Dan Martell - May 14, 2026


Brutally Honest Advice For Someone Trying to Make Money with AI


Episode Stats


Length

15 minutes

Words per minute

202.20409

Word count

3,162

Sentence count

143

Harmful content

Misogyny

1

sentences flagged

Toxicity

3

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
00:00:00.000 Everyone is telling you that AI will make you rich.
00:00:02.640 Buy this tool, use this prop, be a millionaire by next week. 0.98
00:00:05.840 But it's all bull****.
00:00:07.680 I've built and scaled dozens of AI companies to over a million dollars 0.91
00:00:11.360 in less than six months through my company Martell Ventures.
00:00:14.180 I work with founders building AI companies every single day.
00:00:17.580 So I've seen exactly what makes people money and what makes them fail.
00:00:21.680 So in this video, I'm going to give you the five truths
00:00:24.020 on how to actually get rich with AI that no one will tell you.
00:00:27.240 Starting with, truth number one, AI won't make you rich.
00:00:31.160 Here's a way you need to think about it.
00:00:32.640 AI is like a hammer.
00:00:34.780 And without a nail to hit,
00:00:37.460 then essentially you're just whacking on a wall
00:00:39.180 for no reason.
00:00:41.840 So if AI is just a tool,
00:00:43.900 then how do we make money with it?
00:00:45.600 AI hasn't changed what makes you rich.
00:00:47.840 You get rich by solving problems.
00:00:49.340 It's just changed how fast you can get there.
00:00:51.700 But the fundamentals haven't changed.
00:00:53.540 You still need to know how to apply AI.
00:00:55.840 focused operators with real skills that know how to do with AI makes them unstoppable having no
00:01:02.300 focus all over the place with no real skills it's valuable AI will just burn you burn your bank
00:01:07.520 account cost you to waste a lot of tokens and right now I'm seeing a lot of businesses that
00:01:12.780 are spending money on AI that haven't seen any of that come back in income if you have a business
00:01:17.760 it can help you grow faster but it can also help you get broken faster so if AI is just a tool to
00:01:23.380 make money, then how do you make sure you actually make money with it? Truth number two, AI isn't the
00:01:28.980 problem. Nobody woke up today and said, I need more AI. Who got AI? Can you sell me some AI?
00:01:34.760 Nobody woke up and said that. They woke up and said, oh, this is a problem still. Why is this
00:01:40.240 still an issue? This sucks. They have a problem. The question to ask isn't how do I use AI in my 1.00
00:01:46.500 business? It's to ask what problem do I even solve in the first place? When AI can solve every
00:01:52.620 problem out there, and it can. The problem to solve is knowing what problem to solve. Remember
00:01:58.560 the nail and the hammer? So now you know you need a nail, a problem. Now you need to figure out what
00:02:03.460 nail is the right one to hit. Here's a framework that I like to use called the gain matrix.
00:02:07.640 Essentially, you have things that are easy for computers, hard for computers, hard for humans,
00:02:13.400 easy for humans. And that's why we want to focus on the things in the top left corner, okay?
00:02:18.580 that is the give and with give these are all the things that you could do it'd be easy for you to
00:02:25.640 do think about it all the stuff like data entry and research and all these small little things
00:02:30.640 that you could do that most people don't give up because it's not that hard i always look at this
00:02:35.280 as the first place like nobody should be doing this in the world of ai so these are things like
00:02:39.960 data entry right we've got other things like simple calculations
00:02:46.140 so the next one is accelerate this is where it's hard for humans but really easy for computers
00:02:53.780 this is where real leverage gets created this is where i think about buying back my time
00:02:58.580 that's where i'm looking these are tasks that would take hours and ai does it in minutes and
00:03:03.740 some examples are deep research right like giving it a bunch of documents and being like find me the
00:03:09.580 pattern in this, right? Or you have data analysis. I do this all day long where I'm looking at
00:03:16.560 information, data points, research reports. Like I need to find the pattern in the data. The next
00:03:22.700 part of the matrix is about integrate. And this is where you take hard for computers and hard for
00:03:29.520 humans and you collaborate together and you create new things that otherwise you couldn't do.
00:03:35.000 Think about like creative tasks.
00:03:36.720 Like, yeah, you can get it to create a bunch of Facebook ads,
00:03:39.600 but without a human, you wouldn't be able to know what's a great one.
00:03:42.860 And then you need to collaborate to have the volume to be able to see it.
00:03:46.560 Oftentimes when I'm working with AI, I can't tell you what I'm looking for,
00:03:50.200 but I know it when I see it.
00:03:52.100 So think creative tasks.
00:03:58.060 The other one is like innovation, right?
00:04:00.360 Like when I'm building new companies,
00:04:02.680 oftentimes I need to see the whole thing.
00:04:06.060 The AI gives me options, but me and my team,
00:04:08.660 we look at it and we go, oh, boom.
00:04:10.220 And you feel it in a meeting.
00:04:11.500 Have you ever felt it where you're like,
00:04:12.620 oh yeah, that's awesome, right?
00:04:14.660 Or even strategy, okay?
00:04:16.000 And strategy for me is sequencing.
00:04:18.780 It's not about the right thing.
00:04:20.660 It's about doing the right thing in the right order.
00:04:22.800 And oftentimes that's hard for me
00:04:24.440 even to know what are the pieces.
00:04:26.300 AI can do that.
00:04:27.320 It's hard for the AI to know what sequence
00:04:28.920 because it doesn't have the sensibility of a human
00:04:31.080 and together we co-create the right sequence of strategy.
00:04:35.300 Last but not least, we have hard for computers
00:04:37.480 but easy for humans. 0.54
00:04:38.600 This is where we go full freestyle,
00:04:41.700 full old school called no AI, right?
00:04:45.200 Because AI isn't what is needed.
00:04:48.500 When you have problems in that quadrant, show up.
00:04:52.240 I can't tell you the amount of times people think,
00:04:54.020 I'm just gonna hide behind my keyboard
00:04:55.100 and get AI to do this for me.
00:04:56.880 No, this is where the humanity shines.
00:04:59.220 This is where things like EQ, emotional intelligence,
00:05:02.560 it's what's needed.
00:05:03.680 Guess what?
00:05:04.300 AI can't tell you if the joke's any good.
00:05:06.800 AI can't even deliver the joke.
00:05:08.380 AI can't deal with conflict.
00:05:09.700 AI can't deal with leadership.
00:05:11.120 AI can't understand the complexity of the human experience
00:05:14.060 to be able to resolve situations.
00:05:15.600 I spend my whole day doing things AI can't do.
00:05:19.960 AI gives me more bandwidth.
00:05:22.100 Using these quadrants, I'm able to move faster,
00:05:24.800 but AI doesn't have my intuition AI doesn't have my vision AI doesn't have my taste it doesn't have
00:05:30.840 the care that I have it doesn't it doesn't know how to show up for people and that's what you
00:05:35.000 got to think about like things like EQ emotional intelligence so I teach my kids leadership how do
00:05:41.560 you show up for your team they're not listening to an AI and being led by an AI sure they'll follow
00:05:45.920 tasks but being inspired that's a human thing intuition resolving conflicts understanding how
00:05:53.580 to communicate when motions are involved.
00:05:55.760 So think about all the tasks you do
00:05:57.340 and place them in this matrix.
00:05:59.420 That's how you know how to use AI
00:06:00.920 for each specific problem.
00:06:02.860 Now, each one of these problems
00:06:04.000 are essentially all different kinds of nails,
00:06:07.020 screws, thumbtacks,
00:06:08.480 and they all require different tools.
00:06:10.940 So if you're a business owner with a team
00:06:12.460 and you wanna get everyone using the right tools
00:06:15.140 and the right problems,
00:06:16.260 I've got my free AI tech stack
00:06:18.160 for companies trying to get to the next level.
00:06:19.920 If you want it, go find me on Instagram
00:06:21.620 and just DM me the word YouTube stack
00:06:23.980 and I'll send it right over.
00:06:25.780 Now, I know what you're thinking.
00:06:27.500 I figured out the problems to solve.
00:06:29.380 Now, how the do I use AI to solve?
00:06:32.160 Truth number three, don't use AI.
00:06:34.540 I know, who abducted Dan?
00:06:36.740 Why is this guy here?
00:06:37.980 I thought you were the AI guy.
00:06:39.760 I can't tell you how much I hate when people default to AI
00:06:42.700 when they should just go figure out the simplest step
00:06:45.820 to solve the problems.
00:06:46.900 See, you need to understand the context.
00:06:48.820 You need to understand the steps.
00:06:49.860 what works and what doesn't before you ever introduce AI.
00:06:53.780 My favorite story to tell is listening
00:06:55.640 to any time Elon Musk has run into an issue
00:06:57.840 and he says, I just went down to the place
00:07:00.500 where the issue was, I looked at it with my own eyes,
00:07:03.380 I sat back, I analyzed it,
00:07:05.360 and then I decided what needed to be solved.
00:07:07.720 I didn't run to an AI and do a simulation
00:07:09.920 and figure out a whole model.
00:07:11.360 AI is like fuel.
00:07:12.580 It can be used to power an engine to move things faster,
00:07:15.880 but it can also blow up in everybody's faces.
00:07:18.120 broken systems with ai thrown on top of it will burn bright solid systems you put in some ai
00:07:25.180 will power a rocket when people come to me and they're like i want to build some software to
00:07:29.760 solve a problem i'm like ai can help you write the software but first figure out if there's a
00:07:33.920 problem to solve it's my favorite thing to do is launch a page have people sign up for a wait list
00:07:38.740 talk to them if they have the problem then they go yeah i have the problem cool manually solve it
00:07:43.760 It's called Wizard of Ozzie, where you're behind the scenes,
00:07:46.720 you onboard the customer, you look at the data,
00:07:49.360 you answer it, you give it back to them.
00:07:51.220 They think it's AI, it's not, it's a person.
00:07:53.360 And because of that, you're not worried
00:07:54.820 about the technology to solve the problem.
00:07:56.520 You're wondering if the problem is solved
00:07:58.000 the way the customer wanted it.
00:07:59.380 It's a way to pre-validate before you sit there
00:08:01.980 and burn a ton of tokens, spending tens of thousands
00:08:04.440 of dollars trying to build a prototype
00:08:06.240 before you even know if anybody's gonna use it.
00:08:08.160 I got a lot of friends that have been doing this lately
00:08:10.420 and they call me up, they say,
00:08:11.600 hey, Dan, you wanna see my prototype?
00:08:12.580 i go that's cool where's the customers you learn so much more having real customers pay you real
00:08:17.780 money to solve their problem in a real way they might think it's ai and then eventually you can
00:08:22.900 use ai to build the solution that they're already used to so this is exactly what you have to do
00:08:27.380 before you start implementing ai first solve the problem manually i'm talking with your fingers i'm
00:08:34.260 talking with your feet if you got to go out and do something do that deliver the service yourself
00:08:40.020 that way you can understand the whole workflow second document what's working create a process
00:08:47.460 create a checklist in real time as i'm simulating the solution i'm writing down the steps that made
00:08:54.100 the thing happen that way if i go to build software i have the specs i actually wrote it
00:08:58.180 out already the ai can take that and build something the third and only once you do one
00:09:02.340 and two do you go to an mvp what's called a minimum viable product and this is the most
00:09:07.380 basic version this is almost sometimes like it kind of works maybe the heavy lifting doesn't but
00:09:12.100 it's the most basic version using ai and then the last step is we got to scale once we know the
00:09:17.300 customers want we document the steps so we've built an mvp then we feed the playbooks into ai
00:09:22.420 then it can deploy the agents then it can build the code then it can manage the whole process
00:09:27.380 and that's how we scale but that's the last step not the first step most people start at step four
00:09:32.420 go back to step one and work your way through it so now you know the ai is just a tool you
00:09:37.220 know that solving real problems is where it's at and how you get rich and you know you need
00:09:41.540 to understand the process before adding ai to your business now you're probably thinking how
00:09:46.820 do i scale this truth number four ai does not replace people everyone in the future if they
00:09:54.180 choose to work will be an agent operator everything in the future business will change things from
00:10:00.500 today being a role based org chart to a workflow based org chart so for example creating a youtube
00:10:06.660 video the traditional way okay one person for each one of these roles think creative director to come
00:10:12.260 up with the strategy script writer you've got an editor you got a thumbnail designer and then you
00:10:16.500 need somebody to post the video the agentic way which is the agent on the loop is one person
00:10:22.020 owning the workflow that's where it's changed and then the agents each one of them own each
00:10:26.980 role within that workflow with the person making sure that the whole process is being managed so
00:10:32.100 humans will own workflows not roles anymore that's the difference my philosophy is that ai should
00:10:37.860 make your team 10x better not replace them if you have to lay people off because of ai that's
00:10:43.140 a leadership problem that's a leader that didn't see where the world's going didn't upskill their
00:10:47.780 team didn't get them ready for this and now that you're watching this get ready yourself do you
00:10:52.340 Do you think companies would rather have a person
00:10:54.760 with 10 AIs or 10 people with one AI each
00:10:58.160 trying to coordinate all the mess?
00:10:59.960 You wanna talk about token maxing?
00:11:01.640 You're burning massive tokens with 10 people in 10 systems.
00:11:05.000 I believe in this so much.
00:11:06.420 A few weeks ago, I shut down my company for two whole days
00:11:09.440 and I taught every single person how to code.
00:11:12.860 And we ran a contest for two days and did a hackathon.
00:11:15.680 And at the end of it, we had dozens of AI tools
00:11:19.280 that people built to essentially replace themselves.
00:11:22.220 They realize if they don't do it to themselves,
00:11:23.980 somebody else is gonna do it.
00:11:25.360 They wanna be the person that manages the system.
00:11:27.800 They don't actually need to be the person doing the work.
00:11:30.000 So you still need people with AI.
00:11:32.240 So the question should be,
00:11:33.440 who do you look for when you're hiring?
00:11:35.300 Okay, so try this.
00:11:36.800 I call it the AI role audit.
00:11:38.820 So just draw a T-chart just like this.
00:11:41.060 On one side, write AI, okay?
00:11:45.460 Now on the other side, write human.
00:11:48.740 Follow along at home, I'm watching.
00:11:50.860 Think of all the tasks that need to get done
00:11:53.120 for a specific process to actually get done.
00:11:55.860 On the A side, what are the tasks that AI can do?
00:11:59.100 On the human side, what are the tasks
00:12:01.060 that only a human can do?
00:12:02.280 For example, on the AI side, you can do planning, right?
00:12:06.660 I sat down this morning with my assistant,
00:12:08.420 we did some massive planning.
00:12:09.860 You can do research, right?
00:12:13.220 You can have copywriting, you can create ads,
00:12:18.140 You can do emails.
00:12:23.040 You can do analysis of the workflow.
00:12:27.280 Okay, what else can AI do?
00:12:29.280 Communicate.
00:12:30.860 Okay, I have my AI process, all my Slack messages,
00:12:34.500 all my email, route things, manage things,
00:12:36.760 all of these things used to take me days a week.
00:12:39.560 Now it takes me minutes and I'm the human on the loop
00:12:42.280 making sure that they happen.
00:12:43.500 On the human side, this is very special
00:12:46.140 because now we go to what can only you do?
00:12:48.400 That's where you have ownership, okay?
00:12:50.040 This is where you essentially own the workflow.
00:12:53.560 This is the person that says,
00:12:54.400 I am accountable for that output.
00:12:55.940 The AI is not accountable.
00:12:57.120 Guess what?
00:12:57.960 No AI is going to jail.
00:12:59.140 Human will.
00:12:59.980 I think about vision, you know?
00:13:02.560 Vision is having a belief about the future
00:13:04.540 that doesn't exist yet that should, okay?
00:13:06.980 And that is a human thing to create.
00:13:08.900 Then we have taste, right?
00:13:11.400 My buddy Hollis says it best.
00:13:12.920 He goes, taste isn't something you can buy,
00:13:14.900 has to be learned.
00:13:16.120 That's a human thing.
00:13:17.320 We have directing, directing other humans.
00:13:20.240 Look, AI is starting to do this,
00:13:22.100 but really talented people are not gonna sit back
00:13:24.660 and be directed by a computer or a robot.
00:13:27.040 They're gonna wanna have a relationship
00:13:28.680 with somebody that they trust,
00:13:29.880 and then they're gonna use the AI to scale their output.
00:13:33.300 We've got decision-making, right?
00:13:37.420 This is strategy, this is sequence,
00:13:39.480 this is being able to overcome problems.
00:13:41.900 So when you're hiring, you need to make sure
00:13:44.100 that the person knows how to do these things,
00:13:46.000 the human stuff, all the AI stuff.
00:13:47.920 These are like skills you can teach somebody.
00:13:49.960 Most of them you don't have to do anymore.
00:13:51.820 But does the human know how to manage the AI?
00:13:54.900 That is the agent operator.
00:13:56.780 And those are completely different skills.
00:13:58.700 And if you have a team already,
00:13:59.960 I would encourage you to look at every role that you have
00:14:02.720 and figure out how do you upskill them?
00:14:04.840 How do you get all their stuff done by AI?
00:14:07.440 Train them on the soft skills
00:14:08.820 so that they become better humans, better interactions.
00:14:11.900 The person that used to get paid a lot of money
00:14:13.700 to manage ads and sit in the basement
00:14:15.340 and not talk to anybody,
00:14:16.560 that person now needs to show up on the team,
00:14:19.520 let the AI do the ad buying,
00:14:21.480 and they need to be there
00:14:22.500 and have vision and taste and care about people.
00:14:24.560 So this is the shift.
00:14:26.060 Stop asking, how do I replace my team with AI
00:14:29.100 and start asking, how do I use AI
00:14:31.260 to make my team unstoppable?
00:14:33.420 Truth number five, humanity is the advantage.
00:14:37.100 Here's the thing, AI is not gonna take your job,
00:14:40.080 but somebody else well integrated with AI
00:14:42.860 will take your job, will take your business,
00:14:45.180 will compete against you.
00:14:46.500 AI is reshaping everything,
00:14:48.180 but the fundamentals of building a business has never changed.
00:14:51.060 Customers have problems, they want the problem solved.
00:14:54.400 Bigger the problem, bigger the business.
00:14:56.900 The more elegant and beautiful and interactive the solution,
00:14:59.780 the more the customer's gonna love you.
00:15:01.220 AI doesn't replace humans,
00:15:02.880 it just removes what's been keeping them apart.
00:15:05.720 The more you integrate it into your business,
00:15:08.080 the more human your business can show up.
00:15:10.260 You leverage AI to help move faster.
00:15:12.580 And that's the only way you can really get rich with AI.
00:15:15.400 Winners won't be the smartest.
00:15:17.040 They're the ones who took action.
00:15:18.800 So comment below.
00:15:20.560 Let me know what's the one action
00:15:22.260 you took away from today's video.
00:15:23.620 And remember, I put together my entire AI tech stack.
00:15:26.360 Every tool I use to run my $100 million business, it's free.
00:15:29.860 Just DM me YouTube stack on Instagram
00:15:31.880 and I'll send it right over.
00:15:33.260 Now, if you wanna learn why I'm going all in on AI,
00:15:36.280 watch this video here
00:15:37.400 and I'll see you on the other side.