November 5, 2025 • 34 mins
Want to win premium customers and sleep better at night? We dig into how going an inch wide and a mile deep beats boiling the ocean—especially when you pair focused strategy with agentic AI that does real work. Our guest, John Long of thynk.ai, traces an unexpected journey from real estate and HVAC to machine learning and sales orchestration, showing how clarity of purpose turns scattered efforts into compounding momentum. Along the way, we break down the anatomy of a working AI agent: natural conversation on calls and text, fast persona tuning, clean handoffs, and tight integrations that check inventory, quote prices, schedule appointments, and follow up for reviews.
The story gets concrete inside a single vertical: autoglass. John explains why answering first is everything in service businesses, and how replacing IVR mazes with an always‑on, brand‑voiced agent changes conversion math for solo operators and multi‑location teams alike. We talk about the real wins—hours returned to evenings with family, CSRs freed to greet customers and handle edge cases, owners who stop chasing missed calls—and the leadership discipline that enables them: pick a niche with enough mass, say no to distractions, and build so deeply that customers feel understood before they speak. That’s how you earn loyalty and command premium pricing without apology.
We also tackle adoption pitfalls. Off‑the‑shelf tools can be a great demo and a painful implementation. The difference is orchestration and outcomes: define the endpoint, map the journey, and integrate the stack so conversations translate into booked work. Think “Iron Man suit” for your team—technology that multiplies strengths while it takes on the repetitive, time‑sensitive tasks that fragment attention. Don’t fear the future; run at it with intent. If this conversation helps you rethink your ICP or your front office, share it with a friend, subscribe for more candid playbooks, and leave a review to tell us what you’d automate first.
This podcast is proudly sponsored by USC Annenberg’s Master of Science in Digital Media Management (MSDMM) program. An online master’s designed to prepare practitioners to understand the evolving media landscape, make data-driven and ethical decisions, and build a more equitable future by leading diverse teams with the technical, artistic, analytical, and production skills needed to create engaging content and technologies for the global marketplace. Learn more or apply today at https://dmm.usc.edu.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_02 (00:00):
If you can go deep on a problem and you can go to a
customer and say, look, weunderstand your world so well
that we can solve problems thatyou didn't even know you had.
And let me show you.
And if you can, if you can thentake that customer on a journey
through your product and theygo, Oh my gosh, you really do
know my world so well.
You've solved everything that Icould possibly think of and
(00:22):
more, then you could have apremium product.
You can charge a premium price,and they're going to be very,
very happy with you.
They're not going to gosomewhere else.
And the competition is gone.
SPEAKER_01 (00:34):
Welcome to Media Escape Insights from Digital
Changemakers, a speaker seriesand podcast brought to you by
USC Annenberg's Digital MediaManagement Program.
Join us as we unlock the secretsto success in an increasingly
digital world.
SPEAKER_00 (00:54):
John Long of Think AI.
Welcome to the Mediascapepodcast.
I'm thrilled today to unlock alittle bit about AI, but also
talk about your background.
This is we're at this reallyinteresting time in our lives
and in our businesses.
SPEAKER_02 (01:11):
Yeah, no, excited to be with you.
Thank you so much for having meon, and thank you for uh for
putting this together for all ofyour listeners.
So it's it's wonderful.
SPEAKER_00 (01:20):
Well, let's let's talk about your background first
before you started to think, andthat's T H-Y-N-K, which is a
brilliant name, easy toremember, and it's what we want
to do, right, when we're usingAI tools.
You you started out, you have anMBA, and you your bachelor's was
in business management andentrepreneurship.
(01:40):
Did you want to be anentrepreneur?
Did you think you were going towork for a corporation?
SPEAKER_02 (01:47):
Yeah, so I've I've done both, but definitely
started off on anentrepreneurial path right out
of college.
Um, and I've got kind of a funnybackground for a guy running an
AI company, but I'll share itwith you quickly.
Uh, right out of college, Istarted a real estate investing
company.
And uh, we were doing fix andflips and all sorts of things in
the real estate space.
Did that for a number of years.
(02:08):
And then uh in 2008, when theeconomy really kind of took a
nosedive, I started a heatingand air conditioning company,
which uh again, a little bitunique background for an AI guy,
but uh was an entrepreneur,right, and loved business and
and uh knew that there wasopportunities in those areas.
Um, did that for a couple ofyears and then made a shift away
from entrepreneurship a littlebit and into the tech sector as
(02:32):
an employee, uh not running thecompany, um, but kind of a an
entrepreneurial pursuit within abusiness.
And so I worked with a companywhere they were starting up a
brand new division, uh attackinga brand new vertical, and was
able to help them build out uhsome software and uh and attack
this new vertical.
Um eventually ended up in amachine learning leadership role
(02:53):
uh within that organization.
Uh we had a and for those thataren't familiar with machine
learning, it's a form of AI.
Um, but we were essentiallyteaching computers to look at
aerial imagery and then createthree-dimensional drawings of
the buildings.
And so we were teaching thecomputers to do this work that
it would take humans hours todo, and they were able to do it
in minutes.
So that was my firstintroduction into AI.
(03:14):
That was about, oh gosh, six oreight years ago now.
And then um for the most part,I've been in sales-related
roles.
And so a couple of years ago, mybusiness partner and I were
starting a new business, and wesaid, gosh, wouldn't it be great
if we could find a tool?
We weren't thinking ofdeveloping it, but find a tool
that was an AI tool that couldhelp with some of the sales
(03:35):
process stuff, you know, makingphone calls, sending text and
emails and the communicationpieces.
And we looked and looked andlooked, couldn't find anything,
and developed somethinginternally.
And after we developed that, wesaid, gosh, what we made is
actually really good.
Maybe others would be interestedin this.
And long story short, hard pivottowards AI.
And we've been doing AI for thelast uh year and a half or so
(03:57):
now, and you know, sharing greattools with companies that are
making big differences for them.
SPEAKER_00 (04:02):
Isn't that interesting that oftentimes,
especially with these newtechnologies, we use them to
solve an issue for our ownbusiness and then realize, well,
that is the product.
SPEAKER_02 (04:12):
Yeah.
Yeah.
No, I mean, we literallycompletely moved away from the
product and the the path andeven the industry that we were
in and moved full into AI.
And it's been a wonderful,wonderful path.
It's an exciting time to beinvolved with AI.
There's so much going on.
And it's interesting.
We use AI as if it's a thing.
(04:33):
And the reality is AI is about amillion things.
And so we paint with a verybroad brush, but it's been an
exciting time in technology ingeneral to see what computers
and systems are able to do, howthey're able to help humans do
more than we ever thought we'dbe able to do.
SPEAKER_00 (04:49):
That's one of the discussions I try to have with
people, particularly students orpeople who don't aren't as
familiar with the AI landscapeand generative AI, certainly,
but machine learning, computervision, all of those things as
well.
Is we as humans have goals forour businesses, for our lives
that AI doesn't have, but thetechnology can help us reach
(05:10):
those goals by helping withstreamline our workflows, you
know, help be a thought partnerand do some things.
So I'd love to hear you talked alittle bit about trying to
figure out the sales cycle andhave AI help you with that.
So, what did you end updeveloping in that?
And where's were you doing thetechnical side?
Was your business partner alittle bit of both?
SPEAKER_02 (05:32):
Yeah.
So let me share a little bit ofbackground on all of that.
So our mission uh as a companyis to help save humanity
billions of hours by helpingpeople do better work and less
busy work.
Um, that's what we're reallyfocused on.
As an entrepreneur, I have spentfar too many, you know, nights,
weekends, dinners on the phonetrying to do my business.
(05:53):
And I haven't been able to spendas much time as I should with my
family or actually working onthe business instead of working
in the business.
And there's just so many demandson business leaders, business
owners, but but really employeesof all level uh levels within a
business that that if we cangive them tools that help them
to do less of the busy work,that repetitive, monotonous work
(06:15):
that tends to be the taskswithin a job that make it a job,
right?
Nobody loves having a job.
It's like this downer, like, oh,I have a job, right?
But they do love parts of whatthey do, right?
And so our goal and our focus isto help people do the things
they love and allow technologyto do the things that they don't
(06:36):
love, and you will turn mediocreemployees into superstars,
right?
Into superheroes.
And so what we developed wasessentially a tool that helps
with prospecting and early stageselling.
Okay, so it will help identifyand find uh opportunities.
Then as those opportunities comein, and as those people start
reaching out and saying, hey, Imight be interested in what
(06:57):
you're doing.
Our AI tool can handle voicecalls, it can handle texts,
emails, back and forthcommunication, it can hold
meetings, answer questions, askquestions, gather information,
and eventually it will worktowards some sort of endpoint.
So our customers are able tosay, this is what we want our
endpoint to be.
We want our AI tools to schedulea sales meeting with qualified,
(07:21):
vetted, potential customers withour sales reps, because our
sales reps really they get paidfor talking to customers and
helping sell customers ourstuff, right?
And so let them do that as muchas we possibly can.
Let them have thoseconversations and don't have
them sending 50 emails a day ormaking phone call after phone
(07:41):
call after phone call, gettingno, no, no, no, no.
Let AI handle the that thatdrudgery part.
And so that's what we'vedeveloped is a tool that that
can customize, you know, largeportions of that early stage
sales cycle.
And we go, we go fairly deep.
There are a lot of tools now.
A year and a half ago, thereweren't very many tools that did
that.
There are a lot of tools outthere now that do those same
sorts of things.
(08:02):
And so what we do is we go intoour customers' businesses and we
go very deep, very, verycustomized, very integrated with
what they're doing.
Um, and so we're, you know,looking up inventory, we're
quoting prices, we're we'redoing things that this the
off-the-shelf AI is not able todo.
Um but because we're able tocustomize it, we can do that.
And so you asked about thedevelopment of it.
(08:24):
My business partner did a lot ofthe developing along with some
some technical partners thatwe've worked with.
And it's a it's interesting toput a tool together that does
all of the things of a uhusually they're called an SDR, a
sales developmentrepresentative.
We had to step back and say,okay, what does this job really
entail?
What are the tasks that they doand the skills that the AI needs
(08:48):
to be able to have in order todo these things?
And it's a lot more than just aknowledge base, right?
It needs to be able to talk onthe phone in a conversational
manner, needs to be able to sendand receive texts and emails, it
needs to be able to understandinformation about our business,
it needs to understand ourprocesses, needs to be
(09:08):
integrated with our systems,needs to understand, you know,
all of these different things.
And so our our solutions areactually a compilation of a
multitude of underlying systemsthat do all of those little
pieces.
And our job is helping toorchestrate those in a way that
it feels very natural and fluid.
And so that's that's where wespend a lot of our time is
(09:30):
building out those workflows andand automations within the
system.
SPEAKER_00 (09:34):
Amazing.
And how long did it take you totrain the models to sound human,
to use the right language foryour business or for the
client's business?
SPEAKER_02 (09:48):
Well, initially it took us months.
Now it takes us minutes, right?
We have a client in SouthernCalifornia who wanted their
agent to have a little bit moreof a Southern California kind of
beachy vibe, right?
And we built this agent forthem, and they said, ah, it
still is too stiff, it's toolike, you know, too not
(10:09):
California-ish, right?
They said, Can you make it alittle bit more like a surfer
dude?
And so a couple of changes, andwe completely changed the
personality of the agent.
And now they have this surferdude that knows their business
really well, has been trained onhow to interact with customers
in just the right way, and it'sproducing fantastic results for
(10:30):
them, right?
So now we are able to do it muchfaster.
Um, but yeah, initially it tooka lot of time and understanding
and you know, getting the rightpieces put together.
SPEAKER_00 (10:42):
Yeah.
And how do people respond?
Because we do hear on theconsumer side of the market,
right?
We're talking B2B primarily, butwhen we think about consumer
products, we've seen if you sayyou have an AI-powered TV,
people aren't going to respondas well as if you just say you
have a smart TV, even though youknow it's all about semantics.
(11:02):
But people, if they know thatthey're speaking to an AI,
sometimes that's a positive, butsometimes they are like, oh, I
don't want to deal with this.
I want to talk to a human.
SPEAKER_02 (11:12):
Yeah, I want to talk to a human.
We get a little bit of that.
The reality is that our AI is sogood, a lot of people don't
realize they're talking to AIsometimes at all.
But if they do realize, it'susually a little ways into the
conversation.
And I had an experience theother day.
We we do some work in the uh inthe autoglass space, and uh I
called a local company to getsome work done on my windshield,
(11:35):
um, some rock chips repaired.
And I I won't say who I called,but I called and it was push one
for this, push two for that.
And it was like death by athousand button pushes because
it was like four or five minutesinto the call before they
finally said, Okay, we'll nowconnect you with an agent to
talk to you, not an AI agent,but a telephone agent, right?
(11:55):
A human.
And the human agent was busy, sothen they put me on hold.
And I was like, Oh my goodness,are you kidding me?
Are you kidding me?
I've been pushing buttons forminutes, listening to like all
the different choices.
And of course, the choices Ineeded were at the end of the
list, right?
When you have an AI agent answerthe phone, it's immediate
action, right?
(12:16):
And that's what people want.
They want to solve theirproblem.
They want to get the informationthat they're needing to gather,
right?
And we are able to deliver thatinstantly, where it is as real
as having an expert answer thephone every time.
Hey, thanks for calling ABCCompany.
How can I help you?
And they are able to do whateveris needed.
Occasionally, people will askthings that the agent doesn't
(12:38):
know about, or they'll they'llrealize, I'm talking to an AI
agent.
I want to talk to a human, andwe can do a live transfer to a
human.
Not a problem.
We can handle that easily.
But 95% of the time, 98% of thetime, high 90s, people are
really happy to just be takencare of immediately.
And they don't mind because itis such a human-like
(12:59):
interaction.
SPEAKER_00 (13:00):
Nice.
Going from different businessesto working for somebody else to
going out on your own again,what were those transitions like
for you?
SPEAKER_02 (13:09):
Oh, how real can I be?
SPEAKER_00 (13:10):
You can be very real.
SPEAKER_02 (13:12):
So I will tell you this working for yourself, being
an entrepreneur, your life isfilled with goals, milestones,
things that you are workingtowards.
For me, my experience is I wentand worked for others.
Their goals became my goals, anda lot of the passion and energy
was like sucked out of life.
(13:34):
Yeah.
Right.
It was wonderful.
And I had great opportunitiesand learning, and it was a
fantastic experience.
But I realized that I was adifferent person.
I was not as driven, asgoal-oriented, nor as passionate
about what I was doing when Iwas working for somebody else.
And so coming back onto my own,you know, into my own business
(13:56):
and running a business has beenincredibly energizing.
It's been enjoyable.
But there are also stresses thatyou deal with as an entrepreneur
and as a business owner that youdon't have to think about
typically as an employee, right?
You're not thinking about, youknow, payroll or what insurance
should we offer for people oryou know, all the other things
that businesses have to dealwith because for the most part,
(14:19):
someone else is handling thatfor you when you work for a
large enterprise.
So there were definitely prosand cons.
But for me, for my personalitytype, I love being on my own.
SPEAKER_00 (14:29):
Yeah.
unknown (14:30):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (14:30):
And it is hard to go back to working for somebody
else when you have thatentrepreneurship spirit within
you.
SPEAKER_02 (14:37):
Yeah.
And it was a very intentionalchoice for me to go and work for
someone else.
I'll tell it quickly because Ithink it's good for people to
understand that pivots in lifeare okay.
So I was, I was running aheating and air conditioning
company.
We were very successful anddoing well, but we were
successful enough that uh we hada lot of business, but still
(14:57):
growing to the point where atnights and weekends the phones
came to me, right?
They they were transferred.
I I needed an AI agent, is whatI needed.
Um and so it was it was hardbecause I was working like 24-7,
it felt like.
And so I, in talking with mywife and my family, was just
like, we I've got to make achange.
This is too much.
I I need to see you guys again.
(15:18):
And I had some friends that werein the tech space and I saw that
they were doing extremely well.
They had a good balance, youknow, work-life balance.
And I said, that's what I want.
And so I went and talked to themand they said, You've got to try
and break into the to the techindustry, but it's hard to do.
And I applied at a number ofdifferent places and just got
like not just turned down, likejust no response, like, oh, you
don't have any tech background.
(15:39):
I'm not interested.
Finally, I had a friend, amentor that said, Hey, I'll give
you a chance.
You can come and work for a techcompany that I own, but you're
gonna have to start as techsupport and learn the industry,
learn our software, and you canwork your way up into a sales
role.
He says it'll probably be six to12 months before you can move
(15:59):
into a sales role.
And so I went from owning my ownbusinesses to a tech support job
at$12 an hour.
And so it was a hard pivot, butit was such a beautiful time of
life because all of a sudden Ihad time.
I was able to spend time with myfamily.
And I've always been one thatkind of digs in deep on whatever
it is I'm doing.
And so I was able to learn theindustry, the software very,
(16:20):
very quickly.
Within about two and a halfmonths, I moved into a sales
role.
So I beat their six to 12 monthprediction.
And within three months of that,I was top sales rep in the
business.
So I was fortunate that mypathway, you know, pivoted
quickly.
But it's not, it's not bad topivot when you see something
that you want and, you know, setthat goal and go after it.
SPEAKER_00 (16:39):
Yeah.
Absolutely.
And that's it's interesting.
I have a lot of theseconversations with students,
they're grad students.
Some of them have worked incareers, they're all ages,
right?
From just having left theirundergrad to having, you know,
being in their 50s and lookingfor a pivot, and sometimes even
older.
So it's interesting to havethese conversations with them
(16:59):
and try to relay thisinformation that you don't have
to be scared.
It is can be a scary time.
Your feelings are valid, but youcan also know that if you really
have a drive, a skill set, and apassion for something, you can
get there.
But you you do have to put inthe work like you did.
SPEAKER_02 (17:17):
Well, and I nothing, yeah, I had to put in the work.
It was interesting.
I went to this tech supportrole, and you know, I was 10
years or so older than most ofthe others that were there.
And, you know, in between calls,we had we had time.
It was the strangest thing.
I've never had time before,right?
And they would go and play videogames or they would do, you
know, you know, sitting aroundvisiting with people, and they
(17:39):
all thought I was a little bit,you know, snooty, but I was
sitting there working.
Like I was digging into thesoftware.
I was trying to understand it.
I was asking questions.
I I wanted to learn it asquickly as possible.
And so, yeah, sometimes you haveto do harder things to see that
growth.
But man, it was it was abeautiful time for me and it was
fun, it was new, it wasexciting.
(18:00):
And so use that that energy thatyou get, you know, that greeny
spirit, right?
To go and do something.
Try it.
SPEAKER_00 (18:07):
Yeah, fantastic.
And then scaling up yourbusiness, as you mentioned, when
you started think there weren'ta lot of other people doing it.
Now there are a number of peopleworking in the agentic AI space,
right?
I think a year and a half ago,people were still saying, okay,
I need to figure out thisagentic thing.
I hear it's coming, but not, Idon't quite know what its
(18:27):
implications are going to be.
And now clearly the agents arehere, they've been here.
So what was that like?
And how did you choose yourideal customer profile?
SPEAKER_02 (18:38):
Oh, that's a fantastic question.
ICP is tricky, right?
And and in any business, andparticularly from a marketing
background, I know you've got awonderful marketing background.
The more clear you can be onyour ideal customer profile, the
better it is.
And we initially started, likemany businesses, thinking like,
well, we can work with anybodyand everybody, right?
(18:59):
Let's boil the ocean.
And it's easy to do that.
And when you have a tool likeours that that works for so many
different use cases, it's hardto tell people no when you're
young and early and you're like,yes, we can work with that and
we can work with this.
We can work here, we can workthere, right?
But you have to go through thisniching down process.
(19:21):
And the faster that you can dothat, the better.
It's tricky because you want totry and pick the right, you
know, niche to really focus on.
And we went from here to here tohere to here to here to here to
here.
And now we're we we're gettingeven more and more niche down,
where we are like specificindustries and specific roles
within that industry that wereally help with.
But the faster you can gothrough that process, the
(19:43):
better.
Um, the hard part is you don'tknow what you don't know.
And you're worried that, hey, ifI select industry A and I never
I stop looking, industry B mighthave been my gold mind.
And so I don't necessarily wantto just do A.
So you try to do A and B, andthen you're like, well, but
(20:04):
maybe it's C, and you find thatyou can get spread thin so fast.
And so I think it's it's idealto pick something that's very
narrow, and the narrower thebetter, in my opinion.
Um, you want it to have enoughmass, the the the the target
market that that there'ssomething there.
But you it the more narrow youcan be, the easier it is to find
(20:28):
success.
Because you can build a toolthat's purpose-built for that
specific niche.
You can learn what to say no tovery quickly and say, sorry,
you're outside of my my world.
And so I'm gonna say no to you,and I'm not gonna spend time on
things that are distracting meand pulling me away from what I
really should be focusing on,and so that instead of being
(20:50):
like a mile wide and an inchdeep, you can be an inch wide
and a mile deep.
And for the most part, I thinkif you can go deep on a problem
and you can go to a customer andsay, look, we understand your
world so well that we can solveproblems that you didn't even
know you had.
And let me show you.
And if you can, if you can thentake that customer on a journey
(21:12):
through your product and theygo, Oh my gosh, you really do
know my world so well.
You've solved everything that Icould possibly think of and
more, then you could have apremium product, you can charge
a premium price, and they'regonna be very, very happy with
you.
They're not gonna go somewhereelse, and the competition is
gone, right?
Because there isn't anybody elsethat knows that that market,
(21:32):
that problem as well as you do.
And you are able to solve thatproblem better than anybody else
in the world.
SPEAKER_00 (21:38):
Yeah.
It's so true.
It's so true.
Even when you have a, like yousaid, a lot of interests, you
want to try out a lot ofdifferent areas, you might have
to do that.
But then once you finally findwhat you want to do.
I mean, I I've been through thatsame experience.
If I used to have a PR firm, nowpeople still say, Oh, you do PR.
I'm like, I don't do PR.
I podcast, which it can belooked at as a form of PR, but
(22:02):
it's very different.
And I don't want to go back todoing the same thing.
SPEAKER_02 (22:07):
Well, and you've you've had this experience,
Annika, where people come toyou, customers come to you and
say, Hey, here's money.
I want to pay you to do thisthing and it's outside of your
scope.
And isn't it so powerful whenyou can say, No, no, I don't do
that.
I'm not interested.
Thank you.
I would love to take your money,but I don't do what you need to
what you need done.
(22:27):
And it is so empowering when youget to that point where you're
able to say no.
And all of a sudden the fog ofbusiness just kind of like parts
and you can see your pathforward and you're able to just
move and move quickly and scale.
SPEAKER_00 (22:41):
Yeah.
And even sometimes when youthink you might want to say yes
to something because the moneyis there, if you say no, other
opportunities that are theperfect opportunity for you will
appear.
And I think that's one of theother interesting things about
business.
It's a little bit of business, alittle bit of magic, perhaps.
More of just being verypurpose-driven and living in
(23:02):
your purpose.
And that's something that Ithink when people are new
businesses, entrepreneurs, theyhave that fear of well, where's
my next paycheck going to come?
Where's the money to pay myteam?
And I've fallen prey to that.
And then realized, wow, if I hadjust not said yes to this, look
at the other opportunities thatI have now, because I do say no
to those things.
SPEAKER_02 (23:23):
So and your team appreciates that too.
When you go back to your teamevery day and you're like, okay,
now we're gonna be this type ofbusiness, now we're gonna do
this type of service, now we'regonna do that type of product.
They get stretched and they'relike, I don't even know what my
job is anymore.
I'm wearing 73 hats and I don'tknow what any of them are,
right?
But if you can go back to themand say, guys, we had someone
(23:44):
come and ask us to do somebusiness with them, but it's not
what we do.
We told them no.
They go, Oh, thank you.
I get to focus on what it isthat I'm supposed to do.
unknown (23:53):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (23:54):
So what is it that you decided was your perfect
avatar?
You said you have specificindustry and specific roles
within industries.
SPEAKER_02 (24:02):
Yeah.
So we are laser focused now onthe autoglass industry and the
customer support representativewithin that industry.
And so our agents now canessentially automate the whole
front-end office for autoglass.
So we can take calls, we cangather information about the
customer, their insurance, theirvehicle, we can look up the type
(24:23):
of glass that their vehicleneeds, we can quote them prices,
we can order the glass, and wecan schedule the customer and
give them all the appropriatereminders, and then afterwards
follow up with the customer,make sure they had a great
experience.
And if they did, invite them togive us a positive review
online.
We can do all of that with anagent now.
SPEAKER_00 (24:40):
Yeah.
See, and and that's so specificthat I think most people would
go, I didn't even realize thatindustry was so was big enough
to sustain a business likeyours.
Yeah.
unknown (24:50):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (24:51):
So that's what you do.
You've got to niche down, nichedown, niche down, niche down.
And and it's taken us time.
We are like we've gotten thereeventually.
I wish we got there morequickly, but some of it also is
it's a process of figuring outwhere to spend your time, where
to spend your focus.
But the faster you can getthrough that, the better for
sure.
SPEAKER_00 (25:11):
Certainly.
And the things that you've puttogether are things that do
apply to any business, anysystems processes.
So I'd love to hear a little bitabout how much time you've been
able to save for your clients,how much money, right?
Because obviously those thingsmake people sleep better at
night if you're the businessowner, because you know I'm
(25:33):
still bringing doing everythingI need to be doing to satisfy my
customer, my client, get thosegreat referrals, get more
business in.
But I also have removed thisheadache of maybe having the
team member who doesn't show up,having the person who I need to
train up on how to talk aboutour product and service in
different specifics.
SPEAKER_02 (25:51):
Yeah.
Well, within our focus, our ICP,you've got, you know, small
operators, you know, individualsrunning the entire business
themselves, all the way up tolarge operators with multiple
locations and multipleemployees.
So it kind of varies a littlebit.
But um, you know, using maybethat small operator as a as an
example at first, in that typeof business, and this is true in
(26:11):
a lot of service businesses,when a customer has a need,
right?
They we tend to go online.
Used to be a phone book, right?
We don't we don't use thoseanymore, but you and I remember
those.
Uh, but now we go online and wedo a quick search for you know,
autoglass repair in my area,right?
And a list comes up and we startcalling, usually the person at
(26:32):
the top of the list and we workour way down.
Maybe we look at reviews and weskip someone if they don't have
good reviews, but we essentiallystart calling.
And we call until someoneanswers the phone, gives us the
information that we need, thecost, the time, the schedule, et
cetera.
And then we stop because ourneed has been satisfied, right?
Well, what that means is forsomeone that's a solopreneur
(26:54):
working in the business on theirown, when their phone rings, if
they don't answer it, 87% of thetime, the first company to
answer the call to answer aphone gets the job.
So if they don't answer theirphone because they're in the
middle of doing the work,they've lost the opportunity for
that job.
And so what we are able to dofor those customers is
(27:18):
essentially give them a secondemployee, right?
A lot of these guys aren't, theydon't want employees.
They they are a solopreneur, Iwork on my own, I I don't want
to manage people, I can do it,right?
But we can allow them toessentially have an employee in
their pocket, their phone canring, and they don't have to
worry about it, and they simplycan look at their calendar and
say, Oh, the AI has scheduledthree appointments for me
(27:40):
tomorrow.
I'm in good shape, right?
And that can be the differencebetween, you know, even tens of
thousands of dollars a month forthese these companies.
The larger the company, even theeven bigger numbers there.
A lot of people ask, well,aren't you eliminating jobs?
In some ways, yes.
Although, generally speaking,even the companies that that
(28:00):
have CSRs, customer servicerepresentatives that they have
hired, we're not completelyoffsetting those people.
We are allowing a system to helpanswer the phones and book the
appointments, but those CSRs arestill there to great greet the
customer when they come in,process paperwork, process
payments, you know, interactwith insurance companies and
(28:21):
things like that that are allstill needed within the
industry.
Um, but we're allowing them todo that in a way that they can
get their job done during normalbusiness hours.
They're not taking things home,they're not answering phones in
the middle of dinner with theirfamily.
And so it makes a hugedifference uh at all levels uh
within the business.
SPEAKER_00 (28:37):
Yeah.
What what you're talking aboutis really the ideal scenario for
this moment in time is I feelthat we still want human
interaction, right?
But we can should use andpartner with AI in such a way
that it does take care of thethings that, like you said, can
be automated and help us havethat time to be with our
(28:58):
families, our friends, to beable to take a step back from
our businesses, which also helpsus refresh and maybe think of
new ideas, but also makes surethat our team members feel
really equipped to do what theydo best and not, like you said,
get bogged down.
And so this is one of the thingsI always try to impart on people
who are who come to me and saythat they're scared of what's
(29:18):
gonna happen and thinking aboutTerminator or you know, those
movies that we've seen that areall the doom and gloom movies
and worst case scenarios.
And there are people who work inthe field who certainly can we
can go down those rabbit holesand talk about differ different
things, but the implications forhow can help change our
businesses right now and give usmore time with the things and
(29:40):
the people that we really wantto be with, that's life
changing.
SPEAKER_02 (29:44):
It's huge.
I I like to the analogy I liketo share with people is it's
kind of like Tony Stark and IronMan, right?
If we were to send Tony Starkinto battle on his own, he would
be in big trouble, right?
He's just a guy, right?
I'm just a guy.
You know, you're just a woman.
On our own, we're good, butwe're not like superhero status
good, right?
(30:04):
But when Tony Stark puts on theIron Man suit, all of a sudden
he's a superhero.
Okay.
And we can help turn, you know,employees or or business owners
into that superhero status byallowing them to partner with
and integrate with technology ina way that allows them to do far
more than they could do on theirown at a higher level, faster,
(30:29):
better, you know, all of thosethings, right?
And it's kind of like givingthem this Iron Man suit and
saying, hey, go be a superheroand love what you do, right?
Love what you do.
Do the things that you are mostpassionate about in your job
that you really love, that justget you excited to wake up and
get out of bed in the morningand let the technology handle
the stuff that's kind of like,uh, I don't hate, I don't like
(30:51):
doing that.
I hate that part of my job.
And allow people to do what theyare naturally drawn to and that
they do best.
And all of a sudden, whathappens is your company, your
business surges forward, right?
Not just a little bit, but alot, because your people are
engaged, they're excited,they're doing what they want to
do, they're getting more done inless time.
(31:14):
And so it makes really big,impactful differences on
businesses when they usetechnology, when they use AI in
the right way, and they havesomeone that can partner with to
really truly implement it.
There's all sorts of likeoff-the-shelf tools like do it
yourself.
I've seen way too many peopletry using those tools.
And what happens is they eithergive up, they have a bad
(31:38):
experience, and it causesproblems, or they get so focused
on that it's like the mostexpensive implementation ever
because they're takingthemselves away from the thing
that they're an expert at, andthey're like putting the
training wheels back on andspending all of their time doing
something they know nothingabout.
And so that's where we come inand help, you know, businesses
(32:00):
to really surge forward.
SPEAKER_00 (32:01):
Well, you just answered my next question.
So that was really perfectsegue.
SPEAKER_02 (32:05):
I re I read your mind around the same.
SPEAKER_00 (32:07):
You did, you really did.
So where do you see yourbusiness going?
And what do you think thatpeople who are entrepreneurs and
small business owners, perhaps,you know, B2B or B2C, what
should we be thinking of?
SPEAKER_02 (32:23):
Well, so our business is continuing to grow.
We are growing and we're growingat a very rapid pace, which is
exciting for us.
At some point, we will expandinto other verticals, other
ICPs.
We're getting really good atwhat we're doing right now.
Once we have it down to thepoint where we're like, okay, we
can do that in our sleep.
We will look for otherindustries to say, okay, where
else can we have, you know, ameaningful impact on people and
(32:46):
on processes in ways that thatbless lives?
That's what we want to do.
But in general, I would say, youknow, find ways to use
technology to make your lifebetter.
It is a tool.
Too many people think it it'sgonna, you know, like you said
earlier, it's the terminator,it's gonna take over.
No, it's another tool.
When cars came along, those thatmade horses and buggies uh were
(33:07):
probably nervous, like, oh, it'sgonna take over our lives.
It became another tool.
When, I don't know, whenchainsaws were invented, those
that made axes and and handsawsprobably got nervous, but it's
another tool.
Learn how to use it, employ itwell, and and don't be afraid of
it.
Put it to work and it'll dogreat things for you.
SPEAKER_00 (33:25):
Yeah, fantastic.
John, thank you so much forjoining me on MediaScape today.
We will have Thinkai uh linkedin the show notes for those who
want to learn more about whatyou do, even if you're they're
not in that your specific ICPright now, they could be in the
future.
Or at least let us know.
SPEAKER_02 (33:43):
If you've got a great idea, we'd love to hear
about it.
SPEAKER_00 (33:45):
So Yeah, exactly.
You can still learn a lot fromfollowing John on LinkedIn and
also Think AI.
Um, any final thought?
SPEAKER_02 (33:55):
No, I don't think so, other than uh don't don't be
afraid of the future.
Run at it, right?
Run at it and uh and be the onethat's in control.
If we get scared and we thinkthat it's happening to us, we've
given up our own own control anduh we no longer have the ability
to direct where things aregoing.
And so, you know, don't beafraid.
Jump in, go for it.
There's lots of great things outthere, incredible opportunities
(34:17):
like we've never seen before.
And so go find yours.
SPEAKER_00 (34:21):
Fantastic.
I don't know how we could end itany better.
So thank you to everybody who'slistening to this episode or
watching it on your favoriteplatform.
I am Annika Jackson, one of yourhosts of Media Escape, and I'll
be back, or Justifataya will beback with another amazing guest
to share some great things foryou to make your life in this
digital world a little easier, alittle better every day.
SPEAKER_01 (34:44):
To learn more about the Master of Science and
Digital Media Managementprogram, visit us on the web at
dmm.usc.edu.
If you can go deep on a problem and you can go to a
customer and say, look, weunderstand your world so well
that we can solve problems thatyou didn't even know you had.
And let me show you.
And if you can, if you can thentake that customer on a journey
through your product and theygo, Oh my gosh, you really do
know my world so well.
You've solved everything that Icould possibly think of and
(00:22):
more, then you could have apremium product.
You can charge a premium price,and they're going to be very,
very happy with you.
They're not going to gosomewhere else.
And the competition is gone.
SPEAKER_01 (00:34):
Welcome to Media Escape Insights from Digital
Changemakers, a speaker seriesand podcast brought to you by
USC Annenberg's Digital MediaManagement Program.
Join us as we unlock the secretsto success in an increasingly
digital world.
SPEAKER_00 (00:54):
John Long of Think AI.
Welcome to the Mediascapepodcast.
I'm thrilled today to unlock alittle bit about AI, but also
talk about your background.
This is we're at this reallyinteresting time in our lives
and in our businesses.
SPEAKER_02 (01:11):
Yeah, no, excited to be with you.
Thank you so much for having meon, and thank you for uh for
putting this together for all ofyour listeners.
So it's it's wonderful.
SPEAKER_00 (01:20):
Well, let's let's talk about your background first
before you started to think, andthat's T H-Y-N-K, which is a
brilliant name, easy toremember, and it's what we want
to do, right, when we're usingAI tools.
You you started out, you have anMBA, and you your bachelor's was
in business management andentrepreneurship.
(01:40):
Did you want to be anentrepreneur?
Did you think you were going towork for a corporation?
SPEAKER_02 (01:47):
Yeah, so I've I've done both, but definitely
started off on anentrepreneurial path right out
of college.
Um, and I've got kind of a funnybackground for a guy running an
AI company, but I'll share itwith you quickly.
Uh, right out of college, Istarted a real estate investing
company.
And uh, we were doing fix andflips and all sorts of things in
the real estate space.
Did that for a number of years.
(02:08):
And then uh in 2008, when theeconomy really kind of took a
nosedive, I started a heatingand air conditioning company,
which uh again, a little bitunique background for an AI guy,
but uh was an entrepreneur,right, and loved business and
and uh knew that there wasopportunities in those areas.
Um, did that for a couple ofyears and then made a shift away
from entrepreneurship a littlebit and into the tech sector as
(02:32):
an employee, uh not running thecompany, um, but kind of a an
entrepreneurial pursuit within abusiness.
And so I worked with a companywhere they were starting up a
brand new division, uh attackinga brand new vertical, and was
able to help them build out uhsome software and uh and attack
this new vertical.
Um eventually ended up in amachine learning leadership role
(02:53):
uh within that organization.
Uh we had a and for those thataren't familiar with machine
learning, it's a form of AI.
Um, but we were essentiallyteaching computers to look at
aerial imagery and then createthree-dimensional drawings of
the buildings.
And so we were teaching thecomputers to do this work that
it would take humans hours todo, and they were able to do it
in minutes.
So that was my firstintroduction into AI.
(03:14):
That was about, oh gosh, six oreight years ago now.
And then um for the most part,I've been in sales-related
roles.
And so a couple of years ago, mybusiness partner and I were
starting a new business, and wesaid, gosh, wouldn't it be great
if we could find a tool?
We weren't thinking ofdeveloping it, but find a tool
that was an AI tool that couldhelp with some of the sales
(03:35):
process stuff, you know, makingphone calls, sending text and
emails and the communicationpieces.
And we looked and looked andlooked, couldn't find anything,
and developed somethinginternally.
And after we developed that, wesaid, gosh, what we made is
actually really good.
Maybe others would be interestedin this.
And long story short, hard pivottowards AI.
And we've been doing AI for thelast uh year and a half or so
(03:57):
now, and you know, sharing greattools with companies that are
making big differences for them.
SPEAKER_00 (04:02):
Isn't that interesting that oftentimes,
especially with these newtechnologies, we use them to
solve an issue for our ownbusiness and then realize, well,
that is the product.
SPEAKER_02 (04:12):
Yeah.
Yeah.
No, I mean, we literallycompletely moved away from the
product and the the path andeven the industry that we were
in and moved full into AI.
And it's been a wonderful,wonderful path.
It's an exciting time to beinvolved with AI.
There's so much going on.
And it's interesting.
We use AI as if it's a thing.
(04:33):
And the reality is AI is about amillion things.
And so we paint with a verybroad brush, but it's been an
exciting time in technology ingeneral to see what computers
and systems are able to do, howthey're able to help humans do
more than we ever thought we'dbe able to do.
SPEAKER_00 (04:49):
That's one of the discussions I try to have with
people, particularly students orpeople who don't aren't as
familiar with the AI landscapeand generative AI, certainly,
but machine learning, computervision, all of those things as
well.
Is we as humans have goals forour businesses, for our lives
that AI doesn't have, but thetechnology can help us reach
(05:10):
those goals by helping withstreamline our workflows, you
know, help be a thought partnerand do some things.
So I'd love to hear you talked alittle bit about trying to
figure out the sales cycle andhave AI help you with that.
So, what did you end updeveloping in that?
And where's were you doing thetechnical side?
Was your business partner alittle bit of both?
SPEAKER_02 (05:32):
Yeah.
So let me share a little bit ofbackground on all of that.
So our mission uh as a companyis to help save humanity
billions of hours by helpingpeople do better work and less
busy work.
Um, that's what we're reallyfocused on.
As an entrepreneur, I have spentfar too many, you know, nights,
weekends, dinners on the phonetrying to do my business.
(05:53):
And I haven't been able to spendas much time as I should with my
family or actually working onthe business instead of working
in the business.
And there's just so many demandson business leaders, business
owners, but but really employeesof all level uh levels within a
business that that if we cangive them tools that help them
to do less of the busy work,that repetitive, monotonous work
(06:15):
that tends to be the taskswithin a job that make it a job,
right?
Nobody loves having a job.
It's like this downer, like, oh,I have a job, right?
But they do love parts of whatthey do, right?
And so our goal and our focus isto help people do the things
they love and allow technologyto do the things that they don't
(06:36):
love, and you will turn mediocreemployees into superstars,
right?
Into superheroes.
And so what we developed wasessentially a tool that helps
with prospecting and early stageselling.
Okay, so it will help identifyand find uh opportunities.
Then as those opportunities comein, and as those people start
reaching out and saying, hey, Imight be interested in what
(06:57):
you're doing.
Our AI tool can handle voicecalls, it can handle texts,
emails, back and forthcommunication, it can hold
meetings, answer questions, askquestions, gather information,
and eventually it will worktowards some sort of endpoint.
So our customers are able tosay, this is what we want our
endpoint to be.
We want our AI tools to schedulea sales meeting with qualified,
(07:21):
vetted, potential customers withour sales reps, because our
sales reps really they get paidfor talking to customers and
helping sell customers ourstuff, right?
And so let them do that as muchas we possibly can.
Let them have thoseconversations and don't have
them sending 50 emails a day ormaking phone call after phone
(07:41):
call after phone call, gettingno, no, no, no, no.
Let AI handle the that thatdrudgery part.
And so that's what we'vedeveloped is a tool that that
can customize, you know, largeportions of that early stage
sales cycle.
And we go, we go fairly deep.
There are a lot of tools now.
A year and a half ago, thereweren't very many tools that did
that.
There are a lot of tools outthere now that do those same
sorts of things.
(08:02):
And so what we do is we go intoour customers' businesses and we
go very deep, very, verycustomized, very integrated with
what they're doing.
Um, and so we're, you know,looking up inventory, we're
quoting prices, we're we'redoing things that this the
off-the-shelf AI is not able todo.
Um but because we're able tocustomize it, we can do that.
And so you asked about thedevelopment of it.
(08:24):
My business partner did a lot ofthe developing along with some
some technical partners thatwe've worked with.
And it's a it's interesting toput a tool together that does
all of the things of a uhusually they're called an SDR, a
sales developmentrepresentative.
We had to step back and say,okay, what does this job really
entail?
What are the tasks that they doand the skills that the AI needs
(08:48):
to be able to have in order todo these things?
And it's a lot more than just aknowledge base, right?
It needs to be able to talk onthe phone in a conversational
manner, needs to be able to sendand receive texts and emails, it
needs to be able to understandinformation about our business,
it needs to understand ourprocesses, needs to be
(09:08):
integrated with our systems,needs to understand, you know,
all of these different things.
And so our our solutions areactually a compilation of a
multitude of underlying systemsthat do all of those little
pieces.
And our job is helping toorchestrate those in a way that
it feels very natural and fluid.
And so that's that's where wespend a lot of our time is
(09:30):
building out those workflows andand automations within the
system.
SPEAKER_00 (09:34):
Amazing.
And how long did it take you totrain the models to sound human,
to use the right language foryour business or for the
client's business?
SPEAKER_02 (09:48):
Well, initially it took us months.
Now it takes us minutes, right?
We have a client in SouthernCalifornia who wanted their
agent to have a little bit moreof a Southern California kind of
beachy vibe, right?
And we built this agent forthem, and they said, ah, it
still is too stiff, it's toolike, you know, too not
(10:09):
California-ish, right?
They said, Can you make it alittle bit more like a surfer
dude?
And so a couple of changes, andwe completely changed the
personality of the agent.
And now they have this surferdude that knows their business
really well, has been trained onhow to interact with customers
in just the right way, and it'sproducing fantastic results for
(10:30):
them, right?
So now we are able to do it muchfaster.
Um, but yeah, initially it tooka lot of time and understanding
and you know, getting the rightpieces put together.
SPEAKER_00 (10:42):
Yeah.
And how do people respond?
Because we do hear on theconsumer side of the market,
right?
We're talking B2B primarily, butwhen we think about consumer
products, we've seen if you sayyou have an AI-powered TV,
people aren't going to respondas well as if you just say you
have a smart TV, even though youknow it's all about semantics.
(11:02):
But people, if they know thatthey're speaking to an AI,
sometimes that's a positive, butsometimes they are like, oh, I
don't want to deal with this.
I want to talk to a human.
SPEAKER_02 (11:12):
Yeah, I want to talk to a human.
We get a little bit of that.
The reality is that our AI is sogood, a lot of people don't
realize they're talking to AIsometimes at all.
But if they do realize, it'susually a little ways into the
conversation.
And I had an experience theother day.
We we do some work in the uh inthe autoglass space, and uh I
called a local company to getsome work done on my windshield,
(11:35):
um, some rock chips repaired.
And I I won't say who I called,but I called and it was push one
for this, push two for that.
And it was like death by athousand button pushes because
it was like four or five minutesinto the call before they
finally said, Okay, we'll nowconnect you with an agent to
talk to you, not an AI agent,but a telephone agent, right?
(11:55):
A human.
And the human agent was busy, sothen they put me on hold.
And I was like, Oh my goodness,are you kidding me?
Are you kidding me?
I've been pushing buttons forminutes, listening to like all
the different choices.
And of course, the choices Ineeded were at the end of the
list, right?
When you have an AI agent answerthe phone, it's immediate
action, right?
(12:16):
And that's what people want.
They want to solve theirproblem.
They want to get the informationthat they're needing to gather,
right?
And we are able to deliver thatinstantly, where it is as real
as having an expert answer thephone every time.
Hey, thanks for calling ABCCompany.
How can I help you?
And they are able to do whateveris needed.
Occasionally, people will askthings that the agent doesn't
(12:38):
know about, or they'll they'llrealize, I'm talking to an AI
agent.
I want to talk to a human, andwe can do a live transfer to a
human.
Not a problem.
We can handle that easily.
But 95% of the time, 98% of thetime, high 90s, people are
really happy to just be takencare of immediately.
And they don't mind because itis such a human-like
(12:59):
interaction.
SPEAKER_00 (13:00):
Nice.
Going from different businessesto working for somebody else to
going out on your own again,what were those transitions like
for you?
SPEAKER_02 (13:09):
Oh, how real can I be?
SPEAKER_00 (13:10):
You can be very real.
SPEAKER_02 (13:12):
So I will tell you this working for yourself, being
an entrepreneur, your life isfilled with goals, milestones,
things that you are workingtowards.
For me, my experience is I wentand worked for others.
Their goals became my goals, anda lot of the passion and energy
was like sucked out of life.
(13:34):
Yeah.
Right.
It was wonderful.
And I had great opportunitiesand learning, and it was a
fantastic experience.
But I realized that I was adifferent person.
I was not as driven, asgoal-oriented, nor as passionate
about what I was doing when Iwas working for somebody else.
And so coming back onto my own,you know, into my own business
(13:56):
and running a business has beenincredibly energizing.
It's been enjoyable.
But there are also stresses thatyou deal with as an entrepreneur
and as a business owner that youdon't have to think about
typically as an employee, right?
You're not thinking about, youknow, payroll or what insurance
should we offer for people oryou know, all the other things
that businesses have to dealwith because for the most part,
(14:19):
someone else is handling thatfor you when you work for a
large enterprise.
So there were definitely prosand cons.
But for me, for my personalitytype, I love being on my own.
SPEAKER_00 (14:29):
Yeah.
unknown (14:30):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (14:30):
And it is hard to go back to working for somebody
else when you have thatentrepreneurship spirit within
you.
SPEAKER_02 (14:37):
Yeah.
And it was a very intentionalchoice for me to go and work for
someone else.
I'll tell it quickly because Ithink it's good for people to
understand that pivots in lifeare okay.
So I was, I was running aheating and air conditioning
company.
We were very successful anddoing well, but we were
successful enough that uh we hada lot of business, but still
(14:57):
growing to the point where atnights and weekends the phones
came to me, right?
They they were transferred.
I I needed an AI agent, is whatI needed.
Um and so it was it was hardbecause I was working like 24-7,
it felt like.
And so I, in talking with mywife and my family, was just
like, we I've got to make achange.
This is too much.
I I need to see you guys again.
(15:18):
And I had some friends that werein the tech space and I saw that
they were doing extremely well.
They had a good balance, youknow, work-life balance.
And I said, that's what I want.
And so I went and talked to themand they said, You've got to try
and break into the to the techindustry, but it's hard to do.
And I applied at a number ofdifferent places and just got
like not just turned down, likejust no response, like, oh, you
don't have any tech background.
(15:39):
I'm not interested.
Finally, I had a friend, amentor that said, Hey, I'll give
you a chance.
You can come and work for a techcompany that I own, but you're
gonna have to start as techsupport and learn the industry,
learn our software, and you canwork your way up into a sales
role.
He says it'll probably be six to12 months before you can move
(15:59):
into a sales role.
And so I went from owning my ownbusinesses to a tech support job
at$12 an hour.
And so it was a hard pivot, butit was such a beautiful time of
life because all of a sudden Ihad time.
I was able to spend time with myfamily.
And I've always been one thatkind of digs in deep on whatever
it is I'm doing.
And so I was able to learn theindustry, the software very,
(16:20):
very quickly.
Within about two and a halfmonths, I moved into a sales
role.
So I beat their six to 12 monthprediction.
And within three months of that,I was top sales rep in the
business.
So I was fortunate that mypathway, you know, pivoted
quickly.
But it's not, it's not bad topivot when you see something
that you want and, you know, setthat goal and go after it.
SPEAKER_00 (16:39):
Yeah.
Absolutely.
And that's it's interesting.
I have a lot of theseconversations with students,
they're grad students.
Some of them have worked incareers, they're all ages,
right?
From just having left theirundergrad to having, you know,
being in their 50s and lookingfor a pivot, and sometimes even
older.
So it's interesting to havethese conversations with them
(16:59):
and try to relay thisinformation that you don't have
to be scared.
It is can be a scary time.
Your feelings are valid, but youcan also know that if you really
have a drive, a skill set, and apassion for something, you can
get there.
But you you do have to put inthe work like you did.
SPEAKER_02 (17:17):
Well, and I nothing, yeah, I had to put in the work.
It was interesting.
I went to this tech supportrole, and you know, I was 10
years or so older than most ofthe others that were there.
And, you know, in between calls,we had we had time.
It was the strangest thing.
I've never had time before,right?
And they would go and play videogames or they would do, you
know, you know, sitting aroundvisiting with people, and they
(17:39):
all thought I was a little bit,you know, snooty, but I was
sitting there working.
Like I was digging into thesoftware.
I was trying to understand it.
I was asking questions.
I I wanted to learn it asquickly as possible.
And so, yeah, sometimes you haveto do harder things to see that
growth.
But man, it was it was abeautiful time for me and it was
fun, it was new, it wasexciting.
(18:00):
And so use that that energy thatyou get, you know, that greeny
spirit, right?
To go and do something.
Try it.
SPEAKER_00 (18:07):
Yeah, fantastic.
And then scaling up yourbusiness, as you mentioned, when
you started think there weren'ta lot of other people doing it.
Now there are a number of peopleworking in the agentic AI space,
right?
I think a year and a half ago,people were still saying, okay,
I need to figure out thisagentic thing.
I hear it's coming, but not, Idon't quite know what its
(18:27):
implications are going to be.
And now clearly the agents arehere, they've been here.
So what was that like?
And how did you choose yourideal customer profile?
SPEAKER_02 (18:38):
Oh, that's a fantastic question.
ICP is tricky, right?
And and in any business, andparticularly from a marketing
background, I know you've got awonderful marketing background.
The more clear you can be onyour ideal customer profile, the
better it is.
And we initially started, likemany businesses, thinking like,
well, we can work with anybodyand everybody, right?
(18:59):
Let's boil the ocean.
And it's easy to do that.
And when you have a tool likeours that that works for so many
different use cases, it's hardto tell people no when you're
young and early and you're like,yes, we can work with that and
we can work with this.
We can work here, we can workthere, right?
But you have to go through thisniching down process.
(19:21):
And the faster that you can dothat, the better.
It's tricky because you want totry and pick the right, you
know, niche to really focus on.
And we went from here to here tohere to here to here to here to
here.
And now we're we we're gettingeven more and more niche down,
where we are like specificindustries and specific roles
within that industry that wereally help with.
But the faster you can gothrough that process, the
(19:43):
better.
Um, the hard part is you don'tknow what you don't know.
And you're worried that, hey, ifI select industry A and I never
I stop looking, industry B mighthave been my gold mind.
And so I don't necessarily wantto just do A.
So you try to do A and B, andthen you're like, well, but
(20:04):
maybe it's C, and you find thatyou can get spread thin so fast.
And so I think it's it's idealto pick something that's very
narrow, and the narrower thebetter, in my opinion.
Um, you want it to have enoughmass, the the the the target
market that that there'ssomething there.
But you it the more narrow youcan be, the easier it is to find
(20:28):
success.
Because you can build a toolthat's purpose-built for that
specific niche.
You can learn what to say no tovery quickly and say, sorry,
you're outside of my my world.
And so I'm gonna say no to you,and I'm not gonna spend time on
things that are distracting meand pulling me away from what I
really should be focusing on,and so that instead of being
(20:50):
like a mile wide and an inchdeep, you can be an inch wide
and a mile deep.
And for the most part, I thinkif you can go deep on a problem
and you can go to a customer andsay, look, we understand your
world so well that we can solveproblems that you didn't even
know you had.
And let me show you.
And if you can, if you can thentake that customer on a journey
(21:12):
through your product and theygo, Oh my gosh, you really do
know my world so well.
You've solved everything that Icould possibly think of and
more, then you could have apremium product, you can charge
a premium price, and they'regonna be very, very happy with
you.
They're not gonna go somewhereelse, and the competition is
gone, right?
Because there isn't anybody elsethat knows that that market,
(21:32):
that problem as well as you do.
And you are able to solve thatproblem better than anybody else
in the world.
SPEAKER_00 (21:38):
Yeah.
It's so true.
It's so true.
Even when you have a, like yousaid, a lot of interests, you
want to try out a lot ofdifferent areas, you might have
to do that.
But then once you finally findwhat you want to do.
I mean, I I've been through thatsame experience.
If I used to have a PR firm, nowpeople still say, Oh, you do PR.
I'm like, I don't do PR.
I podcast, which it can belooked at as a form of PR, but
(22:02):
it's very different.
And I don't want to go back todoing the same thing.
SPEAKER_02 (22:07):
Well, and you've you've had this experience,
Annika, where people come toyou, customers come to you and
say, Hey, here's money.
I want to pay you to do thisthing and it's outside of your
scope.
And isn't it so powerful whenyou can say, No, no, I don't do
that.
I'm not interested.
Thank you.
I would love to take your money,but I don't do what you need to
what you need done.
(22:27):
And it is so empowering when youget to that point where you're
able to say no.
And all of a sudden the fog ofbusiness just kind of like parts
and you can see your pathforward and you're able to just
move and move quickly and scale.
SPEAKER_00 (22:41):
Yeah.
And even sometimes when youthink you might want to say yes
to something because the moneyis there, if you say no, other
opportunities that are theperfect opportunity for you will
appear.
And I think that's one of theother interesting things about
business.
It's a little bit of business, alittle bit of magic, perhaps.
More of just being verypurpose-driven and living in
(23:02):
your purpose.
And that's something that Ithink when people are new
businesses, entrepreneurs, theyhave that fear of well, where's
my next paycheck going to come?
Where's the money to pay myteam?
And I've fallen prey to that.
And then realized, wow, if I hadjust not said yes to this, look
at the other opportunities thatI have now, because I do say no
to those things.
SPEAKER_02 (23:23):
So and your team appreciates that too.
When you go back to your teamevery day and you're like, okay,
now we're gonna be this type ofbusiness, now we're gonna do
this type of service, now we'regonna do that type of product.
They get stretched and they'relike, I don't even know what my
job is anymore.
I'm wearing 73 hats and I don'tknow what any of them are,
right?
But if you can go back to themand say, guys, we had someone
(23:44):
come and ask us to do somebusiness with them, but it's not
what we do.
We told them no.
They go, Oh, thank you.
I get to focus on what it isthat I'm supposed to do.
unknown (23:53):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (23:54):
So what is it that you decided was your perfect
avatar?
You said you have specificindustry and specific roles
within industries.
SPEAKER_02 (24:02):
Yeah.
So we are laser focused now onthe autoglass industry and the
customer support representativewithin that industry.
And so our agents now canessentially automate the whole
front-end office for autoglass.
So we can take calls, we cangather information about the
customer, their insurance, theirvehicle, we can look up the type
(24:23):
of glass that their vehicleneeds, we can quote them prices,
we can order the glass, and wecan schedule the customer and
give them all the appropriatereminders, and then afterwards
follow up with the customer,make sure they had a great
experience.
And if they did, invite them togive us a positive review
online.
We can do all of that with anagent now.
SPEAKER_00 (24:40):
Yeah.
See, and and that's so specificthat I think most people would
go, I didn't even realize thatindustry was so was big enough
to sustain a business likeyours.
Yeah.
unknown (24:50):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (24:51):
So that's what you do.
You've got to niche down, nichedown, niche down, niche down.
And and it's taken us time.
We are like we've gotten thereeventually.
I wish we got there morequickly, but some of it also is
it's a process of figuring outwhere to spend your time, where
to spend your focus.
But the faster you can getthrough that, the better for
sure.
SPEAKER_00 (25:11):
Certainly.
And the things that you've puttogether are things that do
apply to any business, anysystems processes.
So I'd love to hear a little bitabout how much time you've been
able to save for your clients,how much money, right?
Because obviously those thingsmake people sleep better at
night if you're the businessowner, because you know I'm
(25:33):
still bringing doing everythingI need to be doing to satisfy my
customer, my client, get thosegreat referrals, get more
business in.
But I also have removed thisheadache of maybe having the
team member who doesn't show up,having the person who I need to
train up on how to talk aboutour product and service in
different specifics.
SPEAKER_02 (25:51):
Yeah.
Well, within our focus, our ICP,you've got, you know, small
operators, you know, individualsrunning the entire business
themselves, all the way up tolarge operators with multiple
locations and multipleemployees.
So it kind of varies a littlebit.
But um, you know, using maybethat small operator as a as an
example at first, in that typeof business, and this is true in
(26:11):
a lot of service businesses,when a customer has a need,
right?
They we tend to go online.
Used to be a phone book, right?
We don't we don't use thoseanymore, but you and I remember
those.
Uh, but now we go online and wedo a quick search for you know,
autoglass repair in my area,right?
And a list comes up and we startcalling, usually the person at
(26:32):
the top of the list and we workour way down.
Maybe we look at reviews and weskip someone if they don't have
good reviews, but we essentiallystart calling.
And we call until someoneanswers the phone, gives us the
information that we need, thecost, the time, the schedule, et
cetera.
And then we stop because ourneed has been satisfied, right?
Well, what that means is forsomeone that's a solopreneur
(26:54):
working in the business on theirown, when their phone rings, if
they don't answer it, 87% of thetime, the first company to
answer the call to answer aphone gets the job.
So if they don't answer theirphone because they're in the
middle of doing the work,they've lost the opportunity for
that job.
And so what we are able to dofor those customers is
(27:18):
essentially give them a secondemployee, right?
A lot of these guys aren't, theydon't want employees.
They they are a solopreneur, Iwork on my own, I I don't want
to manage people, I can do it,right?
But we can allow them toessentially have an employee in
their pocket, their phone canring, and they don't have to
worry about it, and they simplycan look at their calendar and
say, Oh, the AI has scheduledthree appointments for me
(27:40):
tomorrow.
I'm in good shape, right?
And that can be the differencebetween, you know, even tens of
thousands of dollars a month forthese these companies.
The larger the company, even theeven bigger numbers there.
A lot of people ask, well,aren't you eliminating jobs?
In some ways, yes.
Although, generally speaking,even the companies that that
(28:00):
have CSRs, customer servicerepresentatives that they have
hired, we're not completelyoffsetting those people.
We are allowing a system to helpanswer the phones and book the
appointments, but those CSRs arestill there to great greet the
customer when they come in,process paperwork, process
payments, you know, interactwith insurance companies and
(28:21):
things like that that are allstill needed within the
industry.
Um, but we're allowing them todo that in a way that they can
get their job done during normalbusiness hours.
They're not taking things home,they're not answering phones in
the middle of dinner with theirfamily.
And so it makes a hugedifference uh at all levels uh
within the business.
SPEAKER_00 (28:37):
Yeah.
What what you're talking aboutis really the ideal scenario for
this moment in time is I feelthat we still want human
interaction, right?
But we can should use andpartner with AI in such a way
that it does take care of thethings that, like you said, can
be automated and help us havethat time to be with our
(28:58):
families, our friends, to beable to take a step back from
our businesses, which also helpsus refresh and maybe think of
new ideas, but also makes surethat our team members feel
really equipped to do what theydo best and not, like you said,
get bogged down.
And so this is one of the thingsI always try to impart on people
who are who come to me and saythat they're scared of what's
(29:18):
gonna happen and thinking aboutTerminator or you know, those
movies that we've seen that areall the doom and gloom movies
and worst case scenarios.
And there are people who work inthe field who certainly can we
can go down those rabbit holesand talk about differ different
things, but the implications forhow can help change our
businesses right now and give usmore time with the things and
(29:40):
the people that we really wantto be with, that's life
changing.
SPEAKER_02 (29:44):
It's huge.
I I like to the analogy I liketo share with people is it's
kind of like Tony Stark and IronMan, right?
If we were to send Tony Starkinto battle on his own, he would
be in big trouble, right?
He's just a guy, right?
I'm just a guy.
You know, you're just a woman.
On our own, we're good, butwe're not like superhero status
good, right?
(30:04):
But when Tony Stark puts on theIron Man suit, all of a sudden
he's a superhero.
Okay.
And we can help turn, you know,employees or or business owners
into that superhero status byallowing them to partner with
and integrate with technology ina way that allows them to do far
more than they could do on theirown at a higher level, faster,
(30:29):
better, you know, all of thosethings, right?
And it's kind of like givingthem this Iron Man suit and
saying, hey, go be a superheroand love what you do, right?
Love what you do.
Do the things that you are mostpassionate about in your job
that you really love, that justget you excited to wake up and
get out of bed in the morningand let the technology handle
the stuff that's kind of like,uh, I don't hate, I don't like
(30:51):
doing that.
I hate that part of my job.
And allow people to do what theyare naturally drawn to and that
they do best.
And all of a sudden, whathappens is your company, your
business surges forward, right?
Not just a little bit, but alot, because your people are
engaged, they're excited,they're doing what they want to
do, they're getting more done inless time.
(31:14):
And so it makes really big,impactful differences on
businesses when they usetechnology, when they use AI in
the right way, and they havesomeone that can partner with to
really truly implement it.
There's all sorts of likeoff-the-shelf tools like do it
yourself.
I've seen way too many peopletry using those tools.
And what happens is they eithergive up, they have a bad
(31:38):
experience, and it causesproblems, or they get so focused
on that it's like the mostexpensive implementation ever
because they're takingthemselves away from the thing
that they're an expert at, andthey're like putting the
training wheels back on andspending all of their time doing
something they know nothingabout.
And so that's where we come inand help, you know, businesses
(32:00):
to really surge forward.
SPEAKER_00 (32:01):
Well, you just answered my next question.
So that was really perfectsegue.
SPEAKER_02 (32:05):
I re I read your mind around the same.
SPEAKER_00 (32:07):
You did, you really did.
So where do you see yourbusiness going?
And what do you think thatpeople who are entrepreneurs and
small business owners, perhaps,you know, B2B or B2C, what
should we be thinking of?
SPEAKER_02 (32:23):
Well, so our business is continuing to grow.
We are growing and we're growingat a very rapid pace, which is
exciting for us.
At some point, we will expandinto other verticals, other
ICPs.
We're getting really good atwhat we're doing right now.
Once we have it down to thepoint where we're like, okay, we
can do that in our sleep.
We will look for otherindustries to say, okay, where
else can we have, you know, ameaningful impact on people and
(32:46):
on processes in ways that thatbless lives?
That's what we want to do.
But in general, I would say, youknow, find ways to use
technology to make your lifebetter.
It is a tool.
Too many people think it it'sgonna, you know, like you said
earlier, it's the terminator,it's gonna take over.
No, it's another tool.
When cars came along, those thatmade horses and buggies uh were
(33:07):
probably nervous, like, oh, it'sgonna take over our lives.
It became another tool.
When, I don't know, whenchainsaws were invented, those
that made axes and and handsawsprobably got nervous, but it's
another tool.
Learn how to use it, employ itwell, and and don't be afraid of
it.
Put it to work and it'll dogreat things for you.
SPEAKER_00 (33:25):
Yeah, fantastic.
John, thank you so much forjoining me on MediaScape today.
We will have Thinkai uh linkedin the show notes for those who
want to learn more about whatyou do, even if you're they're
not in that your specific ICPright now, they could be in the
future.
Or at least let us know.
SPEAKER_02 (33:43):
If you've got a great idea, we'd love to hear
about it.
SPEAKER_00 (33:45):
So Yeah, exactly.
You can still learn a lot fromfollowing John on LinkedIn and
also Think AI.
Um, any final thought?
SPEAKER_02 (33:55):
No, I don't think so, other than uh don't don't be
afraid of the future.
Run at it, right?
Run at it and uh and be the onethat's in control.
If we get scared and we thinkthat it's happening to us, we've
given up our own own control anduh we no longer have the ability
to direct where things aregoing.
And so, you know, don't beafraid.
Jump in, go for it.
There's lots of great things outthere, incredible opportunities
(34:17):
like we've never seen before.
And so go find yours.
SPEAKER_00 (34:21):
Fantastic.
I don't know how we could end itany better.
So thank you to everybody who'slistening to this episode or
watching it on your favoriteplatform.
I am Annika Jackson, one of yourhosts of Media Escape, and I'll
be back, or Justifataya will beback with another amazing guest
to share some great things foryou to make your life in this
digital world a little easier, alittle better every day.
SPEAKER_01 (34:44):
To learn more about the Master of Science and
Digital Media Managementprogram, visit us on the web at
dmm.usc.edu.
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