EPISODE OVERVIEW

Duration: Approximately 55 minutes

Best For: Trapped entrepreneurs who know AI is important but feel overwhelmed by where to start, and who desperately want to stop being the bottleneck in their own business

Key Outcome: A clear understanding of how to use AI and automation to handle hundreds of leads without sacrificing your time, your health, or your relationships

He was closing deals worth £7,000 a month. His salary was £35,000 a year.

THE BOTTOM LINE

You built something real. Fifteen years of grinding, sacrificing weekends, missing dinners, telling yourself it would all be worth it eventually. Now you are successful on paper. The thing is, you cannot remember the last time you took a proper holiday without checking emails. Your health is slipping. Your relationships feel the strain. You have heard about AI, about automation, about systems that run without you. It sounds like more complexity, not less.

Michael Elliott was exactly where you are. Overworked. Underpaid relative to the value he created. Watching someone else profit from his expertise. In January 2021, he walked away with £3,000 in his account and a four month old baby at home. Two years later, he had a million pounds liquid. Today, he runs multiple businesses, including an AI agency and a caravan retail operation that processes 600 to 800 leads monthly with minimal human involvement. He has just returned from three weeks in Spain with his family. Not checking emails constantly. Actually present. This episode reveals the exact path from trapped to free, and why most business owners get AI implementation completely wrong.

WHY THIS EPISODE MATTERS TO YOU

You will discover why implementing AI into a broken business only amplifies your problems, and what to fix first before automation makes sense

You will learn the exact strategy Michael used to generate £15,000 to £25,000 monthly from Facebook groups alone, with zero advertising budget

You will understand why your competitor who embraces AI will outpace you 100x, and how to become the one doing the outpacing instead

You will hear the uncomfortable truth about what happens to businesses that ignore AI over the next two years, and exactly how to avoid that fate

KEY INSIGHTS YOU CAN IMPLEMENT TODAY

Your standard operating procedures must exist before AI can help you. Michael is direct about this. When clients ask him to automate something and he asks for their SOP, they often admit they do not have one. His response is simple. He cannot automate it then. The trapped entrepreneur who tries to use AI to fix a broken process will only amplify every problem. Document your processes first. Then automation becomes transformation rather than chaos.

Speed to lead changes everything when you stop being the bottleneck. Michael's caravan business handles 600 to 800 leads monthly. One human picks up the phone when contracts are ready to sign. That is it. The rest is AI. Three million pounds a year in revenue. This is not about replacing humans. It is about freeing humans to do what only humans can do, while AI handles the repetitive work that drains your energy and steals your time.

The shiny object syndrome will destroy your progress. When you find a vein with gold flowing through it, you smash it until there is no more gold. You do not chase the new flashy thing. Michael nearly made this critical error. The discipline to suffocate your desire for novelty becomes a superpower later. Your first successful business funds everything that comes after. Protect it.

Your circle determines your ceiling. The people around you either drain you or fuel you. Michael audits who has access to him regularly. Some people you care about have a ceiling on their dreams and mindset. Staying close to them limits your capacity to fit their room. This is not a slight on them. It is protection for your potential. Surround yourself with people who do not take no for an answer.

The Four Agreements will change how you handle criticism and setback. Michael credits this book with changing his entire perspective. When someone says your idea will not work, that is their poison, not yours. You do not have to accept it. Every trapped entrepreneur needs this mental framework to survive the inevitable doubters and difficult days.

GOLDEN QUOTES WORTH REMEMBERING

"If your business fails without AI or isn't scalable without AI, then implementing AI into it when it's already broken is only going to amplify all of your problems." - Michael Elliott

"When you find a vein that has gold flowing through it, you smash it until there's no more gold in it. You do not look at the new fancy flashy thing and divert your attention." - Michael Elliott

"I don't care what industry you're in. You could be the largest business in your industry right now. And if your policy was to adopt zero AI, your business would not exist in two years time." - Michael Elliott

"There's about a year to two years of complete and utter grit, determination, sleepless nights. And once you break through the barrier, the weight lifts. And then a new weight comes because of scaling." - Michael Elliott

"It's your poison, not mine, and you ain't bringing it into me." - Michael Elliott on handling criticism

QUICK NAVIGATION FOR BUSY LEADERS

00:00 - Introduction: Michael's journey from employed to entrepreneur

04:30 - The wake up call: Why trading time for someone else's profit had to stop

12:15 - Zero budget lead generation: How to build a client base from Facebook groups alone

18:40 - The diversification timeline: When to expand and when to stay focused

25:20 - AI automation in action: 600 leads monthly with one human touchpoint

32:45 - The SOP requirement: Why you cannot automate what you have not documented

38:30 - Speed to lead transformation: From half a day to 15 minutes per podcast episode

44:15 - Mental health and entrepreneurship: The loneliness nobody talks about

50:00 - The Four Agreements: The mindset shift that changed everything

54:30 - Conclusion: Your permission to believe you can do this

GUEST SPOTLIGHT

Name: Michael Elliott

Bio: Michael Elliott is an AI automation specialist and founder of multiple successful businesses, including a PPC agency, an AI implementation agency, and Elliot Leisure Group. Starting with just £3,000 and a newborn at home, he built a million pound portfolio in two years. He now helps trapped business owners implement AI systems that handle hundreds of leads while they focus on what matters most.

Connect with Michael:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelelliottai/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@michaelelliottai

Instagram: instagram.com/michaelelliott.ai

Facebook: facebook.com/michaelelliottai

YOUR NEXT ACTIONS

This Week: Document one core process in your business completely, from trigger to completion. This becomes your first automation candidate.

This Month: Audit your circle. Identify who drains your energy and who fuels it. Reduce access for the drainers, increase time with those who push you forward.

This Quarter: Identify your speed to lead bottleneck. Where do leads wait for you personally? Build the system that handles initial contact without your involvement.

EPISODE RESOURCES

Book: The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz

Platform: N8N (automation workflow tool)

Platform: Descript (podcast and video editing)

YouTube Channel: Michael Elliott AI (free AI implementation tutorials and live builds)

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READY TO ESCAPE THE TRAP?

Take the Freedom Score Quiz: https://scoreapp.atpbos.com/

Discover how trapped you are in your business and get your personalised roadmap to freedom in under 5 minutes.

Book a Free Strategy Session: https://www.atpbos.com/contact

Let's discuss how to build a business that works WITHOUT you.

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CONNECT WITH YOUR HOST, ROY CASTLEMAN

Roy is the founder of All The Power Limited and creator of Elevate360, a business coaching system for entrepreneurs ready to scale without burnout. As a certified Wim Hof Method Instructor and the UK's first certified BOS UP coach, Roy combines AI automation, wellness practices, and business operating systems to help trapped entrepreneurs reclaim their freedom.

Website: www.atpbos.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/roycastleman/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@allthepowerltd

Hey, Power Movers, how are you? Welcome to you wherever

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you are in the world. And I'm here today with

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Michael Elliott. What an inspiring guy. Right? He's been there,

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he's done that. Yeah, he's got the scars and he's

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got the T shirt. Mike is dealing with AI and

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he's dealing. Yeah. With a whole range of different things.

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But more importantly, he's dealing with life and living the

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life he loves, trying to get that, that sense of

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business owner freedom. Right. And what he was doing before

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wasn't resonating and now he's just in flow, as they

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say. He's doing all sorts of things. Mike, welcome to

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Power Movers. Thank you for joining me. No, thank you.

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Yeah, it's amazing. Thank you for the intro. I think

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it was a great summary but of basically where I

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am. And I think that the audience will resonate with

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quite a lot of the points in every angle from

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pain, discipline, struggle, disappointment, defeat and how you bounce back

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and how you continue to stay in that flow no

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matter what happens. Yeah. So let's go back. Just give

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us a very short review of your history because most

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business owners start somewhere. Very few of us just go

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straight into business and make millions. Right. Most of us

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go and do something else first and realize, quite frankly

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we're unemployable and then we move on. And it takes

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a while to, to understand that. So where did you

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start? So I graduated from university, I had

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heartbreak at 18. Molded me into a. Put me in

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a dark place, but then molded me into somebody who

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was quite cold, not cold hearted, but had that cold

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streak in them, that ruthlessness, I guess you would say

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in business that you need. That's been planted in me

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by my experiences in my life. When I was younger,

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I nearly lost my dad, my brother and my nephew

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all in the space of six months for a heart

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attack, a bike accident and an open heart surgery. So

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I had all of that pain building up to it.

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But I wish there was a fairy tale story about

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how I discovered my niche, which, which that's the only

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part that there isn't obviously an explanation for. But there

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was jobs in my area. PPC took my eye. I

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saw that the PPC executive role was there, I applied.

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There's actually a story like I had a job interview

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two days before somewhere else, but it never knows where

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I lived. And on that day there was snow. I

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couldn't get out of the hill. I was late to

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the interview. Obviously you don't get the job. Went to

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the PPC exec one nailed the interview, got the job.

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And that put me into the digital marketing sphere. And

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that's how I became a PPC executive literally from the

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ground up, managing ad accounts, setting up, tracking like smaller

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accounts initially. And as I grew in that role and

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started to get a little bit of disdain for certain

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things inside the company, just things weren't rubbing right with

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me. And you realize that the funnel's very top heavy,

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which is something that people really need to understand. Like

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when you're getting paid your salary, you better believe that

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the one up the chain, your manager, not his manager

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or probably his manager, it's the guy above him who

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owns the company that's making the dough. And I don't

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care what your bonus is, how much you get, whether

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you, you've got a car allowance, all of it is

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complete nonsense. And that's why I say complete nonsense. You

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have to learn your trade. But what I'm saying is

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you have to understand that eventually you have to become

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the guy who sits in the boat and rows, but

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has a team that rows with him and ultimately scales.

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So that's. I ended up getting basically fed up and

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I launched, I left, I had a three month old,

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I don't know, four month old baby. I quit the

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job straight after, just literally at the end of COVID

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like the lockdown of COVID and etc. And I went

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all in with $3,000 in the account. I went all

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in. I had nothing else. Like I, that's all I

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had. And that's the thing, right? When you hit rock

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bottom and I say rock bottom because yeah, it feels

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like that when you hit rock bottom. It was rock

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bottom for me. It was, yeah. At the same I,

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I was making 150 grand a year. Yeah. And when

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you make that amount of money working for someone and

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you're totally stressed out all the time. Yeah. There comes

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a point where you just spending it somehow. I don't

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know where, I don't know. Yeah, I've got one for

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you. Sorry to cut you off, Roy. I didn't mean

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to cut you off there, but I've got one for

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you. Just in comparison to that, I was on 30,

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000, 35000 British pounds a year and I was closing

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deals every week at 3, 4, 5, 6, 7k a

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month in retainers. And that's what, obviously what opened my

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eyes, what you were saying there. Like I wasn't even

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on a good salary. Never mind about being on a

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good salary and doing it. I was just lucky if

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I can take my. Yeah. If I could go on

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holiday once a year. That was lucky to me. But

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I think it was about six, seven years in that

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position. Six, six and a half, seven years in that

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position. And in that time I also grew as a

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man, which is an important thing that people need to

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really understand. Not everybody's that guy, that kid at 18

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or 17 who it's a crypto pump and makes millions

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like you. Like you need the, the experience to go

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alongside it because your brain will develop. If you are

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under 25 and listening to this podcast, your brain will

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develop completely differently in the next three to five years

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than what it has done so far. You are still

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a baby. And that there's people much more successful than

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me that are 18 years old. Don't get me wrong.

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But what I'm saying is for me personally, which is

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what this podcast is around, I wasn't the Same man

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at 25 as I was at 28 when I decided

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to jump. And it all happened very quickly. And the

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mindset that I had going into it was one that

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I wasn't going to be beaten. Amazing. So you started

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that company, you know, you were really going through the

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process of learning all those lessons, right? Yeah. You've seen,

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you mentioned there, you weren't very aligned with what the

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company was doing. And I love that as well. I,

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when I left because of the same type of thing,

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you know, I was working computers in the city, which

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had been going for a long time. I was there

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for seven years. I was making good money, but I

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was making the owner way more money and he was

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just doing things that I didn't trust to the customers.

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Yeah. And I was like, I don't want to work

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like that. Yeah. I'm not. Do you know me? What

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it was for me is similar, but for me, and

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I'm not even going to name them because I would,

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I wouldn't give them the, the publication. But for me,

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it was the way they treat over staff members. That's

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what got me. Yeah. And when I realized that it

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was wrong when I first joined them. Think about it,

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at 21 or whatever, when I first joined them, I

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didn't know what a true professional workplace looked like. So

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I thought that it was the norm. And basically the

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way I run every single one of my businesses is.

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Is the direct opposite of how they run theirs. That's

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my approach. And you can't learn, you literally cannot learn

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these lessons in university, right? No, I don't believe in,

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like, I'm a M.A. this is controversial. Don't shoot me

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if you've gone to university and done well. But like

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I went to university and my degree is not worth

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the paper. It's written on like multimedia technologies. What is

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that? You tell me what I'm a specialist in. I

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didn't learn anything. Like one project would be coding, then

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it would be digital marketing, then it would. So there

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was an element of digital marketing, but that's one. I

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can't even remember what they call, what they call them.

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But that was like one module or two modules that

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it made up. The rest of it is, was like

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maybe JavaScript code in and then general computer science based

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stuff. So I know I'm, I know I'm in a

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computer spaced industry but I've always been computer heavy. I

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know how to work a computer and a machine. I

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always have had from playing games when I was younger

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and stuff like that. I've always had that. So I

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didn't learn any of that at uni and I tell

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my children all of the time, seriously, if you take

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a million people and cut it in half or

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take 2 million people, cut it in half and send

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four of them out to work in a career professionally

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and send the other million to a you to university

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to get a degree, I guarantee you that the number

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that comes out on top in terms of success is

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the, is as a number, not obviously everybody, but as

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a number is higher on the million that didn't go

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than the ones that did. Except for any industry where

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it's necessary. Doctors, architects, vets, these things. Yeah. That leads

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us into this new world we are playing and we're

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playing in the world of AI now when beforehand, 10

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years ago you had to go to university to get

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the knowledge because the knowledge was in the books, was

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in the training, it was hidden beyond firewalls or pay

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firewalls. Now you don't have to do that anymore. Right

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now we were in a space where every single bit

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of information is on this little device and you just

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have to ask it. So we need to really work

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on a different way that we need to learn how

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to learn and we need to learn how to process

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and we don't need to bring the information into our

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brain anymore, we really don't. We just need to know

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how to communicate with AI in the right way to

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get this done. So this you went through, you started

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your SEO business. Tell us the next stages, what came

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next? What came next was so I started the PPC

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agency and I'm sat there in the kitchen, I'VE got

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let's an imaginary bit of paper. And I'm like, what

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are my options? Like where can I get business from?

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I would never go after old clients from the old

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agency that was across morally from me, not because they

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deserved it, but morally from me. I wouldn't do that.

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So that was across then it was connections. At that

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point I didn't have anybody. Nobody I knew was successful.

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This is. And I'll get. I've got a big part

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on that. So we make sure we cover this in

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this podcast because it's really important for the listeners. But

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like, so there's a big red cross there. I'm thinking,

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do I have any budget for lead generation? Because I

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know how to do that, that's my speciality. But can

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you, do you have the money? No. So I got

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into this corner and it was all you've got is

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your word, your skill set and all of the online

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communities that are out there in this individual industry, Facebook,

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Reddit, LinkedIn, these places, that's all I had. And I

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swear down I got to 20. You'll have to forgive

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me because the exact number I don't remember, but I

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got to somewhere between 15 and 25k a month from

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Facebook groups alone. Yeah, I don't know what you're earning

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at your job now, listeners, I don't know what you're

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earning at your job now, but I used Facebook groups

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where PPC groups, Google Ads, related groups provided value first

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by giving free information away. And then I would get

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DMS from a small portion, but from a certain portion

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would respond and say, hey, can you help me with

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it? And at that stage you're like, yes, of course.

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Now I don't know what you do as a business,

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but listening to this, if your business is digital, you

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can go and literally hunt for business enough to cover

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your wage. 100 grand a year, 150 grand a year,

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piece of cake. Seriously, like to get to 12 grand,

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10k a month, whatever is a piece of cake. Not

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only that, all of the tax systems are set up

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to benefit you if you're a business owner. So you

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pay less tax, you can afford to earn less money

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and have the same take home than what you do

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when you work for somebody else, which is really important

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for people to know. There are a few industries, I'm

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not going to go into them because they're more specific.

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If you're a builder, for example, how are you going

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to generate leads for that? But do you know what

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the same thing, local community based group, the Fan pages

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for your town, your whatever. You would be very surprised.

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The rapport you can build by just being authentic and

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being there like it. It would blow your socks off.

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I wish I had a recording of what I did

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because it was it. We're sat here now, I'm satisfied.

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I'm not going to talk numbers, but I'm sat in

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a very expensive suite in the heart of Manchester, one

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of the best that there is. And I look around

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like this and this dining table is probably the same

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size as my bedroom was for about 15, 18 years.

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And I look at it all and it's a blessing.

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And I try and tell as many people as I

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physically possibly can, either get under the wing of somebody

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who's going to reward you percentage wise along the way,

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that's okay. You don't have to, you don't. If you

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don't want to take all the stress that comes of

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it because believe you me, do not think this is

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easy because it isn't. But if you don't want the

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stress. But you've got somebody like people who work for

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me, they, certain people in positions, they have percentages of

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company revenue so their effort directly impacts what they earn.

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They're happy with that, they get paid well. So they're

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in a good, they're in a good position. You can

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do that. But for me personally, that won't work. Even

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in that scenario. You've got to, you've got a really,

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there's about a year to two years of complete and

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utter grit, determination, late night sleepless nights,

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a year of that and once you break through the

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barrier, the weight lifts and you realize. And then a

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new weight comes because about scaling. So I think your

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original question was about diversification. But I'll let you just

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put us back on the segue because I've been waffling

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a little bit. So really we go through this journey.

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I often liken it to having a kid, right? You

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go into this, you have a baby, first of all,

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the first two years you hardly get any sleep and

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then you grow and you're talking about growing and scaling

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there. And this is where the business operating system that

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I coach and really comes into its own. Because you're

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in a situation. I was working 14 hours a day,

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seven days a week on my IT companies. I had

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two IT companies at that stage. And then I was

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offered, I was actually offered the first IT company I

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worked for because like you, I said I was never

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going to steal these clients. He watched what I was

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doing after I started my own. And then 2017 I

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actually bought that company which was pretty cool. And this

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whole piece, you go through this piece of, you know,

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two years old and then they go to teenage years

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and the business does the same. But you have to

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be preparing your business so that it can leave the

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nest and it can go off and it can actually

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do the work. The mission that the business has needs

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to be the business's mission and the staff's mission. And

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as soon as you set it up correctly. I work

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five hours a week now in those companies and three

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companies. Yeah. Now I can come and do what I.

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The next thing. As an entrepreneur, we're always changing, we're

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always looking for the new thing and depending which type

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of entrepreneur you are. So you then went from that

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and you started doing some other things. Yeah. So I.

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The PPC agency still is a success if you like.

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Some good people involved with me in different ways. Chloe,

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me, Keith, etc. But like when you talk about the

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doors that Harriet and Reese as well, I have to

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mention them otherwise be shot. But when it comes down

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to the, the diversification, what happens is you and

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I nearly made a critical error. You. When you find

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a vein that has gold flowing through it, you smash

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it until there's no more gold in it. Yeah. You

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do not look at the new fancy flashy thing and

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divert your attention in too many places at once. I

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call that shiny. Yeah, the shiny. Don't look at that

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because that'll blind you and that will take you off

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path. It will. It's. You have to suffocate it a

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little bit now, but it will be a superpower later,

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which is what we're going to talk about here. Because

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my PPC agency's cash flow allowed me to be able

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to make this whatever decisions I wanted. June 2023, I

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had a million liquid and that was like

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a sort of target that I had in mind about

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where I was, where I wanted to be. Very stupid.

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I know all of you, anybody out there talking to

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me now can hear you screaming. Compound interest. Money depreciates.

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I know. But at the time it was like it

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was new to me. Don't Forget it was January 2021

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I started. So I've made a million profit in two

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years and that's coming from a 35k a month salary.

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So you've got to appreciate the levels. I know some

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of you out here might be doing 10, 20, 50

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mil, 100 mil, whatever, that's fine. I'm on my own.

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Chapter, my chapter two let's say you can be on

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your chapter 20. I'm not looking at you, I'm looking

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at my own journey, where I'm going. But I ended

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up being able to diversify into creating now an AI

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agency. But the order that it went in was that

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I started a caravan retail business with a friend of

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mine that then went into trade. So we buy and

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sell trade. Think of it just like car scrap cars,

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trade cars or cars to resell for higher values. Exactly

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the same thing with a static caravan or like trailer

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parks maybe like in the US they would probably call

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them. I think they're the same thing or similar. So

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we buy and sell those and we have AI handle

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like 600 to 800 leads a month. And there's only

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me and one of the business owner and he's basically

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the sales rep and he'll pick up the phone when

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they're ready to sign their contract in case there's any

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negotiation issues or questions about the contract. That's all he

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does. The rest of it is AI, and that is,

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I don't know, three mil a year, something like that.

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So it's lower margins than the PPC stuff, but it

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does 3 mil a year. So I hope that you

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understand the audience as I've gone through the. That what

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I'm talking to you about here is actually the thing

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that powers all of my future growth is the first

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seed I ever planted. That's what's allowed me to do

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this. And then I bought a caravan site. So now

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I own my own caravan site, Poppy Grove. It's a

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lovely, It's a lovely site. Elliot Leisure Group. And it,

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yeah, it's a physical asset. It's where I put the

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money that was sat there stagnating. So now I want

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to really start digging into AI because AI is such

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a big field. It's so overwhelming. It's, you know, you

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can see the opportunity all over the place. But then

355

there's all these scare tactics and scare words and scare

356

things that happen around it. And we talk about automations

357

and we talk about all these kind of things. And

358

yet there's, I think the biggest problem, first of all,

359

that I see is that business owners don't necessarily know

360

what their standard, standard operating procedures are. So, you know,

361

once you know what your business setup is, then you

362

can automate and automate. And that's what your agency does.

363

Right? Yeah. Just through that process, you said there, you're

364

getting 600 leads with AI and just hitting the phones

365

when you. They close. Yeah, exactly. So I'll go into

366

the speed to lead thing in a moment. But what

367

you were just saying there, you wouldn't believe the amount

368

of times that I get an AI inquiry and I

369

sit down and I ask them, what, what's your SOP

370

for that? And they're like, we don't have one. And

371

then I'm like, I can't automate it then. As simple

372

as that. It's not a long discussion. You have to

373

have your biz. If your business fails, if

374

you can't, if your business doesn't make sales without AI

375

or isn't scalable without AI, then implementing AI into it

376

when it's already broken is only going to amplify all

377

of your problems. Yeah, like you, you've got to have

378

a standard operating procedure for your onboarding, a standard operating

379

procedure for client management, a standard operating procedure for reporting,

380

a standard operation operating procedure for staff. Well being. Whatever

381

it is that you have inside your company, these things,

382

you have to have an exact route of how it

383

goes. And if there are any times where it needs

384

a human in the loop, we can put humans in

385

the loop to check and sign off and click one

386

button and let it go so that it's right. That's

387

okay. Not everything can be automated, believe it or not,

388

like professional business integrity. It can't make decisions based off

389

of gut feelings and emotional decisions. It can't do that.

390

So there are things obviously that it really. I'll jump

391

in there because that's an important part. Right. I like

392

to think one of my previous customers was talking about

393

AI and he just wants to keep human and he

394

just needs to be, he doesn't want to be doing

395

AI and automation. I was like, okay, why don't you

396

think about it like this? AI is the bookend that

397

you start with and the bookend, sorry, a human is

398

the bookend you start with and the bookend you finish

399

with. You need to have a human to know what

400

you need to do, then have the AI do the

401

processes and put the checks in the front and then

402

you need to have a human at the end because

403

the companies that use AI successfully, that automate successfully and

404

that they have more human coming to the top. Those

405

are the companies that are going to do the best.

406

Yeah, 100%. It's like this AI replacing jobs thing

407

is true in certain industries. If you're an admin, a

408

data entry analyst, your job's gone, trust me, is like,

409

it's not going to be around for much longer. But

410

like you just very clearly said there. And what's important

411

for people to understand is what you need to become

412

is an architect in your position, like somebody who draws

413

the painting of the picture and then how to integrate

414

the AI tools. People think it is so easy, my

415

friend. They look at it, they look at AI, they

416

think AI, they're either. You've got two types of people.

417

You've got people who look at every single new AI

418

tool, think that it's the best thing on since sliced

419

bread and think it's going to make them a millionaire.

420

You have those and then you have the other people.

421

Like robots can't do my job. And honestly, 98% of

422

the population even sits on one of those two sides

423

of the coin. There's only people like me and you

424

like and the listeners probably, or at least some of

425

them anyway. Maybe you don't. Maybe I'm polarizing myself by

426

saying that, but it's true. If you think that AI

427

isn't coming, it's not even coming, it's here. If you

428

think AI isn't going to impact the way that businesses

429

operate, that is it. That is. I don't want to

430

be too blunt here, but that is foolish. Like you

431

have to look at what's actually happening around. When it

432

comes down to it though, you are 100 correct. The

433

companies that implement AI utilize their best members of staff

434

to get the best output from the AI consistently in

435

an organized fashion. So that not only did they require

436

less time to do X task, the output of X

437

task is also improved because the AI has a brain.

438

You don't just type in things into chat GPT and

439

tell it that your stomach's hurting today. What's the matter?

440

And it tells you all these things, like that's not

441

using AI, that's you talking to a, to an LLM

442

when it comes to AI implementation into businesses. Because I

443

see it all the time. I see people creating GPT

444

sections and thinking that it's going to solve. No, like

445

that does not how it works. When it comes down

446

to the human element, the humans who embrace AI. Let

447

me say it like this. When it comes down to

448

businesses, you could be the. I don't care what industry

449

you're in, you could be the largest business in your

450

industry right now. And if your policy was to adopt

451

zero AI, your business would not exist in five years

452

time. I would say even two years time. Two years.

453

Yeah, even. Even. I try to bring an example in

454

here. Right. So we do this podcast. So we're on

455

a podcast now. It used to Take me circa half

456

a day to take this podcast, to put it through

457

descript and to adjust it to put it through all

458

the various tools. And all I'd be doing was posting

459

the podcast, right? That's what I'd get out of it.

460

I then decided, oh, I've seen all these and I'm

461

an IT guy, right? So I get it right? I've

462

been using AR for two and a half years. So

463

I decided I'm going to use N8N. I'm going to

464

automate some of this. So I dug into that, right?

465

It took me circa six weeks of going from error

466

to error to understanding. It's that journey of mastery, right?

467

You start out and you just don't know anything. And

468

then slowly but surely, you learn more and more as

469

you go up. So it took me six to eight

470

weeks to actually get my workflow working. And what happens

471

now? We finish this podcast. I take the audio file,

472

change the name, drop it in the folder, it goes

473

through this entire process. So at the end of the

474

process, it posts it onto my podcast platform for me

475

by using the APIs, then also creates me a YouTube

476

description. And I put the same video through descript to

477

get the YouTube video out. I post that onto YouTube.

478

I get a blog post out of the same content.

479

I then get an original transcript. So I've got that.

480

I then get my five different or ten different social

481

media posts so I can put them out. Yeah. And

482

it'll go through. And in that process, obviously there, the

483

human checks that we need to go. But now the

484

whole process takes me 15 minutes. You. How does that

485

save you? Yeah, yeah, you do the maths. Yeah, I'm

486

not. What it means is beforehand I do one podcast

487

and I might get it to launch. Yeah. Four, five,

488

six, seven weeks later, now I'm doing. This is my

489

third podcast this week. I'll do another one later on

490

today. I've got a stack of 24 podcasts in the

491

can on a schedule to launch. I can get my

492

launching right, I can get my timing, I can push

493

it out of various platforms. But to your original point,

494

it takes a long time initially to gain that understanding,

495

to know what you need. And before I got there,

496

I had to know the SOP of exactly what I

497

was doing. So I had to follow that all through.

498

Yeah. Now we're in testing phase. So now I'm going

499

out, I'm pushing these out. It starts on the 1st

500

of December. I'm literally going to be running everything on

501

that automation. And now I can sit back and I

502

can do something else that I enjoy. Now I can

503

start telling my stories. Now I can be having conversations

504

with people. Now I can be coaching people. I love

505

the human interaction. I love sitting here with you and

506

we're brainstorming different ideas to get your business working better.

507

That's what I've got 35 years worth of experience doing,

508

right. I. I'm able to come in and look at

509

it from 30,000 foot and say, oh, okay, think about

510

this. Being able to bring more human into it is

511

this main point, right? I don't have to sit and

512

waste 3/4 of my week. And that podcast is just

513

one of the things I do, right? I do, yeah.

514

Such a range of different things every week or every

515

day that if I just wanted to do one channel

516

properly, and that's what advice always is, pick one channel,

517

do it properly. Now I can never do one channel.

518

I get bored. I've got to do as many as

519

possible. So I think to your point, yeah, I can

520

say very. The AI architect. 100%. Every company is going

521

to need one, you know, and AICIO C aio. What

522

is your. Who is your virtual Chief AI officer or

523

your chief AI Officer? If you don't think about having

524

these things now, you're not. You're not going to be

525

able to see in the future. You know what? Flip

526

that on its head. You bang on 100%, right? But

527

flip that on its head and there's never been a

528

bigger opportunity for businesses to outpace. You can go at

529

100x the rate your competitor did. All you need to

530

crack is your lead gen. And if you crack your

531

lead gen and you have a solid base, even if

532

it's just copying someone else's techniques, then you can do

533

it. I speak a lot about it on my YouTube

534

channel. Michael Elliott AI. I speak a lot about this.

535

The video that actually went out today was about your.

536

Your circle and auditing people's access to you, who drains

537

you, who fuels you, who does that? Like this conversation.

538

You're going to come off this. I don't want to

539

say you'll have learned something, but for me, having a

540

conversation with you, I think when you're speaking to other

541

people that are entrepreneurial, just naturally, even if we're not

542

discussing a specific business idea, you're feeling my energy through

543

the screen, like my motivation, like you're talking to somebody

544

that doesn't take no for an answer. And that's something

545

that rubs off. So in real life, guess what? I

546

surround myself with People who operate that way. And guess

547

what happens along the way? You lose some people and

548

that's not any. That's not a slight on them, but

549

their ceiling of their dreams and their mindset and goals.

550

You're limiting your capacity to fit their room. Let me

551

jump into something else that I really am very passionate

552

about. In the business owner space, in the entrepreneur space,

553

it's actually loneliness, Right. Because unless you do it in

554

the right way, owning a business can be very lonely.

555

And it's not something that we talk about, especially being

556

men, and we're not supposed to talk about emotions and

557

all these things, but in real terms, you go out

558

and you do a business, you come up with this

559

idea, you start, you're so passionate about, you're so driven

560

about it, you really forward. You talk to your wife

561

and your kids and your friends and after the third

562

conversation, they're getting a bit bored of you. They don't

563

have your energy and your excitement and your. Yeah. So

564

then you go and you start employing some stuff. At

565

one stage I had 150 staff. Right. And. Yeah, but

566

you can't be friends with them, you can't share your

567

deepest thoughts, you can't share your pains, you can't share

568

any of these couple things. And it ends up, if

569

you're not very careful, you're. You're like this ship in

570

the middle of the ocean by yourself and everybody else

571

is either looking to you to get something out of

572

you or upset with you because of something you've done

573

or. Yes. And it just becomes this really lonely environment.

574

Have you found that, like, I've. No. I have no

575

shame in talking about mental health issues like more men.

576

Every man needs to talk about it. Because I'm over

577

33 now. I'm 33 now. But the biggest killer in

578

men, I think it's under 35, is suicide. And you

579

just touched on something under 50. Under 50. So. Under

580

50. Right. Suicide. So you. And you've just brought up

581

a really important point that's bigger than any business profile.

582

Like, so technique or growth. To be a successful entrepreneur,

583

you have to have a specific mindset and you have

584

to tolerate things that aren't normal. It will put you

585

out. Unless, like I say, crypto pump or some crazy

586

SaaS business that just happens to fly. Like you're in

587

a position where you. You. There's going to be a

588

lot of grind on the road. I have struggled on

589

my journey at times. I am not sat here now

590

saying that everything has been a breeze. It's Been cold,

591

dark, wet, windy. Like I've had that. I've had those

592

15 hour days in the office where I didn't get

593

done what I needed to get done or what I

594

thought I could have done or stuck on X or

595

Y, couldn't break through. I. Everyone has those frustrating days

596

and then I go downstairs to a partner and that

597

partner hasn't seen me. So she's angry because I've been

598

working all day and I haven't the kids, I haven't

599

seen the little one until it's bedtime. Literally almost crossing

600

paths with her when it's bedtime. It's like these sacrifices

601

that you make, people don't see. To that point you

602

feel what I always felt. I was making the sacrifices

603

for them because I was going to be successful for

604

them. They were going to get the benefit of the

605

money they were going to get. And people don't see

606

that. No, no, they don't see, they don't see that.

607

And there is a lot of truth in, don't get

608

so caught up in giving them a good life that

609

you don't give them a good day. There is, there

610

is some truth in that. You have to make time.

611

And I do, there is. But I can honestly say,

612

like everything that I do is basically

613

for when I die. And I know that sounds nuts,

614

right, because I'm not planning on going anywhere anytime soon.

615

But what I'm saying is I don't want my daughters

616

to be stuck in the positions that I was in.

617

I want you to have bigger goals. If I make

618

it, like nine figures is my goal. So if I

619

make it to nine figures right in my life, then

620

your goal should be a billion. Because if I've made

621

0 to 100 million, I've done the hardest part for

622

you. All you have to do now is stay in

623

that lane and do that and listen. And I know,

624

yeah, I come at. It slightly differently, right, because I'm

625

not as worried about money. I, I was 19 years

626

old and I got into a fight with my partner

627

at this age who later became my wife. Later we

628

divorced now and got into a fight full of testosterone

629

and I ran out into the road and decided I

630

was leaving and I hitchhiked from there. I hitchhiked in

631

South Africa, up this motorway and at the top of

632

the motorway, as I was hitchhiking, I heard a noise

633

behind me, turned around and the Mercedes Benz hit me

634

at 70 miles an hour. I broke my leg in

635

two places. My head went through the windscreen, my arm,

636

you can see it's bent, went wrapped around the side

637

mirror and it threw me into the middle of the

638

road. And these two amazing Samaritans actually stopped and they

639

pulled me. So I was on the white line and

640

cars were just past me and. And I was awake

641

and I was laying there and I truly regretted everything

642

I hadn't done. I didn't regret anything I'd done, but

643

I regretted everything I wouldn't get a chance to do.

644

And for me, business owners need to live the life

645

they love. They need to do everything that I'm currently

646

learning guitar, I'm learning balance board. I'm always learning something

647

because that's, I think, a super powerful business owners. But

648

also just been to Egypt and I've had. I've been

649

free diving with Dolph. I've been to France, where I

650

spent a week going. I'm seeing the old ruins. I'm

651

now in Seattle. So it's just this idea, dude, you

652

live the life you love, bro. Yeah. I don't know

653

if you can tell since, because we have spoke before.

654

I don't know if you can tell, but I'm looking

655

a bit more tan than usual. I've just come back

656

from the islands myself. I spent three weeks in Spain

657

with the family and it was a complete depression. As

658

in a decompression. Sorry, like a complete decompression of work.

659

Yes. I still had to work some mornings, but it

660

was an hour here, an hour there. I was there

661

present all the time. That was my spring uncoiling, if

662

you liked. Like, that's the way that it went. And

663

you're 100, right. But I guess that's one thing that

664

we maybe disagree on. And that's obviously fine. There's not.

665

There's no right way of doing it. But like, I

666

do make. I feel like I make enough time for

667

the things that matter, like my little girls and stuff

668

like that. But I also think. I

669

don't want to look back and think that I didn't

670

take an opportunity that I should have done. And that's

671

my entire point. I'm 53 years old now, right. What

672

I'm spending money on now is my wellness. Making sure

673

I'm as fit and as strong and as healthy as

674

possible. Digging into all the biohacking things, the peptides, the,

675

you know, I do my eyes. My morning routine is

676

I get up and I do breath work, I do

677

meditation, I do pt, I get in my ice bath

678

and I set myself up with as much energy and

679

as much power for the day. As possible. I then

680

give a hundred percent to work when I'm working and

681

110 to work and then that allows me. Over the

682

last two and a half years, I've been to 25

683

different countries because yeah, I, yeah, for sure. I'm gonna

684

leave my family. What? I need to leave my family.

685

I've got a daughter, 21 years old, she's in university.

686

But at the moment I can't even see where the

687

world's going to be in three years time or five

688

years time. This is just changing so much at the

689

moment. So I'm really now about getting everything out of

690

it. Taking to your words, taking the opportunities. I don't

691

want to miss an opportunity. A skydive. I free dive.

692

I go swimming in the ice. I do a range

693

of different things because that feeds my soul, that feeds

694

my omn. I'm not as money. I always know I'm

695

always going to be able to make money. Right. That's

696

it. I'm going to be able to make money. Yeah.

697

And that, with that confidence, with that belief in myself.

698

What if I was to walk out the door today

699

and get hit by a bus? What would I regret

700

not doing? Yeah. Yeah. I can 100 say I

701

would be, I would die happy. Yeah. And you know

702

what? I can say the same thing. And I think,

703

I don't know if this is an age, the age

704

gap like that causes this. I don't know what you

705

were like at 33. I'm not sure, Roy. But being

706

20 years younger, maybe I feel like my 30s is

707

the time for me to do, to make that do

708

it now so that when you're 40, you can retire

709

if you want to or just take a major step

710

back. I'll never retire. I don't think entrepreneurs ever retire.

711

Even if they tried, they couldn't. I, I me going

712

fishing every day is not gonna happen. Yeah. That's always

713

having 10 things to do, having loads of things to

714

do. Pushing, pushing the boundaries, learning new things. I spend

715

a lot of my time learning. Yeah. I love learning

716

new things and understanding new things and yeah, and that's,

717

we were talking about stress and understanding how to manage

718

your stress. And one of the things that I actually

719

teach business owners is breath work. You know, I'm a

720

WIM HOF instructor, I'm a Oxygen Advantage instructor. I'm a

721

pranayama instructor. Because when I first did breath work I

722

was 47 years old and it blew my mind about

723

what, what I just didn't know. So I went in

724

and Learned all the different techniques and I've learned. Dan

725

Brulee. I've learned a whole range of different things, right.

726

And it's that process of continuously learning that I think

727

is something that drives us. And people always say ADHD

728

and that they claim this is the failing. I think

729

it's a superpower, right? I'm telling you now, my, I'm

730

not going to say that because it, because that's private,

731

but I definitely have ADHD to a severe level. Like

732

you, you can't be like me and not have it.

733

Like, I, I can only focus on one thing at

734

once. I, when I'm focused on one thing at once,

735

it's the only thing I can think about. I can't

736

do any, I can't do anything else. I don't even

737

know I'm saying ADHD like I'm some sort of doctor

738

and like, I know, but what I can tell you

739

is my brain is wired differently. I have friends, right?

740

And family members mainly as well, who can very happily

741

just trot around the earth in its natural bubble. And

742

they're very happy. And you know what? They've got peace.

743

So I'm happy for them. But for me, like my

744

piece, I guess the way I would probably describe it

745

is, and this is true, to be honest with you,

746

there is always somebody chasing you. So the way that,

747

like for me, for example, my PPC clients, there are

748

all the other PPC agencies, they want my clients, like,

749

I have to make sure that I turn up and

750

deliver every single day. I have to make sure that

751

I do what I need to do every single day.

752

Whether that's operationally, whether that be AI implementation, whether that

753

be service, whatever it might be, I have to make

754

sure that's done. And that's just one example of it.

755

I do agree with you. Whilst I was in Spain,

756

I read the Four Agreements, which was a book that

757

you put me onto, and it's something that I've been

758

trying to practice. I reset every single day because I

759

always make a mistake. At the moment I can't do

760

the four Agreements, but every day in my book of

761

laws is that I reset every day if I make

762

a mistake of one of the, one of the agreements

763

that I've made. More importantly, I'm conscious when I make

764

them after. Obviously not right at that exact moment, but

765

I'm conscious and it's slowly becoming part of my day

766

to day life. And that points to your issue. Change

767

my life. That book. Yeah, I swear I got, I

768

bought it. It's so small. I'm looking at this book,

769

I'm like, there can't be any wisdom in here. Not

770

like it was like. I was like, it's only. And

771

I mean it's fair few pages but it's just so

772

small. And I was like, they can't be. And I

773

was reading it. And listeners, if you get, if you

774

safe to do seriously load up your phone, order the

775

Four Agreements from Amazon. I forgot the author's name.

776

Don Ruiz. Is it Don. Is it Don Ruiz? Yeah.

777

Don Ruiz. Dom Ruiz. Or order this book. Because I

778

swear I am not a particularly big reader. I've read

779

a lot of the big books, 48 laws of power,

780

etc, I've read a lot of these big books but

781

Roy actually put me onto this, this book, the Four

782

Agreements. And I don't care where you are in your

783

journey, I don't care if you've got nothing in your

784

sat in a basement. This book will be something that

785

changes your whole, your whole like the lens

786

that you look through in. At life and the way

787

that other people look at you. It's all your own

788

dream. And everybody has. Is different. Everybody has

789

a different goal, different dream. Just because somebody says, somebody.

790

I don't want to read the book out. But just

791

because somebody says something horrible to you doesn't mean you

792

have to react in a certain manner. People are going

793

to tell you you fail all the time. Just relax.

794

Who cares? You keep it pushing you. You do, you

795

just. That's it. Yeah. There's a particular example that he

796

gives in there about the young girl that's singing, right.

797

And her mother's just having a really bad day and

798

she keeps on singing and she's happy and she keeps

799

on singing and the mother says, just shut up, you've

800

got a terrible voice. And she never sings again. Yeah,

801

exactly. It's just the things that we do is about

802

spreading the poison that, you know, being positive and be

803

talking honestly. So the things we do in life make

804

such a difference to everybody else, but they also make

805

a difference to us because now her daughter hasn't been

806

singing for her for years and years, right. And all

807

those pleasure moments was missed. So, yeah, I, I do.

808

It's just such a. The biggest takeaway that I've got

809

from it is that is obviously one of the stories

810

and that would give you the worst mum in the

811

world award. But it's like that's, you know, you can't

812

say that to your children. I would never say that

813

to mine. Maybe I was a bit strong with that.

814

Like, if you're trying to learn, it's like you playing

815

guitar now. If I watch you play guitar, you know,

816

you're not the guitarist for the Arctic Monkeys or whatever,

817

you're not. Or Oasis, you're not. But you pass me

818

that guitar, see what happens. I don't

819

know how to play guitar. Who am I to sit

820

here and say that you're rubbish at guitar when I

821

can't play it myself? Yeah. And there's too many people

822

going around there, especially with what we do, podcasts. I

823

bet there's. You could. I bet there's. So many times

824

people have said to you, roy, your podcast, not going

825

to work, or, Roy, your podcast, waste of time, especially

826

early days, whatever, like this. And the Four Agreements

827

book will teach you exactly how to handle that. And

828

that's where I'll finish on the book. Because you need

829

to buy it. Because it's changed my. That alone, that

830

one takeaway alone of the dream, the world and my

831

reality, that one take takeaway alone was worth millions

832

to me. Probably, like, in my life, like, it's going

833

to be worth millions to me. Because I used to

834

take it. Like, sometimes I would take it, sometimes I

835

would take it bad. Now I know it's your poison,

836

not mine, and you ain't bringing it into me, so

837

keep it there. And that's the way that I do

838

it. So I know it's a tangent, but to listeners

839

still here, like, seriously, if you haven't read that book,

840

it will blow your mind. I did not believe it

841

either. And it did. Yeah. Yeah. And, yeah, I read

842

a lot. I've got hundreds and hundreds of books. I

843

listen to audio and yeah, I'll be sharing some stories

844

on these as I go forward because I think, yeah,

845

there's so many ways that we can better ourselves. Yeah.

846

And we have to start with a mental piece. We

847

have to be peaceful. What is. Where's your peace? We

848

don't necessarily have to be happy all the time, because

849

that's. Happy is a fleeting thing. But peace, if you

850

can be peaceful every day, that's just so much more

851

powerful. So. I was just going to say, if something

852

can go up, it can come down. So happiness, for

853

example, feeling in a good mood, a bad mood, these

854

things can change. But if your book of laws are

855

written properly and you're at that level and you find

856

peace with where you're at, you're never unstable. You can't

857

be. You're. I don't know if this is the right

858

way to describe it. But you're completely Zen. It's not.

859

In a weird way, I don't want the audience to

860

think it because I'm not like into. I don't do

861

yoga and like meditate for six hours a day. Like,

862

I don't do it. I don't do that. It works.

863

You probably should, don't get me wrong. But what I'm

864

saying here is I don't do that. And it was

865

special. It really was. Like, it was something that you

866

definitely need to pick up and go with. But. And

867

that's the thing, what you're doing with people. We spoke

868

a little bit about it, what I do with people.

869

We're in essence business coaches as well, right? You're having

870

to say to people, do this and this. And I'm.

871

That's where I get my so much joy and happiness

872

is actually helping people do this. My YouTube channel is

873

literally designed to give information away for free. I'm working

874

with a YouTube coach because it's a. It is a.

875

An algorithmic metric game. Like, it is an algorithm at

876

the end of the day, as and within itself. So

877

it's small. I would appreciate if any audience is still

878

here, go subscribe. Michael Elliott AI but on that channel,

879

I give away loads of info. I do live builds

880

of NAN flows to showcase things to you. I go

881

through the basics of nan, from zero to like, functional,

882

like being able to use it. But then I also

883

tell you about dark times in business, of what I've

884

had. And I also then tell you about experiences of

885

me growing businesses and show you real examples. And I

886

explain the pitfalls of having money and things that happen,

887

the journey to success. I run through all of these

888

things and like I do, I've never earned a

889

penny from going on one of these podcasts. Obviously it's

890

brand awareness, but going on podcasts doing this, I'm just.

891

If there are a hundred people listening to this, I

892

want them to believe in themselves that they can do

893

it. Because I needed me back then when I wanted

894

to take the leap. I needed this me right now.

895

What I'm saying to you now is you can do

896

it, you can do it and you could. And anybody

897

can do it. It doesn't matter who you are, anybody

898

can do it. As long as you've got a plan

899

and you're willing to stay in the heat for long

900

enough when times get hard, you will make a success.

901

What success look like looks. Are you going to be

902

Jeff Bezos? Probably not. Maybe, but probably not. But are

903

you going to change your whole family dynamic and change

904

the lives of you for you and other people around

905

you. Absolutely. And that is. And that is key. There's

906

nothing wrong with having a lifestyle business that pays you

907

the same as what a job does, but you only

908

have to work two hours a day. There's nothing wrong

909

with that. 100 and I think that's a really good

910

place to wrap it up. That was very eloquently said.

911

Thank you very much for joining us. I'm going to

912

be putting all your details below on the post, how

913

people can get hold of you and get going. Listen.

914

Go listen to you more on the YouTube. That's awesome.

915

Thank you very much for your time, man. Thank you.

916

Cheers. Roy.