Paul James - Founder of DialHawk | From Brother's Garage to Multiple 7-Figure AI Businesses

➡️ Join 321,000 people who read my free weekly newsletter: https://newsletter.scottdclary.com ➡️ Like The Podcast? Leave A Rating: https://ratethispodcast.com/successstory Paul James is a digital marketing entrepreneur and founder of DialHawk, a call tracking and local SEO software platform that helps businesses optimize lead conversion. After dropping out of college in 2010, he built a six-figure agency from his brother's garage before scaling multiple ventures to 7-figure revenue. James is a bestselling author of Reverse Engineer Your Future (5-star Amazon rating), YouTube educator with over 305,000 subscribers, and has been featured in Forbes, Entrepreneur, and Yahoo Finance. Through DialHawk Academy, he teaches aspiring entrepreneurs local SEO and affiliate marketing strategies. ➡️ Show Links https://www.instagram.com/hellopauljames/ http://www.youtube.com/@iampauljames/ https://x.com/hellopauljames ➡️ Podcast Sponsors Hubspot - https://hubspot.com/ ShipStation - https://www.shipstation.com/ (Code: SuccessStory) Square - https://square.com/go/success SurveyMonkey - https://www.surveymonkey.com/scott Monarch Money - https://www.monarchmoney.com (Code: Success) Claude - https://claude.ai/success Huel - https://huel.com/scott (Code: scott) NetSuite — https://netsuite.com/scottclary/ Indeed - https://indeed.com/clary ➡️ Talking Points 00:00 – Intro 01:26 – What SEO Still Gets Right in 2025 04:25 – Paul’s Origin Story 06:48 – From Music to Entrepreneurship 08:40 – Choosing the Right Career Path 12:52 – Paul’s Biggest Business Decisions 15:20 – How Divorce Changed His Business 18:40 – Entering AI and Content Creation 19:57 – Sponsor Break 22:41 – Why Paul Left SEO for AI 24:02 – AI Marketing Strategies That Work 27:23 – Getting Real Value From AI 30:46 – Building an Audience That Converts 34:02 – Using AI Without Being Replaced 35:00 – AI-Driven Lead Generation 38:28 – Common AI Mistakes People Make 40:42 – Sponsor Break 43:12 – What AI Changed About Content 44:46 – Mental Models for Tough Times 47:41 – Habits Holding Entrepreneurs Back 51:04 – The Future of AI in Marketing 53:36 – Measuring Marketing Results 1:00:49 – Paul’s Most Important Lesson