Ep21 Where AI Actually Matters In Your Business (And Where It Doesn't)

Joe Blackburn  0:00  
Where is the must for the AI, implementation or adoption or whatever, where is it in your business? Set like, where does it become? We have to do this because my experience is, people do what they must, not what they should, and if it's not killing them currently, they're apt to kick it down the road. Maybe we need to pay more attention to like identifying the proverbial gun to the head to make this change.

Jason Croft  0:25  
Welcome to the lion's edge, where top performers sharpen their teeth, hosted by Joe Blackburn, founder of The Lion who is relentlessly dedicated to helping business owners lead multi million dollar teams and me. Jason Croft, I transform unseen entrepreneurs into industry leaders by developing their market gravity. Each week, we reveal proven strategies and raw insights to help you maximize your business, multiply your wealth and make your family indestructible. Now let's create your edge.

Unknown Speaker  1:02  
What's your 2026? Ai

Jason Croft  1:04  
predictions. I just think more of the same. Honestly, I think, I think it's getting more mainstream. It's getting more integrated. I think it's I think I think the the spike is leveled off, not in the use of it, but in this, like, everything is AI, and every topic is AI, and every this is going to, like, people have compared it to the internet. It's part of our daily lives. It's yeah, it's more powerful. I think things like therapy are going away. I think there is a disruption in the dating world. I think all of that, I think it's, I mean, it's, it's going deep through everything, and it's here to stay, and it's not going to destroy mankind or anything like that.

Joe Blackburn  2:01  
It's not what I heard. It's not it's not what I heard on the internet. I heard it was replace us and kill us. That's weird. Guess it depends on what you seek out, and then your feed follows. I don't know, right? I don't know. I mean, it's, I think it's big in the coaching world. Like, there, it's a hot topic, or, I don't know it seems like, but when I see it in application, I mean, you know some people, and maybe I just deal with people that aren't technically savvy, which could be true. But there, it's like, When am I going to learn this? Who am I going to teach it to? How do we actually utilize it so that it does something other than, I mean, it replaces, I guess, mundane tasks or whatever. But I mean, are there really people out there making a ton of money with it? Because everything I'm actually reading is they're

Jason Croft  2:55  
all losing money. What do you mean by they're all losing money? Like, who's

Joe Blackburn  2:58  
they the people developing the technology, the people that are, I'm not sure the end user. I mean, we use it a lot. I just don't know that it's the Savior that everyone says is, it probably will be, I'll probably be wrong, but I don't know.

Jason Croft  3:15  
I just it's a major shift in disruption. It's interesting because you're seeing it on the the different, I don't think it's two ends, but I think it's on the outskirts, everywhere, so much, because you you do see it at the giant corporate level and in it's interesting because it is so mainstream that the Salesforce adds the big, high end companies. They're targeting these folks in ai, ai, ai and the end user certain groups are finding them, but that vast middle, I think is falling into what you're talking about. Yeah, that's something I need to deal with, and we need to figure out how to integrate that and use it in the best way. So when I've got some time, I'll go and do that, and I don't, I don't, I don't think that's happening. I think, I think the outliers are still the ones who are deep into it, have been for a year plus and using it constantly. So it's an interesting, it's an interesting adoption curve. To me, what I see is,

Joe Blackburn  4:40  
okay, I run. I have all my habits, my rhythm, all that stuff, and now you talk about disruption. Yeah, it disrupts, because now I've got to put something that's basically foreign into my routine, develop that habit and not drop the ball on the other side. And. Then it seems like as soon as that happens, it changes. It remind it reminds me of a period like where planning for what I went through, well, like the planning tools changed dramatically. How that how? And now it's normal, but that took 10 years for people to utilize the tool, especially on the spin so, like when I got into being the director, we would spend all this money at the you know, corporate level, and you have to for R and D and development, all those things. But the adoption in the in the actual field was extremely slow,

Jason Croft  5:45  
yeah, but I think now there's a have to adoption so much faster because of what the tech really is, which is somebody spinning up a brand new company to compete with the financial tools you're using right now, and this small little company is using it, and they're it's skyrocketing, so we have to make that shift. We can't sit around and think about it, or we'll be dead in a year. And I think those kind of things are the big push to where there just isn't the luxury of, well, let's slowly roll this out. Let's get people comfortable. There's a little more of like, It's time. Let's go well.

Joe Blackburn  6:32  
So that would make me think, where's the must in your business? Where is the must for the AI, implementation or adoption or whatever. Where is it in your business? Set, like, where does it become? We have to do this because my experience is, people do what they must, not what they should, and if it's not killing them, currently, they're apt to kick it down the road. So I want you know and I look at the spectrum of businesses, like, Where does the must lie in each one of them? I think that's something maybe we need to pay more attention to, like, identifying, you know, the proverbial gun to the head to make this change. Quite frankly, I'm not sure where that is in. Everyone's, you know, everybody's got different business, different team, different way they go about doing things, and it's like anything else, if I, you know, I go to the doctor when, when I'm, like, to the point of where I've, you know, delayed, it almost can't get there. Well, yeah, like, you know, my wife would be like, are you gonna go the doctor? Yes, I'm gonna call him. Did you set the appointment? I'm going to, like, I just keep because I want to go the doctor because I'm not dead. So why would I, you know, go sit and wait for 45 minutes and then have him walk in for five minutes and say you're too fat, like, no shit,

Jason Croft  7:59  
and say, like, Okay, this will probably go away on his own. Yeah, I know, that's what I figured.

Joe Blackburn  8:02  
Yeah, here's a Z pack. Thanks. You know, I don't, I don't know, maybe we've talked about this too much. You like, can't bury your head in the sand. I don't know. It's like, hard to judge where it where is the inflection point? And do you get super prepared for it and take all your time and energy to prepare for it, or, I don't know that's been on my mind, even in our business. I'm like, we use, you know, I can, I can't. Can handle so many more clients because of fathom, because I don't have to dig through my piles of notebooks and, I mean, I get a summary and everything. And I'm like, I know what's going on. And I know my my business well enough to know what's important, and I always want to get better and faster. But in any given business, is it? I mean, I think the obvious, anything that can be, what is it automated, or Dell, you know, go through the AED or whatever, and see if AI can do it?

Jason Croft  8:58  
Well, yeah. And I think that's a great, great way to look at it, though, find the must. But also, just like any other tool running your business, what's the biggest fire right now, and what's the one that keeps coming up over again? And I think the at the minimum, just have the AI lens, as opposed to beating your head against the wall like you've done for the last five years. And this problem keeps coming up. Okay? Is there an AI solution for this? Is it? Is it a tool? Is it a new thing, or is it someone that same team that's been running into this problem is that that team, armed with an AI solution, able to get through it and work, and I think that's the piece of it, and I guess that's what I mean by sort of that leveling off, just in the sense of, Well, yeah, I use Fathom every day. I use. This tool not to use Claude to write, and I'm doing more and better, honestly, better output, actually getting to things in a higher level of quality just because it's layered in. And I think that's the main media. You know, the vast majority group that where that's going to implement, and there's going to be these pockets, these outlier, I think certain industries will vanish because, oh, just all of a sudden we looked up in two years and, well, no, I don't really go to a therapist. I just talked to this AI, and it gets in whatever that industry is, I think those things are going to happen. And that's, that's where we need to keep our head on a swivel, looking for whatever industry you're in, and that, that's the piece. That's the non negotiable to me, is you This is that big a deal, right? That that you could be out of business tomorrow, and at the same time, you don't have to, again, bury your head in the sand. Sky isn't falling, because if you could be out of business, well, okay, well, let's get ahead of that. What can I do in my business? What do I disrupt my own company in order to stay ahead? And that actually becomes an advantage?

Joe Blackburn  11:30  
Yeah, I mean, on the, you know, on YouTube and everyone, there's people saying, I'm everyone on my team has to use AI, you know, here's the 11 tools, here's the 10 things. I you know, all the normal thumbnails or whatever. And I'm sure they, I'm sure they're good. And I know Warren, I mean, Lauren, who's in Mexico right now, not in California, working. No, I'm just kidding. She well deserved family trip. I'm trying. I'm just are there companies out there that will come in and audit your business? Are there, I mean, they'll come in and look at your operations and say, use it. I mean, I'm assuming that's springing

Jason Croft  12:11  
up, yeah, but that is, I mean, there are those consultants in there, just like anything else, it's finding the ones who okay. Did you just discover Chad GPT yesterday? And and you have the, you know, the cojones, to walk into a fortune 500 company and call yourself a consultant, and you're doing that. But if you can find those folks who do have that 20 years corporate experience, this is my world, and they've been deep in AI. And they know where those efficiency are, and they've been connecting the dots in their head as soon as they discovered AI, you know, a year, two years ago. And find those folks who were speaking that, and it isn't the typical YouTube thumbnail of here's the top 10 things you need to do. They know the real challenge, like you're getting at here, is, there's all the headlines, but then there's the real challenge of, yeah, that's great. How do you make this work in a company of exercise?

Joe Blackburn  13:18  
Yeah? Well, I, I think maybe a challenge I may throw out is find one thing that you're going to attack with AI, like, do a self. I mean, we're doing our business plans right now. Look across your business and where's one thing that could be done with AI. I mean, you gotta have a starting point, like, you can't change them all at once, to your point

Jason Croft  13:45  
of, you know, you go through this, you make that change, and then there's a new tool, and then there's new tool. Well, just let in the fact there's always gonna be changes in that thing, right? And you don't have to change with everyone you get, you get a role, and you get a rhythm, and you're 50% better than you were by not using this well, you don't have to jump to the next tool in a month, because it's 51% better. Like stay with some things. Find that and find those folks who are literate in AI. You know they they know they know this stuff. And yes, as silly as it sounds, go to chat GPT, go to Claude, go to these tools and say, Hey, here's my business. Here's what I do. Here's my challenge. Where will I use AI to attack this. If you have nobody in your circle who is deep in this stuff, start there and grab onto these things. And you know, maybe it's setting a time limit. Maybe it's setting a focus limit so you don't go down 17 rabbit holes.

Joe Blackburn  14:57  
So I would say, just pick. Something and try it. And if you need help, get help. I mean, there's no, there's absolutely no shortage of people willing to help. I don't know the capability. I think the bigger when I look at it, I think the bigger issue after you've identified this is obvious. How do I get adoption and compliance, like, how to use it because, you know, I deal in mostly in this thing, but inside, well, okay, so go to your number three person and give them a new tool there. There's where I think people need the help is, how do I get implementation? And I'm assuming maybe I should look deeper. There's got to be some sort of done for you, done with you, like I said, if I can identify the area, try that. So for 2026 pick one

Jason Croft  15:50  
at a minimum. You know, one per quarter of we're gonna, oh, I like, like you talked about earlier. Find those musts. Find those things that nagging we just can't get in front of this. We just can't use that one as your as your test case.

Joe Blackburn  16:08  
So in our business planning for 26 one of our one of the things I ask is, what are your top three daily frustrations? Well, what's the three things that irritate piss you off all day long? Just figure that there, could be a might be a solution. Pick one of those.

Jason Croft  16:25  
You'll find in this process too, if you haven't really gone deep in it, pick those three areas of irritation and go through this. Go through it with folks who are fluent in AI or just AI itself. And a lot of solutions that will come up aren't necessarily AI solutions, but you'll work through and find a human solution to some of these things that you hadn't thought of before, because it's pulling from some other industry and some other realm of knowledge, that you may walk out with three solutions to those irritations that have nothing to do with AI, but you hadn't thought of them because you've been looking this one way at them.

Joe Blackburn  17:11  
Well, you know, as you're saying that a role or a job, or for companies, and I'm not talking huge corporations, they have departments. But if you're running a 10 person shop, I would see at some point there's someone that's your AI quarterback, right? Like that's their job. I need you to stay out in front, figure out what works and implement what across the business. I mean, that's probably gonna you know, you're talking about displacement or disruption in jobs, that might be a whole new avenue if it probably already exists. But I'm talking about, for you know, me, small to medium sized businesses where they don't have a, you know, a corporate budget or department or all those other things that maybe designating in the beginning someone and then they could, that could be their thing. I wonder if college I My son said he was, they had a project on it. You would think that might be a new topic.

Jason Croft  18:12  
Well, you would hope it's not

Unknown Speaker  18:15  
strategy. Yeah,

Jason Croft  18:18  
I wouldn't. I wouldn't assume that they're teaching that's fair. That's fair. I would hope that they are, well,

Joe Blackburn  18:25  
all right, that's good. I'm gonna run with that, find out what the frustrations are across the board and see if we can do that. I also, like, you had a really good like, quarterly, pick an AI project, add that into the so we do in our flight plans, and we can, you can just in your 90 days. What's the one? Ai thing see this was, I think I got more out of this than anyone else will. Great job.

Jason Croft  18:50  
Jason, nice. You've just experienced the lion's edge. If this episode lit a fire, if you're ready to push past your current ceiling, there's more waiting for you. Want to see what it takes to become a member of the Lion, visit join the lion.com to discover how successful entrepreneurs become unstoppable forces, and make sure you never miss an episode by hitting subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. This isn't just content. This is your edge.

Speaker 1  19:27  
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