I mean, we're at

that time. So what do you want to leave everybody

with? Give a big wave. I'll wrap it up and come

meet you in the green room. Okay, so I would

say if you're an entrepreneur and there's never

been a better time to start a business, if you

want to leverage AI, I highly encourage you to

do so and get a handle on it. I think you should

not lose sight of the focus that You need to

run a business, not run an AI, not try to get

on the AI bandwagon, but use it as a tool, not

as a product, right? And I think you'll have

a huge advantage if you're solving somebody's

problem as opposed to creating the solution that

has no problem. Nobody buys those. You can watch

any of these SaaS YouTubers and they'll all tell

you the same thing I'm telling you. So that's

the thing. And, you know, if you are starting

a business and you find yourself overwhelmed

with spreadsheets and paperwork, take a look

at our product. SoftX Studio is really easy to

learn and it's just extremely powerful and it's

very inexpensive. We're offering, actually, right

now, it's kind of exciting. We're trying to get

people to sign up as early adapters and we're

offering literally, you know, you talked about

earlier that people are in it for the money.

We're not, obviously, because we're offering

50 % off lifetime. licenses. In other words,

if you sign up today, you get 50 % off for as

long as you own a license on softexit .com and

that extends to when you expand. We'll give those

licenses 50 % off. We'll lock you in. And already

the current price is very affordable. It's $14

a month per user. That's it. Compared to like

Salesforce, which starts at 25 and that's that's

a very limited edition You always get ushered

into the $100 a month per user system before

you can do anything useful Yeah, in my opinion

we've got a better product to be honest, it's

a better CRM Oh, and I didn't even talk about

the app store. We're building apps in this, and

it's not only a CRM, it's other things, and we're

going to release them in our app store that you

can download every single app for free. So over

time, you're going to get more value. We create

an inventory system. It's there. Download it.

We create a, you know, a contract tracking system.

It'll be there. Download it. It's free. You can

continuously expand your business applications

without having to purchase five or six additional

sasses. So it's going to be incredible. It's

going to have high value for small businesses

and that's our target. We think that smaller

businesses are underserved and that's what we're

here to provide this kind of technology and make

it available for everybody. That is awesome.

I've been looking forward and excited to do this

show and now we have. And why don't you give

everybody a big wave, and I'll meet you in the

green room. Keep your hands off those eminents,

okay? All right, thanks. That was awesome. Guys,

I told you, every once in a while I can just

tell that this is going to be a really good show.

And there were some curiosities that I had of

which direction this was going to go, because

I don't know everything. I do a lot of research

when we do these shows. But you know what? I

knew this was going to come out. I knew this

was going to be exactly what everybody needed

and wanted to hear in today's world. So, James,

thank you. I think there's something much larger

underneath everything that we talked about today.

For years, we've heard that technology will democratize

opportunity. Sometimes it has. And you know what?

Sometimes it really hasn't. But what we're watching

with artificial intelligence may represent another

major shift in who we get access to the tools

required in building something. It's exciting,

man. And that's what matters to me. Because...

This show has always been about empowering the

great middle class one conversation at a time,

you know that When people hear artificial intelligence,

I don't want them automatically thinking that's

that's for silicone ballot or I don't want my

dog Mess around in the background or or or that's

for programmers, right? Or that's for billion

dollar corporations I want people asking a different

question. What problem do I understand that need

do I have? And do I understand that need solving?

Because maybe the entrepreneur of the future,

is it necessarily the person who knows how to

write thousands of lines of code? Maybe it's

the mechanic. who knows exactly what's broken

about managing his shop. Maybe it's about the

nurse who sees an inefficient process every single

day. Maybe it's the manufacturer, right, who

knows where the production, where that line gets

bogged down. Maybe it's the teacher, the farmer,

restaurant owner, the truck driver. We're just

talking about the truck driver, right? The salesperson

or the kids sitting at the kitchen table who

sees a problem. Everybody else is just finally

learned how to tolerate. Technology doesn't create

that understanding. People do. AI doesn't give

you decades of experience, right? It doesn't

give you the judgment. It doesn't... automatically

give you courage and it certainly doesn't guarantee

that an idea is a good one. But if technology

continues lowering the barrier between having

a good idea and actually building it, then we're

going to have opportunities and questions. The

previous generations of entrepreneurs, they never

have. And James, I appreciate you coming here.

It's damn dogs. Knock it off. Don't let it out.

Stop it. Sorry, we just went a little too far

today. Because this is important. James, I appreciate

you coming here and helping us explore both sides

of that future. To everybody watching live or

catching us later in the conversation, don't

ask yourself, right? What's AI going to do to

my job? Ask yourself. What could I do with AI

that I couldn't do before? That's a very different

question, right? And somewhere out there tonight,

somebody has an idea, scribbled on a piece of

paper, sitting in a notebook. or buried in an

old computer file. He saw James' old computer,

or maybe just living in a teenager's head. Maybe

the technology finally exists now to help them

build it. And maybe that's somebody is you. I'm

Rod Duck, alongside producer Barbie. And this

has been Insights and Straight Talk, empowering

the great new class, One Conversation. at a time

sorry until our next conversation stay curious

ask better questions and don't be afraid to build

something you know what with that before you

leave if you'd like to watch another one of the

podcasts click the first link in the description

we love having you here and we appreciate all

your support and with that producer barbie and

i are out ai is your friend make it