TONY: Hey, everyone, this is Tony. Before we start today's conversation, I want to give you a quick heads up. At the very end of this episode, I'm going to share a piece of music that's very close to my heart. My newest hit song. If you've ever seen those four words on every coin and every dollar in the US, hearing them on a song gives them a whole new weight. So stick around to the very end. I can't wait for you to hear it.
Welcome back to the podcast. Now, every day we see headlines about people making a fortune online. Sometimes in months, sometimes even in days. Is it hype? Is it luck, or is it real leverage? Today we're going to find out.
My guest, Jesse Frimpong, is an entrepreneur who went from fast food to financial freedom by age twenty-five through e-commerce and automation. And he now teaches others how to build digital systems using AI and automation tools.
Now, I've been around entrepreneurs for a long time and there's kind of no magic bullet, but is there? I do know that automation and digital leverage are changing the game faster than most realize. You know, we hear of millionaires being made in twenty-four hours, but this conversation is not about get-rich-quick. It's about examining how these systems work, what's real, what's not, so that we can all learn something about the modern pathways to success.
We're going to kick this around, see what we uncover. We're going to take a look at opportunities, pitfalls, and the practical steps that make automation a genuine advantage. Let's begin. Let's bring them on.
Hi, Jesse, welcome to the Tony DUrso show.
JESSE: Thank you so much for having me, Tony. I'm very excited.
TONY: The honor is all mine. I'm really looking forward to this too. I'm a student of sorts. We're going to talk about automation advantage. I really want to learn about it. As I mentioned, we're going to explore AI systems. We're going to take a look more into the truth behind online wealth creation. A lot of people do really well, really fast. We want to learn. We're entrepreneurs and businessmen.
INTERVIEW – PART 1 (THE BACKSTORY)
TONY: But let's start here. Can you tell us your backstory, Jesse? How did it all start? I mentioned you were in fast food.
JESSE: Yeah. By the way, I did that for four or five years in Chicago.
TONY: Wow. And I'm curious, what was the spark that made you believe, "Hey, automation. That's it. This is going to change my life"? How did this all happen for you?
JESSE: Yeah. So honestly, it evolved over time because it didn't start with automation, didn't even start with AI back then. You know, six or seven years ago, AI wasn't even a thing that the public could use. They were using it in Google and big corporations and Apple, but it was nothing that like a regular guy like me would even know is a thing yet. Or anyone else in the world really.
And so starting out, I started out, um, you know, I worked in fast food, you know, nine to five. I worked honestly at least nine or eight different jobs. I worked in Taco Bell, McDonald's, Amazon warehouse, Target, Macy's as security. So I had a bunch of different jobs during this period of time where I was really just trying to figure out what my purpose was, what I really wanted to do.
And so around that time, I moved from London as an immigrant. So there was a period of a few years where I couldn't even work a job. So I always had the mentality, if I can't work a job, I'm going to have to find a way to make money. And so I would try a bunch of side hustles, like selling vending machines to businesses, wholesaling real estate, even got into the stock market and traded for a little bit.
Then I got my green card and I was able to work a job. I ended up going to college because I wanted to get a degree to further my education and hopefully make more money there, because none of my side hustles were really making much money.
And it was in college when I started selling products at my school. I didn't have a job while I was in college because I was running track at the same time. So I would go to my local Ross and Walmart, and I would buy RGB lights in bulk and they always had them discounted. Especially at Ross, you could find really good deals. And in college, everyone wants to have RGB lights up in their rooms. And so you would always have a client base that was looking to buy these RGB lights.
And so I would make twenty dollars, thirty dollars profit per one I sold. And I would sell maybe five or six a day. But that was a good amount of money. You know, being in college and just being able to make that extra cash went a long way.
And then 2020 came around and COVID shut everything down so I could no longer sell my products in school. And I couldn't even go to this, you know, Ross, to go, because everything was shut down. So I moved back in with my dad and living in his apartment, and, um, I was just like, I got to figure out a way.
So I ended up doing a bunch of research on how I could continue selling my products, even though everything was shut down. And that's how I found out about e-commerce, essentially allowing me to sell the same RGB lights, the same products, but instead of going to the store and buying them and selling them physically to students in school, I was going to a manufacturer in China, getting the product from them at an even more discounted rate than Ross, like a fraction of the price, and then selling it to the entire world. Anyone in the world could buy this product instead of just, you know, my local school.
Started out slow. Watched a bunch of YouTube videos, you know, got a couple of mentors and paid, you know, a couple hundred dollars here and there to try and buy information from people. And it didn't work for a few months. But then month two and three was when I started to see sales coming in. And within that first year of me selling products online, I was able to do seven figures.
And it was really because, first of all, COVID was a game changer. Like COVID shut everything down. So everyone was just in the house, but they weren't just in the house. If you look at it statistically, that was one of the highest in terms of money spent. That was one of the highest years when people were spending money because they were getting stimulus checks, they were getting money from the government. The jobs were still paying them because the government was giving money to the jobs to pay to them while they were off. So they were just sitting at home getting money and spending it, you know, on social media and watching videos.
So around that time is when I really got into the social media marketing, using my TikTok and using my Instagram to post videos of products that I knew people would like and that they would want in their house. Mainly that was doing home decor and LED lighting and it just blew up from there. I was able to blow up my first brand. I launched a few others there, and I've been doing the same thing for like rinse and repeat, same system for like four or five years.
And that's when artificial intelligence became a big thing in like 2023, 2024. And I started selling my products still on social media, but I integrated artificial intelligence. So now instead of going and manually posting on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, it was time-consuming and I was spending a lot of money to do it. Artificial intelligence, like essentially allowed me to automate the entire thing so I could get the posts out. I could get the ordering, I could email my customers, make sure that the delivery was smooth and that everything was going good.
And that's where I got to the stage of here's how you run a business, regardless of whether it's e-commerce or whether it's AI arbitrage, and you let AI do the majority of the work, and now we're seeing it come around full turn because businesses—Amazon just cut fifteen thousand jobs. UPS just cut forty thousand jobs. And they're doing it because AI can do a lot of the work.
A lot of the infrastructure now is being built in AI. So you don't need data analysts, you don't need accountants, you don't need website designers because AI can do all of that. And that's where I stepped in. And I said, okay, there is something happening here and I need to get in front of it. And now I've moved into that realm now where I'm doing more of the AI automations and capitalizing on the new opportunity that I see happening right now.
TONY: Absolutely amazing. You were definitely a hustler going from fast food, going from working for a job. What was it that was like that changed you? Like, I understand you were going to college and the person going to college doesn't normally think all the people I've ever interviewed, they don't normally think of doing their own gig and being an entrepreneur at the same time maybe getting a part time job because they're all focused on their studies. But you went the other road of, "Hey, I can hack this." You were looking to create income and revenue stream right away. What was that spark there? Why? Because it's just so different from most people.
JESSE: Yeah. No, that's a great question. And honestly, I wish I could say that it was just me being a hustler and being motivated. But honestly, I had my son in my freshman year, my second semester of college. So I had fun my first semester, and I was like, yeah, I'm gonna have fun, enjoy myself. And then second semester, you know, you're having a kid and then my whole perspective changed.
It wasn't about being in college to have fun. It wasn't about waiting four years and studying and then getting a degree to get a job, to get paid. I need to make money now. I don't have four years anymore. And so that switch right there, knowing that I was going to have someone who was dependent on me solely to make this income, to take care of them and to provide diapers and food, it changed my perspective because it wasn't about me anymore.
I had someone who was depending on me, and that completely switched my perspective on why I was even doing what I was doing, and it got me off my butt, honestly, and out there to figure out a way. And if it wasn't RGB lights, it would have been, you know, knocking on doors, making sales, it would have been, you know, cleaning people's garages or detailing cars. I would have found something. Um, I just think I found something that provided a lot more leverage for my time than I would have if I hadn't gone down that road of more like the e-commerce and stuff like that. So, um, that was kind of that spark that you're talking about that prompted me to really just go all in instead of just finding, like, a side gig.
TONY: Absolutely. Got it. So that provided the momentum and it was a very good momentum. It was a very good impetus here. It was a good reason. I mean, it's an amazing reason to go from just working that job to finding something that you can control and run.
INTERVIEW – PART 2 (AI AGENTS & WORKFLOWS)
TONY: Absolutely amazing. Now I'm interested. You mentioned a little bit about the AI and how it does so much and how it's cut down jobs and it just could be me. Because maybe my wits, I don't have my wits around it. But to me—and I want you to correct me, train me—AI just does only so much. If I ask AI, it'll write a post, but it doesn't post it. It doesn't follow up, it doesn't comment. It gives me a suggestion and it's not really very good.
So I find, and it could be me, AI is very limited today, but you found a way to go through and use it for what it can do as well as of course, you know, big companies like Amazon and so forth. They've found what they can do. But I want to know, is there more to it? How is it? Because we both use AI. But here you are, you're selling like crazy. And I'm like, okay, I've got a social media post. So yeah. And there might be other entrepreneurs and businessmen in the same boat. So yeah. Jesse, train us.
JESSE: Yeah, one hundred percent. So when we look at AI, there are a few different buckets. Most people use the bucket of AI, now this is a model like ChatGPT. ChatGPT. If you ask it a question, it's going to use—it's trained on all the knowledge in the world to give you suggestions, to give you information based on the prompt that you enter in. So it can only give you a response based on what you prompted to. That's agentic. It's only giving you what you put in. That's a very basic form of artificial intelligence that most people use, but that's the lowest leverage of AI that you could use right now.
Now, what I do is I've taken the agentic form of AI prompts, the questions that you ask, and I have trained a specific agent of that artificial intelligence to be a monster in a specific task, whether it's social media, whether it's marketing, whether it's reception, whether it's email marketing, SMS. That agent is trained in that specific task and optimized to do that one specific task. And you can have hundreds of them.
Now, what we do from there is we connect an automation or a workflow to that agent. So now, instead of just using ChatGPT, which is generally based, I have a specialized agent on one specific task. Let's just say, for example, that it's marketing organic marketing. So instead of you going in and saying, I just did a podcast, now I'm going to have an editor clip up this podcast, and then I'm going to have that editor send it to my social media manager and then post it to my social media on TikTok, Instagram, YouTube and Facebook.
What I do instead is I connect my agent to my workflow. Let's just say that my workflow was built on n8n. So n8n is the name of an AI-based software company that allows you to create automations with artificial intelligence. So now you upload this recording into n8n, and you set up a workflow on n8n, and you can buy workflows or you can set up your own workflows. Now what you would do is you would take the video, you would set up the workflow where you connect your Instagram, YouTube, TikTok and Facebook to that workflow. Now you prompt the agent: "Just finished this recording, need it edited, cut up and posted to my social media." That agent then begins working so the software starts talking to the workflow.
SPONSOR BREAK – SHOPIFY
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INTERVIEW – PART 3 (IMPLEMENTATION & TOOLS)
JESSE: So the first step in the workflow is upload the video. The second step in the workflow is cut up the video and edit it. The third flow in the workflow is connect to social media, TikTok, Facebook, YouTube, then edit that video based on the different social media platforms because they all have different ways of editing. Then it'll then take it to the next side of that workflow where it posts. So you say post for 5 PM, 5 PM, 5 PM, 5 PM. So now it's posted on all three.
So that workflow on n8n has gone through. The agent has told the workflow what to do, and it's gone through every step of that workflow in order to achieve the end goal, which is taking this podcast, clipping it up and posting it on your social media. So instead of you going in and manually doing that, the workflow has done it for you. And so that is essentially, as you know, an AI Agentic model or an AI arbitrage. What I like to call it.
Well, arbitrage is the side of taking those tools and then giving it to businesses. It's more of an AI acquisition side, but that essentially is what I would use AI for when it comes to my social media.
If I'm launching a new product and let's say, for example, I'm selling Sharpie pens. Now, what I can do using my n8n workflows is I can tell my agent that I need a, you know—I don't know if you know or anyone who's watching this knows what Sora 2 is, but Sora 2 is a new hyper-realistic video text-to-design AI built by OpenAI, which allows you to type in, you know, "create me an ad for a Sharpie that writes on whiteboards," and it'll create you a hyper-realistic video of if I wanted me to be standing next to the whiteboard talking, you wouldn't even be able to tell the difference.
And so it'll create the video, connect to the workflow, and then post it to all of my social medias. And you could do that for brands. You can do that for businesses, you can do that for products. There's no limit. And that's just the beginning of what AI can be like. There's so much more like website design code, like it's actually insane how far it goes.
And yeah, man, I am in the water by. So I see it. It's kind of scary. It's kind of exciting. It's scary because I'm starting to see how it's taking people's jobs now. I see how these companies are letting people go, and it's also exciting because there's a massive opportunity that's happening for the people who can understand how to use it, because there are so many people who still don't know what AI is, they only know what ChatGPT is, and they're going to get left behind if they don't catch on, because AI just moves so fast.
And so before you know it, once businesses start using it, what use are they going to have? Like you could right now, I could set up an AI receptionist for your business to where every single time someone wants to hop on a podcast with you, they would call in to this number and an AI receptionist twenty-four over seven would get them, qualify them, and book them on your calendar so that you could then follow up with them to see whether they're a good fit for your podcast. And you could set that up to be automated to where the agent is connected to the workflow, and it takes it through the entire thing without ever having to have a human hand in the entire interaction until it gets to you.
TONY: Astounding. Astounding, astounding. We're speaking with Jesse Frimpong. We're talking about automation advantage. We're talking about exploring AI systems and the truth behind online wealth creation. Jesse, what's a great... a good website, what's your best website to tell people? I would say if you're looking to get into. You mean website, just in terms of what someone could use right now to find out more about you and what you're all about. If you have a couple, you have a couple websites. What's your best one?
JESSE: Yeah. So you could go to AI acquisitions arbitrage or just AI Acquisitions dot io.
TONY: That's the best place to find out more about you.
JESSE: Oh, about me, about you. Oh, you could go to join Prestige University dot org. It has my whole bio in there. You can find out more.
TONY: Okay that's what, join Prestige University org.
JESSE: University org sounds... yeah.
TONY: Wonderful. Yeah. Jesse, what you've just said, uh, I want, we're going to end the, we're going to end the podcast here. I'm just teasing. We're just going to go right into because sign me up, I want this. This is exactly what I knew was available. I knew people were using it, but I didn't have all the pieces put together. And I really hope that this gives a lot of aha moments to the business people and the entrepreneurs and the corporate level execs that listen to this. This is what we need. We hear it's done, but we don't have anyone explaining all the pieces. This is absolutely amazing.
I totally track with what you've said to a degree. I haven't used it, but boy, I'm serious, we're going to get going. I can just imagine my podcast or my book, my next book, or the music that I'm putting out just starts going out on the right channels properly, and it's all legitimate. It's all real, but it's just, it's more smooth notification and stuff. So I love it.
JESSE: Yeah, one hundred percent.
TONY: Now part of that, and this kind of is a lead in because as I mentioned early in the intro, we see people becoming millionaires overnight. With this, I see how we can take a product or something and really get it out there. Now you've seen both sides, you've seen the bad, you've seen the good. We just talked a little bit about it. You said most people don't know beyond ChatGPT. You know, I've been there knowing that there's better. I'm just curious what separates those that know about this but still don't have that rapid success? Is there some, there's, there's got to be more to learn about growing fast with this.
JESSE: Yeah. Well, the thing is, is that you could know about AI, but it's the difference between knowing about something and then monetizing off of something. Because in order to monetize off of something, you have to know how to run a business. You have to know how to turn something, a problem into a solution that's sellable.
And so one of the ways that I did this, in trying to take advantage of what was happening with AI was, okay, everyone knows about AI. In the beginning it was ChatGPT and people that I know personally made millions of dollars by using ChatGPT to create email copy for businesses. So they would go to businesses and say, "Hey, you're not using emails or you're selling sending old emails that aren't retargeting, right, that aren't converting your leads and you're losing money. We could make you twenty percent if you had optimized ChatGPT prompts, creating your emails," and boom, you've sold a business and you could charge two thousand dollars a month just to create their emails. And it's done. The emails are going to be better, and the business is going to be able to make more money.
And that's what a lot of people did in the introduction of AI when it came to ChatGPT. Now it's gotten a lot more advanced than that. And so for anyone who's like, "Oh, I know about AI, I know how to create workflows," well, think about this. Ninety-three percent of businesses right now are looking to use AI. They know that their competitors are starting to use AI. They know that AI is coming, and it could help their business and help them make more money. But like a lot of people are going to be watching this. They don't know how to use it. They just know the basics.
So there's a clear problem there. Businesses know that if they don't start using AI and their competitors do, their competitors are going to be able to drop their prices and increase the value of what they're providing because they no longer have to expend on overhead that they don't have to. A receptionist costs sixty thousand dollars a year. This business is using AI and is spending two thousand dollars a month. They're beating you by half and their AI receptionist never takes a break. It works twenty-four over seven and never has a sick day, then doesn't ask for a raise.
So who's going to win in the long term? The business using AI because they're saving money, they're cutting costs and they're going to beat you out. And businesses know this. That's why ninety-two percent of them are looking for AI solutions. So if you know about AI or you're willing to learn about AI, if you can get in now and start setting up workflows and learning how to use AI acquisitions, arbitrage and using these agents, plugging them into businesses, you can start going to these businesses that are already looking for AI solutions and offering them what you know.
You set up one automation in a business to most of these businesses, right? Let's just talk about a business. Most of these businesses, let's say you're building 2010 and these businesses are doing good revenue. Most of its word of mouth. Most of it is from or maybe its ads, but they're not doing any organic. They're not really posting the way they should because they don't know how. They don't have the time, and they're not part of this new age social media wave that's going on right now. But AI is.
So if you can set up an AI agent with a workflow to take content that's created using ChatGPT for visual stills or saw tooth for hyper-realistic, real looking videos, and you connect that to their social media, how much do you think a business is going to be willing to pay you? Thousands of dollars a month. And that's what we're seeing right now. Businesses are spending three thousand, five thousand, and ten thousand dollars a month for specific trained agents from companies that know what they're doing.
And the best part about it is, once you train the agent and set up the workflow, it works itself. You don't have to check on it every single day. You don't have to, you know, as long as it's set up the right way. It's going to make the business money and it's going to work. And then all you have to do is spend one or two hours a day, make sure everything is running smooth, and then check in with the business.
And so for anyone who is looking at AI and they're like, "How do I..." you know, and for anyone, maybe you've lost your job to AI or because of the government shutdowns or whatever the case is. You know, I know some of my family who have lost jobs due to the government and due to AI. And so if you're in that position, just know that there is an opportunity. You just need to find how you can be a solution to business problems. And there's going to be more than enough money for you out there.
But having AI and building a business around AI are two completely separate things. So building the business and understanding how to monetize is, you know, honestly more important than AI because you can learn how to use AI, but monetizing off of it, that's a whole nother thing. So that's what I would say to anyone who's looking at this like, "Oh, I know about AI or I want to learn about AI." There's a lot of opportunity and it's only going to continue to grow because we're in the first, like what, two years of AI really being a thing? Honestly, one of it really being popular and wide known.
And so, um, you're early, very, very early. And, you know, the people who get in early are usually ones that are able to grow the most and make the most money. So, you know, you talk a lot about making money very fast. The thing about making money fast is it's kind of dangerous because you make it fast and you're also in, you know, you tend to lose it fast as well, because when you build a business very quick, it's usually like a, like a skyscraper straight up. It doesn't have a strong foundation.
And so that's what I found with a lot of people that I started out with. They started out so fast, e-commerce builder brand, millions of dollars. And then within a year or two, their money was gone and their business was gone too, because they built so fast. And so if you build it steady and you build a good foundation, especially around AI, you'll have more than you know what to do with. Honestly.
TONY: Absolutely amazing. It sounds to me like the, uh, ChatGPT and the other various names, Grok, etc., they're kind of overhyped because they're very, very limited. As I mentioned. It's like I can get it to give me a social media post, but it doesn't do anything more.
Exactly. We had to take a teeny tiny break and we're right back. We're talking about ChatGPT. It's a little overhyped. We talked about other things going on, and I want to go into what are those specific tools that you think are the most effective? Where should we be looking? You've mentioned some, but you may not have mentioned all the ones that you think you should look into right now.
JESSE: So I would say that learning how to create AI automations and workflows is very important right now. And so some websites that will help with that is AI Bots. So AI business operating system. And it has agents already plugged in that you can then go in and use within whatever department of the business that you're going into.
You've also got n8n, which is a website that allows you to create workflows within the actual system, and you just set it up. And so for example, you can go in and you can buy an automation for social media content creation. And so you'll pay for the workflow. You plug it into n8n and then you plug it into your social media. And then it automatically starts producing that workflow. So that's N as in Nancy and then n and n n uh.
You've also got Lovable. Lovable dev is another site that allows you to create workflows. It's a little bit more user-friendly, uh, for the beginner to be able to go in and create workflows, connect agents, and then set up those workflows to connect with any social media business, email campaigns, SMS receptionists. Um, and so those are the two main sites that I would say for workflow and SMS.
You've also got some sites that you can use more for, like let's say, for example, when I was starting out, finding a trending product was a very important thing. So how do you know when a product is actually trending and it's going viral so that you're not wasting a bunch of money selling a product that's not, no one's going to buy. So you got sites like Viral Ninja. I showed you viral trending products that it updates every single day.
Then you've got like outside of, uh, you know, building like, let's say you need to build a website. Mixo.io will allow you to build fully functional websites with a couple of texts. So if I say I need a website for a pet brand that I'm launching in order to create that brand, and then you can take that code and plug it in and actually build your website on Shopify.
You've also got sites like what else, SEO. I like a lot of people don't know about how to create good search engine optimization, so that when someone searches up your name or your business name, you're the first one that comes up. I don't know if you heard, but Google just, uh, decreased the amount of pages they have. So I believe it's now ten pages. And they used to have hundreds. So if you type something up on Google, there would be hundreds of pages to go through. But now only the top ten. So if you're not in the top ten pages, no one's even going to know your business exists. So using sites, using AI to build and boost your SEO can help you get more sales.
So those are just a few sites, I would say off the top of my head, that any entrepreneur can use right now to start utilizing AI and monetizing. But I would say if you're looking specifically at the AI arbitrage model and taking those agents and those tools and applying them to businesses, Lovable, AI Bots are probably your best bets.


MY FACET MINUTE
TONY: Now it's time for my Facet Minute, a quick story from one of the facets of my life. This week, I've been reflecting on what it really takes to grow something fast without burning it down.
As entrepreneurs, we often chase momentum. More revenue, more speed, more reach. But real scale? It doesn't just come from stacking wins, it comes from having structure underneath it.
That's something I've learned not only through business but also through music. When I compose, every layer has to serve the song. If the rhythm gets ahead of the melody, the whole thing falls apart. But when each piece supports the others, that's when the music truly lifts.
So whether you're building a company or building a legacy, remember: growth without grounding is noise. But with the right foundation, momentum becomes harmony. That's a lesson I carry with me every day, in every facet.
And before we continue this great conversation with Jesse, I want to take a quick moment to thank you for being here. Thank you for your time and attention mean a lot to me, and I truly appreciate you listening to The Tony DUrso show. If you're getting value from today's episode, I invite you to follow the show and share it with someone who could benefit. That simple act helps us reach more entrepreneurs and leaders who are serious about growing and doing meaningful work.
And if you're not already receiving my Elite Entrepreneurs newsletter, I'd love for you to join us. Twice a month, I share insights from top guests, highlights from my books and interviews, and practical ideas you can apply right away on your own journey. It's free. It's thoughtful and it's designed to help you move forward with clarity and purpose. You can sign up at tonydurso.com/news. Oh. And one more thing if you're curious about the creative side of what I do, you can always explore my music at tonydurso.com/music. And now let's get back to this powerful conversation.
INTERVIEW – PART 4 (OPERATIONS, TRUST & GENERATIONS)
TONY: Jesse, this is probably one of the best interviews of my life for this year, because it, it's giving me what I need now to move to the next level. Yeah, I hope it's the same for the audience here, but it really is. I'm inspired and motivated on these two how to grow into this, because where I was just so mundane and mediocre. It was like, I know it can be better. And just nobody, nobody that I knew about it. So I'm glad to have met you. Really amazing. So thank you.
JESSE: Yeah. So thank you. Absolutely, absolutely.
TONY: Um, so now let's talk about, okay, you've got multiple businesses. You've got a lot going on. All right. So I'm trying to think with this. You, you may know better where to go and how to help us, but I'm thinking you've got operations, you've got e-commerce, you've got digital. You're doing education. You're doing mentorship program. You're doing so many things. So I'm thinking, how do you balance all this? Do you have AI with the workflow? Just running everything.
JESSE: Yeah. This is a, yeah, one hundred percent. So there is a lot going on. And honestly, if I didn't have AI, I don't think I could run the business the way I do. You know, it's just no way that a human could possibly run so many different departments. But the beautiful thing about it is that I have my n8n workflows and my automations set up in a way to where each part of my business can connect to each other and communicate.
And so the thing about these workflows and the thing about AI, which is really crazy, that I don't think a lot of people understand, is that when you plug it into your business or you use a workflow, or you integrate AI into your business or into someone else's business, it learns. It learns on its own. Like, you don't have to recode it for it to get better. It learns from your business.
So if I launch a new product, or if I have a problem within my system that's broken to where customers aren't able to come in or we're not converting enough leads or emails aren't going out or whatever, the customer comes in and says, I didn't get this or that. The AI is going to tell itself something went wrong here. This agent needs to be fixed, or this step in the process needs to be fixed.
And so the way we have it built right now is like every, all of my different main or two or three main branches of the business have their own automation, which connects throughout the entire business. And then there's one link that will connect to the other. And so if this branch of the business, if the AI arbitrage is having a problem, it'll connect to my e-commerce site to make sure that that problem doesn't go over there, or that it doesn't happen in the future because it's learned from that mistake.
And so each part of my business is built on n8n and AI automations to be able to function. Now think about n8n or AI automations in general is that they work as long as they are built right. So if you use AI within your business and they're not built right, or there are missing steps, it's not going to work to its full capacity, and it's probably just going to hinder you more than anything.
And so I just made sure that the first time I set it up, it was set up right. And I have a developer that works within my team and he's a genius. So I just say, yo, make sure that this entire thing from step one to step two, if a client is onboarding, make sure they get this video. Make sure they insert this introduction, they get this invite, they get this. And so every step of the way is broken down within that workflow.
And then I have a CSM, a Customer Success Manager, that is in charge of making sure that not only the workflow is working, but that all of the customers and people going into that pipeline, whether it's for a product or whether it's for a service, are getting what they need and that everything is running smoothly.
Now, the beautiful thing about it is when I started out before AI, I would need so many VAs and so many assistants and team members because there's so many people coming into the pipeline, it gets overwhelming. But with AI you just need one CSM, and all they do is make sure that the AI is doing what it needs to do, because the AI has its own VA that's texting the customer. "Hey, did you get your product? Hey, did you get your service? What do you think about it? You didn't do your class for today. Why didn't you join the call?" So it knows if the client didn't show up for a call? If it didn't do the course, if it didn't do this or that.
And so one CSM. Now, once that AI says, "Hey, this client's on red alert because they didn't show up for the call," boom. CSM, you need to reach out and give them a call or it'll tell the AI receptionist you need to reach out and give this client a call. I usually like to use the real person because AI is not that advanced yet to where you can't tell whether it's human or not. So most people can tell when it's AI, but in the next few months they'll make an AI receptionist or a voice data that you won't even be able to tell the difference. But for now, I have them reaching out. They'll call them up or a product not delivered. "Oh, this customer didn't receive their product, they're about to refund or dispute. Call them up. Hey, sorry about the delay. We had a problem with our, this and that. We'll give you a fifty percent discount on the next product." Boom. And so it becomes a lot easier once you systemize it and organize it with artificial intelligence, and then you just have those key human elements to make sure that everything is running smoothly.
TONY: Jesse, this is so exciting. I think back in the day, which is just five, five, ten years ago, we're having a VA was novel and exciting and hey, I don't have to bring people in my office. I can have them around the world. Right? You know, and there's lower cost of lower wages and whatnot. And it was just like, oh, wow. I could run a big business with VAs. Well, this is now a whole new thing where you do need human. You know, there's no question. You need someone who can look at it from all these points. But so much work that can be done very smartly by this.
I'm following a good percentage of it. Not everything, but it's rocky. Rocky in my mind. And I'm thinking about this. And you mentioned it about AI making the call, but not yet. We're not at that point yet. So I'm thinking when a person with any company knows that they're dealing with a person. There's a certain amount of trust level there. There's a certain amount of credibility. And you get to know when you're dealing with an AI or a computer, and you kind of don't like that when a computer calls us just yet or.
JESSE: Yeah.
TONY: Or we see, uh, amazing videos on the computer or on wherever, amazing video things about amazing topics. And it's just, just some AI-generated stuff.
JESSE: It's true.
TONY: So we get very skeptical and we go, okay, well, that sounds really exciting. Is this real or is this just trying to just get views or whatever? So I'm kind of looking at well, trust is a big factor. How do you maintain credibility? Even with students because you're teaching this to people.
JESSE: One hundred percent. So there is a thing about trust, especially, I mean, trust within education is at an all-time low because there's just so many people who say that they do this or that and they really don't. They don't know what they're talking about, and then they get people to pay them a certain amount or this or that, and don't bring them the results. And so the thing about it is, and there's a lot of people who overpromise. They say, you're going to make a million dollars next month, you're going to do this. And they guarantee things that they can't. And that's what ruins the trust within trying to teach someone something new.
So for me, it's all about reputation. First of all, what does your reputation of your business? We've been doing this for seven years and have an immaculate reputation because we really care about our customers. We really care about providing them the education and all the tools that they need in order to be successful.
And then at the end of the day, if it makes sense, it makes sense if you can sit in front of me and say, because I do e-commerce and now I automate using AI. So I've never been a sales guy. I've never had, you know, persuasion. I would just sit in front of you and say, if a business comes to me and they say they want to use AI, I would just say, "Can AI drop your overhead?" Well, yeah, because, you know, I'm going to pay off the price. "Can it do the job better than this human is doing?" Probably, yes. She just took a day off the other day because her kid got sick. "Can it work twenty-four over seven?" Yes it can. "Can it do it faster?" You know, it's like it just makes sense because it makes sense. It's artificial intelligence.
And so the trust factor is built on the fact that you're not rooting your trust in me, even though the business has a good reputation. And you could, you're rooting it in something beyond the business, which is the technology. And the technology is far has far surpassed now human intelligence. Now, when you're putting it in front of someone like that, it just makes sense to trust that because it's right in front of you. You're not making anything up. Everyone knows it. It's happening right in front of our eyes.
And so you're not trusting me. You're trusting in the technology. And so as long as the technology can do what it does and what it has been trained to do, you will get the results that you put in. Because AI right now is an input device. You tell it what to do. You set up the workflows. You set up the automations. You have to do that. But when it gets to the point when the AI can do it itself, that's where I'll be scared. Like, right now I'm good. Like, I tell it what to do. Once AI gets to the point where it tells itself what to do and it starts having emotions and stuff like that, that's where I'm going to have to check out and go to an island somewhere.
But for now, for the next ten years, I'm hoping for the next decade it's going to be a massive shift in where the world is going, where businesses are going, where the money is going, and businesses will invest trillions into AI infrastructure. So if you can be one of those people who understands it, whether you're doing it for your own e-commerce brand, whether you're doing it for the arbitrage method, where you're giving them the tools, whether you're doing it to install systems into businesses or into your own business, some of you guys may be running your own business right now, whether it's a brick and mortar store, whether it's a tech company or you sell products online. AI can help you and it just makes it. It makes sense in and of itself because it's AI.
TONY: Absolutely amazing. I'm going to ask you about challenges on teaching people, and I'm, I'm going to answer what I think would be because it's so amazing. Can I use that word? It's so outrageous and out there that it does stuff, that it will be successful only if the person who's using it understands all the pieces to create success, and if they don't, it'll be just like, "Hey, you know, it's just, it's just not doing what I want." But there's so much more to you. So it's a real mind understanding process.
And with that, I can imagine because it's taking time for, you know, to understand. I can imagine you have people not fully using it and saying, "Oh, this is an issue. This is a problem. I've got to punch these buttons and tell the computer what to do or tell AI." Yeah, but you've got to do that though. So it seems like that that might be a challenge. Maybe not. Maybe all the people checking it out are just like getting a bit... a filly. I see it as a learning curve and could be potential issue there.
JESSE: No it is, and that's the reason why we tell anyone who's interested in learning. This is not going to be easy. This is going to take time to understand. Once you understand it, then it becomes easy. Then it's something that you only have to spend one or two hours a day. But until then, you are going to have to learn it.
Now, if you don't want to learn it, we can set up the agents. We can set up the workflows. We can do it all for you. We can set up the agents. We can set up the workflows. We can do all the tech on the back end to make sure that everything is working. And you won't have to do anything but call up the business and give them the tool. So we have two sides. There are people who are like, "I'm already tech savvy and I'm going to figure it out." And then you have the people who say, "I'm ready to get this business up and running without having to learn all the heebie-jeebies and all the tech side."
The beautiful thing about it is, even if you go the route of learning it yourself, you don't have to know how to code. You don't have to be a computer scientist major or any of that stuff. I built a software that already has the agents built inside, and so all you need to do is connect the automation to the agent. Its one connection and you're done. So you don't need to know how to code. You don't need to know how to do any of that stuff. And that's just for the people who want to do that side.
And then we actually have an offer where we'll literally connect the agent to the automation, put them together, fuse it. It's already working. You take it to the business and we'll help you install it into the business as well. And so it just depends on where they want to go, how much they want to learn, whether they're really willing. And it is, it can get confusing trying to figure it out on your own. And that's why there's such a big gap. And that's another good thing actually, because if everyone just knew how to do it, then it would become very saturated very quickly. Everyone would be selling AI arbitrage, everyone would be replaced already. But because there is a learning curve and you do have to understand, not everyone's going to do it. Ninety-nine percent of people won't be able to figure it out. So either you get it from someone who already has it or you learn it, and that's mainly the two options.
TONY: Jesse on the learning curve. You know, is there a particular type of generation that gets it and rocks with it a lot faster, as opposed to people like me going, "You know, how do I do this?" Is there? Maybe it's because of the way we've evolved and we've grown up into. I mean, I come from the day where we picked up, we had landlines. People like what's in bamboo, in a phone, sitting on the ground. I mean, I come from that age.
JESSE: Yeah.
TONY: You know, and hand computers, you know. So for me it's a little bit different of a learning curve. So I'm wondering are is there generational a generation here which gets it a lot better a lot faster a lot quicker.
JESSE: Yeah. Yeah, one hundred percent. You know there's definitely honestly it's, it's kind of fifty-fifty because the younger generation understands technology. And I would say that they understand that they, they understand what AI is in its simplest form. Like they use it for everything to write essays to help them with school, but they don't really understand automations yet like that. It's so, its so niche and so new that they still don't really understand it, but they understand it more than the older generation.
Because the older generation built businesses with their hands. They would go and buy a building or buy a bunch of products, put the products in the building, put up a sign, and people would walk by the sign and walk into the building and buy what they wanted to buy. And it just doesn't. It doesn't really work like that anymore unless you're like, I mean, it's still to a certain extent, but starting up a new business is a lot different.
And so for anyone who's of that older generation that is still doing things the old-fashioned way, you're still making money, but your profit margins could be a lot better. You're still in the game. But the question is how long until the people using it more efficiently and who are able to lower their cost price you out of the market. That's what I would say, because more and more young people who do understand how to use it are going to start businesses using AI. They're going to optimize their systems. They're going to have a better product, better marketing, cheaper prices, because the older generation isn't willing to come back and say, "I need to figure this thing out, that this younger generation has created and I need to do it now."
And so it's a bit of both, man, because I talk to people every day and I talk to young people, and a lot of young people are like, "Nah, man, that's too complicated. I'm going to go, you know, get a job at Amazon or something." Then you've got older people who are like, "Nah, that's too complicated. I did it the old-fashioned way. I'm going to stick in my ways."
And then you've got the people in the middle who are like, "I've started my business, but it needs to be better. My profit margins are shrinking. Business is going well, but how long is this going to last? I know that this could help. One of your agents could help, and I'm going to do it. And I'm going to, you know..." and then they make that decision.
And you've got the younger generation that say, "I got a degree. I'm one of my best friends, got a degree in computer science, and he's watching all of his friends that also got degrees in computer science, lose their jobs, or just not even be able to find a job because AI can code." So now you've got the coders. Aren't the coders they had two years, three years ago. The coders now are the ones creating AI automations and creating AI code. And the AI does all the coding to build all the infrastructure of the business. So it's the AI coders now.
So I've watched all my friends who went to school for computer science, who I went to college with while I was getting my finance degree, lose their jobs or not be able to find one. And it's been out of college for five years. So they're all coming to me and they're like, "I need to figure this out. I need to, because time is running out. I got this degree. I spent one hundred thousand dollars to get it, and now I can't even get a job because this new thing that no one even mentioned called AI is coming."
No one warned us. They should have had a college class about this. They should have had a high school class. They knew that this was coming and this was not by mistake. This was not an accident. When they released Open-AI in 2022, they knew that it was going to, it was going to disrupt the economy. When now they're releasing this stuff slowly, day by day, evaporating entire markets of businesses. It's eviscerating entire sectors of the economy, and they know exactly what they're doing. There's going to be a massive economic shift in the next few years as more people get laid off, and there aren't jobs to replace them. There's not enough infrastructure out there.
And so, you know, I'm passionate about it because I see what's happening. And it's kind of like I'm ringing the alarm like, I don't care if you do it with me. I don't care if you do it with the next guy. But figure out something to do with AI, technology, e-commerce, something that can get you some income that doesn't depend on your job because it's just not stable anymore. It's not.
TONY: Totally, totally agree. And I'm going to add on top of that that it's not just the AI, Jesse, its being, it's being able and knowing how to automate it. That's the key.
JESSE: Exactly.
TONY: Because the AI by itself, as we talked about, you know, it's so rudimentary and it's, it's it doesn't do all the thinking. That's right. All these systems, the AI Bots, the n8n, the Lovable dev. You know, it's. Yeah. These are what's really needed to understand them or get someone that understands it to literally automate the whole thing.
JESSE: One hundred percent. Absolutely.
CLOSING MESSAGE
TONY: I have never said this in ten years of people, but this is absolutely blown my mind. This absolutely amazing. This is what we need. I truly appreciate it. Thank you. I just want to say, wow, we talked about exploring AI systems and we didn't talk about creating wealth. But it's so inherent that when you call this into in place, you can sell just about anything or communicate it to anyone. Not that I'm saying you, but I'm saying you like guitars. I see you have a guitar in the video. I'm talking guitars. I send you information about guitars and music and you buy. I mean, it's just so simple.
JESSE: Exactly.
TONY: Automation is needed for that. And I really see this as as good creating wealth. And you mentioned earlier your website that I wrote it down. Join Prestige University dot com.
JESSE: So actually, if I was going to give the most updated about what I'm doing currently when it comes to AI automations within e-commerce and within businesses, the website that they should go to is AI Acquisitions. I'll have, I'll write that down. AI Acquisitions dot io.
TONY: Sounds good. Well, you've given us, you've given us a lot of information. Jesse, I just want to say thank you so much for coming on and talking to us, spending your time, but then your computers, your eyes doing everything. So you're just like, oh, I've got all this time to talk, right? I just want to thank you so much. It was so, so good.
JESSE: Thank you so much, Tony. I appreciate your time. And, uh, it was a pleasure being here. Thank you so much.
TONY: Wow, wow, wow. I'm serious. Guys, you know me. You've heard some of my episodes for years. This one. This one's a mind blow. Wow, what a change in society. I see it, um, maybe because I've been working towards it, maybe because I've been working on it a little bit. But I see the future now and how Jesse painted it and how it works. So I really got it. And I'm all in on this.
Guys, do me a favor. If you like this, share this with your friends. Tell them about Jesse. Tell them about how we talked about AI and automation and what it takes, and how once you get through the learning curve, as with anything, it becomes easier. For those of you that have ridden a bike. At first it was very, very tough. Now it's easy for any of you that have gone through anything learning a guitar. At first it might be tough, but after a while it's like it's second hand, it's second, second nature.
So that's how Jesse looks at it. And I got it. I got his world, I understand it, he's been through it the right way and he's sharing this with you. So please check it out, give him some support. And wherever you're listening to this Spotify, Apple or wherever, please follow the show. It's free and it helps to bring more amazing guests to you. Once again, thank you all very much. Let's use this and let's help you move on your journey to success. Thanks. Remember, just take action. Check out what Jesse's doing. Guys. Success awaits those who persevere and remain steadfast despite the odds. So good seeds do good deeds. And I'll see you on the next episode.
SONG INTRO & LYRICS – “IN GOD WE TRUST”
TONY: And before we close today's episode, I want to share something special with you. Something I mentioned at the start of the show. This is my brand new song, inspired by four powerful words printed on every US coin and every dollar. You've seen these words your entire life, but when you hear them as a song, they carry a whole new meaning. It's called In God We Trust. Here it is.
Walking by a bus stop
Not even a book
Feeling everything is just plain old stuck
A dime on the ground
I held it to the light
What it said restored my sight
In God we trust
The words shine true
Guiding my steps
In all I do
Through trials and storms
I find my place
In God we trust
Amazing grace
Yeah, yeah
I took the next bus
though my pocket had no fare
I told the driver my life with a humble prayer
He gave a smile and said, go on, son
I knew then that my hope had begun
In God we trust
the words shine true
guiding my steps
and all I do
through trials and storms
I find my place
In God we trust
Amazing grace
I found a diner
With a crowd at the door
And asked the kind lady
If I could do more
She smiled and said
You can stay if you try
With a dime in my hand
I whispered on high
When the road feels heavy
And hope runs thin
That coin reminds me
Where faith begins
One small coin, yeah
The truth so wide
In God we trust
Forever my guide
In God we trust
the words shine through
guiding my steps
and all I do
through trials and storms
I find my place
In God we trust
Amazing grace
Forever we sing
In God we trust
forever we sing
In God we trust
FINAL CLOSING / SIGN-OFF
TONY: And that is In God We Trust. The song that truly came to me as a gift from God. I hope you enjoy it and I'd love to hear your feedback. Thank you for listening and thank you for spending this time with me today. I hope this episode and this song gives you something meaningful to take with you. And by the way, this song is part of my very first album, which is now out. If you want to hear more of the new music, visit Tony. That's Tony. I appreciate you. Thanks.
So remember, just take action. Success awaits those who persevere and remain steadfast despite the odds. So good seeds do good deeds, and I'll see you on the next episode.
Your support means the world to me, and I truly appreciate you following and listening to the Tony D'Urso show. If you're finding value in today's episode, please hit that follow button and share the show with someone who would benefit. It really helps us reach more entrepreneurs and leaders who need this kind of insight. And if you haven't yet, make sure you're getting my Elite Entrepreneurs newsletter twice a month. I break down lessons from top guests. I share book and podcast highlights, and give you tools to move forward in your journey to success. No cost, no fluff, just real value. Join me at tonydurso.com/news. Oh. Let's grow together and keep rising. tonydurso.com/news/.