AI Made simple with carmen

Carmen Skipworth
  • 5.0 (1)
  • Business
  • Updated Weekly

AI Made Simple is the podcast for emerging leaders and entrepreneurs who know AI matters, but feel overwhelmed by the noise. Hosted by Carmen Skipworth, this show cuts through fear-based headlines, technical jargon, and fluffy inspiration to bring you clear, practical, human-led conversations about artificial intelligence. You don't need to be technical. You don't need to move at tech speed. And you don't need to feel behind. Each episode helps you understand AI in a way that feels calm, accessible, and actionable, so you can confidently partner with it in your life and business. This isn't about AI replacing humans. It's about humans leading with clarity while using AI as a powerful ally. If you're ready to stop feeling overwhelmed and start feeling equipped, you're in the right place. AI Made Simple. Human-Led. AI-Powered.

  1. 3d ago

    Episode 017: Money Is Like Air: Ken Honda on Trust, Ikigai and the Age of AI

    What if money was like air? In this episode of AI Made Simple, Carmen Skipworth sits down with Ken Honda — the global best-selling author of Happy Money, known in Japan as the Zen Millionaire — who has sold over nine million books since 2001 and started learning English at fifty. Ken explains why AI has not made us any smarter with money, the difference between money IQ and money EQ, and why the real fear behind every money worry is a trust issue with life. He compares AI to the cars that replaced horse carriages, shares why Japan has no allergy to AI while the West is emotionally charged about it, and reveals how he writes a book across five computers at once. Plus the three relationships you can have with money, and why the distance between you and happiness is exactly the same as a billionaire’s. Human-Led. AI-Powered. HOST Carmen Skipworth GUEST Ken Honda — global best-selling author who has sold over nine million copies of his books worldwide since 2001, with more than 120 books published. His best-known book, Happy Money: The Japanese Art of Making Peace with Your Money, has been translated into multiple languages. Known in Japan as the Zen Millionaire, he semi-retired at 29 to raise his daughter and teaches people to heal their relationship with money and live their purpose. He is featured in the film Pillars of Power. SUMMARY Ken tells Carmen that AI changes nothing about healing your relationship with money, because scams and comparison still win if your money EQ is low. He teaches two skills: chase what you want, and be satisfied with what you have. On jobs, he says AI will do what cars did to the horse carriage, and the answer is finding your ikigai and building a life around your gifts. He argues that real security lives in relationships, not bank balances, that worry is interest paid on a debt you never borrowed, and that AI simply amplifies who you already are. MAIN TOPICS Money IQ and money EQ Scarcity, trust and money as air AI, jobs and finding your ikigai Why Japan trusts AI and the West fears it The three relationships with money AI as an amplifier of creativity INTRIGUING QUOTES “I can be joyful with so much and I can be so peaceful with so little.” — Ken Honda “It’s not about money. It’s the trust issue with life.” — Ken Honda “We are paying the debt of the interest we never even borrowed.” — Ken Honda “AI is a tool to amplify you.” — Ken Honda KEY MOMENTS [01:04] Meet Ken Honda [02:44] Does AI change your relationship with money? [03:36] Money IQ and money EQ [05:07] The hunter and the art of enough [08:09] Lower the bar for happiness [09:41] Horse carriages, Waymo and the jobs AI takes [11:30] Finding your ikigai [13:26] Learning English at fifty [14:36] Money containers in Japan and North America [18:23] Scarcity, and why money is like air [22:32] Fifty-two friends, fifty-two weeks [27:06] Why Japan has no allergy to AI [32:41] Interest on a debt you never borrowed [35:12] The three relationships with money [38:56] Playing the cards you were dealt [42:27] Five computers, one book [46:34] Find your tribe, build your community NOTABLE RESOURCES Happy Money: The Japanese Art of Making Peace with Your Money by Ken Honda Ken Honda — https://kenhonda.com/ Pillars of Power — https://thepillarsofpower.com/ ChatGPT Claude Gemini Waymo CONNECT Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/share/g/1FXihmKLqS/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61590720415359 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/leadwithcarmen/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@LeadwithCarmen Apply to be a guest on AI Made Simple: https://www.latpn.com/ai-made-simple-podcast-booking

    Episode 017: Money Is Like Air: Ken Honda on Trust, Ikigai and the Age of AI

  2. Sep 29

    Episode 016: The Home and Ten More: Martha Pino on AI, Robots and Generational Wealth

    Why not have the home and ten more? In this episode of AI Made Simple, Carmen Skipworth sits down with Martha Pino — entrepreneur, real estate developer, international best-selling author and the visionary behind Viamar Homes — who left Cuba with nothing but her childhood pictures and has spent more than 30 years in real estate. Martha breaks news on the show: Viamar Robotics, a new division bringing humanoid robots into the home to give families their time back. She explains why she treats AI as a business partner rather than a tool, how one AI question about an access road stopped her from making a multi-million dollar mistake on a land deal, and why owning the home you live in is not the same as building generational wealth. Plus the freedom number most people never talk about, and why she believes the future is going to look fantastic. Human-Led. AI-Powered. HOSTCarmen Skipworth GUESTMartha Pino — entrepreneur, real estate developer, international best-selling author and educator. Born and raised in Cuba, she has more than 30 years in real estate and founded Viamar Homes with her partner Bianca, a Southwest Florida development company focused on new construction, investment and generational wealth. She is the creator of Tu Casa en Lehigh, a community platform educating Spanish-speaking families across Lehigh Acres, the founder of Viamar Robotics, and the author of The Art of Creating New Real Estate for Profit and Purpose. SUMMARYMartha tells Carmen how Viamar Homes grew from a 2020 move out of Miami into Tu Casa en Lehigh, a community teaching families how to create, own and keep assets. Now she is adding robots: a mower that cuts the grass while you drink your coffee, and a humanoid that learns your floor plan, folds the laundry and brings an elderly parent their three o’clock pill. On AI, she uses ChatGPT as a partner that refines and expands her ideas into systems, and shows how it helps buyers do their homework, dig through zoning and county records, and walk into a deal educated. She closes on jobs, the freedom number and robots that move house with you. MAIN TOPICSViamar Homes, Tu Casa en Lehigh and Viamar RoboticsRobots in the home: giving families their time backGenerational wealth and the freedom numberAI as a business partner, not just a toolAI for buyers, due diligence and zoningRobots, jobs and the next ten years INTRIGUING QUOTES"Why not have the home and ten more?" — Martha Pino"It is a tool, but it’s also a partner." — Martha Pino"What if in those ten years you move around but you own then fifty doors, a hundred doors? That changes everything." — Martha Pino"It’s gonna look fantastic." — Martha Pino KEY MOMENTS[01:04] Meet Martha Pino[02:42] Viamar Homes, Tu Casa en Lehigh and a first look at Viamar Robotics[05:24] A Roomba for your grass[06:53] A humanoid that learns your floor plan[10:53] Leaving Cuba with only childhood pictures[13:51] AI as a business partner[15:21] The Art of Creating New Real Estate for Profit and Purpose[16:26] The home and ten more[19:12] The freedom number[21:13] How AI changes the way buyers search[24:58] The access road that would have cost millions[27:04] Robots, jobs and the displacement concern[32:13] A robot for any home, retrained when you move NOTABLE RESOURCESChatGPTClaudeGammaRedfin and ZillowThe Art of Creating New Real Estate for Profit and Purpose by Martha PinoTu Casa en LehighViamar Homes — https://viamarnewhomes.wordpress.com/Viamar Homes and Viamar Robotics on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook and YouTube CONNECTFacebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/share/g/1FXihmKLqS/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61590720415359Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/leadwithcarmen/YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@LeadwithCarmenApply to be a guest on AI Made Simple: https://www.latpn.com/ai-made-simple-podcast-booking

    Episode 016: The Home and Ten More: Martha Pino on AI, Robots and Generational Wealth

  3. Sep 22

    Episode 015 - Be Terrified, Just Don't Sit There: Peter Swain on AI and the Job Ladder

    He downloaded the ChatGPT beta on day two. In this episode of AI Made Simple, Carmen Skipworth sits down with Peter Swain — founder and CEO of Peter Swain Inc. — who started coding at six, was a lead developer on the UK version of Yelp and held the 32nd listing on Yahoo in 1995. Peter does not sell comfort. Every technology before this one helped a human do the job better, cheaper, quicker, faster. This one does the job. He walks Carmen through the first order consequence everyone loves, the second order consequence nobody argues with, and what happens to the career ladder when the bottom rung is pulled out. He explains why his own headcount dropped by a third while his payroll doubled, how a single testimonial travels through his agents without a human touching it, why the real obstacle is people and not technology, and the question he asked his granddad about the moon landing that put him in the middle of all this. Be terrified. Just do not sit there. Human-Led. AI-Powered. HOSTCarmen Skipworth GUESTPeter Swain — founder and CEO of Peter Swain Inc., an AI strategist and systems builder who helps entrepreneurs and business owners use AI to simplify their marketing and scale their operations. He started coding at six, was one of the lead developers on the UK version of Yelp and held the 32nd listing on Yahoo in 1995. He downloaded the ChatGPT beta on day two. He runs the Clubhouse and Momentum programs, advises at enterprise level on AI guardrails, and is a father of two. SUMMARYPeter tells Carmen the logical response to AI is terror, and that sitting in it is the one move that guarantees you lose. He takes the disruption apart in layers. The robot doing your dishes is wonderful, right up until nobody buys a dishwasher and the people who build them have nowhere to go. New roles are coming, but the workers being displaced cannot be cross trained into them, and graduate hiring is already down while the sixty year old with the network keeps his seat. Then he turns to what works. Engineer the back end and spend the savings on humans who care. Agentify a whole job rather than a single task. Set guardrails as a scoring system, not a rulebook the technology will outrun. MAIN TOPICSFirst order and second order consequencesWho gets displaced, and the vanishing first rungHeadcount down a third, payroll doubledAgentifying a job instead of automating a taskGuardrails, scoring systems and shadow AICheerleader or sparring partner INTRIGUING QUOTES"AI at its core is about replacing humans doing the job entirely." — Peter Swain"You have to be very hardworking to be very lazy." — Peter Swain"The biggest problem in this as a technology space is not the technology, it’s the humans." — Peter Swain"I don’t want the orchestra playing on the Titanic as I sail into an iceberg." — Peter Swain KEY MOMENTS[01:03] Meet Peter Swain: day two of the ChatGPT beta[03:51] The mission statement, and the granddad at the pub[06:50] The robot, the dishwasher and the second order consequence[08:24] New jobs nobody displaced can take[10:10] Be terrified. Just do not sit there.[13:32] Headcount down a third, payroll doubled[14:54] One testimonial, hundreds of steps, no humans[16:21] Hardworking enough to be lazy[20:33] Ethics, Lookalike Audiences and the line that moved[22:03] Guardrails, scoring systems and shadow AI[24:04] Why the workforce has no reason to help[31:50] Four pieces of advice, starting with fifteen minutes a day[34:22] Cheerleader or sparring partner NOTABLE RESOURCESChatGPTClaudeGrok, Gemini, DeepSeek, Llama and QwenClubhouse — $49 a month, peterswain.comMomentum CONNECTFacebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/share/g/1FXihmKLqS/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61590720415359Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/leadwithcarmen/YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@LeadwithCarmenApply to be a guest on AI Made Simple: https://www.latpn.com/ai-made-simple-podcast-booking

    Episode 015 - Be Terrified, Just Don't Sit There: Peter Swain on AI and the Job Ladder

  4. Sep 15

    Episode 014 - Get in Front of Your Ugly: Dr. JayR McIntyre on AI, the Pivot and Choosing You

    Judge me. Google me. You will find it. In this episode of AI Made Simple, Carmen Skipworth sits down with Dr. JayR McIntyre — the Hood Motivator — a U.S. Army combat veteran, Bronze Star recipient, motivational speaker, entrepreneur and leadership coach who decided to tell the hardest parts of his story before anyone else could. JayR keeps his AI stack deliberately small, and he is clear about why: AI carries the message further, but he is the content. He talks through Little Hood Motivators, the children’s cartoon he is launching in January 2027 to help kids turn grief, anxiety and adversity into a superpower, and the business lessons behind his book The Power of the Pivot. Plus how he uses AI to forecast for companies without cutting their people, why he does not believe AI is coming for your job, and the Motivator’s Creed he reads in the mirror every morning. Human-Led. AI-Powered. HOSTCarmen Skipworth GUESTDr. JayR McIntyre — known as the Hood Motivator, a U.S. Army combat veteran and Bronze Star recipient who served 14 years in the military with three combat deployments to Iraq. A motivational speaker, entrepreneur of 20 years, leadership coach and Scrum Master, he holds an MBA and is completing his doctorate in business. Author of The Power of the Pivot, creator of the Little Hood Motivators cartoon, and part of the Los Angeles Tribune family. SUMMARYJayR tells Carmen that anyone can pick up a mic, but pushing a brand starts with believing in yourself and telling the ugly parts of your story first. On AI, he says the first AI is us. He sticks to ChatGPT, uses tools to cut his clips, and trashes anything that does not sound like him. He walks through Little Hood Motivators, inspired by watching his youngest daughter watch cartoons, and the loss that drives it. For businesses, he explains when and how to pivot, how AI can project realistic 30, 60 and 90 day forecasts, and why upskilling beats layoffs. He closes on idle time, consistency, and the politics of who gets chosen. MAIN TOPICSGetting in front of your ugly and owning your storyAI as a messenger: you are the contentLittle Hood Motivators and mental health for kidsThe Power of the Pivot for businessesAI forecasting, upskilling and keeping your peopleJust get started: idle time, consistency and choosing you INTRIGUING QUOTES"I’m gonna get in front of my ugly and I’m gonna tell you exactly who I am." — Dr. JayR McIntyre"When you meet me, I am the content." — Dr. JayR McIntyre"Our biggest enemy right now is idle time." — Dr. JayR McIntyre"They still won’t choose you, but if you choose you every day, that’s all that matters." — Dr. JayR McIntyre KEY MOMENTS[01:04] Meet Dr. JayR McIntyre: the Hood Motivator[02:22] Telling the hard parts of your story first[04:55] The first AI is us[07:18] Keeping the AI stack minimal, and trashing what isn’t him[08:52] Little Hood Motivators, dropping January 2027[15:29] The Power of the Pivot[18:26] AI forecasting and keeping the employees[20:39] Is AI taking jobs? A place for both[23:33] Just get started: idle time is the enemy[25:01] The Motivator’s Creed[27:49] The politics of being chosen NOTABLE RESOURCESChatGPTThe Power of the Pivot by Dr. JayR McIntyreLittle Hood Motivators cartoonAI Scrum Master certificationThree Feet from GoldKick — the Hood MotivatorThe Hood Motivator on Instagram, YouTube and TikTok CONNECTFacebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/share/g/1FXihmKLqS/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61590720415359Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/leadwithcarmen/YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@LeadwithCarmenApply to be a guest on AI Made Simple: https://www.latpn.com/ai-made-simple-podcast-booking

    Episode 014 - Get in Front of Your Ugly: Dr. JayR McIntyre on AI, the Pivot and Choosing You

  5. Sep 8

    Episode 013 - No Breath, No Soul, No Prayer: Justine Reiss on the Voice AI Can't Copy

    It does not breathe. It does not have a soul and it cannot pray. In this episode of AI Made Simple, Carmen Skipworth sits down with Justine Reiss — the Vocal Igniter — a multi-award-winning voiceover artist, audiobook narrator and creator of the Claim Your Voice movement, who has spent more than 25 years teaching CEOs, entrepreneurs, sales teams, authors and speakers to connect their inside voice to their outside voice. Justine is clear about where AI belongs and where it does not. She uses it daily for Reel scripts, email sequences and course creation, and she will not hand it a book. She explains the third option most authors never hear about, why clients routinely spend more money fixing an AI narration than a human would have cost, and what happened the day an AI bot rang her about a webinar. Plus the framework underneath all of it: visualize, vocalize, monetize. Human-Led. AI-Powered. HOSTCarmen Skipworth GUESTJustine Reiss — known as the Vocal Igniter, a multi-award-winning voiceover artist, actress, bestselling author and vocal empowerment coach. Her voice has carried national campaigns for Starbucks, Toshiba and Mitsubishi, and she has narrated audiobooks including How to Make a Life and Cycle of Lives. Creator of the Claim Your Voice movement and masterclass, host of the Claim Your Voice Pod, certified in transformational meditation, and a humanitarian working with women in Kenya and Tanzania. SUMMARYJustine tells Carmen that people keep asking how to find their voice, and the question is wrong: it was never out there to find, you claim it or reclaim it. She takes apart what actually moves an audience, and it is not pitch or polish. It is whether the speaker feels what they are saying, which is why one teacher lit you up and another had you watching the clock. On AI she draws a hard line and holds it. An AI voice can sound more real while never being real: no emotions, no breath, no soul. For authors weighing narrating their own book against handing it to a machine, she says that is a false choice, and walks through the third option. Then she flips it and lists everything she does use AI for. MAIN TOPICSClaiming your voice, not finding itWhere the voice got shut down, and children seen but not heardAI voices: sounding real versus being realThe third option for authors nobody tells them aboutWhat Justine does use AI for, and training it to sound like her INTRIGUING QUOTES"Your voice isn’t out there, you don’t need to find it. You need to claim it or reclaim it." — Justine Reiss"It does not have emotions. It does not breathe. It does not have a soul and it cannot pray." — Justine Reiss"I don’t care how good the machine sounds, give it to a human being." — Justine Reiss"You must have some kind of AI. We must. We absolutely must." — Justine Reiss KEY MOMENTS[01:44] Meet Justine Reiss: the Vocal Igniter, and claiming your voice[11:34] Turning a monologue into a dialogue[14:24] Children seen and not heard, and where the voice shuts down[17:02] It cannot breathe, it has no soul, and it cannot pray[17:39] The third option for authors, and the ACX back end[22:42] The day an AI bot called about the webinar[27:32] What Justine actually uses AI for, and training it in her voice[31:47] Trust Me: The False Prophet, and giving women back a voice NOTABLE RESOURCESChatGPTClaudeSintraACX, Audible’s audiobook exchangeHow to Make a Life by Florence Reiss KrautTrust Me: The False Prophet on NetflixThe Audiobooks Unlocked frameworkClaim Your Voice masterclass — empoweredvoicecoach.comClaim Your Voice PodJustine Reiss — @justinereiss on Instagram CONNECTFacebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/share/g/1FXihmKLqS/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61590720415359Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/leadwithcarmen/YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@LeadwithCarmenApply to be a guest on AI Mad

    Episode 013 - No Breath, No Soul, No Prayer: Justine Reiss on the Voice AI Can't Copy

  6. Aug 25

    Episode 012 - Auto-Magical: Two Marines, Two AIs, One Book with Mike Wish and Buddy Rushing

    Two Marines sat down to rewrite a hundred-year-old book and finished it in four hours. In this episode of AI Made Simple, Carmen Skipworth sits down with Mike Wish and Buddy Rushing — co-founders of White Feather AI, teaching veterans, first responders and business owners to actually use AI. They met at a Naval Academy career conference where Buddy was running what he calls an anti-job fair. Then they took Wallace Wattles' The Science of Getting Rich, opened a shared screen with their two personal AIs, Maverick and Ender, and watched the book write itself. Buddy explains why most people get "pretty decently dressed up garbage" out of ChatGPT and the three steps that fix it. Mike explains why he almost never uses a special prompt. Human-Led. AI-Powered. HOST Carmen Skipworth GUESTS Mike Wish — co-founder of White Feather AI, an educator and systems builder who turns complex ideas into frameworks that work under pressure. A Naval Academy graduate who ran a math and physics tutoring business alongside a small publishing house, with a dozen books published. Buddy Rushing — founder and CEO of White Feather Investments, helping veterans, first responders and military families achieve financial freedom through real estate. A Naval Academy graduate who built White Feather while serving active duty in the Marine Corps. SUMMARY Buddy tells Carmen how a Service Academy Career Conference became an anti-job fair: everyone else pitched benefit packages, he pitched never needing a job again. Mike had the fire in his eyes, and the pair clocked AI as a train coming through that was going to run everything over. They entered at the frontier and had to walk all the way back down. At a real estate club last week, everyone had ChatGPT on their phone and not one person had ever written a custom instruction. The book is the centrepiece: four in the room, two of them human, Maverick and Ender firing chapters onto a shared screen while Buddy describes the Swordfish montage. Four hours. His line on why most people's AI disappoints them lands hardest — you haven't trained it. MAIN TOPICS The anti-job fair and how Mike and Buddy met Building White Feather while active duty Marine Corps White Feather Road: how the company got its name A room of successful investors with zero custom instructions Rewriting The Science of Getting Rich in four hours Why untrained AI gives you dressed up garbage Reverse prompting: making the AI interview you INTRIGUING QUOTES "If you haven't done those three basic steps, you're gonna get pretty decently dressed up garbage." — Buddy Rushing "It's like working with a genius level 11 year old." — Mike Wish "It's people who are relentlessly curious and have very little ego." — Buddy Rushing "This book is writing itself real time live. It felt auto-magical." — Buddy Rushing KEY MOMENTS [04:17] How Mike and Buddy met, and the anti-job fair [10:56] White Feather Road and the bag at church [15:36] A room of multi-millionaires and not one custom instruction [18:08] The Science of Getting Rich and Mike's crazy idea [21:00] Four hours, four voices, one book [25:28] Dressed up garbage, and the three steps that fix it [28:43] What "train it" actually means [30:02] Reverse prompting: make it interview you [34:18] Wispr Flow, and connecting your tools inside Claude NOTABLE RESOURCES ChatGPT Claude Wispr Flow The Science of Getting Rich in the Age of AI by Buddy Rushing & Michael Wish The Science of Getting Rich by Wallace Wattles White Feather AI — whitefeather-ai.com White Feather Investments — whitefeatherinvestments.com The White Feather AI community on Skool CONNECT Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/share/g/1FXihmKLqS/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61590720415359 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/leadwithcarmen/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@LeadwithCarmen Apply to be a guest on AI Made Simple

    Episode 012 - Auto-Magical: Two Marines, Two AIs, One Book with Mike Wish and Buddy Rushing

  7. Aug 25

    Episode 011 - The Intentional Unicorn: Why AI Can't Fake Authenticity with Jennie López

    She was too nerdy for a dancer and too bubbly for an engineer, so she stopped trying to fit in. In this episode of AI Made Simple, Carmen Skipworth sits down with Jennie López — the Intentional Unicorn — a chemical engineer who ran a parallel career as a backup dancer, NFL cheerleader and Zumba presenter before 23 years of Fortune 500 leadership at Eli Lilly. Jennie was an early AI adopter through the Tony Robbins world, then overused it: her husband quietly stopped reading her newsletters, and her engagement fell while she was posting more than ever. So she took a month off AI and watched it climb again. Plus the trifecta she runs now, the AI Jennie she's building for 3am, and why a dancing robot has never once made her cry. Human-Led. AI-Powered.

    Episode 011 - The Intentional Unicorn: Why AI Can't Fake Authenticity with Jennie López

  8. Aug 18

    Episode 010 - Don't Be a Blockbuster: How to Become the Answer in AI Search with David Esau

    Don't be a Blockbuster in a Netflix world. That's the warning from a man who sat inside Google watching search get built. In this episode of AI Made Simple, Carmen Skipworth sits down with David Esau — founder and CEO of Click Track Marketing, the San Diego AI-first agency serving over 500 clients — who went from sweeping his grandfather's door and window shop to running one of the earliest answer engine optimization practices in the country. David gives away his entire tech stack on air, explains why 60% of searches never end in a click, and shows what happened when a brand new client site picked up ten ChatGPT citations in seven days. Plus Pixel, the AI agent he's building for every client, and the ad his own AI told him to kill that turned out to have the best return on spend. Human-Led. AI-Powered. HOST Carmen Skipworth GUEST David Esau — founder and CEO of Click Track Marketing, a San Diego based AI-first digital marketing agency serving over 500 clients. A former Google account manager who helped take Local Services by Google from zero to 100 million, then worked with partners including Square, Intuit and Helium 10. An early pioneer of answer engine optimization. Author of Raising the Digital Bar, with The Future of AI Search due for release and a third book, Find Your Customers, in development. SUMMARY David tells Carmen how a family door and window company founded in 1954 became a marketing education: sweeping the shop, then ranking the business number one for door shop in San Diego before anyone called it SEO. Drumming in Jack's Broken Heart and The Little Ones taught him promotion through Napster and MP3.com. Google taught him the numbers. Now he builds for answer engines instead of search engines — Next.js and React, schemas, llms.txt, 155 custom fields, Supabase and BigQuery behind the reporting. He explains why he takes clients off WordPress, Squarespace and Wix, and what an agent actually is next to a chatbot. His warning on trust lands hardest: his own AI told him to kill the ad that had closed his biggest deal. MAIN TOPICS From the family door shop to number one in San Diego Napster, MP3.com and marketing an indie band What answer engine optimization actually is Inside Google: Local Services from zero to 100 million Rebuilding a site for AI search: schemas, llms.txt, custom fields Ten ChatGPT citations in seven days Pixel: an AI agent for every client Don't trust it 100%: the ad his AI got wrong INTRIGUING QUOTES "Don't be a Blockbuster in a Netflix world." — David Esau "Answer engine optimization is where you want your business to be the answer." — David Esau "Don't trust it 100%. That's my advice. Always check." — David Esau "No one warned me how hard it would be." — David Esau KEY MOMENTS [01:09] Meet David Esau: Google, Click Track Marketing, 500 clients [02:50] Napster, MP3.com and marketing the band [04:25] What answer engine optimization actually is [05:57] Inside Google: Local Services from zero to 100 million [10:26] Rebuilding your site for AI search [12:20] The full stack, given away [14:44] Ten ChatGPT citations in seven days [15:08] Don't be a Blockbuster in a Netflix world [16:55] The Future of AI Search and the one word he might change [20:34] Pixel: an AI agent for every client [21:12] Chatbot vs agent, explained [28:25] How to connect with David NOTABLE RESOURCES ChatGPT Claude and Claude Code Perplexity Grok and Gemini Manus Next.js and React Semrush DataForSEO HighLevel Supabase Firecrawl Instantly Raising the Digital Bar by David Esau The Future of AI Search by David Esau Find Your Customers by David Esau Click Track Marketing — clicktrackmarketing.com CONNECT Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/share/g/1FXihmKLqS/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61590720415359 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/leadwithcarmen/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@LeadwithCarmen Apply to be a guest on AI Made Simple: https://www.latpn.com/ai-made-simple-podcast-booking

    Episode 010 - Don't Be a Blockbuster: How to Become the Answer in AI Search with David Esau
See All (21)

About

AI Made Simple is the podcast for emerging leaders and entrepreneurs who know AI matters, but feel overwhelmed by the noise. Hosted by Carmen Skipworth, this show cuts through fear-based headlines, technical jargon, and fluffy inspiration to bring you clear, practical, human-led conversations about artificial intelligence. You don't need to be technical. You don't need to move at tech speed. And you don't need to feel behind. Each episode helps you understand AI in a way that feels calm, accessible, and actionable, so you can confidently partner with it in your life and business. This isn't about AI replacing humans. It's about humans leading with clarity while using AI as a powerful ally. If you're ready to stop feeling overwhelmed and start feeling equipped, you're in the right place. AI Made Simple. Human-Led. AI-Powered.

Information

You Might Also Like