620: Our 2026 Business Plan With Toni Herrbach

Summary

Podcast Summary: The My Wife Quit Her Job Podcast With Steve Chou

Episode 620: Our 2026 Business Plan With Toni Herrbach
January 4, 2026

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Episode Overview

In this candid episode, Steve Chou and guests Tony and Jen discuss their evolving business strategies for 2026. Stepping away from "chasing every new opportunity," they focus on the key levers that truly drive business growth. The conversation explores themes of automation and AI, event participation, content creation (especially YouTube and live formats), and the power and pitfalls of community-building. The trio shares honest insights, experiments, and trade-offs they're considering for the year ahead, with a relatable mix of strategic seriousness and humor.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Reflecting on Planning & Pace (01:29–03:12)

• Late-year Planning: Jen admits feeling behind on 2026 planning, highlighting the sometimes overwhelming pace of entrepreneurship.
  • "I feel like it's hard. It's like I blinked and now we're in November and you know, that's it." – Jen, (01:58)
• Personality Differences in Planning: Tony prefers high-level goal-setting, while Jen tends to be more detail-oriented.

2. Robotics, Automation, and AI in Operations (02:18–12:59)

• Household & Warehouse Automation: Lighthearted talk about dishwashing robots and industrial automation sparks a broader discussion about integrating robotics into business.
• Paperless Operations Initiative: Tony shares his push to eliminate reliance on paper at Bumblebee, revealing efficiency gaps and the challenges of changing ingrained habits.
  • "I just noticed that we rely on paper for pretty much everything...if an invoice drops on the floor...it might not get packed." – Tony, (11:08)
• AI for Operational Decisions: Tony has developed the "Bumblebee Bot" for real-time inventory analysis and sales insights, highlighting both excitement and practical usage struggles.

3. Rethinking Events & Networking (05:27–09:19)

• Event Fatigue vs. Value: Jen reflects on achieving her 2025 goal of attending more events, but questions the ROI of constant networking and travel.
  • "Did it benefit me? Did I meet some people? Did it open some doors? For sure...but I don't know if it was worth the investment overall to me." – Jen, (07:05)
• Strategic Event Attendance: For 2026, her approach is to only attend events where she has a speaking or leading role, aiming for measurable returns on time.
• Podcasting as Networking: Tony expresses satisfaction with digital connections, planning to attend just a select few in-person events.
• Speaking Engagements as Leverage: Jen applies to lead or speak at industry events—viewed as the next level of networking impact.

4. Navigating AI: Fast-Moving Wave or Shiny Distraction? (09:19–16:31)

• Learning & Applying AI: Jen sets a broad 2026 goal to harness AI for automating and improving repetitive business tasks while cautioning against following every new "shiny" AI use case.
  • "I feel like it's kind of like the haves and the have nots...there are people that just think AI is absolutely terrible. Right. No one should be using it...but I think that it's doing a lot of really cool things." – Jen, (14:10)
• Practical vs. Hype: Tony notes that many AI business applications rely on existing, accessible tools—significant bottom-line improvements come from focus, not novelty.
  • "Everything that I've already done, I could have done with like the basic stuff...just need to take the time to absorb and not get distracted by, like, the shiny objects." – Tony, (15:48)
• Fun with AI: Light-hearted stories on using AI for creative family animations, but caution not to get diverted from core business utility.

5. Community Building: Opportunity & Caution (18:48–22:37)

• Launching a Community: Tony is preparing to launch his own community for engaged sellers but is aware of the ongoing commitment and quality control challenges.
  • "It's already like 90% ready to go...but I'm a little scared because once you turn that switch on, you can't turn it off." – Tony, (18:48)
• Community Quality Control: Concerns about unprepared participants and the importance of filtering for engagement.
• Automation in Community Management: Eagerness to learn from experts about balancing automation and human touch in communities (reference to Liz and "Circle").

6. Leveraging New Tools: AI Browsers, Site Audits, & Feedback (22:37–25:05)

• AI for Branding Consistency: Jen shares a case where an AI browser aligns a Shopify site with a brand guide—cautiously optimistic about use cases, but wary of security.
• AI-Assisted Page Reviews: Running landing pages through AI to uncover gaps and improve messaging.

7. Content Creation: YouTube, Automation, and the Personality Moat (25:16–33:50)

• Video Content Focus: Both hosts see YouTube as a core focus for 2026, but agree on the importance of pacing and avoiding burnout by "slow launching" channels.
  • "My focus for 2026 is really dialing in that channel and getting the content better...I did not want to rush this mainly because I don't have like oodles of extra free time." – Jen, (27:23)
• Automation and Efficiency: Liz's automation for short-form content distribution is highlighted as a time-saver.
• AI in Music and Video: Conversation about AI-generated music/artists—and wondering when/if personality will be the last differentiator online.
  • "Video is like the last bastion...your personality online...that's the only thing that can't really be replicated." – Tony, (30:49)
• Experimenting with AI Avatars in Brand Content: Trial runs with testimonial videos voiced by AI avatars—leads to a nuanced discussion about authenticity, audience reactions, and disclosure.

8. Live Content & Authenticity (36:05–44:42)

• Fascination with Live Building: The rising trend of entrepreneurs and creators working live online — both for entertainment and proof of skill.
  • "It feels very authentic as far as, like, if I'm hiring you, I know you know what you're doing because you're doing it in front of me...it's your own testimonial." – Jen, (38:13)
• Potential for Product Businesses: Live manufacturing, embroidery, or factory streams could be unexpectedly compelling—audience is fascinated with behind-the-scenes creations.
• Balance of Value vs. Entertainment: The group jokes about live cooking and mundane tasks, but identify real opportunities where live content aligns with service businesses and course-related marketing.

9. Final Takeaways & Main 2026 Goals (44:42–45:39)

• Main Focuses Named:
  • Tony: Community building and possible live content for Bumblebee.
  • Jen: Sharpening YouTube content; occasional speaking.
• Outlook: 2026 is anticipated to offer “a ton of opportunity,” with rapid technological advancements lowering barriers for those ready to commit.
  • "Whatever you’re thinking about doing, you can probably make it happen with all the new tools and technology that are out there." – Jen, (45:25)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Prioritizing and Focus:
  "Instead of chasing every new opportunity, we are focusing on the few decisions that actually move the needle and the trade offs we're making."
  – Steve Chou, (00:00)

• On AI’s Divisiveness:
  "There are people that just think AI is absolutely terrible...but I think it’s doing a lot of really cool things."
  – Jen, (14:11)

• On Community Building Cautions:
  "Once you turn that switch on, you can’t turn it off."
  – Tony, (18:48)

• On The Value of Live Content:
  "It feels very authentic…if I’m hiring you, I know you know what you’re doing because you’re doing it in front of me. It’s your own testimonial."
  – Jen, (38:13)

• On AI Avatars in Marketing:
  "Do I care whether it’s a human or an AI, as long as it’s bringing me leads and sales? ...Well, I don’t care."
  – Tony, (34:16)

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Timestamps of Important Segments

• Planning for 2026, Robotics Intros – 01:29–03:12
• Automation & Paperless Initiatives – 09:19–12:59
• 2026 Event & Networking Strategy – 05:27–09:19
• Harnessing & Filtering AI – 13:00–16:31
• Community Building Nuances – 18:48–22:37
• AI-Driven Site Optimization – 22:37–25:05
• YouTube and Content Focus – 25:16–29:40
• AI Personalities & Authenticity – 29:40–33:50
• Live Content and Business Uses – 36:05–44:42
• Final 2026 Focus and Wrap-up – 44:42–45:39

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Tone & Style

Engaging, conversational, and practical—blending forward-thinking tech enthusiasm with the humility and honesty of business owners who've learned to value depth over breadth. Filled with both strategizing and storytelling, laced with humor and friendly banter.

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For listeners and entrepreneurs, this episode offers a refreshingly honest look at planning for a tech-saturated business future—emphasizing the value of focus, adaptability, and being selective about where to invest energy in the ever-evolving world of ecommerce and online entrepreneurship.

Transcript

[Steve Chou]

Welcome back to the podcast, the show where I cover all the latest strategies and current events related to E commerce and online business. Now in this episode, Tony and I break down our plan for 2026 and why it looks very different from this past year. Instead of chasing every new opportunity, we are focusing on the few decisions that actually move the needle and the trade offs we're making. But before we begin, I want to let you know that tickets for Seller Summit 2026 are now on sale [e-mail] and the price does go up on January 7th. And if you sell physical products online.

[Tony]

This is the event that you should be at.

[Steve Chou]

Unlike most events that are filled with high level fluff and inspirational stories, Seller Summit is all about tactical, step by step strategies you can actually use in your business right away. Every speaker I invite is deep in the trenches. People who are running their own e commerce stores, managing inventory, dealing with suppliers and scaling real businesses. There's no corporate execs and no consultants. Also, I hate big events so I intentionally keep it small and intimate. We cap attendance at around 200 people so you can actually have real conversations and connect with everyone in the room. We've sold out every single year for the past nine years and I expect this year to be no different. It's happening April 21st to 23rd in Fort Lauderdale, Florida and if you're doing over 250k or $1 million in revenue, we also offer a private mastermind for high level sellers. Right now, tickets are the cheapest they're ever going to be and the price is going up on January 7th. So if you want in, go over to sellersummit.com and grab your ticket.

[Tony]

Welcome back to the My Wife Quitter Job podc. I can't believe it. But we're already at the end of the year and it's time to start thinking about 2026. I can't believe it.

[Jen]

I feel like we're a little late thinking about 2026. It is November that we're recording this, correct?

[Tony]

It is November, but I, I don't know. I actually don't usually plan that far ahead to be honest with you. I usually have like very high level goals. I know you have like every minute of every day planned out, right?

[Jen]

I don't, I. Well, yes, as a type A person that I am, I usually have things, well, more under control by this time in November, but this year I feel like just went too quick. I don't know, maybe that's just me, but I feel like it's hard. It's like I blinked and now we're in November and you know, that's it.

[Tony]

Yeah. So one thing that I was excited about was did you see that announcement of the robot? Like, it was a video of a robot that, like, it's like the first edition that's supposed to come out next.

[Jen]

Year that can does your dishes. Yes, Yes, I did. I thought that. I honestly thought that was a joke. I didn't think that was real. Is that true?

[Tony]

I think it's real.

[Jen]

Okay.

[Tony]

And I watch it. I'm like, okay, we got a long way to go.

[Jen]

Yeah. I, I still need to get my kids to do chores. I don't want to hire a robot. Yeah, that's. I'll be interested to see that. I don't. I'm not buying one, but.

[Tony]

Well, no, the reason why is because I've been like, really excited about this revolution coming. Like, can you imagine just having robots pack orders for you? Like run the sewing machines and everything and you just kind of walk in, you just make sure they're still running. Like you, you squirt some oil in their joints and, and whatnot.

[Jen]

Do you really see that as how, like, I've. It reminds me of the Jetsons. Right. I feel like we're, we're sort of living in the Jetsons era at this point. But then also, I don't know, I feel like you got that really fancy printer two years ago or whenever it was, and it was nothing but problems. And part of me wonders if some of these robot type things will also be nothing but problems.

[Tony]

Well, the new printer is actually great.

[Jen]

Okay. Okay.

[Tony]

Yeah. But you know what's funny? There's actually this print shop literally two minutes away from our office. And having them do all the printing is actually the same price as printing it at home.

[Jen]

Really?

[Tony]

You know, at the office. Yeah. Because they have. They do it in bulk. Right. And yeah, so we've been using them a lot.

[Steve Chou]

It's a one day turn.

[Tony]

It's funny, right?

[Jen]

Yeah.

[Tony]

Like, we don't even need the printer actually anymore because this print shop is so convenient. But anyways, yeah, I don't know. Elon Musk has been on a bunch of podcasts lately and I don't know, it seems like we're like five years away maybe from something.

[Jen]

Yeah, well, I mean, I know that. I remember back when I worked with Valpak and Cox, they. Valpak made a lot of news. And this is back in like 2012, 2013, they made a lot of news for basically Making their facilities very robotic. So on the floor of the print shop, basically little. I mean, I guess there were robots, but little machines basically did the bulk of the work right there. I think they only needed like one or two people on the floor because everything was the printing, the. The sorting, the moving of the different things, the enveloping. I don't know how. How you say that was all done. Yeah, was all done robotically. And so I feel like. And I know Amazon uses a lot of robotics in their warehouses as well. So I feel like we've been on this path for a while. I think what'll be interesting is if we can bring it into the homes. Right. Which is. Which is the commercial that I saw with like a robot unloading the dishwasher and stuff like that.

[Tony]

Well, it took them 5 minutes and 30 seconds to load 2 cups or something like that.

[Jen]

Oh, my word. I don't have time for that.

[Tony]

Yeah, exactly.

[Jen]

So. Well, one of the things that I was thinking about for 2026, which is not a robotic thing, is that in 2025, one of my goals was to attend more events, which I think I did a pretty good job with. I went to many conferences. I tried to, you know, do network, you know, kind of do some networking things. I was actually at a networking thing the other night. I will say, though, like, I'm tired. Like, I.

[Steve Chou]

It's because you're old.

[Jen]

I am old. I am old.

[Tony]

Sound like the old.

[Jen]

The networking days are for the young in unfortunately. Like, I feel like if you live in certain places, like, I feel like, you know, Charles, who lives in New York City, or Liz who lives in Austin, you even who live in California, there's a lot more opportunity locally for you. In Orlando, we definitely have things. Right. I know. I don't want anyone from Orlando to like, send me hate mail. They're like, you missed all these cool things. But, like, in the world that I'm in with, I would say more of the marketing, tech, e commerce. Like, that's not. Orlando's not a hotspot for that. Right. Whereas I think if you live in Austin, pretty much any event that you go to is going to be people that are in your industry and you're going to be able to get some really great networking opportunities. Liz talks about stuff all the time and people she's met and seems pretty fantastic. So, you know, that was one of the things that I put for myself in 2025. I feel like I achieved it. And I'm tired. I'm tired of traveling. I Do have status on Delta now. Thank you. But part of me is like, I don't know if I want to do this again in 2026 because of how much I was gone and feeling like, yes. Did it benefit me? Did I meet some people? Did it open some doors? For sure. Definitely gave me some opportunities, but I don't know if it was worth the investment overall to me.

[Tony]

I think podcasting has given me enough interaction. Although I am. I am going to some events.

[Jen]

Yeah.

[Tony]

I think maybe four total for this year, which is more than enough for me.

[Jen]

Yeah.

[Tony]

But, yeah, I mean, for podcasting, I think that's the easiest way to meet someone. Yeah, I've met a bunch of people.

[Jen]

Yeah. So I think for me in 2026, I'm not sure if I'm going to go all out on events again. I think I will still go to the ones that I really value. Obviously, I'll be a seller. Summit, guys. Thanks. See you there. But, you know, ecf, I feel like that's always a great networking event. It's good. It's also good to see friends and things like that. You know, I have some tickets to some other things. I'm not sure if I'll go. I bought the, like, super early bird tickets, so I feel. I don't. I never feel bad if I don't use them. Right. Because, you know, they were 100, 200 bucks or something like that. But I also was thinking about, instead of focusing on, like, attending events, maybe only attending events that I'm going to speak at. Right. So applying to speak at events. And then I feel like. Then I feel like the return can really be measured when you're. When you're Cohen as an attendee, which I think, you know, especially if you're new or wanting to make those connections, going as attendee is actually really important. I've been doing this for 20 years. Like, I don't think I necessarily benefit as much as being an attendee, but I think getting on stage is actually really beneficial to your business. And if, especially if you're doing the things that, like, we're doing. So that's one of the considerations that I have. I just submitted my application for not only Pet Summit, which I've spoke at for several years, but the Global Pet Expo, which is all the big time, you know, like Purina and all those things. Now, obviously, I'm not in the pet space, but I submitted to talk about, you know, email, email marketing, retention marketing, things like that. So for me, I think for 2026, if I'm going to attend event. Attend an event. I want to have some part of the event, whether it's like a roundtable leader or speaking or something of that nature. I think for it to be worth my time in the coming year.

[Tony]

I agree. I 100% agree with that. For me, with the AI stuff that I was getting to. So I already started working on this, but there's a Bumblebee bot that now.

[Jen]

I was just telling Leslie Samuel that you were building this.

[Tony]

Well, it's already done, but like, for some reason, like, it works for me. But for some reason, when I gave it over to Jen, like, it stopped working. So basically what it. What it is is it has access to like all of Bumblebee's databases, everything. So you can say, oh, what, what items do I have, like, less than 10 days worth of inventory left? And it goes and it calculates how much it's been selling for whatever, and it tells you how many days of inventory left so you can reorder.

[Jen]

Yeah.

[Tony]

Or it. You like, oh, what, what's the top selling product, you know, for the last 30 days or whatever. Basically, you can ask whatever question you want. It formulates the right database query and tells you the answer. I was really excited about it. And then, you know, Jen types her queries in a different way, you know, and then it's. It doesn't. Right. So, but anyway, I want to incorporate more AI and get rid of paper at Bumblebee.

[Jen]

Yes, I know the get rid of paper has been a big, A big thing for you.

[Tony]

I don't know. Do we even talk about this on the pod?

[Jen]

No, we talked about it personally.

[Tony]

Okay, we talked about. Personally, I feel comfortable talking about it on the pod. So Jen just went to Korea on a girls trip. And whenever she leaves, I go into the office pretty much every day. Usually I'm not in the office for everyone listening. Like, I go in maybe one day a week if necessary, but with her gone this time, whenever she leaves, like, I'm the new sheriff in town. So I go in and I just kind of shadow the employees and see what they're up to. And I just look for inefficiencies because, you know, when you're in there all the time. Yeah. You do things a certain way and it gets the job done. So it might not, you know, Anyway, I just noticed that we rely on paper for. For pretty much everything. So if an invoice, for example, drops on the floor and goes underneath the table, right. Then sometimes that order, you know, gets lost. Not not lost, but, you know, it might. Might not get packed. Yeah, Right. And people call in all the time, change up their orders, change up their addresses and all that stuff, and it's just been marked on a combination of paper and slack. Yeah. So while she was gone, I implemented a more centralized system of. Of tracking all this stuff and everything, which I'm happy, actually. We're 75 using it.

[Jen]

Nice. Nice.

[Tony]

Yeah. And I didn't. Maybe it's because Jen was just so happy from her vacation. Like, I didn't get a whole lot of flack for it. Although it was pure chaos for, like, the first two days after she got back.

[Jen]

Yeah.

[Tony]

Yeah.

[Jen]

How did. How did the employees take it? Were they on board?

[Tony]

Of course they're on board because it was based on their feedback. Okay. Like, I went in there and I said, okay, well, what's inefficient? Like, why are we. What's that in your hand? She's like, this. It's a piece of paper. I'm like, drop it.

[Jen]

Put it down.

[Tony]

We're not using the paper method anymore.

[Jen]

Yeah.

[Tony]

Yeah.

[Jen]

So that leads me to another thing that I. I actually talked about this in my mastermind a couple weeks ago. One of the things that I really want to focus on in 2026 is basically learning how AI can help me move forward. The projects that I'm doing, I feel like. And I'm sure a lot of people feel this way. Things are moving so quickly. It feels very difficult to keep up if you are not taking an action or getting, you know, involved in it every single day. It feels like if you take two days off from AI, everything has changed. And I'm exaggerating a little bit here, but I feel like, you know, it's like an ocean wave, and you've got to, like, paddle as hard as you can to catch the wave. Right. So that's something that I really want to focus on in 2026, because I do feel like. I feel like it's kind of like the haves and the have nots. Right there. There are still. And we see this a lot in our webinars. I actually encountered it with a. Another person that I work with a couple weeks ago. There are people that just think AI is absolutely terrible. Right. No one should be using it. It's detrimental. The one person that I was interacting with who I know does not listen to this podcast, like, kind of went off and was like, it's plagiarism and this and that. And, you know, kind of had this whole soapbox And I was like, I can see why you believe that, but I don't think that's true. And I think that it's doing a lot of really cool things. In fact, I just saw a thread, an ecf, where this guy basically built this automation to track social media posts. Right. Because before that they had been tracking it on a spreadsheet and obviously like especially other mentions. Mentions from other people. And he basically built this free tool that he's giving out to people and it's like, hey, this just tracks your social media. And I was like, heck yeah. Right? And I feel like there are a lot of uses like that where like you were saying you went in and you were like, hey, what's the pain points? What's the problems? I feel like there's a lot of things in all of our businesses that are just very repetitive tasks that can be automated and probably automated with more accuracy. Right. Than people copying, pasting into spreadsheets or writing things on a piece of paper. So one of my goals for 2026 is to really focus on how to best use it for the things that I'm working on. I realize there are a million use cases and I think that's the danger. Right. As you get kind of rabbit trailed into all the different things. And like one of the things I think is so cool is all the. The animations with AI. Like, I think that's so fun. Dana Michelle is like crushing it with this. But like, I don't need that for my business. So as much as I think that's cool, I need to like step away from anime. Like, I'm not doing a lot of that, but I can't get sucked into it. I need to focus on the parts of it that will help me and what I'm doing and. But I really want to have that be one of my Main focuses for 2026. Like personally, but in business, you know.

[Tony]

It'S funny, you're right. AI is moving fast, but I don't feel like it's moving that fast in terms of what you can actually apply to your business.

[Jen]

True.

[Tony]

Like everything that I've already done, I could have done with like the basic stuff.

[Steve Chou]

Like what's.

[Tony]

Where it's. Innovating right now is in all the media, mainly media, I want to say. And like the, the browsers, like Google just announced a browser.

[Jen]

Yes.

[Tony]

Where you can train it to do what you want to do. So I mean, little things like that to save time. But in terms of things that move like the bottom line or the Top line. Yeah. I think with the current state of AI, there's a lot you can already do already and you just need to take the time to absorb and not get distracted by like the shiny objects, like making movies. Actually, I wasted like an hour the other night making movies.

[Jen]

So my, my son, who has a very manual type job. Well, he will. He does not use AI in his job at all. He manages a restaurant. But he has been taking. This is like, I'm so irritated with him, but I also find it so funny that it's hard for me to be mad. He's been taking moments from their childhood that have been like slightly traumatic in creating AI animations. So one of the most famous moments in their childhood was when my oldest daughter was babysitting them. You know, this was back when I think we didn't have as much money. So she made a pizza and when she pulled it out of the like a frozen pizza, when she pulled it out of the oven, it fell on the floor. She picked it up, like put everything back on it and made them eat it for dinner. Right? And it was like, they still talk about this to this day, right. So he basically animated this girl who looks like my daughter dropping a pizza from the oven and then slopping all the stuff off. And it's like, tough luck kids, you've gotta eat it. And then the next scene is the rest of the kids all crying and like, you know, there's like a baby and a teenage boy. It's like, so he's been doing that with like all of her like fails as a teenage babysitter with them. And I was like, surely you can use this for good, son. Like, quit tormenting your sister. But like, that kind of stuff is fun. I was like, oh, I kind of want to make those too. But I was like, no, no, no, no, no, no. We cannot get sucked in. As cool as it is, we cannot be doing that.

[Steve Chou]

I just wanted to take a moment to tell you about a free resource that I offer on my website that you may not be aware of if you are interested in starting your own online store. I put together a comprehensive six day mini course on how to get started in E commerce that you should all check out. It contains both video and text based tutorials that go over the entire process of finding products to sell, all the way to getting your first sales online. Now this course is free and can be [e-mail] free. Just sign up right there on the front page via email and I'll Send.

[Tony]

You the course right away.

[Steve Chou]

Once again, that's my wifequitterjob.com free.

[Tony]

Now back to the show. There are so many things like I want to be doing. Yeah, actually, like just for fun.

[Jen]

Yeah.

[Tony]

I don't know. Yeah, so, so one of my things for 2026 is to launch my community. I, I'm probably going to try to do it earlier but for some reason, like I keep dragging my feet. Like it's, it's already like 90% ready to go. I just need to implement like the final payment processing and, and whatnot. But yeah, I don't know, I'm a little scared because once you turn that switch on you, you can't turn it off.

[Jen]

Yes. Well, and lucky for you today, which is, is obviously you'll. You guys will be listening to this much after this happens. Liz is actually going to be talking about building a community in office hours for profitable audience. I'm excited for it because you and I have talked a lot about how, you know, email and sms, they're still very effective but they're not like they used to be. And sort of that community aspect is. I think you and I both agree that there's definitely a future in that for building a business, building a brand. And she basically built all of Fluencer Fruit through community. Right. The interactions, the building. And so I'm excited for her to talk about, you know, how hard is it. Right. Like how much work is it? What do you need to do? What can you automate? Cause she's really into automation as well. So what can you automate and what's the manual side of it? And then she's actually going to share a lot about Circle, which is a tool that you can use to build. I mean, you guys are, we're on Discord. You use Discord as well. There's several options out there, but I think it's good to talk to people about all the different options because not everything works for everybody. So I think building a community is really hard though. So I'm interested to hear what she has to say.

[Steve Chou]

Yeah. You know what?

[Tony]

Ideally what I want to do is I want to build a community of people who already have something going.

[Jen]

Yeah.

[Tony]

And so we'll, we'll see how that goes. Every time I get excited about the community, I'll have like a one on one with somebody. Like I actually just recently had one. Like it was a pretty bad one on one.

[Jen]

Yeah.

[Tony]

Where the person came with no prep and, and I was like, oh, do I want to do I really want a community. I want a community of people. Like, I want to interact with that. And I think that's the hard part.

[Jen]

Yeah. You cannot guarantee that in any way.

[Tony]

That's correct. You cannot guarantee that you should have people.

[Jen]

I will tell you because I used to do a lot of one on ones years ago. I had people fill out a form and until the form was filled out, I wouldn't schedule the one on one. And then it forced them at least to show up prepared. I feel like for, for you and I, when we do our one on ones, everyone is like over prepared, right? Yeah.

[Steve Chou]

For the most part it's been positive.

[Jen]

Yeah. But occasionally you get those people that you're just like, oh, we should, we should reschedule.

[Tony]

Well, so, so what was funny about this is like, it sounded like the person was prepared. Like, I want to have a product by the end of this.

[Jen]

Yeah.

[Tony]

I'm like, okay, great. Okay. Did you watch like the first video? She's like, haven't gotten a chance to watch any of the videos yet. Like, okay, so you want me to just give you a product, right?

[Jen]

Yeah.

[Tony]

That's not something that you can do in like 30 minutes.

[Jen]

No, no. Anyway, also not a great idea. Like, to me, it's like if, because, because you and I don't do one on ones. Like, you can't pay for them. You know, they really only come with like signing up through a webinar or earning them through the points in the courses. Like, I don't think people understand, like, you will never get this opportunity. You should come very prepared because, you know, we don't, we don't sell these on the side. Like, you're not going to be able to do this.

[Tony]

Yeah. Anyway, but I, I am excited about it because I do think that I'm just thinking about the people who come to office hours. I actually love hanging out with them, like.

[Jen]

Yes.

[Tony]

Every week. So I, I guess the caution here is growing it too large too quickly.

[Jen]

Maybe. Yeah.

[Tony]

And maybe just keeping it small and deliberate and, and gradually grow it. I think it's probably the way to go.

[Jen]

Yeah.

[Tony]

So let's see what Liz has to say. I'm curious.

[Jen]

Yeah. So one of the other things that I've been thinking about, and this was spurred on by my brother sending me a text. Have you, have you, Steve, seen the OpenAI browser yet? Atlas.

[Tony]

Okay, so I'm not using it at all because I heard it's full of security holes.

[Jen]

Oh, interesting. So I'll let him know.

[Tony]

Well, no, because people can embed little directives into their sites that cause the AI to. Because it has access to stuff if you give it to it, right? If you give it access, yeah.

[Jen]

So here's what my brother did with it, and I'm sure he'd probably just opened himself up to all sorts of issues, but. So he opened up his Shopify site and his brand guide, right? So he has a brand guide created. He also has a Shopify site. And basically AI went in and changed all the settings to match the brand. So it basically gave him consistency through the site. He said it was really slow, but it actually got it done. And I actually think that's a pretty cool use case for it. However, if it's filled with like, security issues, that makes me question it. But I think those types of things that AI will do. One of the things that I've just started doing with AI, which I probably should have started done this a year ago, is I'm basically running all of our, like, landing pages through AI and just asking for, like, feedback and what can be better, what's missing, what's not explained. Well, because I think one of the problems, especially if you have a brand and you've been running it for a long time, is you don't see the flaws, right? Like, you already know how everything works together. You already know the pros and cons. So, like, it's not as obvious to you when you look at your own site. And so anyway, I think it's actually I just run them through Chat GPT, so I'm not even using anything fancy. But I've actually gotten some really good feedback from chat, especially on doing a better job explaining the value proposition for the product. Because Chat Chat has so much information about the business. It's got all the product briefs uploaded, it's got the product PDFs, it's got everything that it needs. And so I think it's actually been very helpful. But I need to get like, I need to get in the habit of doing that with every page, right? To get the feedback until I'm at the point where I'm like, oh, okay, I remember this needs to be better. Change button, text, do this. I'm not as much concerned about like formatting and things like that, but the actual content on the page, I feel like the feedback has been really good from AI.

[Tony]

Yeah, I mean, there's, there's a lot of things you can do. I. You know what's funny is I didn't really have like a whole bunch of prep to figure out what I'm doing for 2026 and usually I just kind of wing it.

[Jen]

Yeah.

[Tony]

I'm not like you. Like, you have like a plan. For the most part, mine is community. And then I want to do something with Bumblebee. I'm probably going to launch the YouTube channel. Like, what's funny about this is I have like 10 videos recorded for that already, but I never launched it. And I actually just went back and watched one of the videos the other day. I'm like, you know, since AI got a lot better, I think I can do these videos a lot better now, so. I know, I know. It's one of those things that once you start it, you got to keep going with it, Right? Yeah. And that's another thing. Like, do I want that on my plate?

[Jen]

Yeah.

[Tony]

Or yeah.

[Jen]

Yeah. So speaking of YouTube, you know, I soft launched a channel last month and.

[Tony]

You didn't tell me about this.

[Jen]

Yeah, the Taipei Channel.

[Tony]

Oh, I didn't know it was a YouTube. Like, long form.

[Jen]

Yeah, long form. Yeah. We do a video every week. And so one of the reasons why we soft launched it was because we really didn't know what people wanted, like the content wise. Like, we know what we wanted to create, but obviously we need to find the balance between what people want us to create and what YouTube likes.

[Tony]

So.

[Jen]

So that was launched, but now I feel like my focus for 2026 is really dialing in that channel and getting the content better. I think the content's good. The content's very good, but we can make it better. One of the things actually, this. We're actually filming this weekend, but we have Adam coming. Cause he's like, you know, the lighting just wasn't. We film in a studio. And of course he's like very picky, which I love. Cause I'm like, I'm never gonna be this picky, but you're gonna make me look better. But I think just kind of focusing in on those little details because we have the content creation down right? So, like, the next step is how do we improve on what we're doing? So basically to, you know, getting to the point where we have. I mean, right now I think we have 12 videos up. Maybe not 12, maybe 10. I think 12 are scheduled.

[Tony]

So by talking about this on the pod, does that mean you're hard launching it now?

[Jen]

I mean, you can. What is the channel type? I. Let me see what the YouTube name is. Hold on, let me.

[Tony]

Okay.

[Jen]

Because we have a different. I think the website's different from the YouTube. I guess it's hard. I mean, a hard launching by January. Yeah, for sure. I'm having a lot of fun with it. I'm having a lot of fun with writing the scripts. And you know, I, I, the thumbnail and title game need to be vastly improved, you know, so I feel like, you know, we're getting there, but it's, it's a process and I did not want to rush this mainly because I don't have like oodles of extra free time. Type a circle. Is the, if you type a circle. Yeah.

[Tony]

Okay.

[Jen]

So to me, I wanted to do this kind of as a slow burn to really get a good footing and make sure that we could keep up with it. Right. Because, you know, I do work with Liz on this and so, as you know, whenever you're working with someone, you both have to make sure you have the bandwidth to keep it going. Just recently we started really putting a lot ofShorts on YouTube because we have a ton of shorts and we're basically combining the shorts with shorts that we just recorded directly and then using, you know, opus clips to cut apart the long form videos, which is actually working better than I thought it would.

[Tony]

Okay.

[Jen]

But yeah, so, and actually Liz built an entire automation for our short form, which I told her. I was like, you're gonna have to come on another office hours for this because this is pretty cool.

[Tony]

What does it do?

[Jen]

Basically takes, I have to look up her whole text to me, basically it takes it from beginning to end and it's all basically automated. Minus I think the final, the final part of it using Zapier and I think she's using make, but I'm probably messing that up because I'm not. I haven't seen the full, the full build yet. That's this weekend. I get to see it. But anyway, my goal for that is really like getting the content where it needs to be, focusing on building that out and pushing it. Because as we've seen from like the shorts, people are like, we're getting like 7, 800 views on a short with, you know, basically no subscribers. So really getting that out there. And I think, you know, I don't, I don't want to say going all in on YouTube because it's not the only thing that I do, but definitely making it a much bigger focus and really focusing on the strategy of it for 2026.

[Tony]

I mean, the way I think about it now, like with, with AI, I think video is like the last bastion. Just recently there's been a lot of people like, opposed to like AI music But there's actually this group. I can't remember what the name of the group is now, but they. They've gotten, like, an insane number of downloads, and it's all AI, but the person who. Who's responsible for creating this person mixed, like, certain voices together. And it sounds really good.

[Jen]

Yeah.

[Tony]

Like, it's a song that I would listen to on my playlist. And that got me thinking to myself, if the song is good, then I'll listen to it. Whether it's a human.

[Jen]

Yeah. What does it matter? I mean, it was kind of like when. When synthesizers came out, right. In the 80s, and people were like, oh, it's not real music. It's like. Well, it is. It's just created differently.

[Tony]

So I was thinking, like, video will probably go that way too, right?

[Jen]

Yeah.

[Tony]

For entertainment. Like, if something is fun to watch and it's entertaining, doesn't matter if a human created or an AI created it. Right.

[Jen]

Yeah.

[Tony]

So what is the last bastion? Your personality online. Right. So that's the. That's the only thing that can't really be replicated.

[Jen]

Yeah. Which is why. Yeah. Which is why I want to focus on just tightening up the content. Right. Because I feel like that's. That's where we win. Right. We have better content, better information. It's more relatable, it's more logical. Whatever. Whatever the angle is that we're going for, that we hit on those angles. Because I agree, like, you can't. I mean, I'm watching Dana Michelle build all sorts of AI stuff for video, and it's pretty incredible. But at the same time, I know that, like, what Liz and I are doing, some of that just can't be replicated. Right. At this point. Who knows? It probably will be at. Someday.

[Tony]

Well, here's what I was thinking also, like, for Bumblebee, you know how I've long talked about, like, how I should not be the one creating videos for Bumblebee? Well, now I can have, like, an avatar do it. And. And who cares if it's not a real person or not? Because there's fake AI avatars right now out there where companies are paying them a lot of money to be to. To create videos about the brand.

[Jen]

Yeah.

[Tony]

And if you're the perspective. From the perspective of a brand, it doesn't matter if it's human or AI as long as it brings in sales.

[Jen]

Right.

[Tony]

Yeah. And I. I don't know, because it's. The Hadrian just released a new version, and it's way better.

[Jen]

Yeah.

[Tony]

Than the last one. Like, it's got the mannerisms and everything down. So why not just pump out scripts and be transparent that this is an AI.

[Jen]

Yeah.

[Tony]

Whatnot. And just see where that goes. Maybe that's the future.

[Jen]

Well, one of the things I like that you did and this was. This has now been a while since you did this was you basically took real reviews but had them presented by AI.

[Tony]

Right.

[Jen]

Didn't you do that with that lady? And I thought she was real and she wasn't real.

[Steve Chou]

Oh, yes, yes.

[Tony]

Yeah, I did that. Yeah.

[Jen]

Yeah. Because I think so. This is. So I think reviews are. Reviews from real customers are actually really important to your business. We try to use those in everything that we do. Right. But I think, you know, there's a difference between reading a review on a page or in a post or in a social media post, something like that, versus having someone talking about the product. And so when you use that review and gave it a voice. Right. And obviously the voice wasn't real, but the review was real. To me, that's actually really effective because I would much like. I think a lot of people, the way they consume content, listening to that or hearing it or watching it is better than just reading it for a lot of people. And so I would like that. You know, that's another thing I'd like to explore is like, how do we do this in a way that's authentic? Right. The content is correct. It's just the delivery is different. And so, you know, where's the line with that as far as what people will accept and not accept? I'm not sure. I think people will accept it as an avatar. I don't know.

[Tony]

I mean, it's already happening. There's all these avatars that have tons of followers. There's a handful of avatars right now where companies are paying millions of dollars actually to. To create videos. Yeah. And companies are making their own avatars. Yeah. Now too. So I. I mean, from a personal standpoint, like, I don't like this, but I mean, if. If it's already happening and it's. You're right. Like as bumblebee linens, do I care whether it's a human or an AI, as long as it's bringing me leads and sales. Right.

[Jen]

Yeah.

[Tony]

Well, I don't care.

[Jen]

I feel so. I feel like it. It just. It's also dependent on what you're talking about. So I. I follow. Not a ton, but I'm sure probably Jen does too. I follow some beauty influencers right. On TikTok or Instagram, wherever you and, you know, I'll watch them. Like, the big thing that I am like super into right now because I feel like I never get enough sleep is like what shrinks the bags under your eyes outside of surgery. Right. Like. Like, I want to know what. So I want to watch someone put the little things on their eyes and they get all shriveled up and then their puffiness is gone or they put the cream on. And like, to me, I don't want to see an AI of that. I want to see it on a human who's close to my age, you know. But I also feel like if you're talking about a purse and you can create an avatar, that's my height, my weight, similar to, you know, like in, like, this is what the purse looks like on a person. I don't care if you're real or not, because most models don't look real anyway. Right. They're not the representation of like, most of what the population looks like. So I feel like it's also like, very product dependent as far as, like, what I'm going to accept if I need to see a result, like how you, you know, lost weight or your hair grew thicker. I don't want to see fake hair. Right. I need to see someone's real head of hair. But when it's like, oh, how does this look on a person? Make it look as much like me as possible? Like, I want to know that.

[Tony]

Yeah. See, I actually got a lot of flack, you know, with the testimonial thing. I got a lot of flack when I presented that to people.

[Jen]

Interesting.

[Tony]

And I get the reaction. Right. That's not really that person saying that. It's a real testimonial. So I'm sure there's some moral dilemmas there. Yeah, right.

[Jen]

Yeah.

[Tony]

I don't know. I mean, if you run an ad with it, though, you have to disclose that it's AI generated now.

[Jen]

Yeah.

[Tony]

So.

[Jen]

Okay.

[Tony]

It's going to get there.

[Jen]

I know. So my last thing that I am thinking about, this is definitely not on the list yet, but I don't know if you've seen this, but Dana Michelle has been going live every day and basically building live. And I watch other people do this as well. Right. She's not. She's the one that a person I know personally doing it, but I've seen other creators doing this. I think this is fascinating. You know, she's still kind of, I think, working out some of the kinks of how it's broadcasting and what people can see. And things like that. But I think one, the live component is huge. Right. I don't think that's going away anytime soon. I think we know platforms give priority to these things. We know that people enjoy watching other people go live. My concern in my. In thinking about this is, like, what am I going to do live that I'm okay with people seeing, like, which I don't have to worry, like, because you can't do a lot of stuff with, like. I mean, I live a lot of my day in email. Right. You can't do a lot of email stuff live because you have to protect people's email addresses. Right. You can't be showing certain things on the screen. But I just find the live building so fascinating, to the point where I will watch live stuff that I don't care about. Like, or I'm like, I'm never going to do this, but I'm interested just to see the process. So that's one thing that I'm, like, been thinking a lot about the past couple weeks is like, okay, would this work for anything that I'm doing and is it worth my time? Right. Like, the two things. But to me, this is a fascinating. I don't want to say it's new. It's not super new, but I don't know. I'm very interested in it. I kind of want to play around with it. I just don't know how it will work for my business.

[Tony]

Yeah, I think that it can work. Like, I have to actually ask Dana Michelle how it's going. You probably know better than I do.

[Jen]

She's getting. I mean, she's using it to build channels.

[Steve Chou]

She had, like, several hundred people watching live.

[Jen]

Yes, yes. She's used to. She. And she's using it primarily to build her client base, build her community, build, you know, engagement. And it's working. Right. Like, it's doing all those things. It also, to me, like.

[Tony]

I don't.

[Jen]

Know how to say this right way. It feels very authentic as far as, like, if I'm hiring you, I know you know what you're doing because you're doing it in front of me. Yeah, right. Like, that's a huge, like, I don't know. It's your own testimonial, right? Because people are watching you do it. So. Yeah, I don't know. I mean, I would literally. You could. If you had a job site where people were like, you know, building a bathroom, I would totally watch a bathroom build. Right. Because obviously that's what I'm doing in my free Time is working on my house. But I don't know, I feel like this is something really cool that people have really kind of started doing far more than they used to. But I just don't know how it works for me.

[Tony]

I was just thinking I could do that really easily. I could just put up a website, like an online store live. Like, right now I have all these videos that teach it. But I guess there's something different about doing it live with an audience where they can ask questions.

[Jen]

Yes, yes. And see. So one of the things too, I think, is that I think it's good for people to see. I don't want to say the mistakes, but, like, you know, I was watching her, Dana Michelle, live the other day, and she had the. I didn't catch the beginning, but at the point that I tuned in, it was like, look like a stockbroker, like parachuting or paragliding in between, like a big city. Right. And she had put in a prompt and it was really bad. Right. Whatever the result was was like, oh, that's not what I wanted. And it was cool to see her, like, have to adjust. Like, what. What did I say wrong? What? You know, and so to me, that's where all the learning comes in. Right. For the people watching is like, oh, oh, yeah. I would have probably done the same thing. And now this is how you course correct. And this is the result. I don't know. I think it's fascinating. I feel like this is going to be a much bigger thing moving forward. I just don't know how to, like. I don't know how to harness the power yet.

[Tony]

Well, you can cook.

[Jen]

I can cook. Yes, that's true.

[Tony]

You can watch people. Like, that's 60 seconds in the microwave.

[Jen]

Yeah.

[Tony]

Shove the TV dinner in there and then serve it.

[Jen]

Yeah. Did I reheat somebody's coffee in the microwave today? Yes, I did. Yes, I did. I don't know. To me, it's like also, like, how much of this needs to be something that is actually a skill people can learn versus, like, this. Like, I remember I told you this. One of my kids used to go live and make sandwiches, right? And she would have like 500 people watching her make a sandwich. And you're like, I don't understand. And I was like, trust me, I don't understand either. So. So I don't know how much of this needs to be, like, just pure entertainment. Like, you're just literally making a sandwich and talking to people versus, like, Dana Michelle, who's actually people. If you Watched her stuff. You would learn how to build these AI Automate. You would learn how to do these, you know, animations.

[Tony]

Yeah.

[Jen]

In a. So I don't know, I feel like it's probably going to grow in both buckets. I don't know like where, where you should spend your time though.

[Tony]

There's so many things that I could do, but they wouldn't be interesting to most people. Like watch me code for an hour.

[Jen]

That I think, here's the thing, I think people would be into it. I really do. It sounds crazy, but I think people would be into it.

[Tony]

Really?

[Jen]

Yes, I do.

[Tony]

Okay.

[Jen]

I mean, yeah.

[Tony]

Well, how does that lead to. To money though? So you're just building an audience and a community.

[Jen]

Well, so for like Dana Michelle. So this is where I think this is. This has always been a way to build an audience. Dana Michelle has clients where she creates videos for them in their e commerce products. Right.

[Tony]

Okay, that's perfect. Like if you have a service based business.

[Jen]

Yes.

[Tony]

Get it.

[Jen]

Yes. So I would say for you, if you are building, let's just say you're putting together a basic E commerce like woocommerce type website. It makes sense because you sell a course on E commerce. We sell a course on content creation. If you went live and said this is my whole process for like thumbnail title description in YouTube. Because we talk a lot about YouTube in the course and video content. Like to me that all makes sense that way. Where I don't think it makes sense or where I can't find the connection is like if I'm making a peanut butter sandwich, how is that going to do anything other than just gain followers and you know, hopefully play the game of, you know, AdSense. Right. Which is to me not the, the best way to be doing things. But it's, I mean, people are still doing it. It's just not what I would probably recommend.

[Tony]

I mean, in a way it's similar to doing the lives that we do for the. The webinars that we do.

[Jen]

Right. Yeah.

[Tony]

Except this is just purely demonstration.

[Jen]

Yeah. Like I think about John in our class who has the lawn care business.

[Tony]

Yeah.

[Jen]

Right. I would, I would like have on the background. Totally. Like a yard getting done. Right. Because I love to see yard transformations. Right. Where it's like the grass is overgrown, there's leaves everywhere, you know, you trim up the trees. Like to me it's like if I watch this company like transform yards and I lived in that area, I'd probably hire them. Right. Because it's literally just a Camera. So I feel like there's, like, a lot of uses for this. I just don't know, like, for me in particular, like, where. Where it falls for services.

[Tony]

100.

[Jen]

Yeah.

[Tony]

And maybe when. If you sell products, I. I know you. You've wanted me.

[Jen]

I want you to embroider live.

[Tony]

Yeah.

[Jen]

I'm telling you, I think this would be huge because people, like, bottle stuff live. Or make candles live. Or, like, the pottery people that they go live and do their pottery. I don't know. I feel like you could do this for Bumblebee.

[Tony]

So boring. Like, you set it up and then you just. And then it stitches for, like, five minutes or whatever. And then.

[Jen]

Okay, I went to the Yingling. Was it Yingling? I think it was Yingling factory in Pennsylvania. And was it. I don't know. It doesn't really matter what the brand was. It was a beer bottling company. Right. And I could have watched the bottles on that assembly line for an hour easily. Right. Like, they circle, they get filled, they get the label slapped on the top is like. I was like, this is the best. This is the most entertaining thing I've done in a million years. Right? So I don't know. I think people do like that kind of stuff. Like, I watch. I mean, I love, like, going to factories. And I remember I went to the Cheeto factory once. I'm surprised I still eat Cheetos after seeing how Cheetos are made. But, like, you watch them dump, like, the puffs right into this, like, container that then gets sprayed with the cheese, Right? And then it's, like, all shaking around. At this point, I was like, I don't think I want to eat Cheetos anymore. And then it, like, spits out the cheesy Cheetos and then it drop. Then they get put in the bag, and then the bag gets sealed, and then this. Bags get. I don't know. That stuff's interesting. I think people watch it. I know it's crazy. And it's probably, like, not. Not, like, a good use of people's free time, but people are doing it.

[Tony]

Okay, I'll put it on my list. Maybe I can have my embroiderist on.

[Jen]

Yeah.

[Tony]

Just.

[Jen]

Yeah.

[Tony]

I'd have to get her permission, of course.

[Jen]

Yes. Yes. You do have a.

[Tony]

Have a camera on her, like, for the full day as she's sewing.

[Jen]

Yes.

[Tony]

That sounds like a nightmare.

[Jen]

Yes.

[Tony]

For her. I don't know. Okay. Well, yeah, I. I think for me, next year, the focus will be on community. For me, if you had to pick one thing. What's yours? YouTube speaking. Or YouTube for sure.

[Jen]

Getting that tightened up speaking feels like. Because I don't want to speak every week I feel like that can't be number one. I can't be the retu. Although she's killing it. But she is.

[Tony]

But she also. Every week she's speaking.

[Jen]

Yeah. So. All right. Well, all I can say is I'm excited about 2026. I think there's a ton of opportunity, I think there's a ton of potential and I think whatever you're thinking about doing, you can probably make it happen with all the new tools and technology that are out there.

[Steve Chou]

Hope you enjoyed this episode. For more information and resources, go over to mywifecruiterjob.com episode 620. And once again, tickets to Seller Summit 2026 are now on sale over at sellersummit.com so if you want to hang out in person in a small intimate setting, develop real relationships with like minded entrepreneurs and learn a ton, then come to my event. Go over to sellersummit.com.