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Hey there. Welcome to the Chat GPT experiment. This is a podcast designed to help folks better understand what ChatGPT is and what it's capable of, but more importantly, how you can find a nugget, a way of finding value, something that you can put into your daily personal or professional life to save time, increase value, make things easier and more efficient. My name is Kerry Weston. I'm your host. I'm really glad you're here. How you doing? I am literally on the road today and if you've listened to any other episodes, you may have heard me talk about my role as a sports dad. So I've got three kiddos and the younger two are in high school and middle school. We do travel ball, we do track and field. So between practices and tournaments and games and all the things that happen, meets and whatnot, I am. I'm on the road a lot. In fact, one of my professional side hustles is an unpaid Uber driver. So I'm pretty. I'm pretty good at that. If you have a Google Map, Apple Map, you might want to put in Caribou, Maine, because that's where I'm leaving this morning. So my daughter Serena had a track meet in Caribou, Maine. You can't get much closer to Canada and still be in a city than Caribou, Maine, and it's about a three hour drive north from Where I typically live in Bangor, Maine, which, by the way, most people think I live in the sticks to begin with. So if you can go three hours north from the sticks, you end up in Caribou, Maine. And the track meet went very late last night, so I stayed up there. And I'm on the road coming back. I'm trying to make best use of my windshield time, so. So how you doing last week? Hey, got some updates. And then this week I want to talk about my origin story. I've had a few people ask, what's my story? How did this come to be? What do I do? How did I get there? That kind of thing. Just curious, right? We love curiosity on this show. So I'm just going to share my path, the way that the podcast came to be, the way that my business came to be, how I got there, and all the things that went into it. So if you're not interested in that, this would be the time to hit the exit and go listen to this American Life or something more productive. All right, so an update from last week, by the way. I shared with you that my oldest daughter, Maddie, who had graduated college, had her first job interview in the quote, unquote, real world, her first adult post college job interview. And we used ChatGPT as a preparation exercise for her to practice what the job questions might be. So we had ChatGPT play the role of the person that she would be interviewing with. We fed it information about the role and the job description, and she practiced. Well, I want to report that she actually got offered the position and accepted it. And so, you know, she's now gainfully employed following her college degree, which is awesome. So she was very, I'd say excited is an understatement. But she was also well prepared, which is no surprise. She's always been well prepared. But the ability to have a case study where I can share with you in my life, chatgpt helped prepare, help make more comfortable, help lessen the anxiety. Right. Of a new situation. That's really, really cool. So having those worlds collide where professional and personal kind of override and there's benefit and gain and all that stuff out of it, really, really cool. Hey. This week, got to share some time with some listeners, had some training sessions, one on one and group training. I got to hit the road a couple times this week and go do some group sessions in person, which is awesome. The ability of having the energy and feedback in the room is really cool. So that's neat and just a good week. Good week. All the way around. And today, like I said, I wanted to share a little bit about the origin story, my story. My origin story that brought me to create the podcast and what I'm doing now. And I want to share with you. There's a quote that sticks in my head, and it's from Mark Twain, and the quote is, there are two types of people in this world, those that believe that there are two types of people and those that don't, right? And it is absurd theory if you think about it, but it really does kind of put into simple context the way in which humans like to categorize and classify. We like to be in control. We like to think that we understand, right? And that understanding or lack of understanding sometimes gets in the way of us improving or trying new things or being curious. And so two types of people in this world, the red and the blues, right? The Fords and the Chevys, the Yankees and the Red Sox. The. The demarcation line is real. And I think that there is a middle group here, very gray, and it's the curious, right? And I've always lived in that curious middle. I've never defined myself by any polar. And I've never been, let's say, afraid of trying something new. And that's been my curiosity, Mark, throughout life, right? And college. I worked in a pizza and sandwich deli. And it was all about. I remember even at 18, it was all about creating systems to be more efficient. How can I do this better? How can I do this faster? And to this day, my wife will get annoyed because we'll walk it. Well, she'll get. She'll get annoyed on a number of things, right? But we'll walk into a sandwich shop and I will watch their process. And in my mind, you know, I'm thinking, I could teach you three ways to do this better. I could teach you three ways to be more efficient, but not for the sake of being efficient, but because I'm being empathetic to my position as a customer. And here's what I mean by that. I'm watching this happen. And as the customer, I can see how you're adding minutes to the process. You're delaying my gratification of receiving my order, you know, by minutes each time. You don't take one of these steps that could help you be more efficient, right? And for me, that is where I live professionally, I am always looking at problem solving, but I'm not looking at problem solving for the sake of being right or for the sake of being better. I'm Doing it for the sake of what's a better outcome for whoever's getting the value, right? And that's my professional life as a consultant, as a coach. I do that. And so curiosity has driven me, you may have heard me share once, that in college, the first paper I ever got back from college, I failed. And I remember, I wish I had kept the paper, but I didn't. And it had a big old F on it. I remember the ink, I remember the style of the F. I remember the circle she wrote around it. And I failed that paper because I hand wrote the paper. Now at the time, this is 1990, 1991 and computers, I was on that verge, right? I've always had one foot in the analog world and one foot in the emerging digital world. And that's really been where I've lived all my life. And like I've shared with you before, I've been around the sun 52 times. And I remember in school I was always on the verge of things happening. So I was the, I was in the school that had the, the one TV and the VCR on a card that got rolled around, right? Having a TV in the classroom or a screen in the classroom just didn't exist growing up. By the time I got to college, computers were something that you found in the library or the very select few had them. It's going to really kind of, I won't say blow your mind, but it's gonna create really for some of your voices if you're younger. It was easier to own a car than it was a computer. It was cheaper to own a car than it was a computer. In 1990 if you were an 18 year old, you just didn't have a computer at the time, right? That just wasn't what you did. So if you didn't have this thing, then knowing how to type, you know, really wasn't one of your skill sets. And so that's where it was for me. I didn't know how to type. And she shared with me, you better figure it out fast. And that was my curiosity track there. That's all I remember is, okay, I'll figure this out. And years later, I remember meeting a renowned innovator by the name of Doug Hall. And it's the first time I heard the phrase fail fast, fail cheap. And I said, that's exactly how I live my life. I try something, I fail fast or fail cheap or it's good and I keep going. And for me it's either going to be a skill or a benefit Right. In the positive side, or it's going to be tuition, I'm going to learn something if I failed. And so that's how I look at most initiatives, is am I going to succeed or am I going to learn? Either way, it's a benefit to me. And so I was able to put fail fast, fail cheap into my head. I'm like, that's me, that's what I do, right? From a business point of view, I always had a goal. I wanted to start a company before I was 30. Now that's the extent, that was the extent of my professional planning. I had no structure, listen, I had nothing in terms of what is that business going to look like? Nope, no idea. I just wanted to do it. Before I was 30, I wanted to have a business card. I remember this, I wanted to have a business card which, whatever business I had, it said owner, right? Or president or something on it. I mean, that's a pretty shallow, shallow goal, pretty ill defined goal, but that was it. And I just, I didn't know what I wanted to do. I had my degree in accounting and my life as an accountant lasted maybe three months. I just realized I didn't have the patience. I'll be very honest with you, I didn't have the patience to do it, but I'm glad I have it. The business background has served me very, very well. And then I was always creative. Like I shared with you, I was always a problem solver, but I also was very creative and I was quick, right? So I was quick thinking, problem solver and creative. And I said, geez, you know, maybe I have a path being in the marketing world and maybe I could start my own agency. And that's about as far as my research went. And so I said, well, what don't I know, right? Because it's a very scary thing. Now let's go back to Mark Twain's line. This is why I shared with you, you know, two types of people. There are people that believe they can start a business, and then there's the folks that believe that they don't know enough and can't do enough. And I was in the camp of I don't, I just don't know what I don't know. This was a mystery to me. And so I decided the best way to do this was to find out what these folks that had an agency knew that I didn't right from the inside. And so there was an agency in my town that was not hiring. I think that's the important part, was not Hiring. But I got a meeting with the owner and I said, I am looking for a job. I know you're not hiring. I'm one of the most creative people you'll meet. I'm driven, I'm looking for an opportunity. And he gave me one. And I was very appreciative of that. And the salary wasn't awesome, but the opportunity was for me because I was on a mission to learn. And I learned very quickly that there wasn't much to this secret sauce, right? That's probably my first time recognizing that people are just trying to figure it out, just like me. They may be older, they may have different experiences, they may have different skill sets and different perspectives, but no one's got it all figured out. They're all trying to figure it out as well. They're doing the best they can with what they know, right? And that was very calming for me because it put to bed this thought that I had to have it all figured out in order to take the next step. And so I did take the next step. And I started one day as a Friday. I got done at the agency on a Friday. And I remember waking up on a Monday, right? I was self employed on Monday morning. And that, that euphoria lasted about three minutes because I didn't have a client, I didn't have revenue, right? I didn't have anything that would justify saying this is a business, but I owned the entity and I was ready to rock. But I realized I was also unemployed basically, right? So I was self employed and unemployed. And that's really, that's really where I lived. And that was up for me to move forward. And that's, you know, from a curious point of view, it's what do I do next? And so I knew that I had the opportunity. I knew from the inside what I wanted to do. And now I had to go prove myself my value and get people to believe in me. And so that started, that was 30 years ago. And that started my journey of having a company and to stay on the curiosity track. I remember one defining moment in my company where I had absolutely no business being in the room, much less getting the gig. And the university was looking for someone to produce a coaches show and I owned a camera, so why not me, right? And so I talked my way into getting an interview, into pitching and I must have said something, right, because I was invited back. And I remember it was in June, it was the beginning of June and we had finalized what we were going to do. We signed an agreement on the Money, the volume, the contract, all that kind of stuff. And then I left that meeting and I threw up in the parking lot. I just was overwhelmed with nausea because I had no idea how I was going to do it. I have never done anything like this before. But here we go, right? And we figured it out. From a curiosity point of view. We figured it out, and that changed the trajectory of my agency because it brought not only a new path of revenue and skill set, but it challenged us to do something we'd never done before. And that became a theme. And so when I share with you all of these things, I share for a reason, because I'm building kind of a catalog of moments and mentalities here where I go after things, I see things. I'm a problem solver, I'm a creative. I want to either learn or do better. And I remember being in a room where it was probably a month after ChatGPT had been launched. I had no idea what it was. I didn't even know that it existed. And somebody put it up on a screen. I was at a conference and somebody put it up on a screen. And I think it was something like, this is my business and I want to create some social media posts. And then right in front of me on the big screen, this thing, this computer program, created a table of, I think it was three, three months. So it created a table of the months. It created a table of a calendar schedule with social media ideas with the actual posts, with the headlines with the content. And I think they had, like, an email that went with each one. And I was watching this thing happen in front of me as an agency owner, knowing the time it takes to plan and think and be proactive and put social media posts together and have them be right and have them be valuable. And I'm watching this happen in a matter of seconds, okay? And it's almost like if you remember the old Bugs Bunny cartoons, aruga, Aruga. Like, my brain is like, overload. Like, and I saw something that I knew I had to get into because I had just seen just like my pizza and sandwich deli days. I had just seen a process improvement tool, and I had to know all about it. And so that weekend, I played with ChatGPT to no end. I didn't have a paid version, so I was constantly getting penalized for using it too much and sent to go away. I didn't know if I wanted to pay for it, right? But by the end of the weekend, I did, and I dug in. And that was a very different tool back then, it's evolved greatly, but I can tell you with clear memory how much I wanted to continue to use that and how much I knew it was going to change my day. And we had 15, 16 employees. And I remember creating weekly sessions of, here's how I'm using it. I was the innovator in the agency, which is no surprise. That's my drive. Just like the video project. I jump in and then figure out how. And again, it's either going to be beneficial or it's going to be tuition. That's how I see it. So I was pushing myself, and I started to push others to be curious, and I wanted them to see how to use it. And so I would put my own work up on the screen on a weekly basis, and we would talk about how I'm doing and why I'm doing it. And I challenge them to introduce it in their own work and play with it and whatnot. And then those experiments just became something that I wanted to catalog. And that's really where I started writing and producing the podcast. Had I ever done a podcast before? No, of course not. I had no idea what I was doing. And to this day, I can tell you I have no idea what I'm doing, but I'm doing my best. Okay. And what's really interesting. What's really interesting, and I hope you take something away from this next spot. What's really interesting is I've had it for a couple years now, and the show's getting traction. And I really appreciate the folks that are listening on a regular basis and subscribing and downloaded and guide and giving me feedback because it's validation that there's something valuable here for you, for whatever that task might be, for whatever that problem might be, whatever that system might be that you're trying to go after. There's been some value in some of the experiments and advice and stuff that I've been sharing, and that. That's meaningful to me because my only reason for doing this now, just like I shared with you that the. The deli that I was trying to. Trying to convey that I was seeing ways to improve their process, it wasn't just to make things better to say that I was right. It's because I knew that as a customer, if someone could get a sandwich three minutes earlier or two, whatever, two minutes earlier, like, they're there to get a sandwich. They're not there to watch you work. Right? They're not there to watch your process. They're there to have a goal. And their goal is to eat right. So the faster you can get that done, the better. And I know that you are a small business owner, you are a small business employee, or you are a department manager, or you are an entrepreneur or solopreneur. You know, I've heard from folks from manufacturing to hair salons, right? From university professors to summer camp directors to folks that are students and they're looking to launch a business. So I know that you are all curious and I know that you all have goals. And those goals may be as simple as get through this week, or it may be like, me, launch a business, okay? And I know that. And so the reason I put these episodes together now is because I want to give help and share in hopes that somebody finds a nugget that makes their day better, that makes their process better, that makes their goal easier to attain, that gives them back a couple hours in their day. You know, I've come full circle now because that, that day that I woke up self employed slash unemployed, you know, it was me and a computer, a laptop computer. I bought a Sony at Best Buy. I remember this day. It was a heavy, heavy brick, right? It was a laptop, but it weighed more than my desktop does now. Plastic table from Walmart and a dog on the floor, right? And that was my business. And through that journey of 30 years, I went from the hardest employee I ever hired was the first one, because my employee size doubled, right? My company doubled. When I did that, I went from one to two employees. And that was a major thing to put someone's livelihood in your hands, to be entrusted with their payroll, meaning to be entrusted with their car payment, their mortgage, right? It's a huge leap of faith. And through the years, I've learned now that, you know, hiring got easier. It was never. It was never an easy thing, but it got easier for me, right? And I got bigger and we got better. And then there came to a point where I was doing more things other than what drives me, right? So my day was being occupied by tasks and responsibilities that were taking me away from really what drove me on a daily basis, those things that I shared with you, being a problem solver, an empathetic listener, helping people, and that my day was getting covered with tasks of management rather than serving and helping. And so, full circle. Last October, I sold my share of the agency that I helped found and moved to my basement, right? So I'm back to a computer on a table. I don't have a dog, but I do have three cats. And so the cats are with me. I have a table and I have a computer. And so I've come full circle, but I've come full circle with a whole different set of experiences, experiences and perspectives and skill sets now. So I'm much different as a solopreneur, as a consultant and coach now than I was 30 years ago. Because the world is different. My world is different. My experiences are different. And that's all because of curiosity, right? It's all because I was able to try and learn and benefit from those experiences. Okay? And that's really what I'm doing here. The podcast. Sometimes the podcast is just therapy. So if I'm being really honest with you, you know, talking like this while I'm on the road, I'm driving in the rain, and I don't know how good the the audio system is. I'm wearing a microphone on my shirt. I don't know if you can hear the rain pitter pattering on the windshield and the roof. But I'm driving in the rain and I look down, I've still got 75 miles to go. It's therapy sometimes to get this out. Because I don't think that we take enough time to talk out loud and think out loud. Cause we get so busy in our own treadmill of doing what we do, right? And so that's good. And one of the things I shared with you that I really, you know, I have no idea what I'm doing. I'm just doing my best on the podcast. But I talk to others. I've been fortunate enough to be guests on some really big and see popular podcasts. And they have staffs, they have processes and staffs to do what they do. So I was on a podcast last week where they have seven people, you know, that help manage the podcast. Because they are not only recording the podcast, but they are turning it into an article, they're turning it into snippets for social media, they're turning it into a video podcast. They're turning it into all of these nuggets and pieces to get exposure, right? They've created training programs and membership programs. And I've shared with you that I'm building the model for Curiosity Club as a membership program because I want the community to have resources as well as the community to meet itself. Because I think there's value in sharing what you're learning and asking questions of those that are equally curious and can bring value to the table to help you do more and learn more. As an agency owner, I always felt I shared with you that my accounting degree was my background. I did not have an agency background. I didn't come from an agency. So many of the times I felt like I was feeling down a dark hallway, I was walking, like I was learning a lesson, I'd get through it, and then I'd be like, boy, I wish I'd known that two years ago. And I found a cohort as an agency owner, I found a cohort called Agency Management Institute that introduced me to other agency owners that had the same mentality, the same perspective, the same challenges. Right. And I found some people that I could relate to, and that was terrifically valuable. And it started to give me frameworks and systems and answers to things I wish I had known earlier. You know, you find these things in your life, and then you say, boy, you know, what would have been like if I had been introduced to this group five years ago? Right. But that's kind of the beauty of life, too, is that exploration again, curiosity. And so the curiosity club that I'm looking to build is a way in which folks like you who are listening to this podcast can have other people to tie into and talk to and get resources and learn from where not only I've been, but where others have been. And we'll have meetups, right. And we'll share resources and we'll do all these things, and it's in the works. But you're looking and talking to. You're not looking at, but you're listening to the entire staff of my company at the moment. And so my ability to do that is harnessed by my capacity as well as my skill set. Right. And so I'm tapping into conversations of others who have done it to find out how they're doing it and trying to figure out how to work it into the business model that I have. Yeah. So that's where this came from. That's where the podcast came from. That's where my journey has taken me. That's where my story. And I wanted to share that for a couple reasons. One, I've been asked a lot, well, relatively a lot recently, like, what's your story, where you've been? Why does this come to be? How does it fit? But second is sometimes just taking a reflection and looking at the series of events that got you to where you're at is helpful in painting a picture for other reasons. And for me, the other reason is my kids. Right. So Spencer is 14, Serena is 16, and Maddie is 21. And with Maddie, this is the first time that I've been Able to kind of share my journey, my path, my advice in a professional way. And I think that is the underlying goal of the podcast is sharing what you know, sharing what you've learned for the benefit of others in hope that it adds a nugget of value to help somebody see something they haven't seen before, deal with a situation that they're and for the first time, scaling your perspective, your good and your bad for the benefit of someone else. So I think if there was an underlying reason mission for this particular podcast, and quite frankly, the work that I do on a regular basis with businesses that I work with, it's to use my perspective, my experience, my skills, my lessons, good and bad, to make systems, to improve efficiency, to add value to the customer, but to help somebody do something better. Right. So I think that's where I'll close today is to is the history of where I've been, why this is here, and to say a sincere thank you for those who have join me on a regular basis that continue to share and I hope you continue to be with me as I build this curiosity Club and whatever come before it. Who knows what's next, Right? But I do know that the spirit of being continually curious and seeing it as either it's going to give me benefit or tuition and then doing what we can to share, quite frankly, to make the world better than it was when you found it. Right. I think the more that we can communicate, collaborate, connect, share for the benefit of others, I think that's what is important and special personally and professionally. So I cherish that role as a dad, I cherish that role as a coach, I cherish that role as a consultant. And I've had a lot of fun doing it here as a podcast host and coming into your ears on a regular basis. So I hope that was, I don't know if it was. If it was helpful, I hope it added a nugget, maybe shared some light. And if it helped anybody make the next decision and do something that they're either uncomfortable with or struggling with or whatnot, then good. Then good on you for doing that. Okay. But like I always say, whether it's ChatGPT or anything else in your personal professional life, curiosity is a necessary ingredient. Okay. And so I encourage you to continue to be that and try your best not to categorize, as Mark Twain says, as only having two types of people in this world be in the middle, be the curious explorer. Right. And until we talk again, stay curious and be good. We'll talk soon. Bye. Bye.