There is a lot of buzz lately about replacing teams, automating everything, and becoming a “company of one” with AI. But here’s the problem: if your business is already chaotic, AI won’t fix it - it will scale the chaos.

In this episode of The Scalable Expert podcast, Tara breaks down a huge misconception happening in online business right now: treating AI like a business model instead of a tool inside a scalable business model.

Because the real issue isn’t AI.

The real issue is founder-dependent delivery.

If your expertise still lives entirely in your head… if your business only works because you are personally holding everything together… adding more AI tools, automations, or “AI employees” won’t create freedom. It just creates more complexity to manage.

This episode dives into:

• Why “replace your company with AI” is misleading
• The danger of scaling chaos instead of building structure
• How AI should support your business - not become your business
• Why most experts are still the bottleneck in their own company
• The difference between a founder-dependent business and a scalable business model
• How to think strategically about AI instead of reactively
• Why your methodology matters more than automation
• The role of systems, structure, and scalable delivery in long-term growth
• How to maintain control of your business while leveraging AI effectively

This is an exciting conversation - because for the first time, more business owners are questioning the traditional “grow a giant company” model and looking for a smarter path to scale.

The goal isn’t to remove yourself from your business completely.

The goal is to stop being the engine that everything depends on.

You are not the business model.

Your methodology should be.

If you’re trying to figure out how to use AI without losing your strategy, your customer experience, or your sanity, this episode is for you.

Chapters

00:00 – The AI rant begins

01:18 – “Replace your company with AI”

02:38 – The dangerous promise behind AI hype

03:40 – What happens when automation replaces strategy

04:18 – Why traditional scaling never fit

05:43 – The real problem with “company of one” messaging

06:34 – AI is a tool, not a business model

07:22 – Why most AI systems create overwhelm

08:30 – The hidden chaos behind “AI employees”

09:44 – Start with structure before automation

10:42 – The problem with shiny-object business building

12:25 – Where AI actually fits inside a scalable business

13:33 – Why scattered businesses struggle with AI

14:23 – How to use AI strategically

15:14 – Final thoughts on scalable business models

Ready to package your expertise into a scalable business model that grows without requiring more of your time and attention?

Apply for the Scalable Expert Mentorship™ and learn how to build your Signature Pathway, scalable delivery systems, and a business that runs on your methodology - not your constant presence.

Most expert business owners hit a ceiling that has nothing to do with their expertise.

The revenue stalls. The calendar fills.

And every strategy they've tried; adding new offers, more marketing, a bigger team adds complexity without changing the results.

That's a structural problem.

And this podcast is about the specific model that solves it.

I'm Tara Bryan, creator of the Infinite Scale Method™ and host of The Scalable Expert.

Each week I break down exactly how established expert business owners package their methodology, build a Signature Pathway, and create a business that scales without them in every session.

No hustle culture. No generic growth advice. Just the structural work that separates an expert business that's dependent on you from one that runs because of you.

If you're earning $100K–$1M and wondering why nothing you've tried has compounded this show is for you.

Want to learn more?

Take the free Scalable Expert Audit™, 10 questions, instant results, your structural gap identified in 5-7 minutes.

New episodes every week.

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Mentioned in this episode:

https://taralbryan.com/step/15-learn-to-scale-call

Hey, everybody.

2

Welcome to season three of The

Scalable Expert podcast, the show for

3

established expert business owners

who are maxed out on time and ready to

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find the scalable impact of their work.

5

I'm your host, Tara Bryan, founder

of The Scalable Expert and creator

6

of the INFINITE SCALE™ Method.

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If you've built a business around

your expertise but feel stuck

8

in the time for money trap, this

podcast is your path forward.

9

Each week, I'll share stories and

strategies and shifts to help you

10

step into a new scalable business

model by declaring your authority,

11

packaging your expert framework, and

streamlining your offers and systems

12

to ultimately become a scalable expert.

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Because it's not about working

harder, it's about building smarter.

14

All you need is one signature expert

framework, and you can deliver an infinite

15

amount of ways to be able to scale your

business, your impact, and your income.

16

All right, let's get started.

17

Hey everybody, and welcome to today's

episode of The Scalable Expert podcast.

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I am thrilled that you're here.

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Hey, in this episode, I'm gonna do a rant.

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It has been such a long time since I've

done a full-on rant, but today is the day.

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So this weekend, I received an email

and it was brilliant and annoying and

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all the things all at the same time.

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So I'm gonna go through it today

because it's such a powerful

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conversation in my opinion as to

what's going on right now with AI.

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And so here's the deal.

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As a Scalable Expert, I know that

you want to help your customers

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with your expertise and also control

your time and attention, right?

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You can have both.

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It is not one or the other.

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So often we're told, "Hire a big

team, you know, have all these offers.

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Make sure that you're spending all

your time doing all the things.

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Help your customers, but then

don't help your customers.

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Create something that's totally passive.

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Create something that lives without you

and does all of these things," right?

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And so it's like, what do I do?

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How do I do it?

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What does that look like?

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And that's why I always start with the

right strategy, and the right foundation.

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So this weekend, I received this

email, and it said, "Replace your

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company and become a company of one."

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And, and I was like, "Ooh, this is great.

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This is what I'm teaching," right?

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Like, like, stop trying to build

all this infrastructure around

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all the chaos that you've created.

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So I was like, "This is great."

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And then I kept reading, and

it said, "Well, replace your

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entire company with AI."

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And I'm all about AI.

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I think it's great.

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I think that it has a

place in your business.

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I think it has a place in strategy.

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I think it has a place in

all of the different things.

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But here's the problem, is that just like

social media, just like anything else, if

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you go into it with the idea that you're

just gonna go from zero to a million in

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one tiny second, it's not gonna happen

for you, and it's gonna be chaotic.

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So the email continued forward and,

and like you become the chairman,

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and I'm like, great, that's

like the Scalable Expert, right?

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You maintain control of your IP and

what you're doing, and then you have

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other people who are doing the work.

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And in this case, he said, "I'm

firing all of my staff and I am just

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focusing on building an AI team,

and I'm the chairman of my AI team."

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And in fact, Todd Dickerson, who is

the, he heads all of technology and

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development for ClickFunnels, has said,

"I don't write a, a thing of code anymore.

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I just, you know, give it to

AI and, and then they do it,

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and I don't write any code."

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And I'm like, "Great.

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Awesome.

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Do you want ClickFunnels?

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No, not at all."

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Right?

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But, but here's, here's what's happening,

is because AI is something that people

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are talking about, it is the new

trend, it is the new thing, and is it

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the best thing since sliced cheese?

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Yeah.

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I mean, it's great.

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But w- what Russell Brunson is doing,

and Tony Robbins is doing, and, you

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know, Alex Hormozi, like, who...

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name your person, right?

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Is they've capitalized on this

new trend, and they're, teaching

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how to use this new trend.

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Which, again, there's nothing

wrong with that in theory.

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The problem is, just like with sales and

marketing, you have to think about the

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foundation of your business, you have

to think about delivery, and you have

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to think about your customers, right?

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Remember the day when we all, you

know, had a customer service person

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that we would talk to on the phone,

and then it got replaced by all these

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automated phone messaging things, right?

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Press one for this, press

two for this, right?

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And you're like, "I just

wanna talk to a human."

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That is what's gonna

start happening with AI.

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So my friends, if you're a Scalable

Expert, or even just an expert right

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now trying to scale, you are in the

right place, because I am so excited

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that now it's becoming a conversation.

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How do you scale a business without all

of the complexity and infrastructure?

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When I went to scale my agency back

in the day, I didn't have that.

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I only had a traditional business that

I was trying to model after, and I

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kept saying, "I don't fit in this."

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It's not the right way.

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I don't want a big office, I don't

want a big infrastructure, I don't...

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My goal is not to get out

of serving my customers.

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My goal is just to own my time and

do the best work that I can do to

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help the people that I love to serve,

because I love to solve problems,

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I love to develop my expertise,

I love to do all of these things.

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That wasn't an option back then.

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Wasn't an option to have a real

business, a seven, eight-figure

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business, and not have it be this

traditional, brick-and-mortar option.

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And so the fact that this is a

conversation makes me so excited.

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But the problem is, and this is

what sort of triggered me on this

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email, is promising people that

you can replace all of the...

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everything that you're doing,

all of your staff, all of, all of

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everything with a bunch of AI bots

is not realistic, nor is it accurate.

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Right?

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So, um, you know, you, if you read into

any more of that message, like, yes,

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Russell's laying off some people on his

team, but he still has a leadership team.

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He still has everyone who's leading

all of the different functions of

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the business that needs to happen.

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He is not saying, "I'm getting

rid of everybody but Russell

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Brunson and all my AI bots."

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So don't kid yourself when he says

that you can be a company of one.

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What he's really saying is you

can simplify what you're doing.

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So that's my, a little

bit of my rant, right?

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Is that you have all these people

promising you the world with AI, which

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we've heard it over and over again,

just insert new trend, instead of AI.

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And again, I...

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don't get me wrong, I

do not say don't use AI.

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I think it's phenomenal.

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I think it's a great second brain.

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I think that you can use it to brainstorm,

you can use it to strategize, you can

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use it to hone in on your messaging.

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You can use it personally

as a Scalable Expert.

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You can also develop some

really great workers, right?

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With your AI, and s- a- and a

lot of content, a lot of stuff.

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But just like everything else, if you

start by just putting in all of the

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things, you're gonna get a lot of chaos.

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So here's what I do recommend, is

start with the right foundation.

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Start with a strategy,

and then go from there.

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Pretend that AI is, is, you

know, you have your AI org chart.

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Okay?

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Just want you to just, you know,

kind of take it back, be like,

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"Okay, so as a owner of my business,

I'm creating my org chart."

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AI or regular employees,

it doesn't really matter.

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Create your org chart.

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Who do you need in your company?

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How do you, how are you going to get

to, y- where you wanna go in terms of

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the five core functions of the business?

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Determine that first, and

you're steering the ship, right?

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And so often what happens, and I'm sure

Russell will have an option, I've seen

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other people have options where it's

like, "Download my 52 AI employees,"

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insert it into your AI tool, and now

all of a sudden you have this magical

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company that's all working for you,

and doing all of the things, and you

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get to go hang out on the beach, right?

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Please.

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Here's the problem, and here's what

they don't tell you, is that it doesn't

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really matter yet what AI bot or

employee or widget or whatever you want.

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What you need to determine first is

what you need, and then you start

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building all the things that you need.

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So don't get stuck in the shiny objects.

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Don't get stuck in someone else's

system that they've told you is great.

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Like, you know, "Download 100

employees and all you gotta do is

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just press a button each day and

all this stuff magically happens."

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Right?

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Come on.

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It's not gonna happen.

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You're gonna get overwhelmed.

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You're gonna have all of these,

these AI bots and God knows

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what they're gonna do, right?

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Either they're waiting for you to do

something, which now that you're the

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bottleneck of 100 AI bots, or you send

them off on their own and send them into

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your tools, and they go off and do things,

and you have no idea what they're doing.

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That is more the reality.

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And so you're gonna go to this

training and it's gonna be great.

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You can replace yourself and be a

chairman in a company of one, and

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you just go and do all the things.

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W- which again, like, you've probably

tried that before and you've gotten

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overwhelmed with somebody else's like

5,200 employees that they've given you.

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Create your job descriptions.

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Be really specific about what

you need in your business.

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Is it an actual human or is it AI?

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There are definitely ways and reasons

why you would do one or the other,

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but y- but be the s- the strategic

brain who's making those decisions.

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When you just give it to someone else or

give it to AI, you've lost control, right?

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You are the founder.

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You are the Scalable Expert.

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You are not an employee of

your own business, right?

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You are not an AI bot

of your own business.

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So make sure you maintain control.

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So the very first thing that should

be happening is you create that

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org chart, and then you start

looking at, "Okay, so great.

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So in my org chart, do I need this

person to be a leader, like a human

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to be the leader, and then some

AI bots that they're managing?

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Do I need just an AI bot?

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Do I need just a human?"

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W- what do you need?

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Define that first and then start looking

at how do you build the infrastructure

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using AI that helps support your

business versus, "I found a shiny object.

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I wanna use it, so I'm gonna use it

and s- and then, you know, tie it back

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into my business somewhere over here."

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Right?

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So it just a totally

different way to look at it.

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But I can guarantee when Russell

Brunson goes out and he's like, "Let

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me show you how to do this," he's

gonna do the bells and whistles and

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the cooking show, and then you're

gonna go, "Oh, this is amazing.

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I gotta switch my whole business

over here and do it this way."

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And he's already in a different

journey that you are, and so

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just make sure that you maintain

control over your own business.

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Now, that's my rant.

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Great message.

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Love the messaging.

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Love how he is able to connect

the outcome to the whole process.

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So from a actual, like,

marketing and copywriting

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perspective, ooh, so good, right?

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He has given you that outcome.

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He's given you the destination, but

not the trip to get there, right?

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Not the airplane ride.

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And the problem is that when you don't

talk at all about the airplane ride

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and you just look at the destination,

it becomes a shiny object that may or

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may not be connected to your business.

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In fact, as business owners and

Scalable Experts, we know that

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we don't just, flip, flip to one

idea, um, on, on a whim, right?

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We have a plan.

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We work our plan.

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We adjust appropriately, but we w- we're

not just picking things out of the sky.

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And to be honest, I feel a little

like this AI thing right now is

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just picking things out of the sky

because it's the cool thing that

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everyone is sort of shifting to.

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It's like when you have kindergartens

on the soccer field, and

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everybody goes to one thing, or

everybody goes to the other thing.

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That's a little bit of what it looks like.

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And so it's definitely on everyone's mind.

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It's definitely a trend.

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I would 100% see how you can

incorporate it into your business.

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But it's about incorporating it into

your business, not shifting and having

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it be the new thing that you focus on.

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Okay, I wanna just go one

level deeper into this.

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So rant over.

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But as a Scalable Expert, I think

what's so fascinating is that You know

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that you have a strong foundation.

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You've packaged your IP.

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You've packaged what you're doing

in a way that not only makes it

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tangible in terms of what it is

that is your expertise, but you've

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been able to do scalable engagement.

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You've been able to engage customers

at every level, regardless of how

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many customers you have, and you've

been able to build scalable delivery.

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So because of those things, you have a

solid foundation, where now you can start

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to look at, "Okay, so where can I put AI

into this foundation so that it enhances

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the customer experience, so it enhances my

ability to run my business, so it enhances

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my ability to deliver on my promise?"

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That is a different conversation than,

"Let me just add in a bunch of AI

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that may be cool into my business."

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So if you're not at that place yet,

and you are trying to add AI to

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multiple scattered offers, to either

the services that you're doing or how

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you're kind of showing up for your

customers or the 42 million systems

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that you have, you're gonna get

overwhelmed if you're not already there.

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And so at some point you go, "Oh, uh, uh,

uh, uh," and every day is a new journey

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down a rabbit hole of either different AI

tools or cool things that you've seen on

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Instagram, or, you know, the, any of the

influencers and gurus are talking about.

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You, you do that thing, and then you move

on, and you do something else, right?

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And you're wasting a lot of time

because you're not connecting it to

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the right foundation of your business.

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So my friends- at the end of

the day, yes, AI is phenomenal.

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Use it appropriately.

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Use it as a strategy for furthering

your goals and furthering your business,

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but not as a distraction that keeps

you from doing all of those things.

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So there you go.

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That is my tip for you today.

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And if you are interested in jumping

into the AI conversation, but

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you are overwhelmed or you're not

digging the hype, give me a call.

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Let's chat.

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Because the way that we approach it

is to actually add it in, in the right

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places within your business so that you

stay as the owner and CEO and Scalable

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Expert of your business and not just

the person who is doing shiny objects.

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All right, there you go.

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I hope this serves you.

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And, and if you're in Russell

Brunson's world, I love Russell.

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I love all of the things

that they're doing.

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But I'm gonna tell you that, one of the

challenges is you're looking at kind

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of someone else who is farther ahead

or maybe has different resources or

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maybe is looking at it from a different

perspective and not as a Scalable Expert.

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And, and your goal as an ex- as a scalable

expert is not necessarily to completely

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remove yourself from the business.

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Your goal is to just be able to do

what you love to do and also maintain

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your own time and attention, right?

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You want to do all of that

without maxing out your calendar.

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All right, there you go.

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Enjoy your week.