Full Transcript for Why Every Expert Needs a Book Now

this is still influencing me. Like, hey, they wrote a book. It's impressive, right? And I was just telling this gal on a date the other day, it's like, I wrote this book, I'm gonna hand it to a possible client. They're not gonna read the book, they're gonna look at the book, they're gonna go, ⁓ my God, this is really awesome. Wow, it's a hard, hard top, you know, hardcover book, and they're gonna sign up with me. So continuously being at all the podcast things. I used to be affiliate with ClickFunnels and all these people. I realized that I should write a book. So I took the time to do it. And having that book, it's just it's silly. It's cheating in marketing. It really is cheating. ⁓ having a podcast is cheating in marketing, right? So having that book, I just did an event the other day and ⁓ I'm like, God, should I bring my books? I got cases of them in my garage. I'm like, ⁓ you know, some of my friends gonna be there. I'm feel weird about it. It was like heartfelt, tiered moments. I mean, of course, a few of them had drinks in them. They're like, I didn't know you did this. ⁓ can you sign my book? I'm like, dude, I play golf with you every day. Why I don't that's kind of weird. Sign a book, but but they really wanted to honor me for writing that book. So that's how my whole dynamic of having a book or or believing in people that have books, it is like having that Harvard. certificate in the back of the wall when you're a lawyer. It's as simple as that. speaker-1: Yeah, it's really just an authority piece, right? Like there is something about being an author, being seen as an author, somebody who has created this book, your name on the bottom line of the book, right? Seeing your name there in a printed piece is ⁓ there's something about it, right? Just in the mental perception ⁓ of who you are. And then even beyond that, I think like I could imagine if I took the time to write a book about what my methodology is, right? About my unique expertise, whatever. If I took the time to think through the outline, right? And then take the time to sit down and really write every chapter of that book. I would understand so much more about what I do. Right. Like you would just have such a deeper understanding and a deeper connection to your material, to your work, to your expertise, because you've taken it out of your head, where I talk about it all the time. And then you force yourself to put it down on paper. Like there's something about that process that is one, really difficult. And then two, helps you think so much more clearly. Like I've been doing this a habit For the last like week and a half. So it hasn't really fully set in. But I try and take fifteen minutes every single day of just writing. And it's just writing about whatever. But there's something magical about the the process of just writing that helps you just understand and more deeply connect to the things that you talk about on a day to day basis. speaker-0: You know, I'm getting chills

kind of thinking about it, because I I, you know, as you know, I have ⁓ the software Cody Dog Interactive, where it's basically a web designer with AI tools and different AI technologies in there. One of the things that actually makes the components so powerful that I really kind of still can't get across to people is having a book like I have. I have this thing called life stories in there. And basically you import, you drag your PDF into there. And it now breaks all the stories of what you wrote about in your book into marketing material. So if I go to create an email about my social media poster, it then goes and goes, of course, there's the whole thing, right? When you're selling, there's my backstory, the problem you're trying to solve, and blah, blah, blah. So it'll take my outline of my book into that consideration to write that marketing piece. So I'm sure you've did some research on me. You can kind of see some spots of my BMX career or my mom cooking or or these different things that kind of integrate into the stories. And ⁓ so if you are, you know, considering trying to write a book out there, it's just not something you could just hand to somebody. But now in this day of AI, you know, someone like Ann can take your book and throw it into these kind of algorithms and create this place. Like it's, it's, it's, it's crazy because AI can take your story and tell it better than you can. And turn it into a marketing piece. So I think that having that book is not just a book itself. It's like, I'm actually gonna rewrite mine here. So and I actually create created like this little recordering thing that just I'll just talk into it and it just generates a new story in my my software. So ⁓ I got a new story. I'm walking at the beach, I'm you know, checking out the shores and I got this thought that comes to my head. I just quick recording my thing, AI records it, rewrites it for me, puts it in my story bank. And then when I go to write an email or whatever, it's always in there. So if I go to write a book again or whether all these stories are in there to create that. It's it's credible. It's incredible. speaker-1: That is incredible. Yeah. And that is another side of having a book where it is such a rich source of context about you and what you do. Right. Like if you're any AI output is only as good as the context that it has. Right. So if you have a book where you have captured your methodology, your expertise, your stories into that book, and then now you can use that book as the foundational context for any AI system or any AI tool that you're doing, especially if you're gonna be using that AI system or AI tool in your marketing. It's just such a valuable asset across so many different dimensions. speaker-0: A hundred percent. A hundred percent. It's I mean we could spend two hours on this podcast talking about how valuable it is. Then it's thinking through your thoughts, right? It's it's I mean, having this ledger of your life. When you go

to meet a new person in a relationship or a new business, it's like, ⁓ you just look my book up and you got my whole life story. speaker-1: Yeah. So tell me about your book. Like what did you what's the title? What did you speaker-0: I went with a so I went with the name ⁓ the cause of accomplishment. And with my background in sports and golfing and ⁓ podcasting, I've noticed that things come into your life I don't know if you've ever heard of the butterfly effect, but when you let things come in your life and happen, they kinda happen. I was ⁓ one that just stands out is I was doing a podcast one day, ⁓ and ⁓ some I went to this friends grand opening of a cryotherapy thing. I was like helping him with marketing. And this this guy kept on talking to me and and bugging me. It was like kind of annoying. I'm like, but I'm busy. I'm trying to take pictures. And I just said, you know, this year you're gonna listen to people that are around you and stop and not be this person that's something's coming to you right now. Stop. So I did. I caught myself and got to talk into the guy. And ⁓ later on my friend goes, that guy's a billionaire. He invented email. Like the whole email we look at, like my email in front of me, he invented like the the integration, the early integration of it. And I'm like, of course, ⁓ my God, this is crazy. And we be kind of started becoming friends. And I'm like, hey, I got a podcast. I'd love to have you on it. And if anybody wants to look it up, it's Lee Stein. Lee Stein. So he was on his way to my house, he came to my house. I'm like, wow, you know? So I'm like, all right. So this guy's coming to my house and I'm like, That morning I'm kind of going, God, I'm getting so busy here. I'd love to have ⁓ an intern. And he calls me up. He's like, I'm on my way. If you don't mind, I'm bringing somebody that might possibly be an intern for you. And I'm like, What's going on here? Right. Like, what's going on? I mean, how many times do you like, God, I wish I had a cup of coffee or I found a pocketing spot or whatever. It's like you just kind of think about it the right way and let it happen. It happens instead of going, God, hurry up. I need to I to get inside. I'm gonna take. It was surrounded was basically around SEO and so on and so forth. But I use my life stories to talk about my life and how SEO is very similar. So when you're online getting ranked in Google, it's like owning a property in La Jolla. I live in La Jolla. So if you own a property in La Jolla, you're you're doing pretty good. If you own two, you know, you're helping the value go up and you're positioned in a certain place. So being positioning and influencing, being positioned in SEO and being positioned in real estate are all the same thing. speaker-1: Hm. So Wow. Yeah. Yeah. And ⁓ if you open yourself up to say yes to the opportunities that come across your you know, experience, right? If you just kinda open yourself up to a solution or if you I don't know, you

just aren't so closed off. It is I I don't know how the right way to put it into words, right? I haven't sat with it enough. speaker-0: I you're doing this podcast, right? What something brought you to be doing this to where it's working for you in your life and making how many connections? I mean, how many I mean, I don't know how many podcast interviews you're gonna be doing today, but you know, now you and I are connecting, right? We're connecting right here now, and you're probably gonna call me up in a week or maybe even after this podcast, we're gonna have like a two hour conference. ⁓ that was so awesome. We had a great time. ⁓ my god, I didn't know you were doing that. You know, and here it is. Like, I didn't know you two twenty minutes ago. You didn't know me twenty minutes ago. And you're like, Wow, this guy's in my world, you know? Yeah. We can help each other. speaker-1: Right, for sure. The podcast is an amazing vehicle for for building those connections. And it is a wild story on how I got the idea to start doing this. It was literally just at an event, listen in on this guy's presentation, and then again for some reason just kind of got up, talked to him after then we that led to us going to get tacos together after the event was over. And then he we got to talking about our businesses, and then he was like, Hey, I think this using a podcast to connect with potential clients would be a great thing for you to do. So it was just like all You know, in hindsight it looks random. Yeah. Right. Yeah. It's pretty incredible. And I've been reading, ⁓ I just finished this book called A Return to Love by Marion Williamson. And yeah, the whole idea is that if you can just surrender, right? Kind of surrender control and then just kind of try and be in the present moment and ask for help like from, you know, whatever a higher power of some kind. Yeah, it's speaker-0: Right. You let it happen, right? speaker-1: It's been pretty incredible if you can intentionally put that practice into your life of calling for help to some higher power, whatever that looks like to you, how immediately and how much it starts to just show up and appear in your own life. It's miraculous. speaker-0: It's crazy that we kind of don't do it every day. It's and in my book I have this thing called treasure map mode that I talk about, which is basically this kind of out outlined. And it's like it's like, why don't we do this all day every day? And I guess because there's so much energy that goes with that, right? 'Cause when you're in that mode, it it is definitely takes a lot of energy out of because of a lot of good going on, a good a lot of whatever going on. ⁓ I guess that we just can't do it every day. You know, like I just played golf four days in a row. My body is sore. I'm like Do I want to play golf every single day? Yes. But reality is your game will start going down because you're so sore and you're starting to practice things the wrong way. So you kind of jump

into that that moment in your life that's very executable, right? And then kind of come back out of it and like, you know, settle into world. speaker-1: Right. Yeah, amazing. We could talk about that stuff. And it's been really weird how you know, weird, whatever we want to call it, but like this kind of conversation of the, you know, metaphysical or the ethereal or the, you know, existence of some higher thing that's kind of the orchestrator. And if we can just surrender control to something like that, like good things will start happening, right? The the universe is on your side or whatever will bring these amazing things into your life. It's been coming up in like every single podcast conversation. ⁓ really? I re like for the last two months, which is amazing. Like I love it. And I'm trying to ⁓ like I'm working to get better at ⁓ intentionally doing that, whatever accordance of ⁓ speaker-0: Turn my video here and you could see another. ⁓ no, he's not on that mall, is he? ⁓ he's on this wall right here. Let me one second and grab it. My podcast got me on this guy's show here. I don't know if you can see it. ⁓ yeah. Do you know who that is? And ⁓ because of my podcast, I was invited to be on his show. I don't ⁓ I you can count on two fingers how many people were invited on his show, Ask for Pro. And it was all kind of all this whole thing. I was speaker-1: Grant card huh. speaker-0: broke and I got invited. I had to take my mortgage money. I got this opportunity. I got to fly out of Miami and go on this show. And I'm like, I'm not sure if I've even told my dad the right way. I kinda like because he would say, no, don't you just spend the money. No, no, yeah, you know, because he wouldn't understand the opportunity, right? But I can go on this podcast right now and raise that, right? That's like writing a bo that's like having a book, right? Instantly you go, Wow, that dude's been on Grant if you Grant Cardone, he's like, that's how he's been on his podcast, you know, so Yeah. speaker-1: Immediately what I thought I looked up and I googled your name, I saw that podcast, I'm like, ⁓ sh Dennis is legit. speaker-0: And right here I got this on my wall. I don't think you can see me, but ⁓ Wow ⁓ Yeah, yeah. So ⁓ all these are book trophies, right? So whether it's a book or or being on a podcast or anything, you definitely have to utilize it. And ⁓ yeah, I know you help people utilize that and and work with them on that ways. Do you have some good stories that you've got some great but results from people helping them there? speaker-1: Yeah. I mean the what originally got me into it was my own personal experience. Like I was I've been a voracious reader since college. I have no problem consuming like reading books. Like I've burned through books, highlight bang page corners, really engage with the material, never have any problem reading the book. But you don't really get Any transformation by consuming the content, you have to actually do the work that's assigned to you in these books, right? Doing the exercises, doing like taking action in order to get the transformation. So I started building these companions, these AI companions for me, just for me, to help me ⁓ do the work that I'm being told to do in these books. And the first example of that, the first iteration of that was this book called The Five Types Wealth by Shaheel Blum. And one of my favorite books that I've read in the last few years, highly recommended for everybody. The main thesis of the book is that. Society places way too much emphasis on only one type of wealth, that financial wealth is the only scoreboard for life, like how well you do financially, the number in your bank account is the only scoreboard for life. And he argues that there's five different types of wealth that make up the scoreboard for life. There's financial wealth, there's health wealth, time wealth, mental wealth, and social wealth, right? These the five different types of wealth. And I'm reading this book and I'm absolutely loving it, just burning through it. And the first chapter, I believe, is about mental wealth. Something like that. But the first chapter, the first exercise in the book is finding your icky guy. Right. The overlap between what you love, what you're good at, and what the world needs. The overlap between those three things is your icky guy. Or ja in Japanese that means your reason for being. And I'm reading that. I'm like, I want to find that answer. And I'm just sitting there with a notepad and a notebook, just being like, Okay. He had some prompts in the book that you could answer. And it's just like I'm really struggling. So I was like, screw it. I had just been learning how to build all these custom AI tools. So I built one for myself that then guided me through the process of identifying what I love, what I'm good at, what I think the world needs and finding the overlap between those three things that actually led me to doing what I'm doing today, which is ⁓ that icky guy is what I'm doing today, which is building these custom models for impact to help scale the transformation or scale the impact of the the books that my clients write. Right. Just helping to ⁓ Do that. So then, you know, I've worked with a bunch of clients since. And ⁓ yeah, it's been just amazing the the reception of these things. And ⁓ I truly believe that every single book that assigns work to their reader in the future will have an AI companion that's designed to help the readers of those books engage with the material, do the work that they're I like that assigned in the book. Yeah. Like I just a hundred percent I see that being Like there's no doubt in my mind that that will be the case. Like Amazon is already doing something where with every book on Kindle, they're going to have like a little AI companion, like a chat bot that you can kind of ask questions of. But what I'm doing goes a little bit further. There's no doubt in my mind. Like I think we're

gonna reinvent the way that we read and consume books. ⁓ and I'm really excited about being a part of that. But ⁓ yeah. I'd love to go back, Dennis, to you talked about the moment before you went on Grant Cardone's show where you were broke, right? You had to Take out borrow some money from your dad in order to even make the trip. Like what led to that point? Like how did you get to that? This is this is after your BMX career, I imagine. Like like how'd you get to that? speaker-0: I had a company that I now actually rebuilt come new a new version of it now that ⁓ I used to be extreme sports athlete. We do these school assemblies across the country ⁓ where we educate students. You probably had one at your school, a BMX bike show that came there or something like that. And ⁓ I had sold the company for pennies on the dollar 'cause I it was just a basically a long story, a lawsuit that happened with a friend of mine that I commerged with and he I wanted to go back to my old version. We we merged our companies and it just wasn't working for me as much as it was working for him. ⁓ I was making more money before when I was my own company than being merged. So I kindly was as a in a friendly way saying, hey, you know, can we just kind of pull these apart? I'll still let you use my marketing. I'll still let you use my software tools, everything. And he just he was just a no. So I got a, you know, a bunch of money. And at that time I'm living well. I'm driving an AMG. I'm living in La Hoya. I'm I'm doing well. And so you're, you know As you probably already heard on your podcast a million times, is like the money just drains down to nothing, right? So because you're trying something new. You I tried to build a website company and I spent a lot of money there and and just didn't the click never clicked, right? So I started getting behind on my mortgage and started going down that road. It was pretty ugly. But I was a stubborn podcaster. I was like, I wanna be a podcaster and I want to be the best at it, kind of like I did with bike riding. And I was just like, no, I'm not going to get No, I'm not doing this. No, I'm not doing that. No, I'm not doing that. I'm doing my podcast and I'm gonna make it work. So ⁓ at that time, like, like I said, my dad kind of lent me like 10,000 bucks or something like that. And I was doing a blab I know if you remember blab. Do you remember blab? So blab is you have like four, five, six, ten people on a video conference all together, kind of like Zoom is, but it was one for podcasters. So you would go on there and like do a speaker-1: No. speaker-0: four person podcast. So I was doing this at the time I was like, I gotta make my podcast kind of stand out and be ridiculous in some sort of way. So I'm like, I'm gonna do a twelve hour long podcast. Twelve hours. On air for twelve hours. The only thing I'm gonna do is go to the bathroom. So I scheduled four people every hour for twelve hours. So I I interviewed some like thirty six people or something like crazy. It was crazy. And I was setting up for the podcast the day before, and somehow it ended up in Grant Cardone's chat. It's actually in YouTube. If you go Grant Cardone, Dennis Langley's marketing on YouTube, and you see I have the r thing recorded. So I he ended up him and all these gurus, you know, these other top guys, probably just as wealthy as him, they just let me in. And all of a sudden I found myself in the blab with Grant Cardone and God. It's based on the other guys' names, but they're really successful. You see ⁓ on Instagram all the time. And I'm here I am like totally unprepared. But I did have my like I have like a backdrop and I was really fancy backdrop and stuff like that. And they kept on going, Wow, this guy's got his act together, you know, this and that. They're like talk they're like talking me up, like, hey, you know, you got your act together, this and that. I gotta get a backdrop and I gotta do all this. And so, ⁓ we got to talking and he's like, I want you to come on my show. I'm like, Cool, you know. So sure enough. He had somebody contact me and ⁓ we worked out this situation to go out to Miami and I got a friend of mine to give me a plane ticket and I got out there and I like, okay, I'm gonna get in, I'm gonna get out, I'm gonna rent a car, I'll try to find a way to sleep in some cheap hotel or maybe even like buddy up to the guy that's going to the pick me up at the plane. Maybe I can stay at his house, save a couple bucks, you know. So I go to the event early morning, I get there, like eight o'clock, an hour be early, and I'm sitting in the waiting area. And who's in the waiting areas is Tony Robbins' right hand man, Dragon. I still good friends with him now, Dragon. So we hit it off and he's like, Hey, do you want to come to Tony Robbins? I'm like, Well, ⁓ he's like, Yeah, I'll get you in. No problem. It's it's in a couple days. I'm like, I gotta go with this. So I'm like, now I'm like calling all my contacts out there, see if I can get like a place to stay. Of course, I'm calling people that are on my podcast and calling this, that, trying to figured n finangle this all out and it just wasn't working. So I'm like, screw it. I'm gonna stay in the hotel at the thing. I'm just gonna go with it. It was like three hundred bucks a night. And I'm like, ⁓ you know, but I was like, I just let it all go and said, screw it. Just spend the money, do it all. And then I started meeting all kinds of people there. And I got to come up in the diamond area and do all these things. And it was like, wow, you know, it was just this experience. It just like we kind of talked about earlier, it just kind of just kept on flowing and flowing and flowing. And sure enough, you know, eventually I had Tony Robbins' son on my podcast. I had, you know, all these incredible people on my podcast. And it was just these different movements of things that happened because of the podcast and because of having the book

and all that stuff. It's just like speaker-1: the one crazy idea of like I'm gonna do a twelve hour podcast. Right. This this crazy idea that you had is what opened the door to all of those opportunities. speaker-0: I got ⁓ Russell Brunson on my show, right? I don't you know Russell Brunson. Yeah. Okay. Getting him on his show, it was like it was like this window at time that it would happen. Like you could never get him on your podcast now. It'd be very difficult. And he was promoting the expert secrets book. And I guess he was just taking every opportunity he could possibly get. And somebody referred me. I think I had no, I had his right hand man on my show. And then somehow happened and and he said, Yes, I'll be on your show. So boom, had I mean it doesn't get better than that, right? ⁓ so they end up after that, they end up inviting me up to click click funnels for a week to basically create funnels for their marketplace. So they were and they're launching this marketplace where we were all like there's like the thirty best, they call us the thirty best funnel builders in the world. So they did this whole marketing thing with us in there and put all the funnels in there and people could buy our funnels. It was really cool. And that's really kind of when I decided I wanted to do the ranked mastery because I was like, Hey, you need to build these tools so that does this and this and they just never did it. So then I kinda went on my own way. But yeah, they're crazy stories, crazy stories. speaker-1: Absolutely. Yeah. And it's just a testament to having a belief, sticking with it, right? Even though maybe it's not working out, right? Things aren't going well. Like how long do you feel like you were in that phase where you're like, I'm committed to podcasting, to making this work? Like how long were you committed to that idea before you had that kind of break? speaker-0: Two thousand fourteen You know, I it was like a ever it was just always getting better because you get somebody on your podcast, they refer somebody else. And I did don't get me on I did at least fifty or seventy podcasts with people that were not know-it alls. You they w shouldn't say no-it all so they weren't famous, so to speak, but you get that opportunity as you're learning, general how many podcasts you how many you done you've done now? You've done a lot forty. Okay. So I did five hundred. So you're just speaker-1: This is forty. speaker-0: Getting going. I mean, wait until you see when you get to eighty and then one twenty five and then you just change dynamically. The you now you have forty contacts, you're gonna have eighty contacts, eighty contacts. You know, I really enjoyed being on Ian's podcast, like, you know, before you know it you have Grant Cardone on your show or somebody on, you know, some of these top maybe anthropics president or something like that, you know? So believe me, it can happen pretty quickly. It it it's super exciting. Especially if you do it. I

mean I can already tell you you're you're very just like present, you're very patient, you're very I can listen to you, you can listen to me, that's super huge. I think I really see how you help your your guests and help yourself and so it's really nice. I think you're gonna go a long way being a veteran. I can tell. speaker-1: Appreciate it. And I think the big thing with it for me, I really just love doing it. Like this is one of my favorite things to do is just talk and get to know new people. ⁓ so it's just like a perfect like I had wanted to do a podcast for a long time. I had kind of started and not stuck with like three different podcasts before this. But this one is one that I've found a way to kind of tie it to my business. So it's like something that I can justify taking, you know, six hours out of the week to ⁓ you know, work on the prep, have the episodes, you know. Now I have somebody on my team that's doing all the editing and everything. So yeah, I love doing it. And I think that's the most important part about sticking with anything. speaker-0: Yeah, there was no AI when I was doing it. I kinda like I want to jump back into it and I'm really not sure what my what my ⁓ message is this time. Now that I know everything about how it works and and where it goes and and ⁓ the trifector of it, right? So you have to have a podcast, a product, and a and a course, right? So I really haven't found the the mix match for that. And ⁓ yeah, I but I totally enjoy it. It does take a lot of time. speaker-1: Yeah. It takes a lot of time and it's just ⁓ it's a real skill. Like if I go back and watch myself in my first episode, which I have, it's funny. Like it's just, you know, there's a there's a big difference between talking to somebody in person and then trying to facilitate an interesting conversation on a podcast. It is a real kind of back and forth and figuring out, like, okay, there's the balance of Okay, I'm gonna have all these prepared questions and then you really just have to kind of throw all those out the window because once you get into the conversation, if you're just married to those scripted questions, you're gonna kinda mess with the whole flow of the conversation. But we could have a whole other podcast just about podcasting itself and just kind of how to effectively do that. speaker-0: About the audience, right? So Yeah. But yeah, I mean I I kinda re have to reaffur that like having a book, using AI or just that they they should be mandatory. I think every human being should write a book, you know? Yeah. speaker-1: Everybody's got a story in them, right? I've got a couple kind of partners that I'm working with right now who are ghostwriters. Like there are services out there. Like if you don't want to actually do all of the work and, you know, writing on your own, there are these ghostwriters that can work with you to interview you and help pull the story out of you. Like they're storytelling masters and they can interview you,

listen to your story, find those nuggets. Like one of the the partners that I have is named Sean Mabry. Highly recommend if you're looking for somebody you you want to, you know, maybe you're you feel like you have a book within you. He is one of the most eloquently spoken individuals as it relates to storytelling and writing that I've ever spoken to. It's really impressive. But he will work with you to help uncover the story within you. Like the he calls it the battles that you have won and the medicine that you have to offer to the world. He will help pull that out of you and then compile it into a good book, like a really great book, and work with you through that entire experience. Whether you want to do the writing yourself, you can do that with him, or if you want him to take over all the writing, he'll do that as well. But Yeah, I a hundred percent agree. Everybody has a unique story to tell in their in them. And then everybody has just a unique contribution and unique gift to make to the world, right? Some divine spark, like a reason for them being here. And that is one of the things that I'm most excited about, like the optimistic side of me about this whole disruption of AI. And I this is something that I've talked about on the podcast before. But I think that this disruption is going to force a lot more people into a situation where they have to figure out how to create their own value for the world. AK become an entrepreneur. Make some unique contributions. Solve a problem. So I'm really excited about that. speaker-0: Yeah. It and ⁓ it all intertwines together and the faster you learn it, you're you're you're the expert in the room in your in your in in your niche, right? Yes. I mean some people just are natural live by referral kind of people and others are just natural marketers, but you know, if you regardless, having a podcast, having a book and utilizing that book for marketing is just bar none the best. I I I haven't even tapped into the marketing of my book. You know, it's yeah, it's just phenomenal. speaker-1: Absolutely. And what ⁓ a previous guest, Brian Wright, talked about, he was one of the ghostwriters that I had on the show. It doesn't just end with the book, but you should then be utilizing the book to unlock other opportunities like speaking engagements, podcast appearances, workshops that you host, courses that you create, consulting services that you offer. Right. The book is just the foundation of all these other opportunities. And it's the process of going through and writing the book that one will help you think more clearly about what you do, going back to what we already talked about at the beginning of the conversation. And then two, we'll establish you as an authority, right? If again, if s people see your name on the cover of a book that you wrote, it's just an automatic. Automatic. Automatic authority placement, a hundred percent. So what was it for you like why were you so committed to the idea of like you

want this is after your BMX career. Why were you so committed to the idea of like podcasts? Like why did you say no to every other opportunity? Why was podcasting the thing that you wanted to do? speaker-0: So kinda as I alluded to before, I did not realize my position as an extreme sports writer. Even today, many years later, it pisses me off, actually. I so I'll go speak at a podcast conference, right? And get on the stage and talk and and then the guy next to me will go, Well well, you're not telling about your BMX career. And all of a sudden I get off the stage and they don't want to hear about me as a podcaster, they want to hear about me as a BMXer. I'm like, I'm not here to be a BMX or I'm here to be a podcaster. Like I want to be the I want to be as good as I was on BMX on in podcasts. I want to be the the number one guy, you know, kind of thing. So it kind of pissed me off actually. But but just recognizing that wow, I left, you know, that on the table and and I recognize that having a podcast can do that. And I got pretty good at podcasting. I've got many testimonials on how I was you just talked about is is getting people To unravel their story, right? Really, you know, share the unfortunate situations of almost losing your house or share unfortunate situations of the having a drug problem or whatever they have or whatever. And then also they overcame it. Over and over and over again, we all want to feel like we have somebody else out there struggling just like us. I think that's the the existence of human beings. Like we all there's some good looking people, but they struggle with other things. There's some people that aren't So lucky with that and they struggle with other things, but we're all created equal and we're all looking to each other to to affirm that yes, I'm struggling too. You're struggling too. Yes, I'm struggling. I don't know why we do that, but this that's where bonding comes, is is you know, you listen at a bar and most people aren't really they're if they're talking about success, it's really shallow shallowly talked about. It there's no passion in it. But when people are talking about a relationship or or trying to overcome something, it's it's where people bond. And I think that's just the only thing left in human existence is that. And ⁓ I think that, you know, having podcasts are are a good part of that. So good part of helping that. speaker-1: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, we all just want to relate, right? We want to have a relationship where we relate with the with other people and not feel like we're alone. And when you hear your story represented in somebody else, and then they have the roadmap of how they are they started where you were and then they got out of it. That's ⁓ that's what we're all looking for. Right. We wanna we wanna find that roadmap, that next step, like that what we need to do in order to make the change in our life that we want to make. Right. And that is in other people, right? There is no matter what situation it is that you are in, there is somebody else out there who has been there and gotten to where you want to be. And if you can find that person, find their story, you can then use that as a model for your own life. And I honestly I do hear a lot of what your journey and what your story, like what you went through. I hear a lot of that in mind, right? Because like for me, I am doggedly committed to this idea of using AI, like building AI companions for books, right? Like I am doggedly committed to that. Right. I've had so many other projects. There's so many opportunities as it relates to AI implementation and AI use cases for any one kind of business. Like you can pick any one kind of business, a podcaster, a residential electrician. You can take any type of business and you can identify a dozen different use cases for custom AI tools or systems that could be great for their business, like literally anything. But the one that is like lights me up is this idea of building AI companions for books and for authors. Like I just am so committed to it. And it's probably been, you know, at a detriment to the short term. So I had a marketing agency for f for four years that I was building with a friend of mine. And then I exited that last year. And I've been I've been like a year into building this business. And I've probably left a lot of money, a lot of opportunities on the table because I'm so committed to this one idea. So yeah. All in being Yeah, exactly. So when I hear you just being, you know, all in on that idea of becoming a podcaster, seeing it through, finding success, it pushed you to the limit. Right. And it wasn't until you were at the limit that the opportunity then opened up for you. And I find that just super inspiring. Yeah. So I really appreciate you sharing that. So I don't know there's any more insight that you can glean or share on, you know, like you were pushed to the limit. You were pushed to your last. speaker-0: Yeah, I I I ⁓ you know, one thing when you're saying that is burn the boat. You ever heard that term? Yeah. You go to the island, you burn the boat and you have no choice to go back. You have absolutely no choice. There's no extra boat, right? I'll never forget standing on my back porch one day going, Wow. I d had just started and gotten some traction and something and then I got s served some papers, like some cease and desist stuff. I'm like like I'm just getting beat up and beat up with hammers, nails, guns, bombs, everything. And I'm like I just look at this guy, I'm like, ⁓ my God. And then I'm in another day where I'm like, I gotta mail in my taxes. I didn't even have thirty five cents in and money to get the freaking stamp, you know? So granted I do ha I I do have a house in La Jolla. So I it's not like I I'm not folks, I'm not poor. But I was, you know, asset rich, but money poor, right? So of course I could have sold my house and been goes f live somewhere else and retire. But when you're

not cash rich, you know, you don't have the the the twenty cents in your pocket or whatever. But ⁓ yeah, I mean just coming overcoming I guess that's why my love golf right now is like every day I get I get so good and the next day it's like you like you can't even hit a ball straight to save your life. Yeah. I love it. speaker-1: Yeah, it's the best game. Golf is a beautiful game. If you're ever in Arizona, hit me up. We gotta play. ⁓ yeah. speaker-0: Yeah, I l I love Arizona Golf. I used to go there a lot and play. So over in the Kieran. speaker-1: Golf is a is a unique kind, right? It requires a lot of precision off the T. And then once you're off there, you can go low, which is fun. A lot different than I'm from Wisconsin originally, which is amazing. So, Dennis, thank you so much for your time. I have a couple more questions for you. Yep. Go ahead. So shifting into more of the AI conversation, because I know this is your like a realm of your expertise today, right? And again, before we press record, you talked about the idea of how you have spent years building this platform in Cody Dog. And now you see This is something that people could just rebuild on their own with Claude in like just a few days. So you're feeling that disruption, like you're being disrupted by the technology that you were using and offering. Like you're you're kind of almost disrupting yourself now in the in this world, which is required, right? If you want to stay alive, you need to be capable of disrupting yourself. Right. You you read this in all the the successful stories of of the greatest businesses that have ever existed, right? You need to be willing to disrupt yourself. So what are you seeing? Like what are the what is the decision making process, the process that you're going through with your business in Cody Dog? Like where where are you thinking that you're gonna take it? Right. Are you gonna continue to build out the Cody Dog platform, sell and promote that that platform, or are you gonna make a shift into offering a different kind of service now? speaker-0: You know, that's really something that's come up in my head every single day. And in fact, even today, I'm like, what's my next marketing plan of how I'm gonna go up at this? So so I as I alluded to it before, I was kinda in the SEO space and I'm like, I started selling it like ins I can sell. I can sell it like crazy. I'll do webinars, I'll do all kinds of different things and I could sell people in on it. But the issue I was running into is I kinda felt like a snake oil salesman because I'd create a page for them. Or pages and I'd get them ranked, but they weren't getting business. So not everybody benefits from SEO. So although I was successful at getting these people ranked using AI, of course, and then it wasn't happening. So now I'm trying to reverse back to Cody Dog, but then now, you know, I've been using Claude now for I don't know, four, four months, five months. And just in that five months,

as you know, it's like I can build anything in days that would take me an entire summer. It's still kind of like, wow. And it does it really, really, really good. You know? Can you imagine building a web page now? Like, I mean, it takes two minutes, you know, to build it, two, maybe two, five minutes to build a really good one. And it was seven to ten to fifteen thousand dollars, you know, a year and a half ago. So I'm still comprehending what's going on and what my positioning is on this. I I I I I kinda feel like, okay, I just gotta maybe try to find more people that will benefit from SEO and go there 'cause I know I can sell that really good. Or I need to like I've got so many incredible social media tools that I've developed with AI where you can post your schedule for like a month. You can automatically do all the create your old images. Like you can use like Grok or you could use Claude and all these different things to create images, but they just don't do it right. I think I create a tool that does it pretty damn good with AI, a website kind of thing interface, because I know what it has to look like and I know that what that it could work for. So But grabbing grabbing people attention for those things is t tough. So ⁓ to answer your question, I I am not quite sure. Like I'm kinda like thrown off guard a little here. You know, I spent eight years kind of building something and now it's like it's here. And it's like I don't know. I I ⁓ I I don't have the question that it's AI is just moving so fast and it's so exciting. I'll just ⁓ I want to work out, let me build myself a work or workout app. Okay. I wanna have AI create my routines based on my mood, have it create my meal for after and and and I'm done in like four hours. Yeah. And it's an incredible app, you know what I mean? So it's like I don't know. I I can't answer that question for you right now. I really can't. speaker-1: Yeah, just still evaluating and trying to make that decision. But I think, yeah, I mean, props to you for not like for recognizing it, seeing it that hey, everything that I just spent all this time building is there's a better way for my clients or my consumers or my people that they could be doing this than the service that I offer. So now I'm gonna try and find a better solution. Right. Like you're not you don't want to be that snake oil salesman, right? You want to provide your audience, your people with the best possible solution. Like you want to be there providing actual value. Not just catching people that maybe aren't aware of the other things that are available to them and then just selling them on what you have. Right. So I think that's a really good testament to your character and who you are. ⁓ and you're still trying to evaluate and figure out what that next move for you is going to be. If you were talking to a small business owner, like where do you think that they should be using AI in their business today? I feel like that's a conversation that's

kind of beaten t to death. speaker-0: Yeah. I think they should they should hire people like us to to create a whole integr in integration for them the way they want it, not the way Salesforce makes it, not the way goal high level or ClickFunnels does it. I can do it any way they want at an extremely affordable price. ⁓ but I I still think there's still this like that people still don't understand what they can really get, you know? Yeah. speaker-1: Right. And I think that the solution, like I tell this to clients all the time and people that I talk to about AI in general. I think the answer for how you should be using AI in your business, whatever it looks like, whatever it is, is it's custom built for you. Right. It's purpose built for your business, your process, your brand. Like it's purpose built for you and your business. Right. That is the great magic of AI is it's personalization at scale across the board. Right. You don't need to go for out of the box services, out of the box SaaS tools like Salesforce, Monday.com, like anything anymore. You get to build your own purpose built customized solution to whatever it is that you're building. Right. And that is what you shouldn't be just using generalized tools anymore. You can build purpose built tools to perform the very specific function that you want it to perform the exact way that you want it done now, which is just magical. speaker-0: That's incredible. You don't need Calendly anymore, right? ⁓ most of your book people probably have Calendly, right? You don't need that anymore. That's a waste. Like you can build that out in five minutes, better than Calendly, because it's gonna work with your data that your resource data. Like you're you have a podcast here, you can have Dennis here and then your Calendly and this and this. That's done. Mark email marketing, I can make a better email marketing solution than any MailChimp out there that's 10x better in like an hour, you know? It's like And then they're all now they're all touching your data, your database. It's not like you had to export your database out there or API into it and it just kind of doesn't quite fit anymore. Like it it's like it kind of fits, but it doesn't fit. Now it exactly fits. Then you integrate the SMS with the all that and you know, email and and notifications and you know, proposal processes and stuff like that. Right. So I mean It's just all so easy now. I maybe I guess it's maybe because I have a my own server and my own integration stuff already. Maybe it is easier for me than somebody else because I already have the male clients, the the SMS clients, the the Gemini clients, the Cloud clients. So it's just I say, I'm kinda like ⁓ Ironman. I was telling somebody that I'm Iron Man, you know, Jarvis, do this, this, this, and this, integrate, take the take the API from here, the API from here, and do it. And this does it, right? 'Cause they're already there, that the the keys are already there, everything's there. So

I guess maybe 'cause I already have that integration built into my Cody Dog platform, it's way easier. So speaker-1: Yeah, for sure. There's definitely a certain amount of foundational setup that you need to do in order to get to that place where it can take you a few minutes to do these things. ⁓ but once you get that set up, then everything is really easy. So like what do you think? So you talked about five years ago, right? Somebody might pay seven to ten thousand dollars to build out their webpage, their their website for them. But now that's something that you can just do in minutes. Like, where do you see the value is today? Like what is the skill or what is the ability that really creates value for the world? today because it's not in the actual doing of the thing, in the building of the webpage. Like what do you see is where you can provide value or like what is the skill, the ability that is really monetizable today? speaker-0: I think really understanding the prompting and the the the ability to open your mind up to anything's public. Even myself is closed minded. So for example, I on my Creative Dog Interactive thing has a website builder, right? So but Claude can make it easier than my software can. So I'm like, all right, I'm just gonna Claude build it real quick. Here's the template I wanna use. My my thing will take that template and then say, okay, I want ⁓ for example, I have a business networking company, right? So I want it to should be San Diego business networking. is a key words for the page. So I just say to my software, the Cody Dog software, keep the same structure, but just change the words out and pictures out to be that. Or networking in Incinitas. You know, so just do the same thing, it'll change it out. Right. But with Claude, you can have it do a completely new page, completely new text, so everything new, right? ⁓ which I still can do with my software. But then I had like seventy pages built, right? Which would take forever before. And I'm like, okay, well now I gotta get these into my software. So I was like, ⁓ I gotta hire four people at 40 bucks an hour to go cut and paste these, cut and paste these, because it would be too much work to get a Filipino assistant to understand all that. So I was about to start calling higher people. I go, wait a minute, I can just write myself a program to do it. So 15 minutes later, I had this drag and drop where I drag all my HLs into my Cody Dog software and it just built all the pages. So now I take now I'm 20 minutes in. And it would have took four days. And just one understanding of how unlimited AI is. So I think what people out there, if you're listening, is is start training your brain that unlimited is possible. This phone, you know, is more battery than phone. It's more glass battery and cover than phone. And I can call Australia and do a video call. I can transfer money. I can Fact something. I can take a fi photo. In the nineteen eighties, that would be six tractor trailer trucks with a plastic. I'm not joking, right? I got, you know, 50,000 music albums in there, right? How many albums that would fill this room up? You got you know, you got a camera, you gotta store all those pictures in a storybook, whatever you call it. I mean, it this right? So we're in that stage with AI is like, ⁓ I don't have to hire somebody for $40 an hour to do all this cutting and pasting for me, I can just write a script and it did it. And it did it. So and it doesn't say no to you, right? Right. Yeah. You know, it's I've never ran across a a girl or a guy that that is in this state. And it's going to go, one minute, let me look up. This is how you handle this conversation. You know what I mean? Their answers are out there forever. ⁓ and they're only getting better and better and better. So I think really understanding. the prompting, the the way you ask questions is really gonna be kind of cool because we think it's gonna take away from being human being, but actually it's helping us kind of learn how to communicate even on a different level. speaker-1: Right. Absolutely. I a hundred percent agree. speaker-0: We kind of just throw things out there now, right? ⁓ hey, I'm not happy with you. Well, you can't say that to Chat GP. have to say, ⁓ this person's unhappy because I sent them an email. Here's the email I sent, and this is the response. I go, okay, let's evaluate this. Well, the reason they're so mad is because on this line you said this, and then here's your answer, and this is why your answer. So now we're all learning how to think, ⁓ that's how I would respond. So We can become better human beings from this. I had this conversation yesterday with a girl. It can help us learn how to to answer questions among ourselves and in business. So in our brain and in per and in in in code. speaker-1: Yeah. 100%. I couldn't agree more that it's the ability to prompt effectively, which just comes down to giving clear instructions and providing the right context. Right. I think that every prompt or any custom tool that you're building, right, you need to answer these two questions is like, what is the function that I want this tool to perform right now? Being really clear in that. And then asking yourself the second question is like, okay, based on the function that I want this tool or this prompt to serve, what does AI then need to know? In order to do that the way that I want it done, right? Like basically what is the context that it needs. Right. So here's me really clearly explaining the function, what I want done. And then the second part of your prompt or your tool or your knowledge base basically needs to then answer the question of what does this tool need to know in order to perform that function effectively. So getting really good at those, that skill of prompting, of giving really clear instructions a hundred percent is the meta skill of of using AI effectively. But it also starts with like first having an awareness of the

capabilities of AI. And what you talked about, it's like really unlimited. Right. It's like having whatever idea you have, right, you can then execute. Like taking your idea, whatever that is, you can make real using AI, but probably like some specifics and platforms and tools that you need to use. It's just a part of that foundational understanding and intelligence that you need to build up within yourself in order to then be able to make it happen and turn that idea into reality. speaker-0: And the key thing is in your own way. Right. Yeah. Because it'll tell you a way that it can do it, but you now have the ability to do it in your own way. You know, I want a CRM. Like I just built the CRM ⁓ last week. And I'm like, God, everybody's communicating on Facebook. So this this has to be a Facebook feed, not a CRM or anything. So anything they they talk about, right, is in a Facebook feed look and feel. So now I said, ⁓ I'm gonna create a CRM that works that way. Right. So you're just dumping everything into a fe it's a Facebook feed. You you drop your image, you drop your proposal, you drop your contract, you send your email from there, you have your conversation, you you connect people there. It's all in this one feed, right? 'Cause that's how we're so used to. And so that's custom to me, custom to that that person is gonna like that. And can you go find that with, you know, go high level or anything like no, you're not really gonna find that to where you can do it the way you specifically want it. So I think that's the thing we have to kind of tell the audience is is you're gonna learn how to prompt and it's gonna give you back things, but then you have the right to change it to the way that you want to now. Right. And I think that's really kind of the thing that I think people aren't gonna understand. It's like, no, I want this to be this way. And yes, you can have it this way. Claude says yes. Right. He doesn't say no. It's fifty thousand dollars more, six months more the build out. It's yes. Let me think this through for you. Then it's gonna think through and it's gonna ask you a question, hey, well, I know you said it this way. Here's an option. Here's I you know, I found I was making a golf app, right? I'm like, I wanna integrate weather and wind. Into this on hole three. Okay, let me go find you a a wind wind app. So went and found me like a free w wind API and then a weather API to do temperature and wind and then ball speed. So now here I am. I've got an app I can show people and it's showing the wind's going this way currently and the temperature's this and this and that. So it helps you judge your so it's very, very custom. Whereas I use Golf GPS on my phone, well, it's when they come out with that app and that idea. It's not on my terms. So now I can just take my own golf GPS and I can make that in no time, you know? Yeah. So speaker-1: Incredible. Yeah. Really exciting time. I think people are still going through the process of really

digesting it. And I think not everybody has all the time in order to learn these things and and work on these things. So they're just kind of relying on other people to tell them how they should think about AI and and what the future is going to look like with AI. And I think that a lot of people have done a really bad job. A lot of people, whatever. I think we as people building AI. ⁓ have done a bad job of really communicating what the the bright side of the future of AI is going to look like and like what it means for the everyday person. Like I think the only narrative that people like people are like the everyday person is really confused as to or they just don't see how this is going to benefit them in any way. Right. So I think that's where this is creating a lot of like the backlash and just hatred of AI for most people, ⁓ which is really unfortunate. But we're just kind of in this process of really digesting this technology and like what this means for us that it's ⁓ but I'm really excited about the the future that this is gonna enable and the future that this is going to create for everyone. speaker-0: It really is it it's it's more good than bad right now, really. I mean you know, when I remember when com first computers kinda hit ⁓ the internet kinda hit. Remember it was like, ⁓ we're gonna have all these things happen and and you know, spam and this and that and you know, we worked through that, you know, when the internet first kinda had some speed to it. I remember all those things they were talking about, they're gonna happen. And they happened in past, right? So they the the solutions came along. ⁓ obviously we we think that AI can be scary, but you know you can you still can't replace touching a person or or, you know, communicating with codes or whatever. You know, things will just adapt a little bit differently, but you'll have certain ways to communicate that are a little different. ⁓ they'll ways to prompt your your actions a little differently, and ways to handle your business a little differently, but they'll still continue and be more effective. Yeah. speaker-1: Absolutely. Well, Dennis, thank you so much for the time. I have one final question before for you. It's a recurring question that I ask every guest. But before we get to that, how can people get in touch with you? speaker-0: Yeah, they can ⁓ reach out to me at cody dog.com. That's c o d-i-e d-o-g.com, Cody Dog, or email me at Dennis at Cody Dog.com. You're welcome to my name is Olivan. You can Google me, Dennis Langley, L-A-N-G-L-A-I-S. If you want to learn more about me, ⁓ pretty widely on the web there for different variety of reasons. And ⁓ yeah, if you're looking for AI solutions and you want to have a conversation like we had today, I'd be happy to. jump in one with you for sure. It's been a super pleasure to be on this podcast. I think this is thoroughly enjoyable on both sides. ⁓ we both learned from each other and it was a very easy conversation. So speaker-1: I really thank you for that. Yeah, I really appreciate it and would love to have you back another time as we as this technology continues to evolve and just keep checking in what you're working on, what you're seeing, and ⁓ likewise from my end. But my final question for you today, Dennis, is ⁓ if you had a giant billboard for ten seconds that everyone in the world could see, what would it say and why? speaker-0: Burn the boat, I guess is the best one. ⁓ my life's been all in. And I know you kind of touched based on, you know, the whole money thing first. ⁓ but money can't buy creativity, it can't buy a two point four handicap, it can't buy the experience of a podcast, you know, be all in on what you love to do. speaker-1: I love it. Yeah. 100%. The what else is there to do? Right. Be all in on what you love to do. And that's a unique answer to you. Right. I think that's what we're all looking for. And I hope that ⁓ everything that we build, the the future world enables more people to find the answer and find that lane for for them. But Dennis, thank you so much. Thank you for listening. The main thing that I took away from this conversation with Dennis is that credibility often comes from the assets that you build before you think that you'll even need them. speaker-0: Thank you so much. speaker-1: Right. It comes from doing meaningful work and putting your name on something ⁓ that people can consume and be aware of before they ever meet you. Dennis talked about his book, his podcast, his BMX background, and the doors that those things opened because those gave people a reason to pay attention to Dennis. That matters because in my experience, if you just try and reach out to somebody and just say, Hey, I have something that might be useful for you, or hey, I'd love to get connected, it just doesn't really work. Right. They You can wait until you're in the right room in the prospect and then try and explain why you should be taken seriously. But if you have a book with your name on it, right, or some meaningful thing that you've built attached with your name on it, it can change that, right? A book changes that, a podcast changes that. A visible body of work gives people something to attach to you before the relationship even starts. So the deeper lesson is that authority is not only claimed in a pitch or sounding really good in a conversation, it is built to the things that you keep making and sharing with the world. So if you want to get connected with Dennis, you can find his website and his email in the description of this episode. And if you run a coaching program course or mastermind and your clients aren't completing the work like you know they should be, or if you're an author and you want your audience, your readers to engage with your ideas, right? If you want to increase the probability of somebody engaging with your ideas, download the free program execution system toolkit in the description. It'll show you how to install what I call execution infrastructure for your book or coaching program. Thank you for being here, and I'll see you in the next one.