Dan Martell - It’s Actually Pretty Easy to Get Ahead of 99% of People with AI

00:00:00.000 Winning with AI in 2026 is actually pretty f***ing easy.

00:00:03.700 Most people are just thinking about it the wrong way.

00:00:05.880 And I'm not gonna tell you how to get better at prompting

00:00:08.220 or use this AI tool.

00:00:09.780 That won't get you anywhere,

00:00:11.520 unless you use a simple framework.

00:00:13.880 I've built and scaled several companies

00:00:15.780 past a million dollars in under six months

00:00:17.700 through Martell Ventures.

00:00:18.880 And the most important thing to understand,

00:00:20.520 first and foremost, is AI doesn't actually solve problems.

00:00:25.040 The person using it solves problems.

00:00:27.600 AI just does stuff.

00:00:28.780 For the longest time, winning has been man plus tool,

00:00:32.400 man plus laptop, man plus bike,

00:00:34.700 and it still is man plus tool.

00:00:36.780 So as long as that's still the equation,

00:00:38.840 then your job is to be a better man that uses the tool.

00:00:42.500 Like if I just gave you a computer

00:00:44.020 and you didn't know how to use it,

00:00:45.360 it wouldn't make you any money.

00:00:46.700 And a lot of people think,

00:00:47.980 now that I've got AI, I should be rich.

00:00:49.740 Unfortunately, AI isn't gonna make you rich.

00:00:52.640 You being the person using it and the tool,

00:00:55.120 that's how you get rich.

00:00:56.160 And the truth is some tasks belong to you

00:00:58.300 and some tests belong to the AI.

00:01:00.240 And if you're stuck between both of them,

00:01:01.680 you'll just feel really busy,

00:01:02.960 but you won't be making progress.

00:01:04.640 In this AI era,

00:01:05.780 the person who understands the problem the best,

00:01:08.500 they'll actually win,

00:01:09.460 not the person who understands the tool the best.

00:01:11.440 And to figure out what problems

00:01:12.560 you should be solving with AI,

00:01:13.940 I've come up with a simple framework.

00:01:15.480 I call it the game matrix.

00:01:17.140 There's four letters in four quadrants.

00:01:19.140 The left side is easy for computers.

00:01:21.400 The right side is hard for computers.

00:01:23.680 The top is easy for humans.

00:01:25.420 The bottom is hard for humans.

00:01:26.800 Each quadrant will show you how to collaborate with AI

00:01:30.680 to get things done.

00:01:31.920 And the easiest one to start with is give it to AI.

00:01:34.500 This is easy for humans,

00:01:36.460 but also incredibly easy for computers.

00:01:39.000 Think about all the stuff

00:01:39.920 that you started using ChatGPT for,

00:01:41.700 things like synthesizing texts or looking over emails

00:01:45.000 or updating your CRM or creating spreadsheets,

00:01:48.100 things that you could do, not hard,

00:01:50.600 but the AI does it way better, way faster.

00:01:53.480 Yesterday I was working with my finance guy

00:01:55.000 and he was working on a new proposal

00:01:56.440 and I was like, bro, stop writing,

00:01:58.620 just talk and give it to AI.

00:02:00.480 It'll analyze the financials, it'll analyze your words

00:02:02.940 and it'll put it together and it'll get us a table

00:02:04.700 that gets us clear on the decisions we have to make

00:02:07.100 to move it forward.

00:02:07.940 Why are we trying to do stuff that's so wildly easy for AI

00:02:11.000 that takes our time just because we can do it?

00:02:13.360 These are just a small, tedious tasks that AI can do

00:02:16.380 and you just wanna give it to it and automate it.

00:02:18.820 I'm talking about things like meeting notes, right?

00:02:21.640 I use Granola, it's one of the best tools out there,

00:02:24.460 but essentially every meeting is recorded,

00:02:26.840 it's summarized, it's tagged, it's added to Notion.

00:02:29.080 It is the easiest thing.

00:02:30.400 The other one is pulling reports, okay?

00:02:33.300 Think about the ability to have dashboards

00:02:35.980 of all the data about your life and your business

00:02:38.300 in one place so you can see if anything's going off,

00:02:41.440 follow the numbers or what you expect them

00:02:43.160 and it's just a really easy thing for it to do in autonomy.

00:02:45.880 And then the third is to summarize your messages, okay?

00:02:50.120 Think Slack, think email, think text messages.

00:02:52.980 You can do a lot of stuff with AI

00:02:54.580 that most people have no idea about.

00:02:56.100 And these are just some examples.

00:02:57.600 And I know the dopamine hit of clearing out your inbox

00:03:00.200 and getting to inbox zero can feel awesome,

00:03:03.520 but it's still work and you don't have to do it.

00:03:06.080 Let's let AI do it.

00:03:07.260 So for example, this morning,

00:03:08.440 I asked my agent to go check all of my messages,

00:03:11.060 my email, my calendar, my Slack,

00:03:12.580 and tell me the top three things

00:03:13.740 that I need to prioritize today based on my goals.

00:03:16.740 So it told me I had a YouTube shoot and a real shoot,

00:03:18.700 so I gotta save my energy.

00:03:19.640 It told me that Ann needed a call to review the podcast

00:03:22.120 that i'll be doing on my san francisco trip and also said that team needed sign off on a new

00:03:26.040 feature that we're adding to our apex voice system now i know exactly what i need to do today

00:03:31.080 without scrolling through the countless message without getting distracted without doing stuff

00:03:35.000 that i don't need to do so how do you know when a task belong in the g quadrant i use what's called

00:03:40.840 the rule of ours first is it repetitive is it something i have to do at least once a week

00:03:45.800 second is it rules based does the task have the same inputs and outputs every single time

00:03:51.720 the third is does it generate a return does it take me more time to run this whole automation

00:03:56.760 than just do it every time the last thing i want to do is spend 60 hours to build something that

00:04:01.160 takes me less than two minutes a week to do so if the answer is yes to all three repetitive

00:04:05.400 rule-based and gives me a return on my time then i hand it to the ai today and look you can use a

00:04:10.920 ton of different ai tools for this quadrant some are some are awesome so to help you out i put

00:04:15.880 together my entire ai tech stack every tool i use in every business that i own to run a super

00:04:21.080 efficient business it's 100 free just dm me the word youtube stack on instagram and i'll send it

00:04:25.720 right over to you now that's the easy stuff and with it you could probably free up a couple hours

00:04:29.480 of your week now we need to move on to the next quadrant where the real work happens quadrant

00:04:33.560 number two accelerate i know my handwriting sucks but just listen to my words okay accelerate now

00:04:41.160 this is where it's hard for humans but easy for computers really complicated processes we're

00:04:45.960 we're trying to find a signal in the noise, AI strives at this thing. And the cool part is you

00:04:50.980 can accelerate all that work with AI where AI buys you back days of work. So here are just a few

00:04:56.880 things that you can use AI to accelerate with. First off is research. I use this probably the

00:05:02.700 most every day. I have an idea, I go to my AI. I go, hey, do some research, find some people,

00:05:07.760 tell me what you think. Hey, I found this link for this cool idea. Tell me based on what I'm

00:05:11.320 using today. Is it helpful? Should I add it? Do deep research project around strategic decisions.

00:05:16.620 Look at my life. Tell me, is there anything I'm missing? The other one is data analysis.

00:05:21.400 If you're starting off as a business owner for data analysis, think about it. You have Facebook

00:05:26.440 ads, you can get it analyzed. You have social media data, get it analyzed. You have contracts.

00:05:31.920 Why don't you ask it to go analyze all your legal contracts to see if you sign something? You

00:05:35.580 probably should know. You shouldn't be spending hours on spreadsheets, especially creating anything

00:05:40.140 from scratch. That is where AI shines. Market breakdowns, like figure out what's going on in

00:05:44.980 your industry, what's going on in the market. Every morning, I have multiple prompts that scan

00:05:49.820 and research and figure out what's new in the news that tells me all the things I should be

00:05:53.460 paying attention to as an innovator in my space. Your job as a leader is to be able to see around

00:05:59.220 the corner. The news is out there. Have the AI go analyze it. When you think of tasks in this

00:06:04.120 quadrant, these are the three questions you get to ask yourself. One, is it looking for a pattern?

00:06:08.400 Because AI can spot patterns faster than any human.

00:06:11.820 Two, would it take you hours to do manually?

00:06:14.880 Or would you normally hire

00:06:16.220 a really expensive specialist to do this?

00:06:18.060 Think about like visual designers,

00:06:20.060 researchers, consultants, that.

00:06:22.620 Most consultants just ask you to borrow your watch

00:06:24.840 and tell you what time it is.

00:06:26.020 These are the signs that you should accelerate

00:06:27.920 that type of work where you're processing it with AI.

00:06:30.740 I see a lot of people not even accelerate

00:06:32.740 because they're like,

00:06:33.620 I just don't think the output is very good.

00:06:35.560 And they're like, fine, then use my 108010 rule.

00:06:38.000 10% ideation, the input, the prompt, the innovation,

00:06:41.840 have it do the 80% research,

00:06:43.740 have it go do some of the work

00:06:45.080 and then come in at the very end for the last 10%

00:06:47.620 where you give it the thing that makes it really awesome.

00:06:50.300 At least the AI took 80% of the work off of your plate.

00:06:53.460 80% done by somebody else or AI is 100% awesome.

00:06:57.420 So, so far we've been giving AI just the easy stuff.

00:07:00.540 This next quadrant is where we start adding

00:07:02.640 the human element to the mix.

00:07:04.400 Quadrant number three, integrate with AI.

00:07:07.240 This is where it's like still hard for computers

00:07:09.800 and hard for humans.

00:07:11.240 AI can help you get some things done,

00:07:13.400 but the human has to still be the director.

00:07:15.580 And unfortunately, if you don't have experience or taste,

00:07:18.400 it's actually really hard to get great work out of this.

00:07:20.700 And the truth is, is the AI isn't perfect.

00:07:23.420 Did you know if you asked the AI

00:07:24.800 that you were gonna go wash your car

00:07:26.200 and the car wash is 50 meters away from where you live,

00:07:28.840 and you asked it, should you take your car or walk,

00:07:31.140 it would actually say you should walk.

00:07:32.840 So right off the bat,

00:07:34.080 it can't be left to do really important

00:07:36.400 creative, strategic work on its own.

00:07:38.560 It doesn't have the context, it doesn't have the nuance,

00:07:41.040 and this is where having it help you calibrate

00:07:43.080 makes a lot of sense.

00:07:44.360 AI can generate 2,700 versions of anything,

00:07:47.940 but it still takes a human to look at it

00:07:50.040 and go, that feels right, that is the way I would do that.

00:07:53.420 So here are some things to integrate with AI.

00:07:55.520 Number one is creative work.

00:07:57.280 I really don't know many people in today's world,

00:08:00.480 I don't care if it's media or ads or brainstorming

00:08:03.920 or design or brand where they're not using AI

00:08:07.060 to come up with illustrations, examples,

00:08:09.540 to help shape the idea,

00:08:11.300 to give them something visual they can look at.

00:08:13.500 Most music today uses AI in some aspect

00:08:17.060 of the production of the beats or the sound.

00:08:19.360 It still takes a human with an ear

00:08:21.520 for what the world or the market or the culture wants

00:08:23.620 to decide how you're gonna finalize and shape a song.

00:08:26.540 Next is digital products.

00:08:28.520 This for me is like building out MVPs.

00:08:30.680 Think about the prototypes, think about the apps.

00:08:32.740 If you haven't tried building something like an app

00:08:35.240 or an artifact or some kind of visualization,

00:08:37.760 you're missing the opportunity.

00:08:39.180 That still requires taste,

00:08:40.640 still requires vision to direct it,

00:08:42.120 but the AI can execute.

00:08:43.500 It can write the code.

00:08:44.540 It could publish it online.

00:08:45.740 It's kind of wild what it can do for you.

00:08:47.580 And the third is strategy.

00:08:49.420 Strategy equals sequencing.

00:08:51.800 AI can suggest options,

00:08:53.900 but AI doesn't know your personal preference.

00:08:56.140 It doesn't know other people's psychology.

00:08:57.700 It doesn't understand the situation,

00:08:59.380 the landscape of your world.

00:09:00.980 So it can give you ideas,

00:09:02.900 but you still have to make the decision.

00:09:04.660 So partnering with AI to give you those options,

00:09:07.040 huge opportunity.

00:09:08.440 For example, when I wanted to create a workbook

00:09:10.520 for my book, Buy Back Your Time,

00:09:11.920 I asked the AI, go through my book,

00:09:13.960 pull out the frameworks

00:09:14.660 and build me something I could look at.

00:09:16.320 The first version was fugly.

00:09:18.460 I couldn't believe that it would design these diagrams this way,

00:09:21.640 that the workbook was laid out that way,

00:09:23.500 but it at least gave me something to work with

00:09:25.900 that I could prompt and change and prompt and change.

00:09:28.100 And eventually I got it to a place where I'm like,

00:09:29.680 yes, this looks good. Give it to my designer. He makes it look great. Now I have a completed

00:09:34.480 workbook. The whole idea is AI is your partner in very creative and strategic work. So how do

00:09:39.460 you know if a task belongs in this quadrant? There's three checks. One, does it require taste?

00:09:44.300 Your personal opinion. AI can generate options like ads. It can generate emails, but it still

00:09:49.540 requires you to pick the right one. Two, does it require vision? This is the strategy. This is the

00:09:54.620 sequencing. The AI can execute, but it still needs to be told, do it in this sequence. That's why

00:10:00.100 most developers build apps in plan mode. It shows them what the plan is. Then you can change the

00:10:06.400 plan, the sequence. It gives you options. The human still decides the sequence or the phases

00:10:11.320 it's going to build in. Then the AI can build it. And last, does it require care? AI can help you

00:10:17.380 draft messages, but you may be the person that needs to deliver it because humans still want

00:10:22.840 to hear from other humans how many times have you been really pissed and you want to send a message

00:10:27.720 and you know you shouldn't so you sit there and you work with ai to help it craft you 17 different

00:10:32.360 variations am i the only one that's just me and then finally you find one that says the thing the

00:10:38.520 way that you know the person is going to receive and you're like oh my gosh crisis averted that's

00:10:43.160 this box i don't think ai replaces humans it actually takes away the things have been keeping

00:10:48.360 us apart so if you answered yes to any of these integrate it with ai so you've handed ai the easy

00:10:54.280 stuff that's the give then you gave it the stuff to accelerate things that take you a lot of time

00:10:58.360 but it can do it really easily then we went to the i and we've integrated so we start collaborating

00:11:03.000 with it on some pretty creative work now this last quadrant is where you want to spend all of

00:11:07.480 your time quadrant number four is no ai these are the things that are easy for humans and wildly

00:11:15.160 hard for computers these are the moments that need your presence not a prompt i don't believe

00:11:20.360 business is b2b i think business is h2h human to human and like i said the more we can give ai to

00:11:26.680 do the stuff that keeps us away from being more human the better the human experience is no ai

00:11:32.440 is actually the quadrant that makes you a weapon irreplaceable now taste vision care don't just

00:11:38.280 guide the action they are the center of it so here are some things i think you should never outsource

00:11:43.640 to AI. One, leadership. People don't follow computers. They follow people. People inspire

00:11:52.180 them. If you're a leader, by definition, it means you have followers. I've never met followers of an

00:11:58.060 AI. Now, there might be some weird people out there, but we'll leave that alone. I think that

00:12:01.820 your opportunity to show up for people, to believe in them, to communicate, to invest in them, to

00:12:06.140 build the people, that is a very human thing to do, not an AI thing to do. Number two is kind of

00:12:12.220 like persuasion. I think that there are certain situations when you're doing certain negotiations

00:12:17.200 that you need a person involved. When we're talking business development, we're talking

00:12:21.080 partnerships. Yes, you can use computers for a lot of sales processes, but I'm a big fan. It's

00:12:25.920 like if it's important to your business, you show up, you look at them in the eye, you sit knee to

00:12:31.600 knee. When you're negotiating with somebody, that human part is what matters. Number three is

00:12:36.800 coaching, right? It's different than training and it's different than just learning. Coaching means

00:12:41.940 you sit down and you help guide somebody to become more. This is where I say you build the people and

00:12:46.640 the people build the business. The best way to do that is to coach. Have them come into your work

00:12:50.700 and shadow you. And number four is networking. This is where you go out and you talk to people

00:12:57.740 hand to hand, voice to voice, and you build relationships with them. You find ways to add

00:13:02.740 value. Most people's value is in their network. Your network equals your network. Nobody's going

00:13:08.740 to trust their relationships with an AI. They'll trust you with it because if you're somebody

00:13:13.620 that adds value, they know if they introduce you to somebody, you're going to add value to their

00:13:17.240 life. Not your AI, not your email response, not your templates. They want to talk to you.

00:13:23.640 And this quadrant right here comes down to one question. Does this revolve around your humanity?

00:13:29.200 If a human is on the other end and they need to feel you, not a machine, then it's no AI.

00:13:36.880 Me on stage is way different

00:13:38.500 than you watching a video of me on stage.

00:13:41.020 You hanging out with me in this room,

00:13:42.800 way different than you just watching this video.

00:13:44.880 That is where no AI comes into play.

00:13:47.520 So there's four quadrants.

00:13:48.700 We gotta give to AI, we gotta accelerate with AI,

00:13:51.300 we gotta integrate it into our life,

00:13:52.680 and then there's no AI.

00:13:54.000 And any task on your plate lives in one of these quadrants.

00:13:56.760 Because here's the big idea.

00:13:58.680 AI is reshaping every industry, every job, every business.

00:14:02.840 There's a thing called the GDP value

00:14:05.100 that actually shows you where AI is affecting

00:14:07.780 what jobs at what percentages

00:14:09.240 and how it's gonna continue to evolve.

00:14:11.560 There's just no future where the AI models don't get better

00:14:14.460 and start doing more of the things for you.

00:14:17.040 Learning this and working your way up to no AI,

00:14:20.240 where you're the most envisioned, the most taste,

00:14:22.900 the most care, that's where you compete.

00:14:25.960 So drop a comment below and let me know

00:14:27.760 what's the thing you would love to be doing more of

00:14:30.180 that AI can't help you with.

00:14:32.080 Because that is your focus and everything else,

00:14:34.640 let's give it to ai and remember i put together an entire ai tech stack every tool i use to run

00:14:39.860 my 100 million dollar business if you want it just find me on instagram and message me youtube stack

00:14:44.340 and i'll send it right over to you and if you want to see why i'm going all in on ai this year

00:14:49.040 click here and i'll see you on the other side

Dan Martell - June 11, 2026

It’s Actually Pretty Easy to Get Ahead of 99% of People with AI

Episode Stats

Summary

Transcript