04 November 2025
Is Your Automation Removing Humanness? with George Bryant (275) - S7E275
In this episode of Digital Marketing Masters, I chat with George Bryant (The Mind of George) about the balance between AI automation and human connection in business. George shares wild stats from his podcasting journey, why “user‑generated keynotes” beat rehearsed scripts, and how doubling down on principles and values outlasts fast‑changing tactics. We dig into the real end goal behind most tech and automation, giving people time back. And why removing the “secret ingredient” (you) can stall growth. From customer journeys to local SMB automation, we explore what to automate (the admin and repetitive tasks) and what to keep human (coaching, trust, nuance, and community). We also talk AI’s exponential pace, robotics already in the real world, and the growing demand for authentic relationships, plus a few tales from the chicken coop that remind us business is ultimately people to people. If you’re wrestling with how to apply AI without erasing your voice, this conversation maps a practical path: automate the parts nobody misses so you can show up more where it matters. Principles over platforms, relationships overreach, and human magic at the heart of modern marketing.
Resources and links mentioned:
George Bryant: https://mindofgeorge.com
https://serve.podhome.fm/episodepage/digital-marketing-masters/275
https://serve.podhome.fm/digital-marketing-masters
Looking for a podcast guest? Author Matt Rouse
Hook Digital Marketing | Hook Digital Marketing Canada
Market your local business on autopilot: SMB Autopilot
Looking for a podcast guest? Author Matt Rouse
Hook Digital Marketing | Hook Digital Marketing Canada
Market your local business on autopilot: SMB Autopilot
[00:00:00]
George Bryant:
And I was like, yes. Because you removed the secret ingredient, which was you. Like, one client in my brain in particular right now was doing, you know, 250, $300,000 a month. And then all of a sudden, it dipped down.
[00:00:15] AI Narrator #1:
On this episode of the show. Madhouse talks to George Bright. They are trying to let you know if automation remove humanness. Hey, everybody. Welcome back to Digital Marketing Masters. I'm your host, Matt Rose. And today, I've got George Bryant from the mind of George. George, you're the only person I know who's done more than 7,000 podcasts. So I figured we should probably have a chat.
[00:01:05] George Bryant:
I love it, man. It's it's actually crazy. It's not I I tell everybody, like, it shouldn't be a badge of honor, and I didn't even know this till, like, a couple of months ago, but I have a client who's an AI engineer. And he's like, what's your biggest struggle with your podcast? And I was like, truthfully, I don't remember what I've talked about on my own show, like, 700 episodes. And he's like, I'll build the tool for you, but I'll go one step further, and I'll find every show you've ever been on. And he didn't mention it to me for, like, a month. And then we got on a call, and he's like, I'm so mad at you. I'm like, what do you mean? He was like, do you know how many podcasts you've been on? And I was like, no.
And he's like, over 7,000. It took me a month to find them all with all these AI tools. And I was like, really? Holy moly. And so, yeah, it's it's kind of ironic that I know now, but, yeah, it's hilarious.
[00:01:48] AI Narrator #1:
Nice. Yeah. I mean, I find it crazy just to think about you know, we're on episode two seventy five here. That's some of my episodes were you know, back in the day, I used to go pretty long on some of them, like, even up to a couple hours. So I've got more than three hundred hours of podcasts. Yeah. Right? And that I can't imagine how long it would take somebody to actually say wanted to listen to them all. No way. You know? And, yeah, I mean, it's just crazy how many people you talk to. So let me tell you this, 7,000 pocket. I don't wanna put you on the spot, but I'm totally gonna put you on the spot. What was your favorite podcast that you were on
[00:02:27] George Bryant:
besides mine, obviously? Yeah. Yeah. I'll just say I'll just say yours. We're at the beginning, so you're already winning. So, like, yours right now, the current one. I have a friend who had me on this podcast, and it's called the happiness podcast. And The Happiness of the Happy Life, and he is he's a marketer, but the whole premise of his podcast is to basically talk about what most people would consider wounds in your life and how they turned into, like, triumphs or character builders. And we ended up doing three episodes, and they were, like, two and a half hours each, but it was the first time somebody's ever, like, sat with me besides a therapist that I had to pay a lot of money for to be, like, how did this all start? Like, how did you go from homeless through addiction and bullying to the marine corps to war to your own drug addictions? Like and it wasn't like a summary. He just kept diving in to, like, every single detail. And so we ended up doing, like, three of them, and and I loved it. It was cathartic, but I also love humans understanding that we're not we're so similar. It blows our minds. Like, our wrapping piper might be different. Right? The the ways that we got here are so different, but yet we can all relate on the same things. And if we're here and we can relate as humans, then we can help each other and kinda thrive. And so, like, I love podcasts that, like, get to the meat of the person. Right? Like, strategies and tactics are a dime a dozen. Right? They're gonna change all the time, but, like, who you are as a person, how you view the world. And so that was that was probably one of my favorite one. And I've I've been on big ones and things too. I also have, like, I won't drop names, but, like, unfavorite podcasts. I'm like, oh, it'll be a dream to go on this podcast. And I was like, well, that was like a nonstarter.
Okay. Cool. Right? Like, I don't do the media trained stuff pretty well. I just wanna be authentic. So, yeah, that would probably be my my favorite one, the happiness podcast. Yeah. I'm really bad at trying to repeat the same thing on all the different shows. I'm like, I just wanna chat with people. A 100%. I I I I've tried, and I'm like, no way. Like, it makes my stomach turn. I'm like, I can't do this. Like, I've tried to had notes, and I'm like, those are going in the trash. Alright. Cool. Like, how's your day? What are we gonna talk about? Where are we gonna go? Right? Like, I just wanna have a cup of coffee with people.
[00:04:35] AI Narrator #1:
That's probably why I get, like, way less speaking appointments and gigs and stuff than I should. Because I'm just like, okay. Well, I'm prepared. I have all the things, but I don't go out and have a well rehearsed five minutes, you know, that I could repeat over and over. Right? Like, I think, one of my friends in stand up comic, he used to call it the solid five. Everybody's gotta have their solid five. Otherwise, you can't get on the stage. Right? Yep. And it seems the same way with the speaking circuit. Right? Oh, a 100%. You gotta have your your 20 slides and your solid 15,
[00:05:07] George Bryant:
and and you're on the circuit. And I'm like, but AI changes every day. A 100%. I well, I I joke too because I got I got texted last night, and he's like, hey, man. Like, these people want you to come keynote in Australia, multiple events. I was like, okay. And he's like, I need you to send your five topics. I was like, I can't. And he's like, why? I'm like, because the audience in the room in that moment dictates the topic. I have plenty of tools in my toolbox, but I always joke that, like, everyone's trying to get user generated content. I'm like, I do user generated keynotes. Like, I go to the event. I ask questions. I'm like, what are you struggling with? Like, what would help you in your business? And then I'm the same as you where I'm like, I I can't I can't rehearse these. I can't, like, perform like a TEDx. I'm like, no. I just wanna share. Like, let's consider everybody's around a campfire, and we're having a conversation about what's working or not working. Not like, let me get your attention with a hook and this emotional story and then build my authority. And I'm like, no. Like, you either wanna listen or you don't. It lands or it doesn't.
Try it or not. But, like, let's just pour it. So I'm the same as you. I see it the same. There's a lot somewhere in the repetition of something
[00:06:11] AI Narrator #1:
that it's palpable. Right? Yep. And I I'm not everyone. Right? I mean, I've seen some really good speakers who can get on stage. They got their thing, and they can make variations on the theme of their topic. Yep. Right? And the the really good speakers can always do that. They know their stuff. Right? And and yada yada. I think with me, it's not even so much that I have to have, like, the audience dictate the topic. It's that I always talk about AI in some form or another. Before that, it was digital marketing, which basically just changed every week anyway. Can't give you what I'm gonna talk about six months in advance because six months from now, it's gonna be different. A 100%. A 100%. That's why I always teach principles and values too. Right? Like, because I've been doing this since, I don't know, 2009, 2010. And it's like every moment we're like, what? You're gonna go give a keynote on Myspace? Well, great. Now there's Facebook. Oh, you got Facebook? Well, now there's Instagram. Oh, there's Instagram. Now there's TikTok. Right? There's
[00:07:04] George Bryant:
all these different pieces that that flow all the time. And I I think, you know, to your point about repetition, like, when you know your stuff, when you know your principles, when you know your values, when you know, like, what you're doing, that the goal is to apply them to whatever the current state of the market is. Right? Like, just like with AI that we're seeing left, right, and center. Right? Like, the world we're sitting in today recording this six months ago, everyone's like, oh, that's a couple years off. And I'm like, no. No. It's here now. Right? And it evolves so fast and changes so fast. But I I find Jeff Bezos said this in a talk the other day. He's like, most companies are making this giant mistake by trying to constantly evolve and keep up with the times instead of focusing on the things that will never change. And he was like, my customers are always gonna want fast delivery. They're always gonna want a wide selection.
They're always gonna want fast customer service. And he's like, so I can try to build a business around keeping up with the times, or I can build a business on the things that are guaranteed not to to change in the next day next decade. Because he's like, I can't imagine in ten years me calling a customer, be like, you know what, Jeff? I wish you would deliver my package slower. Right? And I think it's just the frame in which you look at business, and so I think it's a really good way to see it.
[00:08:17] AI Narrator #1:
Amazon just passed 1,000,000 autonomous factory robots. Wow. So the factories, warehouse, supply chain, a million robots now. And people are like, man, I wonder what robots are gonna be here.
[00:08:32] George Bryant:
Like, they're here.
[00:08:34] AI Narrator #1:
I'll tell you a funny story. This is a quick one. I live in the middle of nowhere. There's no stores where I live. Okay? So we gotta drive, like, forty five minutes to get to a big box store if I wanna buy a pair of shoes for my kid because they're the only place that sells kids' shoes. Mhmm. Right? So we have to go to a Walmart because it's the only one. Right? Either that or I could drive two hours each way to go Halifax. Yeah. So, anyways, unfortunately, I gotta go to Walmart. Right? So, anyways, I go in there, and there's this kind of, like, one of those floor cleaning machines, right, like the big square ones, right, where the guy pushes the thing and it scrubs the floor or whatever. And and it's driving along, and my daughter goes out in front of it. And I'm like, I grabbed her. Right? Because I don't wanna get run over by the guy with floor cleaning machine, and then the thing stops. And she's like, look, daddy. It's a robot. And I looked, and there's nobody pushing it. It is a robot. Right? It's even got a little smiley face painted on the front of it, you know, with the cameras or the eyes and stuff.
And we're talking about Southwestern Nova Scotia in a town that has a population of 9,000 has a robot cleaning the floor. Yeah. Right? So robots are everywhere now. Oh, for sure. Yeah. You know, you had said, right, like, you know, everything changes every six months kind of thing. The the current, like, generation rate, kind of like Moore's law, right, every 18 months, computing power doubles. Every seven months, AI power doubles. So if you want to tell some if somebody's like, well, it's gonna be two generations of AI before they could do, you know, this thing that I'm gonna do or it's it's three generations away. I'm like, that's the end of next year. Yep. That's not some way far off distant thing. Right? Mhmm.
And I think that's also something that people really kind of can't wrap their brains around. Right? We have linear brains dealing with exponential technologies.
[00:10:33] George Bryant:
Yep. Yep. A 100%. Yeah. And I see it interestingly enough in business too because, like, I'm the customer journey guy. I'm the guy who teaches, like, relationships. Everyone's like, George, no no one's gonna need this. I'm like, no. No. No. There's a big line of demarcation happening. Like, the more that AI my stance, I would submit, and I'm seeing this across the board even in businesses that I'm scaling and coaching, is the increase in AI as having an equilateral increase in the desire for human connection. Right? Because it's starting to allow all these things to get handled and take place that we're preventing our time, but then it's creating this giant void for people where it's like, well, yeah, but I I'm a I'm a cultural creature. Right? Like, I'm a tribal creature. I miss people.
And I was like, that's the one thing that I look at in business, like, especially entrepreneurship. It's people like, oh, I'm not gonna have a business or marketing x y z. I was like, no. No. No. There's still people on the other side of all of these things. Like, AI might come in and speed up the process or personalized conversations. But if you ask me, and maybe this is just me, if I have a choice between speaking to a human or having some AI robot to talk to me, I'm gonna choose a human. Right? I'm not gonna get coached and, yeah, do I use chat gpt sometimes to, like, beat my psychologist? 100%. Does it replace the need for me to, like, talk to my brother and be like, hey, Matt. Do you have a couple minutes? Like, I I really gotta get some stuff off my chest. And you're like, of course. Right? It'll never replace that. And so I I think it's really interesting watching I can't even think of a movie, but it would be like Star Wars. Like, this human connection is gonna end up as, like, the rebellion against AI. But I think if, you know, your business involves people and it's not something that can be fully automated, then it's something to focus on and double down on people, which is, I think, the way that we win the game.
[00:12:18] AI Narrator #1:
Yeah. I think you have to double down on people. The other thing I think is that people do want to talk to an AI for specific tasks. For speed. Yeah. 100%. Like, if if I want to go and find my order and figure out why it hasn't arrived yet, I don't wanna talk to a person. 100%. Tell me where the thing is. I don't give shit. Right? Just where is it, and why am I gonna get it? You know? Like, if I wanna go to the airplane, I I'm trying to, like, book a flight or something. Right? I don't wanna talk to a person either. Just Yep. Let me talk to the thing that knows all the all the air flights in the entire world. It knows when everyone's going. It knows what's delayed. It knows how many points I got. It knows my account. Let me talk to that. Right? A 100%. Yeah. And I get like we were talking about real estate agents. Right? Yeah. If I'm buying a house, you know what the AI is not very good at? Is looking out the kitchen window and saying, is this a view that I would like? Yes.
[00:13:13] George Bryant:
Exactly. Right? Or, like, knowing what the neighborhood is like or, like, helping you overcome the fears of, like, buying your first home. Right? Like because I I think and I I think there's a case to be made too. Like, I joke with everybody. I was like, if you've ever seen that movie Wall E, I think there is a part of the population that wants to only talk to AI. I I'm not that person. Right? But I think
[00:13:34] AI Narrator #1:
Well and I don't know if it's so much they only want to talk to it or if it's they don't have any other good options. Mhmm. That's a good point too. Yeah. I I'd I'd take that all day because I think
[00:13:46] George Bryant:
when I look at a lot of this, like, even in, like, let's take marketing right now because I'm seeing it across the board. I'm watching so many people get turned off because they're getting over AI'd, and they're like, no. No. I'm just interested in, like, your course or, like, can you help me scale my business? And there's, like, these barriers of entry to get to the person, like these gatekeepers, and it's having the opposite effect that they desire by trying to buy their time back. They're actually pushing people away from them. And I think that that's something that, you know, to your point, like, yeah, flights, like, please. Like, I don't wanna call. Like, I only call airlines because I have status, so I get through instantly. But I don't wanna sit on the phone for ninety minutes. I'm like, hey. Can you rebook my flight? Like, I missed it. I need to I don't think I've ever called the airline
[00:14:28] AI Narrator #1:
unless I, like, went to the desk and they were like, you have to call. You have to call. Yeah. A 100%. That's the only time I've ever called them. Right? Like, my wife and I joke all the time. They're like, oh, okay. Well, you know, if you're gonna if you're gonna go and and get, you know, an appointment with your family doctor or something like that, you have to call them. We're like, well, I guess we're gonna die. Right? Mhmm. That's how much I don't wanna call them. A 100%.
[00:14:52] George Bryant:
A 100%. Yeah. But then it's like, I've been to restaurants even, like, in Toronto, like sushi restaurants. They're like, no. You order right there. And I was like, I can't find the thing. Like, can you just please bring me a Coke zero or an iced tea? And I was like, I have a question about this thing. And they're like, it's in there. I'm like, no. No. Can you come here? Like, what's in this? Can I and there's certain things where I'm like, no? This doesn't work for me.
[00:15:14] AI Narrator #1:
Yeah. There's definitely there's spots where it's overdone, and there's also spots where it's kind of underdone. Right? And Yep. And I think finding that balance is pretty important right now. But I think the other thing is trying to drill down. And and I mean this specifically with AI, but also it would count for automation or or any other kind of digital assets. Right? You gotta drill down to what is the thing the person is absolutely the end goal. Right? Yep. What is it? And, like, we have a tool that we built called SMB autopilot. Right? If somebody has a physical location or a service area for their business, like a tradesperson, home services, that kind of thing, clinics and stuff, this will automatically market them locally, automatically. They don't have to do anything.
And the reason that we built it that way is because I had to go through this long process from the, you know, hundreds of tradespeople I've met with over the years and stuff and business owners. And what they really, really want is not can I get more leads? It's not can I improve my sales funnel or any of these things? That's not what they want. What they want is how can I spend more time with my kids? Mhmm. Right? So my tool does the job. You don't have to check-in on it. You don't have to copy and paste info into it. You don't have to use it like CRM. You don't have to do anything. Put your credit card in, tell who your business is, and it markets it. Mhmm. Mhmm. Right? If it doesn't work, stop paying. Well, I love the distinction.
[00:16:47] George Bryant:
I think I think the most important thing that you called out is, like, the distinction of, like, really understanding what the end goal or the desire is of the, like, the receiving party. Right? And I think that's a something that I feel like isn't thought about or it's negated a lot with the rise of, like, all these tools pop. Oh, this does this. This does this. But people aren't thinking about the downstream consequences if they're not thinking about what that ultimate outcome or desire is, and I think that that's always going to be there. And so I love that I love that call out for sure because I was, like, even thinking about when you're doing it, it's like, oh, I'm building a home. I don't personally want a robot to come out and ask me for a proposal when I'm like, I have questions about, like, the grading or what tile can I use? Like, what in your experience has been there. Right? Like, that human element. And I think thinking about that end goal is probably the most neglected but biggest opportunity for people as well.
[00:17:42] AI Narrator #1:
And the other the other thing with AI that I think that people are kind of missing right now is it I think magic is what people are missing. And the reason I say magic is that idea that a technology that is sufficiently advanced is indistinguishable from magic. I think everybody's heard that quote in the past. Right? If magic was real, what would it do for the person who wants whatever it is that you're doing? Right? Mhmm. Like, if I'm a plumber and somebody's got a problem with their plumbing, what's the magic solution? Mhmm. Magic solution is they, you know I mean, within reason, obviously. Like, you gotta be able to tell them there's a problem with your plumbing. But what they want is I take a video of whatever the thing is, and I send it to the plumber. And the plumber can, like, send me back things to try, you know, because maybe they're gonna be in an hour. And if and if you don't fix it in the next thirty minutes, they show up and it's fixed. Mhmm. Right? That's the magic. I've never seen anything like that ever. Right? So if you're in the plumbing business, build that now, people. Oh, for sure. I think about, like like, simple things, like
[00:18:54] George Bryant:
physical therapists, right, where you go and they show you these exercises and then you leave and you never do the exercises because you forgot how to do them all. Right. Right? And I'm like, no. No. No. Just, like, click the button on, like, what my personalized ones are, and let me open my camera and do it in front of it and have it correct me based on your knowledge and things like that. Like, I I love that. I think it's I think it's great because the it to your point, it gets us to that ultimate end goal or what that desire is, which is, like, I don't wanna be in pain anymore, or I don't want a clogged toilet because I have four kids running around my house. And, truthfully, I have other things to do right now, so, like, help me without digging into my toilet, figure out what's going on. I I love that perspective. And, yeah, I what was that quote again about the magic?
[00:19:37] AI Narrator #1:
Well, to any any technology or any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. I think it was Arthur c Clark, if I'm not mistaken. I like that quote. Yeah. And it's absolutely true. You know what's magic in my business right now? And this is such a simple thing, but to me, it's magic. I have a client that we write blogs for. I gotta write blogs about furniture. Oh, exciting. But, anyways, I still come up with enough ideas. I'm not using the AI to come up with the ideas, and I'm not using it to write the blog. I am using it to translate it into other languages. Yeah. And then I also have an automation that automatically checks every four hours to see if a new blog's been posted. And if it has, it summarizes it, puts a link in, takes the photo from it, puts it in the right size, and puts it on x and puts it on blue sky.
So all I gotta do is write the blog, use chat JPT or whatever. Right? I I usually use Sonnet to actually translate it, Put in the translation, and then I save it, and it's published. And then all the social media, it goes out automatically. Yeah. Right? That's magic. That saves me I don't even know how much time. Ten hours a month, probably? Yep. That's just one client.
[00:20:46] George Bryant:
Yeah. Yeah. What I've also I had I had a buddy on my podcast yesterday, Alex Mayer, who I'm sure a lot of people know who he is. He was the guy who bought Pier one Imports and RadioShack and this big merger deal. Yeah. Yeah. So he was talking about how entrepreneurship is so drastically different than it was twenty years ago, right, or even ten years ago, where ten years ago, what we were rewarded for as entrepreneurs is who could execute an idea better. Right? Who could stay in that game and, like, see it through fruition? Now it's who can come up with more good ideas and test them faster because AI has basically removed these things. Like, we were joking, like, back in 2010 when I, like, built my first sales funnel.
It took us ninety days to code those websites and design them and do it. And now in two minutes, I can talk to an AI and spit out an entire thing that's done. And so it's changing this culture of entrepreneurship, and what I find ironic and and I just this hit my heart to say is that the thing that I'm seeing is and I don't know how to label it other than, like, this epidemic of, like, loneliness now because AI is coming into so much entrepreneurship, and it is creating that magic. People don't know what to do with that time that they're getting back. Right. And it's causing some issues. I was like, no. No. That's the whole premise of entrepreneurship is, like, being creative and bringing ideas to life. But, you know, I've joked for years with all the high performers I coach, right, all the way up to billionaires that I coach. And every entrepreneur tells me the same thing, like, what their end goal. I want more time, more money, more freedom. And I'm like, amazing. And I was like, give me your phone for a week. And they're like, no. And I'm like, well, I guess you don't want more time. Right? Like, we want these things that we don't know how to have a relationship with, and it's this interesting downstream effect that I'm seeing. Because, like, to your point, like, that same blog a couple of years ago might have been, like, four hours of work. It might have been a full afternoon calendar, and now it's done in, you know, twenty minutes. And everyone's like, what do I do now? And it's kind of this, like, giant mirror of me, and I I coach a lot of people on this where we've hidden in our business. Like, you living up where you live and having your family. Like, no. I'm going out with my daughter. Right? Like, I'm I'm ready to go. And same thing for me. Like, I'm going out with my son. Like, hey. I'm I'm good, done for the day. But then people that get their identity from their business or their identity and, like, how hard they hustle or how many things they get done, all of those things are getting, like, challenged to the core right now. Like, I'm old school hustler. Right? Like, I'm still working twelve hour days a lot, but
[00:23:13] AI Narrator #1:
that's not it's not an endless stream of twelve hour days, you know, for the rest of my life. It's Mhmm. I'm automating all these pieces and getting all the work done and getting all the kind of pieces on the board so that the the end goal, the checkmate is my businesses can run themselves, and I don't need to be there all the time. Right? A 100. That's what I get to pay off. I get the reward. Right? And but I can still leave whenever I want and do whatever I want. You know? I just there's shit that I gotta get done too. Oh, for sure. You know? And you know what? And this is kind of an aside, but your friend that runs RadioShack, I feel like RadioShack is the perfect brand right now that is totally underutilized.
They should have a road RadioShack on every corner that sells drones and robots. Yeah. Every single one. That's all it should be. Like, all their advertising could be like RadioShack or RobotShack, you know, like, that kind of thing. And they can make a zillion dollars. I get ads for this one place just called Robot Store all the time. I'm
[00:24:14] George Bryant:
like, as soon as the money's available, I'm dropping it on a robot. Like Yeah. Is there a way? There's things I want robots for. I want a robot to do my dishes. Like Yeah. I wanna put it next to the sink, and it end up back in the cabinet clean. Like, I'm good if I never have to do laundry again for the rest of my life. Right? Like Right. Give me those things. Like, I want those things all day. Yeah. But I Well, they they're interviewing the lead scientist from,
[00:24:42] AI Narrator #1:
physical intelligence on the podcast this week. And he's like, yeah. We think household robots is, like, 2027. Like, a household robot that you tell it what you want done, and then it just walks around your house doing stuff. You don't have to talk to it. You know? It does, like does all your dishes, does your laundry, folds it, puts it away, puts the toys away, washes the windows, vacuums floor, whatever you need. Right.
[00:25:07] George Bryant:
Yeah. There's a Yeah. There's a part of me just because I I love this conversation. There's a part of me that is afraid for part of humanity for when that comes because, like, I think I look back at, like, you know, I used to study stoicism, and I used to read, you know, all these things and incredible entrepreneur books like Chop Wood, Carry Water. Right? Like, there's these biological processes that we as human beings have, like movement, right, or doing something hard or manual labor. Like, my favorite thing living in Montana is, like, when I get off work, like, I'm going out to build something or break something or dig a hole. Or, like, two nights ago, it was till 10PM. We were mixing concrete and pouring a pad in front of the chicken coop. Right? Like Nice. There's something, like, so rewarding about that that's, like, so healing for us. It is. But I look at, like, all these things that, you know, we've we've done for centuries that literally, like, I joke scientifically, we're the only mammal that doesn't have a built in mechanism to release our lymphatic system. Right? Like, if an antelope is about to get eaten by a lion and it survives, the first thing it does is shake its body, and then it just goes back to eating grass. Well, for us as humans, movement has always been that thing. Right? And all these things are basically creating this option for laziness Yeah. But I think is gonna have this massive downstream effect on mental health because I even look at, you know, me Yeah. But arguably,
[00:26:35] AI Narrator #1:
that's already happened.
[00:26:37] George Bryant:
Well, it for sure. No. I it's been happening, but I feel like with what's happening with AI, it's almost like NOS in the engine. Right? It is just this, like, fast forward button, like, into the wall as hard as possible, and it scares me a little bit.
[00:26:53] AI Narrator #1:
Yeah. I mean, when we got to the point where people really love TikTok, and I was like, what is it about this that they love? And people saw it's the algorithm or it's the video. You know what it is? It's a it selects for you. Mhmm. Right? You don't have to think up something to go look for to watch. Nope. Right? It just does it for you. It's unlimited six second distractions and don't think is a terrible thing. Right? 100%. I mean, it's a genius, but I think you should watch what you wanna watch that interests you. But also I miss the days when we had to go up and change the channel, bro. Right. Well, how many things did you watch because you're like, well, this is nothing else is on. So you watch the one thing and you go, you know what? I actually kinda like this. This is something that interests me. You don't do that now. It just feeds you more of the same shit over and over. Right? Uh-huh. A 100 So let me ask you this question, though, and this is probably the most important question that I will ask today, is how many chickens do you have? We have 31 chickens. 31?
[00:27:50] George Bryant:
Well, wait till you get up with the chickens. More, but a couple weeks ago, a fox got in.
[00:27:54] AI Narrator #1:
I had a fox eat my bantams.
[00:27:56] George Bryant:
Yeah. And then and then got it. What was it last year? Because we let them graze in the yard. Right? And we're like, oh, we'll let them graze. And my best friend who I live with, we have the chickens together, he's like, hey. We gotta get rid of a few of these. One of the roosters is being an a hole. Right. And I was like, cool. He's like, I'm just gonna let them out in the yard and an eagle will grab one of them. Right? Like, just kinda let mother nature take its course. Well, we let them out for, like, seven days. Nothing. They're all there. They're fine. And then he lets them out one morning, goes inside, comes out, half of them are gone. It was like they watched for a week and this, like, horde of eagles came in and just, like, slaughtered all the chickens. And then the problem was all the other ones were so traumatized, none of them laid eggs for, like, six months.
[00:28:41] AI Narrator #1:
And so we had to, like, rebuild the entire flock. You gotta you gotta make friends with the crows because the crows will fight off the eagles. You do. You do. Yeah. I love I love living in Montana. It's a very humbling Right. It reminds me of similar to here. Right? Different wildlife, but the thing like, we have eagles and hawks and mink and Yep. And weasels and ferrets and foxes and coyotes and, like, everything wants to eat chickens because they taste like chicken. So, you know, this is definitely the most important part of the show, folks. Remember, if you're gonna free range your chickens, you gotta be out there. We're gonna have, like, some kind of fence or a dog or something to to fight off the other other critters.
George, I think I think this is a great conversation. I think we've we've kind of, you know, maybe stumbled around a bit on topics, but I think we're we're hitting the nail on the head that the biggest thing that people are missing about kind of moving into AI is automating the human parts instead of the parts nobody cares about, right, on, you know, the back end stuff. And and don't don't use the AI to replace the you that needs to be in your business. Right?
[00:29:54] George Bryant:
Mhmm. A 100%. I you said it so well. Like, I you know, my secret sauce is I spend all my time how make entrepreneurs scale primarily from six to seven or beyond figures. And what I've seen across the board is this falling in love with these automations, but then six months later, they're like, my business has stagnated. And I was like, yes. Because you removed the secret ingredient, which was you. Like, one client in my brain in particular right now was doing, you know, 250, $300,000 a month. And then all of a sudden, it dipped down to, like, a $100 a month. And they're like, what happened? What happened? And I was like, well, let me look. And what had basically happened is they stopped going live once a week when they were going live, and they started automating pieces of content. And then every one of their clients always came from, like, a fifteen minute coffee chat, and they're like, oh, I don't have time to do it anymore.
Let's just remove that and send them a microwave video to get them warmed up. And by the time we caught it, there was, like, a half a million dollars of implication. I was like, no. Like, you removed the one thing that AI can't do, which is you. It's like your authenticity, your essence, people experiencing you. And then within a week, we added it back and sales started going right back up. And I was like, no. The whole point of AI and even marketing automation ten years ago is to automate the parts that don't require a human to allow you to have more time and capacity to be a human. Right? Like, you know, I run live events. Right? I can't ever imagine somebody coming to a live event, and then they walk out to a holograph of me. I'm like, why would they have come?
Right? Like, there's the the part where, you know, you have to allow yourself, to your point, automate those things that don't require a human so that you have more time to be in those relationships. And and in business, like, I don't care what business you're in. You can be in a service based business. You can be in a product based business. But businesses are done people to people. Right? Like, there are certain things that are done people to people and that's why people choose businesses. Right? Like, I joke with people all the time. I'm like, how many of you can think of a restaurant that doesn't have the best food, but you keep going back to it and recommending people to it? And they're like, oh, I can. And I'm like, how many of you can think of a restaurant where you had an incredible meal, but the service sucked and you don't tell anybody about it? And they're like, I can't. I'm like, what's the secret sauce?
Right. And truthfully, it's the culture. It's the relationship with the people. And I think that that's gonna be one of the biggest and it's something I'm seeing right now. There's so many people that are making short term money by automating all of these things, but what they're not thinking about is, like, the long term downstream effects of these things. Right. Because once those people go somewhere else or, you know, I always joke. I'm like, if you don't love your customers, I'll come love them for you. Once those people get that human to human experience, they're going to switch very, very quickly because there is something that we cannot replace or replicate at least for certain people that just desire human connection.
And so I think no matter what we see in AI, I love the way that you framed it is, like, we have to understand what the end goal or end desire is for the people that we're serving. And then I would submit it's using AI and automations to automate the things or replace the things that you don't need to be doing that they can benefit from, but then allow yourself to insert yourself in that relationship. And and I joke, especially for married people, like, you and I are both men. We're both married. I was like, the way that most people are using AI right now is they spend their entire time courting their wife. They say I do, and then they automate every date, text message, and email and expect to not be sleeping on the couch. That's not the way to do it. The way to do it is, like, hey. Yeah. Maybe you preschedule flowers and reminders for you to send them and and preschedule important dates and text messages and send them.
[00:33:48] AI Narrator #1:
AI, the administrative side. Yeah. A 100%. AI, the productive
[00:33:53] George Bryant:
side, but not the creative side and not the human side. Yeah. And even one of the things anecdotally that I'm seeing is right. Like, I've been using email marketing my whole career. Like, I love email. It still works. But with how much noise is created now because of how frequently and personalized AI and automations are, people are reading them less and less, and they're texting me when I email them. Them. Or they're shooting me a DM on Instagram where they used to reply or read it. They're like, hey. I saw your email. What was it? And it's like this desire inside of them of, like, I almost they almost have this confirmation bias now of, like, I know this was automated or I know this is in here, but I'm craving the human to human connection. So it's just something to notice for people. Yeah. Or they assume automation first. Right? Yeah. Yeah. That's the in the b to b world. That's the default.
[00:34:43] AI Narrator #1:
George, I hate to have to cut it short, but I also I know that we both got other business we gotta get to. If somebody wants to reach out to you to learn a little more, what's the best way for them to get ahold of you? Yeah, man. I love this question. I know you're on LinkedIn. I would connect with you on LinkedIn except I'm banned for life. If you wanna know the story, just reach out and ask me. I'm not.
[00:35:04] George Bryant:
Yeah. Yeah. I'm banned for life, but the best place is my website. It's the pinkest website you'll ever see. It's my favorite color, mindofgeorge.com. My podcast is there. My Instagram is there. But if if I can help you in any way, if I could answer a question, help you scale your business, teach you about customer journey or anything, just shoot me a DM on Instagram or through the contact form of my website. We'll get a cup of coffee. I'll pour into you however I can. But mindofgeorge.com is the best place.
[00:35:28] AI Narrator #1:
Alright, George. I appreciate you coming on the show, and I hope that rebuilding the chicken flock goes well. Thanks, brother. I appreciate you having me, man. So thank you, and thank you for everybody listening.
[00:35:38] George Bryant:
I'm
[00:35:39] AI Narrator #1:
feeling lost. What's coming next? The world is changing. It's so complex. Will AI take my job? Will I be replaced? I'm just a cog in this corporate race. Don't you worry what's going on. And, hey, I even wrote and sang this song. Embrace the change. Don't run
[00:36:20] Narrator AI:
away. Knowledge is power. You need to seize the day.
[00:36:27] AI Narrator #1:
Just read the book. Buy that all. With every
[00:36:46] Narrator AI:
page, you'll find your way. Don't let fear keep you at bay.
[00:36:54] AI Narrator #1:
Don't read the book. Buy that I'll
[00:37:09] Narrator AI:
take that chance to understand AI to join the dance.
[00:37:19] AI Narrator #1:
That's the spirit. Let's dive right in. The future awaits. Let the journey begin.
[00:37:34] Narrator AI:
Will they take my job too?
[00:37:41] AI Narrator #1:
A book by Matt Rose. Discover the future of AI
[00:37:49] Narrator AI:
today. Today.
[00:37:54] AI Narrator #1:
Find the book. Buy the book. Buy the
And I was like, yes. Because you removed the secret ingredient, which was you. Like, one client in my brain in particular right now was doing, you know, 250, $300,000 a month. And then all of a sudden, it dipped down.
[00:00:15] AI Narrator #1:
On this episode of the show. Madhouse talks to George Bright. They are trying to let you know if automation remove humanness. Hey, everybody. Welcome back to Digital Marketing Masters. I'm your host, Matt Rose. And today, I've got George Bryant from the mind of George. George, you're the only person I know who's done more than 7,000 podcasts. So I figured we should probably have a chat.
[00:01:05] George Bryant:
I love it, man. It's it's actually crazy. It's not I I tell everybody, like, it shouldn't be a badge of honor, and I didn't even know this till, like, a couple of months ago, but I have a client who's an AI engineer. And he's like, what's your biggest struggle with your podcast? And I was like, truthfully, I don't remember what I've talked about on my own show, like, 700 episodes. And he's like, I'll build the tool for you, but I'll go one step further, and I'll find every show you've ever been on. And he didn't mention it to me for, like, a month. And then we got on a call, and he's like, I'm so mad at you. I'm like, what do you mean? He was like, do you know how many podcasts you've been on? And I was like, no.
And he's like, over 7,000. It took me a month to find them all with all these AI tools. And I was like, really? Holy moly. And so, yeah, it's it's kind of ironic that I know now, but, yeah, it's hilarious.
[00:01:48] AI Narrator #1:
Nice. Yeah. I mean, I find it crazy just to think about you know, we're on episode two seventy five here. That's some of my episodes were you know, back in the day, I used to go pretty long on some of them, like, even up to a couple hours. So I've got more than three hundred hours of podcasts. Yeah. Right? And that I can't imagine how long it would take somebody to actually say wanted to listen to them all. No way. You know? And, yeah, I mean, it's just crazy how many people you talk to. So let me tell you this, 7,000 pocket. I don't wanna put you on the spot, but I'm totally gonna put you on the spot. What was your favorite podcast that you were on
[00:02:27] George Bryant:
besides mine, obviously? Yeah. Yeah. I'll just say I'll just say yours. We're at the beginning, so you're already winning. So, like, yours right now, the current one. I have a friend who had me on this podcast, and it's called the happiness podcast. And The Happiness of the Happy Life, and he is he's a marketer, but the whole premise of his podcast is to basically talk about what most people would consider wounds in your life and how they turned into, like, triumphs or character builders. And we ended up doing three episodes, and they were, like, two and a half hours each, but it was the first time somebody's ever, like, sat with me besides a therapist that I had to pay a lot of money for to be, like, how did this all start? Like, how did you go from homeless through addiction and bullying to the marine corps to war to your own drug addictions? Like and it wasn't like a summary. He just kept diving in to, like, every single detail. And so we ended up doing, like, three of them, and and I loved it. It was cathartic, but I also love humans understanding that we're not we're so similar. It blows our minds. Like, our wrapping piper might be different. Right? The the ways that we got here are so different, but yet we can all relate on the same things. And if we're here and we can relate as humans, then we can help each other and kinda thrive. And so, like, I love podcasts that, like, get to the meat of the person. Right? Like, strategies and tactics are a dime a dozen. Right? They're gonna change all the time, but, like, who you are as a person, how you view the world. And so that was that was probably one of my favorite one. And I've I've been on big ones and things too. I also have, like, I won't drop names, but, like, unfavorite podcasts. I'm like, oh, it'll be a dream to go on this podcast. And I was like, well, that was like a nonstarter.
Okay. Cool. Right? Like, I don't do the media trained stuff pretty well. I just wanna be authentic. So, yeah, that would probably be my my favorite one, the happiness podcast. Yeah. I'm really bad at trying to repeat the same thing on all the different shows. I'm like, I just wanna chat with people. A 100%. I I I I've tried, and I'm like, no way. Like, it makes my stomach turn. I'm like, I can't do this. Like, I've tried to had notes, and I'm like, those are going in the trash. Alright. Cool. Like, how's your day? What are we gonna talk about? Where are we gonna go? Right? Like, I just wanna have a cup of coffee with people.
[00:04:35] AI Narrator #1:
That's probably why I get, like, way less speaking appointments and gigs and stuff than I should. Because I'm just like, okay. Well, I'm prepared. I have all the things, but I don't go out and have a well rehearsed five minutes, you know, that I could repeat over and over. Right? Like, I think, one of my friends in stand up comic, he used to call it the solid five. Everybody's gotta have their solid five. Otherwise, you can't get on the stage. Right? Yep. And it seems the same way with the speaking circuit. Right? Oh, a 100%. You gotta have your your 20 slides and your solid 15,
[00:05:07] George Bryant:
and and you're on the circuit. And I'm like, but AI changes every day. A 100%. I well, I I joke too because I got I got texted last night, and he's like, hey, man. Like, these people want you to come keynote in Australia, multiple events. I was like, okay. And he's like, I need you to send your five topics. I was like, I can't. And he's like, why? I'm like, because the audience in the room in that moment dictates the topic. I have plenty of tools in my toolbox, but I always joke that, like, everyone's trying to get user generated content. I'm like, I do user generated keynotes. Like, I go to the event. I ask questions. I'm like, what are you struggling with? Like, what would help you in your business? And then I'm the same as you where I'm like, I I can't I can't rehearse these. I can't, like, perform like a TEDx. I'm like, no. I just wanna share. Like, let's consider everybody's around a campfire, and we're having a conversation about what's working or not working. Not like, let me get your attention with a hook and this emotional story and then build my authority. And I'm like, no. Like, you either wanna listen or you don't. It lands or it doesn't.
Try it or not. But, like, let's just pour it. So I'm the same as you. I see it the same. There's a lot somewhere in the repetition of something
[00:06:11] AI Narrator #1:
that it's palpable. Right? Yep. And I I'm not everyone. Right? I mean, I've seen some really good speakers who can get on stage. They got their thing, and they can make variations on the theme of their topic. Yep. Right? And the the really good speakers can always do that. They know their stuff. Right? And and yada yada. I think with me, it's not even so much that I have to have, like, the audience dictate the topic. It's that I always talk about AI in some form or another. Before that, it was digital marketing, which basically just changed every week anyway. Can't give you what I'm gonna talk about six months in advance because six months from now, it's gonna be different. A 100%. A 100%. That's why I always teach principles and values too. Right? Like, because I've been doing this since, I don't know, 2009, 2010. And it's like every moment we're like, what? You're gonna go give a keynote on Myspace? Well, great. Now there's Facebook. Oh, you got Facebook? Well, now there's Instagram. Oh, there's Instagram. Now there's TikTok. Right? There's
[00:07:04] George Bryant:
all these different pieces that that flow all the time. And I I think, you know, to your point about repetition, like, when you know your stuff, when you know your principles, when you know your values, when you know, like, what you're doing, that the goal is to apply them to whatever the current state of the market is. Right? Like, just like with AI that we're seeing left, right, and center. Right? Like, the world we're sitting in today recording this six months ago, everyone's like, oh, that's a couple years off. And I'm like, no. No. It's here now. Right? And it evolves so fast and changes so fast. But I I find Jeff Bezos said this in a talk the other day. He's like, most companies are making this giant mistake by trying to constantly evolve and keep up with the times instead of focusing on the things that will never change. And he was like, my customers are always gonna want fast delivery. They're always gonna want a wide selection.
They're always gonna want fast customer service. And he's like, so I can try to build a business around keeping up with the times, or I can build a business on the things that are guaranteed not to to change in the next day next decade. Because he's like, I can't imagine in ten years me calling a customer, be like, you know what, Jeff? I wish you would deliver my package slower. Right? And I think it's just the frame in which you look at business, and so I think it's a really good way to see it.
[00:08:17] AI Narrator #1:
Amazon just passed 1,000,000 autonomous factory robots. Wow. So the factories, warehouse, supply chain, a million robots now. And people are like, man, I wonder what robots are gonna be here.
[00:08:32] George Bryant:
Like, they're here.
[00:08:34] AI Narrator #1:
I'll tell you a funny story. This is a quick one. I live in the middle of nowhere. There's no stores where I live. Okay? So we gotta drive, like, forty five minutes to get to a big box store if I wanna buy a pair of shoes for my kid because they're the only place that sells kids' shoes. Mhmm. Right? So we have to go to a Walmart because it's the only one. Right? Either that or I could drive two hours each way to go Halifax. Yeah. So, anyways, unfortunately, I gotta go to Walmart. Right? So, anyways, I go in there, and there's this kind of, like, one of those floor cleaning machines, right, like the big square ones, right, where the guy pushes the thing and it scrubs the floor or whatever. And and it's driving along, and my daughter goes out in front of it. And I'm like, I grabbed her. Right? Because I don't wanna get run over by the guy with floor cleaning machine, and then the thing stops. And she's like, look, daddy. It's a robot. And I looked, and there's nobody pushing it. It is a robot. Right? It's even got a little smiley face painted on the front of it, you know, with the cameras or the eyes and stuff.
And we're talking about Southwestern Nova Scotia in a town that has a population of 9,000 has a robot cleaning the floor. Yeah. Right? So robots are everywhere now. Oh, for sure. Yeah. You know, you had said, right, like, you know, everything changes every six months kind of thing. The the current, like, generation rate, kind of like Moore's law, right, every 18 months, computing power doubles. Every seven months, AI power doubles. So if you want to tell some if somebody's like, well, it's gonna be two generations of AI before they could do, you know, this thing that I'm gonna do or it's it's three generations away. I'm like, that's the end of next year. Yep. That's not some way far off distant thing. Right? Mhmm.
And I think that's also something that people really kind of can't wrap their brains around. Right? We have linear brains dealing with exponential technologies.
[00:10:33] George Bryant:
Yep. Yep. A 100%. Yeah. And I see it interestingly enough in business too because, like, I'm the customer journey guy. I'm the guy who teaches, like, relationships. Everyone's like, George, no no one's gonna need this. I'm like, no. No. No. There's a big line of demarcation happening. Like, the more that AI my stance, I would submit, and I'm seeing this across the board even in businesses that I'm scaling and coaching, is the increase in AI as having an equilateral increase in the desire for human connection. Right? Because it's starting to allow all these things to get handled and take place that we're preventing our time, but then it's creating this giant void for people where it's like, well, yeah, but I I'm a I'm a cultural creature. Right? Like, I'm a tribal creature. I miss people.
And I was like, that's the one thing that I look at in business, like, especially entrepreneurship. It's people like, oh, I'm not gonna have a business or marketing x y z. I was like, no. No. No. There's still people on the other side of all of these things. Like, AI might come in and speed up the process or personalized conversations. But if you ask me, and maybe this is just me, if I have a choice between speaking to a human or having some AI robot to talk to me, I'm gonna choose a human. Right? I'm not gonna get coached and, yeah, do I use chat gpt sometimes to, like, beat my psychologist? 100%. Does it replace the need for me to, like, talk to my brother and be like, hey, Matt. Do you have a couple minutes? Like, I I really gotta get some stuff off my chest. And you're like, of course. Right? It'll never replace that. And so I I think it's really interesting watching I can't even think of a movie, but it would be like Star Wars. Like, this human connection is gonna end up as, like, the rebellion against AI. But I think if, you know, your business involves people and it's not something that can be fully automated, then it's something to focus on and double down on people, which is, I think, the way that we win the game.
[00:12:18] AI Narrator #1:
Yeah. I think you have to double down on people. The other thing I think is that people do want to talk to an AI for specific tasks. For speed. Yeah. 100%. Like, if if I want to go and find my order and figure out why it hasn't arrived yet, I don't wanna talk to a person. 100%. Tell me where the thing is. I don't give shit. Right? Just where is it, and why am I gonna get it? You know? Like, if I wanna go to the airplane, I I'm trying to, like, book a flight or something. Right? I don't wanna talk to a person either. Just Yep. Let me talk to the thing that knows all the all the air flights in the entire world. It knows when everyone's going. It knows what's delayed. It knows how many points I got. It knows my account. Let me talk to that. Right? A 100%. Yeah. And I get like we were talking about real estate agents. Right? Yeah. If I'm buying a house, you know what the AI is not very good at? Is looking out the kitchen window and saying, is this a view that I would like? Yes.
[00:13:13] George Bryant:
Exactly. Right? Or, like, knowing what the neighborhood is like or, like, helping you overcome the fears of, like, buying your first home. Right? Like because I I think and I I think there's a case to be made too. Like, I joke with everybody. I was like, if you've ever seen that movie Wall E, I think there is a part of the population that wants to only talk to AI. I I'm not that person. Right? But I think
[00:13:34] AI Narrator #1:
Well and I don't know if it's so much they only want to talk to it or if it's they don't have any other good options. Mhmm. That's a good point too. Yeah. I I'd I'd take that all day because I think
[00:13:46] George Bryant:
when I look at a lot of this, like, even in, like, let's take marketing right now because I'm seeing it across the board. I'm watching so many people get turned off because they're getting over AI'd, and they're like, no. No. I'm just interested in, like, your course or, like, can you help me scale my business? And there's, like, these barriers of entry to get to the person, like these gatekeepers, and it's having the opposite effect that they desire by trying to buy their time back. They're actually pushing people away from them. And I think that that's something that, you know, to your point, like, yeah, flights, like, please. Like, I don't wanna call. Like, I only call airlines because I have status, so I get through instantly. But I don't wanna sit on the phone for ninety minutes. I'm like, hey. Can you rebook my flight? Like, I missed it. I need to I don't think I've ever called the airline
[00:14:28] AI Narrator #1:
unless I, like, went to the desk and they were like, you have to call. You have to call. Yeah. A 100%. That's the only time I've ever called them. Right? Like, my wife and I joke all the time. They're like, oh, okay. Well, you know, if you're gonna if you're gonna go and and get, you know, an appointment with your family doctor or something like that, you have to call them. We're like, well, I guess we're gonna die. Right? Mhmm. That's how much I don't wanna call them. A 100%.
[00:14:52] George Bryant:
A 100%. Yeah. But then it's like, I've been to restaurants even, like, in Toronto, like sushi restaurants. They're like, no. You order right there. And I was like, I can't find the thing. Like, can you just please bring me a Coke zero or an iced tea? And I was like, I have a question about this thing. And they're like, it's in there. I'm like, no. No. Can you come here? Like, what's in this? Can I and there's certain things where I'm like, no? This doesn't work for me.
[00:15:14] AI Narrator #1:
Yeah. There's definitely there's spots where it's overdone, and there's also spots where it's kind of underdone. Right? And Yep. And I think finding that balance is pretty important right now. But I think the other thing is trying to drill down. And and I mean this specifically with AI, but also it would count for automation or or any other kind of digital assets. Right? You gotta drill down to what is the thing the person is absolutely the end goal. Right? Yep. What is it? And, like, we have a tool that we built called SMB autopilot. Right? If somebody has a physical location or a service area for their business, like a tradesperson, home services, that kind of thing, clinics and stuff, this will automatically market them locally, automatically. They don't have to do anything.
And the reason that we built it that way is because I had to go through this long process from the, you know, hundreds of tradespeople I've met with over the years and stuff and business owners. And what they really, really want is not can I get more leads? It's not can I improve my sales funnel or any of these things? That's not what they want. What they want is how can I spend more time with my kids? Mhmm. Right? So my tool does the job. You don't have to check-in on it. You don't have to copy and paste info into it. You don't have to use it like CRM. You don't have to do anything. Put your credit card in, tell who your business is, and it markets it. Mhmm. Mhmm. Right? If it doesn't work, stop paying. Well, I love the distinction.
[00:16:47] George Bryant:
I think I think the most important thing that you called out is, like, the distinction of, like, really understanding what the end goal or the desire is of the, like, the receiving party. Right? And I think that's a something that I feel like isn't thought about or it's negated a lot with the rise of, like, all these tools pop. Oh, this does this. This does this. But people aren't thinking about the downstream consequences if they're not thinking about what that ultimate outcome or desire is, and I think that that's always going to be there. And so I love that I love that call out for sure because I was, like, even thinking about when you're doing it, it's like, oh, I'm building a home. I don't personally want a robot to come out and ask me for a proposal when I'm like, I have questions about, like, the grading or what tile can I use? Like, what in your experience has been there. Right? Like, that human element. And I think thinking about that end goal is probably the most neglected but biggest opportunity for people as well.
[00:17:42] AI Narrator #1:
And the other the other thing with AI that I think that people are kind of missing right now is it I think magic is what people are missing. And the reason I say magic is that idea that a technology that is sufficiently advanced is indistinguishable from magic. I think everybody's heard that quote in the past. Right? If magic was real, what would it do for the person who wants whatever it is that you're doing? Right? Mhmm. Like, if I'm a plumber and somebody's got a problem with their plumbing, what's the magic solution? Mhmm. Magic solution is they, you know I mean, within reason, obviously. Like, you gotta be able to tell them there's a problem with your plumbing. But what they want is I take a video of whatever the thing is, and I send it to the plumber. And the plumber can, like, send me back things to try, you know, because maybe they're gonna be in an hour. And if and if you don't fix it in the next thirty minutes, they show up and it's fixed. Mhmm. Right? That's the magic. I've never seen anything like that ever. Right? So if you're in the plumbing business, build that now, people. Oh, for sure. I think about, like like, simple things, like
[00:18:54] George Bryant:
physical therapists, right, where you go and they show you these exercises and then you leave and you never do the exercises because you forgot how to do them all. Right. Right? And I'm like, no. No. No. Just, like, click the button on, like, what my personalized ones are, and let me open my camera and do it in front of it and have it correct me based on your knowledge and things like that. Like, I I love that. I think it's I think it's great because the it to your point, it gets us to that ultimate end goal or what that desire is, which is, like, I don't wanna be in pain anymore, or I don't want a clogged toilet because I have four kids running around my house. And, truthfully, I have other things to do right now, so, like, help me without digging into my toilet, figure out what's going on. I I love that perspective. And, yeah, I what was that quote again about the magic?
[00:19:37] AI Narrator #1:
Well, to any any technology or any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. I think it was Arthur c Clark, if I'm not mistaken. I like that quote. Yeah. And it's absolutely true. You know what's magic in my business right now? And this is such a simple thing, but to me, it's magic. I have a client that we write blogs for. I gotta write blogs about furniture. Oh, exciting. But, anyways, I still come up with enough ideas. I'm not using the AI to come up with the ideas, and I'm not using it to write the blog. I am using it to translate it into other languages. Yeah. And then I also have an automation that automatically checks every four hours to see if a new blog's been posted. And if it has, it summarizes it, puts a link in, takes the photo from it, puts it in the right size, and puts it on x and puts it on blue sky.
So all I gotta do is write the blog, use chat JPT or whatever. Right? I I usually use Sonnet to actually translate it, Put in the translation, and then I save it, and it's published. And then all the social media, it goes out automatically. Yeah. Right? That's magic. That saves me I don't even know how much time. Ten hours a month, probably? Yep. That's just one client.
[00:20:46] George Bryant:
Yeah. Yeah. What I've also I had I had a buddy on my podcast yesterday, Alex Mayer, who I'm sure a lot of people know who he is. He was the guy who bought Pier one Imports and RadioShack and this big merger deal. Yeah. Yeah. So he was talking about how entrepreneurship is so drastically different than it was twenty years ago, right, or even ten years ago, where ten years ago, what we were rewarded for as entrepreneurs is who could execute an idea better. Right? Who could stay in that game and, like, see it through fruition? Now it's who can come up with more good ideas and test them faster because AI has basically removed these things. Like, we were joking, like, back in 2010 when I, like, built my first sales funnel.
It took us ninety days to code those websites and design them and do it. And now in two minutes, I can talk to an AI and spit out an entire thing that's done. And so it's changing this culture of entrepreneurship, and what I find ironic and and I just this hit my heart to say is that the thing that I'm seeing is and I don't know how to label it other than, like, this epidemic of, like, loneliness now because AI is coming into so much entrepreneurship, and it is creating that magic. People don't know what to do with that time that they're getting back. Right. And it's causing some issues. I was like, no. No. That's the whole premise of entrepreneurship is, like, being creative and bringing ideas to life. But, you know, I've joked for years with all the high performers I coach, right, all the way up to billionaires that I coach. And every entrepreneur tells me the same thing, like, what their end goal. I want more time, more money, more freedom. And I'm like, amazing. And I was like, give me your phone for a week. And they're like, no. And I'm like, well, I guess you don't want more time. Right? Like, we want these things that we don't know how to have a relationship with, and it's this interesting downstream effect that I'm seeing. Because, like, to your point, like, that same blog a couple of years ago might have been, like, four hours of work. It might have been a full afternoon calendar, and now it's done in, you know, twenty minutes. And everyone's like, what do I do now? And it's kind of this, like, giant mirror of me, and I I coach a lot of people on this where we've hidden in our business. Like, you living up where you live and having your family. Like, no. I'm going out with my daughter. Right? Like, I'm I'm ready to go. And same thing for me. Like, I'm going out with my son. Like, hey. I'm I'm good, done for the day. But then people that get their identity from their business or their identity and, like, how hard they hustle or how many things they get done, all of those things are getting, like, challenged to the core right now. Like, I'm old school hustler. Right? Like, I'm still working twelve hour days a lot, but
[00:23:13] AI Narrator #1:
that's not it's not an endless stream of twelve hour days, you know, for the rest of my life. It's Mhmm. I'm automating all these pieces and getting all the work done and getting all the kind of pieces on the board so that the the end goal, the checkmate is my businesses can run themselves, and I don't need to be there all the time. Right? A 100. That's what I get to pay off. I get the reward. Right? And but I can still leave whenever I want and do whatever I want. You know? I just there's shit that I gotta get done too. Oh, for sure. You know? And you know what? And this is kind of an aside, but your friend that runs RadioShack, I feel like RadioShack is the perfect brand right now that is totally underutilized.
They should have a road RadioShack on every corner that sells drones and robots. Yeah. Every single one. That's all it should be. Like, all their advertising could be like RadioShack or RobotShack, you know, like, that kind of thing. And they can make a zillion dollars. I get ads for this one place just called Robot Store all the time. I'm
[00:24:14] George Bryant:
like, as soon as the money's available, I'm dropping it on a robot. Like Yeah. Is there a way? There's things I want robots for. I want a robot to do my dishes. Like Yeah. I wanna put it next to the sink, and it end up back in the cabinet clean. Like, I'm good if I never have to do laundry again for the rest of my life. Right? Like Right. Give me those things. Like, I want those things all day. Yeah. But I Well, they they're interviewing the lead scientist from,
[00:24:42] AI Narrator #1:
physical intelligence on the podcast this week. And he's like, yeah. We think household robots is, like, 2027. Like, a household robot that you tell it what you want done, and then it just walks around your house doing stuff. You don't have to talk to it. You know? It does, like does all your dishes, does your laundry, folds it, puts it away, puts the toys away, washes the windows, vacuums floor, whatever you need. Right.
[00:25:07] George Bryant:
Yeah. There's a Yeah. There's a part of me just because I I love this conversation. There's a part of me that is afraid for part of humanity for when that comes because, like, I think I look back at, like, you know, I used to study stoicism, and I used to read, you know, all these things and incredible entrepreneur books like Chop Wood, Carry Water. Right? Like, there's these biological processes that we as human beings have, like movement, right, or doing something hard or manual labor. Like, my favorite thing living in Montana is, like, when I get off work, like, I'm going out to build something or break something or dig a hole. Or, like, two nights ago, it was till 10PM. We were mixing concrete and pouring a pad in front of the chicken coop. Right? Like Nice. There's something, like, so rewarding about that that's, like, so healing for us. It is. But I look at, like, all these things that, you know, we've we've done for centuries that literally, like, I joke scientifically, we're the only mammal that doesn't have a built in mechanism to release our lymphatic system. Right? Like, if an antelope is about to get eaten by a lion and it survives, the first thing it does is shake its body, and then it just goes back to eating grass. Well, for us as humans, movement has always been that thing. Right? And all these things are basically creating this option for laziness Yeah. But I think is gonna have this massive downstream effect on mental health because I even look at, you know, me Yeah. But arguably,
[00:26:35] AI Narrator #1:
that's already happened.
[00:26:37] George Bryant:
Well, it for sure. No. I it's been happening, but I feel like with what's happening with AI, it's almost like NOS in the engine. Right? It is just this, like, fast forward button, like, into the wall as hard as possible, and it scares me a little bit.
[00:26:53] AI Narrator #1:
Yeah. I mean, when we got to the point where people really love TikTok, and I was like, what is it about this that they love? And people saw it's the algorithm or it's the video. You know what it is? It's a it selects for you. Mhmm. Right? You don't have to think up something to go look for to watch. Nope. Right? It just does it for you. It's unlimited six second distractions and don't think is a terrible thing. Right? 100%. I mean, it's a genius, but I think you should watch what you wanna watch that interests you. But also I miss the days when we had to go up and change the channel, bro. Right. Well, how many things did you watch because you're like, well, this is nothing else is on. So you watch the one thing and you go, you know what? I actually kinda like this. This is something that interests me. You don't do that now. It just feeds you more of the same shit over and over. Right? Uh-huh. A 100 So let me ask you this question, though, and this is probably the most important question that I will ask today, is how many chickens do you have? We have 31 chickens. 31?
[00:27:50] George Bryant:
Well, wait till you get up with the chickens. More, but a couple weeks ago, a fox got in.
[00:27:54] AI Narrator #1:
I had a fox eat my bantams.
[00:27:56] George Bryant:
Yeah. And then and then got it. What was it last year? Because we let them graze in the yard. Right? And we're like, oh, we'll let them graze. And my best friend who I live with, we have the chickens together, he's like, hey. We gotta get rid of a few of these. One of the roosters is being an a hole. Right. And I was like, cool. He's like, I'm just gonna let them out in the yard and an eagle will grab one of them. Right? Like, just kinda let mother nature take its course. Well, we let them out for, like, seven days. Nothing. They're all there. They're fine. And then he lets them out one morning, goes inside, comes out, half of them are gone. It was like they watched for a week and this, like, horde of eagles came in and just, like, slaughtered all the chickens. And then the problem was all the other ones were so traumatized, none of them laid eggs for, like, six months.
[00:28:41] AI Narrator #1:
And so we had to, like, rebuild the entire flock. You gotta you gotta make friends with the crows because the crows will fight off the eagles. You do. You do. Yeah. I love I love living in Montana. It's a very humbling Right. It reminds me of similar to here. Right? Different wildlife, but the thing like, we have eagles and hawks and mink and Yep. And weasels and ferrets and foxes and coyotes and, like, everything wants to eat chickens because they taste like chicken. So, you know, this is definitely the most important part of the show, folks. Remember, if you're gonna free range your chickens, you gotta be out there. We're gonna have, like, some kind of fence or a dog or something to to fight off the other other critters.
George, I think I think this is a great conversation. I think we've we've kind of, you know, maybe stumbled around a bit on topics, but I think we're we're hitting the nail on the head that the biggest thing that people are missing about kind of moving into AI is automating the human parts instead of the parts nobody cares about, right, on, you know, the back end stuff. And and don't don't use the AI to replace the you that needs to be in your business. Right?
[00:29:54] George Bryant:
Mhmm. A 100%. I you said it so well. Like, I you know, my secret sauce is I spend all my time how make entrepreneurs scale primarily from six to seven or beyond figures. And what I've seen across the board is this falling in love with these automations, but then six months later, they're like, my business has stagnated. And I was like, yes. Because you removed the secret ingredient, which was you. Like, one client in my brain in particular right now was doing, you know, 250, $300,000 a month. And then all of a sudden, it dipped down to, like, a $100 a month. And they're like, what happened? What happened? And I was like, well, let me look. And what had basically happened is they stopped going live once a week when they were going live, and they started automating pieces of content. And then every one of their clients always came from, like, a fifteen minute coffee chat, and they're like, oh, I don't have time to do it anymore.
Let's just remove that and send them a microwave video to get them warmed up. And by the time we caught it, there was, like, a half a million dollars of implication. I was like, no. Like, you removed the one thing that AI can't do, which is you. It's like your authenticity, your essence, people experiencing you. And then within a week, we added it back and sales started going right back up. And I was like, no. The whole point of AI and even marketing automation ten years ago is to automate the parts that don't require a human to allow you to have more time and capacity to be a human. Right? Like, you know, I run live events. Right? I can't ever imagine somebody coming to a live event, and then they walk out to a holograph of me. I'm like, why would they have come?
Right? Like, there's the the part where, you know, you have to allow yourself, to your point, automate those things that don't require a human so that you have more time to be in those relationships. And and in business, like, I don't care what business you're in. You can be in a service based business. You can be in a product based business. But businesses are done people to people. Right? Like, there are certain things that are done people to people and that's why people choose businesses. Right? Like, I joke with people all the time. I'm like, how many of you can think of a restaurant that doesn't have the best food, but you keep going back to it and recommending people to it? And they're like, oh, I can. And I'm like, how many of you can think of a restaurant where you had an incredible meal, but the service sucked and you don't tell anybody about it? And they're like, I can't. I'm like, what's the secret sauce?
Right. And truthfully, it's the culture. It's the relationship with the people. And I think that that's gonna be one of the biggest and it's something I'm seeing right now. There's so many people that are making short term money by automating all of these things, but what they're not thinking about is, like, the long term downstream effects of these things. Right. Because once those people go somewhere else or, you know, I always joke. I'm like, if you don't love your customers, I'll come love them for you. Once those people get that human to human experience, they're going to switch very, very quickly because there is something that we cannot replace or replicate at least for certain people that just desire human connection.
And so I think no matter what we see in AI, I love the way that you framed it is, like, we have to understand what the end goal or end desire is for the people that we're serving. And then I would submit it's using AI and automations to automate the things or replace the things that you don't need to be doing that they can benefit from, but then allow yourself to insert yourself in that relationship. And and I joke, especially for married people, like, you and I are both men. We're both married. I was like, the way that most people are using AI right now is they spend their entire time courting their wife. They say I do, and then they automate every date, text message, and email and expect to not be sleeping on the couch. That's not the way to do it. The way to do it is, like, hey. Yeah. Maybe you preschedule flowers and reminders for you to send them and and preschedule important dates and text messages and send them.
[00:33:48] AI Narrator #1:
AI, the administrative side. Yeah. A 100%. AI, the productive
[00:33:53] George Bryant:
side, but not the creative side and not the human side. Yeah. And even one of the things anecdotally that I'm seeing is right. Like, I've been using email marketing my whole career. Like, I love email. It still works. But with how much noise is created now because of how frequently and personalized AI and automations are, people are reading them less and less, and they're texting me when I email them. Them. Or they're shooting me a DM on Instagram where they used to reply or read it. They're like, hey. I saw your email. What was it? And it's like this desire inside of them of, like, I almost they almost have this confirmation bias now of, like, I know this was automated or I know this is in here, but I'm craving the human to human connection. So it's just something to notice for people. Yeah. Or they assume automation first. Right? Yeah. Yeah. That's the in the b to b world. That's the default.
[00:34:43] AI Narrator #1:
George, I hate to have to cut it short, but I also I know that we both got other business we gotta get to. If somebody wants to reach out to you to learn a little more, what's the best way for them to get ahold of you? Yeah, man. I love this question. I know you're on LinkedIn. I would connect with you on LinkedIn except I'm banned for life. If you wanna know the story, just reach out and ask me. I'm not.
[00:35:04] George Bryant:
Yeah. Yeah. I'm banned for life, but the best place is my website. It's the pinkest website you'll ever see. It's my favorite color, mindofgeorge.com. My podcast is there. My Instagram is there. But if if I can help you in any way, if I could answer a question, help you scale your business, teach you about customer journey or anything, just shoot me a DM on Instagram or through the contact form of my website. We'll get a cup of coffee. I'll pour into you however I can. But mindofgeorge.com is the best place.
[00:35:28] AI Narrator #1:
Alright, George. I appreciate you coming on the show, and I hope that rebuilding the chicken flock goes well. Thanks, brother. I appreciate you having me, man. So thank you, and thank you for everybody listening.
[00:35:38] George Bryant:
I'm
[00:35:39] AI Narrator #1:
feeling lost. What's coming next? The world is changing. It's so complex. Will AI take my job? Will I be replaced? I'm just a cog in this corporate race. Don't you worry what's going on. And, hey, I even wrote and sang this song. Embrace the change. Don't run
[00:36:20] Narrator AI:
away. Knowledge is power. You need to seize the day.
[00:36:27] AI Narrator #1:
Just read the book. Buy that all. With every
[00:36:46] Narrator AI:
page, you'll find your way. Don't let fear keep you at bay.
[00:36:54] AI Narrator #1:
Don't read the book. Buy that I'll
[00:37:09] Narrator AI:
take that chance to understand AI to join the dance.
[00:37:19] AI Narrator #1:
That's the spirit. Let's dive right in. The future awaits. Let the journey begin.
[00:37:34] Narrator AI:
Will they take my job too?
[00:37:41] AI Narrator #1:
A book by Matt Rose. Discover the future of AI
[00:37:49] Narrator AI:
today. Today.
[00:37:54] AI Narrator #1:
Find the book. Buy the book. Buy the
Opening tease: the "secret ingredient" in business is you
Intro to Digital Marketing Masters with Matt Rose
Meet George Bryant and the 7,000 podcast surprise
Favorite shows and deep, human conversations
Prepared talks vs. authentic, in‑the‑moment speaking
Principles over tactics in a fast‑changing AI world
Jeff Bezos lesson: focus on what never changes
Robots are here: from warehouses to local stores
Exponential AI progress vs. our linear brains
Customer journey, AI, and the hunger for human connection
Where AI helps and where humans matter
Finding the balance: automate wisely
Design for the end goal: SMB Autopilot example
Designing "magic" experiences with AI
Everyday AI wins: translations and social automation
Entrepreneurship is changing: ideas and testing speed
The time dividend and loneliness in entrepreneurship
Automate to buy freedom, not your identity
Robot dreams: RadioShack, homes, and chores
Humans need hard things: movement, work, and health
Algorithms that choose for you and the cost of ease
Chicken interlude: predators, flocks, and resilience
Core thesis: do not automate away the human
Automate admin to create time for real relationships
People choose people: culture beats perfect product
A practical rubric: end goals, automation, and presence
Inbox noise and the shift back to human channels
Wrap‑up and how to reach George Bryant
Closing song: Will they take my job too?
