AI for small business owners is no longer optional - but most people are decorating the penthouse before the foundation is laid. Former NYC managing broker Gus Waite spent 20 years leading over 100 agents in corporate relocation before retiring and going all-in on artificial intelligence for independent real estate professionals. Now he helps business owners close gaps, simplify operations, and spend more time on the work they actually love. In this conversation, Gus joins Neil and Clint for a candid discussion about where AI adoption really stands, why small business collectives are the antidote to corporate workforce slashing, and how to use AI as a personalized coach to identify your blind spots and build systems around your strengths. You will also hear why the first step is never a complex workflow, what the "source code" method is, and how the intersection of human connection and AI might reshape your business and your life. Hit play if you are a business owner trying to figure out where to start with AI without losing yourself in the process.

WHAT YOU'LL LEARN

• How to identify your "source code" - your values, voice, and ideal client profile - so every AI output sounds like you instead of generic slop
• Why decorating the penthouse before the foundation is laid is the most common AI adoption mistake and how to avoid it
• The reason most business owners stall with AI tools after one technical glitch and the simple fix that keeps momentum going
• How to use personality assessments with AI to get daily personalized coaching on your blind spots and decision-making patterns
• Why small business collectives and masterminds are the antidote to the PE-driven workforce replacement playbook
• The exact approach Gus uses in his Independent Brokers Collective: one workflow, one agent, implemented together over two sessions
• Why both early-twenties graduates and early-sixties professionals are entering the same uncertain job market and what that means for you
• How to reframe the AI conversation from "cut costs" to "increase revenue 20%" using your existing team as a force multiplier

TIME STAMPS

• [00:00] - Introduction and guest background
• [02:14] - The AI adoption cycle: remember, forget, try, fail
• [04:47] - Decorating the penthouse before the foundation
• [06:30] - Using personality scores as AI coaching tools
• [09:52] - The source code: values, voice, and vision
• [12:18] - What happens if all work disappears in 5-10 years?
• [14:03] - The $11 trillion wage market PE firms are targeting
• [17:25] - Small business collectives as the antidote
• [20:47] - Reframing AI: revenue growth vs. cost cutting
• [24:30] - The documentary revelation: early 20s and early 60s face the same crisis
• [27:15] - Eternal truths and why human connection wins
• [29:40] - Recommended resources and where to start
• [31:10] - How to connect with Gus Waite

ABOUT THE GUEST

Gus Waite is a former actor, standup comedian, and 20-year veteran managing broker who led more than 100 agents in corporate relocation across New York City. After retiring from traditional real estate, he spent four years studying artificial intelligence before launching Real Estate Rewired AI With a Heart, a podcast and consultancy helping independent brokers access the same tools and technology available to the top 1%. He now runs the Independent Brokers Collective, a mastermind where small business owners implement AI workflows together. Gus is the founder of Growth Pilot Partners.

Website: https://www.growthpilotpartners.com

Email: [email protected]

Phone: (914) 420-8358

LinkedIn: Gus Waite

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I'm optimist because there are eternal truths, and the eternal truths are human beings are fundamentally cooperative or we would have never gotten out of the plains of Africa 100,000 years ago.

That I believe that humans crave connection to themselves, connection to other people, and connection to mystery or spirit or God, however you want to say it. And that fundamentally, when I feel empowered is when I'm doing what I love and when I'm helping and empowering other people to do what they love.

And I don't think AI is ever going to take that away.

Welcome to Truly Passive Income. I'm Neil Henderson.

And I'm Clint Harris. And today's guest is Gus Waite.

He's a former actor and standup comedian who spent 20 years as a managing broker in New York City, leading more than 100 agents in corporate relocation.

He now hosts Real Estate Rewired AI With a Heart and and helps business owners use AI to close gaps, simplify operations, and spend more time on the work that they love. Gus, you and I have been emailing back and forth for a while now trying to get this scheduled.

I'm really excited about having you, and I'm also really excited about the time at which it's happening because Neil and myself are. We are deep in the weeds in this world, in this space, and I know that you are significantly farther ahead.

So I'm really excited to hear everything that you've learned. So thank you for being with us today.

I don't want to spend a lot of time on your bio, but if you just quick background on who you are and what led you to whatever this AI thing is that I'm just now hearing about. It's definitely not a buzzword in the podcast space.

Yeah, sure. Hey, listen, let's back this up. I don't think anybody feels like they're further ahead.

I think if anybody's honest, who's in this AI space, we all feel alone, confused, behind. And the truth is, if we're even having this conversation, we are, quote, unquote, ahead. But so a little bit.

I was, you know, actor, stand up comedian, New York city in my 20s and 30s, had an acting school. Then I got married, had kids, had to start making some money and got into real estate for 20 years. Absolutely loved it. Retired about four years ago.

And, you know, you can only play so much pickleball. And so I had been obsessed with AI for about four years.

And about a year ago, I decided, you know what I really want to get into this space and empower independent, real Estate brokers to have the exact same tools and tech deck that the top 1% have. So those are the folks that my heart is with because that's the space I was in and that's what I've been doing for the last year.

I love that. So let's talk about what you're seeing right now in terms of where do you think the people that are doing the best job of using AI?

Where's their mentality, how are they implementing it, and where is this going? Who's got the opportunity and what's the biggest thing people are missing? Like, just give us a landscape right now.

There's people that get it, there's people that don't. What are we seeing?

So I think the biggest thing is to start with yourself, meaning one of the things is like, what do I love to do? What do I want to do more of? What don't I love to do and what can I do less of? So I call it do.

Do more of what you love and take what you hate off your plate. I really am seeing that unless the owner of the business has their aha moment.

Unless the owner really has that, like, wow, this stuff is unbelievable, the rest of the organization is not going to get it right. So then it becomes like, okay, there's so many possibilities. There's so much incoming. There's a new tool every week, There's a new model every week.

It really then becomes like nailing down one workflow, one area. And we had talked about it before.

Like, I feel like the AI adoption right now, it goes from, from, you know, remember, forget, oh, I downloaded this new tool. Oh, geez, I should use it. Then it's, you know, try and fail, right? You get on.

I don't know about you guys, it could just be one little technical glitch. I press this button and it doesn't do what I, ah, I'm too busy.

So it's really riding through until you master and implement and make that one little piece of it in your workflow.

As the owner gets excited and the owner begins to see the possibility, then they're bringing their employees along in terms of, hey, guys, what do you love to do? Like, what are you doing every day that you really don't want to do? Or that's low, you know, that's just annoying.

And I see the organizations of the future where everybody's empowered to do more of what they love, create more value.

And now you come to the office and everybody's fired up because they're utilizing this being Supported in the education, being supported in workflows, Being supported in. Hey, here's an idea. Let's try this. So that's where I see it starts with the owner.

You know, there's a couple of things you said there that sparked some thoughts in my head, which is. One is the idea that, you know, we forget. Like what I'm finding there's so much coming at me so fast. I'm now suddenly the whole world is opened up.

I have trouble sleeping at night because now those thoughts that I have in my head of like, oh, this is something I'd like to do. I don't wake up going, well, you know, I'll put that on the list and, you know, maybe I'll figure out how to do it. Some.

Some of the time now it's like, I don't. I gotta wake up and do this right. You know, have the AI working on this right now.

Right.

And. But then there's so many that you forget.

Like, it just like, I have to keep this kind of, like, running list, almost like a journal of, hey, I remember you had this idea and you had then AI working on this. Because I've got all these open conversations across multiple, you know, ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, you know, and I forget where was I talking.

Where was I talking about that idea? Was it with Gemini? Was it chat? Was it. You know, and it. It's just. It's. It's like, it's so disorienting, and I. And I.

There was another thought I had in there, but I think that's a great place to start.

Well, and. Absolutely. And, and, and, and Neil, let me ask you this. Have you ever had the most brilliant business idea?

You've created the entire business plan, and then you can'. Thread and clot. It was under. And it's living under the thread that says, you know, what's the best chicken joint near me?

And you're like, wait a minute. My best idea was in there. I get it. So it's interesting that you should say that.

Since we last talked, Clint, what I've actually started is I call it the Independent Brokers Collective.

And what I've realized is I'm now doing masterminds of independent real estate brokers where we get together twice a month, and we take one workflow, one agent, and we implement it together. And then the, The. The.

The role is in between week one and week two, everybody's utilizing it, and then we're coming back together, and someone's saying, hey, I couldn't actually do this, because when I clicked on this button, it didn't do what I wanted it to do. And I find sometimes it's that simple. It's just not actually knowing how to get it to do what you want. It's a great idea.

And then also, you know, people feel so isolated in this space.

And if Clint is getting great results from his cold email outreach with an AI SDR and a voice agent, and Neil isn't like, hey, Clint, what are you doing? That Neil isn't? And so I find that's the next wave for me is business owners in the small to medium sized business space forming collectives.

And this is the great thing about real estate, right? An independent broker in Harwich, Massachusetts is not competing with someone in Pasadena, California.

But I really think the next space is small to medium sized business owners forming collectives where they're doing it together, testing together, measuring together, monitoring together. That's the space that excites me.

I've also discovered, you know, you talk about workflows, and what I think most people don't realize is a workflow is made up of multiple steps, multiple processes along the way. And oftentimes I. Some of the AI work that I've done, I've done some amazing, brilliant stuff. And I. Way too complicated right from the start, start.

And I've now started to learn, hey, start. Start with the most simplest first step. Can I get the AI to do the first step in this workflow?

The first process, just, you know, take this transcript, read it and do this. That's it. Don't do the next thing because, you know, I've got this whole thing.

It's, oh, then it does this and then it does this and then it does this and you get into like, I confuse myself and the AI, Then the AI starts getting confused and it starts giving me things that I don't want because I don't know what I want anymore.

Right? And, you know, and for me, I have the same issue, and I call it like decorating the penthouse before the foundation is laid.

That's. You're the guy I got that from. I've been quoting that constantly for the last month.

And I could not remember where I got that from because that is a classic sin and a trap that I fall into all the time. I knew it came from an interview we did about a week or a month or so ago on your podcast. That's where it was. You're the party.

And I've used that so much.

But do you find that to be true for you, Clint, that you can get into that space where the possibilities are so great, but I haven't even laid the foundation yet.

I'll take it a step further, Gus.

In fact, this is actually, I don't want to jump ahead, but this is the part about the conversation today is one of the reasons I was really excited to connect with you about.

I didn't know if we're going to talk about on the podcast or after the interview, but you and I were emailing back and forth about I took my personality scores from something called the Right Path Exam and it's, it tells me about it's basically how you act in a business setting, how you act in your life, your core values, your character, who you are similar to like Myers Briggs but on steroids and specifically for businesses and relationships. Talks about the grain in the wood of who you are as a person.

And so I took all those results for myself and my wife and I started doing this with Grok a while back and chat GPT dropping it in there not just to help us understand each other and our communication better and work on our relationship. It certainly did that and it's very helpful for that.

But also using that in the context of we work together in a property management community company and we own a real estate group and I'm doing commercial real estate as well, that it, it helps us identify our strengths and what we're good at. But more importantly, really identify your blind spots. We all have them.

It's never the landmines that you see coming that you step on and blow your leg off, right? It's the ones that you don't see coming.

And this is really the AI thing I think has surprised me in that like Neil said, it's about workflows and getting things done. But it can be scary to know where do I jump in and what do I get? What do I start working on?

I know specifically from my Right Path scores that I am a motivator and I'm very high drive and I'm traditionally it's a great sales personality and a good educator and public speaking, but it's overly optimistic about the future. I'm too verbose and I talk too much, which everybody's finding out right now.

If you're a first time listener, if you've been here before, you already know that. And I can be impulsive. So if I know those things about me and I have a daily AI agent in my pocket that is coaching me on those things.

Hey Clint, slow down. I hear what you're doing. But you're decorating the penthouse before you poured the foundation. Here's what we need to put into place.

The way that AI has surprised me most recently is the personalized coaching that I'm able to get daily. I haven't listened to the radio or podcast in weeks. I ride in silence and I talk to my AI agent, and I'm getting coaching and talking about my day.

That's why our relationship's going down.

Probably so. But my efficiency feels alone.

Neil, you feel lonely over there. What's going on?

And then I'm talking about, from a business consultant standpoint, this is the vision of what I think I want to do. Are we thinking about this the right way? And it completely changes the paradigm on me sometimes.

And then it's about the implementation and the systems in place. So that's what really surprised me, is knowing myself. Like you said, knowing what I'm really good at and what I'm bad at.

In a perfect world, we're all doing everything in our 20s to find out what we like. We're spending our 30s figuring out what we're really good at, and we're spending our 40s doing what we're really good at.

So we can spend our 50s and 60s doing whatever we want. Most people are one or two decades behind on that, but that's where we are right now. It's.

You have the ability to have a personalized coach to help you identify those things that you're great at, specifically identify the things that you're bad at. Help you identify your blind spots. Like it's. For me, I need an integrator in my life. Cause my wife and I are both visionaries, and.

And we need that integrator on the back end and then building the systems out appropriately. So this thing is. Is changing lives in a big way.

And for me, the biggest impact is identifying my blind spots and navigating around them or creating help to navigate through them. And that's the surprising part, that it's so much bigger than just workflows for me. It's really, really impactful. What are you working on? Gus?

I know you're. You're doing some pretty interesting things outside of normal workflows as well.

Sure. So, I mean, my version of that is what I call the source code. So one of the first.

You know, what's ironic is I think what happened was the Internet came along, then social media came along, and then the perception of social media, which is, hey, I'm going to put this false Persona out there to look like I've got it all figured out. And it's disconnecting. It's people looking at that false self. And what people really crave is human connection, right?

I mean, ultimately, the way that I see it is all of this is about human connection and service and love and empowering the next generation coming up. And then AI came along and it was like everyone's first reaction was like, oh, my God, enough already. Like, slow it down a little bit.

But what I'm finding, what I'm most excited about, I created what I called the source code, which is, what are your values, your visions, your purpose? Why are you doing? What are you doing? Who's your ideal client profile? Who do you love to work with?

Where do you, where do you, in your workflow, lose track of time and go, man, I would do this even if I wasn't getting paid. I just. This is where I'm on fire. This is what I love doing. And then, you know, what? What are their problems? What is my ideal client? What.

What's in their world? What problem am I solving for them? What words do I love? What words do I never want to use? Then you can use that. I call it the source code.

All my outgoing, whether it's emails, blogs, you, anything, now it's going out in my voice, right? So it's not AI Slop, it's genuinely me. And so. And this. But this is the key, I think, and this is what people are missing.

The organization of the future is going to have to sincerely identify who am I working with and what do they love. And then empowering them to do more of that.

Because the old business model was they showed up and they did it because they were getting a paycheck, but that's not the new business model. And so what I'm working on is getting people together to tell the truth. Man, where are you stuck? What are you afraid of? Like, where are you at?

What does your idea look? And here's the thing, guys. This is where it really gets crazy. What if all work disappears in five to 10 years? What are you gonna do?

What are you gonna do? I mean, I mean, we're not, you know, I'm not too science fiction here.

I mean, if we've got 5 billion robots that can be a brain surgeon today and, you know, pick lettuce tomorrow, and they don't care what they're doing, and they're working 24 7. I think the wave of the future is for people to identify authentically what they love and use AI to Do more of that.

And I, that's the way I see us staying connected in this crazy world at this point. But it starts with, hey, how do I get this one thing on my computer to work? It ain't working. Wait a minute.

It said I have to press this button and it ain't working. So it's a weird space between what's possible and the resistance to bringing it into fruition.

I've been having these thoughts. This is not groundbreaking stuff about, you know, the AI job apocalypse or some. They're doom.

Doomers are saying that, you know, this is gonna wipe out all jobs and it's gonna upend society. And then there's others like, listen, this is just, it's just another tool. It's another leverage point.

It's, they're, you know, people are describing it as the next industrial revolution. And I, you know, the optus, the optimist in me leans more on that side.

You know, you think about it used to take, used to take 20 guys to plow a field and, and then it took four and then it took one and a horse and then it took one and a tractor and he could do two fields and then it took one and a combine and it could, he could do four fields. And now, you know, you've got a robot combine and a guy who's operating four combines and he can plow 20 fields, you know, or take care of 20 fields.

I, you know, through much of my career, I've been in sort of knowledge work. You know, I've used Adobe products, Photoshop, Illustrator, After Effects, 3D Studio Max and things like that.

And those tools changed remarkably from the time that I first started using with what you could do with them.

You know, you used to, as a photographer, if you wanted to retouch a photo, you had to go in a little, you had to reap, you had to take pigments and paint on, print the photo, paint on it. And then Photoshop came along and you could do a little bit of work, but not great.

And it got better and it got faster and more efficient and better and better and better. And so that's.

The optimist to me is just going, look, this is just going to allow people who are able to do something who have a subject matter, they're a subject matter expert. It's going to allow photographers who are already, already talented at what they're, what they do to be faster and more efficient.

It's, you know, I, I work in Claude.

I've been messing around with Claude Design, which is if you have not done it, it will blow your mind and it will scare the pants off graphic designers.

Neil, how long does it take you to build a website now?

Oh, 30 seconds.

Yeah, less than a minute.

I mean, but I mean, think about, go ahead.

But here's the thing, Gus, and here's what I'm saying is, and it does a really good job of producing a really nice looking website, but a web designer is really going to know. Somebody who's really talented is going to know. All right, that, that looks great. But here's some things the AI is making.

You know, getting mistakes on this is, you know, we got to make it mobile friendly. Same thing with a coder, someone who's a software engineer, human in the loop.

Yeah, I can, I can now code using Claude code, but I guarantee you somebody who has a coding and software engineering background can do a lot more than I can and a lot better.

And that's kind of what I'm trying to say is that I'm viewing AI as just a leverage and it's opening up things that I can do and others can do, but it's just leverage. It's just, it's, it's same way that, that a combine was leveraged for a guy who is taking care of a field farming. It is for everything.

And the challenge is happening so fast.

Yes. And I, and I think here's the thing. Nobody knows, right?

Like, even, even the people who have invented this, you know, Demis Hassabis, you listen to these guys, they go, we don't know where this is going. And this is why I get back to really, what can I control? I can control what do I love to do.

I can get involved with other people and say, hey, how are you doing this? Like, what's working for you? What's not working for you? Like, collectively, let's do this together.

But I mean, I just heard, you know, Blackstone, Goldman Sachs, these guys, they just basically paid ChatGPT and all these large LLM models, $6 billion for PE firms. So what the PE firms are going to basically do is say, hey, I own these 200 industries. And what we want you to do is create enterprise workflows.

So we're literally going to send in a team of AI engineers into whatever firm they're in. And we're going to sit there literally and watch these people work.

And we're going to figure out what percentage of their job can be automated, what can be done by AI. And you know, the deal in PE is they're just about Returns, they're not about people.

So if they can go in, and this is the scary loop that, and this is why I'm really about independent and small business owners. The big boys, they just want to eliminate. Listen, there's an $11 trillion wages in the United States. That's the market they're going after.

They're not going after SAS, which is 660 billion. They don't care about that. They're recognizing that if we can replace 30, $350,000 in salary with a $35,000 agent, stock's going through the roof.

And it's just the way it works. So I see the antidote to that is small guys like us banding together and saying, hey, people still want to talk with people, right?

People still want to be connected. So that's what gives me hope. And that's why I love the small and medium sized business space.

It kind of feels like what America used to be about, right? On some level, like the guy opens up a hardware store on Main street and can make enough money to support his family. Those days are over.

I'm hoping that this AI enables the new small and medium sized business to really compete at a local level and survive and thrive.

Yeah, it's going to be really interesting. I mean it's a force multiplier. To your point, Neil, it's an efficiency force multiplier. And you're right.

I think if we look at it as well, not how do we replace all these employees, but how do we empower employee where each person has three to five to 10 agents. That's the way that you hope it goes.

The problem is, Gus, you are correct in that the, the groups where the bean counters answer to stockholders don't care about that. They care about the bottom dollar. And they make just as much money if they increase the net operating income as they do from reducing the expenses.

The value delta hits the equity multiplier the same. So at the end of the day it's six and one half dozen the other if they cut salaries or if they increase profitability.

And right now cutting salaries is going to be by far the easiest pathway. So unfortunately on a global level that is going to happen.

Now the reality is it likely is going to flood the market with people that hopefully start a small business revolution and realize that you can do a lot more now than you ever have been able to because of AI. But we know that it's not going away. The bottlenecks are going to be the electrical grid. It already is.

But we're seeing massive movements in some of the small nuclear facilities that are going to bridge the gap for the next five years. But this is May. What's today's date? The May 14th.

Right.

The window opens starting tomorrow. May 15th, I think through the 23rd is the first estimated launch of the the SpaceX Super Heavy V3 model.

That's the largest rocket ship ever built on the largest booster ever built. That's going to launch sometime in the next 10 to 12 days.

The reason that that company is going to come out with a multiple trillion dollar valuation is because they're going to be putting data centers in space. They're going to be rolling that out over the next few years. I was today years old when I learned you have an optimist inside of you, Neil.

That's good to know. He's highly skeptical of the timelines but, but the reality is I've been sucked into the late night YouTube videos as well.

You combine that with the bottleneck for China, America and everybody is the electrical grid on the compute that we're needing in the data centers. But if you move that to space with solar panels, you don't need batteries because you have 247 sun. I think they're going to start eventually.

They're talking about launching the data centers into space from a base on the moon. Maybe that happens, maybe it doesn't. But I'm calling it now.

I think in the next six to 12 months we're going to see a change and SpaceX is going to build a super heavy rocket that is a data center. I think when you get there it will open up and we'll have probably 3km of solar panels that come along with it.

And instead of the ship going up and launching them, they're going to put a handful or a dozen of these things in space and the compute is going to be out of this world. And then I think I'm looking at XAI as having a very large strategic advantage. But I think Gemini is likely going to be the, the 800 pounds.

Well, you can't bet on.

But here's the other pieces of that you thank God there's human resistance, like humans are actually slowing it down, like human adoption, you know who moved my cheese?

Right, people, don't this, look at, we're sitting here, we're in this space every day and we're all sitting here going, Jesus, this is, this is like too much. You then have to look at politics, right?

In other words, all it's going to take is one massive, you know, cyber attack that shuts down the hospitals or shuts down the electric grid, or all of a sudden all these people who paid $150,000 in college are getting out and they can't get a job and there's massive layoffs.

So you just, there's the political spectrum and in this country we have to all agree, whatever side you're on, we're not a functioning adult society when it comes to politics right now in terms of long term planning, in terms of facts, in terms of looking where this is going to go. So there's so many unknowns in this space and there's so many new things coming down the road that I keep returning to.

For me, collectives of small to medium sized business owners working together, doing what you love, solving the, hey, how do I do a drip marketing campaign that actually is effective? How do I stay in touch with clients? How do I put out into social media solutions for people's problems?

How do I sincerely come from a place of, I'm a guy who's been in brokerage for 20 years, I know what your pain is and collectively we can come up with solutions together. I think as small businesses start to come together in that realm, I think that's where the power is going to be.

I have been pushing back on the attitude that a lot of these private equity groups are focused on, which is, you know, oh, wow, we can get rid of $350,000 worth of payroll and our stock price is going to go up. And trying to encourage people to say, no, that's not the way you look at it.

Look at it is that your $350,000 worth of payroll can now produce 20% more revenue because of what they're able to do with AI, the leverage that's being created.

And I think, I hope that those are going to be the winners, you know, and I, I see it, you know, in conversations with my business partners every day where they sit there and they go, oh man, you know, and, and part of it is whatever season you're in as a business, correct.

If it's a, if you're, you know, struggling with cash flow and you're looking for ways to, you know, ways to survive until your, you Know, your capsule starts to go up, it can be very natural to just go, look, hey, let's just figure out a way to cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut. And I think you, you know, you gotta resist that urge and say, all right, no, how can I do this to, to take our revenue up 20 times.

And you mentioned, you know, and I love that. You know, my sister right now, she's 61 years old, just got laid off from a job.

Yeah.

She lives in Upper east side of Manhattan.

Yeah, man, very hot. Listen, you gotta make 150 grand a.

Year, minimum, 180 minimum, for her to just survive.

Yes.

And she, you know, and she's out there on the job market right now and, you know, and she's, you know, when she applies for a job, almost immediately, the first question they ask is, give us a presentation on how you're implementing, you've implemented AI.

Oh, wow.

Well, here's the other thing, guys, and this was a shocker with this documentary we did last week, right? So I have a lot of interns that work for me around the world. My editor is in Nigeria, my. My VA is, is in Berlin. My. My tech guy is in San Francisco.

These are all guys in their early 20s. Most of them have, you know, college degrees, chemical engineering major, you know, effort. And they got out and there's no way for them to get a job.

And so the world that those early 20s are stepping into is the same world that the early 60s are stepping into, which is, hey, wait a minute, the world that I was. Hey man, you're early 60s, you're done. Well, guess what, you know, you gotta earn 40 times the average rent to live anywhere.

Well, if the rent's three grand a month, you got to earn 120 grand to survive like a human, like we're used to, right? Roof over the head, food, the fridge, car. Well, how many 61 year olds are getting a job for 120 grand or 180 or 210?

So we really are in this space where I feel like collectively we have to come together and really support each other. Early 20s and early 60s, like that was the big breakthrough in this documentary.

Both of those groups are entering into a world that they didn't think was going to exist when they started their journey. Right? So this is why I think collectively, AI education, talking to other people, being honest and vulnerable about where you're stuck.

Just get the $20 a month Claude thing and get in there and start playing, asking it questions, talking. Hey, this is where I'm at this is my experience. What do I do? You know, make mistakes and then figure it out.

So anyway, that, that's where I go with that. And I feel for your sister. I lived in Manhattan for many a, many a year, man. It's an expensive, it's exciting, but it's expensive.

Neil, to your point, I think, you know, you want to, you want to look at AI and the capabilities as an efficiency force multiplier. And I've got this company of 30 people, but now we can do the work of 90 people or 130 people, whatever it may be.

But the reality is, the sad truth is it depends on where your goal line is.

You're not building legacy if you're not going to be there.

So the reality is it means if you can slash your workforce by 35 or 40%, it's going to immediately change the stock price and you're still going to be around. Somebody's going to be the first one to do that.

When someone's the first one to do that, other people are going to follow suit and it's just going to be, it's just going to be commonplace. So unfortunately that's going to happen.

The hope is that that creates some kind of grassroots groundswell revolution that we've got to, you know, people want more control. People have opportunity to create their businesses and their own value utilizing the same tool that has replaced them. And you hope that's the case.

But one thing that I am pretty sure of is that, you know, we even saw Mark Cuban start investing a couple years ago into experiences, people bringing experiences to town. And the idea that as human connection becomes more infrequent that the value of human connection goes up.

It's, it's, in my opinion, it's almost just classic supply and demand that you have people working remotely now, people in some ways, just like we are with Gus right now, we're connected in a way that we never would have been 10 years ago. But at the same time, our day to day interaction, more people are working remote, more people are using AI.

You're not having the water cooler talk that those conversations and the people are actually becoming more important. And I Love, Gus, the way that you are leaning in and not out. You're talking about.

You'd have got a podcast called Real Estate Rewired and AI With a Heart. You're starting masterminds and you're looking at relationships. You're looking at vulnerability and laying the cards on the table.

You're talking about leaning in on the personal side when it feels like AI is pushing us to lean out. And I think that's a really unique perspective. I'm glad you're looking at it that way. So I love to hear a few more words from you on that.

And then we're going to start trying to land the plane here because predictably, we've gone over. But give me some thoughts on that and then we'll get to our last questions.

Sure. So listen, I love the Napoleon Hill quote. Every adversity has within it the seed of an equivalent or greater benefit.

And I think that I'm optimist because they're eternal truths.

And the eternal truths are human beings are fundamentally cooperative or we would have never gotten out of the plains of Africa a hundred thousand years ago.

That I believe that humans crave connection to themselves, connection to other people, and connection to mystery or spirit or God, however you want to say it. And that fundamentally, when I feel empowered is when I'm doing what I love and when I'm helping and empowering other people to do what they love.

And I don't think AI is ever going to take that away.

I think that's inherent in all of us, and I think it's really an opportunity for people to authentically do what they love, and we need to do that together. And that's what I do. With the Independent Brokers Collective.

We meet twice a month, we pick out a tool, we pick out an agent, we implement it, we master it together, we work together. And then in between, they try this and try that, and I got a tech team that can build anything. So I'm enjoying myself in this space.

And we all feel overwhelmed and behind. But it's a lot better to feel that together than it is to feel that alone.

That's right. Some people say that, you know, eventually you just stick together and one day you'll go from being overwhelmed to just whelmed.

Just looking forward to that day where I'm only whelmed.

Yes.

Gus, I want to ask you.

I'm looking forward to the day where you just. Duh.

Gus, ask you a question. I have a feeling there's probably not a great answer on this right now, and the answer may be your mastermind.

But the original question we, you know, you can always ask somebody, hey, is there a book you recommend? Or what's your favorite business book? Real estate book, whatever it may be.

But the way I'm going to ask the question now is with what you're working on and what you're excited about. When people first interact with you about this and they're curious, but they're a babe in the woods and they're trying to learn more.

If they're asking you how the, you know, how they can learn about that and continue to improve.

Is there a single resource person, book, podcast, anything it may be that you point people to that you find yourself recommending more than any other.

Well, one of the resources I listen to one podcast, it's my sort of north, you know, go to podcast, which is the artificial intelligence show, which is out of Cleveland. It's Paul Rotzer and Mike Kaput. They're very sort of middle of the road.

They also have an academy called Smartr X Academy, where you can get on there and get trained. I would say pick one model. Doesn't matter whether it's Gemini, ChatGPT, or Claude.

I would say pick one model and just start talking to it and playing with it.

And then I would say, as that starts to happen, if you're an independent real estate broker and you want to get into a collective where you are meeting your other people on a regular basis and implementing these systems, I just say, don't do it alone. There's just too much information. There's too much incoming.

And it feels so much better to be with 10 folks where you're all doing it together and you're trying stuff and you're realizing, hey, we're all in the same boat. And then to really think about this could empower you to have the life of your dreams.

Meaning, I think that's the other thing we're going to have to start thinking about. What would it feel like to work 10, 15, 20 hours a week and make three times as much money? That's where we're going. And do that.

Working with the people you love and working in an organization that feels empowered. That's my vision for the future.

I love it. All right, Gus, here's your chance to get your plug in. Thank you for being here today. We really appreciate you. Your background's incredible.

I've enjoyed both of the times I've gotten to connect with you on interviews. So besides real estate rewired AI with a heart, if anybody wants to hear more about you, especially more about your real estate mastermind.

What would be the best way for people to connect with you and learn?

Listen, I'm going old school, Neil. You ready? I'm going to give you my cell phone number that I actually pick up. It's not picked up by an AI bot or agent. It's me.

I'm on LinkedIn and would love to have anybody reach out. And let's talk about how to get you doing more of what you love and less of what you hate.

I don't think I could have said it any better. All right, great. Thank you so much, Gus. Really appreciate your time. Great to connect with you again.

Great having you.

All right, guys, thank you very much.

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