Googling Gives You Answers. AI Builds Tools to Solve Your Problems. Just Ask It.

(Part 1 in a mini-series on tips for using AI)

Most business leaders are using AI to draft emails and summarize documents. Joe is using it to build custom operating systems, automated and integrated CRM platforms, and lead-scoring tools — without writing a single line of code. The biggest unlock isn't knowing how to code. It's knowing how to describe your problem.

In this episode, Joe walks through real examples from his own businesses — including how he automated a multi-step wholesale retailer approval process that used to take an hour — and shares how he helped a nonprofit CEO realize AI could transform their weekend voicemail backlog into an automated, real-time response system.

Key Takeaways:

• The reason most people aren't unlocking AI's real power isn't a tech problem — it's an imagination problem.
• Describing your problem to AI and asking it to recommend a solution will get you further than knowing the answer yourself.
• Vague prompts get vague results — the more business context you give AI, the more useful and specific its output becomes.
• AI doesn't just tell you what to do, it can actually build the tool that does it — CRMs, lead scorers, anomaly detectors, and more.
• A process that once took an hour across three systems can be fully automated in a single conversation.

For: Business owners, entrepreneurs, and operators across any industry who know AI can do more for their business but don't know where to start.

Topics: AI for business, business automation, no-code tools, AI prompting, CRM, lead scoring, ChatGPT for business, AI productivity, nonprofit technology, operational efficiency

Why Big Goals Work and How Lived Experience Can't Be Measured

The goal was 5:35. The qualifying time for a double amputee to get into the Boston Marathon. It was an outrageous target and Joe had no idea. In this episode, recorded on the road while traveling to an Innovation Summit, Joe shares the Cedric King story that changed how he thinks about goal-setting, performance, and the surprising relationship between the two. What looks like a running story is really a lesson about what happens when you strip away past performance data and commit fully to what's possible.

Key Takeaways:

• Why setting a goal with no baseline can unlock performance that history would have made impossible
• How the experience of committing to a mission — without knowing the odds — is sometimes the only thing that produces the result you want
• The difference between chasing a measurable outcome and being present to what's actually in front of you
• Why your previous PRs, past failures, and historical data can be the very thing capping your next breakthrough
• What Cedric King's Boston qualifier teaches entrepreneurs and leaders about the danger of "realistic" goals
• How lived experience creates a kind of value that metrics will never capture — and why that matters for how you lead, build, and grow

For: Entrepreneurs, business leaders, coaches, athletes, and anyone who has ever let past results talk them out of a goal worth chasing.

Topics: Goal setting, outrageous goals, performance vs. experience, Boston Marathon, Cedric King, guide running, double amputee athlete, business mindset, leadership, ignoring past performance, what's possible

How to align information with action, not distraction.

Comparison is the thief of joy — and it might be the thing quietly killing your momentum. Joe breaks down why watching competitors, obsessively consuming industry content, and chasing every "squirrel" in your feed can keep you from reaching your own destination. To get where you’re going, you have to know why and how you want to get there.

Key Takeaways:

• Why having a vision (not a perfect plan) is the non-negotiable first step in business and health
• How time-bound goals — races, speaking engagements, launch dates — create the pressure that produces real action
• The social media algorithm trap: why consuming content in your own category can deflate you and pull you off course, and a simple but powerful hack to escape the trap
• Why looking outside your industry for inspiration beats studying your competitors
• The difference between distraction and inspiration: how to audit your emotional response to what you consume

For: Entrepreneurs, business owners, brand builders, athletes, and anyone prone to measuring their progress against others instead of their own goals.

Topics: Comparison trap, staying focused, goal setting, time-bound goals, social media distraction, entrepreneur mindset, business strategy, building a brand, joy and motivation, competition vs. vision