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In this episode, Brittni explores the AI tools that are actually helping entrepreneurs save time, streamline operations, and grow smarter. From content creation and design to automation, customer support, and analytics, this episode breaks down practical tools you can start using right away. If you're a small business owner who wants to work more efficiently without losing creativity, this episode is your roadmap to using AI as a multiplier, not a replacement, for your strategy. Resources: The Meeting Place Membership Rock The Reels 1:1 Coaching Free Client Welcome Guide Additional Trainings and Resources Connect with Brittni: Follow me on the Gram - @brittni.schroeder Join my Facebook Group Visit my website Subscribe to my Youtube You can find the complete show notes here: https://brittnischroeder.com/podcast/ai-tools-in-your-business-beyond-chatgpt/
If you have spent any real time with Large Language Model (LLM) AI systems like Grok or ChatGPT, you probably know the pattern: ‘OMG this is AMAZING!' ‘Okay, not ‘amazing' but still really useful!' ‘Can come in handy sometimes.' ‘I probably should double-check all of this.' ‘REALLY?'
The AI Breakdown: Daily Artificial Intelligence News and Discussions
Anthropic dropped Claude Opus 4.6 and OpenAI responded with GPT 5.3 Codex just 20 minutes later — the most intense head-to-head model release we've ever seen. Here's what each model brings, how they compare, and what the first reactions are telling us. In the headlines: Google and Amazon share their capex plans, and we're about to spend 2.5 moon landings on AI. Brought to you by:KPMG – Discover how AI is transforming possibility into reality. Tune into the new KPMG 'You Can with AI' podcast and unlock insights that will inform smarter decisions inside your enterprise. Listen now and start shaping your future with every episode. https://www.kpmg.us/AIpodcastsRackspace AI Launchpad - Build, test and scale intelligent workloads faster - http://rackspace.com/ailaunchpadZencoder - From vibe coding to AI-first engineering - http://zencoder.ai/zenflowOptimizely Agents in Action - Join the virtual event (with me!) free March 4 - https://www.optimizely.com/insights/agents-in-action/AssemblyAI - The best way to build Voice AI apps - https://www.assemblyai.com/briefSection - Build an AI workforce at scale - https://www.sectionai.com/LandfallIP - AI to Navigate the Patent Process - https://landfallip.com/Robots & Pencils - Cloud-native AI solutions that power results https://robotsandpencils.com/The Agent Readiness Audit from Superintelligent - Go to https://besuper.ai/ to request your company's agent readiness score.The AI Daily Brief helps you understand the most important news and discussions in AI. Subscribe to the podcast version of The AI Daily Brief wherever you listen: https://pod.link/1680633614Interested in sponsoring the show? sponsors@aidailybrief.ai
Co-Host Holly Nelson (https://mountaintoppodcast.com/holly) Think of it like aspartame is to real sugar. "Synthetic intimacy" may be sweet, but it's not the real thing. And when you get right down to it, you're not really even fooled. So why then are so many people falling for it nowadays? My first-time guest Holly Nelson is NOT a robot (she said so herself), but rather a sex therapist from Phoenix, AZ who has spent a lot of time thinking about this subject. We hit the ground running on this fast-paced discussion, talking about how "intimacy" isn't really intimate at all if it's one-sided and people are getting manipulated. How is AI already affecting our relationships with women, and what should we be watching out for both now and in the near future? Why is Claude.AI so convincing when pretending it cares about you? And why is it dangerous to "get close" to ChatGPT (even above and beyond the obvious)? In all fairness, has technology actually succeeded at connecting us...even while dividing us at the same time? There was clear evidence even at the dawn of the consumer internet that people were disengaging from each other. Why have we not done anything about that, even when it's only gotten worse over the last 30 years or so? Can an AI girlfriend actually bring some good into your life, or is any semblance of a Build-A-Bitch Workshop just a social disaster waiting to happen? Is this just for the incel community, pretty much, or will we all eventually get drawn in? It's not like we're actually out there pretending to literally fall in love with AI...are we? Will kids eventually have robot parents (or at least, full-time nanny-bots)? Hey, add it all up and there's a big difference between how we are hard-wired as humans and the limits to which technology will be able to satisfy us...especially when it comes to flat-out replacing relationships with women. Download Sticking Points Solved and get on the daily newsletter--both free--at: https://mountaintoppodcast.com === HELP US SEND THE MESSAGE TO GREAT MEN EVERYWHERE === The show is now available as a VIDEO version on YouTube. For some reason, the episodes seem funnier...if a bit more rough around the edges. If you love what you hear, please rate the show on the service you subscribed to it on (takes one second) and leave a review. As we say here in Texas, I appreciate you!
Around Black Friday last year, I started getting strange emails from people asking me to cancel their subscription. Only, they weren't from Haven members, and they were talking about a weekly charge of $7. After a brief panic and some investigation, I confirmed this was not possible. I assumed these messages were bots phishing for something. Then my attention was caught by one that said, “Hi, I’ve just been charged for the Haven Bible app, but I cancelled my subscription through the app prior to the charging date.” Ahh. It must be a case of mistaken identity. Mystery solved! Well, half of it at least… https://youtu.be/mP6rxVuBmRo …But Why Were People Emailing Me? A quick search for “cancel Haven Bible App subscription” showed a knowledge base page on my website as the top result. I added a message to inform people that this was not the site they were looking for. Still today, I'm getting messages from people who scroll past it and tell me to refund them. I even received a second email accusing me of stealing their money because I refused to help them cancel their subscription. I had already replied to their first email, pointing them elsewhere. Bizarre! It has been a slightly sobering experience, pointing to how unobservant people can be at times. The Auto-Responder I created a short auto-responder to reply to these messages. I asked them to drop a quick reply when they work out how to cancel it so I could pass that information along to others in the same boat. Only one of about 60 people who emailed me bothered to follow up. A special shout-out to Lauren for taking the time to do that. I've been able to point people in a more helpful direction as a result. In reality, I don't know if it's genuinely difficult to cancel this subscription. What Is This Haven Bible App? After my search, the algorithms started delivering short videos of people promoting the Haven Bible App. It's been heavily marketed by influencers. I became curious and began to notice overlaps with certain self-help industry mechanics we've been unpacking here in recent months. The app is an AI chatbot that answers user questions and prompts with responses from biblical texts. It's marketed as a way to get simplified explanations, moral guidance, help with reading the Bible, and a sense of connection with a wise guide. Tools, Guidance, and Quiet Influence It's worth considering the issues surrounding the use, trust, and reliance on this kind of technology as a source of information and guidance. Despite being presented as objective, a chatbot never is. By nature, it always contains biases. It's programmed and personalised. Over time, it can shape our beliefs, values, and worldview based on the personal information we give it. There's nothing necessarily inherently wrong with that, but it's easy to imagine how this could be abused, with the user not noticing that their critical thinking is gradually replaced by conformity to a narrow, dogmatic framework. There's also the issue of AI sycophancy. This is often described as a deliberate feature designed to hook users, creating a sense of affinity with the technology as if it were a feeling, thinking being. This entered public discussion in 2025 when researchers and mental health professionals raised concerns about what they described as “AI-related psychosis.” One widely reported case involved a man called Allan Brooks, who became misled into believing he had discovered a world-changing mathematical formula after hundreds of hours interacting with ChatGPT. These systems are designed to shift from instruments to relationships through encouragement and affirmation. They tend to praise and validate user input, reinforce existing beliefs, and create a sense of safety in the interaction. They don't require you to articulate feelings or needs clearly, and they reduce the need to negotiate meaning with others. First- and second-person language further reinforces the illusion of connection. Recognising Unhealthy Dependency on an App A useful question here is whether a tool helps us grow beyond it or cultivates dependency. When dependency forms, creators can charge whatever they like for continued access. And will likely extract other information, such as personal data. Habit formation is central to platforms like this. The perception of a companion you can ask anything of creates reliance not just for knowledge, but for reassurance and connection. Features like reminders and streak maintenance mirror the same techniques used by apps like Duolingo. Not to keep people learning, but to keep them opening the app. The important distinction is whether a tool helps us develop skills and understanding we can take with us, or whether it locks value inside its own ecosystem. With Duolingo, it became clear over time that keeping people engaged mattered more than helping them learn a language. When leaving feels costly, users become vulnerable to price increases and further extraction of their personal data and other private information, which can be used to sell additional layers of dependence in response to newly identified desires and needs. Why This Matters to Me I was in two minds about writing this experience. But something about it got under my skin, and it's not just about the emails, the confusion, or being asked to cancel something I have nothing to do with. It's seeing another example of wider cultural patterns we keep circling. Patterns that keep us doubting ourselves, disconnecting from one another, and valuing manufactured certainty over lived complexity. I understand the appeal of tools like this. I also understand the value they can bring to people. But it's important to zoom out and notice what gets lost when we trade depth for convenience and speed. Often, that trade sabotages the very thing we're seeking, trapping us in a cycle of chasing the next tool that promises meaning through hacks and shortcuts, while quietly pulling us further away from the sites of meaning we encounter in the messy beauty of real human connection, uncertainty, and mystery.
Join Simtheory: https://simtheory.aiRegister for the STILL RELEVANT tour: https://simulationtheory.ai/16c0d1db-a8d0-4ac9-bae3-d25074589a80It's the model same-day showdown of 2026. Opus 4.6 and Codex 5.3 dropped within minutes of each other, and we're breaking down what this means for the future of AI work. In this episode, we unpack Opus 4.6's million-token context window (if you've got billies in the bank), why Codex's pricing makes it nearly impossible to ignore for agentic loops, and the real cost of running agents for 24 hours ($10K, apparently). We dive deep into why coding-optimized models are secretly crushing it at non-coding tasks, the mental fatigue of managing AI workers, and whether the chatbot era is actually fading or just evolving. Plus: Chris accidentally books three real pig grooming appointments, we debate whether you need a "life coach agent" to manage your agent swarm, and yes – there's an Opus 4.6 diss track that goes unreasonably hard.CHAPTERS:0:00 Intro - Opus 4.6 Diss Track Preview0:09 The Model Same-Day Showdown: Opus 4.6 vs Codex 5.30:50 Opus 4.6 Breakdown: Million Token Context & Premium Pricing2:31 Token Bill Shock: $10K Research Bills & Extended Context Costs5:04 Codex Pricing: Why It's Nearly Free for Agentic Loops6:42 Why Coding Models Are Secretly Crushing Non-Coding Tasks10:14 Tool Fatigue: Too Many Models, Too Many Workflows12:47 Opus 4.6 First Impressions: "Solid" and "Faultless"13:48 Chris Accidentally Books Three Real Pig Grooming Appointments16:01 Unix Tools & Why Code-Optimized Models Win at Everything19:59 The Agentic Retraining Imperative: Chat to Delegation22:16 Agent Swarms & The Master Thread Architecture24:51 OpenAI vs Anthropic: The Enterprise Battle27:09 Corporate Espionage 2.0: Stealing Skills & The Open Source Threat31:19 The UX Problem: Why Delegation Isn't Solved Yet34:24 The Stress of Hyper-Productivity & Managing Agent Swarms37:07 Coordination: The Next Layer of Abstraction40:09 The Fantasy vs Reality of Autonomous AI Businesses44:37 Is the Turn-by-Turn Chatbot Era Actually Fading?49:23 Tokens as Spice: Turning Compute Into Money52:08 Reduce Cognitive Overload: The Real Goal of AI55:07 Still Relevant Tour Announcement55:39 BONUS: Full Opus 4.6 Diss TrackThanks for listening. Like & Sub. Links below for the Still Relevant Tour signup and Simtheory. The model wars are heating up, and your token bill is about to get interesting. xoxo
On today's podcast episode, we discuss whether “ChatGPT with Ads” will scare users away, the effectiveness of chatbot ads versus traditional search ads, and whether there's an ethical component to advertising during a search conversation compared with the blue-link format. Join Senior Director of Podcasts and host Marcus Johnson, along with Principal Analyst Nate Elliot and Analyst Marisa Jones. Listen everywhere, and watch on YouTube and Spotify. Subscribe to EMARKETER's newsletters. Go to https://www.emarketer.com/newsletters Follow us on Instagram at: https://www.instagram.com/emarketer/ For sponsorship opportunities, contact us: advertising@emarketer.com For more information, visit: https://www.emarketer.com/advertise/ Have questions or just want to say hi? Drop us a line at podcast@emarketer.com For a transcript of this episode, click here: https://www.emarketer.com/content/podcast-chatgpt-with-side-of-ads-will-ai-chatbots-ruin-or-reinvent-search-advertising-behind-numbers © 2026 EMARKETER Seedtag applies advanced AI to deliver privacy-first advertising at scale. As the creator of neuro-contextual advertising, Seedtag moves beyond traditional contextual targeting methods such as keywords and categories. Instead, Seedtag understands deeper signals of interest, intent, and emotion to create custom audiences based on a brand's objectives.
OpenAI ya está metiendo anuncios en ChatGPT. Y Anthropic la ha atacado por ello en la Super Bowl. Pero la guerra real es otra: decidir si la IA será el nuevo YouTube o el nuevo Netflix. Y ninguna de las dos opciones es ideal.Loop Infinito, podcast de Xataka, de lunes a viernes a las 7.00 h (hora española peninsular). Presentado por Javier Lacort. Editado por Alberto de la Torre.Contacto:
Favour Obasi-ike, MBA, MS delves into the intricacies of social media marketing, with a special focus on hacking the Instagram and TikTok algorithms. Favour shares valuable insights on how to gain maximum visibility and grow your business by understanding the underlying mechanics of these platforms. The episode covers the importance of creating engaging content, the power of a strong call to action, and the strategic use of social media analytics. Favour also introduces a powerful tool called "Sort Feed" for analyzing content performance and provides a live demonstration of how to leverage it for your own business. This episode is packed with actionable tips and strategies for anyone looking to up their social media game in 2026.Book SEO Services | Quick Links for Social Business>> Book SEO Services with Favour Obasi-ike>> Visit Work and PLAY Entertainment website to learn about our digital marketing services>> Join our exclusive SEO Marketing community>> Read SEO Articles>> Subscribe to the We Don't PLAY Podcast>> Purchase Flaev Beatz Beats Online>> Favour Obasi-ike Quick LinksLearning TopicsUnderstanding Social Media Algorithms: Learn the difference between social media platforms and search engines, and how to leverage their APIs for growth.Content Strategy: Discover how to create content that resonates with your audience and encourages engagement.The Power of Call to Action (CTA): Understand the importance of a clear and compelling CTA in driving user action.Leveraging Social Media Analytics: Learn how to use tools like "Sort Feed" to analyze content performance and gain a competitive edge.The Psychology of Social Media: Explore the psychological principles behind effective social media marketing, including the use of color and emotional triggers.Cross-Platform Promotion: Discover how to increase the visibility of your social media content by embedding it on your website.Episode Timestamps[00:00 - 02:00] Introduction to the topic: Social Media Marketing, Instagram and TikTok algorithm hacks.[02:00 - 04:10] Introduction to the "Sort Feed" tool for analyzing Instagram and TikTok content.[08:02 - 10:13] The difference between social media platforms and search engines.[20:05 - 25:15] Analysis of a viral post and the importance of a strong CTA.[40:08 - 46:22] The power of comments and engagement in boosting visibility.[53:01 - 58:24] How to embed social media posts on your website to increase reach.[58:08 - 58:24] The psychology of color in marketing.[01:15:11 - 01:16:52] Recap and key takeaways.Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)Q: What is "Sort Feed" and how can it help my business?A: Sort Feed is a Google Chrome Extension tool that allows you to sort and analyze Instagram and TikTok content by various metrics such as likes, comments, and views. It can help you understand what content is performing well in your industry, identify trends, and gain insights to inform your own content strategy.Q: Should I focus on creating content for the algorithm or for my audience?A: While it's important to understand the algorithm, the primary focus should always be on creating valuable and engaging content for your audience. By building a strong connection with your followers, you will naturally see better results in the long run.Q: How can I increase the visibility of my social media posts?A: One effective strategy is to embed your social media posts on your website or blog. This can help you reach a wider audience and drive more traffic to your social media profiles.Q: What is the most important element of a social media post?A: A clear and compelling call to action (CTA) is one of the most important elements of a social media post. It tells your audience what you want them to do next, whether it's to like, comment, share, or visit your website.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
In this episode of Business Brain, we dig into how AI is quickly becoming a true coworker, not just a tool. We explore deeper ChatGPT personalization, AI-driven tech support (even through smart glasses), and what it means to “hire” agents like Claude to think, write, and problem-solve alongside us. From autocomplete apps to AI companions inspired by sci-fi, we reframe AI as something we employ intentionally—on our terms. We also push ourselves to think bigger about how we make money in the AI age. As automation accelerates, we focus on what still matters most: human connection, trust, and creativity. By using AI to amplify—not replace—our unique value, we position ourselves to stay relevant, grow revenue, and design a Charmed Life that blends smart tech with meaningful work. 00:00:00 Business Brain – The Entrepreneurs' Podcast #725 for Casual FridAI, February 6th, 2026 February 6th: Working Naked Day 00:02:05 Join ChatGPT Health Waitlist 00:03:07 More ChatGPT personalization 00:05:17 Tech Support with AI Using the Meta AI glasses for tech support 00:08:20 David-Try Cotypist, an AI-powered autocomplete app Sponsors 00:09:40 SPONSOR: Intuit QuickBooks Payroll – Leave the chaos behind and start the new year off right with QuickBooks Payroll. Learn more by visiting QuickBooks.com/payroll 00:10:58 SPONSOR: Shopify – For anyone to sell anywhere, sign up for a one-dollar-per month trial period at Shopify.com/BusinessBrain and upgrade your selling today! 00:12:35 Employing Claude Cowork for real life 00:27:01 Moltbook (and OpenClaw) Jane from Ender's Game… Perplexity Comet Browser 00:31:36 How do we make money in the AI age? People want to connect 00:37:58 Business Brain 725 Outtro Tell Your Friends! Review Business Brain Subscribe to the show feedback@businessbrain.show Call/Text: (567) 274-6977 X/Twitter: @ShannonJean & @DaveHamilton, & @BizBrainShow LinkedIn: Shannon Jean, Dave Hamilton, & Business Brain Facebook: Dave Hamilton, Shannon Jean, & Business Brain The post FridAI, Hiring Agents – Business Brain 725 appeared first on Business Brain - The Entrepreneurs' Podcast.
Our 233rd episode with a summary and discussion of last week's big AI news!Recorded on 01/30/2026Hosted by Andrey Kurenkov and Jeremie HarrisFeel free to email us your questions and feedback at contact@lastweekinai.com and/or hello@gladstone.aiRead out our text newsletter and comment on the podcast at https://lastweekin.ai/In this episode:Google introduces Gemini AI agent in Chrome for advanced browser functionality, including auto-browsing for pro and ultra subscribers.OpenAI releases ChatGPT Translator and Prism, expanding its applications beyond core business to language translation and scientific research assistance.Significant funding rounds and valuations achieved by startups Recursive and New Rofo, focusing on specialized AI chips and optical processors respectively.Political and social issues, including violence in Minnesota, prompt tech leaders in AI like Ade from Anthropic and Jeff Dean from Google to express concerns about the current administration's actions.Timestamps:(00:00:10) Intro / BanterTools & Apps(00:04:09) Google adds Gemini AI-powered ‘auto browse' to Chrome | The Verge(00:07:11) Users flock to open source Moltbot for always-on AI, despite major risks - Ars Technica(00:13:25) Google Brings Genie 3 'World Building' Experiment to AI Ultra Subscribers - CNET(00:16:17) OpenAI's ChatGPT translator challenges Google Translate | The Verge(00:18:27) OpenAI launches Prism, a new AI workspace for scientists | TechCrunchApplications & Business(00:19:49) Exclusive: China gives nod to ByteDance, Alibaba and Tencent to buy Nvidia's H200 chips - sources | Reuters(00:22:55) AI chip startup Ricursive hits $4B valuation 2 months after launch(00:24:38) AI Startup Recursive in Funding Talks at $4 Billion Valuation - Bloomberg(00:27:30) Flapping Airplanes and the promise of research-driven AI | TechCrunch(00:31:54) From invisibility cloaks to AI chips: Neurophos raises $110M to build tiny optical processors for inferencing | TechCrunchProjects & Open Source(00:35:34) Qwen3-Max-Thinking debuts with focus on hard math, code(00:38:26) China's Moonshot releases a new open-source model Kimi K2.5 and a coding agent | TechCrunch(00:46:00) Ai2 launches family of open-source AI developer agents that adapt to any codebase - SiliconANGLE(00:47:46) Tiny startup Arcee AI built a 400B-parameter open source LLM from scratch to best Meta's LlamaResearch & Advancements(00:52:53) Post-LayerNorm Is Back: Stable, ExpressivE, and Deep(00:58:00) [2601.19897] Self-Distillation Enables Continual Learning(01:03:04) [2601.20802] Reinforcement Learning via Self-Distillation(01:05:58) Teaching Models to Teach Themselves: Reasoning at the Edge of LearnabilityPolicy & Safety(01:09:13) Amodei, Hoffman Join Tech Workers Decrying Minnesota Violence - BloombergSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Snowmageddon hit North Carolina hard last weekend, and Amy is ready for the snow to go away, while Dale is enjoying everything being closed. Meanwhile, their dog Gus isn't quite sure how to navigate walking on ice. Thanks to their “Drink of the Week”, Dale learned what “Galentines Day” is.Dale and Amy's donkeys got loose during the storm, and Dale had to play cowboy to corral them, which had Amy turned on. As if they didn't have enough drama around animals, Amy wrecked her car trying to catch a cat.Plus, apparently, Dale treats Chat GPT like it's his friend and asks some odd things.And in #AskAmy, they discuss the outfits worn at the Grammys, Dale at the MTV awards and Jessica Simpson's dream about Dale. And for more content, check out our YouTube page: https://www.youtube.com/@BlessYourHardtReal fans wear Dirty Mo. Hit the link and join the crew.
Kellie and Allen BOTH have ailments this week, but Allen isn't used to having one and he's super grumpy about it. They both took a trip to the dermatologist this week for some minor surgical procedures. You may hear more than you want to about that.Neither Kellie nor Allen are particularly excited about the Super Bowl, so Kellie asked ChatGPT to help get her excited. We're not sure it did the trick. But Kellie is more excited about the Winter Olympics, which completely baffled Allen. Kellie followed up on a letter from the last podcast and shared her list of baby middle names. And finally, it's the return of the Amazing Alanzo, who performed a little magic for one of our Very Best Customer's engagement party this weekend. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
In this episode of Partnering Leadership, Mahan Tavakoli is joined by Greg Shove, CEO of Section and a serial entrepreneur with a deep track record of leading transformative growth. Shove's leadership journey includes multiple successful pivots, and in this conversation, he brings a uniquely grounded perspective on how AI is fundamentally changing the role of leaders and the structure of modern organizations. From board-level decision-making to frontline productivity, he doesn't just speculate—he shares what he's doing inside his own company to lead through the change.Greg originally joined Section to turn it from a media startup into a next-gen education company. But when he first used ChatGPT, he knew instantly that business education itself needed to evolve. That insight led to a bold pivot: transforming Section from an online business school into an AI-powered academy focused on accelerating performance and capability at scale. It's a rare look at what it really takes to lead a high-velocity pivot—one grounded not in hype, but in strategy, execution, and conviction.Throughout the conversation, Greg challenges conventional thinking on AI adoption, leadership credibility, and the future of knowledge work. He breaks down why many leaders are stuck in experimentation mode—and what it takes to move into actual transformation. CEOs and boards will find his views on performance, upskilling, and AI decision support to be especially compelling and uncomfortably timely.If you're tired of surface-level conversations about AI and want to understand what the shift actually looks like inside a company, this episode delivers. Whether you're leading a small team or a global enterprise, Greg's insights on using AI as a leadership advantage—not just a tech upgrade—will spark new thinking and bold action.Actionable Takeaways:You'll learn why Greg believes the greatest leadership returns come not from better execution—but from catching the right wave at the right time.Hear how AI is already matching 90% of the value delivered by human board members—and what that means for your next board meeting.Discover why most corporate training is already obsolete, and how AI can turn learning into personalized, outcome-driven coaching.Hear how Shopify's CEO linked headcount approvals to AI productivity—and how that kind of thinking will soon become the norm.You'll gain perspective on how to model AI adoption as a leader, and why failing to do so erodes credibility at every level of the organization.Learn Greg's approach to building AI habits inside leadership teams—and why small, visible systems often matter more than a “transformation plan.”Find out what question every CEO should be asking before making a major decision—and why it might be time to invite AI into the room.Hear why Greg believes business model innovation—not technology—will be the real competitive battleground in the age of AI.Understand the deeper threat AI poses to entry-level jobs and talent pipelines—and why CEOs need to rethink how organizations grow their future leaders.You'll hear the provocative question Greg uses to challenge his own team—and how it might reshape your own strategy discussions.Connect with Greg Shove:Greg Shove WebsiteConnect with Mahan Tavakoli: Mahan Tavakoli Website Mahan Tavakoli on LinkedIn Partnering Leadership Website
he podcast dives into the explosive advances in agentic AI, where developers and even Fortune 100 companies are racing to use powerful tools like Gastown, despite their unfinished and sometimes dangerous edges. If you thought ChatGPT was a revolution, wait until you hear how developers are orchestrating armies of AIs with real-world impact. Anthropic's Move Into Legal Is Sinking Data Services Stocks Data centers in space makes no sense The hitchhiker's guide to Musk's SpaceX memo Two kinds of AI users are emerging. The gap between them is astonishing. Does AI already have human-level intelligence? The evidence is clear - Nature OpenAI will retire several models, including GPT-4o, from ChatGPT next month Jensen Huang says Nvidia would love to back an OpenAI IPO, and there's 'no drama' with Sam Altman Firefox will soon let you block all of its generative AI features Salesforce signs $5.6B deal to inject agentic AI into the US Army HHS Is Making an AI Tool to Create Hypotheses About Vaccine Injury Claims French office of Elon Musk's X raided by Paris prosecutor's cybercrime unit An AI Toy Exposed 50K Logs of Its Chats With Kids To Anyone With a Gmail Account Darren Aronofsky's AI Studio Used Artificial Intelligence Tools for Revolutionary War Animated Series — but Hired Human Actors to Voice Founding Fathers Forget Hinge or Bumble. This App Promises a Personal AI Matchmaker Scientists Launch AI DinoTracker App That Identifies Dinosaur Footprints Project Genie: Experimenting with infinite, interactive worlds Anthropic Takes Aim at OpenAI's ChatGPT in Super Bowl Ad Debut Move to Ban Social Media for Kids Gains Traction in Europe The Matrix Resurrections Is a Messy, Imperfect Triumph The Thatcher Effect and other Optical Toys Fascinating Research: AIs are highly inconsistent [i.e., random] when recommending brands or products Hosts: Leo Laporte, Jeff Jarvis, and Paris Martineau Guest: Steve Yegge Download or subscribe to Intelligent Machines at https://twit.tv/shows/intelligent-machines. Join Club TWiT for Ad-Free Podcasts! Support what you love and get ad-free audio and video feeds, a members-only Discord, and exclusive content. Join today: https://twit.tv/clubtwit Sponsors: joindeleteme.com/twit promo code TWIT monarch.com with code IM zscaler.com/security helixsleep.com/machines
Kiera is joined by Alexis Gallati, founder and lead tax strategist at Cerebral Tax Advisors, to talk about tax strategy not just for 2025 success, but 2026 and beyond. They discuss asking your CPA the right questions, shifting income from your higher tax bracket down, the Augusta rule, and a ton more. Episode resources: Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Schedule a Practice Assessment Leave us a review Transcript: The Dental A Team (00:00) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and today I am super jazzed. I have an incredible guest joining us on the podcast today ⁓ to talk about last minute tax strategies before April 15th. Like why not? I mean, hey, maybe you were like, you're not the early bird. You were like, shoot, I forgot. Like what things can I do? And so I'm super excited. Alexis Gallati, she reached out to us. ⁓ She is founder and lead tax strategist at Cerebral Tax Advisors. Ansari Real Wealth Academy. And I was so excited about this topic because I know you guys know I love to geek out about this and I have it on my vision board of tax expert ahead. Like I hate taxes. I love taxes. I believe that taxes are such a beautiful way for us to pay to be in this incredible country. But you better believe I don't want to pay a penny more than I need to. So really figuring that out just a little bit about her is she is got a dual master's degree in business administration and taxation, which is super rad because Let's be real, she gets the business side of it. She gets the taxation and we were chatting before and she was like, what people make like their top line revenue versus their take home pay are two different things. And I was like, amen sister, preach on. She's enrolled agent, NTPI fellow and certified tax strategist. She also is the author of advanced tax planning for medical professionals. She specializes in high level strategic tax planning and multi-state tax preparation for healthcare professionals and business owners. She's raised in a family of physicians and married to one. She empathizes with the financial challenges medical professionals face. This personal connection inspired her to create accessible, unbiased tax solutions tailored to their busy lives. Driven by passion and guided by cerebral thinking, Alexis forms Cerebral to help professionals keep more of their hard earned money. Amen sister. That's what we want. That's why you're here. Their approach breaks the mold of traditional financial advice, offering a unique perspective for medical professionals and business owners. So while yes, she's not 1000 % dental guys were in the healthcare world and she's so brilliant. So Alexis, welcome to the show today. How are you? Alexis Gallati (01:54) Thank you so much for having me. I'm doing very well. Hope you had a wonderful holiday season. The Dental A Team (01:58) Yes, likewise. And I was so excited when I heard that you would be a guest on our podcast. I geek out about this, Alexis, I know it's like our first day meeting, but ⁓ I just think the world of tax is such the game of monopoly. And I'm like, if you would have just told me that rule, I could have played and won the game better. But I feel like it's always as ever changing, ever evolving. And I know there were some big things that happened in 2025 that are impacting like our our taxes. And so, yeah, definitely a timely and exciting podcast to throw out there. So Alexis, I know I gave you a very welcomed ⁓ bio and intro, but yeah, tell us a little bit about who is Alexis. You're married to a physician. You're in this world of tag. How does one become obsessive about CPA? I'm truly just curious. How do you like, how does this happen? How did you become this? Alexis Gallati (02:49) Yeah, so I love law and I love money. And so when I was in undergrad, I took a tax and accounting class and loved more the tax side than the accounting side, I do admit. And so after meeting my husband in college and us starting to go through that full medical journey, was about a year and a half out from him. The Dental A Team (02:54) you Alexis Gallati (03:18) from him finishing his residency. And I really saw the writing on the wall. Even at that time, with him being in residency, about four months of his salary was going towards taxes. And I was like, that's not right. That's not right. With The Dental A Team (03:36) No. Alexis Gallati (03:38) hard he works and how hard medical community works in general. ⁓ my gosh, that's not right. So that's when I really dedicated myself to finding out, why do the Warren Buffets and the Bill Gates of the world have this really low to sometimes non-existent tax bracket? And I really dove into that tax planning. ⁓ And so, you know, what's very unique about, ⁓ you know, the way that I work and my business is that my husband and I are in the same exact position as majority of our clients. And so, yes, I'm looking for strategies for my clients, but I'm also looking for those strategies for myself. The Dental A Team (04:19) You're like, hey, it's me. I'm going to help myself out. I'm very motivated to do this. Alexis Gallati (04:25) Very motivated. And I love it. I love it. It's like you said, it's ⁓ Congress keeps us on our toes, changing the laws consistently year after year. ⁓ it's like a puzzle. Like, hey, how can I just keep more of what I'm earning? The Dental A Team (04:43) Yeah, and I, this is what I get obsessed about. what I learned, gosh, it's like, I was so naive when I started the company. was like, marketing is marketing. I just need to hire a marketer they can do everything. And then I was like, oh, there's a content marketer. There's a copywriter marketer. There's a strategist. There's a growth marketer. There's like an AEO marketer now. There's an SEO. Like you guys, this thing is like a web. They're a content marketer. And then I started realizing it's similar to CPAs and financial planners that like, I thought you hire a CPA, Alexis. Like I'm so naive to business. I'm shocked that I've made it this far. Like truly I'm proud of like the journey we've been on, but like not all CPAs are created equal. And then I realized like CPAs play by different rules. Like it's the same rule, but there's shades of gray. They're how comfortable are you with this and how uncomfortable are you with it? Like there's one CPA that told me like, here, you can totally go skiing in Tahoe. Just like put your logo on your skis and you can totally ride it off and like put your logo on your boat and you can ride it off. And then there's like the Alexis of the world was like, oh, hard pass. No, you're going to like totally get flagged. But I'm like, what rule is right? And so I realized that there are, like you said, tax strategy and for higher wealth earners. I do believe that there's a game, like you said, how did the Warren Buffett's, how did the Bill Gates, like they're not paying this. And then you get into the real estate game and you get into all these other things. You're like, how can we do this? And so Alexis, I'm just jazz. This is me being nerdy. And I'm going to ask you a bajillion questions and I can't wait. to learn. So let's kind of talk about most of your clients, what's the size of take home net pay that they do. So that way we know like what brackets were in. So that way right clients come to you. I also learned not all financial advisors take all people. I was like, I make 30 grand. They're like, great. So we're going to help you out just a little bit. And then like, when you get to this level, we'll chat with you. ⁓ tell us kind of that. And then let's dig into how do we keep more money, Alexis, legally. Alexis Gallati (06:10) I love it. The Dental A Team (06:39) I'm here for legal advice. I'm willing to go gray, but not go to jail. So that's my line. So as long as we're on the same page, I think we are, I'm here for it. Alexis Gallati (06:40) Yes. Definitely, yeah. I am more than happy to play in the gray areas. We just have to feel comfortable defending it in an audit. And so that's our line in the sand. ⁓ But yeah. The Dental A Team (06:55) Mm-hmm. She's like, this is why I went to law guys. This is why I like the law side and the CPA. I like it. I like your style. It's so unique and I just am excited. So, okay, I'm ready. Alexis Gallati (07:07) Yeah. Yeah. at Cerebral, we work with those that earn at minimum $400,000 per year in taxable income. So we have lots of businesses, which by the way, 99.9 % of our clients are medical professionals. I think we have like maybe two clients that have zero ties to the medical industry. And so the practices we work with, you know, generally range from anywhere from maybe about $700,000 in gross revenue all the way up to eight figures. So we tend to not work with those that are larger practices, that usually over 50 employees. And that's just because once you get above 50 employees, yeah, it changes quite a bit. So we're definitely in there with those smaller to medium sized practices. The Dental A Team (07:56) Tax co-changes. Yep. Amazing. No, that's super helpful. And I know we were talking before, like the average of your clients, about 700,000 like net pay is typical where you guys are at. You have some that are higher, but that minimum of 400,000, which is great because I do think that there are thresholds. ⁓ And I did learn through going through business that who Kiera needed as a tax support and advisor when I was in that 30,000 range compare and as a business owner, I thought it was so funny. Gosh, taxes, like they hurt so bad sometimes. Like, whoa, easy come, easy go. Like I've never, I've always been a W-2. So that was such a fascinating world for me. But yeah, let's dig into some of the things you've seen for the medical world. Cause I know I have friends that were physicians and they're really big on real estate. And like I took the real estate Kool-Aid and I'm just like, is this really real? There's gotta be easier ways than doing this. And so I'm just jazzed to kind of go through what are some of the things we can do now before April 15th. What are things that we can do even past April 15th to set us up for great success for 2026? So Alexis, this is your show. I'm just excited, kind of riffed us through it. Of course, I'm gonna geek out and ask probably about way more questions than you care to even be asked, but I'm really excited to learn more today. Alexis Gallati (09:20) Yeah, great. Well, yeah, I hate to be a little bit of a Debbie Downer in the beginning and that when your past December 31st, ⁓ the number of tax strategies that are available to you are before you actually go to file your tax return are limited. It's just the nature of the code. The Dental A Team (09:37) I agree. was super, when you were like, what are the tech? I was like, I want to know because most of the times like when the clock strikes midnight on December 31st, it's like game over and we start again. But yes, which is why I want to know what are like the small ones, but then also Alexis like, let's set our listeners up for like, what things can they do this year to be better prepared for it in conjunction? So yes, before April 15th, but selfishly I want to know what else can I do this year that maybe I haven't thought of. Alexis Gallati (09:52) Yeah. you The Dental A Team (10:06) because the clock hasn't struck midnight in 2026. So like we've got time. So yeah, for 2025 filing, but also for 2026 as well. Alexis Gallati (10:09) Yeah. Yeah, so let's talk about 2025 filing first. Especially if you're a business owner, there are actually a number of things that you could still put together for yourself that can impact your 2025 financials. ⁓ So even basic things like if you haven't been taking advantage of your home office deduction or ⁓ vehicle expenses ⁓ and unreimbursed business expenses. So those are expenses that you paid personally, but our business expenses. So all of those items, you can still go and report on your 2025 return. So if you haven't taken the time to sit down and say, how much should I pay in my home utilities or insurance, repairs, et cetera, and take the percentage. So let's say your home office is 7%. of your total square footage of your home. Well, then you can write off 7 % of your home expenses on your taxes. the treatment's a little bit different depending upon if you're a sole proprietorship or an S corporation. But in general, you still have that time to take advantage of that. And a lot of you might be like, oh, Alexis, it's such a little amount. I don't even know if it's worth it. Believe me. All these little things can really add up together. And easily, I usually see between $10,000 to $20,000 of really ⁓ easy to grab savings for yourself if you just take even a few hours to gather all the information. ⁓ And you can even use ⁓ personal financial apps like Monarch Money or You Need a Budget, things like that to help. organize that information for you throughout the year so it's a little more automated. The Dental A Team (12:10) Yeah, that's amazing. I do love the YNAB. You're throwing me back to like pharmacy school days of you need a budget. I was like, oh my gosh, got to answer this every time. They have updated so much, but I love that you said like 10 to 20 grand, I think is worthwhile, but more than it being pennies or dollars, I think it's the discipline of having it prepared for next year too. So that way we don't, I think it's like, well, it might not be enough this year, but I'm like, you take that this year and we compound over the next year and the next year and the next year. I think these little things to me at least, Alexis Gallati (12:15) Ha ha ha. The Dental A Team (12:41) Like I said, it's their game of monopoly. And I'm like, okay, maybe I didn't get it that time, but I'm going to take that rule and I'm going to apply it this year and the next year and the next year. So I'm even taking notes over here, guys. So Alexis, if you see me, I'm writing it like, okay, I'm going to check in on that, check in on that. So make sure, make sure that they're being taken into consideration because I don't prep my own taxes. I don't even know half the stuff. Like they just tell me. So I also think being a good steward as well and always double checking your CPA to make sure like, are we maximizing every deduction we can? Alexis Gallati (12:53) Good, I like it. Of course. Yeah. And being proactive is like you said, the number one thing because the IRS can deny deduction if you don't have that itemized receipt or you don't have the proper documentation. And 99 % of any fight with the IRS is that documentation. And I did a three year fellowship in IRS representation. So I'm obviously very focused on that tax savings, but also very focused on making sure that everything's set up properly. So if the IRS were to challenge it or even the state, you're in good hands. then that way, you can just give them the stuff and say, go away. The Dental A Team (13:51) Exactly. And I heard somebody once tell me, they're like, Kiera, it's not a matter of if I'll be audited, it's when. Like every business will most likely be audited at some point. I hope and pray like we're not. I think about that a lot of like cross my T's, dot my I's, make sure that I'm constantly trying to be compliant with things. But your wealth of knowledge on that Alexis of what things and how to become, I mean, shoot three years of IRS. Girl, you got my vote. That's impressive. And like love the love the authority piece that you're bringing to our podcast today. Alexis Gallati (14:20) Thank you. Thank you. So some other things that you're able to do before you file that tax return, and this is a big one, is retirement. So you actually have until the filing of a tax return, and that includes extensions. So for example, if you're an S corporation or a partnership, have the original due date, which is March 15th, or the extended due date, which is September 15th, to go and open and fund that retirement plan. So if you have employees, it can get obviously a little bit more complicated, but you still are able to do it and ⁓ do that employer contribution. And that's obviously really one of the lower hanging fruits when it comes to not only tax savings, but also wealth generation. The Dental A Team (15:12) Yeah, no, I love that. That's a great idea. And I think a lot of people miss that. And again, CPAs, tax strategists, wealth advisors, they're all playing in their own lanes, but how can we make sure all of them are maximizing together? Because you as a human are trying to build that wealth. So I love that. Alexis Gallati (15:30) Yeah. And don't forget as well, you know, kind of in the same vein as retirement is that health savings account. So if you had a high deductible plan throughout the year, but maybe your employer didn't actually provide a ⁓ health savings account, like so if you're a W-2, for example, or even if you're self-employed, you can still go open up your own Health Savings account through, I think Fidelity has some, ⁓ Optum Bank, HSA Bank. So there's a whole bunch of different providers out there. can just Google and find the provider that works best for you. The Dental A Team (16:07) Interesting. And I know like I just wrote that down because a lot of dentists don't have HSA. Like we are the providers for it. But hearing that that might even be a resource to attract people into your business if you were able to like, don't necessarily provide it, but these are some companies that we could help our employees get if they wanted to have an HSA because I know that that's something that my husband works at a hospital. So there's an HSA there, but as sole proprietors and S-Corps, a lot of times they aren't provided. That's actually really like, I think just a great tool and resource to possibly provide to our employees, depending upon what it looks like for your business. Alexis Gallati (16:40) Yeah, definitely. And then one other thing that you ⁓ may be able to do, depending upon your state, ⁓ to help with state taxes, is go and contribute to a 529 plan, which is for education for yourself or other dependent. And some states like Georgia, Indiana, Michigan, South Carolina, there's a number of them. They allow you to make that contribution all the way up to the filing of the tax return. The Dental A Team (17:13) Interesting. I did not know that I wrote that down. That's fascinating. I love this. This is like so fun. Keep going. Alexis Gallati (17:20) Yeah. Yeah. So that, you know, is, a good, especially for, you know, higher earners. ⁓ that's kind of a good summary of what you can be doing before this, ⁓ April 15th or even the extended due date as well. ⁓ but when you start looking into 2026, who, that book, that book opens up, there is. The Dental A Team (17:39) It does, right? It's like the monopoly Bible. Like it's so big. Like how do I play the game of taxes? So I truly, and I think like for all the listeners, like the home office, the HSA, ⁓ retirement, the 529 plan, like there's still time. So go look at those things. And even if you can't contribute or do those things now, having that set up for next year, like, Alexis, truly, I'm like, I'm getting the popcorn. I'm getting my notepad. Like, I am so excited because half these things I haven't heard of. And so it's very fun to just hear different perspectives. And I do love that you've got a legal background too. I love that you're in IRS. I love that you're in medicine and healthcare and like for your own personal savings too. It's like you're the Nancy Drew of like, how can I do the most amount through all of this? It's a very fascinating perspective you bring today. Alexis Gallati (18:27) thank you. I appreciate that. yeah, when obviously when you are a W-2 employee still that your options are not as open for those that have a business. But ⁓ besides obviously retirement HSA that you can do all year, one thing that a lot of W-2 employees forget is to actually check with your employer to see what their reimbursement policy looks like. The Dental A Team (18:29) course. Alexis Gallati (18:55) because if you're maybe in a private practice with a large group, and I mean, these could even be groups that have sometimes hundreds of physicians in it, or even if it's just a hospital system, they'll have actually pretty generous reimbursement policies for things like your CME, your new loops, or going and doing your mileage in between different hospitals or clinics, things like that. So making sure that you are keeping track of those things. Obviously, if you're a business owner, you definitely want to keep track of those. But some of my favorite for those that own their own practices, my absolute favorite is hiring your kids. The Dental A Team (19:36) Of course, yeah. Alexis Gallati (19:48) It seems so basic, but believe me, there are definitely steps in place that have to be done in order to make sure they ⁓ qualify. for me, the ⁓ court tested age is seven. So I usually don't recommend my clients going and hiring their kids until they're at least that age. You can do it younger, but the old my kids are models strategy is kind of ⁓ antiquated now just because ⁓ everybody has these great cameras now on their phones. And so it's kind of devalued, being a model ⁓ for those that aren't professionals basically. ⁓ But that's a really great way to shift income from your higher tax bracket down to their non-existent tax bracket. The Dental A Team (20:21) Totally. Right? Alexis Gallati (20:40) and you can then put that money into a Roth IRA for them. And if you do that, let's say over like a 10 year period in 2026, that amount is 7,500 is the max you can put in. They're easily, by the time they're age 65, gonna have at least 2 million plus dollars in savings. So it's a really great way to create a legacy for your kids and give them a little headstart. The Dental A Team (20:48) Mm-hmm. Yeah, that's amazing. And I think so many people are like, I don't know how to help my kids with college or different things like that. And it's like, these are great ways to prepare them for the future for when they retire for things like that. I mean, how awesome I know a couple of ⁓ doctors because The bulk of our audience, Alexis, are not W-2 earners. They are self-employed, like dental practice owners. ⁓ But I know that there were several that didn't tell their kids that they had done this for them. And then the surprise when they graduated college of, we've been putting this into place for you. I mean, shoot, that money's going to go to the government or to your kids. Why not invest in your children? You're going to pay that money regardless. So ⁓ definitely think that that's such a brilliant idea. And I've heard people, they're like, their real job, like they have to have a real job. They're like a paper shredder. Like they like literally shred the paper or they open the mail or they like pick out the cards or they pick out the toys for the prize boxes, like actual legit jobs that they employ them for. But I think what an amazing gift and legacy to give your kids as well. Alexis Gallati (21:51) they Yeah, exactly. All four of my children are, obviously cerebral isn't a dental practice, but they're hired through cerebral. So that way they are earning enough to put that money into their Roth IRA. ⁓ And a lot of ⁓ my clients are like, man, I don't know what my kids can do. And like you said, there's a lot of admin work that they can do. Even a seven-year-old can. like you said, shred paper, stamp envelopes. They can help with doing their ABCs and filing things away if you're an older ⁓ practice owner and they have ⁓ still the paper file system. ⁓ yeah, it really is a wonderful way to not only teach responsibility, but also to save. ⁓ I highly recommend ⁓ doing that. And even if you have parents that you financially support, you could even The Dental A Team (22:45) Yeah. Yeah. Alexis Gallati (23:02) go and hire your parents through your practice ⁓ and write off their support. Of course, again, they need to also have a legitimate job in the business. with parents, you have to be careful if they have any benefits like social security or Medicare. Then you just want to make sure that you're not pushing them out of those benefits because of their income ⁓ or making any part of their social security taxable. So that takes a little bit more. ⁓ finesse than hiring a child. The Dental A Team (23:36) No, that's great. That's a really good idea too, because I hadn't thought about parents. I have heard about children, but you're right, parents are retired. And if there's ways that you can support and give back rather than like, again, I love the government. I am happy to pay taxes, but if there's ways that I can support my own family, ⁓ I think it's great because I'm going to pay that money anyway, but paying it to people that I love and care about is really a great idea. Alexis Gallati (24:00) Yeah. Another popular one I'm sure that you've seen on TikTok or other social media is the Augusta rule. ⁓ and this is where you're renting your home to your business. ⁓ and this is perfect example where documentation is absolutely critical. ⁓ but basically what happens is you rent your home to your business for 14 days or less. Those days do not have to be consecutive and your business gets to The Dental A Team (24:07) Mm-hmm. Alexis Gallati (24:28) right off the cost of that rent. So obviously lowers your taxes. But then you as the individual do not have to pay tax on that rental income. Now, if you do it for 15 days and you've ruined the strategy and you have to pay tax on all 15 days. So that's really important you do 14 days or less. But this is again a really great way if you have monthly board meetings, that's 12 days right there. Or if you have employee parties, if you have colleagues over in discussing business, though, as long as you have a rental agreement in place between yourself and your business, and you document through meeting minutes everything that occurred during that event, then that is the documentation that the IRS would need in order to substantiate that. strategy. And obviously a reasonable rental rate as well. The Dental A Team (25:27) Yeah, no, didn't realize, I did not realize that you needed a rental agreement. Can you expand more on that? like we check all the Airbnb's and the VRBO's in the area to see what does our house actually go for and like keep that documented every single year and then have an actual agenda and like have it in the calendar. So it's in our Google calendar. It's got an agenda. It's got a PDF didn't attach. But how does the rental agreement work? like, yeah, how do you, I didn't realize that that was a necessary piece to it. Alexis Gallati (25:57) Yeah, so you can even just use ChatGPT to create it. ⁓ But essentially what you do is it's just that agreement between the business and personal. So ⁓ you just want to think about it like any other rental that you would do. If you were to go to a conference room in a hotel, for example, or go rent that Airbnb, you're going to be signing some sort of agreement saying that this can happen. that this event can happen on this date. ⁓ you can either do one agreement for the entire year, spelling out like, here are the days that we're going to be doing these things, ⁓ or you can have an agreement for each time that it happens. The Dental A Team (26:43) Very cool. That's super helpful. Yeah, I do love the addresses for all anything people. And I mean, I've had CPAs and like, don't go crazy. Like that's where I say like check Airbnb, check VRBO like what you think your house is worth versus what market value says your house is worth. Like, let's make sure that we are accurate on that. But yeah, that's definitely an amazing one that I think is great for offices to surely do. Alexis Gallati (26:51) Yes. Yep. Go and get two to three comps. So then that way can just take an average. I feel like that's a very safe way to, ⁓ show reasonableness. You're not just like, Hey, I'm taking the highest one on the block. You know, it's taking a few of them. The Dental A Team (27:21) Totally. No, definitely agree. I love that. Okay, Alexis, what other ideas? know we're, I'm like just like sitting here. I'm like, I love this writing it down. Great ideas. What are some of the ones that like, yeah, anything else that's going to save us? Um, because like taxes are taxes and we are going to pay them, but like, what else can we do to, like you said, Bill Gates or, um, like Warren Buffett, what are the things that you found for like these higher net worth earners? Like, do they need to get into real estate and like use the big, beautiful tax bill or like, Alexis Gallati (27:23) Yeah. Okay. The Dental A Team (27:50) anything else that you've seen that like really moves the noodles or is like, no, just the small consistent things are really going to help them out. Alexis Gallati (27:57) Yes, well, they all help out. ⁓ But if you are looking for more of that, hey, Alexis, what's like Hail Mary that I can be doing to act to really save? ⁓ You can look at real estate. ⁓ That could be a whole podcast by itself. ⁓ But in general, you you tend to ⁓ get into real estate when you're not talking about like reets or things I can do through the stock market. The Dental A Team (28:14) Right. Alexis Gallati (28:26) ⁓ You're either doing like real estate syndications, ⁓ direct ownership, like long-term rentals or short-term rentals. And ⁓ each of those are treated differently and have different ways of making that ⁓ a tax deduction for yourself. So when it comes to, in general, ⁓ real estate syndications, this is where you're The Dental A Team (28:49) Mm-hmm. Alexis Gallati (28:54) buying into a partnership that maybe owns an office building. And you go in with other partners and ⁓ it's syndicated. So it's very passive. There's no way for you to write off any losses in that current year. ⁓ When it comes to direct ownership, the IRS basically says, hey, that real estate is considered passive unless you have real estate professional status or you do that short-term rental deduction or excuse me, short-term rental exclusion. And so what ⁓ happens if you can qualify for the short-term rental exclusion or real estate professional status is that those what would have been passive losses that you can't use against your current income will be considered active losses. And then you can use it against your active income, when I say active income, things like your W-2 or your business. So you're getting a current year deduction from that. And you can do cost segregation study to help accelerate depreciation. ⁓ So this is very, very much in the nutshell sort of explanation. ⁓ But it can really be a great way to lower your taxes if The Dental A Team (29:57) Mm-hmm. Yeah. Alexis Gallati (30:16) you essentially want a second job. Just know that real estate is not as passive as the social media gurus go and ⁓ try to glamorize. It really does take a lot of extra work. You want to make sure that you are following the rules properly so that you can get that tax benefit in the current year. ⁓ But if you The Dental A Team (30:19) Yeah. Alexis Gallati (30:41) do have that prerogative and you want to learn and get do things properly, then it can really save you quite a bit of money. The Dental A Team (30:48) Yeah. Are there any other things, Alexis, that are like real estate that save that much but don't require that much work? I'm asking you for the weight loss drug of taxes, please. What's our easiest way with the most amount of bang for buck that you've seen? These are the big hits that if you want, because agreed, real estate's great. If you do that short-term thing, but it is a lot of work. With the big, beautiful tax bill that came through, that 100 % depreciation is pretty fantastic. But like you said, Alexis Gallati (30:54) Yes. Mm-hmm. The Dental A Team (31:17) got to have it rented out, you got to have the pieces, you got to like reno it like there are and you have to have it done by the end of the year and like it's a stressful zone. ⁓ So are there other things that you've seen that might be like 50 or 100 or 200,000 off taxes that aren't necessary real estate? The Augustus one, yes. Like paying people, there's things but is there anything else you've found that are like some of those bigger chunks that maybe people don't think about they don't recognize? Yes of course they're going to take a little bit more work but... Alexis Gallati (31:17) You gotta work for it. The Dental A Team (31:45) that you found that could be benefits to our audience. Alexis Gallati (31:48) OK, so let's talk about my Hail Mary for tax savings. I love this one towards the end of the year because you're going to want to know, have a good idea of where your tax situation is going to end up. So I use this a lot for year end planning. And this is oil and gas. When you ⁓ invest in oil and gas, again, just like with real estate, there's a lot of different options. But my favorite is our drilling funds and this is where you invest in a partnership that owns oil and gas wells and these this allows you in that first year to Essentially write off usually somewhere between 80 to 95 percent of the investment that you've put in So let's say you invest a hundred thousand dollars Then you're getting about and let's say conservatively an eighty thousand dollar deduction that can go a against your ordinary income. So if you're W2 or your business. usually, a good rule of thumb is that, let's say, if you're putting in $100,000, you're saving $30,000 in tax. You're putting in $200,000, you're saving $60,000 in tax. And then after year one, you're earning overall, during the life of the investment, about a 2x The Dental A Team (33:10) Bye. Alexis Gallati (33:11) you put 100,000, you're getting about 200,000 back. And so it's considered a very conservative investment. And just because the length of the investment, and this is one of the cons of it, is that it's usually about a 10 to 12 year period. So it's generally only about a 7 % return on investment over the life of the investment. the great thing about it is that you let's say if you did put in that hundred thousand, you're getting that 30,000 in savings, and then you can go put that into something else that will earn you even more money. So then this is something that you can do every single year. And, you know, just depends on how much money you want to save and so that how much you put in for that investment. The Dental A Team (33:57) Gosh, that's such a good one. And these are things of like just fun, like tips and topics. Like I said, it's the rules of monopoly. I caught like, how do we play tax strategy better? Alexis, what are any like resources? I feel like you guys have some resources. Like I feel the world of tax is so daunting. And so it's like, we hear from podcasts and we hear snippets and we see TikTok and it's like real estate games. like, where do people go if they like want to dig a little bit deeper and really become like more tax expert and more tax savvy and. like tax strategy, like what are any resources you found or ways for people just to become a little bit more literate in the tax world. Alexis Gallati (34:33) Yes, so ⁓ of course I'm to do a little shameful plug. My book, The ⁓ Advanced Tax Strategies for Medical Professionals, it's really just that it's a brain dump of all different types of strategies, whether it's for your business or W-2 only, charitable, these alternative investments. And so it's really a space. The Dental A Team (34:36) as you should. Alexis Gallati (34:58) for readers to learn more about their options. So then that was the way they can go online and do more research or bring it to their current advisor. So, you know, it's just about opening those possibilities. Otherwise, you know, one resource that is really great for especially medical professionals is the White Coat Investor that Dr. Dali, he has a wonderful, wonderful site and he puts out really good material. The Dental A Team (35:11) Yeah. Alexis Gallati (35:25) when it comes to not only taxes, but also for ⁓ just finances in general. And then, of course, on ⁓ CerebralTaxAdvisors.com, our website has wonderful ⁓ material that I put out all the time. There's lots of goodies there, as well as ⁓ different resources and worksheets and stuff like that. The Dental A Team (35:52) Yeah, no, that's super helpful. But Alexis, what do you find ⁓ as you go through this? Like one, how often are you meeting with your clients? Because I feel like so many CPAs and tax strategists meet with them in like December 1st and they're like, hey, you owe this much money. Is that how you guys plan? Like how should tax planning actually work? or is that normal? Like I'm just trying to find a vibe of how this should work in the industry. Alexis Gallati (36:15) Yeah. Yeah. So when a medical professional first starts working with us, I design a tax plan for them. And that's really critical because right then and there, OK, what can we be doing to dramatically lower your taxes, legally, of course, and set you up for success? And then we meet with our clients at minimum twice a year. So we do a mid-year tax projection and a year-end tax projection. The Dental A Team (36:34) course. Alexis Gallati (36:45) And especially with medical professionals, your income is so variable throughout the year, depending upon insurance reimbursements or seasonality and things like that. And so we really want to make sure that we have a good, clear understanding, good six plus months in advance. Hey, what are you going to be owing tax wise? What does cash flow look like? What quarterly estimated payments do you need to make? All of these things should not be a surprise. So that's why when I built Cerebral in the packages we have, I was really focused around how do we eliminate those surprises. The Dental A Team (37:23) Yeah, no, I love that. that's super helpful because I feel like so many just wait till December and it's like, no, like there's things I could have been doing and if I would have known. So that's super helpful. And then I think the other question is like, okay, you guys are tax strategy. Are you CPA? Are you bookkeeping? Like kind of differentiate. Are you in the financial advisor world? Like what specifically would we say I need you for XYZ, but I'm going to need these people again, like marketing, right? Like what facet of my wealth management are you? and who do I need paired with you? Alexis Gallati (37:54) Yep, so we are your tax compliance, tax planning, your bookkeeping, and CFO services, and also business advising as well. So we're able to set up entities for you ⁓ as well as provide ⁓ just a lot of the years and years of experience that we have in running businesses and seeing different types of practices, et cetera. ⁓ We are not investment advisors, so we won't say, buy Coca-Cola versus Pepsi. But we will introduce you to different investments that have tax benefits. And one very unique quality of Cerebral that's very different from other firms is that we do not take any commissions or kickbacks on any strategies we recommend or vendors we recommend. And we don't sell any products. So we're very education-based. I'm very focused on you understanding your options so you can make a educated decision on what you want to move forward with. And then we are a white glove done for you firm that will implement those strategies on your behalf and make sure they're reported properly on your tax returns. Because that's what we've found being in this industry, especially specializing in medical professionals, is there's a lot of people out there that know about these strategies. but they do not know how to implement them properly. And that honestly is 80 % of the fight when it comes to doing any of these strategies. The Dental A Team (39:26) Yeah, no, that's incredible. So, and again, this is just like naiveness on my side. Do I need a CPA or are you guys the replacement of a CPA? Alexis Gallati (39:35) Yeah, we're the replacement of CPA. We are CPAs. We are EAs. So we are taking care of your tax preparation, so personal and business. We do it all. I try to keep these packages as comprehensive as possible because I hate being nickel and dined. communication's a top priority for us. And so we don't want our clients to hesitate whatsoever to connect with us. And so that's why we don't. The Dental A Team (39:56) Totally. Amazing. Alexis Gallati (40:05) shot like I, my gosh, I just got like a bill from my attorney the other day and it was for stuff that I talked to him about like in August. I'm like, I hate those pop-up bills. So that's yeah, that's, why I try to make it as comprehensive as possible. The Dental A Team (40:10) Yep. Right. Awesome. No, that's fantastic. That's really helpful. And I know a lot of people are very nervous to switch from their CPA. CPAs, feel like we're so embedded and we trust them with our souls. Truly, I see this. ⁓ So is there complementary calls we have with you? how do we start with that? Because I know, honestly, untangling from a CPA is such a pain. It is so annoying. so ⁓ how does that process work if people want to work with you, Alexis? Alexis Gallati (40:46) So the best thing you can do is go to our website and go to the contact page. And you will ⁓ go through a very quick questionnaire to make sure that you're a good fit for us, because we also want to make sure we're a good fit for you. And we will ⁓ have a tax discovery session. And during that session, we will. We'll talk about what your needs are and what it's like to work with us. ⁓ I'm very focused on that return on investment. We actually have a guarantee. with the design of our plans that I will save you at least two times what you pay us in ⁓ tax savings or you get the plan for free. And on average, our clients actually achieve 4.5 multiple with the design of our plans. So again, it doesn't make sense for us to work together if I can't save you more than what you're paying us. The Dental A Team (41:39) That's amazing. No, that's incredible. And that's a great guarantee. And ⁓ then let's say hypothetical, we do get audited. How often do you guys go through audits and like success rate? Like I'm imagining if you were three years in IRS, you're probably pretty fantastic at that. But these are always things that I'm just curious. Like how does that work? And how often are your clients audited? And like, how is your success rate on that? And if you don't want to share this, I hope you do. We're just going to go for it. Like, yeah, I'm just going to ask the weird questions. Why not? Alexis Gallati (42:01) Yeah. I love the weird questions. They're the best. So yeah, that's one thing I can never guarantee that you won't be audited because of course there are always random audits that happen. We've only had three audits since I started Cerebral over 10 years ago. In 2014, I started Cerebral. ⁓ And ⁓ one of them was for the mortgage interest deduction. there's a limitation in that. The Dental A Team (42:18) It's incredible. Alexis Gallati (42:28) Um, and that was just, unfortunately, a client had not provided the correct information. And so we were easily able to just change it and be on our way. Um, and then another two were regarding actually real estate professional status. And that was just New York state saying, Hey, like we don't, we don't think that you're actually qualified for this. we're like, Oh, yeah, we do. Here's the paperwork. And they're like, Oh, okay. See you later. So yeah. The Dental A Team (42:50) Yeah. That's amazing. That's a huge thing. And I'm so glad I asked the question because I think for me, that's something I'm curious on of like, I get it. Like you said, you can't guarantee that, but as long as you back in, do you guys charge extra for those audits or is that part of the plan? Like, nope, we stand behind it. Like, how does that work? Cause I know there's some firms that I have chatted with and if we do get audited, it's like 375 an hour for the audit. And I'm like, okay, like I'll just plan for that. But how does that work for you guys? Alexis Gallati (43:18) Yep, so we back up all of our work and all of our packages. If you do receive a notice for anything that we prepare, you send it to us and we help you take care of it. So yeah, we 100 % back up our work. If you come start working with us and you have some a notice from a year that we didn't handle, like we didn't prepare, we'll still help you handle it. But that would be just. at our hourly rate, depending upon the extensiveness of the notice. But to go back to your original question about making that change, I 100 % get it, especially if you've been with somebody for so long. And so you just have to look at that cost benefit and see, hey, staying with this person, how much is that costing me in tax savings versus The Dental A Team (44:01) Right. Alexis Gallati (44:12) going with somebody like cerebral and we try to go and make that process as seamless as possible when it comes to getting ⁓ up to date in your history and then ⁓ getting access to your bookkeeping and getting your tax returns. ⁓ And so, because I completely understand it can be daunting, but. ⁓ Happy to have a conversation around it when we meet about the discovery session and to see if it's something you'd want to move forward with. The Dental A Team (44:43) Amazing. Alexis, has been such a great podcast and I just love meeting great individuals. I love how much you have a passion for the law and for the tax wealth and it's your own life and your own livelihood. So if people want to reach out, I know you said it before, how do they connect with you? So yeah, they can get started if they're interested. Alexis Gallati (45:01) Yeah. So you can Google us or just go to CerebralTaxAdvisors.com. And which by the way, the reason why I have cerebral is because my husband is a private practice neurosurgeon and my dad's a retired private practice neurologist. hence cerebral in the brain. So if y'all can remember. But yeah, so CerebralTaxAdvisors.com is the best way to get a hold of us. The Dental A Team (45:14) There you go. I love it. Yeah. Alexis Gallati (45:27) ⁓ And I look forward to potentially talking with y'all. The Dental A Team (45:32) Well, Alexis, thank you so much for this. And for all of you listening, I hope you take advantage between now and April 15th. I hope you just like have a conversation. I'm always pro. I love CPAs. My CPA listens to this podcast and I'm always interested in meeting new people like Alexis, chatting with them. Are there different ways that they can benefit me? Because yes, I love my CPA, but I love more than that saving money and learning new strategies that maybe I didn't know about. So Alexis, I really hope a lot of them reach out to you, connect with you and for All of you listening, thank you for listening. I'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team Podcast.
Google said it plans to spend at least $55bn more on capital expenditure this year than Wall Street had forecast, US tech stocks were hit by a fresh wave of selling on Wednesday, and the FT's Chris Cook talks about the challenges of unpacking millions of documents on Jefferey Epstein. Plus, OpenAI senior staff are leaving because the company is prioritising ChatGPT. Mentioned in this podcast:Google adds $55bn to capex plans as it boosts AI spendingUS tech stocks hit with fresh wave of selling as chipmaker AMD tumblesPolice launch criminal investigation into Mandelson over Epstein scandalOpenAI's ChatGPT push triggers senior staff exitsNote: The FT does not use generative AI to voice its podcasts Credit: NBC NewsToday's FT News Briefing was hosted and edited by Marc Filippino, and produced by Fiona Symon, Victoria Craig and Sonja Hutson. Our show was mixed by Kelly Garry. Additional help from Gavin Kallmann, Michael Lello and David da Silva. Our executive producer is Topher Forhecz. Cheryl Brumley is the FT's Global Head of Audio. The show's theme music is by Metaphor Music. Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
I need to be honest with you: I didn't enjoy my HYROX race last week. Not one moment felt like I was “crushing it.” I was slower than I wanted to be, overheated, disappointed, and questioning myself more than once.And you know what? That makes it the most valuable thing I've done so far this year.This is the story of how a tough race taught me more about resilience, self-efficacy, and mental strength than any perfect performance ever could. It's about what happened when I debriefed with my AI coach ChatGPT, how the science of stress inoculation actually works, and why doing hard physical things — especially when they don't go to plan — can radically change how you show up in every other area of your life.If you've ever felt disappointed after something you worked hard for… or wondered whether pushing yourself physically is “worth it”, this episode will shift how you see challenge, confidence, and growth.What You'll Learn:Why the challenges that stretch you don't always feel good in the moment and why they matter more because of itWhat HYROX actually is and why it's become a $140 million global phenomenon that makes "average people feel like athletes"Why this was the first event I've paid for that I genuinely didn't enjoy (and why that made it so valuable)How self-efficacy, stress inoculation, and generalized confidence actually work (backed by research from Albert Bandura)Why my brain learned more from struggle than it would have from a perfect race Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Today we interviewed Bob Wachter about his book, "A Giant Leap: How AI Is Transforming Healthcare and What That Means for Our Future." You may recall we interviewed Bob in April 2024 about AI, and at that time he was on the fence about AI - more promise or more peril for healthcare? As his book's title suggests, he's come down firmly on the promise side of the equation. On our podcast we discuss: Why Bob wrote this book, at this time, and concerns about writing a static book about AI and Healthcare, a field that is dynamic and shifting rapidly. He's right though - we've not had a "ChatGPT"-launch type moment recently. Top 5 or so ways in which Bob uses AI for work, from clinical care to book writing Concerns about job losses in healthcare, and will we still need doctors? AI for diagnosis, and the recent NEJM Clinical Case in which recent GeriPal guest and superstar clinician-educator Gurpreet Dhaliwal beats an AI. UpToDate vs OpenEvidence Trust issues - should we trust AI after being let down before? Clinicians felt burned by their experience with the hype and promise of EHRs - but they've been much less a game changer and much more a soul sucking chore designed to maximize billing rather than improve patient care. Yet early returns on AI have largely been positive. Time saved from writing notes, prior authorizations, and summarizing charts…all to the good! Sadly, we didn't have Bob on piano singing the song for this one. He was in the office, not home. So I made do with ChatGPT's choice, Handle With Care, which has some surprisingly pertinent lyrics about AI in healthcare, including: "Been beat up and battered aroundBeen sent up, and I've been shot downYou're the best thing that I've ever foundHandle me with care" Enjoy! -Alex Smith
he podcast dives into the explosive advances in agentic AI, where developers and even Fortune 100 companies are racing to use powerful tools like Gastown, despite their unfinished and sometimes dangerous edges. If you thought ChatGPT was a revolution, wait until you hear how developers are orchestrating armies of AIs with real-world impact. Anthropic's Move Into Legal Is Sinking Data Services Stocks Data centers in space makes no sense The hitchhiker's guide to Musk's SpaceX memo Two kinds of AI users are emerging. The gap between them is astonishing. Does AI already have human-level intelligence? The evidence is clear - Nature OpenAI will retire several models, including GPT-4o, from ChatGPT next month Jensen Huang says Nvidia would love to back an OpenAI IPO, and there's 'no drama' with Sam Altman Firefox will soon let you block all of its generative AI features Salesforce signs $5.6B deal to inject agentic AI into the US Army HHS Is Making an AI Tool to Create Hypotheses About Vaccine Injury Claims French office of Elon Musk's X raided by Paris prosecutor's cybercrime unit An AI Toy Exposed 50K Logs of Its Chats With Kids To Anyone With a Gmail Account Darren Aronofsky's AI Studio Used Artificial Intelligence Tools for Revolutionary War Animated Series — but Hired Human Actors to Voice Founding Fathers Forget Hinge or Bumble. This App Promises a Personal AI Matchmaker Scientists Launch AI DinoTracker App That Identifies Dinosaur Footprints Project Genie: Experimenting with infinite, interactive worlds Anthropic Takes Aim at OpenAI's ChatGPT in Super Bowl Ad Debut Move to Ban Social Media for Kids Gains Traction in Europe The Matrix Resurrections Is a Messy, Imperfect Triumph The Thatcher Effect and other Optical Toys Fascinating Research: AIs are highly inconsistent [i.e., random] when recommending brands or products Hosts: Leo Laporte, Jeff Jarvis, and Paris Martineau Guest: Steve Yegge Download or subscribe to Intelligent Machines at https://twit.tv/shows/intelligent-machines. Join Club TWiT for Ad-Free Podcasts! Support what you love and get ad-free audio and video feeds, a members-only Discord, and exclusive content. Join today: https://twit.tv/clubtwit Sponsors: joindeleteme.com/twit promo code TWIT monarch.com with code IM zscaler.com/security helixsleep.com/machines
Join us LIVE on Mondays, 4:30pm EST.A weekly Podcast with BHIS and Friends. We discuss notable Infosec, and infosec-adjacent news stories gathered by our community news team.https://www.youtube.com/@BlackHillsInformationSecurityChat with us on Discord! - https://discord.gg/bhis
It’s actually a good thing that some books push you to the edge of your ability to understand. But there’s no doubting the fact that dense, abstract and jargon-filled works can push you so far into the fog of frustration that you cannot blame yourself for giving up. But here’s the truth: You don’t have to walk away frustrated and confused. I’m going to share with you a number of practical strategies that will help you fill in the gaps of your reading process. Because that’s usually the real problem: It’s not your intelligence. Nor is it that the world is filled with books “above your level.” I ultimately don’t believe in “levels” as such. But as someone who taught reading courses at Rutgers and Saarland University, I know from experience that many learners need to pick up a few simple steps that will strengthen how they approach reading difficult books. And in this guide, you’ll learn how to read challenging books and remember what they say. I’m going to go beyond generic advice too. That way, you can readily diagnose: Why certain books feel so hard Use pre-reading tactics that prime your brain to deal with difficulties effectively Apply active reading techniques to lock in understanding faster Leverage accelerated learning tools that are quick to learn Use Artificial Intelligence to help convert tough convent into lasting knowledge without worrying about getting duped by AI hallucinations Whether you’re tacking philosophy, science, dense fiction or anything based primarily in words, the reading system you’ll learn today will help you turn confusion into clarity. By the end, even the most intimidating texts will surrender their treasures to your mind. Ready? Let’s break it all down together. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9HLbY4jsFg Why Some Books Feel “Too Hard” (And What That Really Means) You know exactly how it feels and so do I. You sit down with a book that people claim is a classic or super-important. But within a few pages, your brain fogs over and you’re completely lost. More often than not, through glazed eyes, you start to wonder… did this author go out of his or her way to make this difficult? Are they trying to show off with all these literary pyrotechnics? Or is there a deliberate conspiracy to confuse readers like me? Rest assured. These questions are normal and well worth asking. The difficulty you might feel is never arbitrary in my experience. But there’s also no “single origin” explanation for why some books feel easier than others. It’s almost always a combination of factors, from cognitive readiness, lived experience, emotions and your physical condition throughout the day. This means that understanding why individual texts resist your understanding needs to be conducted on a case-by-case basis so you can move towards mastering anything you want to read. Cognitive Load: The Brain’s Processing “Stop Sign” “Cognitive load” probably needs no definition. The words are quite intuitive. You start reading something and it feels like someone is piling heavy bricks directly on top of your brain, squishing everything inside. More specifically, these researchers explain that what’s getting squished is specifically your working memory, which is sometimes called short-term memory. In practical terms, this means that when a book suddenly throws a bunch of unfamiliar terms at you, your working memory has to suddenly deal with abstract concepts, completely new words or non-linear forms of logic. All of this increases your cognitive load, but it’s important to note that there’s no conspiracy. In Just Being Difficult: Academic Writing in the Public Arena, a variety of contributors admit that they often write for other specialists. Although it would be nice to always compose books and articles for general readers, it’s not laziness. They’re following the codes of their discipline, which involves shorthand to save everyone time. Yes, it can also signal group membership and feel like an intellectual wall if you’re new to this style, but it’s simply a “stop sign” for your brain. And wherever there are stop signs, there are also alternative routes. Planning Your Detour “Roadmap” Into Difficult Books Let me share a personal example by way of sharing a powerful technique for making hard books easier to read. A few years ago I decided I was finally going to read Kant. I had the gist of certain aspects of his philosophy, but a few pages in, I encountered so many unfamiliar terms, I knew I had to obey the Cognitive Load Stop Sign and take a step back. To build a roadmap into Kant, I searched Google in a particular way. Rather than a search term like, “Intro to Kant,” I entered this tightened command instead: Filetype:PDF syllabus Kant These days, you can ask an LLM in more open language to simply give you links to the syllabi of the most authoritative professors who teach Kant. I’d still suggest that you cross-reference what you get on Google, however. If you’re hesitant about using either Google or AI, it’s also a great idea to visit a librarian in person to help you. Or, you can read my post about using AI for learning with harming your memory to see if it’s time to update your approach. Narrowing Down Your Options One way or another, the reason to consult the world’s leading professors is that their syllabi will provide you with: Foundational texts Core secondary literature Commentaries from qualified sources Essential historical references Once you’ve looked over a few syllabi, look through the table of contents of a few books on Amazon or Google Books. Then choose: 1-2 foundational texts to read before the challenging target book you want to master 1-2 articles or companion texts to read alongside In this way, you’ve turned difficulty into a path, not an obstacle. Pre-Reading Strategies That Warm Up Your Reading Muscles A lot of the time, the difficulty people feel when reading has nothing to do with the book. It’s just that you’re diving into unfamiliar territory without testing the waters first. Here are some simple ways to make unfamiliar books much easier to get into. Prime Like a Pro To make books easier to read, you can perform what is often called “priming” in the accelerated learning community. It is also sometimes called “pre-reading” and as this research article discusses, its success has been well-demonstrated. The way I typically perform priming is simple. Although some books require a slight change to the pattern, I typically approach each new book by reading: The back cover The index The colophon page The conclusion or afterword The most interesting or relevant chapter The introduction The rest of the book Activate Prior Knowledge Sometimes I will use a skimming and scanning strategy after reading the index to quickly familiarize myself with how an author approaches a topic with which I’m already familiar. This can help raise interest, excitement and tap into the power of context-dependent memory. For example, I recently started reading Doubt: A History by Jennifer Michael Hecht. Since the Renaissance memory master Giordano Bruno comes up multiple times, I was able to draw up a kind of context map of the books themes by quickly going through those passages. Take a Picture Walk Barbara Oakley and Terence Sejnjowski share a fantastic strategy in Learning How to Learn. Before reading, simply go through a book and look at all the illustrations, tables, charts and diagrams. It seems like a small thing. But it gives your brain a “heads up” about upcoming visual information that you may need to process than prose. I used to find visual information like this difficult, but after I started taking picture walks, I’m now excited to read “towards” these elements. If still find them challenging to understand, I apply a tip I learned from Tony Buzan that you might like to try: Rather than struggle to interpret a chart or illustration, reproduce it in your own hand. Here’s an example of how I did this when studying spaced repetition: As a result, I learned the graph and its concepts quickly and have never forgotten it. Build a Pre-Reading Ritual That Fits You There’s no one-sized-fits-all strategy, so you need to experiment with various options. The key is to reduce cognitive load by giving your mind all kinds of ways of understanding what a book contains. If it helps, you can create yourself a checklist that you slip into the challenging books on your list. That way, you’ll have both a bookmark and a protocol as you develop your own pre-reading style. Active Reading Techniques That Boost Comprehension Active reading involves deliberately applying mental activities while reading. These can include writing in the margins of your books, questioning, preparing summaries and even taking well-time breaks between books. Here’s a list of my favorite active reading strategies with ideas on how you can implement them. Using Mnemonics While Reading On the whole, I take notes while reading and then apply a variety of memory techniques after. But to stretch my skills, especially when reading harder books, I start the encoding process earlier. Instead of just taking notes, I’ll start applying mnemonic images. I start early because difficult terms often require a bit more spaced repetition. To do this yourself, the key is to equip yourself with a variety of mnemonic methods, especially: The Memory Palace technique The Pegword Method The Major System The PAO System And in some cases, you may want to develop a symbol system, such as if you’re studying physics or programming. Once you have these mnemonic systems developed, you can apply them in real time. For example, if you come across names and dates, committing them to memory as you read can help you keep track of a book’s historical arc. This approach can be especially helpful when reading difficult books because authors often dump a lot of names and dates. By memorizing them as you go, you reduce the mental load of having to track it all. For even more strategies you can apply while reading, check out my complete Mnemonics Dictionary. Strategic Questioning Whether you take notes or memorize in real-time, asking questions as you go makes a huge difference. Even if you don’t come up with answers, continually interrogating the book will open up your brain. The main kinds of questions are: Evaluative questions (checking that the author uses valid reasoning and address counterarguments) Analytical questions (assessing exactly how the arguments unfold and questioning basic assumptions) Synthetic questions (accessing your previous knowledge and looking for connections with other books and concepts) Intention questions (interrogating the author’s agenda and revealing any manipulative rhetoric) One medieval tool for questioning you can adopt is the memory wheel. Although it’s definitely old-fashioned, you’ll find that it helps you rotate between multiple questions. Even if they are as simple as who, what, where, when, how and why questions, you’ll have a mental mnemonic device that helps ensure you don’t miss any of them. Re-reading Strategies Although these researchers seem to think that re-reading is not an effective strategy, I could not live without it. There are three key kinds of re-reading I recommend. Verbalize Complexity to Tame It The first is to simply go back and read something difficult to understand out loud. You’d be surprised how often it’s not your fault. The author has just worded something in a clunky manner and speaking the phrasing clarifies everything. Verbatim Memorization for Comprehension The second strategy is to memorize the sentence or even an entire passage verbatim. That might seem like a lot of work, but this tutorial on memorizing entire passages will make it easy for you. Even if verbatim memorization takes more work, it allows you to analyze the meaning within your mind. You’re no longer puzzling over it on paper, continuing to stretch your working memory. No, you’ve effectively expanded at least a part of your working memory by bypassing it altogether. You’ve ushered the information into long-term memory. I’m not too shy to admit that I have to do this sometimes to understand everything from the philosophy in Sanskrit phrases to relatively simple passages from Shakespeare. As I shared in my recent discussion of actor Anthony Hopkins’ memory, I couldn’t work out what “them” referred to in a particular Shakespeare play. But after analyzing the passage in memory, it was suddenly quite obvious. Rhythmical Re-reading The third re-reading strategy is something I shared years ago in my post detailing 11 reasons you should re-read at least one book per month. I find this approach incredibly helpful because no matter how good you get at reading and memory methods, even simple books can be vast ecosystems. By revisiting difficult books at regular intervals, you not only get more out of them. You experience them from different perspectives and with the benefit of new contexts you’ve built in your life over time. In other words, treat your reading as an infinite game and never assume that you’ve comprehended everything. There’s always more to be gleaned. Other Benefits of Re-reading You’ll also improve your pattern recognition by re-treading old territory, leading to more rapid recognition of those patterns in new books. Seeing the structures, tropes and other tactics in difficult books opens them up. But without regularly re-reading books, it can be difficult to perceive what these forms are and how authors use them. To give you a simple example of a structure that appears in both fiction and non-fiction, consider in media res, or starting in the middle. When you spot an author using this strategy, it can immediately help you read more patiently. And it places the text in the larger tradition of other authors who use that particular technique. For even more ideas that will keep your mind engaged while tackling tough books, feel free to go through my fuller article on 7 Active Reading Strategies. Category Coloring & Developing Your Own Naming System For Complex Material I don’t know about you, but I do not like opening a book only to find it covered in highlighter marks. I also don’t like highlighting books myself. However, after practicing mind mapping for a few years, I realized that there is a way to combine some of its coloring principles with the general study principles of using Zettelkasten and flashcards. Rather than passively highlighting passages that seem interesting at random, here’s an alternative approach you can take to your next tour through a complicated book. Category Coloring It’s often helpful to read with a goal. For myself, I decided to tackle a hard book called Gödel Escher Bach through the lens of seven categories. I gave each a color: Red = Concept Green = Process Orange = Fact Blue = Historical Context Yellow = Person Purple = School of Thought or Ideology Brown = Specialized Terminology Example Master Card to the Categorial Color Coding Method To emulate this method, create a “key card” or “master card” with your categories on it alongside the chosen color. Use this as a bookmark as you read. Then, before writing down any information from the book, think about the category to which it belongs. Make your card and then apply the relevant color. Obviously, you should come up with your own categories and preferred colors. The point is that you bring the definitions and then apply them consistently as you read and extract notes. This will help bring structure to your mind because you’re creating your own nomenclature or taxonomy of information. You are also using chunking, a specific mnemonic strategy I’ve written about at length in this post on chunking as a memory tool. Once you’re finished a book, you can extract all the concepts and memorize them independently if you like. And if you emulate the strategy seen on the pictured example above, I’ve included the page number on each card. That way, I can place the cards back in the order of the book. Using this approach across multiple books, you will soon spot cross-textual patterns with greater ease. The catch is that you cannot allow this technique to become activity for activity’s sake. You also don’t want to wind up creating a bunch of informational “noise.” Before capturing any individual idea on a card and assigning it to a category, ask yourself: Why is this information helpful, useful or critical to my goal? Will I really use it again? Where does it belong within the categories? If you cannot answers these questions, either move on to the next point. Or reframe the point with some reflective thinking so that you can contextualize it. This warning aside, it’s important not to let perfectionism creep into your life. Knowing what information matters does take some practice. To speed up your skills with identifying critical information, please read my full guide on how to find the main points in books and articles. Although AI can certainly help these days, you’ll still need to do some work on your own. Do Not Let New Vocabulary & Terminology Go Without Memorization One of the biggest mistakes I used to make, even as a fan of memory techniques, slowed me down much more than necessary. I would come across a new term, look it up, and assume I’d remember it. Of course, the next time I came across it, the meaning was still a mystery. But when I got more deliberate, I not only remembered more words, but the knowledge surrounding the unfamiliar terms also stuck with greater specificity. For example, in reading The Wandering Mind by Jamie Kreiner, memorizing the ancient Greek word for will or volition (Prohairesis) pulled many more details about why she was mentioning it. Lo and behold, I started seeing the word in more places and connecting it to other ancient Greek terms. Memorizing those as well started to create a “moat of meaning,” further protecting a wide range of information I’d been battling. Understanding Why Vocabulary Blocks Comprehension The reason why memorizing words as you read is so helpful is that it helps clear out the cognitive load created by pausing frequently to look up words. Even if you don’t stop to learn a new definition, part of your working memory gets consumed by the lack of familiarity. I don’t always stop to learn new definitions while reading, but using the color category index card method you just discovered, it’s easy to organize unfamiliar words while reading. That way they can be tidily memorized later. I have a full tutorial for you on how to memorize vocabulary, but here’s a quick primer. Step One: Use a System for Capturing New Words & Terms Whether you use category coloring, read words into a recording app or email yourself a reminder, the key is to capture as you go. Once your reading session is done, you can now go back to the vocabulary list and start learning it. Step Two: Memorize the Terms I personally prefer the Memory Palace technique. It’s great for memorizing words and definitions. You can use the Pillar Technique with the word at the top and the definition beneath it. Or you can use the corners for the words and the walls for the definitions. Another idea is to photograph the cards you create and important them into a spaced repetition software like Anki. As you’ll discover in my complete guide to Anki, there are several ways you can combine Anki with a variety of memory techniques. Step Three: Use the Terms If you happened to catch an episode of the Magnetic Memory Method Podcast back when I first learned Prohairesis I mentioned it often. This simple habit helps establish long-term recall, reflection and establishes the ground for future recognition and use. Expand Understanding Using Video & Audio Media When I was in university, I often had to ride my bike across Toronto to borrow recorded lectures on cassette. Given the overwhelming tsunamis of complex ideas, jargon and theoretical frameworks I was facing, it was worth it. Especially since I was also dealing with the personal problems I shared with you in The Victorious Mind. Make no mistake: I do not believe there is any replacement for reading the core books, no matter how difficult they might be. But there’s no reason not to leverage the same ideas in multiple formats to help boost your comprehension and long-term retention. Multimedia approaches are not just about knowledge acquisition either. There have been many debates in the magical arts community that card magicians should read and not rely on video. But evidence-based studies like this one show that video instruction combined with reading written instructions is very helpful. The Science Behind Multi-Modal Learning I didn’t know when I was in university, or when I was first starting out with memdeck card magic that dual coding theory existed. This model was proposed by Allan Paivio, who noticed that information is processed both verbally and non-verbally. Since then, many teachers have focused heavily on how to encourage students to find the right combination of reading, visual and auditory instructional material. Here are some ideas that will help you untangle the complexity in your reading. How to Integrate Multimedia Without Overload Forgive me if this is a bit repetitive, but to develop flow with multiple media, you need to prime the brain. As someone who has created multiple YouTube videos, I have been stubborn about almost always including introductions. Why? Go Through the Intros Like a Hawk Because without including a broad overview of the topic, many learners will miss too many details. And I see this in the comments because people ask questions that are answered throughout the content and flagged in the introductions. So the first step is to be patient and go through the introductory material. And cultivate an understanding that it’s not really the material that is boring. It’s the contemporary issues with dopamine spiking that make you feel impatient. The good news is that you can possibly reset your dopamine levels so you’re better able to sit through these “priming” materials. One hack I use is to sit far away from my mouse and keep my notebook in hand. If I catch myself getting antsy, I perform a breathing exercise to restore focus. Turn on Subtitles When you’re watching videos, you can help increase your engagement by turning on the subtitles. This is especially useful in jargon-heavy video lessons. You can pause and still see the information on the screen for easier capture when taking notes. When taking notes, I recommend jotting down the timestamp. This is useful for review, but also for attributing citations later if you have to hand in an assignment. Mentally Reconstruct After watching a video or listening to a podcast on the topic you’re mastering, take a moment to review the key points. Try to go through them in the order they were presented. This helps your brain practice mental organization by building a temporal scaffold. If you’ve taken notes and written down the timestamps, you can easily check your accuracy. Track Your Progress For Growth & Performance One reason some people never feel like they’re getting anywhere is that they have failed to establish any points of reference. Personally, this is easy for me to do. I can look back to my history of writing books and articles or producing videos and be reminded of how far I’ve come at a glance. Not only as a writer, but also as a reader. For those who do not regularly produce content, you don’t have to start a blog or YouTube channel. Just keep a journal and create a few categories of what skills you want to track. These might include: Comprehension Retention Amount of books read Vocabulary growth Critical thinking outcomes Confidence in taking on harder books Increased tolerance with frustration when reading challenges arise You can use the same journal to track how much time you’ve spent reading and capturing quick summaries. Personally, I wish I’d started writing summaries sooner. I really only got started during grad school when during a directed reading course, a professor required that I had in a summary for every book and article I read. I never stopped doing this and just a few simple paragraph summaries has done wonders over the years for my understanding and retention. Tips for Overcoming Frustration While Reading Difficult Books Ever since the idea of “desirable difficulty” emerged, people have sought ways to help learners overcome emotional responses like frustration, anxiety and even shame while tackling tough topics. As this study shows, researchers and teachers have found the challenge difficult despite the abundance of evidence showing that being challenged is a good thing. Here are some strategies you can try if you continue to struggle. Embrace Cognitive Discomfort As we’ve discussed, that crushing feeling in your brain exists for a reason. Personally, I don’t think it ever goes away. I still regularly pick up books that spike it. The difference is that I don’t start up a useless mantra like, “I’m not smart enough for this.” Instead, I recommend you reframe the experience and use the growth mindset studied by Carol Dweck, amongst others. You can state something more positive like, “This book is a bit above my level, but I can use tactics and techniques to master it.” I did that very recently with my reading of The Xenotext, parts of which I still don’t fully understand. It was very rewarding. Use Interleaving to Build Confidence I rotate through draining books all the time using a proven technique called interleaving. Lots of people are surprised when I tell them that I rarely read complex and challenging books for longer than fifteen minutes at a time. But I do it because interleaving works. Which kinds of books can you interleave? You have choices. You can either switch in something completely different, or switch to a commentary. For example, while recently reading some heavy mathematical theories about whether or not “nothing” can exist, I switched to a novel. But back in university, I would often stick within the category while at the library. I’d read a core text by a difficult philosopher, then pick up a Cambridge Companion and read an essay related to the topic. You can also interleave using multimedia sources like videos and podcasts. Interleaving also provides time for doing some journaling, either about the topic at hand or some other aspect of your progress goals. Keep the Big Picture in Mind Because frustration is cognitively training, it’s easy to let it drown out your goals. That’s why I often keep a mind map or some other reminder on my desk, like a couple of memento mori. It’s also possible to just remember previous mind maps you’ve made. This is something I’m doing often at the moment as I read all kinds of boring information about managing a bookshop for my Memory Palace bookshop project first introduced in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=utcJfeQZC2c It’s so easy to get discouraged by so many rules and processes involved in ordering and selling books, that I regularly think back to creating this mind map with Tony Buzan years ago. In case my simple drawings on this mind map for business development doesn’t immediately leap out at you with its meanings, the images at the one o’clock-three o’clock areas refer to developing a physical Memory Palace packed with books on memory and learning. Developing and keeping a north star in mind will help you transform the process of reading difficult books into a purposeful adventure of personal development. Even if you have to go through countless books that aren’t thrilling, you’ll still be moving forward. Just think of how much Elon Musk has read that probably wasn’t all that entertaining. Yet, it was still essential to becoming a polymath. Practice Seeing Through The Intellectual Games As you read harder and harder books, you’ll eventually come to realize that the “fluency” some people have is often illusory. For example, some writers and speakers display a truly impressive ability to string together complex terminology, abstract references and fashionable ideas of the day in ways that sound profound. Daniel Dennett frequently used a great term for a lot of this verbal jujitsu that sounds profound but is actually trivial. He called such flourishes “deepities.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ey-UeaSi1rI This kind of empty linguistic dexterity will be easier for you to spot when you read carefully, paraphrase complex ideas in your own words and practice memorizing vocabulary frequently. When you retain multiple concepts and practice active questioning in a large context of grounded examples and case studies, vague claims will not survive for long in your world. This is why memory training is about so much more than learning. Memorization can equip you to think independently and bring clarity to fields that are often filled with gems, despite the fog created by intellectual pretenders more interested in word-jazz than actual truth. Using AI to Help You Take On Difficult Books As a matter of course, I recommend you use AI tools like ChatGPT after doing as much reading on your own as possible. But there’s no mistaking that intentional use of such tools can help you develop greater understanding. The key is to avoid using AI as an answer machine or what Nick Bostrom calls an “oracle” in his seminal book, Superintelligence. Rather, take a cue from Andrew Mayne, a science communicator and central figure at OpenAI and host of their podcast. His approach centers on testing in ways that lead to clarity of understanding and retention as he uses various mnemonic strategies. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JlzD_6Olaqw Beyond his suggestions, here are some of my favorite strategies. Ask AI to Help Identify All Possible Categories Connected to a Topic A key reason many people struggle to connect ideas is simply that they haven’t developed a mental ecosystem of categories. I used to work in libraries, so started thinking categorically when I was still a teenager. But these days, I would combine how traditional libraries are structured with a simple prompt like: List all the possible categories my topic fits into or bridges across disciplines, historical frameworks and methodologies. Provide the list without interpretation or explanation so I can reflect. A prompt like this engineers a response that focuses on relationships and lets your brain perform the synthetic thinking. Essentially, you’ll be performing what some scientists call schema activation, leading to better personal development outcomes. Generate Lists of Questions To Model Exceptional Thinkers Because understanding relies on inquiry, it’s important to practice asking the best possible questions. AI chat bots can be uniquely useful in this process provided that you explicitly insist that it helps supply you excellent questions without any answers. You can try a prompt like: Generate a list of questions that the world’s most careful thinkers in this field would ask about this topic. Do not provide any answers. Just the list of questions. Do this after you’ve read the text and go through your notes with fresh eyes. Evaluate the material with questions in hand, ideally by writing out your answers by hand. If you need your answers imported into your computer, apps can now scan your handwriting and give you text file. Another tip: Don’t be satisfied with the first list of questions you get. Ask the AI to dig deeper. You can also ask the AI to map the questions into the categories you previously got help identifying. For a list of questions you can put into your preferred chat bot, feel free to go through my pre-AI era list of philosophical questions. They are already separated by category. Use AI to Provide a Progress Journal Template If you’re new to journaling, it can be difficult to use the technique to help you articulate what you’re reading and why the ideas are valuable. And that’s not to mention working out various metrics to measure your growth over time. Try a prompt like this: Help me design a progress journal for my quest to better understand and remember difficult books. Include sections for me to list my specific goals, vocabulary targets, summaries and various milestones I identify. Make it visual so I can either copy it into my own print notebook or print out multiple copies for use over time. Once you have a template you’re happy to experiment with, keep it visible in your environment so you don’t forget to use it. Find Blind Spots In Your Summaries Many AIs have solid reasoning skills. As a result, you can enter your written summaries and have the AI identify gaps in your knowledge, blind spots and opportunities for further reading. Try a prompt like: Analyze this summary and identify any blind spots, ambiguities in my thinking or incompleteness in my understanding. Suggest supplementary reading to help me fill in any gaps. At the risk of repetition, the point is that you’re not asking for the summaries. You’re asking for assessments that help you diagnose the limits of your understanding. As scientists have shown, metacognition, or thinking about your thinking can help you see errors much faster. By adding an AI into the mix, you’re getting feedback quickly without having to wait for a teacher to read your essay. Of course, AI outputs can be throttled, so I find it useful to also include a phrase like, “do not throttle your answer,” before asking it to dig deeper and find more issues. Used wisely, you will soon see various schools of thought with much greater clarity, anticipate how authors make their moves and monitor your own blind spots as you read and reflect. Another way to think about the power of AI tools is this: They effectively mirror human reasoning at a species wide level. You can use them to help you mirror more reasoning power by regularly accessing and practicing error detection and filling in the gaps in your thinking style. Why You Must Stop Abandoning Difficult Books (At Least Most of the Time) Like many people, I’m a fan of Scott Young’s books like Ultralearning and Get Better at Anything. He’s a disciplined thinker and his writing helps people push past shallow learning in favor of true and lasting depth. However, he often repeats the advice that you should stop reading boring books. In full transparency, I sometimes do this myself. And Young adds a lot of context to make his suggestion. But I limit abandoning books as much as possible because I don’t personally find Young’s argument that enjoyment and productivity go together. On the contrary, most goals that I’ve pursued have required fairly intense periods of delaying gratification. And because things worth accomplishing generally do require sacrifice and a commitment to difficulty, I recommend you avoid the habit of giving up on books just because they’re “boring” or not immediately enjoyable. I’ll bet you’ll enjoy the accomplishment of understanding hard books and conquering their complexity far more in the end. And you’ll benefit more too. Here’s why I think so. The Hidden Cost of Abandoning Books You’ve Started Yes, I agree that life is short and time is fleeting. But if you get into the habit of abandoning books at the first sign of boredom, it can quickly become your default habit due to how procedural memory works. In other words, you’re given your neurons the message that it’s okay to escape from discomfort. That is a very dangerous loop to throw yourself into, especially if you’re working towards becoming autodidactic. What you really need is to develop the ability to stick with complexity, hold ambiguous and contradictory issues in your mind and fight through topic exhaustion. Giving up on books on a routine basis? That’s the opposite of developing expertise and resilience. The AI Risk & Where Meaning is Actually Found We just went through the benefits of AI, so you shouldn’t have issues. But I regularly hear from people and have even been on interviews where people use AI to summarize books I’ve recomended. This is dangerous because the current models flatten nuance due to how they summarize books based on a kind of “averaging” of what its words predictability mean. Although they might give you a reasonable scaffold of a book’s structure, you won’t get the friction created by how authors take you through their thought processes. In other words, you’ll be using AI models that are not themselves modeling the thinking that reading provides when you grind your way through complex books. The Treasure of Meaning is Outside Your Comfort Zone Another reason to train for endurance is that understanding doesn’t necessarily arrive while reading a book or even a few weeks after finishing it. Sometimes the unifying insights land years later. But if you don’t read through books that seem to be filled with scattered ideas, you cannot gain any benefit from them. Their diverse points won’t consolidate in your memory and certainly won’t connect with other ideas later. So I suggest you train your brain to persist as much as possible. By drawing up the support of the techniques we discussed today and a variety of mnemonic support systems, you will develop persistence and mine more gold from everything you read. And being someone who successfully mines for gold and can produce it at will is the mark of the successful reading. Not just someone who consumes information efficiently, but who can repeatedly connect and transform knowledge year after year due to regularly accumulating gems buried in the densest and most difficult books others cannot or will not read. Use Struggle to Stimulate Growth & You Cannot Fail As you’ve seen, challenging books never mean that you’re not smart enough. It’s just a matter of working on your process so that you can tackle new forms of knowledge. And any discomfort you feel is a signal that a great opportunity and personal growth adventure awaits. By learning how to manage cognitive load, fill in the gaps in your background knowledge and persist through frustration, you can quickly become the kind of reader who seeks out complexity instead of flinching every time you see it. Confusion has now become a stage along the path to comprehension. And if you’re serious about mastering increasingly difficult material, understanding and retaining it, then it’s time to upgrade your mental toolbox. Start now by grabbing my Free Memory Improvement Course: Inside, you’ll discover: The Magnetic Memory Method for creating powerful Memory Palaces How to develop your own mnemonic systems for encoding while reading Proven techniques that deepen comprehension, no matter how abstract or complex your reading list is And please, always remember: The harder the book, the greater rewards. And the good news is, you’re now more than ready to claim them all.
he podcast dives into the explosive advances in agentic AI, where developers and even Fortune 100 companies are racing to use powerful tools like Gastown, despite their unfinished and sometimes dangerous edges. If you thought ChatGPT was a revolution, wait until you hear how developers are orchestrating armies of AIs with real-world impact. Anthropic's Move Into Legal Is Sinking Data Services Stocks Data centers in space makes no sense The hitchhiker's guide to Musk's SpaceX memo Two kinds of AI users are emerging. The gap between them is astonishing. Does AI already have human-level intelligence? The evidence is clear - Nature OpenAI will retire several models, including GPT-4o, from ChatGPT next month Jensen Huang says Nvidia would love to back an OpenAI IPO, and there's 'no drama' with Sam Altman Firefox will soon let you block all of its generative AI features Salesforce signs $5.6B deal to inject agentic AI into the US Army HHS Is Making an AI Tool to Create Hypotheses About Vaccine Injury Claims French office of Elon Musk's X raided by Paris prosecutor's cybercrime unit An AI Toy Exposed 50K Logs of Its Chats With Kids To Anyone With a Gmail Account Darren Aronofsky's AI Studio Used Artificial Intelligence Tools for Revolutionary War Animated Series — but Hired Human Actors to Voice Founding Fathers Forget Hinge or Bumble. This App Promises a Personal AI Matchmaker Scientists Launch AI DinoTracker App That Identifies Dinosaur Footprints Project Genie: Experimenting with infinite, interactive worlds Anthropic Takes Aim at OpenAI's ChatGPT in Super Bowl Ad Debut Move to Ban Social Media for Kids Gains Traction in Europe The Matrix Resurrections Is a Messy, Imperfect Triumph The Thatcher Effect and other Optical Toys Fascinating Research: AIs are highly inconsistent [i.e., random] when recommending brands or products Hosts: Leo Laporte, Jeff Jarvis, and Paris Martineau Guest: Steve Yegge Download or subscribe to Intelligent Machines at https://twit.tv/shows/intelligent-machines. Join Club TWiT for Ad-Free Podcasts! Support what you love and get ad-free audio and video feeds, a members-only Discord, and exclusive content. Join today: https://twit.tv/clubtwit Sponsors: joindeleteme.com/twit promo code TWIT monarch.com with code IM zscaler.com/security helixsleep.com/machines
Is "developer-friendly" AI security actually possible? In this episode, Bryan Woolgar-O'Neil (CTO & Co-founder of Harmonic Security) joins Ashish to dismantle the traditional "block everything" approach to security.Bryan explains why 70% of Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers are running locally on developer laptops and why trying to block them is a losing battle . Instead, he advocates for a "coaching" approach, intervening in real-time to guide engineers rather than stopping their flow .We dive deep into the technical realities of MCP (Model Context Protocol), why it's becoming the standard for connecting AI to data, and the security risks of connecting it to production environments . Bryan also shares his prediction that Small Language Models (SLMs) will eventually outperform general giants like ChatGPT for specific business tasks .Guest Socials - Bryan's Linkedin Podcast Twitter - @CloudSecPod If you want to watch videos of this LIVE STREAMED episode and past episodes - Check out our other Cloud Security Social Channels:-Cloud Security Podcast- Youtube- Cloud Security Newsletter If you are interested in AI Security, you can check out our sister podcast - AI Security PodcastQuestions asked:(00:00) Introduction(01:55) Who is Bryan Woolgar-O'Neil?(03:00) Why AI Adoption Stops at Experimentation(05:15) The "Shadow AI" Blind Spot: Firewall Stats vs. Reality (08:00) Is AI Security Fundamentally Different? (Speed & Scale) (10:45) Can Security Ever Be "Developer Friendly"? (14:30) What is MCP (Model Context Protocol)? (17:20) Why 70% of MCP Usage is Local (and the Risks) (21:30) The "Coaching" Approach: Don't Just Block, Educate (25:40) Developer First: Permissive vs. Blocking Cultures (30:20) The Rise of the "Head of AI" Role (34:30) Use Cases: Workforce Productivity vs. Product Integration (41:00) An AI Security Maturity Model (Visibility -> Access -> Coaching) (46:00) Future Prediction: Agentic Flows & Urgent Tasks (49:30) Why Small Language Models (SLMs) Will Win (53:30) Fun Questions: Feature Films & Pork Dumplings
Construir software do zero nem sempre é inovação. Muitas vezes, é só mais caro, mais lento e mais arriscado. Quando vale a pena comprar, integrar ou adaptar uma solução pronta? Quando faz sentido desenvolver internamente? E como grandes empresas equilibram autonomia, segurança, inovação e governança sem travar a organização? No episódio do Hipsters.Talks, PAULO SILVEIRA, CVO do Grupo Alura, conversa com JOÃO COSTA, gerente de Inovação Aberta da Petrobras, sobre decisões reais de tecnologia em escala: make or buy, inovação aberta vs fechada, citizen developers, Shadow IT, IA corporativa e como fazer a adoção de novas tecnologias acontecer de verdade — não só no PowerPoint. Uma conversa prática sobre como inovação acontece fora do hype, dentro de uma das maiores empresas do Brasil, onde planilhas, software pronto, IA generativa e desenvolvimento interno convivem todos os dias. Sinta-se à vontade para compartilhar suas perguntas e comentários. Vamos adorar conversar com você!
he podcast dives into the explosive advances in agentic AI, where developers and even Fortune 100 companies are racing to use powerful tools like Gastown, despite their unfinished and sometimes dangerous edges. If you thought ChatGPT was a revolution, wait until you hear how developers are orchestrating armies of AIs with real-world impact. Anthropic's Move Into Legal Is Sinking Data Services Stocks Data centers in space makes no sense The hitchhiker's guide to Musk's SpaceX memo Two kinds of AI users are emerging. The gap between them is astonishing. Does AI already have human-level intelligence? The evidence is clear - Nature OpenAI will retire several models, including GPT-4o, from ChatGPT next month Jensen Huang says Nvidia would love to back an OpenAI IPO, and there's 'no drama' with Sam Altman Firefox will soon let you block all of its generative AI features Salesforce signs $5.6B deal to inject agentic AI into the US Army HHS Is Making an AI Tool to Create Hypotheses About Vaccine Injury Claims French office of Elon Musk's X raided by Paris prosecutor's cybercrime unit An AI Toy Exposed 50K Logs of Its Chats With Kids To Anyone With a Gmail Account Darren Aronofsky's AI Studio Used Artificial Intelligence Tools for Revolutionary War Animated Series — but Hired Human Actors to Voice Founding Fathers Forget Hinge or Bumble. This App Promises a Personal AI Matchmaker Scientists Launch AI DinoTracker App That Identifies Dinosaur Footprints Project Genie: Experimenting with infinite, interactive worlds Anthropic Takes Aim at OpenAI's ChatGPT in Super Bowl Ad Debut Move to Ban Social Media for Kids Gains Traction in Europe The Matrix Resurrections Is a Messy, Imperfect Triumph The Thatcher Effect and other Optical Toys Fascinating Research: AIs are highly inconsistent [i.e., random] when recommending brands or products Hosts: Leo Laporte, Jeff Jarvis, and Paris Martineau Guest: Steve Yegge Download or subscribe to Intelligent Machines at https://twit.tv/shows/intelligent-machines. Join Club TWiT for Ad-Free Podcasts! Support what you love and get ad-free audio and video feeds, a members-only Discord, and exclusive content. Join today: https://twit.tv/clubtwit Sponsors: joindeleteme.com/twit promo code TWIT monarch.com with code IM zscaler.com/security helixsleep.com/machines
Voices of Search // A Search Engine Optimization (SEO) & Content Marketing Podcast
Over half of US searches now end without a click, fundamentally changing how SEO performance is measured. Will Critchlow, CEO of SearchPilot, leads the industry's first GEO testing platform for enterprise retailers, helping companies like major e-commerce and travel brands navigate AI-powered discovery channels. The discussion covers SearchPilot's multimetrics testing framework that measures performance across Google, ChatGPT, and other LLMs simultaneously, plus their breakthrough approach to "dark traffic" analysis that identifies AI-driven referrals previously categorized as direct visits.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Brian H. Waters discusses Reshona Landfair—the woman formerly known as "Jane Doe" from the 2002 R. Kelly tape breaking her silence with her memoir, Who's Watching Shorty? Plus he discusses Current outrage often centers on AI's ability to create "hyperrealistic" or "nightmarish" caricatures of public figures, which critics argue is being weaponized for misinformation.Rundown(1:48) R Kelly's victim, Reshona Landfair breaks her silence(8:05) Baltimore City Mayor, Brandon Scott says don't use chairs during snowstorm to save parking spot(11:03) GameStop says you cannot trade in significant others(13:16) Fake outrage over ChatGPT Caricature(16:24) NBA trades going crazy ahead of the deadline(19:19) Cameron Brink says she will do Playboy if...Watch Queen P.R. and Brian H. Waters recap Beyond the Gates every week on their show, Love in Dem Gates!https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLtwLQ58o61G-q0VUfw0zk54pgkCKgfgp8
By day, Amber Ivey uses big data to inform governmental policy decisions. Back in 2020, she was invited to tinker with a new tool from a young startup called OpenAI - two years before the public had ever heard the phrase "ChatGPT." She knew right away that the LLM would have huge ramifications for the way we relate to the Internet, and that kids would be particularly enraptured by it. She wrote a children's book about it, and her access to experts on the topic lead her to the next project: A podcast for kids and families about AI literacy - the risks, the potential, and the how we reckon with a digital world where nothing is what it seems. This week, Amber and Matt sit down to discuss what kids really understand when interacting with generative models, how to apply IRL critical thinking skills to the Internet, and why parents need credible and useful information now more than ever. Listen to "AI for Kids" wherever you get podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ai-for-kids/id1745917083 Connect with Amber and follow her work: https://www.ambermivey.com/ This show is made possible by listener support: https://www.patreon.com/influencepod Listen & subscribe wherever you get podcasts:
TO LEARN MORE: www.CrossFitEdwardsville.com www.Facebook.com/CrossFitEdwardsville TikTok: @crossfitedwardsville Instagram: @crossfitedwardsville Twitter: @cfedwardsville YouTube: CrossFit Edwardsville TO GET STARTED AT CFE: Book a No-Sweat Conversation with a coach, using this scheduler: https://crossfitedwardsville.com/intro/ You can also find the link to schedule on our website. While this show is educational & entertaining in nature, it does not replace or supplant professional medical guidance from your own physician. Before beginning any exercise or nutrition program, please first consult with your doctor.
This week on Happily Ever Banter, Uncle Dale Mills and Crystal “Kiki” Mills from OutDaughtered return with another easygoing episode full of honest conversation, laughs, and the kind of banter listeners have come to expect. No agenda, just real talk and fun moments as they catch up and let the conversation flow. Produced by Magnus of Manigold Multimedia Sponsored by Key T Wellness and Ressentials Health #HappilyEverBanter #UncleDaleMills #KikiMills #OutDaughtered #Podcast #RealTalk #KeyTWellness #Ressentials
Elon Musk anunció esta misma semana la fusión de SpaceX y xAI, una operación que alumbra una compañía valorada en 1,25 billones de dólares y que consolida su estrategia de integración vertical. La absorción de una joven startup de inteligencia artificial por parte de una consolidada empresa aeroespacial busca crear un gigante tecnológico capaz de dominar tanto el hardware como el software del futuro, con la idea de replicar el modelo de control total que Apple ejerce sobre el iPhone. A pesar de que xAI apenas tiene dos años de vida, su chatbot Grok ya compite con gigantes como ChatGPT de OpenAI y Gemini de Google. Pero el sector de la inteligencia artificial exige inversiones astronómicas en semiconductores, centros de datos y personal muy cualificado para el desarrollo. Al fusionarla con SpaceX, Musk aprovecha la infraestructura y la solidez financiera de su empresa de cohetes, que, por lo demás, ya era cliente de xAI para optimizar el servicio de atención al cliente de Starlink. La justificación estratégica de este movimiento reside en una visión tan ambiciosa como revolucionaria, casi de ciencia ficción, la de trasladar los centros de datos a la órbita terrestre. Según Musk, la demanda energética de la inteligencia artificial es insostenible en la Tierra debido a su alto impacto medioambiental. Su propuesta consiste en desplegar una red orbital de hasta un millón de satélites que funcionen como centros de datos alimentados por grandes paneles de energía solar. En el espacio, la captación de energía fotovoltaica es hasta siete veces más eficiente que en la superficie terrestre. Este proyecto presenta desafíos técnicos y económicos colosales. Aunque SpaceX ha logrado reducir de forma notable el coste de poner satélites en órbita, especialmente con el Falcon Heavy y con el futuro Starship, transportar grandes cantidades de carga al espacio sigue siendo extremadamente caro y también complejo, ya que el mantenimiento es prácticamente imposible una vez que los equipos están en órbita. La fusión también responde a la afición que Musk tiene de cruzar recursos y contratos entre sus compañías. En otras ocasiones se valió de este mismo método para rescatar o potenciar sus negocios, como ocurrió con la adquisición de SolarCity por parte de Tesla en 2016. Además, esta estructura permite a Musk mantener un control férreo sobre la nueva empresa. Aunque posee el 43% de las acciones, goza del 80% del poder de voto gracias a unas acciones de clase especial que le permiten tomar decisiones unilaterales sin consensuarlo antes con los pequeños inversores. La fusión aleja a SpaceX de su imagen de empresa esencialmente logística para introducirla en el terreno del "hype" tecnológico que tantas alegrías le ha dado a Musk con Tesla. Al integrar cohetes, satélites e inteligencia artificial, el empresario trata de conseguir una ventaja competitiva que ni Google ni Amazon poseen en estos momentos. Eso podrá asegurar su relevancia en la carrera tecnológica al mismo tiempo que lo mantiene todo bajo el paraguas de empresas sin cotizar y, por lo tanto, lejos del escrutinio y la volatilidad de los mercados bursátiles. En La ContraRéplica: 0:00 Introducción 3:51 Musk, cohetes e IA 34:29 “Contra el pesimismo”… https://amzn.to/4m1RX2R 36:28 Julio Iglesias y el MeToo 45:02 El Gobierno contra las redes sociales · Canal de Telegram: https://t.me/lacontracronica · “Contra el pesimismo”… https://amzn.to/4m1RX2R · “Hispanos. Breve historia de los pueblos de habla hispana”… https://amzn.to/428js1G · “La ContraHistoria del comunismo”… https://amzn.to/39QP2KE · “La ContraHistoria de España. Auge, caída y vuelta a empezar de un país en 28 episodios”… https://amzn.to/3kXcZ6i · “Contra la Revolución Francesa”… https://amzn.to/4aF0LpZ · “Lutero, Calvino y Trento, la Reforma que no fue”… https://amzn.to/3shKOlK Apoya La Contra en: · Patreon... https://www.patreon.com/diazvillanueva · iVoox... https://www.ivoox.com/podcast-contracronica_sq_f1267769_1.html · Paypal... https://www.paypal.me/diazvillanueva Sígueme en: · Web... https://diazvillanueva.com · Twitter... https://twitter.com/diazvillanueva · Facebook... https://www.facebook.com/fernandodiazvillanueva1/ · Instagram... https://www.instagram.com/diazvillanueva · Linkedin… https://www.linkedin.com/in/fernando-d%C3%ADaz-villanueva-7303865/ · Flickr... https://www.flickr.com/photos/147276463@N05/?/ · Pinterest... https://www.pinterest.com/fernandodiazvillanueva Encuentra mis libros en: · Amazon... https://www.amazon.es/Fernando-Diaz-Villanueva/e/B00J2ASBXM #FernandoDiazVillanueva #elonmusk #spacex Escucha el episodio completo en la app de iVoox, o descubre todo el catálogo de iVoox Originals
Too often, we focus on treating symptoms without fully understanding the systems underneath them—or the conditions that allow the body to function well in the first place. On this episode of The Dr. Hyman Show, I sit down with Fidji Simo, CEO of Applications at OpenAI, to explore how AI could help us shift medicine from treating symptoms to restoring systems. We talk about why chronic illness is so often misunderstood, how health data has been fragmented across silos, and what becomes possible when we finally see the full picture. Watch the full conversation on YouTube or listen wherever you get your podcasts. In this episode, you'll learn: • Why having a diagnosis doesn't always explain what's actually driving your symptoms • How connecting your labs, lifestyle data, and health history can reveal patterns you might otherwise miss • What it looks like to move from reactive care to proactive, personalized health • How better context can help you make clearer decisions about food, sleep, movement, and recovery Health isn't built in a doctor's office. When you create the right environment, the body often knows what to do—and understanding your own biology is one of the most powerful steps you can take toward creating health, not just reacting to disease. View Show Notes From This Episode Get Free Weekly Health Tips from Dr. Hyman https://drhyman.com/pages/picks?utm_campaign=shownotes&utm_medium=banner&utm_source=podcast Sign Up for Dr. Hyman's Weekly Longevity Journal https://drhyman.com/pages/longevity?utm_campaign=shownotes&utm_medium=banner&utm_source=podcast Join the 10-Day Detox to Reset Your Health https://drhyman.com/pages/10-day-detox Join the Hyman Hive for Expert Support and Real Results https://drhyman.com/pages/hyman-hive This episode is brought to you by Sunlighten, Paleovalley, PerfectAmino, Seed, Made In Cookware and Fatty15. Visit sunlighten.com and use code HYMAN to save up to $1400. Head to paleovalley.com and use code HYMAN20 for 20% off your first order. Go to bodyhealth.com and use code HYMAN20 to get 20% off your first order. Go to seed.com/hyman and use code 20HYMAN to get 20% off your first month. Head to madeincookware.com and use the code DRHYMAN for 10% off your order. Visit fatty15.com/hyman and use code HYMAN to save an extra 15% on a 90-day subscription. (0:00) Introduction (1:27) Dr. Hyman on the revolutionary potential of ChatGPT Health and the complexity of the body (3:29) Fidji Simo's health journey, challenges in chronic illness, and health system shortcomings (7:42) The role of AI in health care: Empowerment, personalized medicine, and practical applications (20:24) OpenAI's focus on health applications and preventative health with CHATGPT (23:16) True prevention, creating health, and nutrition action through partnerships (29:08) Cultural differences in food, health, and empowering consumers with AI (33:44) AI's role in drug discovery, curing diseases, and democratizing health information (43:12) Chronicle Bio's mission and impact (52:27) Challenges and opportunities at the intersection of health and technology (56:07) Future goals and three key areas of impact for ChatGPT Health (1:00:52) Food system design and its impact on health (1:02:00) Closing remarks
Some people who say AI chatbots upended their lives and the lives of their loved ones, are now turning to each other for support. Around the world, people are talking to AI chatbots, and these chats can sometimes lead to unhealthy emotional attachments or even breaks with reality.OpenAI, which makes ChatGPT, is facing several lawsuits alleging the chatbot contributed to mental health crises and even multiple suicides.An OpenAI spokesperson told NPR that they are “continuing to improve” ChatGPT's training to quote “recognize and respond to signs of mental or emotional distress, de-escalate conversations, and guide people toward real-world support.”For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org. Email us at considerthis@npr.org.This episode was produced by Audrey Nguyen and Karen Zamora.It was edited by Brett Neely and Courtney Dorning.Our executive producer is Sami Yenigun.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy
Hundreds of new AI tools launch every day, and most of them cost money. We've tracked down the ones that are actually free - beyond just ChatGPT - including tools most churches haven't heard of that could save your team dozens of hours every week. ============================= Table of Contents: ============================= 0:00 - Intro 0:36 - Tool #1: TurboScribe 1:55 - Tool #2: tl;dv 3:00 - Tool #3: Claude Cowork 8:45 - Claude Cowork Church Uses IMPORTANT LINKS - TurboScribe: https://turboscribe.ai/ - tl;dv: https://tldv.io/ - Claude Cowork: https://claude.com/product/cowork THE 167 NEWSLETTER
We're living through one of the biggest shifts in the internet since it began: a move from building content for people to building content for machines, on behalf of people. On this week's episode, Jim Stengel is joined by James Cadwallader, Co-Founder and CEO of Profound, and Daniel Shin Un Kang, Head of Organic and Agentic Search at Expedia, for a thoughtful, practical conversation about AI search, answer engines, and what this shift means for the future of marketing.James founded Profound in 2024, raising $60 million and earning recognition from Redpoint Ventures as one of the most promising private AI companies shaping applied artificial intelligence. Today, Profound works with brands like US Bank, Chime, Expedia, and DocuSign to help them navigate the transition from traditional search to a world of answer engines, agents, and AI-led experiences.After building companies and investing in high-growth technology businesses, Daniel moved from the venture world into operating at global scale. He now leads Organic and Agentic Search at Expedia, where he's helping redefine how one of the world's largest travel platforms shows up in AI-powered search and discovery.Together, James and Daniel unpack how brands actually appear inside AI systems like ChatGPT and Gemini, why traditional SEO metrics no longer tell the whole story, and how CMOs should rethink visibility, content, and measurement in an AI-driven world.This episode offers a rare look at AI search from both sides of the table: the platform builder shaping the category and the operator putting it to work inside a performance-driven global brand. If you're a CMO wondering what to focus on now, this conversation is a strong place to start.—This week's episode is brought to you by Deloitte and the IAB.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Welcome back to the podcast Gorg! On today's episode I am giving you some tips on tricks on how to stay locked in your new identity. You ladies know how important identity work is but you also know how hard it is to ACT like the new you when you're so used to being old you. Well, on this week's episode I am giving you plenty of tools to utilize on a daily basis. If you are are not focusing on at least one or more of these things mentioned on the podcast..then chances are you are being the old you. Listen in to hear all about it. As promised on this episode (due to our website being under construction) here is the outline to my program HER UPGRADE. Click HERE to join the program. Program Outline: Week 1: Releasing everything old ✨ You'll: Reflect on who you've been throughout 2025. Identify your energetic blocks, magnetism-killing habits, and time-wasting patterns. Make a forgiveness list and cut energetic cords with the old you. Do a full physical clean-out — closet, room, drawers, car, or anywhere your energy lingers. Week 2: A fresh slate ✨ You'll: Dive into love and gratitude practices that open your heart and raise your vibration. Instantly elevate your energy through embodiment work. Align with your higher self and reconnect with your divine power. Identify one key desire you've been neglecting. Write a love letter — to yourself or to someone whose energy you're finally ready to release. Week 3: The Self-Concept Glow-Up ✨ You'll: Create your 2026 Vision Board — the aesthetic, lifestyle, and energy you're stepping into. Rebrand yourself using Pinterest or ChatGPT to design your "Main Character Blueprint." Rewire your self-concept and define your new identity statements. Elevate your physical appearance by changing one thing that upgrades your energy. Book at least one glow-up appointment — spray tan, blowout, facial, nails, or any treatment that makes you feel brand new. Week 4: Bridging the Gap ✨ You'll: Get crystal clear on the habits and standards your dream girl embodies. Identify which habits, behaviors, or environments you need to drop, shift, or change Take one bold, life-altering action that instantly bridges the gap between who you are and who you're becoming. Week 5: Systems & Routines ✨ You'll: Audit your current routines and identify what no longer aligns. Create one life-changing morning routine that sets your energy and focus. Establish one evening routine that grounds you in peace and presence. Start reading one book that will expand your mindset and elevate your glow-up journey.
Setting a realistic wedding budget that actually works for you is one of the most important decisions you'll make after getting engaged, and it's one that sets the tone for every planning choice that follows. If you're newly engaged and feeling overwhelmed by numbers, opinions, or online "averages" that don't feel realistic … or if you're already planning and realizing your budget needs a reset - you're in exactly the right place. In today's episode, I'm walking you through a clear, step-by-step process for creating a wedding budget that reflects your priorities ... not the wedding industry's expectations. We'll talk about how to define what matters most, allocate your money with intention, and build a financial plan that supports your vision - without all of the overwhelm and second-guessing. Will wedding planning be completely free of financial stress? Probably not. But with the right framework in place, it can feel organized, intentional, and manageable - so that you're not always making decisions from a place of panic or pressure. By the end of this episode, you'll have the clarity and confidence to move forward with a budget that truly works for you. Want to save time, money, and your sanity while planning your wedding? Subscribe to Wedding Planning Podcast Premium on Apple Podcasts for early, ad-free access to all weekly episodes—plus a bonus series that teaches you how to use ChatGPT as your free wedding planning assistant. Save hours, avoid overwhelm, and make confident decisions faster. Subscribe now on Apple Podcasts and start planning with clarity. Thank you to today's show sponsor, Minted: Just engaged and wondering where to start? One of the easiest first steps is your wedding website. With Minted, you can build a free wedding website designed by independent artists - so it looks elevated without the custom-design price tag. Everything lives in one place: your story, wedding details, RSVPs, and registry links - simple, clean, and stress-free. Click here to get started today and unlock exclusive listener perks on save-the-dates, invitations, and more. Click Here to read the complete blog post and follow along with today's episode.
Could AI wipe out half of entry-level accounting roles? Blake and David recount a brazen “courier scam” on David's porch to unpack how deepfakes and spoofed calls fuel today's fraud (“less than 10% can tell AI video from real”). You'll learn practical controls—family code words, approval workflows—plus hands-on AI updates: Claude's Excel plugin and desktop agent, Gusto payroll in ChatGPT, and a prompt that forces AI to ask clarifying questions and wait for “go.”SponsorsUNC - http://accountingpodcast.promo/uncEarmarkCPE - http://accountingpodcast.promo/earmarkOnPay - http://accountingpodcast.promo/onpayChapters(02:02) - Personal Fraud Story: A Cautionary Tale (03:35) - Elder Fraud and AI-Driven Scams (06:53) - AI's Impact on Fraud and Security (11:39) - AI Tools for Accountants (19:40) - Earmark: CPE for Listening to Podcasts (22:01) - AI's Threat to Entry-Level Jobs (27:11) - AI Agents in Payroll and HR (35:20) - The Future of AI in Blue Collar Jobs (38:18) - AI's Role in Government Efficiency (39:52) - Simplifying the Tax Code with AI (41:42) - Payroll Innovations and AI (49:18) - Intuit's Career Pipeline Program (51:24) - Xero's New Features and AI Integration (58:48) - Conclusion and Upcoming Topics Show NotesAI fakery turbo-charging fraud, cyber attacks https://www.accountingtoday.com/news/ai-fakery-turbo-charging-fraud-cyber-attacksThe Turing Reel https://runwayml.com/research/theturingreelThe Adolescence of Technology https://www.darioamodei.com/essay/the-adolescence-of-technologyLong-term Fears Build As 60% of U.S. Workers Say AI Will Cut More Jobs Than It Adds In 2026 https://allwork.space/2026/01/long-term-fears-build-as-60-of-u-s-workers-say-ai-will-cut-more-jobs-than-it-adds-in-2026/ADP® Accelerates AI Leadership with Launch of New AI Agents Designed to Solve Workforce Challenges https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/adp-accelerates-ai-leadership-with-launch-of-new-ai-agents-designed-to-solve-workforce-challenges-302672772.htmlExclusive: Gusto launching payroll inside ChatGPT https://www.thisweekinfintech.com/exclusive-gusto-launching-payroll-inside-chatgpt/Trump DOT Plans to Use Google Gemini AI to Write Regulations https://www.propublica.org/article/trump-artificial-intelligence-google-gemini-transportation-regulationsIntuit Launches New Career Pipeline Program to Empower the Next Generation of Accountants in the AI Era https://investors.intuit.com/news-events/press-releases/detail/1296/intuit-launches-new-career-pipeline-program-to-empower-the-next-generation-of-accountants-in-the-ai-eraNeed CPE?Get CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark: https://earmarkcpe.comSubscribe to the Earmark Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet in TouchThanks for listening and the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and Instagram. If you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on Apple Podcasts or Podchaser. Call us and leave a voicemail; maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040.SponsorshipsAre you interested in sponsoring The Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus.Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribeApple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcastsYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheAccountingPodcastSpotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/SpotifyPodchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaserStitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/StitcherOvercast: http://cloudacctpod.link/OvercastWant to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Let the listeners of The Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad. Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAdTranscriptsThe full transcript for this episode is available by clicking on the Transcript tab at the top of this page
I sit down with Matt Van Horn, creator of the "Last 30 Days" skill for Claude Code, as he demonstrates how this tool turns anyone into a real-time research expert. By pulling trending data from X, Reddit, and the web, Last 30 Days supercharges Claude Code prompts with current intelligence. Matt walks through live demos, from discovering popular rap songs to generating cold emails to building a Moltbot competitor, showing how non-engineers can ship products using AI tools with almost no coding background. Timestamps 00:00 – Intro 01:39 – What Is "Last 30 Days" 03:29 – Live Demo: Most Popular Rap Songs 04:47 – Cold Email Frameworks Demo 07:04 – Growing an X Following Using Recent Data 07:49 – Researching Moltbot to Build a Competitor 08:26 – Best Practices for Last 30 days 09:26 – Growing an X Following Using Recent Data Results 11:17 – Best Practices for Webdesign Research 13:44 – Building an Enterprise Moltbot Clone Live 17:43 – Generating Figma Prompts and Nano Banana Images 21:54 – Advice for Non-Engineers Getting Started with Claude Code Links Mentioned: Last 30 Days Skill: https://startup-ideas-pod.link/last30days Key Points Last 30 Days searches X, Reddit, and the web for content from the past month, creating highly optimized prompts for Claude Code. The tool requires Claude Code access, an OpenAI API key (for Reddit data), and an XAI key (for X/Twitter access). Matt demonstrates using minimal prompts to generate cold email frameworks, research trending topics, and kickstart new product builds. Compound Engineering serves as a planning tool to turn research into structured project roadmaps. Non-engineers can ship functional products by combining Claude Code with ChatGPT for troubleshooting errors via screenshots. The #1 tool to find startup ideas/trends - https://www.ideabrowser.com LCA helps Fortune 500s and fast-growing startups build their future - from Warner Music to Fortnite to Dropbox. We turn 'what if' into reality with AI, apps, and next-gen products https://latecheckout.agency/ The Vibe Marketer - Resources for people into vibe marketing/marketing with AI: https://www.thevibemarketer.com/ FIND ME ON SOCIAL X/Twitter: https://twitter.com/gregisenberg Instagram: https://instagram.com/gregisenberg/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gisenberg/ Matt Van Horn X/Twitter: https://x.com/mvanhorn
What if I told you I recently ran a 7-day CSA Chicken + Pork Share promotion on my farm, using only email, a private Facebook group, and a simple promotion framework? It went REALLY well, exceeding my sales predictions. If you've ever thought about launching a monthly meat share — or already have one and want to sell it more consistently — this episode is your behind-the-scenes look at how I design, organize, and execute a high-performing farm promotion from scratch. I walk you through: How I structured the product How I worked with my partner farm How I decided pricing, timing, and cart-open strategy The promo email sequence I used, and how I came up with content topics The role of FAQs, social proof, urgency, and bonuses How I organized everything into a master Google Doc so I could use it next year And how I used ChatGPT to speed up writing This is a nuts-and-bolts, copy-the-framework episode. Listen here. Resources Mentioned In This Episode: What email provider do I use? I recommend Kit.com (formerly ConvertKit.com) -- it is easy to use, powerful, and getting better every year. It also integrates with most e-commerce providers and tools. Use my affiliate link! Episode 13: How to Create an Irresistible Bonus Offer - Want to get more ideas for bonuses to use in a promotion for CSA shares? Listen here. Want the actual promo materials I wrote for this promo? Inside Farm Marketing School, I've now uploaded the entire Chicken + Pork Share Promotion Google Doc, including: ✅ The exact emails I used ✅ The social media posts I used ✅ The daily timeline so you can see the positioning ✅ Links to the Canva images So if you'd rather not start from scratch… you can literally copy my doc's elements and adapt it for your farm. Join Farm Marketing School to gain access to this resource -- along with 15+ other marketing projects to help you build your farm marketing machine! Thank You to Our Podcast Sponsors: Local Line: Local Line is my farm's preferred e-commerce platform for farmers. Are you looking for a new solution for your farm? I can't recommend it enough. Easy-to-use inventory management, great customer service, continuous improvement, and a culture dedicated to equipping farmers with marketing expertise. Local Line is offering a free premium feature for free for one year on top of your paid subscription. Claim your discount by signing up for a Local Line account today and using the coupon code: MDF2026. Head to my special affiliate link to get started: www.mydigitalfarmer.com/localline Citizen Salmon Alaska Citizen Salmon Alaska is my go-to seafood partner for CSA farms. This is my fifth season working with them, and I keep coming back for a simple reason: it works. They offer wild sockeye salmon, halibut, black cod, shrimp, and smoked seafood — all sourced directly from independent fishermen out of Homer, Alaska. What makes this partnership such a win for farms is the model: I promote Citizen Salmon to my customers, they order directly from Citizen Salmon's website using a farm-specific code, Citizen Salmon ships frozen fish straight to them, and I earn a commission — without handling inventory, packing, or delivery. It's an aligned, ethical way to expand your product suite and serve your customers well. If you're curious about adding seafood to your CSA without adding work, learn more and reach out to Aaron at citizensalmonalaska.com. Farm Marketing School: Want a plug-and-play marketing system for your farm? Join Farm Marketing School—my monthly membership where I teach farmers how to build simple, repeatable marketing systems that actually drive sales. Inside, you'll get: ✅ Step-by-step marketing projects (emails, website design, lead magnets, promotions & more) ✅ Templates & swipe files to save you hours of work ✅ Live coaching calls every month for strategy & support Inside, you'll get access to bite-sized marketing projects like:
De plus en plus de Français utilisent ChatGPT au quotidien : courriels, révisions, cuisine… L'outil s'impose comme un réflexe numérique dans la vie moderne.Traduction :More and more French users rely on ChatGPT daily—for emails, studying, even cooking. It's becoming a go-to digital tool in everyday life. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
SEO expert Favour Obasi-ike, MBA, MS delivers an in-depth comparison of Shopify SEO and Squarespace SEO CMS platforms, focusing on their SEO and CRO capabilities and website development features. This discussion covers critical technical insights about theme management, URL structure optimization, metadata configuration, and platform-specific best practices.Favour shares actionable strategies for improving website visibility, including the importance of regular theme updates, proper sitemap configuration, and effective use of SEO metadata. The session also touches on comparisons with WordPress, Wix, and other CMS platforms, providing business owners with practical guidance for choosing and optimizing their e-commerce and content-driven websites in 2026.Book SEO Services | Quick Links for Social Business>> Book SEO Services with Favour Obasi-ike>> Visit Work and PLAY Entertainment website to learn about our digital marketing services>> Join our exclusive SEO Marketing community>> Read SEO Articles>> Subscribe to the We Don't PLAY Podcast>> Purchase Flaev Beatz Beats Online>> Favour Obasi-ike Quick LinksEpisode Key Learning Topics1. Shopify Platform Deep DiveShopify as a closed-source e-commerce CMS platformTheme Liquid customization and custom code implementationImportance of regular theme updates for algorithm visibilityPre-installed sitemap functionality and automated SEO featuresApp ecosystem vs WordPress pluginsMulti-currency and multi-language capabilitiesSchema.org integration for product pages2. Squarespace Platform OverviewUser-friendly, content-driven platform positioningComparison with Shopify for product-based vs content-based websitesQuick setup and on-the-go management capabilitiesIntegration capabilities and limitationsBest use cases for small businesses and content creators3. SEO Metadata OptimizationProper configuration of SEO meta titles and descriptionsOpen Graph (OG) tags for social media sharingURL structure best practices and character optimizationThe importance of unique metadata vs duplicated contentHow to edit SEO metadata in Shopify product pages4. URL Structure StrategyStrategic URL naming conventions for productsUsing numbers strategically in URLs (e.g., "red-roses-12-piece" vs "12-piece-red-roses")Pattern disruption for user attention and click-through optimizationShorter, more concentrated URLs for better visual scanningPre-purchase click optimization through URL clarity5. Technical SEO FundamentalsSitemap management across different platformsGoogle Search Console setup and sitemap submissionThe difference between Google Analytics and Google Search ConsoleNAP (Name, Address, Phone) consistency for local SEORobots.txt configuration and indexing control6. Wix Platform InsightsHidden robots.txt settings affecting blog tag indexingHow to enable tag indexing in Wix SEO settings10-year evolution of the Wix platformCommon indexing issues and solutions7. WordPress vs Closed-Source PlatformsOpen-source flexibility vs closed-source constraintsPlugin management and sitemap conflictsThe analogy of "square footage" for platform capabilitiesWhen to choose WordPress over Shopify/Squarespace8. Content Strategy & Page ManagementThe power of compounding through content updatesUpdating old blog posts alongside publishing new onesFooter copyright year updates as ranking signalsOn-page SEO details that AI and search engines scanCreating and maintaining a content calendar9. Website Maintenance Best PracticesRegular theme updates and their impact on visibilityChecking and updating footer copyright yearsMonitoring broken links and slow page speedsPlatform-specific maintenance requirements (Shopify, Squarespace, WordPress, Webflow, Wix)10. Free Website Audit OfferFavour's offer for surface-level website auditsDeep dive capabilities for root problem identificationMulti-platform support (Shopify, Squarespace, WordPress, Webflow, Wix, Magento, Tilda, Duda)Email newsletter with SEO, marketing, and AI insightsEpisode Timestamps00:00 - Introduction: Shopify SEO vs Squarespace SEO comparison00:53 - Welcome and housekeeping (saving replays, accessing resources)02:36 - Shopify platform overview and e-commerce focus03:01 - Why Shopify stands out (price-friendly, brand-aware, aesthetically pleasing)03:43 - Shopify themes and purchasing considerations05:43 - Critical question: When did you last update your theme?06:40 - How theme updates affect algorithm visibility07:00 - Closed-source vs open-source platforms explained07:08 - Theme Liquid customization in Shopify08:00 - Shopify as your hosting platform08:10 - Apps in Shopify vs plugins in WordPress08:21 - Squarespace positioning and user-friendliness09:00 - Platform comparison analogy: Square footage (500 to 20,000 sq ft)09:33 - When aesthetics and ease-of-use matter most14:00 - Detailed Shopify theme management discussion18:00 - SEO metadata and URL structure fundamentals22:00 - The importance of page quantity and content strategy28:00 - Sitemap management and Google Search Console setup28:15 - Why Shopify pre-installs sitemaps (no conflicts)29:00 - WordPress sitemap conflicts and plugin management29:32 - The sitemap as "the brain of a website"30:00 - Content compounding strategy: updating old posts31:06 - Wix robots.txt issue: blog tags set to "no index" by default32:00 - How to fix Wix tag indexing in SEO settings33:00 - Tags as hashtags and their importance for visibility34:05 - Critical action item: Update your footer copyright year to 202635:00 - Why footer year matters for AI and search engine scanning36:01 - Shopify advantages for multi-language and multi-currency37:03 - Google Search Console vs Google Analytics confusion37:20 - The "reverse gear" moment in SEO audits42:00 - Deep dive into URL structure optimization45:00 - Strategic use of numbers in product URLs48:00 - Open Graph (OG) tags explained52:00 - Schema.org and structured data importance58:00 - Product page SEO metadata workflow in Shopify58:15 - How titles auto-generate URLs and the edit button59:00 - Example: "6-piece red rose bouquet" URL structure59:23 - Optimizing URL readability and pattern disruption60:00 - Pre-purchase click optimization through URL clarity61:00 - Character count optimization for URLs63:00 - Shopify vs Squarespace integration comparison63:16 - Schema.org as the "golden standard" for web documentation63:48 - NAP (Name, Address, Phone) consistency explained64:00 - "Dress how you want to be addressed" philosophy68:00 - Free website audit offer details70:00 - Platforms supported for audits72:00 - Newsletter signup for SEO, marketing, and AI insights74:00 - Surface-level vs deep-dive audit explanation75:00 - Closing remarks and call to actionFrequently Asked Questions (FAQs)Q1: What's the main difference between Shopify and Squarespace?A: Shopify is primarily an e-commerce platform optimized for product stores with extensive selling features (multi-currency, multi-language, robust app ecosystem), while Squarespace is more content-driven and user-friendly, ideal for portfolios, blogs, and smaller businesses that need quick setup without extensive product management.Q2: Why is updating my website theme important for SEO?A: Regular theme updates signal to search engine algorithms that your website has an updated setup and infrastructure. An outdated theme (e.g., last updated in August 2025 when we're in 2026) can cost you visibility because the algorithm may perceive your site as less maintained and current.Q3: What is Theme Liquid in Shopify?A: Theme Liquid is Shopify's templating language that allows you to customize code within the closed-source platform. It's where you would add custom elements like pop-ups, tracking codes, or other modifications that aren't available through standard theme settings.Q4: Do I need to create a sitemap for my Shopify store?A: No. Shopify automatically generates and maintains your sitemap as soon as you publish pages, products, collections, and posts. This is a major advantage over WordPress, where you need to install and configure sitemap plugins and ensure there are no conflicts.Q5: What's the difference between Google Search Console and Google Analytics?A: Google Search Console is for submitting your sitemap and monitoring how search engines crawl and index your site, while Google Analytics tracks visitor behavior and traffic sources. Both are important, but they serve different purposes. You must submit your sitemap to Search Console for proper SEO.Q6: How do I fix the Wix tag indexing problem?A: Go to your Wix dashboard, click Settings (bottom left corner), navigate to SEO Settings, find the Blog Tags section, and disable the "no index" robots.txt setting that's enabled by default. This allows your blog tags to be indexed by search engines.Q7: Why should I update my footer copyright year?A: The footer copyright year (e.g., "© 2026") is on-page text that AI and search engines scan. An outdated year (like "© 2023") signals that your site may not be actively maintained, even if you've updated content elsewhere. It's a simple but important ranking signal.Q8: How should I structure product URLs for better SEO?A: Use strategic placement of descriptive words and numbers. For example, "red-roses-12-piece" is better than "12-piece-red-roses" because users scanning search results will see "red roses" first, then the number variants (6, 12, 36), creating pattern disruption that draws attention and improves pre-purchase clicks.Q9: What is Open Graph (OG) and why does it matter?A: Open Graph tags control how your content appears when shared on social media, messaging apps, and other platforms. When you send a link via WhatsApp or iMessage and see a preview with title and image, that's Open Graph data. Properly configured OG tags ensure your content looks professional when shared.Q10: Should I choose Shopify, Squarespace, or WordPress for my business?A: Choose Shopify if you're running a product-based e-commerce store and need robust selling features. Choose Squarespace if you need a quick, aesthetically pleasing site for content, portfolios, or small-scale selling. Choose WordPress if you need maximum customization, flexibility, and control (open-source), but be prepared for more technical management.Q11: What is NAP and why is it important?A: NAP stands for Name, Address, Phone number. For websites, "address" includes your domain (www address). Consistent NAP information across your website and online directories is crucial for local SEO and helps search engines verify your business legitimacy.Q12: Can I get a free website audit from Favour?A: Yes! Favour offers surface-level website audits to help identify issues like broken links, slow pages, and basic SEO problems. The audit supports multiple platforms including Shopify, Squarespace, WordPress, Webflow, Wix, Magento, Tilda, and Duda. Links are available in the episode description or through the newsletter signup.About the Podcast HostFavour Obasi-ike, MBA, MS is an SEO and digital marketing expert who specializes in helping business owners optimize their websites for search visibility and conversion. Favour offers website audits, SEO consulting, and maintains a detailed email newsletter covering SEO, marketing, and AI insights. Visit our quick links above to get access.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
AI Chat: ChatGPT & AI News, Artificial Intelligence, OpenAI, Machine Learning
In this episode, we explore Lotus Health AI's innovative approach to healthcare, where an AI doctor provides free consultations and aims to redefine primary care. We also discuss the challenges, potential, and regulatory landscape of integrating AI into medical practices, highlighting how this technology could transform patient experiences and doctor accessibility.Chapters00:00 Lotus Health AI & Healthcare02:10 ChatGPT's Role in Health05:17 Lotus Health's Vision08:26 Operational Model & Compliance14:03 Regulatory Hurdles & Future
AI Chat: ChatGPT & AI News, Artificial Intelligence, OpenAI, Machine Learning
In this episode, we explore Lotus Health AI's innovative approach to healthcare, where an AI doctor provides free consultations and aims to redefine primary care. We also discuss the challenges, potential, and regulatory landscape of integrating AI into medical practices, highlighting how this technology could transform patient experiences and doctor accessibility.Chapters00:00 Lotus Health AI & Healthcare02:10 ChatGPT's Role in Health05:17 Lotus Health's Vision08:26 Operational Model & Compliance14:03 Regulatory Hurdles & Future
Two-time Emmy and Three-time NAACP Image Award-winning, television Executive Producer Rushion McDonald interviewed Alicia Lyttle. SUMMARY OF THE ALICIA LYTTLE INTERVIEW From “Money Making Conversations Master Class” with Rushion McDonald [ 1. Purpose of the Interview The purpose of this interview was to: Showcase Alicia Lyttle, CEO and co‑founder of Air Innovations, known widely as the “Queen of AI.” [ Educate small business owners, entrepreneurs, and nonprofits on how to leverage AI for growth. Highlight her mission to empower the African American community to not only keep up with AI—but lead in it. [ Demonstrate how AI tools can transform operations, content creation, finances, and productivity in minutes instead of months. Inspire listeners through her entrepreneurial journey, professional pivots, and personal resilience. 2. High-Level Summary Alicia Lyttle returns to the show two years after her last appearance, now positioned at the forefront of the global AI movement. She explains how her work has shifted from annual summits to monthly AI Business Summits, teaching tens of thousands of entrepreneurs how to use AI hands‑on for content, marketing, operations, and scaling. She breaks down how simple tools—such as NotebookLM, ChatGPT, Jasper, Gemini, and HeyGen—can turn a single piece of content into newsletters, PowerPoints, videos, study guides, and more. She stresses that AI is now accessible, especially with free versions like ChatGPT. Alicia also shares her origin story in AI, beginning with a 15‑year‑old speaker at Walmart Tech Live describing IBM Watson. This sparked her fascination and ultimately led her to pivot her entire company toward full-time AI training and consulting by 2022—despite skepticism from her peers. She details the massive growth of her brand, including 21,000+ live summit attendees and explosive social media expansion. The interview also addresses AI’s role in finance, healthcare, government, job disruption, and how individuals can future‑proof themselves. Her personal story of overcoming a restrictive ex-husband who told her she would “never speak again” underscores her powerful message: no one should silence your gifts. Now she speaks to thousands, leads major events, and helps others build new careers in AI. 3. Key Takeaways A. AI Is Evolving Fast—and So Must We AI is changing so quickly that entrepreneurs cannot afford to wait for annual updates. This is why Alicia shifted to monthly training summits. People need ongoing education to stay competitive. B. Hands‑On AI Education Is the Key Alicia doesn’t just lecture—she walks participants through real demonstrations: Uploading YouTube links Creating summaries Generating emails, mind maps, PowerPoints, quizzes, videos, and more…all from a single input. Her approach eliminates fear and teaches entrepreneurs how to use AI immediately. C. Accessibility Has Changed the Game The release of ChatGPT, especially the free version, democratized AI. Before that, tools like IBM Watson were too complex and expensive. Now anyone with a laptop and internet connection can build websites, write content, or automate business flows in minutes. [ D. The African American Community Must Lead—Not Follow Alicia emphasizes that historically, Black communities have been “last in line” in tech innovation, but this AI era presents a once‑in‑a‑generation opportunity to jump ahead.She sees it as her mission to speak everywhere Black entrepreneurs are to ensure they seize this moment. E. AI Will Replace Tasks—But People Can Future‑Proof Themselves Jobs are already shifting. Companies are laying off non–AI‑literate employees.Alicia urges people to: Become AI‑fluent Join AI committees at work Pursue certification Use AI to become their company’s internal expert “There’s no maybe—you have to learn AI,” she warns. F. AI is Transforming Every Sector: Finance, Healthcare, Government She provides insights on… AI receptionists (“Monica” and “Leslie”) that boost customer interaction to 92% Financial analysis using secure ChatGPT setups AI mental health companions Government calls for national AI leadership G. Alicia Monetizes Through Education, Certification & Consulting Her business model includes: Free monthly summits Paid masterclasses Corporate consulting AI certifications Live Atlanta workshops She teaches others to become AI consultants too. H. Her Personal Triumph Story Inspires Thousands A powerful moment is when she recounts her ex-husband saying: “There’s only one quarterback on a team—and you will never speak again.”Yet today, 1,200+ people attend her live events, and tens of thousands join her virtual trainings. Her success proves resilience and purpose overcome adversity. 4. Key Quotes On AI Opportunity “Never has there been a better time in history to start, build, or scale a business than right now.” On Training Entrepreneurs “Open your laptops… use the same prompt I use. See what results you get.” On the Power of AI Tools “You can take one episode and repurpose it into all these different content ways.” On Pivoting Her Entire Company “In 2022, I said we’re closing this business and going all in on AI.” On Being Black in Tech “My mission is to make sure our community is not left behind—but ahead of the curve.” On Personal Resilience “You will be speaking on the best stages… people will come to see you.”(A friend’s response after she was told she’d “never speak again.”) On Future-Proofing Careers “Those using AI will replace you. You have to learn how to leverage AI.” On AI as a Human-First Technology “AI plus human intelligence—that’s what takes things to the next level.” #SHMS #STRAW #BESTSupport the show: https://www.steveharveyfm.com/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Two-time Emmy and Three-time NAACP Image Award-winning, television Executive Producer Rushion McDonald interviewed Alicia Lyttle. SUMMARY OF THE ALICIA LYTTLE INTERVIEW From “Money Making Conversations Master Class” with Rushion McDonald [ 1. Purpose of the Interview The purpose of this interview was to: Showcase Alicia Lyttle, CEO and co‑founder of Air Innovations, known widely as the “Queen of AI.” [ Educate small business owners, entrepreneurs, and nonprofits on how to leverage AI for growth. Highlight her mission to empower the African American community to not only keep up with AI—but lead in it. [ Demonstrate how AI tools can transform operations, content creation, finances, and productivity in minutes instead of months. Inspire listeners through her entrepreneurial journey, professional pivots, and personal resilience. 2. High-Level Summary Alicia Lyttle returns to the show two years after her last appearance, now positioned at the forefront of the global AI movement. She explains how her work has shifted from annual summits to monthly AI Business Summits, teaching tens of thousands of entrepreneurs how to use AI hands‑on for content, marketing, operations, and scaling. She breaks down how simple tools—such as NotebookLM, ChatGPT, Jasper, Gemini, and HeyGen—can turn a single piece of content into newsletters, PowerPoints, videos, study guides, and more. She stresses that AI is now accessible, especially with free versions like ChatGPT. Alicia also shares her origin story in AI, beginning with a 15‑year‑old speaker at Walmart Tech Live describing IBM Watson. This sparked her fascination and ultimately led her to pivot her entire company toward full-time AI training and consulting by 2022—despite skepticism from her peers. She details the massive growth of her brand, including 21,000+ live summit attendees and explosive social media expansion. The interview also addresses AI’s role in finance, healthcare, government, job disruption, and how individuals can future‑proof themselves. Her personal story of overcoming a restrictive ex-husband who told her she would “never speak again” underscores her powerful message: no one should silence your gifts. Now she speaks to thousands, leads major events, and helps others build new careers in AI. 3. Key Takeaways A. AI Is Evolving Fast—and So Must We AI is changing so quickly that entrepreneurs cannot afford to wait for annual updates. This is why Alicia shifted to monthly training summits. People need ongoing education to stay competitive. B. Hands‑On AI Education Is the Key Alicia doesn’t just lecture—she walks participants through real demonstrations: Uploading YouTube links Creating summaries Generating emails, mind maps, PowerPoints, quizzes, videos, and more…all from a single input. Her approach eliminates fear and teaches entrepreneurs how to use AI immediately. C. Accessibility Has Changed the Game The release of ChatGPT, especially the free version, democratized AI. Before that, tools like IBM Watson were too complex and expensive. Now anyone with a laptop and internet connection can build websites, write content, or automate business flows in minutes. [ D. The African American Community Must Lead—Not Follow Alicia emphasizes that historically, Black communities have been “last in line” in tech innovation, but this AI era presents a once‑in‑a‑generation opportunity to jump ahead.She sees it as her mission to speak everywhere Black entrepreneurs are to ensure they seize this moment. E. AI Will Replace Tasks—But People Can Future‑Proof Themselves Jobs are already shifting. Companies are laying off non–AI‑literate employees.Alicia urges people to: Become AI‑fluent Join AI committees at work Pursue certification Use AI to become their company’s internal expert “There’s no maybe—you have to learn AI,” she warns. F. AI is Transforming Every Sector: Finance, Healthcare, Government She provides insights on… AI receptionists (“Monica” and “Leslie”) that boost customer interaction to 92% Financial analysis using secure ChatGPT setups AI mental health companions Government calls for national AI leadership G. Alicia Monetizes Through Education, Certification & Consulting Her business model includes: Free monthly summits Paid masterclasses Corporate consulting AI certifications Live Atlanta workshops She teaches others to become AI consultants too. H. Her Personal Triumph Story Inspires Thousands A powerful moment is when she recounts her ex-husband saying: “There’s only one quarterback on a team—and you will never speak again.”Yet today, 1,200+ people attend her live events, and tens of thousands join her virtual trainings. Her success proves resilience and purpose overcome adversity. 4. Key Quotes On AI Opportunity “Never has there been a better time in history to start, build, or scale a business than right now.” On Training Entrepreneurs “Open your laptops… use the same prompt I use. See what results you get.” On the Power of AI Tools “You can take one episode and repurpose it into all these different content ways.” On Pivoting Her Entire Company “In 2022, I said we’re closing this business and going all in on AI.” On Being Black in Tech “My mission is to make sure our community is not left behind—but ahead of the curve.” On Personal Resilience “You will be speaking on the best stages… people will come to see you.”(A friend’s response after she was told she’d “never speak again.”) On Future-Proofing Careers “Those using AI will replace you. You have to learn how to leverage AI.” On AI as a Human-First Technology “AI plus human intelligence—that’s what takes things to the next level.” #SHMS #STRAW #BESTSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Could you cover 2800 miles—the distance between New York City and Los Angeles—in 40 days with ten of your friends? That's the question that close friends, JONBOB and David, wanted to figure out. Instead of asking ChatGPT, or Google, they started moving. That's how RELENTLESS 2800, a 40-day team challenge, was born. In the years since, RELENTLESS has grown into a movement that not only gets people moving in the winter months, but is also making them more resilient and less isolated. Two average guys building something that is changing lives across the nation? That's an aggressive move. Ready for RELENTLESS 2800? Use the word AGGRESSIVE at checkout to get 30% off. Watch the full episode on YouTube here.
Do This, NOT That: Marketing Tips with Jay Schwedelson l Presented By Marigold
A new social network gained over a million users in a few days, but real people aren't invited to join. Jay Schwedelson breaks down the rise of Molt Book and what these AI agents are actually posting about us behind our backs. Plus, find out why a $10 million Super Bowl ad might be cheaper than you think and the new LinkedIn skill you can officially add to your profile today.ㅤBest Moments:(00:43) A social network exclusively for AI bots grows to 1.5 million agents in just three days(02:05) The minimum ad spend required to advertise on ChatGPT right now(02:40) You can now list Vibe Coding as an official certification on your LinkedIn profile(04:15) Why the headlines about Meghan Markle's products selling out are total marketing nonsense(05:15) Breaking down the math that proves Super Bowl ads are actually a bargain(06:55) The massive reality TV show is returning for its tenth season in OhioㅤCheck out Jay's YOUTUBE Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@schwedelsonCheck out Jay's TIKTOK: https://www.tiktok.com/@schwedelsonCheck Out Jay's INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/jayschwedelson/ㅤPre-order Jay Schwedelson's new book, Stupider People Have Done It (out April 21, 2026). All net proceeds are donated to The V Foundation for Cancer Research—let's kick cancer's butt: https://www.amazon.com/Stupider-People-Have-Done-Marketing/dp/1637635206
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.