Shed & Shine â Duo Episode: AI and the True Self
00:00:00 - 00:00:08
Gino Wickman
You know what to do, so please, please, please stop doing what everybody tells you to do. Stop listening. Listen to yourself.
00:00:21 - 00:00:29
Rob Dube
Hello everyone, my name is Rob Dube, and I am here with Gino Wickman. Gino, what's happening?
00:00:29 - 00:00:34
Gino Wickman
Beep boop boop boop, beep boop boop. That's a little indicator of what we're about to talk about.
00:00:34 - 00:00:35
Rob Dube
A computer or something?
00:00:35 - 00:00:36
Gino Wickman
Oh yeah.
00:00:36 - 00:00:36
Rob Dube
Is that what that is?
00:00:37 - 00:00:40
Gino Wickman
You want to. Or is that R2-D2?
00:00:40 - 00:00:49
Rob Dube
I know, I know. I had to beg you to do this one. We'll see how it goes. Maybe it won't see the light of day. We have no idea.
00:00:49 - 00:00:50
Gino Wickman
We're going to find out.
00:00:50 - 00:01:23
Rob Dube
We're talking about AI, everybody's favorite topic. We haven't talked about it yet in all of our Shed and Shine podcast episodes, so I guess we're jumping on the bandwagon here. But it's for good reason, and it fits with shedding and shining because it's a part of our everyday life at this point, like it or not. You're all using it. I know you are, except for Gino. And you know what I've been thinking about and playing around with and talking to people about is whether or not it may have a role in helping people actually free their True Selves.
00:01:24 - 00:01:50
Rob Dube
So let me just share my experience in working with AI. So far, it's been pretty positive. It's helping me from a practical standpoint. I'm more efficient, I feel like. It's freeing up time for some deeper practices for me, like my meditation practice and deeper self-inquiry, more time with some of my guides. So in that way, it's helping me free my True Self, but maybe not directly as a partner.
00:01:51 - 00:02:22
Rob Dube
Now, when I have a basic question or I want to understand something about freeing the True Self, I might ask it, and I have. But there's an important distinction for me when I'm using AI. I'm comfortable asking it for information, maybe for perspective or to help organize my thoughts, but I'm not looking to it for deeper answers about who I am, what's happening within me, or what my True Self might be trying to reveal. But maybe I should. I have no idea. Does anybody know out there?
00:02:24 - 00:02:44
Rob Dube
It got me wondering whether AI can support the process of looking inward, but without maybe becoming a substitute for the inner work that we all seem to have to do, I think, or the human relationships that help us go deeper, I think. Gino, do you have anything coming up?
00:02:45 - 00:02:46
Gino Wickman
Well, I have seven things coming up.
00:02:47 - 00:02:47
Rob Dube
What?
00:02:48 - 00:03:10
Gino Wickman
So what's great about this is, again, I want to say this to the audience. Rob and I do no preparation for these, and all he tells me is the topics he wants to talk about, and then we launch in. And when he told me the other day he wants to do AI, I'm like, "Oh God, please, let's not do this." And so again, I'm going to share seven things as efficiently as I can. They are all very, very important to create context here.
00:03:11 - 00:03:51
Gino Wickman
So I did a fireside chat talk in Dallas with 600 people in the audience, and it's a neat fireside chat. And the guy asked me the question that everybody's asking. "So Gino, what's your take on AI?" Everybody's asking everybody this, not just me. And so my answer started by saying, I said last night when I was thinking about this fireside chat and preparing, I said to myself over and over, "Please don't ask me about AI. Please don't ask me about AI. Please don't ask me about AI." And so that's how I feel right now. But I'm going to share my two cents. And this is from a no tech, low tech guy. And I prefaced this with, "I don't know much, okay? I don't know much."
00:03:52 - 00:04:54
Gino Wickman
But ironically, after saying all that, I am in the middle of writing an AI book. It's a free eBook, short and sweet, 60 pages long, with Tyler Smith, my tech guy for the last 30 years, who's an AI lunatic. I walked into his office and everything in his life runs on AI. He's got six agents doing everything. It's the craziest thing you've ever seen. So this book that we're writing, which I am loving, is about 95% complete. But what we're doing is I'm the human side, Tyler's the tech side. So in this conversation, I'm just going to tell you my human side perspective. And what you have is this great conversation and debate that Tyler and I are having. And it's really fun because the book is written by three people: me, Tyler, and our AI co-author. So it's so much fun watching what she does. She has a name. She'll be on the cover.
00:04:54 - 00:05:24
Gino Wickman
But the fundamental premise is it is all about humans and human energy. When the human energy is strong, so EOS is a system for managing human energy. When those humans are all in sync and rowing in the same direction, technology works. If they're not, no technology solves that. So for anybody that thinks AI is going to be the savior that saves a dysfunctional company, that's not going to be the case. So what's scary is people thinking it's going to be the end all, be all.
00:05:24 - 00:05:52
Gino Wickman
And then I love Jim Collins' quote. He calls them technology accelerators. Never use technology for technology's sake, only use it to accelerate. So as long as we're using it to accelerate the business, accelerate our lives, I love how we're going to shift to how to use it for ourselves with Shine content to truly free our True Selves. And I'm getting there, but that's the point I'm making. Even with you as an entity, use it to accelerate what you're trying to accomplish. Don't use it for the sake of using it.
00:05:52 - 00:06:07
Gino Wickman
A couple more points. So the human energy, the soul of the company is vital. So I described this formula 15 years ago. Your core values plus your core focus equals the soul of the company. And so it's all about protecting the soul, all about protecting your soul.
00:06:08 - 00:06:44
Gino Wickman
My prediction for business, then we'll zero in on the human, is that there's still going to be human leadership teams at the helm of every organization. It's still going to require humans. I don't see robots and AI taking over everything anytime soon. And I'm willing to be wrong and get egg on my face for predicting this wrong. However, each one of those leaders are going to have AI agents assisting them, and there will be fewer people in each one of those departments. Companies are going to get smaller, and there's a prediction we're going to see the first one-person billion-dollar company as a result of AI someday. So there's some of the wacky, crazy thoughts.
00:06:45 - 00:07:13
Gino Wickman
Now, how do you use it for the Shine content and to free yourself? This just hit me as you were talking, but what I've done is I don't use a lot of AI yet because I only use it where I see the value, but I have dumped my entire brain into AI, and I get to ask it questions that would be my answers because every book, every video, every article, everything I've ever said, done, created is now in my AI brain, and I can ask it questions.
00:07:13 - 00:07:59
Gino Wickman
The thought I had was we're teaching our audience how to be still, and one of the stillness practices is journaling. So this thought is 30 minutes a day, journal into your AI. So it's different because I believe in writing, but this is different. Talk into your AI every day for 5 to 30 minutes. Tell it your philosophies, your beliefs, your fears, your worries, your challenges, your ideas, your dreams, everything going on every day, 5 to 30 minutes a day. A year later, your AI is going to know you better than you know you, and you can just simply ask it, "What should I work on this week to be closer to my soul?" So anyway, there's a thought that you prompted by forcing me to have this conversation.
00:08:00 - 00:08:25
Rob Dube
I love it. And you're bringing up something that I wanted to share, and it was an experiment that I've been doing, and I am enjoying it, actually. So I have had my dreams analyzed for quite some time now, and I work with two people who I do that with. And one said to me, "Hey, did you happen to put your dream in AI yet?"
00:08:25 - 00:08:25
Gino Wickman
So good.
00:08:25 - 00:08:38
Rob Dube
And I said, "No, no, I don't want to do that." And she said, "No, go ahead and do it." And so I started doing it. And I have a lot of dreams, so it has all the dreams now.
00:08:39 - 00:08:57
Rob Dube
And so it's helping me see patterns that are happening over certain periods of time. So obviously, these are things that are going on at this moment in my life, and there's a pattern for a week or two in the dreams, and it's helping me uncover things.
00:08:58 - 00:09:07
Rob Dube
And then what I'm doing, this is where I bring in the human element. I don't know, should I, should I not? Again, I don't know. It's just what I'm drawn to. I feel like that's useful for me.
00:09:07 - 00:09:18
Rob Dube
So I go to the human and I say, "Hey, here's some dreams. Let's go over them." And then I kind of look over at AI, and I've got to tell you, it's been pretty close, pretty spot on. Yeah, big time. And it just picks up on a lot of subtleties somehow, who knows how. But it does. And so that's one way that I've been using it and experimenting with it.
00:09:36 - 00:09:58
Rob Dube
Now, I've had some interaction with people who have shared some things with me, and they're really just relying on AI. One person shared with me they were going through a time of sadness, and this person shared with me, "I'm talking into AI, and I have been for the last month to work through this sadness."
00:09:59 - 00:10:18
Rob Dube
Now, again, I don't know anything, so this is just an opinion. I thought, "Wow, is that helping him? Or are there some subtleties that a human, like maybe a therapist or a guide or somebody, might help bring out that might be getting lost in translation?"
00:10:18 - 00:10:33
Rob Dube
Are you worried about sharing this with somebody? Do you not want to take the time to do it? Because AI's fast, and you're going to a therapist, you have to sit there for at least an hour. So anyway, here are some things. What's coming up for you as I speak?
00:10:34 - 00:10:43
Gino Wickman
Oh, I just love that dream thing. That's gold right there. Because think about it, I'm right now walking the earth. There are at least 10 people in America analyzing their dreams right now.
00:10:43 - 00:10:57
Gino Wickman
So to put all that in AI every day, because the challenge is you've got to try and remember it when you wake up. You've got to write it. You can't write fast enough to remember it. It disappears in 10 minutes out of your brain. And then you've got to go back through 1,000 pages of notes to put it all together.
00:10:57 - 00:10:58
Rob Dube
That's exactly what I would do.
00:10:58 - 00:11:02
Gino Wickman
Incredible. So do that for a year. You're going to know exactly what your dreams are trying to tell you.
00:11:03 - 00:11:15
Rob Dube
What your dreams are trying to tell you, better said. So here's what it prompted. This thought of, so we've got the AI journal, we've got the dreams, you're saying everything in it every day. It's getting to know exactly who you are.
00:11:15 - 00:11:27
Gino Wickman
I realized that what it can then probably do is tell you your profile on every profiling tool that exists on the planet. Here's your Kolbe, here's your Myers-Briggs. I mean, it's just boom.
00:11:27 - 00:11:27
Rob Dube
It's insane.
00:11:28 - 00:11:46
Gino Wickman
So sorry, all you profiling companies out there. That may put you out of business, but that's very likely. The other thing I want to say is what I've learned is AI right now gets it to about 80%. And that's just a number I'm picking out of the air, but it's probably pretty accurate. And I want to tie that to an example, and it's writing a book, okay?
00:11:46 - 00:12:15
Gino Wickman
So I've now watched AI write three books. And in every case, it gets it to about 80%. It can't get to 81%. When it crosses the 80% mark, it is a disaster. So in this book that Tyler and I are writing about AI, ironically, it was a masterpiece. And then I gave Tyler my next round of edits. He fed those in, told AI, and tried to get it to push it, and it pushed it, and it was illegible. The entire book was destroyed.
00:12:16 - 00:12:37
Gino Wickman
So I think that's the case with anything you do with AI right now. So be careful that making it the end all, be all, having it direct your life and tell you who you are might be a little dangerous, but I think it will get it 80% right. So that's just a little cautionary tale. We're coming very soon that they might get it 100% right in a book.
00:12:37 - 00:12:55
Gino Wickman
But also understand, though, the human is feeding it the information. It's writing your book. It's creating your persona. You're feeding it. And what you feed it, what I feed it, it's different than any other human being on the planet and how they're going to say it. So hopefully that makes sense.
00:12:55 - 00:13:29
Gino Wickman
And then the last thing is talk your 10 Disciplines into your AI. So you're talking to it every day, right? And so now it's starting to get to know you. Also say, go through every Discipline and say, "Hey, AI agent, whatever you named it, here are the 10 Disciplines I want to live by. Here are the 10 Disciplines. Here's what they mean to me. Here's my 100%. Here's my time off. Here's the best I know myself. Here's my 10-year thinking. Here's my this. Here's my that. Help me live by these every single day and keep nudging me in the right direction." That might be kind of cool.
00:13:29 - 00:13:31
Rob Dube
That's really good. I love that. Where did that come from?
00:13:32 - 00:13:36
Gino Wickman
It comes from nowhere, which means it came from somewhere.
00:13:36 - 00:13:36
Rob Dube
The database. The database, yes.
00:13:36 - 00:14:00
Rob Dube
So I wanted to share this with everyone, and you can do a quick search on this or AI it. But research, they've done research on this, on people utilizing this in therapeutic ways. And that research has shown that conventional AI can help people reflect on emotions, plan life goals, and practice coping skills, but it has limits compared to human relationships.
00:14:01 - 00:14:20
Rob Dube
Studies on AI for grief support, that was just an example I asked it about, like grief bots. Apparently, there are grief bots and grief chatbots. They highlight potential benefits for tracking and expressing feelings, but they also raise ethical and emotional concerns, so be aware out there.
00:14:21 - 00:14:32
Rob Dube
And experts recommend using AI as a supplementary tool, not a replacement for professional support or real-life connections. So let me ask you what came up for you.
00:14:32 - 00:14:55
Gino Wickman
Yeah, that one's a really big one because this is the thing we don't know is going to happen. Is evil going to win or is good going to win with AI? Because it's a coin toss right now, and that's what I strongly believe. And I believe it's going to be a mess for the next five years, and it's going to be messy, and we're going to figure it out. And I believe good is going to win, but evil may win for a little while.
00:14:55 - 00:15:25
Gino Wickman
And so that's really scary because all of a sudden, if you are trusting your AI 100%, that's really, really dangerous. And you're using it as a companion, and asking it to advise you on mental health issues, that's scary. And everything you said covers what I'm saying there, but there are horror stories out there where I think there are people that have now made life-altering decisions based on their AI's advice. And so this is where, I'm going to try not to get on a soapbox.
00:15:25 - 00:15:40
Gino Wickman
8.5 billion people. You need to have agency. Don't let anybody run your life. Don't let anybody tell you what to do. Stop listening to everyone else. Listen to your soul. You know what to do. You know what to do.
00:15:40 - 00:16:08
Gino Wickman
So please, please, please stop doing what everybody tells you to do. Stop listening. Listen to yourself. I say that because there's so much damage being done by following like sheep. Be your own person. Make your own decisions. And use AI as one of many tools in your life that free you up to be a much better person. Free your True Self and let your freak flag fly.
00:16:09 - 00:16:11
Rob Dube
Gino, that's all we have time for, my friend.
00:16:15 - 00:16:18
Rob Dube
All right, everybody, do you have any last words?
00:16:18 - 00:16:22
Gino Wickman
I have nothing else to say. I've said too much. I've said too much this time.
00:16:23 - 00:16:31
Rob Dube
All right, everyone, thanks again, as always, for joining us, and we will see you next time. In the meantime, stay focused and much love.
00:16:32 - 00:16:52
Gino Wickman
Thank you so much for listening to this podcast episode. I hope you are getting so much value out of it. Make sure you're subscribed so you never miss a week. And if you want to go beyond listening and actually live this, check out the True Self Mastermind in the show notes. We'll see you next time. Stay focused and much love.
