speaker-0: Stop reading all these books and just focus in on what your point of view is and what is going to best work for you. Learning could be a passive thing. You could sign up for a program, you could take college classes, you could listen to this podcast. But at the end of the day, if you don't put it into action, you will forget pretty much everything. If you want to get better at anything, a lot of it has to do with failure. And again, like I said, getting the reps in. You got to put in the reps. And you gotta get comfortable with being uncomfortable because that's where the real learning happens.

speaker-1: Does failure really exist or like how do you how do you perceive? How do you see failure?

speaker-0: I don't think that there's really a thing as failure unless you give up.

speaker-1: Today's guest is Damon Lembe. Damon is the CEO of Learn It, a training company he's led for over 30 years, and the author of The Learn It All Leader. He spent his career helping people and teams get better at learning, leading, and adapting. In our conversation, we talk about what effective learning actually looks like, how to build your confidence, and how you should be using AI in your business today. If you get value from this conversation, be sure to subscribe and share it with a friend. And now please enjoy my conversation with Damon Lembe. Damon, thank you so much for being here.

speaker-0: Ian, it's an honor to be here. Thanks for having me.

speaker-1: Absolutely. So in previous conversations and in in your work, you have said that learning without doing is treason. So that's where I want to start our conversation today, because in my experience, you know, I've done a lot of learning and not nearly as much doing, right? I I read the books, I consume the content, I buy the coaching program, I learn and understand what it is that I need to do, but a lot of it I don't follow through on. So what has to happen, like I guess maybe we can start with first, like why does that happen?

speaker-0: I love that you found that quote, learning without doing is treason. And I think it's really important because learning could be a passive thing, right? You can you could sign up for a program, you could take college classes, you could listen to this podcast, but at the end of the day, if you don't put it into action, you will forget pretty much everything within a week or so. So if you really want to build confidence, if you want to build skills, you gotta listen to these podcasts. gotta read these books and figure out what am I gonna do to put this into action and make it benefit me in my personal or my professional life.

speaker-1: Yeah. So taking it and putting into practice, right? That is what's required to turn learning, like from learning to become action or for learning to actually mean something, is you taking this information and putting it into practice.

speaker-0: Yeah, totally. I mean, I I have a buddy and and we were we go for walks and he's an older guy and and I'd always tell him about these different frameworks I've read about or these different formulas or strategies. He's like stop reading all these books and just focus in on what your point of view is and what is gonna best work for you. And I think that's a great thing to do, especially for people early on in their career where they're they might feel imposter syndrome or self-doubt saying, well, I don't have this experience. I don't have that. Well, the best thing you could do is show up and do the work. I tell a lot of people, confidence comes after you get the reps in, not before. Whether you want to be a great podcast host, whether you want to be a great salesperson, you got to do the work. And the same comes with learning. You know, you can't just sit there and and read a bunch of stuff and not put anything into practice. So for your audience, my recommendation is Think about this conversation that Ian and I are having today and what is one thing right after that you could start doing yourself that would matter to you professionally or to personally?

speaker-1: Yeah. Yeah. And I think that's the kick in the face that a lot of us need, including myself, to you know, I feel like it's really easy to procrastinate with just with learning. As weird as paradoxically as that sounds, but like you can procrastinate with the consumption of more content. It's like, ⁓ I need to read the next book, I need to watch another video, ready to take more notes. It's easy to like procrastinate with learning. Like I feel like I know what I need to do. And I use the ex I I I don't know if I n like consciously use it as an excuse. But to avoid taking the uncomfortable action and putting myself out there and sucking at a thing for a while, which is where you're gonna start with absolutely everything, I just almost procrastinate just getting started with more learning.

speaker-0: Yeah, and let's let's be honest. If you had to make the choice between reading ten books or or watching Netflix every night, you're better off reading ten books. I mean, that's better for your brain. But if you want to get better at anything, a lot of it has to do with failure. And again, like I said, getting the reps in. ⁓ funny story is when I my book first came out, I I started getting on the podcast doing podcasts, and I was absolutely awful. And ⁓ at some point I just kept doing it over and over again and started my own podcast, Learn It All Podcast. And it's funny because my mom, one of my biggest fans, people would say, ⁓ I heard Damon's got a podcast. And she would say, Well, don't listen to the first 50 to 75 episodes because they're awful. He's much better now. And so I think if you want to get better at anything, you got to put in the reps and you got to get comfortable with being uncomfortable because that's where the real learning happens.

speaker-1: Right. Yeah. The real learning happens in those moments where you are uncomfortable because if you're comfortable, right, you're not stretching. You know, there's so many different analogies that you can go with in that, but like in the in working out, right? If you're not getting uncomfortable, if you're not pushing it to failure, your muscles aren't gonna break down, which is what's required to grow. But I have it the exact same example that we're going through right now together here in this moment. I think this is the 70th episode that I've recorded ⁓ for my podcast. And if you go back to the beginning of this year with some of my first 10 conversations, it's unreal. Like I was so uncomfortable in those moments. I would get so nervous before like I love talking to people in everyday life, and it's a large reason, big part of the reason why I started this podcast. It's because I just genuinely enjoy talking to people, but I would just get so nervous before getting onto these podcast conversations. To do you almost feel like you can use what makes you nervous, what feels like it's going to be uncomfortable almost as a signal to kind of point you in the direction of what you most need to do.

speaker-0: To a degree, it's important to be continue to be nervous. ⁓ maybe not to the extent that you used to be, but even going back to my baseball game, my baseball days, before every game I you had those butterflies. And I'm the same way, whether it's coming on this podcast or hosting my own, I want to feel that little intensity or that little nervousness you have in there. Because Ian, if you don't, then you're back on your heels. And when you're back on your heels. That's where you get complacent and and that's where you're not at your your top of your game. So I think it's really important to ⁓ figure out, put yourself in these kind of positions where you always want to put out your best performance, regardless of who the guest is, regardless of whatever it is you're doing, whether it's ⁓ you're you're on your 50th cold call for the day or you're pitching your business, you want to have that that little nervous energy that won't necessarily paralyze you. We don't want to get to that point. But makes you excited about what's coming next.

speaker-1: Yeah. And I think that what you use there at the end, excited about what's coming next, is a important thing to underline. I think it was Dustin Poirier. ⁓ I heard him on a podcast with Lex Friedman years ago and he talked about, you know, the nerves and how he you know, I think Lex Friedman asked him a question about how he overcomes nerves. And Dustin Poirier said, like, I don't overcome nerves, right? I I know it's just gonna be a natural thing that happens, you know, I'm a human, but it is like a signal to show me that I really genuinely care. about what I'm about to go do, right? Like I'm engaged. I care about doing a good job. But then in that moment, you know, you've done everything you can to prepare and you just go out and do your best to perform and to execute. But you as someone who has written books, right? We're talking about this idea that okay, learning can only get you so far, right? You need to bridge the gap into action. So you as an educator, as somebody who has a book, what can you put around the content to write kind of help facilitate the consumers of your content? into putting these things into action. Like what can you provide to them to help make that easier?

speaker-0: Yeah, I mean a lot of people, my book's called The Learn It All Leader. And so th they they always say, like, Well, do you mean just learn things all the time? And I'm like, No, it doesn't mean just learn things all the time. It's again finding ⁓ spaces where you could be intentional to make things happen. And ⁓ some of the biggest takeaways I think from that particular book is how to overcome imposter syndrome. So I have like a four step process in the book on how to, you know, get into a situation where you maybe are concerned if whether or not you're good enough to to make it happen and and how to get through that. There's a section about trust tax. Trust tax is, you know, as life goes on, you're gonna have these people who you really, you know, think are on your side, you know, and you go out of your way to do whatever is possible for them and they break that trust. So how do you not become a cynic? How do you continue to learn how to trust people? So I there I you know, the way I wrote my book is layman's terms, the ⁓ real world examples. And ⁓ I listened to an episode you had that it was a real a little bit around, I think, storytelling. And when it comes to getting your point across, people don't want to just hear frameworks. They don't want to just hear do this, this, and this. They want to hear you tie that to a story. And so whether I'm on a podcast or in my book, I wanna share like here's a framework you could use and here's a story, a real world example of how I put that in the practice, either myself or, you know, somebody else.

speaker-1: Yeah. Because stories are what stick. And if you can connect a lesson or something that you're trying to teach to a story, when somebody does consume that, it's going to stick and stay with them for longer. So then when they find themselves in a situation where that lesson or that principle or that thing that they learned from your content is going to be relevant or applicable, they're more likely to remember it because it was attached to a story and then do their best to put it into action. But

speaker-0: Yeah, and so ⁓ you've probably read it, but Made to Stick by the Heath Brothers, that's a great book on storytelling, just just so you know.

speaker-1: Absolutely. Yep. Chip and Dan Heath. Yeah. So the idea that you talked about imposter syndrome, which is a big part of your book, and I would love to explore that a bit with you here because that's something that all the listeners can relate to. When you take a step out of the traditional path of going to get a corporate job and you take the bet on yourself and start a business, pretty much innately, at least for me and my experience, right? The imposter syndrome comes right away. Right. It's like, who am I to be able to Provide this service to somebody, who am I to create this video? Right. It's just all these thoughts and things that can start to come up. But ⁓ and then, you know, that that can be applicable to anything, not even just starting a business and going and taking this bet on yourself, but you know, going to try just anything new, right? In that early window of learning a new skill, trying a new thing, you're gonna suck. And then it's just like it's natural, I would almost think, to have this kind of imposter syndrome type reaction whenever you're starting something new. But you know, kind of Acknowledging it, seeing it, pushing past it in spite of it is what's required to get good at anything. So what do you offer as far as guidance or how do we overcome imposter syndrome?

speaker-0: So first and foremost, everybody has imposter syndrome. If you say you don't, you're either a narcissist or you're just lying. And so for me, all throughout my life, you know, whether it's when I first came on to the baseball scene and and went out on the field in college at Pepperdine where I started and I thought, ⁓ man, everybody is as good as I am, to when I stepped into a CEO role for the first time, like, how are these people even gonna listen to me, right? And so we all deal with it and it doesn't go away the higher up you get in your ⁓ in get in your life and and the more success. It it's still there. So the four-step framework that I've really put into use and put into practice and help people with is step number one, label your fear. You're a new entrepreneur and you got this idea. And so take a a minute and really reflect back on what is it that I'm really afraid of? And fast forward to I call it purposeful ophalizing. What is the worst thing that could happen? Okay, the worst thing that could happen is I fall flat on my face, it never gets off the ground. Okay, can you survive that? If the answer is yes, well, the answer could be no if you spent millions of dollars and you're bankrupt. Okay, so if that's the case, then don't do it. But if the answer is, yeah, I didn't spend that much money, I spent some time, then if if you could overcome that, then go for it, right? And then step number two is Leap in, you know, go all in. You know, you you can't be a great entrepreneur, you can't be a great baseball player, you can't be a great podcast host if you're not willing to put in the work. You got to put in the work. And when you and I'm not saying work twenty four or seven, right? But when you put in the work, it kind of crowds out any of these opportunities for you to worry about things anymore, right? Because you're so focused in on putting in the putting in the work. When I got to Arizona State and I I wasn't sure if I was gonna make the team or not. I had a hard time hitting curveballs. So I had the hitting coach throw me a thousand curveballs over and over again. So I was putting in the work. And that's also step number three, deliberate practice. If I had trouble hitting curveballs, I hit more curveballs. If I was trying to pitch my new business, I would practice that pitch. You know, whatever it is, put in the effort and focus in on what's difficult. And when you get a little bit better at that, then you can move on to doing something else, right? So step number one is label your fear. Step number two is go all in, you know, leap right in. Step number three is that deliberate practice. And number four is learn and let go. So if you're public speaking or you're going out there to do your pitch, stop thinking about what you're gonna say and everything, you know, let's say 15, 20 minutes before. And whether you're getting on stage or like I said, getting into a batter's box and just be present and realize that you've put in the effort, like I used to get out there on the baseball field and I would say, look, I've put in all the work. So if the ball's hit to me, I'm gonna catch it or I'll hit it. When I get up on stage, if I'm super nervous, I'll be like, I know I put in the effort, I'm ready to go. Then you either knock it out of the park or you strike out. No matter what happens, it's a great learning opportunity. You're gonna learn every single time. So you can get better next time. One of the things that I recommend though is a lot of people We're so hard on ourselves. Give yourself a little pat on the back. You tried it, right? You tried it. Maybe it went well, maybe it didn't. But at the end of the day, and there's so many people out there who sit on the couch talking about what could have been, but they never did it. So if you're out there and you you you know, put your neck out there, give yourself a pat on the back for trying because so many people are just too scared to even fail.

speaker-1: Yeah. And I think what you got out there at the end is all I could really hear as you were explaining this framework and kind of how to move through and navigate and overcoming or moving forward in spite of imposter syndrome, because to your point, I don't think it's ever something that you truly overcome. ⁓ at least in my anecdotal experience, my short career so far, it hasn't gone anywhere. It's still a it's still a friend that I have a intimate relationship with every day. ⁓ but the idea of, you know purposeful authalizing, which I f I fully love, right? Just like what is the worst case scenario? What's the worst thing that can happen? And then deliberate practice and moving forward in spite of it and then learning from it, in my opinion, requires a shift in perspective and a shift in our relationship with the idea of failure, right? That just comes so natural with us through, you know, the modern education system, wherever it comes from, right? Like I think in general, something that I still struggle with and am working on is changing my perspective on failure. So in your opinion, how do you view failure? Like does is failure something that really exists, right? In pursuit of trying to do something? Like is the doing I think maybe failure might only exist in the absence of trying, right? So like in the pursuit of attempting, in the pursuit of performance and an improvement, does failure really exist? Or like how do you how do you perceive, how do you see failure?

speaker-0: Well, think it's a great question. And we were talking a little bit earlier about getting butterflies as a signal. I think it's a signal as well if you are thinking about doing something and you're a little bit afraid because of of an opportunity to fail. What that tells me is that it's important. Okay. It's important to you enough that you're concerned about failing. I don't think that there's really a thing as failure unless you give up. You know, if you try something And then you give up, ⁓ even though you really want to do it, but you, you know, don't dust yourself off and get back up back up, that's failure. To me, everything else is just learning. It's just getting up, doing it again, asking questions, being humble, not taking yourself too seriously, and just going for it. If you keep doing that, then great. Sometimes there there gets to be a point. Maybe you want to be an entrepreneur and and it doesn't go well three or four times. And then I don't want to say you give up on it, but maybe you pivot and you get a different job. So that's not failure either. Those are learning opportunities. I can't tell you how many times I've met people either ⁓ on my podcast or just through my network. And they always say that they either got let go from jobs or they didn't get the jobs they wanted. And how grateful they are for those early so called failures in their career. Because if they would had some success early on, they never would have had that adversity to go through. And so I think you need to reframe failure as ⁓ just a stepping stone to your next step or learning more about yourself.

speaker-1: Yeah. It's almost like we need a new word for it, right? Because I completely agree that you only fail if you quit, right? Failure is really only the thing that happens when you give up. And I think there's a a difference between pivoting, right? There's a difference between, okay, I think I've explored this to the extent that I need to explore it, and I'm gonna go change directions, right? Like one might be the idea of, you know, I want to be an entrepreneur, I want to start a business. And I you try that three or four times and it just doesn't work out. Rather just things aren't going the way that you want them to go. I almost feel like in that kind of situation, it might be worth investigating like where the idea or the desire or the dream of wanting to be an entrepreneur really came from. Like, is it really authentic to you? Right? Is that something that you actually want? Do you think there's something there that almost if like you keep trying and it's just like you're putting your best foot forward, you're giving it everything you have and it's not working out, like this thing that you say that you want is disconnected from maybe who you authentically are. Like is there something there? I haven't thought about this idea before.

speaker-0: There are studies out there that say nine out of ten businesses fail. For instance, the guy at Instacart, Instacart blew up over COVID. And a lot of people are like, Wow, I mean, look how lucky that guy is. But what most people don't realize is that he failed at like eighteen to twenty businesses prior to that. So if you're gonna be an entrepreneur, you're probably not gonna get it right the first time, but you could actually maybe not beat the odds, but maybe you could just play the odds. You know, maybe it's gonna take you five to ten to fifteen opportunities or different jo ⁓ different product ideas before you actually make it stick. So I mean, I think at the end of the day, I wouldn't give up on being an entrepreneur just because you're not having any success. But if you're honest with yourself and you're not able or interested in putting in the work and you just want to, you know, see what it shows you on Instagram about, you know, how many followers I have or how successful it is and how easy it was. Well, that's fake news because it's not easy. It's gonna be a lot of hard work, a lot of adversity, and a lot of ups and downs. So if you're willing to put in the work and stick with it, the idea you have right now may not may not work, but you can learn over time and start new things and you'll hit it one of these days, you know, if you just keep putting in the effort. May not be tomorrow, but if you keep working, you'll get somewhere sometime.

speaker-1: Yeah. This has been a theme that's coming up a lot on the on the podcast lately, but this idea of trying to find like what is that thing that you're willing to go through this painful path for, right? What is this thing that is authentic to you that you genuinely do care about, whether that is embodied through, you know, a business that you start or a problem that you go and try and solve through the vehicle of a business. Right. So if you're willing to for a moment try and explore this idea with me, which is a really complicated. It's like the question, right? Of finding that unique, like that calling that's unique to you. Like what are you brought here to help contribute to? Like what is the contribution? What is the thing? Like how do you find the thing that you're willing to go through all the mud, the ups and downs, do all the work required to kind of see it through to the end and not give up. In your experience, I don't know if you have anything that you could share with us in the audience to to find that. Like how do you How do you do

speaker-0: I mean, that's a that's a tough question. I think what a lot of the best entrepreneurs do is they try to solve a problem that's really irritating to them. When you look at Learn It, where Learn It started my business, my dad actually came up with the idea a long, long time ago. He went and took a class somewhere and it was long, boring, and stale. And he said there just has to be a better way to do this because people need to learn how to use Microsoft Excel or PowerPoint or how to use an Apple computer. And he knew that back in the early nineties. And so it was just so frustrating to him because he's like, God, computers are hot, or whatever it is he said. So that was his driving force for solving that problem. And, you know, I mean, I think that that's what a lot of entrepreneurs do. They find, they find a problem or a challenge that they want to solve for themselves first and then see if there's other people out there who who may need it. So that's one way. I also think that it's important to be curious And and just kind of explore and don't lock yourself in too early on one thing all the time. Because whether it's being an entrepreneur or going to work in the corporate world or whatever it is you're gonna do, life's too short. You gotta get up every morning or every evening and enjoy what you do. I mean, I've been doing this at Learn it for thirty years and I went to Arizona State and I I I studying wasn't my big thing back then. Baseball was, right? But whatever it is at Learn It I've just really enjoyed it for a lot of reasons. So I've I've been able to keep it fresh and and everything that we do over the years. So you gotta find what your purpose is. And it doesn't have to be some crazy, outlandish, really big thing. Just find something that you enjoy that other people can val can get value out of and you feel like you're making a difference and go from there. And that could change over time, but just find something and keep moving forward that way.

speaker-1: Yeah. Yeah. I think one idea that came to me as you were explaining that is like just finding the things that you care about doing a good job with, that you're a good job at. Where like there's been a lot of things that I've worked on where I was just like, I just want to get this done. Like I just want it done, check off the box so I can move on to the next thing. But I found that the more time that I can or like the more intentional I can be about giving myself more time. To just work on the things that I care about doing a really great job on. Like this podcast is like one example where I'd care about doing a good job. Like I wanna get better. So I'm doing the hard stuff of listening to myself talking on podcasts, which just sucks. But it's like I'm willing to do it 'cause I like care about doing a good job. So I feel like there's almost some something to the idea of trying to find those things that you really care about getting better at and doing a good job.

speaker-0: Yeah, and you're probably familiar with Jim Collins, the flywheel. ⁓ and and so basically what he talks or or excuse me, not the flywheel, the hedgehog, right? So you wanna find something that you could be really good at, that's that you could make money at and you know, and be successful for it. So all those things have to line up. Like I would love to be the lead singer of Guns N' Roses or or starting ⁓ forward for the Golden State Warriors, but neither of those are gonna happen, right? So you gotta align what some your strengths are with ⁓ other people's needs and your ability to make money on it, right? So I think that that's important as well. I mean you can't be so so naive about certain things either. But ⁓ if those all line up, there's something I think we're all capable of doing. And whatever our purpose is or whatever our strengths are, how however you need to go about to figure it out, you know, just keep keep going until you do.

speaker-1: Yeah. Absolutely. So jumping back to the idea of bridging the gap between learning and doing. Right. So at learn it, right, you help people to understand how to how to use important technology like emerging technology. So artificial intelligence is obviously the big one of today. Do you feel like artificial intelligence, like does anything change about this idea? Because I can definitely see myself, again, going back to the idea that we opened our conversation with. It almost feels like I procrastinate more with AI now. Cause it's just like, ⁓ I can keep generating new drafts and I can keep workshopping, I can keep brainstorming, I can build all new plans, right? I can just keep kind of working with AI before I actually, you know, get out there and try and make a sale. Right. So has AI changed the the the dynamic at all of of helping me people move from learning to doing and taking action?

speaker-0: You know, good question. I mean, a lot of times you hear people say that, well, AI makes people less curious or or AI makes your critical thinking skills atrophy. For me, it's the exact opposite. I think I use AI all the time and ⁓ it's made me better at a lot of things. You know, for instance, you talk about wanting to get better at podcasting, and I'm sure you do this. But every podcast that I'm a guest on or a host, I immediately take the transcripts. I throw it into Claude or Chat GPT or whatever and I just have it vet and give me feedback on what did I do well? What are some areas that I missed? And because of that, I mean it's it's it's helped me in so many ways. I mean, we'll run a all hands meeting or I'll be in a c a client call and immediately after I'll I'll get feedback on what I could do differently or better. So it keeps me more curious. And as far as what you're talking about, you know, creating AI slop or or or just so many drafts before you get going on anything. Basically most of the work we do at Learnit these days are helping organizations learn how to adopt AI. Not not like here, press these buttons and do this. It's more around the mindset of having an abundance mindset over scarcity mindset when it comes to AI. Meaning, for instance, you know, employees might be, well, if if AI is just going to replace me or I'm not going to share what I learned, you know, instead looking at it like, what can we do? I mean, I I mean it it's almost unlimited what you can do with AI. If you think about it the right way, right? And so with all of that being said, there's some very specific human skills that are just not gonna go away that are s super important. Like judgment, right? You gotta you gotta have human judgment in this. You can't just create a bunch of AI garbage and just send it out. AI, you know, you gotta be able to learn how to curate things, right? So AI, you know, Ian, it could give you twenty different ideas for your podcast or twenty different ⁓ entrepreneur ideas. Well, which ones are best and why? That's where the human fits into it, right? And then ⁓ there there's just so many of ⁓ and you know, learning and growing and and pivoting. But no, I don't think that AI is going to stunt your growth. I mean AI is gonna make the high performers better and it's gonna make the average people more average. It's just how are you gonna tap in and leverage it to your benefit? And newsflash, for any of you out there who are anti AI, and I'm sure they're not for your show, but I unfortunately still run into people like that. It's gonna be very difficult to compete in the business world if you're not learning how to use the technology alongside your human skills.

speaker-1: Yeah. Absolutely. Right. It's the common trope that's been around since ⁓ twenty twenty three when this first kind of took the world by storm. It's, you know, AI is not going to be the thing that takes your job. It's going to be the person that knows how to use AI better than you that'll take your job, right? And I have friends who are, you know, a few years younger than I am who, you know, recent college graduates entered the corporate world. Like I have one specific friend of mine ⁓ who is an entry level accountant right now. And he's very scared and like fearful of like it feels like I spent all this time going to college learning these skills that I literally see Claude do on a day to day basis. Like it does my entire job. So I would imagine in your work you have a lot of conversations with people who are quite fearful about AI and like worried about is it going to take my job? Like what's it going to do to me? What do you usually say to those people? What's the conversation that you that you like to have with them? Cause I'll take this clip and send it to ten send it to my friend.

speaker-0: Yeah, what I what I would do is I'd tell your friend to look at what he's doing. And if it's something that's repeated over and over and over again, yeah, AI is gonna take that away and it's gonna be able to do that. And in accounting, unfortunately, that's a lot of the work. So what he needs to do or she needs to do is to figure out where are you gonna add extra value. A lot of people say, you know, AI will give you time back. Sure, maybe it might give you time back. What it's really gonna do is free up time for you to learn how to do more important things. So what your friend needs to do is understand, okay, where can I learn to better look at these numbers? Right. How can I, how can I be more ⁓ impactful for my organization in higher level tasks? Because it's going to learn how to do all the basic accounting work. It already does, right? So, but what you're gonna need is just like the world needs more radiologists now. I mean, that was one of the jobs that people thought were gonna go away, but there's more. people becoming radiologists because there's so many scans that need a humans to look at and to analyze and provide their judgment on. So your friend and everybody out there who's worried about AI, they need to look at what the day-to-day job responsibilities are. And if they're repeatable tasks, yeah, they're gonna be gone pretty soon. So what can you do to set yourself apart? Whether it's around taste, which I mean by your point of view, or how you can contribute in other ways. That's where you're gonna win compared to other people.

speaker-1: Yeah, that's a per that's an excellent insight, right? It's like, okay, sure, as an entry-level accountant, you're doing a lot of those repeated tasks, but then looking above, like what is your manager doing? Like what kind of insights are they deriving from this repeated accounting work that is delivering more value to your client? Because there's there's a lot more to accounting than just crunching the numbers, right? And generating a PL and and and you know, chart of accounts type work, right? It's how can you grow your skill set, right, to kind of level up in that domain of specific accounting. And then the the interesting paradox that you brought up of the radiology, everybody thought that radiologists were just going to go out of business. But I think that the adding AI into the process, and granted I don't know anything about the radiology. So take everything I'm about to say with a grain of salt, just like my assumption, my guess, is that this technology being added to the process made radiology more affordable or more accessible. ⁓ so it created more work, basically. So paradoxally it created more opportunities for the people in that domain. But yeah it's an interesting problem that we're all

speaker-0: Yeah. You know what? It's an it's interesting problem. You know what I do with i it think about it for your friend ⁓ who I would go to his manager and say, Hey, look, ⁓ I'm I'm I've got Claude's been able to help me do this, freed up some time. What can I do to help you? What else can I do to help you reach your goals that something that I can learn from? You know, because then you get on you get on your boss's radar, right? You get on your boss's radar, and not as a not to be a kiss out. But right, it's like, hey, I want to learn. What can I help take off your plate? Because I'm getting my work done because I'm leveraging AI the right way. And when you do that, then you're freeing up time for your boss and you're also getting learning opportunities for yourself. So there's, you know, it's again, and it's just about being creative, right? Being creative. And instead of being the victim about, okay, my job's gonna go away to AI, how do you make yourself noticeable and impactful, both for yourself for your direct leader and for your organization.

speaker-1: Yeah. Yeah. I mean the I mean he called me a few months ago and I told him it's like, all right, you be the one that learns how to build the custom AI system that can perform these functions within the organization. And then you bring this to your boss or your manager or the leadership team in your organization and show them like, Hey, I built this system. It's basically doing eighty percent of what I was already doing. Then be involved in the project of the team that can roll this out. But yeah, there's a lot of different potential answers to to that situation. But ⁓ yeah, I think overall, like it's I'm the there's the optimistic side of me where like I'm really excited about the potential future that AI could create where it is going to eat up a lot of those entry level positions. It's just gonna like force more people into a situation where they have to figure out how to create their own value through the world. Right. And kind of finding that unique contribution that they're here to to make. Aka create more entrepreneurs because No matter what technology we create, we are never going to run out of problems. Right. And entrepreneurs are just and businesses are just problem solving machines. So I think there's always going to be room in the world for the people that are out there solving problems, whether it's by starting a business or within an organization, there's always going to be problems to solve. Like AI isn't just eliminating problems. Right. So just having that problem solving capability is going to keep you relevant no matter where you're at.

speaker-0: One of the things that you're saying there underlining is be proactive on it. Right. Don't sit back on your heels. Go out and and get curious and figure out what problems can I help on. You know, you know, be proactive. That is also gonna set you apart.

speaker-1: Yeah, absolutely. ⁓ Right. Yeah, a hundred percent right. Kind of take command, take the take the bull by the horns, as they say, even though I don't understand that saying. Anyway, so ⁓ your book, from what I understand, is centered largely around leadership, right? Like kind of there's leadership principles and things to learn from in there. Is there anything that has changed about the ⁓ things that you're saying to leaders and how you're working with leaders with AI?

speaker-0: What happened to you? That's a great question. A lot of times people say, Well, since you wrote your book, is there anything that you've really changed your mind on? And I would say not not not yet, at least. Only because I I would say the the core theme of my my book is really and and there's a lot of leadership principles, but it's it's about the importance of continuously learning and the continuously evolving. And AI has only accelerated that more than anything. So ⁓ if there's anything I've changed my mind on a little bit in there is ⁓ you know, we talk a lot about coaching and and a lot about how to go out and get feedback. Well, now you don't need humans all the time to be able to do this. You can leverage technology like AI to go through some of the scenarios that you and I already talked about. ⁓ but for the most part, I think it's it's all it only came out in twenty twenty three anyways, but it's very relevant in the sense that one of the most important things you can do here on out. is learn how to have learning agility. And that's the ability. It's less about what you're learning and it's more about your ability to continue to learn and grow and build up that muscle.

speaker-1: Yep. And that is definitely one of those universal principles and one of those things that is always going to be really relevant and very important, ⁓ no matter what journey it is that you're on and no matter what technology comes out, is the building the muscle and the ability to continuously learn, which doesn't mean just consumption of content. It means building the ability to go out and put what you learn into practice, which is how you truly learn, which is what we opened our conversation with. And I have one final question for you before we kind of get to the the recurring Show question, I guess, whatever we want to call that, is ⁓ you brought up the idea about getting feedback. And that was so I had a marketing agency for about four and a half years. Then I started a new business last year, and I've been building a lot of different new products. And one of the more important things that you can do when you start a new business or you have a new offer, you have a new product, you have a new service, is go out and get feedback from the people that would be buying it, right? Just have those conversations with people. And you can take a lot of the pressure off of yourself by instead of framing this as a Sales call, it's just I want to get feedback on this thing that I'm working on. And in working with AI, I try doing that and it's just like AI is not the one that's going to be buying this, right? It's these other people that are buying this. So is that something that you encourage to people who are just getting started? Is going out and getting that feedback from the people who are in their target audience and trying to like just hear from them in their own words the problems that they're experiencing, how you could solve it, right? Is that An idea like you still think going and talking to the people is probably the best way to do it as opposed to chatting with AI about it. 'Cause AI is gonna like, ⁓ a hundred percent, you're great.

speaker-0: Yeah, well I there's an interesting stat I came across in my good friend Kyle Austin Young's book is that let me just ask you this question. What do you think the number one reason startups fail?

speaker-1: Mm, I mean, I would say cash flow.

speaker-0: That's a good a that's a good answer. You know what it is? People don't want it. They don't want what you what what you're selling. Thirty-five percent of failed startups, when they interviewed the ⁓ the founders before, they found out that there was no market fit. The people just didn't want it. So before you go out and spend a bunch of time and spend a bunch of money, go out and do some market research. Find out if people want it. Kyle talked about some tool, I think it's called Athena or something like that. I c I don't know exactly what it is. But where it does Google searches on or no, it does search like how many times have people searched for something? And he uses the example of the Bick back in the day created a pen for women, which was an awful idea, like a smaller handle. And if you go in and you search through this tool, how many people on the internet are searching that? Like a hundred out of a million, right? I mean that's nothing. So I mean, whoever came up with that brilliant idea should have just gone in and found out are people searching for this? You know. Two hundred thousand people were searching for a felt pen or something. I don't know. Right. So whether it's getting feedback or doing market share analysis, absolutely you have to do that. I interviewed ⁓ a guy named He ⁓ Hendrick on my show who started Barkbox and basically what he did is he just got his ⁓ st you know, on his phone, he got set up with Stripe or something. He he cooked at home some ⁓ or baked some dog treats and he walked around the park. And he sold them for fifty cents to a dollar just to see if people were interested in it, right? And once he got a hundred people to actually buy something, you know, the dog treats, then he's like, okay, this could be a valid business. So he found that there was market share. ⁓ I think too many times, and we even do this at learners sometimes. We sit around and we say to ourselves, Well, I think this is what our clients want. I think this is what our clients want. Well, that's not the right way to go about it. Ask them, test it, try things. Right. Because if you build something in a vacuum, if you just sit in your home and talk to AI about it, AI is gonna tell you whatever it is you wanna hear. So you gotta get real and figure out how are you gonna experiment enough to see if there's enough of a market out there so you're not part of that thirty five percent who people just don't care or don't want what you have.

speaker-1: Yeah, that is an eye opening number. And I can understand why it happens in some of the experiences that I've had over the last year and things that I thought were going to be awesome. And then just like nobody wanted it. So it's definitely easier to fall into that trap than you would think. And that's another one of those advantages of why finding the problem that you experience in your own life, right? Building the thing that you would buy, right? The service or product that you would buy, because then you know it's like, okay, I'm a customer. This is exactly what I want. There's gotta be. You would think there's gotta be other people like you. But ⁓ yeah, I love that. Thank you for exploring that with me. Now, before we get to the final question, which is a recurring question that I ask every guest, Damon, how can people find you?

speaker-0: You could find me at the Learn It All Podcast. ⁓ check that out. Connect with me on LinkedIn, Damon Lemby on LinkedIn, or go to learn it. Learn it dot com.

speaker-1: Amazing. Yeah, we'll have the links to everything in the description. If you haven't already checked out the Learn It platform and all the content that's available there, highly recommend it. It was I was blown away. It's a lot more than just the little bit that we discussed here today. But ⁓ yeah, we'll have the links there in the description. So damn it.

speaker-0: For your audience, I'll tell you what. Tell ⁓ tell ⁓ to send me a message, ⁓ Ian and I'll I'll I'll give you ⁓ hook ⁓ up with a free class, you know, in whether it's they wanna learn an ⁓ AI essentials, Excel, how to be a better manager. I'll give ⁓ a couple of free classes. Just tell ⁓ I heard it on your show.

speaker-1: Cool. Sounds good. Thank you for that. I will we appreciate that. Amazing. So my final question for you, Damon, is a recurring question that I ask every guest. But if you had a giant billboard that everyone in the world could see for ten seconds, or like one message to the world, what would it say and why?

speaker-0: My giant billboard would say great leaders aren't born or made, they're always in the making. And why it goes back to everything we talked about today. We live in a world in of constant change. And when you live in a world of constant change, the best way to adapt through that is to be open to learning, unlearning, trying, experimenting, maybe not getting things right, but always growing. And that's what it's going to take. From here on out to be successful and thrive in the future of work.

speaker-1: Leaders aren't born or made. They're always in the making. Always changing, always adapting, continuously learning. Amazing. Damon, thank you so much for the time. Thank you for listening. My main takeaway from my conversation with Damon is yet another reminder that the best way to learn is to do. I can spend all the time in the world ⁓ reading, listening to podcasts and trying to understand things before I act and just have like the perfect plan. ⁓ but yet again this conversation with Damon is another reminder that you have to just go.

speaker-0: Thanks, fam. Thanks.

speaker-1: You have to just get started. You have to suck ⁓ when you when you do. ⁓ like me with this podcast, I think I don't know, we're on I've recorded over eighty episodes now. ⁓ something that I wanted to do for a long time. I wanted to do this for years. I love talking to people, wanted to get better at the skill of facilitating interesting conversation, asking good questions, and also have the opportunity to learn from the amazing guests that I've had. But I didn't do it for three years. I just hesitated getting started for three years because it was like, ⁓ you know, like I don't know, a lot of different reasons why, but I've learned so much from doing, right? I watched a bunch countless YouTube videos before I finally had my first guest on. I don't remember what a single one of those YouTube videos said. I guess, you know, listening, I guess maybe. But anyways, the best way to learn is by doing. And ⁓ you have to be okay with just kind of sucking in the beginning 'cause you're just gonna suck at everything when you first start, and that's okay. Like it's it doesn't mean that you have to be bad at that thing forever, right? You just keep doing it, but You know, this is the obvious thing, one of those obvious things that you just have to be reminded of and hear again and again, because oftentimes It's really easy to just get stuck at just not starting, right? At just planning and preparing and thinking about doing a thing before you just step in and actually fing do it, you know? So thank you for listening. Damon, thank you for that reminder. If you want to get connected with Damon, you can find his links to his website and his book in the description of this episode. And if you're an author, a coach, or a thought leader and you want to make it easier for your clients to engage with your ideas and get results, I've Link the resource in the description that you'll help you build more execution support in your program without adding more of your time. Thank you for listening, and I'll see you all in the next one.