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The Calum Johnson ShowThe Calum Johnson Show

The Automation Expert: How To Get RICH In The New Era Of AI (Painfully Simple!!) | Dan Martell

Timestamps About the Guest / About the Episode @danmartell is a serial entrepreneur who’s built and sold three startups and now runs a \$100M+ portfolio investing in AI In this unexpectedly raw conversation, Dan lays out a clear…

Dan MartellguestCalum Johnsonhost
Sep 2, 20251h 24mWatch on YouTube

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Transcript

  1. 0:00 – 6:45

    Intro

    1. DM

      ChatGPT came out only 32 months ago. Today, 700 million people use it every week, and it is the most powerful technology to dramatically improve your life I've ever seen.

    2. CJ

      What are the opportunities that you're seeing that you're like, "Oh, if I was back to being 22-year-old Dan"

    3. DM

      I wanna create wealth. I wanna cr- be defensible in the future in the market. I want to be valuable into the future. This is what I do. I literally learn how to-

    4. CJ

      You said, "At 15, I got kicked out of the house. By 16, I was in jail, and at the age of 27, I celebrated making my first million." If you had to almost go back today as the Dan that you are now and go back and talk to that 17-year-old version of Dan that felt completely lost, I'm just curious, what would you say?

    5. DM

      It's hard for me to talk about, man. I, I can't... Dude, you got me, man, right off the bat.

    6. CJ

      Today's guest is Dan Martell, and before we get into it, let me say that the way this conversation went was completely unexpected. I stepped into the studio thinking we'd go deep on AI and the cutting edge business ideas that you can capitalize on. And to be clear, we did all of that. What I did not expect is how vulnerable and emotional Dan got in this conversation. And so for context, Dan runs $100 million business that invests in different AI companies. He's built and sold three startups. He's a family man with a wife and kids. It all sounds perfect, but when he would talk about his early years, his childhood years, you could feel the emotion. I actually thought about this episode a lot after we finished recording it, and there's one part in particular that just kept replaying in my head again and again and again, and it's where Dan says, "Learning how to code in the '90s changed my life. It's how I built my wealth." He then goes on to say that learning how to maximize AI is the modern equivalent of what learning how to code was 20 years ago. With all of that said, I truly believe this conversation is gonna change someone's life. And so if you enjoy this episode, I want you to take out your phone, hit that share button, and share it with that person in your life that just needs that moment of hope and inspiration right now. Thank you, and let's get into the episode. You're listening to The Calum Johnson Show. I just wanted to read this. You said, "At 15, I got kicked out of the house. By 16, I was in jail. Friends stopped visiting. Family gatherings happened without me."

    7. DM

      Mm.

    8. CJ

      "I looked like a lost cause, but sometimes all it takes is one person to step in and change everything. For me, that person was Brian, my jail guard." And so you know what? We're gonna get into the success and everything that came afterwards, and even the opportunity that exists right now with AI, but I wanted to start right at that point and get the context, that rock bottom moment. It looked like I was a lost cause. How did you get there?

    9. DM

      Dude, you got me, man, right off the bat. It's hard for me to talk about, man. I, I can't... I-- Going back there, remembering how alone I felt, how broken I felt. Like, there was a period of my life when, when you said specifically the f- the family gatherings happened without me. Like, sometimes I'll come across, like, a photo album that my family has, and there's just, like, pages of pictures. Dan's not in them because I was in jail. So there's this, like, two-year window where my family's life continued happening and Dan disappeared, and man, was that hard. Everything changed when a guard pulled me aside. His name was Brian. And he sat me down and he looked me in the eyes and he said, "You don't belong here." He said, "I've been here for almost 10 years. I've seen a lot of kids come and go, and I've watched you, and you just-- It doesn't make sense that you're in this place." And I was confused. I mean, I'm thinking to myself, "Well, he doesn't know me." I wanna dismiss it. And for whatever reason, because of who he was, he had no reason to say. He wasn't my caseworker. Like, honestly, he could've got in trouble for even pulling me aside to say it. It kind of planted a seed of, like, potential, like, belief that maybe I was-- he was right, and that was, like, such a powerful moment, and I get emotional thinking about it because that's when everything shifted. Like, you know, I got diagnosed with ADHD when I was 11 and, you know, had anger issues and, you know, got taken out of my home, and all this stuff happened as a teenager. And then one caring adult decides to slow down in his day to share a message, his belief in what he saw, and I didn't see it. I had-- I, I didn't even think I deserved to breathe the air I was taking. So when I go back there, when you share that, it's like, it's hard to hear, man.

    10. CJ

      Mm.

    11. DM

      'Cause it was such a low point. But sometimes rock bottom ... is God's way of showing him or you that he's the rock at the bottom, and my life is a, an example of that. Like, that's the way I look at it. It took a long time to do anything productive with my life, but luckily that started a different path.

    12. CJ

      Mm. A different path. You know what? It's, it's, um, I think about that like a moment of faith, I call it, and it's like you don't belong here. I'm curious if you've ever reflected on this, of like what in that moment did he see in you

  2. 6:45 – 14:16

    This one thing changed my life

    1. CJ

      that it, like it compelled him, it drew him to say that you don't belong here?

    2. DM

      I can only guess, but I know I've seen it in other kids and I've had this conversation 5,000 times with other kids. That's the cool part, if you get this. And what I saw, it's just the spark, man. It's almost like the space in between. Like songs aren't songs without the space in between the notes, and the greatness in people sometimes is not on the surface. It's in the ... You just, you just feel ... It's, it sometimes is a feeling. And something tells me I must have did or said something that got him to go, "That doesn't ... He's not like the rest of them." That, 'cause that's what I heard. I heard, "Hey, Dan. Bobby, Bobby's a lifer. Carl, he's not going anywhere. You, I don't understand why you're here." That's what I heard. It wasn't very loud. It was a little seed. But I thought, if Brian believes it, maybe there's some truth, and that's all I did. I ran with it. Three, four months later, cleaned up my act, got released into a rehab center. Took me 11 more months of therapy, 11 months of working on myself, 11 months of dealing with all the crap I had bottled up. But it started with that conversation. I, I can only imagine that's what he saw.

    3. CJ

      Mm.

    4. DM

      And the coolest part about that, for everybody listening, you, I, they all have that power to do it for somebody else. Today is my favorite thing to do. I could be at a mall and see a kid flailing on the ground, and watch a dad stand there in his power and hold space for that kid, and show love to that kid, a lot of grace to that kid. Might be absolutely frustrated he's dealing with that, and I'll just go up to him and say, "Hey, man. Being a dad's tough. I can tell you're a great dad," and I move on. I don't know that guy, but if I feel it, why wouldn't I say it? I think that the opportunity to express the belief in other people is what we're here to do. Whether people understand they have that power, I, I think it's on their heart, they just don't acknowledge it. We all have it. We all see that person on the side of the street doing their art, a kid, an adult, a mom, a dad. I don't know. I just ... I understand that, like, we never know where somebody's at in their life in those moments, and you might be the person like Brian was for me.

    5. CJ

      It's interesting 'cause it's like, um, sometimes, well, I think a lot of the times we're not cognizant of that, of like these small moments or just like a caring word can have such a profound impact on people. And it's interesting 'cause we, obviously I've been following your content for a while, but we met a few minutes ago, and you walk in and you have your team, and, like, everything is so well done, you know?

    6. DM

      Thanks.

    7. CJ

      And it's like I think back to what you said. You said, "Friends stopped visiting, family gatherings happened without me. I looked like a lost cause." Like, is that ... It's almost surreal to hear that, seeing where you are now.

    8. DM

      It's wild, man. M- my dad literally, he'll come visit me, and my life does not ... Like, it's such a stark contrast that he goes, "You ever stop and think?" I said, "Dad, I need you to hear this. Every day. Every day." I wake up and I post on my Instagram the view from my home. I live on a mountain. I overlook this beautiful city, beautiful lake. It's in Canada. It's called Kelowna, BC. And I write, "My work ethic's a reflection of my gratitude." If you think I forgot where I came from, you don't know me. I cannot believe the life I have. The reason I get emotional is because I think of like what would my life have looked like if Brian didn't take that minute to say that, and I think of my kids, I think of my wife, I think of my friends, I think of the opportunity. Like, even just, like, our whole family was in a dark cloud growing. Like, you know what I mean? It wasn't just Dan. Yes, all this, the family stuff, but my brother got in trouble with the law, my other brother got in trouble with drugs, my, my sister ran into some issues, and what happened is because I had the support of people and I decided to, like, take a different path, and they'll tell you, it's like it kinda just raised the family. And, like, today anybody that knows us knows my dad and my mom. Like, dude, we do, we do, like, family vacations every two years where we bring 18 Martells together under one roof on a ski hill. Like, there's no artifacts of that previous life, yet I will never forget just how grateful I am for all the people that showed up when I needed the most, and Brian started it, but there was hundreds of others.

    9. CJ

      Mm. You know, I'm curious. When you, you, you even mentioned, uh, being in Kelowna, BC on that mountain and, like, the reflections and the gratitude that you have. When you reflect on that period of your life and you think almost, like, the most stark contrast between where you are now and where you were, is there a certain, like, moment that comes to mind which was just, like, the pinnacle of you being, like, lost or misguided? Like, is there almost, like, a vivid picture in your mind of, like, exactly what that looked like?

    10. DM

      The opposite?

    11. CJ

      The opposite.

    12. DM

      Of, like, how bad it got?

    13. CJ

      Well, the opposite of where you are now. Okay, one minute. You're gonna wanna hear this. I was talking with one of our guests who invests in AI companies, and he told me that most people are only using ChatGPT at about 5 to 10% of its true potential, and the biggest reason why is they're using the wrong prompts. And so that conversation inspired me to partner with HubSpot on a free resource that I call the ChatGPT Prompt Engineering Guide. And basically what it is, it's a seven-day playbook that will take you from being a casual ChatGPT user to an absolute pro. And so my favorite part is the ROSES Framework. It gives you a structure for every single ChatGPT prompt. So instead of just crossing your fingers and hoping that ChatGPT will give you a useful answer, you learn exactly how to guide it to the outcome you want. It's a game changer. And it's not just that. You'll also learn how to create AI personas that will respond in your voice and how to control the format so that you can get the responses you want right away rather than having to edit them. And here's the best part. It's completely free. So just hit the link in the description to grab the free guide. Thank you to HubSpot for helping me put this together. Let's get back to the episode.

  3. 14:16 – 19:20

    It was my rock bottom moment!

    1. DM

      Yeah. There's a whole backstory, but the worst it ever got was, you know, I, you know, g- grew up and got in trouble shoplifting, fights, ended up in, you know, juvenile detention the first time for, like, eight weeks all summer. Got out. Mission, changed my life. This time it's different. Remember the guard saying, "See you soon." I'm like, "Why would you say that?" Like, you know what I mean? He was right. First day I'm back, back in it, same friends, same drinking, drugs, all that stuff. And that went on for about a year and a half, and I ended up, you know, getting involved with the wrong group. Cops found some stuff. My brother calls me and says, "Don't come home. Cops are waiting for you." So I go on the run. I end up hiding out at one of my buddy's hunting camps that I knew of, that I knew he wasn't there, and it was in the middle of nowhere. Nobody would find me, 'cause they wouldn't even know that I'm there. And there was a day that I took a rifle and I went for a walk. And I was, I was gonna just stop. And I sat in a field with the barrel under my chin and I scared myself. And I threw the gun and I just laid there crying. That's how I know angels exist. Like, I want- Having reflected on that moment and people like Brian and many others, like, there's no doubt that if you're listening to this or you're here, we're here, that we're, there's a reason why. Because every time you get in your car, you could get in a situation where you don't come back from where you came from. Like, that's just ... I'm just very s- like, aware of my existence, if that makes sense. Just there's been so many moments where it could've went left, but it went right. And I'm talking, like, even as recent as two years ago when I fell off a cliff in the backcountry on a snow bike, which is essentially a dirt bike with a snowmobile track. I fall off this cliff 40 feet. Could've landed on my back, could've landed on my spleen, could've died. And I didn't. I landed on the bike, literally almost broke my leg, but I didn't. I rode myself out. Like, just there's so many examples of that that I'm just like, "I'm here to do something. I just don't wanna waste it." But it got, it got that bad, man. It was like I couldn't stop the downward spiral, and I thought the only way out was to take my life.

    2. CJ

      You know what? In that moment, 'cause I think that this, um ... I think about this, like, hitting someone, you know. Um, in that moment, because it really is, like, a split second moment. Like, it could've gone either way.

    3. DM

      Either way.

    4. CJ

      What makes you ... Like, what makes you make that decision? What makes you throw that rifle in the dirt? Like, where does your mind go?

    5. DM

      I think, like, obviously this is 30 years ago, 28 years ago I definitely thought of my brothers and sisters. Like, there's one thing to wanna end your pain. I think most people that don't do that, it's 'cause they don't wanna create pain for people they love. And that, that was what it was for me. Like, I was in pain, but I don't think the pain was strong enough to overcome the downside that I was worried about, which was hurting my family. If that wasn't there, then it would've been a done decision.

    6. CJ

      Yeah.

    7. DM

      For sure.

    8. CJ

      Yeah. You know what? There was a, there was a second part of that post that I didn't read out. That second part, so you said, "Sometimes all it takes is one person to step in and change everything. For me, that person was Brian, my jail guard." You then said, "I cleaned up my act. I learned to code. I got my life together. And at the age of 27, I celebrated making my first million."

    9. DM

      Mm.

  4. 19:20 – 25:24

    This is how I built my wealth...

    1. CJ

      You know what? I wanna, I wanna start with that. "I cleaned up my act. I learned to code." That second line, "I learned to code," it felt like such an important part of the story.

    2. DM

      It's everything. It's how I created my wealth. It's what I do every day. I'm a ... I didn't, I always thought I was broken because I wasn't good in school. And what happened in rehab, I was, again, I did 11 months in this place, and towards the end of my program, I stuck around for the summer 'cause I wanted a little bit more time. And they kinda put me, I graduated, but I stuck around, so I was working with the, um, maintenance guy, Rick. So I was, like, his apprentice, and we were cleaning out one of the cabins that was on, it was built on an old church camp, so there was these cabins nobody had been in in years. And as we kinda, like, pulled stuff out of the main room and then kinda got into another room, I open a door and there's this desk sitting there and an old computer, 486, dusted. And sitting next to it, this is in 1997, there's a book on Java programming. I never touched a computer growing up. I'd never seen computer code. I open it up expecting not to be able to understand a word, but it actually reads like English. If anybody's ever seen JavaScript, it's like, if this and, you know, for this, and I don't know, something spoke to me and said, "Hmm, I wonder what would happen."

    3. CJ

      Mm.

    4. DM

      So I just sat down and took 20 minutes to follow chapter one of this book, typing on the computer, and then I hit Enter. And on the screen, it prints out, "Hello, world," which, looking back, is kind of funny 'cause every computer, that's literally the first app that you build with any computer code. It's Hello World, the Hello World app. And something inside of me kinda made me think, "Hmm, maybe I'm, I'm not good at the other s- decisions I make in my life, but this computer thing, like, I just did this thing. Like, I've never touched a computer. I made it say, 'Hello, world.'" And that started the journey, and in many ways, became my new addiction. See, like, when you get sober, there's a hole. Some people fill it with girls. Some people fill it with video games. Some people vi- fill it with, you know, caffeine. Like, I mean, there, there, there's just this, like, need to fill that addictive head space, and I got lucky that it just, I literally became addicted to writing code. And then I get out, '97, '98, and I discover this little tiny thing called the internet, and that's been my journey. Like, learning to code and building software, it also became like meditation for me. Like, if anybody's ever done, like, creative projects, writing software, when you're locked in, headphones on, music playing, and you're just, like, in flow, it's a meditative process. So I, I, I, in many ways, it became, like, my new friends, my new focus. And then entrepreneurship was just a byproduct of being, you know, I always joke with the kids that I talk, I talk to a lot of at-risk youth, and I go to, I'm going, in Miami Detention Center, and when I speak to them, like, "You guys have the DNA of being entrepreneurs. Many of you were entrepreneurs, just-"

    5. CJ

      [laughs]

    6. DM

      "... wasn't legal. So apply that to stuff that's legal, and you'll be a weapon." And that was true for me. It became the ultimate personal development program because when I started building stuff, I had to get better. Me, Dan, I, I, my mind had to get better. So it was like a forcing function of learning how to be just better in my life. And it was, and it, I mean, I wrote code for 15 years, built companies, sold companies, made money. Now I have a whole team of engineers that work for me building AI tools, and it's just like that became essentially the vehicle for my life. So yeah, learning to code was, was a huge turning point.

    7. CJ

      Mm. You know, as I, as I listen more and more, it's like, um, your story is like a story of faith in many ways, and you even spoke about it. You said, uh, there's been hundreds of people that believed in you in different moments.

    8. DM

      Mm-hmm.

    9. CJ

      And even, like, it started with, uh, with Brian, with that simple, you know, like, "You don't belong here." But it's actually funny that learning that skill of coding and having that thing that you could get addicted to and obsessed with, it's actually, and I can even hear it and feel it as you speak, is like it built self-belief.

    10. DM

      That's what it was. I, I had, I didn't feel smart. Like, think about this. I built my empire today I live in, and there was a point in my life where I thought my brain was broken. I thought I wasn't intelligent 'Cause I flunked out of school and people w- like growing up, I wasn't even allowed to hang out with the n- kids in my neighborhood. So like learning to code built that self-esteem. Building a product that somebody else used and paid me for built that self-confidence. Like all of those things, that, that's what that did for me. And, and looking back, I can almost see like the self-doubt and the insecurities and the anxiousness and like, and over time, like, like building that certainty almost because of like the feedback I was getting from people that were using these tools I was building, and I just ... Man, I can't imagine a different path. Like, you know when people ask you like, you know, "If you could change anything, would you?" No way. Zero. I'm so happy, grateful the way it worked out, but it also took me 10 years. Like Calum, a lot of people, they're impatient,

  5. 25:24 – 33:07

    How Dan Made His First Million!

    1. DM

      man. These kids, they're like, "I wanna be a millionaire by the time I'm 21." I'm like, I started at 17 when I got out of rehab, full-on attacking the entrepreneurial game, and it wasn't until, you said it, 27 that I finally made my first million. Now, that still sounds young to most people, but it was 10 years heads down.

    2. CJ

      Yeah. You know, you said, "At 27, I celebrated making my first million." I guess that you said it was like a decade in the making.

    3. DM

      Mm-hmm.

    4. CJ

      Tell me about that. Just, just tell me about that moment. Okay, quick break. When it comes to using new technology, I remember years ago trying Amazon's Alexa for the first time. My mom had it in her kitchen, and I still remember asking it to play these throwback R&B songs that I loved, mainly Usher, and being blown away that you could just speak into this device and it would play your favorite song. Well, fast-forward, I got early access to the new Alexa Plus along with an Echo Show 15 device in the mail, and this Alexa is leagues ahead of that first Amazon Alexa that I used. It's way more intelligent now, and so what that means is that you don't have to speak in this weird robotic phrasing. You can just talk and it gets it. It remembers what matters, it understands context, and it actually helps with your life. And so for example, the last couple of weeks I've been using it to book Ubers, order groceries, keep track of my calendar, and yeah, of course still playing my favorite Usher tracks through it all. It even helped me book a dinner reservation yesterday completely hands-free. It's like having a super productive, intuitive companion that just makes your life easier. And so if you wanna try it, Alexa Plus is rolling out now in early access, and it's free during that phase. And so if you wanna get in on it, just hit the exclusive link in the description to request access. Thank you again to Amazon for sponsoring this video, and let's get back into the episode. Okay, quick pause. If you've ever tried to start a business, you know that painful feeling where you just feel lost. You have all of these open questions of what to do next and no answers. What should my store look like? How do I write a product description? What's the best next step? I'll speak firsthand. That is a tough place to be as an entrepreneur. Well, Shopify and their new AI assistant, Sidekick, is a game changer, and they're also sponsoring this episode. Shopify is the all-in-one toolkit for launching and running your business, whether you're selling candles, coaching, merch, whatever the thing is. It gives you everything you need all in one place, and Sidekick is their new built-in AI assistant. It's literally like having a super intelligent co-founder that helps you build, run, and grow your Shopify store. And the cool part is it doesn't just follow instructions. It knows your business, it learns with you, and it helps you actually do the work, whether that's setting up your store, perfecting your design, or even running a campaign. And so if you wanna start your business today with Shopify, go to shopify.com/calumjohnson. That's shopify.com/calumjohnson. Thank me later. Let's get back to the episode.

    5. DM

      You know, I remember the day I found out. So what happened was is I was in between meetings. Like my life 24 to 28 was just massively chaotic. I- 'cause that was the first time I started to make money, and I didn't know how I was doing it, so I was just so insecure about it that I only f- had one gear, which is get shit done. Like just whatever's working, I can't tell you what it is, but if I just keep playing it back and ... So the intensity was there and the, and I was burning the candle at both ends and I was working 100-hour weeks and like I was in a relationship. I wasn't even paying attention. I lit- I remember going out for dinner and like stepping out 80% of the dinner to take calls, to have conversations. Like can you imagine the kind of person to be in a relationship with somebody where you go out for date night and the person is out on the patio in front of the restaurant on calls while you sit there with the meal that was served? And that was like all the time. I was, I was a horrible person to, to be friends with at that period. And what happened is I was rushing in between meetings and my accountant, Mark, calls, and he goes, "You wanna hear something cool?" I said, "I like hearing cool stuff. What do you got?" He goes, "You have a million dollars in cash, taxes paid, retained earnings, in your business." And my response to him was, "Is that good?" No point of reference. I don't know. "Mark, is that good?" He goes, "Yes, Dan, that's, that's really good. You should be proud of yourself." I said, "Cool." Hung up the phone, kept building. Like I don't know. The goal was never to make a million dollars. It's kinda funny, like I, I think at one point I had a goal to like make 100,000 a year personally, but then after that it was like I just wanna see what I can build. I just wanna see ... Like it was almost I was using the size of my company as a fuck you to everybody that didn't believe in me Like, I'm, I, I had a list, man. In my head, my buddy Mike's mom, the one that told me I couldn't play with her kids, I had to- dude, I just had to stand at the end on the sidewalk and somehow get the, the attention of my friends in their backyard on the trampoline, 'cause, you know, this is, we don't, there was no cellphones, right? Just for them to like come to the sidewalk so we could like go and play, 'cause I wasn't allowed in their yard.

    6. CJ

      Mm.

    7. DM

      So there was like a series of people that like the size of the business, the press I got. You know, I won entrepreneur of the year, Canadian entrepreneur of the year. You better believe I hope they saw that press release. I mean, it was a dark energy I was doing it for. I've since grown up, but yeah, man, that, those 10 years of just like trying and failing and trying and failing. But this is what I've learned. My calendar, my life, what I'm doing is a real time autobiography of my life. So like the story's only good if it was hard.

    8. CJ

      Mm.

    9. DM

      You know what I'm saying?

    10. CJ

      Yeah.

    11. DM

      The bigger the monster, the bigger the hero. The bigger the challenge, the more impressive the achievement. So like I kinda knew that a little bit, so I wasn't upset that it was hard, 'cause there was a part of me that just felt like it would be unreasonable for me to assume at some point I'm not gonna make that 100 grand a year if I just stick at it.

    12. CJ

      Mm.

    13. DM

      And I honestly didn't have any other choice, 'cause I was like wildly unemployable. Like every once in- like one time I had a real job for like nine months. Dude, I was like not... I was causing more trouble, I was talking back to my boss, I was, you know, not listening to anybody. HR was like having calls with me. I'm like, "This is dumb. I don't wanna do this." So yeah, I failed two times in a row. Like seriously, like lost money, tried it again, lost money. My dad was like, "Maybe you should get a normal job again." I'm like, "No." I think the benefit I had, Calum, actually looking back, is because nobody had any high expectations of me. As long as I was sober, it was okay. Do you know what I mean?

    14. CJ

      Yeah.

    15. DM

      The, the, the floor was so low in regards to what they expected Dan to do with his life.

    16. CJ

      Mm-hmm.

    17. DM

      As long as I didn't relapse, they were like happy.

    18. CJ

      Yeah. It's like playing with house money.

    19. DM

      Yeah, like everybody else when they're like, "My parents want me to go to university and da-da," and I'm just like, "Oh yeah, my parents didn't think I would even get out of high school." So like-

    20. CJ

      [laughs]

    21. DM

      ... you know, I'm already winning. So that, that definitely was a benefit, just the low expectations. But I had, I guess, somewhat high expectations for my life. But yeah, it took 10 years.

    22. CJ

      Mm.

  6. 33:07 – 39:06

    We are in the New AI Era!

    1. CJ

      You know, I wanna, I wanna get into the AI, the AI stuff. It's, um, it's interesting even listening to your story, 'cause it's like you have this light bulb moment around coding and like finding JavaScript, and it's interesting for me personally, and I think for a lot of people, they're now having their like light bulb moment all around AI.

    2. DM

      Hell yeah.

    3. CJ

      And so you know what? You, I even, I heard you say this. You said, "I've built and sold three software companies. I've in, I've invested in over 100. I've been building tech companies since 1997. I saw the internet boom. I've seen the Web2 boom. I've seen the mobile boom. I've seen it all, but I haven't been this excited in the tech industry since 1997 with the internet." You know, I, I wanna start right there, even for the person that's not... Like you, you live and breathe in this world.

    4. DM

      Mm-hmm.

    5. CJ

      Like why are you so excited right now with what's going on?

    6. DM

      I'll give you some stats. ChatGPT, which is what most people think of AI, came out only 32 months ago.

    7. CJ

      Crazy.

    8. DM

      Today, 700 million people use it every week. Not month, every week. It's the fastest adopted technology in the history of mankind, more than the browser, more than the internet, more than Facebook, more than Instagram, more than anything. It's the only technology that as you use it, it gets better. Electricity is a technology. The more electricity you use didn't make electricity better. Electricity is electricity. AI, the more it's used, the more it learns, the better it gets. We've seen it evolve in the last 32 months, ChatGPT and many other language models, and it is the most powerful technology to dramatically improve your life I've ever seen, more than mobile, more than social, more than the internet. Here's what I believe, Calum. It's like everybody thinks they have problems, but if every problem you have is no longer a problem, then what's the problem to solve? Because the truth is, is there's no problem that you could have. You could tell me the problem right now and I'd feed that into AI and it would give you your answer to solve it. So what's the problem to solve? Comes down to sequencing. Literally, what do I do today versus tomorrow versus next week versus next month? And that's such a wild place that everybody distributed 100% as long as you have the internet, you have access to the same power that I do. Everybody. Now, they might pretend not to know what I just said, 'cause I see people all the time walking around pretending not to know, but I just said it, and if you choose to dismiss it or ignore it, you're pretending not to know, 'cause it's facts. You give it any problem you have in your life, I don't care if it's personal, professional, mathematical equations, generative video, content creation, it'll give you the answer based on the historic accumulation of all knowledge.

    9. CJ

      Mm-hmm.

    10. DM

      That is wild, dude. I can't believe... I thought it was wild that I was living through like- Some of the other massive transformation, mobile. Like, if you think of, like, FaceTime, if you went back 100 years, they would burn you at the stake-

    11. CJ

      Yeah

    12. DM

      ... 'cause it looks like magic. And AI is the same thing. It feels like magic. You know, a long time ago, I, I... In the space of technology, we've been talking about artificial intelligence forever, and there's this guy, Kevin Kelly, and he had this quote, and he used to say, "What is electrified will be cognified." And, like, now when I see these open source mini language models that you can install on a phone that can do what it does without internet, 'cause that's how it works, I'm like, "Holy cow. Everything that has electricity will have intelligence." What does that world look like? You know what I mean? Like, what does a world when the light has intelligence, when this has intelligence, when these mics have intelligence, and there's no longer a need to turn on lights, turn off lights, set mics, set the... It just, it's intelligent. It knows just like a person would know. It's, it's kinda, it's cool. A lot of people will go dark side of that. I'm an optimist. I think it's gonna create a space for people to have the freedom to choose how they wanna live.

    13. CJ

      Mm. It almost, it starts to, um, almost s- sounds like one of those sci-fi movies, you know? It starts to, it starts to feel like that.

    14. DM

      Sci- sci-fi is just, like, prediction of futures that eventually will come to be. I mean, that's all sci-fi is.

    15. CJ

      Mm.

    16. DM

      So yeah, it does, but it's, you know, we've been living in that world for a long time. Like, like things that we're doing today were sci-fi people of 100 years ago.

    17. CJ

      Mm.

    18. DM

      I mean, 300 years ago, 90% of the population were farmers. Today it's less than 3.

    19. CJ

      Yeah.

    20. DM

      Okay? So, like, we've gone through these massive transformations. What's different this time is the speed it's happening, and then there's this, like, massive separation of the population of people that are on board, the 700 million that use ChatGPT every week, and then the seven billion that still have not decided to, like, make some serious investment in understanding how this works.

    21. CJ

      Mm. You know, w- we're gonna get into it, and we're gonna get into, like, the opportunities and, uh, 'cause I'm, I'm curious what you're, what you're seeing, but there was... I just wanna make it so real for people, and I heard you say this. You say, "They've joked in the AI community that there's going to be billion-dollar companies with one employee-

    22. DM

      One person

    23. CJ

      ... and they're right."

    24. DM

      Yeah.

    25. CJ

      Can you... That, that's, like, mind-blowing. Like, talk, talk... How is that even possible?

  7. 39:06 – 41:17

    DIRECTOR vs DOER: agents will do the work (and change everything)

    1. DM

      Beautiful question. So if you think of how AI works as the ability to take an input, reason, and what is not widely understood or adopted today is do. So the separation right now is what I call the directors and the doers, okay? In current world, most people do both, a little bit of thinking, a lot of doing, right? If you think of somebody that does accounting, a little bit of thinking, but for the most part, they're reconciling bank accounts and books, okay? They're, they're just doing. An admin- an administrative assistant, right? I wrote a whole book on this. Little bit of thinking, a lot of sorting, a lot of doing, a lot of booking, a lot of coordination, but it's not directing, right? And what AI is eventually gonna take care of is all the doing part. So right now we're starting to see this, the beginning, with agents in ChatGPT, which is a feature, where it can now log in to software and take action on your behalf, not just be a thought partner and ask it questions and give you answers, but literally ask, give it a problem, it give you the answer, and then it'll prompt you, "Do you want me to do that for you?" And you say, "Yes," and then, then it goes into the software and does the thing on your behalf. If you haven't seen that, it's wild. But that... So if you think about it, how could somebody have a billion-dollar company with no employees? Well, essentially all the doing that they normally would have a, an employee base to do is an, already, is all done by the agentic systems. That's why it's called the agents. So then the CEO is just a master director. The CEO is the creative. The CEO says, "I think the world should have an insurance product that's tied to the health of the individual based on a device they wear that records their biometrics, that feeds back to us, and if they're healthier, their insurance is lower." That's my idea. All right. Now I need to build the legal infrastructure for that. AI, take that concept, write the legal contracts. Brr. Now get that executed. Done. Build me a marketing plan. Done. Execute the marketing plan.

  8. 41:17 – 44:33

    There will be a $1B Company With One Employee

    1. DM

      Done. Like, do you see what I'm saying?

    2. CJ

      Mm.

    3. DM

      All the do- And, and guess what? It's, we're doing it today. There are organizations that have one-person marketing teams that are doing the work of 15 or 25 in the past, like from two or three years ago, because the ability to ideate and execute and all that stuff is done. So over the next few years, you're just gonna see more and more agentic models applied to all these different areas of procurement and legal and finance and sales and marketing, which is all these departments and companies, and you're just gonna have a person who's the director or the CEO, and he's just gonna wake up, and he's just gonna look at the information, and he's gonna talk to his copilot AI, and it's gonna give it some feedback. I mean, we've got an internal tool. So we built this tool that essentially monitors all the conversations my team's having and the Slack messages, right? Now, some people go, "Well, that's creepy." What, what is the difference between a manager? A manager's a person that sits on a meeting to listen to what's said and makes decisions. So I don't need a manager on a meeting to listen to what's said and make decisions. I need anything to listen, and then... So now I can get a report of h- the health of my company. It can tell me this person's a little confused based on these questions they asked. Maybe you should get them some training. So if you just think of, like, the ability for the AI to analyze, diagnose, execute, of course, you're gonna have a billion-dollar company with no employees. Now, you know, is a person that's a contractor... Like, if everybody's a contractor that works, that, that drives for Uber, does that mean Uber has no employees? So, like, there'll be people employed, they just will be done through other services.

    4. CJ

      Mm.

    5. DM

      So the individual doesn't have to do one-on-ones with any person. They don't have to manage leadership offsites with their team, other endpoints, right? Like, where it goes from idea director to AI to person to still do something, right? Like, there's still today somebody that delivers packages to the front door. But that's where if you start to go down the rabbit hole of robotics and you look at companies like Figure, which is a US-based robotics company. I track 10 companies around the world, China, US, and other countries. Figure, for example, their Figure 02 robot is currently deployed. It looks like a person. They call it a humanoid form factor, and it's currently deployed at BMW plants helping make cars, UPS factories sorting packages, and they have a demo where in a home you dropped a bag of groceries and it worked with another robot to figure out what goes in the fridge, what goes in the drawer, and it also does laundry.

    6. CJ

      Mm.

    7. DM

      So even, like, the potential endpoints of a business where there's a person in the loop right now could be disrupted with robots. So yeah, I see that future. Some people say, "Well, that doesn't sound like fun." I'm t- I'm... I believe that we're gonna get to a place where transportation, shelter, and food will no longer be something you have to pay for. Everybody will have it.

    8. CJ

      Mm.

  9. 44:33 – 45:39

    The future is here (just not evenly distributed)

    1. CJ

      You know what? It's like, um, I love these conversations 'cause it's actually ... It's, it's cool to talk about the future, but actually a lot of this stuff is already here.

    2. DM

      Oh, yeah.

    3. CJ

      It's when you-

    4. DM

      It's just not widely distributed.

    5. CJ

      Mm.

    6. DM

      That's what I call it.

    7. CJ

      Yeah. And so one of the... And, and, and the interesting thing to me is actually, and this is what I've learned, it's like a mindset switch.

    8. DM

      Yeah.

    9. CJ

      Like, being the director versus the doer, it's a mindset switch. And to your point earlier, there's gonna be some people that make that s- that mental switch, and it, like, the same way that learning how to code propelled you to making your first million at 27, that this is gonna propel them to whatever their success is, the, the reality that they want to build. And so it's interesting because, uh, one of actually the most popular videos on your channel is nine AI skills you must have to become rich. And so I'm curious, just speaking to you today, if someone at home is thinking to themselves, it's like, "Okay, I need to get on this. Like, I need to, I need to start getting ready

  10. 45:39 – 51:09

    TVC: Taste, Vision, Care — The 3 Skills You Must Have...

    1. CJ

      for this. Like, it's here right now," what are the, I don't know, the one or two skills that you're saying to them-

    2. DM

      I'll give them the three 'cause I, I... Most people are gonna be floored. They're, they're, they're gonna get disrupted with AI, most people. And you know this just by looking at what they do on weekends. If you took the weekend to escape from your week, that's what you're gonna do, and everybody else that understands how to adopt AI, they're gonna live a completely different life. The three defensible skills as I see it today, and I reserve the right to change my mind at any point, new information, new choices, is this. There's three things. I call it TVC. First off, you need to understand that taste is the difference-maker. See, AI can only give you what it knows based on what we've created in the past as a human species. It doesn't create. It is essentially a fancy autocomplete. That's a very simplistic way to say it, but technically that's what it is, right? It's predicting the words based on tokens, based on math. Taste is the human ability to look at something and go, "Hmm, there's something there," right? The lighting, the sound. It's what music producers do. It's what Rick Rubin does. It's what a great chef does. You see what I'm saying? It's, it's taste. It's, it's, it's a vibe. It's a feeling. So developing your taste is a skill. You can do that. How? Exposure. Looking at a lot of examples of world-class stuff in that domain, from food to music to software to whatever it is. So taste is the first one. Second one is vision. See, vision isn't about, uh, like, pretending to see the future. It's having a vision for the future that doesn't exist yet that should. That's the qualifier: that doesn't exist that should. I have a lot of friends in the software world that had a vision of some innovation they wanted to build. They built it. Nobody want it, right? I just saw a whole exposé about these, uh, vegan protein plant-based burgers. All hot, and now the stock's down 90%. Why? Turned out the world doesn't really want that kind of product. Maybe it changes, but I'm just saying, like, vision is the ability to have clarity around the future of something that doesn't exist that should. Calum, you wanna hear something crazy? It may break your brain.

    3. CJ

      Let's go for it.

    4. DM

      Everything you see in this room was first conceived in the mind of a person from the past, all of it. So technically we're living in the dreams of the people from the past, and that's how it's always been. And AI is just this tool that allows us to do that at scale. So the skill set is vision. That's the V in the TVC. C is care. AI is PhD-level analytical intelligence, the analyst. There's three types of intelligence. Second type of intelligence is creative, right? It's more vision. It's creative. It's taste and vision. It's creative, like creating, the director. It's creating. But the third type of intelligence is emotional intelligence, and that's care. As it stands today and, and as far as I can see, an AI cannot do this. You know what I mean? When we met, there's a feeling. I feel you. I, I, I, I get you. You know, we have conversation. I care about you. I care that this pod does good for you.

    5. CJ

      Mm-hmm.

    6. DM

      Like team members, they care that you care about them. Like making somebody else's needs yours, that's the easiest way to like, build a rapport. Like it's-

    7. CJ

      Human empathy

    8. DM

      ... human empathy. It's emotional intelligence, and that's why like people that truly understand that, they're the world's leaders and creators and visionaries. So that's what I tell people. Yeah, there's the technical skills of like using AI to make a million dollars and all that stuff. Yeah, learn that. But what's defensible long term? Essentially that you have taste, you have vision, and that you care.

    9. CJ

      Yeah. You know, and I, I wanna make it actionable, um, for people because my thought is, is that there's someone that's sitting listening at home, and they're in that same moment that, I don't know, two and a half decades ago you were in, where like they have the, they've had the light bulb moment with AI. They're obsessed. They have the energy for it. They're ambitious. Maybe they're not super technical, and they don't have like a startup capital, but they've got a ton of energy.

    10. DM

      Mm.

    11. CJ

      And so one of the things that you said, because I think you're the, you're the perfect person to speak on it, you said, "I spend most of my time at Martell Ventures investing in AI companies. I'm seeing months into the future. I'm seeing the research labs and all of these crazy models, so I can see where the future is going." And so for that human being, that they've got the energy, they've got the hustle, they've got the will for it, uh, they don't have the tech experience, and they don't have a ton of startup capital. When you were in that position, and let's say like if you were in that position right now, what are the one or two, like what are the opportunities that you're seeing that you're like, "Oh, if I was back to being 22-year-old Dan, I would be going at that thing so hard"? Like, make it real to me.

  11. 51:09 – 56:38

    The One Startup AI Idea... (here is the play)

    1. CJ

      Like, what is the-

    2. DM

      I'll, I'll give you the blueprint. This is where I think a lot of people fumble the AI opportunity is that they, they... Again, what are you pretending not to know? They think it's harder, bigger than it has to be. Here's one thing to consider. AI is the first programming language in the history of mankind that's programmed with English. Not Java, English. Prompt engineering is English. So I'm 22. I wanna create wealth. I wanna cr- be defensible in the future in the market. I want to be valuable into the future. I want to not be disrupted. This is what I do. I literally learn how to automate using AI and find any business that's willing to pay me to do that for them. Now, if you're in the bubble right now, you think that people are doing this. I'll give them a simple test to go do. Call local businesses off of Google Maps, any business, and, and first off, see how many people answer the phone. Most don't. And if they, if there's a phone that answers, see if it's a directory or a human being, because most of them are still directories. "Thanks for calling. For this, press one. For this, press two." Here's why I say that. You learning how to just automate those calls for that business will make them money and will make you look like a genius, and it's probably the simplest thing to learn. It's not that hard. There's platforms like VAPI, Voice API, or Atlas, youreatlas.com, where you can use and set it up for the bus- Again, when the internet came out, the businesses knew they needed a website, but they didn't know how to build the website. They didn't know how to buy a domain, register the domain, build the website, the HTML. They didn't know how to update the text. And people came along and did that for them, and they made billions of dollars. Go back in the history and go look, '99, 2000, there's companies that went public, billion-dollar companies. All they did was build web pages for businesses that were trying to get on the internet. We're in the same world, man. There's a lot of companies that have money and say, "You're telling me you can automate my receptionist that is 24 hours a day better, more consistent, and will book sales calls and qualify people?" Yeah, go check out youreatlas.com. Do the demo. Watch it. It'll do it for you. Eh, they're, they're not gonna believe you, but they still need somebody to coordinate, man. To like set it up, to tweak it, to write the system prompt. And it's not complicated, 'cause guess what? You can ask AI to show you how to do it. Like Calum, I sat there with my head of finance, I don't know, a month ago, and I was like, "92% of your work needs to be automated." He's like, "I'm working on it." I said, "No, I don't think you understand what I'm saying." And we're at a coffee shop, and I pulled out my phone, and I just talked to AI. Talking to it works is its words. I just said, "Act as a CFO. Act as an AI automation CFO expert, and create a list of all the different areas of my business that I should automate and tell me how to automate it using AI." And it did it. Then I asked it to write the code to do the thing, and it did it. And I told it to write the code or just instructions to send to somebody to install it, to configure it, to write, like, and it did it. And I showed my head of finance. "There it is. There's the plan. I don't know what you've been following, but it's, that's the plan. Can you please go do this?" He says, "I get it now." People just are pretending not to know that AI can tell them how to do this. But that's exactly what I would do. I would just talk to as many small businesses, "Are you looking to use an AI to help your business?" "Yeah, actually. It's so crazy you just called me." "Perfect. I like to help people make more money. Do you wanna make more money?" "Yeah." "How would you do that? Do you have people calling your business? Do you have people emailing your business? Do you have e-web-web-what... Show me, let me sit down and do a little map of, like, where you get your attention and how you have those conversion points for sales, and let me show you how AI can automate it." [snaps finger] And you do it for them, and they pay you every month to maintain the agents, and they think you're a genius, and you're the guy they call every time something breaks, and that's fine because that's what you get paid for. And you'll be making a million in, like, 18 months. It's just right there. It's available. I don't know. There's hundreds of thousands of businesses in every city, and they need your help. They don't get it. They're not using it. They... 'Cause they're gonna pretend not to know. It's too complicated. They're gonna pretend it's too complicated. But it- you said, "I've got the energy, I've got the motivation, I wanna be in AI." You're 22, what do you do? That's what I do.

    3. CJ

      Yeah. You take one... So you take one kind of workflow or process-

    4. DM

      Yep

    5. CJ

      ... that a business does-

    6. DM

      Perfect it

    7. CJ

      ... and you learn how to automate that with AI and then sell them basically on that solution.

    8. DM

      Yeah. The two big ones are support or scheduling.

    9. CJ

      Mm.

    10. DM

      So inbound calls or inbound emails from customers, or scheduling for sales. Both of them are low-hanging fruit, incredibly easy to set up, and either helps the company save time, which makes them money, or make money, which makes them money, and those are easy sells.

    11. CJ

      Yeah. You know what? Y- y- 'cause you even, you in- you mentioned you could see someone making a million dollars in 18 months-

    12. DM

      Mm

    13. CJ

      ... doing that. How big can you see someone going with that? Like, even if you just... And it's impossible to know s- s- for certainty, but, like, if you just had to estimate it, like, how far could you go just taking these workflows and processes from companies, automating

  12. 56:38 – 1:00:53

    Productize the workflow: dashboards, copilots, and leverage

    1. CJ

      it with AI?

    2. DM

      Well, this is what I do at Martell Ventures, is because I know the workflows in a business, 'cause I've been doing entrepreneurship for 28 years, I've just built AI native tools that do this, right? So, like, Precision is one of the companies that we, uh, partnered with, that I essentially lead with the founder, Matt, and it's an AI-powered dashboard. So every business needs to understand their numbers, but most businesses don't know what numbers to look at. They don't know how to measure them. So if you have an AI-powered one, well, how would that work? Well, first off, you just, like, come into the system and it asks you, "What do you use for accounting? What do you use for this? What..." And then it, it, like, just connects it all. And then you don't have to tell it what to look at. It knows based on your industry what are the KPIs, key performance indicators, what's the normal ranges, and then it'll literally tell you once it analyzes all that, like a, like if you had to pay a business consultant, like BCG or Bain, okay? A $100,000 consultant to come into your business to analyze your business, to tell you what you should focus on, 'cause that's all they do. Consultants literally borrow your watch and tell you what time it is.

    3. CJ

      Mm-hmm.

    4. DM

      AI can do that, okay? So it does that, and then the coolest part about Precision is not only does it give you the dashboard, it then allows you to pull in your team, hold them accountable to the numbers, and then give you the key projects and what order sequencing-

    5. CJ

      Mm

    6. DM

      ... to do them in to get the biggest bang for your buck in regards to time invested from your team, revenue, or resources from your business. And then it gives you the weekly meeting. Literally, it gives you, every time you meet with your team, "Go here, go here, go here, go here." Isn't that crazy?

    7. CJ

      Mm.

    8. DM

      So you have, like, a built-in business consultant that's an AI-powered dashboard. That's just one example. What about... So, like, once you're doing this, this is why I think this could be huge for anybody that just starts. Once you're in the AI automation, you'll see opportunities to what I call productize the workflow, right? So right now you might start off and you're using off-the-shelf tools, but you might go, "You know what? If we built our own version of this, I could just sell it as a complete solution." And then you have a tool, like a Your Atlas or, you know, these other products I'm involved in, like getrevio.com, which is, like, it's a sales automation tool that sits between all your social platforms and your sales team. Now it can't automate it because of some of the rules on the platforms, but it is a sales co-pilot. Imagine if you could have your assistant in your inbox d- having sales conversation on your behalf at the quality level of a top-performing sales rep closing deals, 40, 50% win rates. But it's your assistant, not a sales rep that you're paying a quarter million bucks a year for.

    9. CJ

      Mm-hmm.

    10. DM

      That's the world we live in right now with these tools. So that's why I tell people, "Could you build a business?" You know, we just got back from [laughs] Whop. They're a 50-person team, and their mission is to build $100 billion company with a 50-person team. So if you're in the AI automation world, you're gonna see opportunities to build these productized services that could be $100 million business the next four or five years.

    11. CJ

      Mm.

    12. DM

      So it could be as big as they wanna create, but it's you gotta be in it. You gotta, you gotta jump in the water. You gotta be in the stream, and just a lot of people are sitting on the sidelines going, like, "I want to, but I don't know how to get in the water." I wanna come behind you and kick you in the butt.

    13. CJ

      Yeah.

    14. DM

      Like, get in the river, flow with it.

    15. CJ

      Yeah.

    16. DM

      And once you're in it, you'll see the opportunities.

    17. CJ

      Yeah. No, that's always how it goes. You know, I wanna, I wanna make it so easy for people to start, which is, like, um... And I'm by no means an expert when it comes to the AI automation, but the, the tools that I typically hear or the software that I hear people talk about is Zapier and N8N.

    18. DM

      Mm-hmm.

    19. CJ

      I'm curious, like, you can talk about those ones, if there's other ones that you kind of see and you're like, "Okay" If you're kind of getting into this space, you have no previous experience with AI automation, like this is where you should look first. Like what, what are the tools that come to

  13. 1:00:53 – 1:06:55

    Tools and a mindset shift: ask AI FIRST, always

    1. CJ

      mind on that?

    2. DM

      Zapier's been around for a long time. Okay? n8n is more technical as a platform to build some workflow automations, but Make.com is more approachable for new people.

    3. CJ

      Mm.

    4. DM

      But guess what? In six months, if you're listening to this in six months, I don't know if those three platforms are the right platforms. I always go back to the AI and ask it, "This is my context. I'm starting off. I'm new. I wanna get paid by businesses to automate their workflows using AI. What platform should you, should I consider? Give me three options ranked by the easiest to understand." My gut tells me if I would've asked that question, it would've probably put Make at the top. And like that's today, and it'll change. So it's, again, it's, it's so funny because humans have this desire, you know, like I like feeling smart. I like when you ask me a question, I'm like, "This is the answer." And you're like, "Oh, Dan, that's so good." And I'm like, "Oh, that feeds my ego." Truth is, is I'm not smarter than AI.

    5. CJ

      Mm.

    6. DM

      And you know, it's one of the new shifts I had to do with my whole team is my request of everyone to default ask AI before you collaborate or exchange or converse with other people because it'll at least give you some input to make better decisions.

    7. CJ

      Mm.

    8. DM

      And that's kind of how I live my life. So that's why like I, I have that set up as my hot key, 'cause I ask it questions all day long.

    9. CJ

      Yeah.

    10. DM

      Like it's, it's my life thought partner.

    11. CJ

      Yeah. You know what, that was actually, I would say in the last six months, uh, for me, that has been the biggest mindset shift is actually you just start with like ... Well, I think the start is you have to get clear on like what the problem is in your own mind, and then you, you just ask the ChatGPT or what, like, or the Claude or whatever it is. You just ask the question.

    12. DM

      But even ... You j- you just did it. I want everybody to h- hear how subtle it could be. 'Cause you said you just have to be clear about what problem you wanna solve, and I would say, no, you ask it.

    13. CJ

      Mm.

    14. DM

      Like this is, this is the interesting part is the, if you could listen to my chat logs, you would see me say, "Here's my situation. I don't know what. I need your help to ask me questions to get clear on." Like, I use it to give me k- like sequencing feedback. So it's ... You could literally say, "I'm 22. I've never used AI before. I wanna become proficient in the next six months. What do I need to, to do?" And it'll tell you, and then you go, "Wow, that sounds complicated." Just tell it, "Hey, that sounds complicated. If you could simplify this even further for me, how could that look? Okay, I don't understand what you mean by that. Could you explain that?" And you might have an hour, two-hour conversation with AI, but trust me, at the end of that, you will have clarity. So like even the premise that I need clarity about what I need to solve to talk to it, that's where I think people are s- getting stuck. Like it's kind of wild. I did a ... This blew all these kids' mind, and I didn't even know it was that big of a deal, but I have this program called Kings Club where I mentor, you know, 13, 14, to 21-year-old young men, and I wanted to teach them AI in a very approachable way. So one of my beliefs is that if you're in your head, you're dead. And a lot of young men, I was when I was 15, I was in my head. I wasn't talking. I wasn't communicating. Because of that, I couldn't get perspective.

    15. CJ

      Mm.

    16. DM

      And most of us don't feel like we have anybody in our life we can even talk to. So I showed them how I use the AI voice agent to like have these conversations about life and philosophy, and this young woman came up and she's like, "I've been using that for the last week and it really helped me." Like she got emotional about how much it helped her. I'm not gonna talk about her story, but it was like, it was really beautiful. And I just think like that is such a not thought of use case that people should really consider of like I'm lost. Like just tell it, "I feel lost in life. I have a desire to be incredibly successful. I always start things and I don't follow through. I feel like I have so much potential, but I'm not living into it." Like just be honest about who you f- feel you are, and then the request. What do you think I should consider changing? Like what's the one habit that I might wanna consider? What's the right change in my life? Who do I need to add to my life? Should I move cities or not? Like, and again, it's gonna pull from all these beautiful examples of people from the past that have done things that felt that way, that came, overcame these setbacks and pattern match against that to give you advice, which is like having the world's best mentors at your disposal. I think that's just the coolest thing that's ever existed.

    17. CJ

      Mm. You know what's interesting, I think, and, and you bring up such an important point which is the context, like giving AI the context because I think for the people that have gone, like they've logged on to ChatGPT or they've tried with Claude or Gemini, whatever the thing is, and they've done it and they've gotten like that very generic-

    18. DM

      Mm-hmm

    19. CJ

      ... AI response and it's ... They're, they're kind of like, "Oh, this isn't it," and they move on. It's all because of the lack of context. And so even just sharing those details, and that's why for me personally I've gotten really into the voice, like speaking to ChatGPT, 'cause then it becomes a conversation. It feels more intuitive to provide context. And so ... But here's, here's where I wanted to go, 'cause we spoke about, um, we spoke about Seth Godin actually-

    20. DM

      Mm

    21. CJ

      ... before we started speaking and I, and we had a conversation with him a couple months ago, and I, I remember one of the things that, um- He always talks about is not trying to be, uh, everything to everyone.

  14. 1:06:55 – 1:10:34

    Find your smallest viable market (passion “who has money”)

    1. CJ

      And the way that he says it, he says, "You wanna find your smallest viable market."

    2. DM

      Mm.

    3. CJ

      And so I can see people hearing this, and like even just the opportunity that you described with AI automation, and they go out to every company, they're trying to do every workflow-

    4. DM

      Spray and pray, I call it

    5. CJ

      ... spray and pray.

    6. DM

      Yeah. Hopefully somebody buys.

    7. CJ

      Spray and pray. I'm curious, like what is that process of someone, as Seth calls it, identifying their smallest viable market when it comes to the AI automation? And then even back to what you mentioned right in the beginning, which is like I think those wins in the early stages are so important, 'cause it generates momentum.

    8. DM

      Yeah.

    9. CJ

      And it's like once you have that first win, it's like a drop more of self-belief and faith that you can get the next one, and it just spirals from there. It's that positive spiral. How can someone identify their, their smallest viable market? How can they get to that first win?

    10. DM

      The mistake everybody makes when choosing that market or the niche is w- thinking like I, I heard they have the most money to spend, so I heard doctors have the most money to spend, or I heard lawyers have... Lo- like, they think themselves into the niche. I work backwards from first principles, meaning if the th- first off, what am I passionate about? Because if I don't care about what I'm selling, you're gonna lose against the guy that does, 'cause that's, that's... Steve Jobs said a long time ago ... He's on stage with Bill Gates, and they're like frenemies, and, you know, the, uh, this guy asked him a question like, "Why is passion so important?" He says, "You know, a lot of people say you gotta be passionate about what you do, because if not, you won't be successful." He says, "The reason you need passion is because there's gonna be a moment where it's gonna be hard and so tough, and you're gonna have a massive setback, and to any normal, rational person, giving up would be a, a good option. And because you're, you have so much passion for the thing, you're gonna keep pushing forward, and that's why you're successful." And that has been a truth that he saw in his whole life of everybody that's been successful. So to me, I start with like what do you wanna sell? Like Calum, what, what, what problem would you be pumped to deploy within a company every day? Is it a scheduling tool? Is it a voice application? Is it email? I don't know. Like everybody has these inherent like cool things that they're like, "You know what'd be fun? If I just got to play with this all day long." Cool. Have the customer finance that play. Then from that, find a market that is viable to do that. So like let's say your thing is video production, and you're like, "I wanna be involved in AI video production." Well, the question I go is like, "What market has money, has the problem, and is easily to identify?" Okay? So to me, I gotta be able to find them. They're, they gotta be in one place. So for example, for a lot of people, the easiest sell is to sell to the business owner that has the money to pay you for the solution, which means that whatever you're selling makes them money. And f- and the best markets are like independent salespeople. What's an independent salespeople? Insurance brokers are independent salespeople, you know, the, the, um, car dealership salesper- like l- sales typically. But I love real estate. You know why I love real estate, Calum?

  15. 1:10:34 – 1:16:29

    These aer the perfect first customers for you.....

    1. CJ

      Why?

    2. DM

      Because their cell phones are on the internet, and they have to answer.

    3. CJ

      Mm.

    4. DM

      And people are like, "Oh, nobody answers cold calls anymore." Call a real estate agent. Call 'em. Try it. Go. Literally. Go in your local city, search real estate agent firms, and go through the directories and call them up. I did a, a video the other day on my YouTube, okay? It was a challenge video of ... I've- I don't know what the title was, but essentially I had an hour to generate $100. The bet was if I didn't do it, I had to drive my 18-year-old employee's car and he got to drive my Ferrari. And I, what I j- what you're asking me to tell you to do, I did in that video. And I want ... And people should go watch it to understand the process, 'cause ... And, and the key was I could only use ChatGPT to do it, and I couldn't use my existing network, and I couldn't use my brand or anything. It was literally like from scratch, one hour, generate $100, and I had some massive stakes on. Real estate agents have their phone numbers. So it's like these viable markets are all around us, but it starts, this is the first principle. It has to start with the thing you wanna do or you know about. That's another thing. So I like ask myself, what, w- when I look at my friend group, if I look at my contacts in my phone, like are they mostly athletes? Are they mostly entrepreneurs? Are they mostly agency owners? Are they media people? Are they podcasters? Like, where's the concentration of people that I naturally have as in my network? Because then I can focus on them and find the opportunities. But that's, that's why most people, it's an intellectual exercise. I work backwards from the individual, because having an unf- unfair advantage because you have domain expertise in a certain topic, or you have a network in a certain area, or you, um, you know, you have a passion for a certain type of solution, that's the best place to go.

    5. CJ

      Yeah. You know, I call it, um, I call it build from strength, which is I think a lot of the times ... And I made this mistake when I tried to start businesses, and they all failed, is, uh, I was always trying to start from scratch, something where I'd like, I just, I had no experience or I had, I just had nothing like really built there. Like, it was, it didn't really make sense with everything else that I'd done up until that point.

    6. DM

      Mm.

    7. CJ

      And I think a lot of people do that because- It's like, uh, we're almost, like, hunting for opportunities. And so you see something work for someone else, you're like, "I'm gonna do what they did." And then you see something work for someone else over here, you go and do that, what they did over there. And you know what? One of the things ... And I, I love that you mention the point of even, like, calling the real estate agent, because another thing that I've seen is, like, um ... And, and it's so easy for this to happen with AI and, and even talking with ChatGPT, is that you have these very, like, conceptual conversations. And you can go down the rabbit hole, and I've done it. You go down the rabbit hole of just different scenarios and questions and prompts back and forth with ChatGPT. At a certain point, you have to get into the real world and, like, start making the thing happen.

    8. DM

      Well, and that's the part that scares people. So I call it neural transformation. Like, AI won't disrupt humans as long as humans are involved, because humans have feelings.

    9. CJ

      Mm.

    10. DM

      Right? The entrepreneur that's scared to adopt AI, the person that wants to get into AI but scared to make the cold call, like, that's just all fear-based, you know? And what was crazy about that challenge is I had to use AI for everything. So I didn't choose real estate agents. It told me. I didn't just get on the call and sell. I had to ask it to write the script. Like, I literally used ChatGPT to tell me how to make $100 in 60 minutes. The offer, all of it, it told me. I just turned my brain off and did it.

    11. CJ

      Mm.

    12. DM

      And that is where people are still stumbling, because they overthink. They act out of fear. They don't trust. And you brought up faith earlier. Best lesson I ever learned in rehab was to have faith, and faith is taking a step towards the next step without seeing the step, trusting it will show up. That's a skill, man. Having faith when in the future you can't see, and taking that step when I don't see the step, trusting it's gonna show up, my foot comes down. But if you do it once and it works, you do it again, like you said, you build momentum, you build certainty and confidence. And, like, that's where we're at. It's just we need to just get out of our own way-

    13. CJ

      Mm

    14. DM

      ... and then just execute.

    15. CJ

      Yeah. You know what I, I, I love and, and it's why, um, I have such a, a passion for doing this, is because I feel like w- we get to be, like, a moment for people. They c- they can listen to this conversation, and, like, the way that they enter this conversation, if we do it right, they actually leave as, like, a different person, and I just think that that's such a beautiful process. And you, you spoke about faith, and it's, like, the most difficult thing in the world in a way-

    16. DM

      Mm

    17. CJ

      ... of, like, taking that step when you can't see. Just having faith.

    18. DM

      Yeah.

    19. CJ

      And so for the person that's listening at home, and I just think about even just the learnings from your life and your journey and what we spoke about in the beginning, if you just had to give them, I don't know, even, like, a word of faith. Like, just focus here. Like, if this is the thing, if this is the way that you move after listening to this conversation, 12 months from now you're gonna be in a better place. What is that word of faith? What is the thing that you're like, "That's the direction"?

  16. 1:16:29 – 1:23:50

    “Why not you? Why not now?”

    1. DM

      The reason people don't take action is this: they think it's not for them. They think it's beyond them. They think they're not smart enough. And I'm just repeating back all the things I believed when I started. And when you have the opportunity to hear people that are further along and hear their story and journey and feel inspired and get some feedback and some ideas to correct and get clear, like you've done an incredible job of, like, giving them a clear blueprint to how to think about this, how to get into it, here's what we do. And yet I know some people listening are still thinking to themselves, "That's not me." So what I want them to ask is why not you? Why not now? Why? I'm a real person. You can find me on Instagram, follow me, message me. I'll reply. Like, this ... You're not ... We're, we're real. W- this is not a history book. This is like you have an opportunity and you li- they listen to the podcast, so they know you, and you're listening to me, and we're out there and we're teaching. This has never existed in the history of mankind, access to p- I didn't know a millionaire. I didn't ha- I didn't know a millionaire for eight or nine years. I didn't have anybody in my life who was a millionaire, let alone successful, let alone somebody I admired, let ... Like, you know what I'm saying? So, like, I just think why not you? Why, why not you be that person? Why not you decide in your life you're gonna be the person in your family to change the history of your lineage? You're the person. Like, we all have them. I was that person for my family. I got clean. I changed my life. It created this, this gravitational pull towards. My brother's one of the largest home builders and real estate developers in Eastern Canada right now. Incredibly successful. My younger brother. And he'll tell you watching me go through what I did inspired him. If you wanna help people in your life, why not you? The best thing you could ever do to help them is to inspire them, and playing small never inspired anybody.

    2. CJ

      Mm. I feel like I have to ask this, is, um, you said something interesting earlier. You said, and I even think about what we said right in the beginning, is like, "I looked like a lost cause." And so where my mind goes, I think about the person that's sitting at home and they're like in that moment-

    3. DM

      Mm

    4. CJ

      ... maybe not to the extreme that you were in, but like they-

    5. DM

      They may feel it

    6. CJ

      ... they f- yeah, but that feeling-

    7. DM

      Yeah

    8. CJ

      ... and we've all had that, of like feeling almost directionless, lost. I'm curious, if you had to almost go back today as the Dan that you are now and go back and talk to that 17-year-old version of Dan that felt completely lost, and it's like, "Okay, if you just, just focus on this one thing, like this is the thing that you could do to start building a little bit of momentum, get a bit of confidence, a bit of self-belief back," I'm just curious, what would you say?

    9. DM

      I can't go to 17-year-old Dan because that's what coding gave me, so I would just say like, "Keep doing it." If I go back to 15-year-old Dan, see, like the first time I ever felt like truly it was like, okay, there's something wrong with me, is when I got put on Ritalin. So, you know, I'd always been a energetic kid and whatnot, but like at 11, you know, schools had issues with me. Parents brought me to psychiatrists. They did some tests, diagnosed me with ADHD, and put me on medication. And I remember, so this is the thing. I know how I am. I take this pill, and I feel like completely different. Like Ritalin turned me into not Dan, so, and I didn't like it, so then I didn't wanna take it. But I couldn't go to school if I didn't take it 'cause I was so disruptive, and then my mom would start hiding it in my breakfast so that I would take it. And when I think I wasn't, but then I would feel it, so that's kind of a crazy, you know what I'm saying?

    10. CJ

      Mm-hmm.

    11. DM

      Like just like a, as a young kid, 11, 12, like clearly the belief of like, "I'm broken" would happen because I'm taking a pill to be normal. A- and then that just like continued to kind of spiral. But if I go back to that 15-year-old version of Dan, man, it's so crazy. Like, 'cause I can remember the thoughts and just how much I judged everybody. Like, I was so angry. So I tell people today, like, I think everybody in life should just strive to become their 10.0 version of themselves. That person, and this is the big thing, the person you needed most in your darkest days. Because you would hope that y- that 10.0 version of yourself would be able to get through. And Calum, I'm still not that person. Like, when I truly believe, like when I think back to 15-year-old Dan, how angry he was, judgmental of adults, like if I'm, I'm like sitting in that classroom and a guy that looks like me comes in to try to talk to me, right off the bat I'm like, "You don't know me. Look at you." You know what I mean?

    12. CJ

      Just-

    13. DM

      I know what I look like.

    14. CJ

      Mm-hmm.

    15. DM

      Like, you don't know me, and I'm not listening. I would sit in, you know, we go family therapist and all of a sudden I'd sit there, I'd be like, "This therapist knows nothing about me. They went to school. They read all this shit in a book. They've never had a hard day in their life." You know?

    16. CJ

      Mm-hmm.

    17. DM

      So like I wish, I'm still striving, and I will probably go for the rest of my life to become the person that I needed most. But like, if I, if I could get through to Dan, like that's the thing, if I could get little Dan, [sighs] I would tell him, "Dude, there's nothing wrong with you. There's something wrong with the way the world is built, and one day soon, not that long, you'll realize it and you will build the world you need for you." And that's why, like when I get the chance to speak to high school kids, and I think about like how big of a deal I made of high school, come on, bro. It's such a blip in the existence of your life that if you can just get out of it-

    18. CJ

      Mm

    19. DM

      ... it's a full reset. And that's what I would hope to express. Like, you're being asked to operate or to live in this world that's not how you are. You're not broken, the world is, and you'll get a chance to create the world the way you need it for you,

  17. 1:23:50 – 1:24:10

    Build the world you need (then show others how)

    1. DM

      and everybody will ask you how you did it. That's what I would tell him.

    2. CJ

      Yeah. I love that. You'll get a chance to build the world that you want. Ah, special conversation, man.

    3. DM

      Awesome.

    4. CJ

      Dan Martell, thank you so much.

    5. DM

      I appreciate it, Cal.

    6. CJ

      That was awesome. Okay, so if you enjoyed this episode, you're gonna absolutely love what we did with this one right here. Click here

Episode duration: 1:24:10

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