In this episode of the Throttle Up Leadership Podcast, Dr. John Dentico hosts RJ Grimshaw, known as the AI CEO and a leading advocate for intrapreneurship and business growth. RJ shares his journey from growing up in a family of entrepreneurs to leading Unify Equipment Finance and driving substantial business growth. The discussion delves into the importance of entrepreneurial mindsets within organizations, the role of strategic thinking versus planning, and the critical need for community and continuous learning in the context of AI advancements. Highlights include RJ's emphasis on the significance of human connection, fostering innovation, and the power of prompting in leveraging AI effectively.
00:00 Welcome to Throttle Up Leadership Podcast
00:09 Meet RJ Grimshaw: The AI CEO
01:26 Personal Touch: RJ's Background and Influences
02:48 Entrepreneurial Journey: From Bar Owner to CEO
09:03 The Importance of Strategic Thinking
14:08 Intrapreneurship and Rapid Prototyping
17:18 The Role of AI in Modern Business
18:20 Leadership and Organizational Values
28:05 The Future of AI and Ethical Considerations
30:07 Starting with ChatGPT: My Journey
31:29 Building a Persona with AI
32:06 The Painful Process of Writing a Book
32:43 Creating Online Courses with AI
33:40 Helping Individuals in Corporate America
35:32 A Lifelong Passion for Business
37:40 The Importance of Prompt Engineering
43:21 The Role of Community in the Future of Work
47:37 The Critical Role of Trust in Leadership
49:45 Final Thoughts and Reflections
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Dr John Dentico (00:05):
Welcome to the Throttle Up Leadership Podcast.
Our theme for 2025 is The Futureof Work: Meaning is the New Money!
In a world shaped by rapid innovation andconstant change the pursuit of purpose
and impact has never been more important.
I'm Dr John Dentico your host,bringing over 30 years of experience
(00:28):
in leadership, strategic thinkingand purpose-driven innovation.
Here we tackle the pressing challengesof our time-from the rise of
artificial intelligence to the growingneed for meaning in the workplace.
Together we'll uncover how leaderscan ethically integrate AI to enhance
decision-making and keep humanityat the heart of their organizations.
(00:51):
Remember amidst all thetechnological advancements in the
end, it's always about the people.
This podcast is your resource foractionable tools, thought provoking
discussions and inspiring stories.
It's time to go beyond leadershipdevelopment and focus on leadership
(01:11):
impact-creating workplaces where peoplethrive, innovation flourishes and
meaning truly becomes the new currency.
Thank you for joining me on this journey.
Now, let's Throttle Up anddive into today's episode.
Hello again and welcome to theThrottle Up Leadership Podcast.
, It's me again, Dr John DenticoWith me today is RJ Grimshaw.
(01:37):
RJ is known as The AI CEO,a passionate advocate for
intrapreneurship and business growth.
He has spent his career helpingcompanies scale by fostering
entrepreneurial mindsets.
Within organizations as the formerCEO of Unify Equipment Finance.
He led it from 14 million to 220million in earning assets, proving that
(02:04):
disciplined execution and innovationcan drive sustainable success.
He now focuses on empowering leaders andbusinesses to thrive in the AI driven
future leveraging his ABLE frameworkto turn uncertainty into measurable
growth, and I'm truly pleased andhonored to have him with me today.
(02:27):
Hello, RJ How are you?
RJ Grimshaw (02:29):
Hi, Dr. John.
I'm doing well, and I appreciate that.
I might record that, , entrythere, that intro and send it to
my mom to say, this is your son.
Can you treat me a little bit better?
Dr John Dentico (02:40):
Moms are tough.
RJ Grimshaw (02:41):
Moms are tough.
Dr John Dentico (02:42):
Believe me, they're
RJ Grimshaw (02:43):
But I wouldn't be Dr. John.
I would not be who I am todaywithout my mom being who she is.
Dr John Dentico (02:50):
Yep.
There you go.
RJ Grimshaw (02:51):
Yeah.
Dr John Dentico (02:52):
There you go.
So RJ I'm trying to add a littlebit of a, a personal touch
to, to my podcast this year.
So, here's the first question.
Tell me a bit about yourselfwhere did you grow up and in what
in your mind were some of thefundamental influences in your life?
RJ Grimshaw (03:10):
That's easy for me.
And I and I've told thisstory several times.
I feel, and as I, as I get older, yourealize this with self-reflection.
I feel blessed and fortunate that I wasborn into a family of entrepreneurs.
And I, at the time, I did notrealize that,, my parents,
(03:30):
both of them owned businesses.
My dad owned a large constructioncompany, a rigging company.
Matter of fact, his handwrittenbusiness plan hangs in my office
behind me from 1983, and it's a typicalbusiness plan that's written incursive.
Younger folks don't even know how towrite cursive anymore because of typing.
And to give you an idea, theinterest rates at the time when
(03:51):
they're seeking a loan was 12%.
So it's been interesting overthe last, couple years with , the
raise in rates, how businessowners have been affected by that.
And that's mindset in regards to,cashflow and things of that nature.
But back to your question, so I was ableto witness and watch what it takes to
be a successful entrepreneur, as well asthe challenges and the,, ups and downs.
(04:15):
And then at the, the age of 23,God bless my dad, rest in peace.
He made a decision to fund his23-year-old son to start a bar restaurant.
, And I learned on the job what it wasto become, an entrepreneur and we took
a vision of that bar restaurant andturned it from a non-revenue producing
(04:35):
asset to a million dollars in revenue.
And my brother, I ended up exitingthe business, but my brother ran it
for 20 years, over 20 years, whichis unheard of in that industry.
And, sold it and now livesin Las Vegas with his wife.
So that really set the groundwork formy entrepreneurship background primarily
(04:56):
because at the age of 30, I had to make aconscious decision,, that in 1999 my dad
passed away and I had to make a decision,John, if I wanted to go into corporate
America or continue this entrepreneurjourney that I was so passionate about,
and I fell into corporate America.
Then had a little bit of success, luckysuccess, luck around the right people,
and started as an individual contributoras a sales rep in over 13 years.
(05:21):
Again, luck, right time, rightposition, , worked my way up from a
individual contributor sales manager,National Sales manager, general manager,
director of sales, to ultimately CEO.
And that's really where I earn my MBA interms of running a corporate business,
, with a board and things of that nature.
And at the end of the day, I can, there'sreally two, three things that have, I
(05:45):
feel, have been instrumental in success.
And it, , that's a big word to define,uh, but the three things is my mindset
of being an intrapreneur and thinking,looking at things differently.
Second is the support and being surroundedby incredible people, on my teams.
And then third, the support of my wifeand my family to allow me to,, do what I
(06:05):
love doing because as and a lot of peopleknow, if you're chasing the corporate
ladder, you're gonna have to relocate.
And, a gentleman by the name of PaulLarkins told me that back in 2001, a
matter of fact, and I'll never forgetit, sitting at a dinner with him and , he
was the CEO of Key Equipment Finance,so a very big bank run finance company.
And he went around the, the tableand this is what we call today now,
(06:26):
emerging talent.. You're, you'vebeen identified as an up and comer
and, he asked this profound questionand it, and the question was.
He framed it John as, there'sno right or wrong, it's your
own personal journey here.
And he asked the question, are you willingto relocate for the right opportunity?
Went around the table, andat that time I said, yes.
(06:47):
Matter of fact, hell yesfor the right opportunity.
And , he said to the table, he said,well, again, there's no right or wrong.
However, if your ambition is toclimb the corporate ladder and lead
people and motivate people, youwill have to relocate to do that.
Because that's the way whereopportunities are going to come.
And I grew up in a small city inupstate New York,Oswego of New
(07:09):
York population, 12,000 people.
Matter of fact, it was on the nationalnews yesterday, John, because of the
amount of snow they've received, , inthe last week, they're in the snow belt.
So that's a long-winded story,but it really, it's found, it's
foundational of who I am today andwhy I am passionate about, more
importantly people than anything else.
It's the people that drive businessesthat have human interactions
(07:33):
with each other and I thinkthat we're at , a point of time,
that is,
people remember COVID people rememberother, you know, people remember
2001, people remember certainthings and I think right now we're
gonna look back and, and say, boy.
Um, I wish I would've taken the timeand not binge watch Netflix, but
(07:57):
to dive in and learn more about AI.
Dr John Dentico (08:00):
Yeah, I have a saying.
I would say my, my life revolves aroundnever be afraid to learn something new
RJ Grimshaw (08:06):
Well, that's the number one trait of an
entrepreneur is a life learner.
Dr John Dentico (08:10):
Yeah, that's right.
You don't know it today.
I'll know it tomorrow.
RJ Grimshaw (08:13):
Mm-hmm.
Dr John Dentico (08:13):
in a manner of speaking, so I, I appreciate that.
So let me ask you this, where youare right now, does your business
have a mission statement and wouldyou mind telling me, my listeners
and viewers, what that statement is?
RJ Grimshaw (08:25):
Yeah, the mission statement primarily is empowering
leaders with the proper tools.
Dr John Dentico (08:31):
Great, great.
One sentence.
I love it.
RJ Grimshaw (08:34):
It's, it's very, very concise and the challenge , when you have a,
line like that, it's very open-ended.
And I think the world that we live intoday, we all as leaders and humans have
to be open-minded and not just shut downon the new world of where we're headed.
And it's okay if you don'tbelieve we're headed there or
(08:55):
don't wanna leverage the tools.
Just understand you willbe impacted, , eventually.
And my goal here is not to scareanyone, it's just to try and shed
light and help people and, that, that'sprimarily why and why I landed here.
It's an interesting story that we'll getinto a little bit, but, it's interesting
times we live in, and I'm not talkingabout the political and the world things.
(09:16):
I'm just speaking from the human, as ahuman citizen here in the United States
that works within an organization or ontheir own,, the tools that are disposal
and back to the life learning curiosity.
John, now you have tools.
I can learn about anything I want towithin a, within five minutes, anything.
And.
I also have empathy for the peoplethat have learned and studied
(09:43):
to have this knowledge base.
And I understand now they feel,well, geez, you know, anyone
can have this knowledge base.
They're missing the point becauseat the end of the day, it's about
their contextual knowledge that theyhave to drive these machines and no
one can take that away from them.
Dr John Dentico (09:59):
Right.
and I'll just add this piece, uh, becauseof my work and leadership for over 30
years is having the knowledge is great.
What you do with that knowledge is inthe end the important thing, how you are
able to craft knowledge into practice issomething that I have spent a lot of years
(10:24):
working on and working with other people.
So let me move on if Ican to the next question.
I know that strategic thinking'simportant to you, so I want
to ask you this question.
How do you differentiate betweenstrategic thinking and strategic planning?
RJ Grimshaw (10:42):
That's a wonderful question, and I would say that I'm,
that is not one of my strengths.
It is.
It is.
When I really focus deep on it, I'man action guy, and if you look at
any assessment that I've taken overmy career, I have a high sense of
urgency, which is a mixed blessing.
What I mean by that is I have beenworking on, again, self-awareness
(11:04):
of taking a step back to think morestrategically versus taking that action.
Because when you are anentrepreneur, you read so many books.
Just take action failure's.
Okay?
Take action.
However, where we are today.
Where I have been studying over the lastsix months, which might seem like a short
period of time, but with this technologyis evolving at such a pace, it's very
(11:29):
difficult to keep up with everything.
And you tell me, I believe we're we, weare experiencing AI fatigue right now.
People are tired of hearing theterm AI so the way I position it
is I say, let's not talk about AI,Let's just talk about prompting.
It doesn't matter what AI tool youwill use in the future, it's all
(11:49):
about your contextual knowledge ofprompting to drive the outputs of these
machines, and that's just focus on that.
Dr John Dentico (11:57):
Yeah, it's interesting you should say that.
I'll, there's some comments here.
I differentiate the difference betweenstrategic planning and strategic
thinking this way, strategic planningand mostly in organizations, right?
You want to try to findanswers to questions, right?
There are questions, there aregoals set by the senior leaders.
(12:18):
Strategic thinking is allabout making sure you're asking
yourself the right questions.
RJ Grimshaw (12:23):
I love that.
Dr John Dentico (12:24):
Because if you're not, you're gonna go solve, you're gonna
throw money at stuff that doesn't matter.
Or doesn't matter as much as reallygetting to the, to what the real
issues are within an organization.
And as you well know, RJ.
As, as I like to say, the halls ofbusiness are lined with the carcasses of
businesses who never asked themselves thehard questions, the real hard questions.
(12:48):
So, and I think that's true for AI too,just in many respects as we're, launched,
if you will, into this whole world.
that's, that's one wayof, uh, looking at it.
RJ Grimshaw (12:59):
If you don't mind, I have a question for you.
Why do you think, whydo you think that is?
Is it, is it people are so setin their ways and distracted,
or are they just burnt out because ofeverything we've been through since
COVID and inflation and raising kids and.
Dr John Dentico (13:20):
I, uh, man, there's, that's a great question coming from you,
and I think there are several reasons.
Number one is I think sometimes people sthink if they, if they open up Pandora's
box find issues and difficulties, itmay almost be too hard , to fix it.
RJ Grimshaw (13:39):
Mm-hmm.
Dr John Dentico (13:39):
Okay.
It's too hard to fix it.
Let's not even go there.
All I'm trying to do is get to the nextquarterly earnings for the stock market.
RJ Grimshaw (13:50):
Yeah.
Dr John Dentico (13:51):
The second reason is, and a friend of mine told me this
one time, and it is absolutely trueif you are the CEO and you're making
significant amounts of money every year.
And you've got stock options andyou're just piling that stuff up
and you are really sailing, whywould you want to change anything?
RJ Grimshaw (14:11):
Well, uh.
Dr John Dentico (14:12):
you want to, why would you want to do anything to
your income stream or might want todo anything to your income stream?
I think that plays, you know, foryears we talked about what the golden
handshake or the golden parachutes ordifferent things like that from CEOs and
I, and they're still prevalent today.
I mean, you can, you can
RJ Grimshaw (14:32):
I,
Dr John Dentico (14:33):
go ahead.
RJ Grimshaw (14:34):
I walked away from that and you're right.
And I, from a human'sperspective, I can't blame them.
Because they have a fiduciaryresponsibility to their
family and who they are.
So it, the fine line though,and I know it's greed.
Right?
That's where I'm challenged by thatwhen you see a disparity between
leadership and the people who aremaking that leadership team successful.
Dr John Dentico (15:01):
I say, I have said for years that the difference, the,
the one difference that separates aleader from everybody else is they
simply wanna make a difference.
You can make all the money,you can do all these things.
Okay, fine.
And yes, you do have a fiduciaryresponsibility to your own
family, but the question is, doyou want to make a difference?
(15:25):
And I think people need to askthemselves that question more so
than anything else right now, atleast in the terms of leadership.
. Let's talk about, I want to talka bit about intrapreneurship.
RJ Grimshaw (15:39):
mm-hmm.
Dr John Dentico (15:40):
the world in which we live today.
Okay?
One of the main focus areas for methis year to encourage organizations
to put significant effort, excuse me,behind what I term rapid prototyping.
Okay., Especially since we now have amultitude of AI tools at our disposal.
(16:03):
I'd love to get yourreflection on that idea.
When you look at products and services,for example, that an organization
can bring to the market and you haveAI tools available, um, I'd love to
get your reflection on the value,if you will, of rapid prototyping.
, RJ Grimshaw (16:23):
I think that it's much needed and I firmly believe why we're
having this conversation today isbecause of my intrapreneurship mindset,
where I was always trying to lookinto new things before everyone else
was using them, because if everyoneelse is using the same tools, it's
a commodity at that perspective.
(16:43):
It's a, everyone has the same tools.
So growing up, I believe this, for growingup in a family of entrepreneurs, I had
to learn the skill of being resourceful.
Using the resources at mydisposal to accomplish what
I was trying to accomplish.
I think that's my, I knowthat that is my superpower.
(17:05):
Just like it's your superpowerversus saying, well, we've
always done it like this.
We're gonna continue to do it likethis, and we're gonna be complacent.
I'll tell you that there's beenchapters of my life that I've
been like that you need a breakto be complacent and reflect, but.
The world we live in today isnot the right time for that.
If you're a CEO or a leader ofan organization, or if you're
(17:26):
career-minded, right now is thetime to be to start learning.
However, be very selectful inwho you're learning from because
unfortunately, right now there's a lotof people that realize that they can
sell sizzle with nothing behind it.
And I see that all thetime, and that's where.
(17:47):
In my industry, which is equipmentfinancing and banking, i'm beating the
drum to say, before you make a decision,I won't even charge you for this.
Let me take a look at it.
'cause I have resources.
What was wonderful about this AIworld, I'm getting exposure to
people that are a lot smarter thanI am, that have been living in this
(18:09):
world a lot longer than we have.
that are willing to help, becausethink about the whole premise of
AI, The whole premise of AI isdecentralized information, data
where it's free to everyone andeveryone can use these if you want to.
Dr John Dentico (18:26):
If you are allowed to.
RJ Grimshaw (18:28):
Well, that's a whole nother conversation if you're
allowed to and, I am becomingmore and more vocal on this topic.
I spoke two weeks ago in front of agroup of 50 people in Minnesota, and I
did make this statement, and I've reallythought hard about this statement.
I would love your perspective on it.
I made this statement that if youare working inside of an organization
(18:49):
today that is suppressing AI toolsor there's no discussion around AI
literacy and copilot is not an AI tool.
Because if they, you just roll out copilotto people without the proper training of
how to drive copilot with the prompting.
And that's where, again,where I'm focusing my time.
You should start looking for anotherorganization or start taking time
(19:12):
to learn on your own because youare be, you will be left behind.
AI will not replace you.
Who will replace you?
John?
Dr John Dentico (19:21):
People who are familiar with and have, are now
working with AI Jensen Hwang, the CEOof Nvidia has says, , you don't have
to worry about AI taking your job.
You have to worry about someonewho understands AI and works
with AI taking your job.
And I think that'sabsolutely right on the mark.
RJ Grimshaw (19:42):
Mm-hmm.
Dr John Dentico (19:43):
right on the mark.
RJ Grimshaw (19:43):
Good.
Dr John Dentico (19:44):
let me reflect back to you.
On this.
If you, if the AI , aspect, if you'reworking in an organization and they're
turning a blind eye to ai, the developmentof ai, the integration of AI in the
work, uh, I would come at it from adifferent perspective, and this is on
(20:05):
the mission statement side of the house.
RJ Grimshaw (20:06):
Yeah.
Dr John Dentico (20:07):
If you are looking for an organization.
Um, and the first thing I would,and you're a job seeker and you're
looking to join an organization, thefirst thing I would tell you to do
is, uh, get their mission statement,out what their mission statement is.
Okay?
(20:28):
And you get one sentence
and.
Because the number one, uh, want of peoplein this multi-generational workforce
in the wake of the Covid pandemic isto work with an organization whose
values align with that individuals.
(20:50):
If this organization has sevenparagraphs for a mission statement.
Look someplace else.
Look someplace else, because they can'texpress to you what their value system is.
So how do you, how do they an, how dothey expect to bring someone into the
(21:12):
organization who and want their valuesto align with theirs if they themselves
can't articulate own value system?
What do you think of that idea?
RJ Grimshaw (21:23):
I think you're spot on and I've been speaking, when I talk around
the topic of intrapreneurship,, I'mvery consistent with the same message.
I maybe wasn't as direct, but I would,I. In the presentation, speak to if you
are identifying as an intrapreneur andyou have these traits, and it's amazing
(21:43):
to see people have that aha moment.
And then I say, let's lean intothat because that's your superpower.
I, John would say that if you are notaligned, if your values and who you
want to be are not aligned with yourcompany, find where you wanna go.
And maybe you don't have to go there rightaway, but start watching that company.
(22:06):
Fine, because my career I have picked,and I, I have, I'm always asked a
question around career development fromyounger, from emerging talent, and I'm
very adamant they around career path.
What's I, my company's notgiving me your career path.
I immediately say, why would you allowa company to give you a career path?
(22:27):
Why aren't you dictatingwhere you want to go?
And guess what, it's notgonna be a straight line.
I live that and I'm speakingfrom real life experience.
I took a role with a company thatI was drastically undercompensated,
and my wife, almost like you, weare not, why are we doing this?
(22:48):
And I said, hun has nothingto do about the compensation.
It has everything to do aboutthe knowledge base that I'm going
to obtain in this role that willhelp me get to where we wanna go.
And that's a CEO role.
People don't think like that and peopledon't, and I was fortunate enough
to have a lifestyle that I can makethose decisions just like right now.
(23:09):
I made a conscious decision inOctober, 2023 to leave a amazing
job, which was my dream job.
At the time I had noidea why I was doing it.
Now I know why, because in Februaryof last year, I spoke in California
around innovation, and my messageduring that time was not AI focused.
(23:33):
It was focused around who drivesinnovation within your organization.
And we did a study in regards to Googlesearch terms innovation was searched
10 times more than the innovator.
So people are trying to shortcutinnovation to find the secret sauce
and they're missing the most criticalpiece and element of their success,
(23:56):
which is the human being who's theinnovator, and that is your entrepreneur.
And now with these tools,
it's 10 x, it's a hundred x.
Dr John Dentico (24:06):
it's amazing, , a lot of the secrets are not secrets.
They're just right in front of people.
You just have to lookat it and embrace it.
And say, this is, thisis what I need to do.
You know, when you talk aboutintrapreneurship and you talk about
developing the innovation in anorganization, I tell people a lot
(24:26):
of my podcasts, they're probablygetting tired of me saying this, but,
but uh, my leadership model that Istarted developing 30 years ago has
one premise, and that premise is builton one foundation, one piece, one
principle and that is contribution.
RJ Grimshaw (24:43):
Uh.
Dr John Dentico (24:44):
Who here we have a problem.
have, uh, an issue that's before us.
got any ideas?
Anybody wanna help?
Who wants to jump inhere and work with us?
You know, step up, stepin, let's go together.
That kind of a thing.
And it puts aside all I make.
As a trainer, for example, I make nojudgements about people in the room.
(25:06):
I never have.
I never will.
It's all about, here's I, you putpeople in a room, I train 'em.
That's just the way it is.
So, you know, and that'swhat people expect me to do.
And, and so the, so the goal is , tocreate an environment where people come
to do their best work every single day.
It's simple to say that, but it'ssometimes it's very difficult to implement
RJ Grimshaw (25:28):
So that's where I and I, I completely agree with that.
And that's where we were go, that'swhere I thought I was headed.
I was developing what I call theintrapreneur operating system.
So everyone's heard of EOS.
Great book.
Amazing framework.
What I was doing and what I was speakingabout and starting to build out was how
(25:48):
does an organization implement this intotheir culture where you have free ideas
sharing, because there's many stats.
Two.
Two main stats.
One, and it doesn't matterwhere you read the stat or.
There's a high percentage ofindividuals that come into work on
a daily basis and are unengaged.
They're un, they're just unengagedto no fault of their own.
(26:10):
They're just unengaged.
So that's the first area.
The second thing is you have to allow thepeople that are in the trenches on a daily
basis, an avenue a vehicle to share theirideas because 75% of these folks have
ideas that will improve your organization.
However, there's fear of messingup by providing that, or there's
(26:32):
a fear of being blackballed orthere's a fear of, well, they don't
get it and they're out at unified.
We developed over time because Mo,let's be honest, most CEOs or business
owners, we think we're Superman.
We've all gone through.
I can do it.
I can, I can handle that.
I know it all.
Okay.
And as soon as you realize youdon't know it all and you want to
(26:54):
see other people foster in thatenvironment, it's game changing.
However, the other big thing thattakes place in corporate America
or in business or in life isaccountability and responsibility.
And I know we're not here to talkabout that, but , most people don't
like accountability, myself included.
I don't wanna be held accountable frommy wife or my family, or my, my boss.
(27:16):
We all have bosses, right?
So back to your strategic thinking ofthinking back, reverse engineering if
you're a CEO or business leader, reverseengineer that to the accountability as
you, as a leader, what you're doing foryour organization right now, and the
responsibility off of that accountability.
Dr John Dentico (27:33):
Yeah, I,
RJ Grimshaw (27:35):
Okay.
Dr John Dentico (27:35):
using this, uh, in presentations and in podcasts lately
because, and knew you've talked about it,the Superman, the, the CEO is Superman.
I, I kind of take just a bitof a different take on it.
I said what we've done over the courseof the last 60 or 70 years is to create
CEOs in the image of Jedi Knights.
(27:58):
With the hope that you know, anyissue or problem that appears before
the organization, they'll come down,brandish their light sword drive away
the problems, deal with the problems.
And what I tell people today iswith the world as, as it's changing
the aftermath of COVID and peopleno longer just wanting a paycheck.
Wanting values alignment, wanting tobe involved in the decision making
(28:21):
processes of the organization.
CEOs today have to really startthinking of themselves more like Yoda.
RJ Grimshaw (28:28):
Mm-hmm.
Dr John Dentico (28:29):
the idea is that your job is to raise a generation of Jedi Knights
to do the work, to take on the challenges.
And be there for your folks becauseyou are the facilitator, you are the
teacher, you are the one that createsthe environment where they can learn.
So that, we had a saving in the Navy andthat was a rising tide lifts all boats.
(28:53):
And that's what you're trying to do.
You're trying to create this risingtide so that everybody comes along
together and with the capability.
To deal with issues thatchange daily, in many respects.
So I, I think that's an issue that, thatpeople are gonna have to get around and
(29:14):
start accepting and seeing themselves,CEOs of, of large organizations, medium
sized organizations, Encumbered, uh,the large ones, of course, encumbered
by the fear based model of bureaucracy.
A lot of people don't know thatbureaucracy was built on fear.
RJ Grimshaw (29:32):
And lack of knowledge and lack of tools and lack of knowledge and,
and 'cause let me tell you, and, and Iknow we're not again talking about this,
but if you really think about this AI,, these tools have been around forever.
However, only a limitedfew had access to these.
So the fear of all these toolsdon't work or they hallucinate.
(29:56):
Yes, they do.
They're only gonna get better,and that's where the human
element comes in to drive these.
Now where it's gonna gofive years, I have no idea.
I'm on this train withyou, so I'm not a futurist.
I try and ask the right questions, butI remain open and curious, and then
I have to make a decision of is itgoing to be doomsday or are we gonna
(30:18):
be in a better society as humans?
But it comes back to the ethicalpiece, which is a big word.
Everyone wants to talk about it.
And I always go to, just likewith AI let's focus on one thing.
When someone says, let, well, whatabout the ethical piece of it?
Okay, what part of that , wouldwe like to focus on and discuss?
(30:39):
And that leads to it.
I would love to know from yourperspective, have you leaned into
AI or what do, what is your thoughtson these tools and how are you
using them or aren't you using them?
Dr John Dentico (30:52):
I was very resistant up until a couple of months ago.
I'll be honest about it, about threemonths ago, um, I joined a group here
in where I live, uh, a local group ofthe National Speakers Association, and,
uh, just to get more information to meetsome people and to find out, , and to
(31:13):
explore how I can be a better speaker.
And it was at the first meetingwhere I met,, there were only
about a handful of us where theysaid, , I expressed some ideas.
And they said, oh listen, youshould go get a ChatGPT account
and pay 20 bucks a month.
And, uh, you can kind of do somepretty magical things with it.
I said, you know what, I'm gonna jump in.
(31:34):
I did.
I got my $20 account and I started feedingit, and I, I'll be honest with you, I shut
off the piece that says Train the rest of
RJ Grimshaw (31:44):
Rightfully so.
You should do that.
You should do that.
Dr John Dentico (31:47):
I shut it off.
I said, I'm gonna build alittle bit of a wall here.
Okay.
So then I, I uploaded my book.
PDFI uploaded several documents,what's called SRT files, which are
the subtitle files from podcasts.
And I filled it full of stuff.
And, uh, I was looking at a speakingopportunity and I said, okay, why don't
(32:10):
you go take a look at this website?
And ChatGPT ran out, took a look at thewebsite, came back and said, okay, got it.
I said, let's put a speaking op.
Let's put something together.
So it did.
Hey, how about a bio?
Can you do, let's, let'swork the bio problem.
And I, and I prompted, it, comeback, no, I want to add this piece.
Uh, okay, no, that's no good.
(32:31):
Take this out.
Okay.
Put this in.
, I got notified two days ago.
I, I got that speaking opportunity.
Bingo.
And then , another one.
I did the same thing.
It, it was actually earlier than this one.
The one that I, the, the mostrecent one that I submitted, um,
was more, um, it was smoother.
(32:55):
It was
RJ Grimshaw (32:56):
Well you're, it goes back to the persona that I can help you with
in terms of building out your persona.
'cause there's amazing tools.
Are you using Notebook, LMM or Notebook?
Lm.
Dr John Dentico (33:07):
I've heard of it, but I'm not using it
RJ Grimshaw (33:09):
I could shoot a video and show you.
So what I've done is I've taken all ofmy persona, every podcast I've ever done,
every YouTube took every transcript.
I put it , into that to start buildingout tools for myself as well as building
out RJs persona of the way that I speak.
And now I can put that into mybusiness development persona.
And I have, I probably havea half dozen chat GPTs.
Dr John Dentico (33:31):
to take a look at it.
I
RJ Grimshaw (33:32):
Yeah.
Dr John Dentico (33:32):
a look at it.
One of the things I'm doing now is, uh,when I wrote my book, it took me four
years and four months to write my book.
It was because it's
RJ Grimshaw (33:40):
Painful.
Dr John Dentico (33:41):
i, it was very painful.
It was very painful.
It was not a labor of love, Iwill tell you that right now.
But it was more a duty, I feltlike I needed to complete a duty
to, to get it on the street.
But anyway, I had several reviewsdone of it, and one person
said, this is a master's degreeof, , of leadership in one book.
(34:02):
Is basically,
RJ Grimshaw (34:03):
Wow.
Dr John Dentico (34:03):
technical in a lot of the things.
So I have really, I believe anyway,I have really, really good content.
So
RJ Grimshaw (34:10):
Mm-hmm.
Dr John Dentico (34:10):
now in, in the next several months is I'm going
to put a series of, online courseson Udemi and I'm going to use.
Uh, my AI tools to help meorchestrate the outlines.
(34:32):
Uh, the modules, uh, anddifferent things like that in
order to speed the process along.
I'll do, I'll probably do a lotof manual kinds of things like
adding motion graphics and stuff.
Although I, I have an account on VEEDnow put in suspense for a bit, but I,
because I, I like building it myself.
(34:53):
I, , there's, I'm like theclay modeling kind of guy.
I like to take the motion graphicsand mix and, and match them myself.
And I think I can do a littlebit better job there, make it
more interesting, we'll see.
RJ Grimshaw (35:04):
So I would like to, I would like to expand on that.
Two things.
We've talked a lot about corporateAmerica and I would say that my North
Star really isn't corporate America.
It's the people within corporate America.
It's not corporate America itself.
I feel my mission is to help theDavids of the world to compete
against the Goliath, and I'vealways been like that at Unify out.
(35:26):
We were the small company competingagainst Huntington and the big companies
and I've been in the space of financewhere you're responding to RFPs and you're
doing seven, $10 million transactions.
At the end of the day, you're helpingpeople, but really what I get excited
about is when I go and, and you know,when I was CEO at Unify and meet with
a client and they start telling methere's backstory of how they arrived
(35:49):
the way they did and how we help.
That's where I get goosebumps.
Nothing that not, it is likebecause of us, we helped you.
Which reflection andpeople forget about this.
Not only did we help thatcompany, we helped their family.
And when I was leading at Unify one ofmy mantras at Unify was, when you make a
conscious decision, and we all have thisduring the day, you're not only affecting
(36:15):
yourself and our team, guess what?
You're affecting the extended familyof your team, which is so-and-so's
husband, my wife, by your action.
To make a conscious decision notto do what you're supposed to do,
and as soon as you start bringingit out, it becomes more personal.
Dr John Dentico (36:31):
Right.
And it gets, it, it getsmore important to people.
It
RJ Grimshaw (36:35):
Mm-hmm.
, Dr John Dentico (36:35):
People start accepting it here,, that, it aches here to make
sure you're doing the right thing.
So I appreciate that
RJ Grimshaw (36:42):
Yeah.
Dr John Dentico (36:42):
Um, um,
RJ Grimshaw (36:44):
And I appreciate you John, telling me that you are
reluctant and that's we all are.
I'm just a weirdo that likes to, if it,if there's something new, I wanna know
about it and I wanna learn about it.
And I would do that on my own time.
, I'll back up.
You asked me where I came from.
I was, when I was 16years old, back in 1985.
(37:04):
I guess I just dated myself.
I. My buddies would get in my car withme, or 17, I'd be listening to AM Radio.
I was listening to Bruce Williams,if you know who Bruce Williams is.
He was a business guru thatwas on AM radio, and they're
like, dude, where's the music?
I'm like, no, I, I wanna,and I would listen to that.
I would watch on Sunday night,PBS, uh, a small business show
around businesses that are growing.
(37:24):
I just love, I love, I live for business.
I live for the art of what doyou do, how do you serve it?
And.
The downside of that is I'm alwaysasking what can we do to improve it?
And, and that's that, you know,mixed blessing of, I I, I'm
never complacent with, okay, weare doing it like this today.
(37:45):
I'm not saying it's wrong, butwhat can we do for that next
development or that next evolution?
Dr John Dentico (37:51):
It's funny.
One of the previous guests I had isArias WebsterBerry and s black man.
Hell of an upbringing,
RJ Grimshaw (37:58):
Yeah.
Dr John Dentico (37:59):
Both parents incarcerated at the, same time yet his mother got
out, took two jobs, put food on thetable, made his way, and he told me
this is a, I thought this was cool.
He said, you know, in my, in my littleroom where I live in, in my home, I didn't
have pictures of sports heroes on my wall.
I had pictures of CEOs of companies.
(38:22):
now today he's a verysuccessful entrepreneur.
You know, it's just, there's, a switch.
I don't know, I don't know what happens.
It just, it is, just shows up one day forcertain people in a, in a different way.
RJ Grimshaw (38:35):
Mm-hmm.
Dr John Dentico (38:36):
doesn't mean that whoever has sports heroes on
their woes doing anything wrong.
RJ Grimshaw (38:40):
Oh,
Dr John Dentico (38:40):
that's, it's just different.
It's just that's what it is.
RJ Grimshaw (38:44):
I, I was also a firm believer at a young age around mindset.
Tony Robbins.
Brian Tracy, I mean, Jim Rone.
I mean, it was so bad.
I was playing Jim Rohn teams to myhockey, to, I was playing Jim Rone tapes
to my hockey teams when I was coachingthem, trying to influence 10 year olds
and 11 year olds about vision, you know,how to vision and think differently.
Dr John Dentico (39:07):
Right.
RJ Grimshaw (39:07):
It is just, , but back to AI, it's, I really
think we're at a spot right now.
It will just continue to get fasterand faster of the haves and have nots.
And from a human perspective, I,I really want to focus on if it's
just one thing, learn how to prompt.
(39:29):
And what I mean by that of promptingis you have to have a persona of who
you are, who you're, , this is from asales and marketing perspective, okay?
I'm not talking about automation.
This is strictly sales and marketing, but.
, The way that we used it at Unifiedbefore it was common was we would take
a job description, we'd load in whowe were from a cultural perspective,
(39:53):
mission, vision, and then rewritethat job description to match.
And then we were also addingintrapreneurship mindset.
If you're a business owner and you arelooking for very talented individuals to
join your organization, and you're gonnaallow them to leverage their curiosity.
Just add that one little line.
Intrapreneurship mindset wanted.
Dr John Dentico (40:17):
I'll just, I'll tell you an interesting thing.
I just happened to run across this.
You talk about prompt, thepay scale for prompt engineers
right now is through the roof.
RJ Grimshaw (40:27):
see, I haven't even looked at that.
I'm, I'm just trying to help Joelearn how to drive these machines.
Dr John Dentico (40:33):
prompt engineers are being paid somewhere
north of $300,000 a year.
So learning prompts, uh, is, is vitalto how we make this system, make
AI systems, if you will, respond.
Uh,
RJ Grimshaw (40:50):
I, I wanna expand on that.
Dr John Dentico (40:53):
okay.
RJ Grimshaw (40:53):
I love that point and quite honestly, I've learned that I
did not realize that my messaging,though, is that's wonderful that
prompt engineer can do that.
However, if they don't have thecontextual knowledge of the business and
the industry and who they're serving.
You can be the greatest prompter inthe world, but your output's gonna be
(41:15):
not to the industry or who you are.
So there's a layer in there that peopleare missing because at the end of the
day, if you use I, again, Copilot,ChatGPT, , Salesforce, Einstein, it
doesn't matter what tool you're using.
Dr John Dentico (41:32):
Right.
RJ Grimshaw (41:33):
The differentiator is everyone's gonna have these tools.
It's how you're going to drivethese tools, which is gonna be the
difference maker for everyone involved.
At least today.
At least today.
Now, three years from now would probablybe something completely different.
But today, where we sit.
That's from a personal perspective,that's the number one thing
that people can focus on.
Don't worry about the different tools,because matter of fact, I've already built
(41:56):
a tool that you can put your task in andit'll tell you which model you wanna use.
But this is what I love when they'reat, when I present, they'll say,
how much is it for chat GPT $20?
And I'm talking to people thatearn six figures, mid six figures.
Oh geez.
I'm like $20.
It's two Starbucks lattes.
I guarantee that $20 is gonna give youa thousand percent return as soon as you
(42:21):
figure out and or learn how to use it.
Dr John Dentico (42:23):
Yep.
, I pride myself in the fact that I may notknow something today, but I'll know it.
RJ Grimshaw (42:29):
Mm-hmm.
Dr John Dentico (42:30):
And when I get my arms around it, I'll be really good at it.
Maybe not the best, but I'll be really,really good at it, and that's how I
see my future with, AI ChatGPT whatevertool I'm using in the next year or so.
RJ Grimshaw (42:43):
So my poor family, we've gotten to the point in my family that
before they come and ask me aquestion, they know my answer.
They do.
And my wife now is , Idon't need you anymore.
This thing's got all the answers.
I'm like, well, hon, thehuman is still needed.
(43:03):
Okay?
Because she has boughtin and this is a my wife.
Was a stay-at-home mom that workedher tail off while I'm all over the
place, working long hours, supportingtwo boys that play hockey, which is
a very demanding sport to support.
Okay.
And she has now bought in,she's like, I get this now.
Wow.
So she's redoing our kitchen, she'srunning through the deme, everything
(43:28):
through AI, what appliances?
And she's like, this is incredible.
I'm like.
Dr John Dentico (43:34):
can see it and now she can see it before it.
It is
RJ Grimshaw (43:39):
It is not RJ on this crazy hair brainin , look at these tools.
It's , okay, now I see.
I, now I understand it.
And just like yourself, everyonehas to have that aha moment.
And if you haven't had that aha momentyet, email me RJ at the A-I-C-E-O
and we will show you a couple thingsfor you to have that if you want to.
Dr John Dentico (44:03):
That's great.
So RJ, you, you led into this question.
I'm gonna, I'm gonna ask you thisquestion if I can, and we'll let this
be the last question, if that's okay.
Alright.
'cause we're getting close to the end.
One of the themes of my work this year is,or the major theme is the future of work.
(44:23):
Meaning is the new money.
Okay.
Do you think it is feasible or possiblefor people who may feel that technology
is overwhelming at times, like in AI?
, It's just so much coming at you allthe time to find meaning in this
technological world, and if so, howmight you advise them to do that?
RJ Grimshaw (44:48):
Wonderful question, and I have thought deeply on this and I
believe it's gonna come around community.
People are going to wantto feel part of something.
And I'm in a couple communitiesright now with AI that are,
I'm being introduced to people that Iwould've never, ever had the time of
(45:09):
day to talk to that are in this space.
And I'm building these relationshipsnow because it's different.
We talk different.
In AI it, we, we are, it's almoststrange to a certain degree, John,
because I have to change gears.
Like today when I go to lunchwith my attorney buddy, I, I have
(45:30):
to change gears and become morefocused on the human connection.
Because these AI tools, when youstart using them, you are completing
tasks at a much faster pace.
At a higher quality, you'regonna have free time.
So what's happening right now?
So yes, , I agree with that statement.
I fought hard about it, and it'sgoing to be around community and
(45:52):
the feeling of the purpose thatyou're serving the marketplace.
So if you're working for anorganization, rewind to what
we talked about 20 minutes ago.
And make sure you're alignedwith the organization.
When I joined Unify, the reason Ijoined Unify is at the bank of Ann
Arbor, who was the parent bank.
I was aligned with, community focused atthe time in 2013, social media focused.
(46:14):
I was big in social media, likethis is the difference, how
we're gonna grow our business.
A leader that was passionate andhad a motto of work hard, play
hard, that resonated with me.
Okay.
That I believe is going to becomethat much more important as we
continue down this road, this path.
You look at, or you look at things likeschool, which is a community where people
(46:38):
can go in and learn certain things.
There's free communities,there's big communities.
You look at Facebook groups, peoplewant to be around like-minded people
and feel a sense of community.
And if you're a leader of yourorganization, start thinking about
that, of how you can start developingthat within your organization.
(47:00):
And community is not, Hey,we're gonna all go to lunch at
Ruby Tuesday for a team lunch.
That's not connection,that's not community.
And don't be offended if everyonein your organization doesn't
want to buy in to community.
Some people wanna be left alone,show up, do their, that's okay too.
That's That's okay too.
But I,
Dr John Dentico (47:19):
I think, go ahead.
RJ Grimshaw (47:21):
no, I'm finished.
That's, that's what I believe.
Community.
Dr John Dentico (47:23):
yeah, I, you know, the, uh, my concern is leadership
and is it still important?
I think the answer ismay be more important now
RJ Grimshaw (47:34):
Mm-hmm.
Dr John Dentico (47:35):
it's ever been before.
provided you're using an idea ofleadership, that is part of people, giving
people the opportunity to participate,be involved, not just participate,
be involved in the future, directorof the organization, and in a sense
(47:55):
their own future direction as well.
RJ Grimshaw (47:58):
But, and I appreciate that, John, but you'd be shocked because I
believe with that a hundred percent,but you'd be shocked when you ask
people in your organization, I. Theirthoughts on One of the, one of the
things that we would always hear, 'causewe were always surveying our team,
was there's not enough communication.
(48:19):
Right?
I don't care who you, you ask anyemployee right now and they're what?
Not enough.
Well, what would you like to see?
What would you like to hear more of?
Nine outta 10 times.
People can't give you an answer.
They'll say, I don't know.
They just need to do it more.
And then we would have town hallsand give the presentation and
there'd be no crap questions.
And it's like, okay, youwant more communication?
(48:40):
I'm taking the time to build thisall out to make sure that it's
value and then it's crickets.
Dr John Dentico (48:47):
right.
Well, that's the importance of trust.
The ability of people to say, okay, I cansay whatever I want to say, or, I'm safe.
I'm safe to say whatever Isay, even if it, even if I'm in
gross disagreement with what theorganization is, is saying right now.
RJ Grimshaw (49:04):
I completely agree with you, the trust, and I'm not sure,
I love your opinion, how much trustis there right now in the workforce.
Dr John Dentico (49:11):
Well, we're living through what many
people call a trust deficit.
RJ Grimshaw (49:15):
Mm-hmm.
Dr John Dentico (49:17):
And, uh, trust is not a trait, by the way.
It's a value.
It's a value that people share.
And, um, I think, and here'sthe funny thing about trust.
you and I sat here for an hour,RJ, and spoke about trust, we
would never build any trust.
(49:38):
Trust is a byproduct of action.
So, for example, if, if someone saidto me, Hey John, you know, I really
need that report 10 o'clock on Tuesdaymorning, can you do that for me?
Sure.
9 45. I send them the report.
We've built a little trust,we've built a little trust
(49:58):
because I'm I. They can trust me.
They trusted me to getthem the report on time.
I got them the report on time.
We built a little trust,
RJ Grimshaw (50:06):
Mm-hmm.
Dr John Dentico (50:06):
that takes time.
It takes time to build that trustover, over a period of of time
RJ Grimshaw (50:13):
I have learned this and I'm gonna be extremely vulnerable.
I've learned that you can losethat trust in a heartbeat too.
Dr John Dentico (50:19):
Instantanously, right!
RJ Grimshaw (50:21):
So it takes years to earn or months to earn or whatever that time.
But with one action, one behavior,you can learn, lose it like that, and
it's gonna be that much more to earnit back if you ever earn it back.
Dr John Dentico (50:33):
When I was a naval officer, the thing I learned was that
trust was the fuel that drove ev theengine of my department or my division.
And, , you can lose it, andone way you can lose it is.
You only tell people the good newsand you never tell 'em the bad news.
RJ Grimshaw (50:50):
Mm-hmm.
Dr John Dentico (50:51):
tell 'em all the news.
RJ Grimshaw (50:52):
Mm-hmm.
Dr John Dentico (50:53):
You gotta be honest to the bone all the time.
You may not, , say, listen, I wishit was different, but this is what's
going on, they have to deal with it.
But they can never say he lied to me.
, He kept me in the dark.
He never said, uh, he never told us whatthe real issues of the real problems are.
I'm gonna kind of end it here if we can.
(51:15):
I want to thank you so verymuch for your time today.
I appreciate it very much here onthe Throttle Up Leadership Podcast.
I've had a wonderful time.
We may do this again in the future.
RJ Grimshaw (51:24):
Sure.
Dr John Dentico (51:24):
Um, I look forward to it.
So
RJ Grimshaw (51:27):
No, I, I'm humbled to be here.
I appreciate you giving me a, anavenue to be able to tie up this
conversation, which I felt wasextremely valuable for myself included.
I've learned from you duringthis time together and I look
forward to learning more.
I've already started following youmore from you because I think that
you have a lot to offer people ifthey're willing to take a time.
And learn.
(51:48):
And that's the other thing is, isI've found myself trying to structure
my days around learning, because ifI was all AI all the time, I forget
about the mindset, I forget aboutthe leadership, I forget about change
management and reading articlesbecause it can become overwhelming
and you have to have different pieces.
(52:08):
To make you a whole person or at leastattempt to, to work on that and the human
element and the trust and everything wetalked about and mindset's so important.
So I appreciate you allowing me tobe here to speak, and I look forward
to continuing our relationship.
Dr John Dentico (52:21):
Yeah, me too.
Uh, great to have you.
So listen, you have a wonderful
RJ Grimshaw (52:24):
Thanks,
Dr John Dentico (52:25):
thanks again for your time.
I appreciate it.
Welcome to the Throttle Up Leadership Podcast.
Our theme for 2025 is The Futureof Work: Meaning is the New Money!
In a world shaped by rapid innovation andconstant change the pursuit of purpose
and impact has never been more important.
I'm Dr John Dentico your host,bringing over 30 years of experience
(00:28):
in leadership, strategic thinkingand purpose-driven innovation.
Here we tackle the pressing challengesof our time-from the rise of
artificial intelligence to the growingneed for meaning in the workplace.
Together we'll uncover how leaderscan ethically integrate AI to enhance
decision-making and keep humanityat the heart of their organizations.
(00:51):
Remember amidst all thetechnological advancements in the
end, it's always about the people.
This podcast is your resource foractionable tools, thought provoking
discussions and inspiring stories.
It's time to go beyond leadershipdevelopment and focus on leadership
(01:11):
impact-creating workplaces where peoplethrive, innovation flourishes and
meaning truly becomes the new currency.
Thank you for joining me on this journey.
Now, let's Throttle Up anddive into today's episode.
Hello again and welcome to theThrottle Up Leadership Podcast.
, It's me again, Dr John DenticoWith me today is RJ Grimshaw.
(01:37):
RJ is known as The AI CEO,a passionate advocate for
intrapreneurship and business growth.
He has spent his career helpingcompanies scale by fostering
entrepreneurial mindsets.
Within organizations as the formerCEO of Unify Equipment Finance.
He led it from 14 million to 220million in earning assets, proving that
(02:04):
disciplined execution and innovationcan drive sustainable success.
He now focuses on empowering leaders andbusinesses to thrive in the AI driven
future leveraging his ABLE frameworkto turn uncertainty into measurable
growth, and I'm truly pleased andhonored to have him with me today.
(02:27):
Hello, RJ How are you?
RJ Grimshaw (02:29):
Hi, Dr. John.
I'm doing well, and I appreciate that.
I might record that, , entrythere, that intro and send it to
my mom to say, this is your son.
Can you treat me a little bit better?
Dr John Dentico (02:40):
Moms are tough.
RJ Grimshaw (02:41):
Moms are tough.
Dr John Dentico (02:42):
Believe me, they're
RJ Grimshaw (02:43):
But I wouldn't be Dr. John.
I would not be who I am todaywithout my mom being who she is.
Dr John Dentico (02:50):
Yep.
There you go.
RJ Grimshaw (02:51):
Yeah.
Dr John Dentico (02:52):
There you go.
So RJ I'm trying to add a littlebit of a, a personal touch
to, to my podcast this year.
So, here's the first question.
Tell me a bit about yourselfwhere did you grow up and in what
in your mind were some of thefundamental influences in your life?
RJ Grimshaw (03:10):
That's easy for me.
And I and I've told thisstory several times.
I feel, and as I, as I get older, yourealize this with self-reflection.
I feel blessed and fortunate that I wasborn into a family of entrepreneurs.
And I, at the time, I did notrealize that,, my parents,
(03:30):
both of them owned businesses.
My dad owned a large constructioncompany, a rigging company.
Matter of fact, his handwrittenbusiness plan hangs in my office
behind me from 1983, and it's a typicalbusiness plan that's written incursive.
Younger folks don't even know how towrite cursive anymore because of typing.
And to give you an idea, theinterest rates at the time when
(03:51):
they're seeking a loan was 12%.
So it's been interesting overthe last, couple years with , the
raise in rates, how businessowners have been affected by that.
And that's mindset in regards to,cashflow and things of that nature.
But back to your question, so I was ableto witness and watch what it takes to
be a successful entrepreneur, as well asthe challenges and the,, ups and downs.
(04:15):
And then at the, the age of 23,God bless my dad, rest in peace.
He made a decision to fund his23-year-old son to start a bar restaurant.
, And I learned on the job what it wasto become, an entrepreneur and we took
a vision of that bar restaurant andturned it from a non-revenue producing
(04:35):
asset to a million dollars in revenue.
And my brother, I ended up exitingthe business, but my brother ran it
for 20 years, over 20 years, whichis unheard of in that industry.
And, sold it and now livesin Las Vegas with his wife.
So that really set the groundwork formy entrepreneurship background primarily
(04:56):
because at the age of 30, I had to make aconscious decision,, that in 1999 my dad
passed away and I had to make a decision,John, if I wanted to go into corporate
America or continue this entrepreneurjourney that I was so passionate about,
and I fell into corporate America.
Then had a little bit of success, luckysuccess, luck around the right people,
and started as an individual contributoras a sales rep in over 13 years.
(05:21):
Again, luck, right time, rightposition, , worked my way up from a
individual contributor sales manager,National Sales manager, general manager,
director of sales, to ultimately CEO.
And that's really where I earn my MBA interms of running a corporate business,
, with a board and things of that nature.
And at the end of the day, I can, there'sreally two, three things that have, I
(05:45):
feel, have been instrumental in success.
And it, , that's a big word to define,uh, but the three things is my mindset
of being an intrapreneur and thinking,looking at things differently.
Second is the support and being surroundedby incredible people, on my teams.
And then third, the support of my wifeand my family to allow me to,, do what I
(06:05):
love doing because as and a lot of peopleknow, if you're chasing the corporate
ladder, you're gonna have to relocate.
And, a gentleman by the name of PaulLarkins told me that back in 2001, a
matter of fact, and I'll never forgetit, sitting at a dinner with him and , he
was the CEO of Key Equipment Finance,so a very big bank run finance company.
And he went around the, the tableand this is what we call today now,
(06:26):
emerging talent.. You're, you'vebeen identified as an up and comer
and, he asked this profound questionand it, and the question was.
He framed it John as, there'sno right or wrong, it's your
own personal journey here.
And he asked the question, are you willingto relocate for the right opportunity?
Went around the table, andat that time I said, yes.
(06:47):
Matter of fact, hell yesfor the right opportunity.
And , he said to the table, he said,well, again, there's no right or wrong.
However, if your ambition is toclimb the corporate ladder and lead
people and motivate people, youwill have to relocate to do that.
Because that's the way whereopportunities are going to come.
And I grew up in a small city inupstate New York,Oswego of New
(07:09):
York population, 12,000 people.
Matter of fact, it was on the nationalnews yesterday, John, because of the
amount of snow they've received, , inthe last week, they're in the snow belt.
So that's a long-winded story,but it really, it's found, it's
foundational of who I am today andwhy I am passionate about, more
importantly people than anything else.
It's the people that drive businessesthat have human interactions
(07:33):
with each other and I thinkthat we're at , a point of time,
that is,
people remember COVID people rememberother, you know, people remember
2001, people remember certainthings and I think right now we're
gonna look back and, and say, boy.
Um, I wish I would've taken the timeand not binge watch Netflix, but
(07:57):
to dive in and learn more about AI.
Dr John Dentico (08:00):
Yeah, I have a saying.
I would say my, my life revolves aroundnever be afraid to learn something new
RJ Grimshaw (08:06):
Well, that's the number one trait of an
entrepreneur is a life learner.
Dr John Dentico (08:10):
Yeah, that's right.
You don't know it today.
I'll know it tomorrow.
RJ Grimshaw (08:13):
Mm-hmm.
Dr John Dentico (08:13):
in a manner of speaking, so I, I appreciate that.
So let me ask you this, where youare right now, does your business
have a mission statement and wouldyou mind telling me, my listeners
and viewers, what that statement is?
RJ Grimshaw (08:25):
Yeah, the mission statement primarily is empowering
leaders with the proper tools.
Dr John Dentico (08:31):
Great, great.
One sentence.
I love it.
RJ Grimshaw (08:34):
It's, it's very, very concise and the challenge , when you have a,
line like that, it's very open-ended.
And I think the world that we live intoday, we all as leaders and humans have
to be open-minded and not just shut downon the new world of where we're headed.
And it's okay if you don'tbelieve we're headed there or
(08:55):
don't wanna leverage the tools.
Just understand you willbe impacted, , eventually.
And my goal here is not to scareanyone, it's just to try and shed
light and help people and, that, that'sprimarily why and why I landed here.
It's an interesting story that we'll getinto a little bit, but, it's interesting
times we live in, and I'm not talkingabout the political and the world things.
(09:16):
I'm just speaking from the human, as ahuman citizen here in the United States
that works within an organization or ontheir own,, the tools that are disposal
and back to the life learning curiosity.
John, now you have tools.
I can learn about anything I want towithin a, within five minutes, anything.
And.
I also have empathy for the peoplethat have learned and studied
(09:43):
to have this knowledge base.
And I understand now they feel,well, geez, you know, anyone
can have this knowledge base.
They're missing the point becauseat the end of the day, it's about
their contextual knowledge that theyhave to drive these machines and no
one can take that away from them.
Dr John Dentico (09:59):
Right.
and I'll just add this piece, uh, becauseof my work and leadership for over 30
years is having the knowledge is great.
What you do with that knowledge is inthe end the important thing, how you are
able to craft knowledge into practice issomething that I have spent a lot of years
(10:24):
working on and working with other people.
So let me move on if Ican to the next question.
I know that strategic thinking'simportant to you, so I want
to ask you this question.
How do you differentiate betweenstrategic thinking and strategic planning?
RJ Grimshaw (10:42):
That's a wonderful question, and I would say that I'm,
that is not one of my strengths.
It is.
It is.
When I really focus deep on it, I'man action guy, and if you look at
any assessment that I've taken overmy career, I have a high sense of
urgency, which is a mixed blessing.
What I mean by that is I have beenworking on, again, self-awareness
(11:04):
of taking a step back to think morestrategically versus taking that action.
Because when you are anentrepreneur, you read so many books.
Just take action failure's.
Okay?
Take action.
However, where we are today.
Where I have been studying over the lastsix months, which might seem like a short
period of time, but with this technologyis evolving at such a pace, it's very
(11:29):
difficult to keep up with everything.
And you tell me, I believe we're we, weare experiencing AI fatigue right now.
People are tired of hearing theterm AI so the way I position it
is I say, let's not talk about AI,Let's just talk about prompting.
It doesn't matter what AI tool youwill use in the future, it's all
(11:49):
about your contextual knowledge ofprompting to drive the outputs of these
machines, and that's just focus on that.
Dr John Dentico (11:57):
Yeah, it's interesting you should say that.
I'll, there's some comments here.
I differentiate the difference betweenstrategic planning and strategic
thinking this way, strategic planningand mostly in organizations, right?
You want to try to findanswers to questions, right?
There are questions, there aregoals set by the senior leaders.
(12:18):
Strategic thinking is allabout making sure you're asking
yourself the right questions.
RJ Grimshaw (12:23):
I love that.
Dr John Dentico (12:24):
Because if you're not, you're gonna go solve, you're gonna
throw money at stuff that doesn't matter.
Or doesn't matter as much as reallygetting to the, to what the real
issues are within an organization.
And as you well know, RJ.
As, as I like to say, the halls ofbusiness are lined with the carcasses of
businesses who never asked themselves thehard questions, the real hard questions.
(12:48):
So, and I think that's true for AI too,just in many respects as we're, launched,
if you will, into this whole world.
that's, that's one wayof, uh, looking at it.
RJ Grimshaw (12:59):
If you don't mind, I have a question for you.
Why do you think, whydo you think that is?
Is it, is it people are so setin their ways and distracted,
or are they just burnt out because ofeverything we've been through since
COVID and inflation and raising kids and.
Dr John Dentico (13:20):
I, uh, man, there's, that's a great question coming from you,
and I think there are several reasons.
Number one is I think sometimes people sthink if they, if they open up Pandora's
box find issues and difficulties, itmay almost be too hard , to fix it.
RJ Grimshaw (13:39):
Mm-hmm.
Dr John Dentico (13:39):
Okay.
It's too hard to fix it.
Let's not even go there.
All I'm trying to do is get to the nextquarterly earnings for the stock market.
RJ Grimshaw (13:50):
Yeah.
Dr John Dentico (13:51):
The second reason is, and a friend of mine told me this
one time, and it is absolutely trueif you are the CEO and you're making
significant amounts of money every year.
And you've got stock options andyou're just piling that stuff up
and you are really sailing, whywould you want to change anything?
RJ Grimshaw (14:11):
Well, uh.
Dr John Dentico (14:12):
you want to, why would you want to do anything to
your income stream or might want todo anything to your income stream?
I think that plays, you know, foryears we talked about what the golden
handshake or the golden parachutes ordifferent things like that from CEOs and
I, and they're still prevalent today.
I mean, you can, you can
RJ Grimshaw (14:32):
I,
Dr John Dentico (14:33):
go ahead.
RJ Grimshaw (14:34):
I walked away from that and you're right.
And I, from a human'sperspective, I can't blame them.
Because they have a fiduciaryresponsibility to their
family and who they are.
So it, the fine line though,and I know it's greed.
Right?
That's where I'm challenged by thatwhen you see a disparity between
leadership and the people who aremaking that leadership team successful.
Dr John Dentico (15:01):
I say, I have said for years that the difference, the,
the one difference that separates aleader from everybody else is they
simply wanna make a difference.
You can make all the money,you can do all these things.
Okay, fine.
And yes, you do have a fiduciaryresponsibility to your own
family, but the question is, doyou want to make a difference?
(15:25):
And I think people need to askthemselves that question more so
than anything else right now, atleast in the terms of leadership.
. Let's talk about, I want to talka bit about intrapreneurship.
RJ Grimshaw (15:39):
mm-hmm.
Dr John Dentico (15:40):
the world in which we live today.
Okay?
One of the main focus areas for methis year to encourage organizations
to put significant effort, excuse me,behind what I term rapid prototyping.
Okay., Especially since we now have amultitude of AI tools at our disposal.
(16:03):
I'd love to get yourreflection on that idea.
When you look at products and services,for example, that an organization
can bring to the market and you haveAI tools available, um, I'd love to
get your reflection on the value,if you will, of rapid prototyping.
, RJ Grimshaw (16:23):
I think that it's much needed and I firmly believe why we're
having this conversation today isbecause of my intrapreneurship mindset,
where I was always trying to lookinto new things before everyone else
was using them, because if everyoneelse is using the same tools, it's
a commodity at that perspective.
(16:43):
It's a, everyone has the same tools.
So growing up, I believe this, for growingup in a family of entrepreneurs, I had
to learn the skill of being resourceful.
Using the resources at mydisposal to accomplish what
I was trying to accomplish.
I think that's my, I knowthat that is my superpower.
(17:05):
Just like it's your superpowerversus saying, well, we've
always done it like this.
We're gonna continue to do it likethis, and we're gonna be complacent.
I'll tell you that there's beenchapters of my life that I've
been like that you need a breakto be complacent and reflect, but.
The world we live in today isnot the right time for that.
If you're a CEO or a leader ofan organization, or if you're
(17:26):
career-minded, right now is thetime to be to start learning.
However, be very selectful inwho you're learning from because
unfortunately, right now there's a lotof people that realize that they can
sell sizzle with nothing behind it.
And I see that all thetime, and that's where.
(17:47):
In my industry, which is equipmentfinancing and banking, i'm beating the
drum to say, before you make a decision,I won't even charge you for this.
Let me take a look at it.
'cause I have resources.
What was wonderful about this AIworld, I'm getting exposure to
people that are a lot smarter thanI am, that have been living in this
(18:09):
world a lot longer than we have.
that are willing to help, becausethink about the whole premise of
AI, The whole premise of AI isdecentralized information, data
where it's free to everyone andeveryone can use these if you want to.
Dr John Dentico (18:26):
If you are allowed to.
RJ Grimshaw (18:28):
Well, that's a whole nother conversation if you're
allowed to and, I am becomingmore and more vocal on this topic.
I spoke two weeks ago in front of agroup of 50 people in Minnesota, and I
did make this statement, and I've reallythought hard about this statement.
I would love your perspective on it.
I made this statement that if youare working inside of an organization
(18:49):
today that is suppressing AI toolsor there's no discussion around AI
literacy and copilot is not an AI tool.
Because if they, you just roll out copilotto people without the proper training of
how to drive copilot with the prompting.
And that's where, again,where I'm focusing my time.
You should start looking for anotherorganization or start taking time
(19:12):
to learn on your own because youare be, you will be left behind.
AI will not replace you.
Who will replace you?
John?
Dr John Dentico (19:21):
People who are familiar with and have, are now
working with AI Jensen Hwang, the CEOof Nvidia has says, , you don't have
to worry about AI taking your job.
You have to worry about someonewho understands AI and works
with AI taking your job.
And I think that'sabsolutely right on the mark.
RJ Grimshaw (19:42):
Mm-hmm.
Dr John Dentico (19:43):
right on the mark.
RJ Grimshaw (19:43):
Good.
Dr John Dentico (19:44):
let me reflect back to you.
On this.
If you, if the AI , aspect, if you'reworking in an organization and they're
turning a blind eye to ai, the developmentof ai, the integration of AI in the
work, uh, I would come at it from adifferent perspective, and this is on
(20:05):
the mission statement side of the house.
RJ Grimshaw (20:06):
Yeah.
Dr John Dentico (20:07):
If you are looking for an organization.
Um, and the first thing I would,and you're a job seeker and you're
looking to join an organization, thefirst thing I would tell you to do
is, uh, get their mission statement,out what their mission statement is.
Okay?
(20:28):
And you get one sentence
and.
Because the number one, uh, want of peoplein this multi-generational workforce
in the wake of the Covid pandemic isto work with an organization whose
values align with that individuals.
(20:50):
If this organization has sevenparagraphs for a mission statement.
Look someplace else.
Look someplace else, because they can'texpress to you what their value system is.
So how do you, how do they an, how dothey expect to bring someone into the
(21:12):
organization who and want their valuesto align with theirs if they themselves
can't articulate own value system?
What do you think of that idea?
RJ Grimshaw (21:23):
I think you're spot on and I've been speaking, when I talk around
the topic of intrapreneurship,, I'mvery consistent with the same message.
I maybe wasn't as direct, but I would,I. In the presentation, speak to if you
are identifying as an intrapreneur andyou have these traits, and it's amazing
(21:43):
to see people have that aha moment.
And then I say, let's lean intothat because that's your superpower.
I, John would say that if you are notaligned, if your values and who you
want to be are not aligned with yourcompany, find where you wanna go.
And maybe you don't have to go there rightaway, but start watching that company.
(22:06):
Fine, because my career I have picked,and I, I have, I'm always asked a
question around career development fromyounger, from emerging talent, and I'm
very adamant they around career path.
What's I, my company's notgiving me your career path.
I immediately say, why would you allowa company to give you a career path?
(22:27):
Why aren't you dictatingwhere you want to go?
And guess what, it's notgonna be a straight line.
I live that and I'm speakingfrom real life experience.
I took a role with a company thatI was drastically undercompensated,
and my wife, almost like you, weare not, why are we doing this?
(22:48):
And I said, hun has nothingto do about the compensation.
It has everything to do aboutthe knowledge base that I'm going
to obtain in this role that willhelp me get to where we wanna go.
And that's a CEO role.
People don't think like that and peopledon't, and I was fortunate enough
to have a lifestyle that I can makethose decisions just like right now.
(23:09):
I made a conscious decision inOctober, 2023 to leave a amazing
job, which was my dream job.
At the time I had noidea why I was doing it.
Now I know why, because in Februaryof last year, I spoke in California
around innovation, and my messageduring that time was not AI focused.
(23:33):
It was focused around who drivesinnovation within your organization.
And we did a study in regards to Googlesearch terms innovation was searched
10 times more than the innovator.
So people are trying to shortcutinnovation to find the secret sauce
and they're missing the most criticalpiece and element of their success,
(23:56):
which is the human being who's theinnovator, and that is your entrepreneur.
And now with these tools,
it's 10 x, it's a hundred x.
Dr John Dentico (24:06):
it's amazing, , a lot of the secrets are not secrets.
They're just right in front of people.
You just have to lookat it and embrace it.
And say, this is, thisis what I need to do.
You know, when you talk aboutintrapreneurship and you talk about
developing the innovation in anorganization, I tell people a lot
(24:26):
of my podcasts, they're probablygetting tired of me saying this, but,
but uh, my leadership model that Istarted developing 30 years ago has
one premise, and that premise is builton one foundation, one piece, one
principle and that is contribution.
RJ Grimshaw (24:43):
Uh.
Dr John Dentico (24:44):
Who here we have a problem.
have, uh, an issue that's before us.
got any ideas?
Anybody wanna help?
Who wants to jump inhere and work with us?
You know, step up, stepin, let's go together.
That kind of a thing.
And it puts aside all I make.
As a trainer, for example, I make nojudgements about people in the room.
(25:06):
I never have.
I never will.
It's all about, here's I, you putpeople in a room, I train 'em.
That's just the way it is.
So, you know, and that'swhat people expect me to do.
And, and so the, so the goal is , tocreate an environment where people come
to do their best work every single day.
It's simple to say that, but it'ssometimes it's very difficult to implement
RJ Grimshaw (25:28):
So that's where I and I, I completely agree with that.
And that's where we were go, that'swhere I thought I was headed.
I was developing what I call theintrapreneur operating system.
So everyone's heard of EOS.
Great book.
Amazing framework.
What I was doing and what I was speakingabout and starting to build out was how
(25:48):
does an organization implement this intotheir culture where you have free ideas
sharing, because there's many stats.
Two.
Two main stats.
One, and it doesn't matterwhere you read the stat or.
There's a high percentage ofindividuals that come into work on
a daily basis and are unengaged.
They're un, they're just unengagedto no fault of their own.
(26:10):
They're just unengaged.
So that's the first area.
The second thing is you have to allow thepeople that are in the trenches on a daily
basis, an avenue a vehicle to share theirideas because 75% of these folks have
ideas that will improve your organization.
However, there's fear of messingup by providing that, or there's
(26:32):
a fear of being blackballed orthere's a fear of, well, they don't
get it and they're out at unified.
We developed over time because Mo,let's be honest, most CEOs or business
owners, we think we're Superman.
We've all gone through.
I can do it.
I can, I can handle that.
I know it all.
Okay.
And as soon as you realize youdon't know it all and you want to
(26:54):
see other people foster in thatenvironment, it's game changing.
However, the other big thing thattakes place in corporate America
or in business or in life isaccountability and responsibility.
And I know we're not here to talkabout that, but , most people don't
like accountability, myself included.
I don't wanna be held accountable frommy wife or my family, or my, my boss.
(27:16):
We all have bosses, right?
So back to your strategic thinking ofthinking back, reverse engineering if
you're a CEO or business leader, reverseengineer that to the accountability as
you, as a leader, what you're doing foryour organization right now, and the
responsibility off of that accountability.
Dr John Dentico (27:33):
Yeah, I,
RJ Grimshaw (27:35):
Okay.
Dr John Dentico (27:35):
using this, uh, in presentations and in podcasts lately
because, and knew you've talked about it,the Superman, the, the CEO is Superman.
I, I kind of take just a bitof a different take on it.
I said what we've done over the courseof the last 60 or 70 years is to create
CEOs in the image of Jedi Knights.
(27:58):
With the hope that you know, anyissue or problem that appears before
the organization, they'll come down,brandish their light sword drive away
the problems, deal with the problems.
And what I tell people today iswith the world as, as it's changing
the aftermath of COVID and peopleno longer just wanting a paycheck.
Wanting values alignment, wanting tobe involved in the decision making
(28:21):
processes of the organization.
CEOs today have to really startthinking of themselves more like Yoda.
RJ Grimshaw (28:28):
Mm-hmm.
Dr John Dentico (28:29):
the idea is that your job is to raise a generation of Jedi Knights
to do the work, to take on the challenges.
And be there for your folks becauseyou are the facilitator, you are the
teacher, you are the one that createsthe environment where they can learn.
So that, we had a saving in the Navy andthat was a rising tide lifts all boats.
(28:53):
And that's what you're trying to do.
You're trying to create this risingtide so that everybody comes along
together and with the capability.
To deal with issues thatchange daily, in many respects.
So I, I think that's an issue that, thatpeople are gonna have to get around and
(29:14):
start accepting and seeing themselves,CEOs of, of large organizations, medium
sized organizations, Encumbered, uh,the large ones, of course, encumbered
by the fear based model of bureaucracy.
A lot of people don't know thatbureaucracy was built on fear.
RJ Grimshaw (29:32):
And lack of knowledge and lack of tools and lack of knowledge and,
and 'cause let me tell you, and, and Iknow we're not again talking about this,
but if you really think about this AI,, these tools have been around forever.
However, only a limitedfew had access to these.
So the fear of all these toolsdon't work or they hallucinate.
(29:56):
Yes, they do.
They're only gonna get better,and that's where the human
element comes in to drive these.
Now where it's gonna gofive years, I have no idea.
I'm on this train withyou, so I'm not a futurist.
I try and ask the right questions, butI remain open and curious, and then
I have to make a decision of is itgoing to be doomsday or are we gonna
(30:18):
be in a better society as humans?
But it comes back to the ethicalpiece, which is a big word.
Everyone wants to talk about it.
And I always go to, just likewith AI let's focus on one thing.
When someone says, let, well, whatabout the ethical piece of it?
Okay, what part of that , wouldwe like to focus on and discuss?
(30:39):
And that leads to it.
I would love to know from yourperspective, have you leaned into
AI or what do, what is your thoughtson these tools and how are you
using them or aren't you using them?
Dr John Dentico (30:52):
I was very resistant up until a couple of months ago.
I'll be honest about it, about threemonths ago, um, I joined a group here
in where I live, uh, a local group ofthe National Speakers Association, and,
uh, just to get more information to meetsome people and to find out, , and to
(31:13):
explore how I can be a better speaker.
And it was at the first meetingwhere I met,, there were only
about a handful of us where theysaid, , I expressed some ideas.
And they said, oh listen, youshould go get a ChatGPT account
and pay 20 bucks a month.
And, uh, you can kind of do somepretty magical things with it.
I said, you know what, I'm gonna jump in.
(31:34):
I did.
I got my $20 account and I started feedingit, and I, I'll be honest with you, I shut
off the piece that says Train the rest of
RJ Grimshaw (31:44):
Rightfully so.
You should do that.
You should do that.
Dr John Dentico (31:47):
I shut it off.
I said, I'm gonna build alittle bit of a wall here.
Okay.
So then I, I uploaded my book.
PDFI uploaded several documents,what's called SRT files, which are
the subtitle files from podcasts.
And I filled it full of stuff.
And, uh, I was looking at a speakingopportunity and I said, okay, why don't
(32:10):
you go take a look at this website?
And ChatGPT ran out, took a look at thewebsite, came back and said, okay, got it.
I said, let's put a speaking op.
Let's put something together.
So it did.
Hey, how about a bio?
Can you do, let's, let'swork the bio problem.
And I, and I prompted, it, comeback, no, I want to add this piece.
Uh, okay, no, that's no good.
(32:31):
Take this out.
Okay.
Put this in.
, I got notified two days ago.
I, I got that speaking opportunity.
Bingo.
And then , another one.
I did the same thing.
It, it was actually earlier than this one.
The one that I, the, the mostrecent one that I submitted, um,
was more, um, it was smoother.
(32:55):
It was
RJ Grimshaw (32:56):
Well you're, it goes back to the persona that I can help you with
in terms of building out your persona.
'cause there's amazing tools.
Are you using Notebook, LMM or Notebook?
Lm.
Dr John Dentico (33:07):
I've heard of it, but I'm not using it
RJ Grimshaw (33:09):
I could shoot a video and show you.
So what I've done is I've taken all ofmy persona, every podcast I've ever done,
every YouTube took every transcript.
I put it , into that to start buildingout tools for myself as well as building
out RJs persona of the way that I speak.
And now I can put that into mybusiness development persona.
And I have, I probably havea half dozen chat GPTs.
Dr John Dentico (33:31):
to take a look at it.
I
RJ Grimshaw (33:32):
Yeah.
Dr John Dentico (33:32):
a look at it.
One of the things I'm doing now is, uh,when I wrote my book, it took me four
years and four months to write my book.
It was because it's
RJ Grimshaw (33:40):
Painful.
Dr John Dentico (33:41):
i, it was very painful.
It was very painful.
It was not a labor of love, Iwill tell you that right now.
But it was more a duty, I feltlike I needed to complete a duty
to, to get it on the street.
But anyway, I had several reviewsdone of it, and one person
said, this is a master's degreeof, , of leadership in one book.
(34:02):
Is basically,
RJ Grimshaw (34:03):
Wow.
Dr John Dentico (34:03):
technical in a lot of the things.
So I have really, I believe anyway,I have really, really good content.
So
RJ Grimshaw (34:10):
Mm-hmm.
Dr John Dentico (34:10):
now in, in the next several months is I'm going
to put a series of, online courseson Udemi and I'm going to use.
Uh, my AI tools to help meorchestrate the outlines.
(34:32):
Uh, the modules, uh, anddifferent things like that in
order to speed the process along.
I'll do, I'll probably do a lotof manual kinds of things like
adding motion graphics and stuff.
Although I, I have an account on VEEDnow put in suspense for a bit, but I,
because I, I like building it myself.
(34:53):
I, , there's, I'm like theclay modeling kind of guy.
I like to take the motion graphicsand mix and, and match them myself.
And I think I can do a littlebit better job there, make it
more interesting, we'll see.
RJ Grimshaw (35:04):
So I would like to, I would like to expand on that.
Two things.
We've talked a lot about corporateAmerica and I would say that my North
Star really isn't corporate America.
It's the people within corporate America.
It's not corporate America itself.
I feel my mission is to help theDavids of the world to compete
against the Goliath, and I'vealways been like that at Unify out.
(35:26):
We were the small company competingagainst Huntington and the big companies
and I've been in the space of financewhere you're responding to RFPs and you're
doing seven, $10 million transactions.
At the end of the day, you're helpingpeople, but really what I get excited
about is when I go and, and you know,when I was CEO at Unify and meet with
a client and they start telling methere's backstory of how they arrived
(35:49):
the way they did and how we help.
That's where I get goosebumps.
Nothing that not, it is likebecause of us, we helped you.
Which reflection andpeople forget about this.
Not only did we help thatcompany, we helped their family.
And when I was leading at Unify one ofmy mantras at Unify was, when you make a
conscious decision, and we all have thisduring the day, you're not only affecting
(36:15):
yourself and our team, guess what?
You're affecting the extended familyof your team, which is so-and-so's
husband, my wife, by your action.
To make a conscious decision notto do what you're supposed to do,
and as soon as you start bringingit out, it becomes more personal.
Dr John Dentico (36:31):
Right.
And it gets, it, it getsmore important to people.
It
RJ Grimshaw (36:35):
Mm-hmm.
, Dr John Dentico (36:35):
People start accepting it here,, that, it aches here to make
sure you're doing the right thing.
So I appreciate that
RJ Grimshaw (36:42):
Yeah.
Dr John Dentico (36:42):
Um, um,
RJ Grimshaw (36:44):
And I appreciate you John, telling me that you are
reluctant and that's we all are.
I'm just a weirdo that likes to, if it,if there's something new, I wanna know
about it and I wanna learn about it.
And I would do that on my own time.
, I'll back up.
You asked me where I came from.
I was, when I was 16years old, back in 1985.
(37:04):
I guess I just dated myself.
I. My buddies would get in my car withme, or 17, I'd be listening to AM Radio.
I was listening to Bruce Williams,if you know who Bruce Williams is.
He was a business guru thatwas on AM radio, and they're
like, dude, where's the music?
I'm like, no, I, I wanna,and I would listen to that.
I would watch on Sunday night,PBS, uh, a small business show
around businesses that are growing.
(37:24):
I just love, I love, I live for business.
I live for the art of what doyou do, how do you serve it?
And.
The downside of that is I'm alwaysasking what can we do to improve it?
And, and that's that, you know,mixed blessing of, I I, I'm
never complacent with, okay, weare doing it like this today.
(37:45):
I'm not saying it's wrong, butwhat can we do for that next
development or that next evolution?
Dr John Dentico (37:51):
It's funny.
One of the previous guests I had isArias WebsterBerry and s black man.
Hell of an upbringing,
RJ Grimshaw (37:58):
Yeah.
Dr John Dentico (37:59):
Both parents incarcerated at the, same time yet his mother got
out, took two jobs, put food on thetable, made his way, and he told me
this is a, I thought this was cool.
He said, you know, in my, in my littleroom where I live in, in my home, I didn't
have pictures of sports heroes on my wall.
I had pictures of CEOs of companies.
(38:22):
now today he's a verysuccessful entrepreneur.
You know, it's just, there's, a switch.
I don't know, I don't know what happens.
It just, it is, just shows up one day forcertain people in a, in a different way.
RJ Grimshaw (38:35):
Mm-hmm.
Dr John Dentico (38:36):
doesn't mean that whoever has sports heroes on
their woes doing anything wrong.
RJ Grimshaw (38:40):
Oh,
Dr John Dentico (38:40):
that's, it's just different.
It's just that's what it is.
RJ Grimshaw (38:44):
I, I was also a firm believer at a young age around mindset.
Tony Robbins.
Brian Tracy, I mean, Jim Rone.
I mean, it was so bad.
I was playing Jim Rohn teams to myhockey, to, I was playing Jim Rone tapes
to my hockey teams when I was coachingthem, trying to influence 10 year olds
and 11 year olds about vision, you know,how to vision and think differently.
Dr John Dentico (39:07):
Right.
RJ Grimshaw (39:07):
It is just, , but back to AI, it's, I really
think we're at a spot right now.
It will just continue to get fasterand faster of the haves and have nots.
And from a human perspective, I,I really want to focus on if it's
just one thing, learn how to prompt.
(39:29):
And what I mean by that of promptingis you have to have a persona of who
you are, who you're, , this is from asales and marketing perspective, okay?
I'm not talking about automation.
This is strictly sales and marketing, but.
, The way that we used it at Unifiedbefore it was common was we would take
a job description, we'd load in whowe were from a cultural perspective,
(39:53):
mission, vision, and then rewritethat job description to match.
And then we were also addingintrapreneurship mindset.
If you're a business owner and you arelooking for very talented individuals to
join your organization, and you're gonnaallow them to leverage their curiosity.
Just add that one little line.
Intrapreneurship mindset wanted.
Dr John Dentico (40:17):
I'll just, I'll tell you an interesting thing.
I just happened to run across this.
You talk about prompt, thepay scale for prompt engineers
right now is through the roof.
RJ Grimshaw (40:27):
see, I haven't even looked at that.
I'm, I'm just trying to help Joelearn how to drive these machines.
Dr John Dentico (40:33):
prompt engineers are being paid somewhere
north of $300,000 a year.
So learning prompts, uh, is, is vitalto how we make this system, make
AI systems, if you will, respond.
Uh,
RJ Grimshaw (40:50):
I, I wanna expand on that.
Dr John Dentico (40:53):
okay.
RJ Grimshaw (40:53):
I love that point and quite honestly, I've learned that I
did not realize that my messaging,though, is that's wonderful that
prompt engineer can do that.
However, if they don't have thecontextual knowledge of the business and
the industry and who they're serving.
You can be the greatest prompter inthe world, but your output's gonna be
(41:15):
not to the industry or who you are.
So there's a layer in there that peopleare missing because at the end of the
day, if you use I, again, Copilot,ChatGPT, , Salesforce, Einstein, it
doesn't matter what tool you're using.
Dr John Dentico (41:32):
Right.
RJ Grimshaw (41:33):
The differentiator is everyone's gonna have these tools.
It's how you're going to drivethese tools, which is gonna be the
difference maker for everyone involved.
At least today.
At least today.
Now, three years from now would probablybe something completely different.
But today, where we sit.
That's from a personal perspective,that's the number one thing
that people can focus on.
Don't worry about the different tools,because matter of fact, I've already built
(41:56):
a tool that you can put your task in andit'll tell you which model you wanna use.
But this is what I love when they'reat, when I present, they'll say,
how much is it for chat GPT $20?
And I'm talking to people thatearn six figures, mid six figures.
Oh geez.
I'm like $20.
It's two Starbucks lattes.
I guarantee that $20 is gonna give youa thousand percent return as soon as you
(42:21):
figure out and or learn how to use it.
Dr John Dentico (42:23):
Yep.
, I pride myself in the fact that I may notknow something today, but I'll know it.
RJ Grimshaw (42:29):
Mm-hmm.
Dr John Dentico (42:30):
And when I get my arms around it, I'll be really good at it.
Maybe not the best, but I'll be really,really good at it, and that's how I
see my future with, AI ChatGPT whatevertool I'm using in the next year or so.
RJ Grimshaw (42:43):
So my poor family, we've gotten to the point in my family that
before they come and ask me aquestion, they know my answer.
They do.
And my wife now is , Idon't need you anymore.
This thing's got all the answers.
I'm like, well, hon, thehuman is still needed.
(43:03):
Okay?
Because she has boughtin and this is a my wife.
Was a stay-at-home mom that workedher tail off while I'm all over the
place, working long hours, supportingtwo boys that play hockey, which is
a very demanding sport to support.
Okay.
And she has now bought in,she's like, I get this now.
Wow.
So she's redoing our kitchen, she'srunning through the deme, everything
(43:28):
through AI, what appliances?
And she's like, this is incredible.
I'm like.
Dr John Dentico (43:34):
can see it and now she can see it before it.
It is
RJ Grimshaw (43:39):
It is not RJ on this crazy hair brainin , look at these tools.
It's , okay, now I see.
I, now I understand it.
And just like yourself, everyonehas to have that aha moment.
And if you haven't had that aha momentyet, email me RJ at the A-I-C-E-O
and we will show you a couple thingsfor you to have that if you want to.
Dr John Dentico (44:03):
That's great.
So RJ, you, you led into this question.
I'm gonna, I'm gonna ask you thisquestion if I can, and we'll let this
be the last question, if that's okay.
Alright.
'cause we're getting close to the end.
One of the themes of my work this year is,or the major theme is the future of work.
(44:23):
Meaning is the new money.
Okay.
Do you think it is feasible or possiblefor people who may feel that technology
is overwhelming at times, like in AI?
, It's just so much coming at you allthe time to find meaning in this
technological world, and if so, howmight you advise them to do that?
RJ Grimshaw (44:48):
Wonderful question, and I have thought deeply on this and I
believe it's gonna come around community.
People are going to wantto feel part of something.
And I'm in a couple communitiesright now with AI that are,
I'm being introduced to people that Iwould've never, ever had the time of
(45:09):
day to talk to that are in this space.
And I'm building these relationshipsnow because it's different.
We talk different.
In AI it, we, we are, it's almoststrange to a certain degree, John,
because I have to change gears.
Like today when I go to lunchwith my attorney buddy, I, I have
(45:30):
to change gears and become morefocused on the human connection.
Because these AI tools, when youstart using them, you are completing
tasks at a much faster pace.
At a higher quality, you'regonna have free time.
So what's happening right now?
So yes, , I agree with that statement.
I fought hard about it, and it'sgoing to be around community and
(45:52):
the feeling of the purpose thatyou're serving the marketplace.
So if you're working for anorganization, rewind to what
we talked about 20 minutes ago.
And make sure you're alignedwith the organization.
When I joined Unify, the reason Ijoined Unify is at the bank of Ann
Arbor, who was the parent bank.
I was aligned with, community focused atthe time in 2013, social media focused.
(46:14):
I was big in social media, likethis is the difference, how
we're gonna grow our business.
A leader that was passionate andhad a motto of work hard, play
hard, that resonated with me.
Okay.
That I believe is going to becomethat much more important as we
continue down this road, this path.
You look at, or you look at things likeschool, which is a community where people
(46:38):
can go in and learn certain things.
There's free communities,there's big communities.
You look at Facebook groups, peoplewant to be around like-minded people
and feel a sense of community.
And if you're a leader of yourorganization, start thinking about
that, of how you can start developingthat within your organization.
(47:00):
And community is not, Hey,we're gonna all go to lunch at
Ruby Tuesday for a team lunch.
That's not connection,that's not community.
And don't be offended if everyonein your organization doesn't
want to buy in to community.
Some people wanna be left alone,show up, do their, that's okay too.
That's That's okay too.
But I,
Dr John Dentico (47:19):
I think, go ahead.
RJ Grimshaw (47:21):
no, I'm finished.
That's, that's what I believe.
Community.
Dr John Dentico (47:23):
yeah, I, you know, the, uh, my concern is leadership
and is it still important?
I think the answer ismay be more important now
RJ Grimshaw (47:34):
Mm-hmm.
Dr John Dentico (47:35):
it's ever been before.
provided you're using an idea ofleadership, that is part of people, giving
people the opportunity to participate,be involved, not just participate,
be involved in the future, directorof the organization, and in a sense
(47:55):
their own future direction as well.
RJ Grimshaw (47:58):
But, and I appreciate that, John, but you'd be shocked because I
believe with that a hundred percent,but you'd be shocked when you ask
people in your organization, I. Theirthoughts on One of the, one of the
things that we would always hear, 'causewe were always surveying our team,
was there's not enough communication.
(48:19):
Right?
I don't care who you, you ask anyemployee right now and they're what?
Not enough.
Well, what would you like to see?
What would you like to hear more of?
Nine outta 10 times.
People can't give you an answer.
They'll say, I don't know.
They just need to do it more.
And then we would have town hallsand give the presentation and
there'd be no crap questions.
And it's like, okay, youwant more communication?
(48:40):
I'm taking the time to build thisall out to make sure that it's
value and then it's crickets.
Dr John Dentico (48:47):
right.
Well, that's the importance of trust.
The ability of people to say, okay, I cansay whatever I want to say, or, I'm safe.
I'm safe to say whatever Isay, even if it, even if I'm in
gross disagreement with what theorganization is, is saying right now.
RJ Grimshaw (49:04):
I completely agree with you, the trust, and I'm not sure,
I love your opinion, how much trustis there right now in the workforce.
Dr John Dentico (49:11):
Well, we're living through what many
people call a trust deficit.
RJ Grimshaw (49:15):
Mm-hmm.
Dr John Dentico (49:17):
And, uh, trust is not a trait, by the way.
It's a value.
It's a value that people share.
And, um, I think, and here'sthe funny thing about trust.
you and I sat here for an hour,RJ, and spoke about trust, we
would never build any trust.
(49:38):
Trust is a byproduct of action.
So, for example, if, if someone saidto me, Hey John, you know, I really
need that report 10 o'clock on Tuesdaymorning, can you do that for me?
Sure.
9 45. I send them the report.
We've built a little trust,we've built a little trust
(49:58):
because I'm I. They can trust me.
They trusted me to getthem the report on time.
I got them the report on time.
We built a little trust,
RJ Grimshaw (50:06):
Mm-hmm.
Dr John Dentico (50:06):
that takes time.
It takes time to build that trustover, over a period of of time
RJ Grimshaw (50:13):
I have learned this and I'm gonna be extremely vulnerable.
I've learned that you can losethat trust in a heartbeat too.
Dr John Dentico (50:19):
Instantanously, right!
RJ Grimshaw (50:21):
So it takes years to earn or months to earn or whatever that time.
But with one action, one behavior,you can learn, lose it like that, and
it's gonna be that much more to earnit back if you ever earn it back.
Dr John Dentico (50:33):
When I was a naval officer, the thing I learned was that
trust was the fuel that drove ev theengine of my department or my division.
And, , you can lose it, andone way you can lose it is.
You only tell people the good newsand you never tell 'em the bad news.
RJ Grimshaw (50:50):
Mm-hmm.
Dr John Dentico (50:51):
tell 'em all the news.
RJ Grimshaw (50:52):
Mm-hmm.
Dr John Dentico (50:53):
You gotta be honest to the bone all the time.
You may not, , say, listen, I wishit was different, but this is what's
going on, they have to deal with it.
But they can never say he lied to me.
, He kept me in the dark.
He never said, uh, he never told us whatthe real issues of the real problems are.
I'm gonna kind of end it here if we can.
(51:15):
I want to thank you so verymuch for your time today.
I appreciate it very much here onthe Throttle Up Leadership Podcast.
I've had a wonderful time.
We may do this again in the future.
RJ Grimshaw (51:24):
Sure.
Dr John Dentico (51:24):
Um, I look forward to it.
So
RJ Grimshaw (51:27):
No, I, I'm humbled to be here.
I appreciate you giving me a, anavenue to be able to tie up this
conversation, which I felt wasextremely valuable for myself included.
I've learned from you duringthis time together and I look
forward to learning more.
I've already started following youmore from you because I think that
you have a lot to offer people ifthey're willing to take a time.
And learn.
(51:48):
And that's the other thing is, isI've found myself trying to structure
my days around learning, because ifI was all AI all the time, I forget
about the mindset, I forget aboutthe leadership, I forget about change
management and reading articlesbecause it can become overwhelming
and you have to have different pieces.
(52:08):
To make you a whole person or at leastattempt to, to work on that and the human
element and the trust and everything wetalked about and mindset's so important.
So I appreciate you allowing me tobe here to speak, and I look forward
to continuing our relationship.
Dr John Dentico (52:21):
Yeah, me too.
Uh, great to have you.
So listen, you have a wonderful
RJ Grimshaw (52:24):
Thanks,
Dr John Dentico (52:25):
thanks again for your time.
I appreciate it.
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