Dan Martell - The Best AI Strategies by Income Level： $35K, $100K, $1M+

00:00:00.000 No matter how much money you make today, whether you're starting off making $35,000 or you're

00:00:04.560 looking to make tens of millions, there's just one thing holding you back from making more money

00:00:09.100 right now. I've seen these wealth ceilings up close and I had to go through all these barriers

00:00:13.680 myself to build my multi-million dollar companies. And today I coach thousands of incredible

00:00:18.340 entrepreneurs going through them every single week. Once you see the one thing that's holding

00:00:22.940 you back, you'll finally be able to jump up to the next level of wealth. And here's the cool part.

00:00:28.260 Now that we have AI, all of it becomes 10 times easier.

00:00:32.260 So today, we'll go through the four levels of personal income,

00:00:35.980 what's holding you back at each one,

00:00:38.060 and how AI can help you reach the next one,

00:00:40.760 starting with level one, zero to 100,000.

00:00:44.780 At this level, you're just starting out.

00:00:47.060 And better paying jobs expect you to have skills

00:00:49.820 that you just don't have yet.

00:00:51.700 So you pick up extra hours, you keep working.

00:00:54.440 Yes, your paycheck grows,

00:00:56.240 but your hourly rate stays the same.

00:00:58.260 The question I like to ask myself is what would I need to do for someone else to be willing to

00:01:03.160 pay me more for an hour of my time? When I got out of rehab, I was 17 years old. I didn't have

00:01:08.840 any skills. I didn't know anybody. I essentially was starting in a hole and I had to figure out

00:01:14.080 what was my valuable skill. Then I discovered computer programming. I sat down at this desk,

00:01:19.640 never touched a computer my whole life, and just typed out chapter one of this book and got it to

00:01:24.420 say, hello world. And for the first time, I saw something I was passionate about, I enjoyed doing

00:01:31.420 that the rest of the world seemed to want more of. That one simple skill, and at first I almost

00:01:36.420 dismissed it, became the foundation to build Spheric, my first multi-million dollar company,

00:01:41.140 exit the company at 28 and made me a millionaire. The high income skill that other people wanted

00:01:47.160 was the game changer. So here's the barrier that keeps people from achieving this next level of

00:01:52.320 wealth is they don't have clarity on what that high income skill should be. The good news is

00:01:57.780 using AI, it can help us evaluate what is that one high value skill that's going to get us paid

00:02:03.740 more. And it can even help us develop it over time to surpass that 100K ceiling. It's what I do

00:02:10.500 every day to get better at technology and programming is I use the AI to educate me.

00:02:16.700 Think about it this way. A lot of people are in a rush to get rich, but I have this approach.

00:02:21.260 The first 10 years isn't where you get rich,

00:02:23.660 it's where you get good.

00:02:24.900 That's why I need you to lean in

00:02:26.460 and listen on how we do this.

00:02:28.560 Because the first thing we have to do

00:02:29.740 is we need to choose that one skill

00:02:32.180 people are willing to pay for.

00:02:33.840 And here's how we use AI to get there.

00:02:36.320 Open up ChatGPT and write this in,

00:02:37.980 but you can use any AI.

00:02:39.300 Now ask it to interview you and ask you these questions.

00:02:42.360 What are you good at?

00:02:43.340 What have you done?

00:02:44.420 And what do you enjoy?

00:02:45.460 My dad always joked with me,

00:02:46.900 if you could just find something you're passionate about

00:02:48.920 that isn't illegal,

00:02:49.820 I think you'd do well with your life.

00:02:51.260 And he was right.

00:02:52.160 It happened to be computer programming.

00:02:53.720 But for you, it could be something completely different.

00:02:56.060 You can even tell it to help you find your icky guy

00:02:57.880 to give it a little bit more clarity

00:02:59.400 to make those questions really punch.

00:03:01.360 Tell it, go look at real job posts.

00:03:03.680 What are customers asking for on the internet?

00:03:05.940 What are people willing to pay for?

00:03:07.920 That is a great test of what the market wants.

00:03:10.900 So for example, if you tell it

00:03:12.880 that you love doing like video editing,

00:03:14.560 that could mean that you are gonna turn long form videos

00:03:17.380 into short clips.

00:03:18.880 That is a whole industry where people are making

00:03:20.880 100,000 a year, just clipping other people's long form and publishing it. Number two is we need to

00:03:26.980 build a plan to get these results. This is one of my favorite things to do. I actually was sitting

00:03:31.400 down with Lewis Howes not long ago doing his podcast and he said, hey Dan, this is all great,

00:03:35.640 but what would you do if you only had 15 minutes a day and you had three kids, you're a working mom

00:03:40.660 and you want to learn this stuff. And I said, say that again. I hit the button. I recorded exactly

00:03:46.400 it was asking me. And then I said, build me a plan, enter. And we kept talking. And six minutes

00:03:51.400 later, it built a webpage with free YouTube videos, 15 minutes a day, structured into 30 days,

00:03:57.560 into three different sections so that the mom could learn AI while she drove the kids to school.

00:04:02.560 So you can do the same thing and just be specific. I want free videos. I don't want to pay for

00:04:07.580 anything. Help me build a plan. I only got 15 minutes or 20 minutes or an hour, whatever it

00:04:11.560 is for you and ask it to build that plan, put it in a spreadsheet, link up the videos. We also have

00:04:16.280 to make time to practice because content without execution is just information and for me I like

00:04:21.560 to do things in 90 day sprints so if you can commit to 90 days of learning and doing learning

00:04:27.620 and doing even in these little tiny windows you will crush it and if you want to go pro have

00:04:33.440 something that you're willing to put online if you don't do it maybe you got to give up your e-bike

00:04:37.520 maybe you got to walk to work I don't know what it is last year Sam Todd and myself my creative

00:04:42.600 director and my CEO, we put our Porsches on the line to hit a goal. I'm just saying, maybe you're

00:04:47.660 inspired by that and you want to make it stick this time, have something that's called a state,

00:04:52.300 but in the same breath, give yourself a reward. Maybe there's something you've been wanting to

00:04:56.300 buy yourself, maybe a nice watch. And if you stick to something for 90 days in a row and you learn a

00:05:00.860 new skill and you start making more money because of it, there should be a little gift that you give

00:05:05.040 yourself at the end of it. And three, practice and fix what isn't working. To do something mindlessly,

00:05:10.600 I don't think is a good way to learn.

00:05:12.480 I like to try, see if it worked.

00:05:14.400 If it didn't, it's like,

00:05:15.280 well, the video said it would work, but it didn't work.

00:05:17.060 The key is, is the commitment doesn't stop.

00:05:19.700 You show up to do the work.

00:05:21.240 The approach or the angle may.

00:05:23.960 And my favorite way to know if I'm doing the right thing

00:05:25.880 is to find somebody that's already done it

00:05:27.460 and ask them for advice.

00:05:28.960 Number four, prove you've learned the skill

00:05:31.840 by showing an example of the work done.

00:05:34.720 I don't work on new skills unless I have a project

00:05:37.380 that I can give to the world.

00:05:39.020 And the best way to create accountability

00:05:40.920 is to tell everybody on Facebook,

00:05:42.980 you're gonna build it with a date

00:05:44.420 and then they're gonna ask you about it

00:05:45.680 because you made a commitment.

00:05:46.720 It's like on this date, I'm launching this.

00:05:48.260 Now through this whole process,

00:05:49.720 I wanna remind you that you have to validate

00:05:52.480 that the market wants it, not just learn the skill

00:05:55.320 because maybe the way you're learning it

00:05:56.880 is invaluable to other people.

00:05:58.440 So as quick as you can get into the flow of funds,

00:06:01.380 meaning other people are paying you to do the skill,

00:06:04.540 even if it's subsidized at first

00:06:06.000 because you're still just learning it,

00:06:07.460 that is proof that there's demand for it.

00:06:10.240 You just getting good at something

00:06:11.660 that nobody's willing to pay for doesn't help you out.

00:06:13.980 And that is why it's a high value skill, not just a skill.

00:06:17.720 So now we have a skill and hopefully we validated

00:06:20.340 that people are willing to pay for it,

00:06:21.980 but now you're gonna get busy.

00:06:23.300 Cause if you're good,

00:06:24.140 people are gonna ask you for more things

00:06:25.460 and you're spending more time learning to get better.

00:06:27.640 What happens when your calendar fills up?

00:06:29.940 Well ceiling number two, that's 100K to 300K.

00:06:33.480 Now you've built a valuable skill.

00:06:35.420 You know people are willing to pay for it

00:06:37.020 hopefully they have but now the calendar starts getting full because anybody's ever gotten good

00:06:41.340 at something it starts getting demand you take on more projects you start working nights and

00:06:46.700 weekends to just try to keep up and you're still trying to handle all these other emails and

00:06:50.940 scheduling and paperwork make sure people are paying and invoices how are you supposed to earn

00:06:55.500 more when you literally have no more hours to sell this reminds me of my friend lisa okay and

00:07:00.460 she was an ai automation freelancer and she got good and a lot of people came to her and they

00:07:05.020 started buying and she was having fun until the pressure of the calendar started to get really

00:07:10.560 loud. Then she started to miss birthdays with her friends and going to the gym and taking care of

00:07:16.300 herself. She had no time for anything else other than the business. So I challenged her, hey,

00:07:22.100 you're making money. Could somebody else help you? I challenged her to hire a part-time assistant.

00:07:26.860 So that very little bit of money that she paid somebody else to help her versus the amount of

00:07:31.220 money she was getting paid as an AI automation freelancer allowed her to get 20 hours a week

00:07:36.620 almost back instantly. She had somebody else monitoring her inbox, following up with invoices,

00:07:42.000 making sure your voices got said, making sure the clients were happy with the projects,

00:07:46.180 all things that she didn't even enjoy doing in the first place. So instead of like working all day

00:07:50.500 and then spending her nights just processing her inbox, she had somebody else support her to make

00:07:55.100 sure all the projects got moved forward. And now she can take on more clients, yes, but now she

00:07:59.000 time to go to the gym she gets to see her friends she's got more freedom in her calendar because

00:08:03.400 she understands what her time's worth and she bought it back and if you're new here and you

00:08:07.960 haven't heard about this incredible book buy back your time written by you know who you might want

00:08:12.680 to give it a read the barrier here is doing all the low value tasks yourself but the fix is to

00:08:17.880 buy back your time spend a little bit of money to get more time back to invest it in you or the

00:08:22.840 business at this level of wealth we hand off administrative tasks or anything that's repetitive

00:08:27.880 so that you can focus on the work that makes you money.

00:08:31.060 Because the most expensive thing

00:08:32.580 is you not doing the thing that makes you the most money.

00:08:35.280 And my favorite part in the world we live in today

00:08:37.700 is AI is the person.

00:08:40.380 And it's cost you $100 a month, maybe 200 bucks a month

00:08:43.460 to have them do it or automate the whole freaking thing.

00:08:46.700 If you don't have an assistant, you are one.

00:08:49.620 And the truth is you're probably overpaid

00:08:51.740 and you're not very good at your job.

00:08:53.360 So that's why you need to understand the buyback loop.

00:08:56.360 When we feel pain in our calendar, we have to do three things.

00:09:00.860 The first, we have to audit our calendar for low-value works that suck our energy.

00:09:05.800 So what's cool is AI can actually look at your calendar and identify things that you just shouldn't be involved in.

00:09:12.280 Before, you had to do this manually and do like a time audit.

00:09:15.920 Now, it can do it for you.

00:09:17.700 To do that, you connect your calendar, your email, your NotionFile, anything that has context on what you're spending your time with.

00:09:24.240 You should also give it your goals.

00:09:25.500 Here's what I'm trying to do this year.

00:09:27.020 Maybe you wanna get to 500,000 in revenue.

00:09:29.860 And then it can look at what you're doing with your time,

00:09:32.020 your goals for income or profit,

00:09:33.640 and then tell you these things should not be done by you.

00:09:37.420 For example, you could tell it.

00:09:39.200 My goal this year is to break that 300K wealth barrier.

00:09:42.780 What are examples of things that are in my calendar,

00:09:44.940 in my inbox that you see me doing

00:09:46.860 that maybe I shouldn't be doing?

00:09:48.460 And that becomes the punch list to get AI to automate

00:09:51.240 or give to somebody else.

00:09:52.540 Number two is pick one task that's eating your time

00:09:55.880 and transfer it to someone else

00:09:57.820 or even better, use AI to automate it.

00:10:00.520 And the easiest way to do this

00:10:01.660 is just record yourself doing this.

00:10:03.720 I like to use Zoom or I can use Granola.

00:10:05.980 I can use any of these AI tools.

00:10:07.400 Some of them, they're built in now.

00:10:08.920 You can literally hit teach the task or record

00:10:11.840 and it'll record your screen and your audio.

00:10:14.620 You do it and it'll turn it into an AI skill,

00:10:18.060 basically an automation.

00:10:19.500 All you gotta do is do the thing you've been doing

00:10:21.840 like processing your inbox or managing your calendar

00:10:24.960 or sending invoices or moving files around,

00:10:28.840 it'll watch you do it and it'll go,

00:10:30.700 oh, I see what you're doing.

00:10:31.860 I'll do this every day at 9 a.m.

00:10:33.640 And the pro tip is that if you give it a template

00:10:36.640 of what you've done in the past to say,

00:10:38.440 this is what great looks like,

00:10:39.920 it'll match it almost perfectly.

00:10:41.720 And if for whatever reason, you can't give it to AI,

00:10:43.380 you can just give it to somebody else using the video

00:10:45.880 and the outline the AI created,

00:10:47.580 and then the person can do it for you.

00:10:49.660 Number three, the most important,

00:10:51.180 this is fill. So that's audit. Then we got transfer. Number three is fill. This is where

00:10:56.660 we fill our time with higher value work. We just fill it with doing a bunch of low value stuff

00:11:01.480 because we gave somebody else to counter stuff. Then we're just going to fill the hole with a

00:11:04.880 bunch of stuff that doesn't make us more money. And the cool part is I've got all the exact prompts

00:11:08.780 to do the audit transfer fill in the description below. So I want you to identify one high value

00:11:14.640 task that will help you make more money for a lot of freelancers stuck at this level. It's usually

00:11:19.740 marketing, meaning they got to produce more content. They got to go to more events. They

00:11:23.560 got to learn how to run ads, but there's activity that they should be investing in to create more

00:11:28.080 awareness that they exist that brings in more customers. For example, maybe it's producing

00:11:32.580 content. Maybe it's learning how to do better sales calls. Whatever part of your business

00:11:36.700 is not getting enough TLC, a little bit of love, fill your calendar with learning the new skill

00:11:41.660 and then practicing it by having a project and doing it. You can use AI such as GrokBot to

00:11:47.900 actually work you through the buyback loop you open up grokbot if you haven't used it it's probably

00:11:52.460 the easiest ai agent out there right now you can say hey do the audit based on i just shared look

00:11:57.740 at my calendar look at my emails then it'll know that then you say transfer this stuff it'll

00:12:03.180 actually create all the skills and the best practices and the templates based on your

00:12:07.340 previous emails your previous calendar entries anything you've already done it's smart enough

00:12:11.020 to do that then you could ask it to own it and then you can work with it to help you add new

00:12:16.380 stuff to your calendar to fill your time learning the new skill that's going to help you make more

00:12:20.780 money and then within grokbot you create little bots to monitor your business and automate the

00:12:25.740 whole thing i know this sounds complicated because for a long time it was i'm telling you if you

00:12:31.580 install it it'll actually do it for you pro tip install it open it up grab this video give it to

00:12:37.740 the grokbot and say do the thing dan just told me to do it sounds so crazy i call it productivity at

00:12:43.340 the speed of links all day long this is what i'm doing it's as easy as copy paste do and if you run

00:12:49.980 a bigger business and you want to put all of this into practice a build a free scale your business

00:12:55.020 workbook in it i walk you through how to build systems that help you build the business and

00:12:59.420 grow without everything depending on you it's probably my most valuable resource that a lot

00:13:03.980 of people still haven't seen so if you've been sitting on it and you haven't downloaded it go

00:13:07.660 check it out today just scan the qr code on the screen or click the link below in the description

00:13:11.820 and i'll send it over for free so now you've developed a high income skill you've got your

00:13:16.540 admin helping you out hopefully your ai automation but what happens when you start having other

00:13:21.100 people actually do the work but every decision still has to come through you now we get to

00:13:25.660 wealth ceiling number three this is 300k to a million in revenue technically at this level

00:13:31.420 the work is off your plate but the decisions aren't you've recruited some people you've handed

00:13:36.700 things over you're like hey i read dan's book and i'm doing the thing and i see the value of

00:13:41.260 of me working on higher value things,

00:13:42.980 but still there's a ceiling that starts to creep in

00:13:45.760 where every decision that has to be made in the business

00:13:48.280 still routes back to you.

00:13:49.660 Which means when you go on vacation

00:13:51.800 and somebody is trying to make a decision

00:13:53.440 to buy some licenses for some software,

00:13:55.260 still has to come through you.

00:13:56.380 And look, I run a media company

00:13:59.160 with literally dozens of people

00:14:00.920 that are creating and producing,

00:14:02.980 and they've got to make decisions

00:14:04.420 around a very creative process without me,

00:14:07.100 because I'm busy building my AI companies at Martell Ventures.

00:14:11.020 There's no way I could do all of this.

00:14:13.640 The content, the editing, the publishing.

00:14:16.720 We produce 400 plus pieces of content per week.

00:14:19.560 Do you think I have time to review every single one?

00:14:21.900 But obviously they still need my input.

00:14:24.800 So how do I do that?

00:14:25.820 First off, I capture everything.

00:14:27.840 I capture my Zoom calls, my transcripts,

00:14:30.380 my meetings, my Slack conversation.

00:14:32.500 I even have this device called Plod

00:14:34.720 that I just hit a button.

00:14:35.760 Anytime I'm in a meeting, I put it down,

00:14:37.300 I let everybody know I'm recording, and then we talk.

00:14:39.920 and that whole thing gets uploaded to my second brain.

00:14:43.020 I use a platform called apex.host.

00:14:44.980 If you're looking for one, it's what I use,

00:14:46.880 but you can use anything that essentially grabs

00:14:49.280 all the ideas, the stories, capture it all,

00:14:51.800 and put it in one place.

00:14:52.840 Then what I did is I created this agent

00:14:54.660 called Ghostwriter Agent that my team has access to

00:14:57.460 through Apex, and you can do this through whatever you want,

00:14:59.820 but they can now search that knowledge that has everything.

00:15:03.880 They can ask questions like,

00:15:05.040 I need a story about a time that Dan experienced this,

00:15:07.560 or, hey, here's a data point

00:15:09.240 but I wanna make sure it's factual.

00:15:10.720 Or what's Dan been talking a lot about lately

00:15:13.200 that he's excited about?

00:15:14.500 All without having to take my time.

00:15:17.140 Then they take that and they produce the media.

00:15:20.120 I'm talking everything, slides, videos, shorts, newsletter.

00:15:24.580 All of it comes from things I've said.

00:15:26.560 The team doesn't make stuff up.

00:15:28.320 We have templates based on my best practices,

00:15:30.840 the way I talk, that they use to create everything.

00:15:33.880 I'm just not needed for the creative part.

00:15:36.300 I'm now an editor, not an author.

00:15:39.020 and they're not staring at a blank page.

00:15:41.280 And that allows me to give them full ownership

00:15:44.080 around the decisions, not just the process,

00:15:46.380 so that I can break through that well-seal.

00:15:48.400 So the big idea is I give people the context

00:15:51.200 and the ownership to now make decisions

00:15:53.960 that don't require me.

00:15:55.040 The work is completely done by somebody else.

00:15:57.760 I'm there for final review.

00:15:59.500 It's literally the 10-80-10.

00:16:01.240 It's a process I teach in my book.

00:16:02.940 It's just powered by AI.

00:16:04.720 So the barrier here to break through this well-sealing

00:16:07.120 is that all the work is done by somebody else,

00:16:09.240 but every decision still needs you.

00:16:11.160 The fix is give your team the tools and ownership

00:16:14.260 to do it themselves.

00:16:15.320 See, in the previous level,

00:16:16.840 you freed yourself up to do more valuable work.

00:16:19.420 Cool, here you build the departments that can own it.

00:16:23.200 Now you can work on the operation,

00:16:25.020 the strategy of the business.

00:16:26.900 You actually create something

00:16:28.100 that's worth something to somebody else.

00:16:29.840 A lot of people at this level,

00:16:31.260 the fear they have is that the customer bought them,

00:16:35.000 and that's why they stay involved in the doing.

00:16:37.420 But what I would invite you to consider

00:16:39.380 is that they bought your standards, not your presence.

00:16:42.820 And when you have team members that are empowered

00:16:45.440 and they have the tools and you delegate the decisions

00:16:47.860 to operate using the principles that you've encoded,

00:16:51.140 then they can make decisions that would replicate yours

00:16:54.000 when you're not involved.

00:16:55.220 So if your team is empowered with your standards,

00:16:57.960 then the customer will be happy to buy from you.

00:17:00.280 So here's how you build a second brain

00:17:01.920 that your team can get access to.

00:17:03.700 Number one, we gotta pick one area of your team

00:17:06.580 that they should own.

00:17:07.660 For a lot of people, marketing is a great place to start,

00:17:10.380 but it could be content, sales, or delivery.

00:17:13.020 Just be clear about the results

00:17:14.600 you want them to be responsible for.

00:17:16.360 Number two, save what the team already does.

00:17:19.260 Every person usually has like a process they're following.

00:17:22.360 It just sits on their computer.

00:17:24.020 You have to create a shared folder

00:17:25.420 and ask everybody to add to it, including you.

00:17:28.940 You might sit there and just hit record.

00:17:30.960 So what I'll do is I'll just double click this.

00:17:32.820 Now it's recording.

00:17:33.660 And then I'll just ramble about sales calls.

00:17:35.960 Here's my philosophy on sales calls.

00:17:37.600 When I start a call, I do this.

00:17:39.000 I do this because of this.

00:17:40.080 And you can just talk and talk and talk and talk and talk.

00:17:42.520 And the beautiful part is the AI can figure it all out.

00:17:45.120 Literally to stop, I just go, boom, it vibrated.

00:17:48.260 Now it's recorded, saves it to the cloud, crazy thing.

00:17:51.500 And then I can use all that information my team gave me

00:17:54.600 plus this to delegate the decisions.

00:17:57.480 So now I have recordings.

00:17:59.100 I showed the team what good looks like,

00:18:00.660 all the methodology and principles,

00:18:02.360 ingrained into the brain. Now, the third part is share your brain with the team. Now, people say to

00:18:07.440 me at this point, they go, yeah, but Dan, what if I say something they don't need to know? Like,

00:18:10.540 what if I was talking about a person? I record all my meetings. Is it possible that somebody's

00:18:14.260 talking to me about a contract, financial decision, maybe letting somebody go? Yes.

00:18:19.620 How do I get around that? I ask the AI when responding to team members, please sanitize

00:18:24.860 anything that may not be needed to do their job. That's information in real time about the business.

00:18:29.960 and i give them examples financials legal people that way if they're doing marketing collateral

00:18:36.440 newsletter ideas case studies with customers they can search that second brain to help them create

00:18:41.960 with factual real-time information we built apex so not only am i not dependent on all the different

00:18:48.200 platforms so i have my second brain so that's why people are like how do you migrate from chat to

00:18:52.360 claude to gemini to grok my second brain is the platform that shares it with all these different

00:18:57.560 ai's and it's also what i use for my team in different departments to self-serve themselves

00:19:03.000 to get information they otherwise would have to ask me to be able to do think about it my chief

00:19:07.560 of staff has full access to everything my whole sales organization has access so that they can

00:19:12.520 ask about a person and get the context all in this second brain even how the brain uses our vega

00:19:18.120 platform which is inside of apex to do what it does is a wild thing to see if you want to check

00:19:22.920 it out and get yourself set up just click the link below in the descriptions and talk to somebody on

00:19:26.680 on my team and last but not least we have to give people room to actually own are they gonna make

00:19:32.720 the best decision every time no is there a way that we can evaluate and give them feedback yes

00:19:38.240 but the key is is we never want to take the work back once you delegate it leave it with the people

00:19:43.800 okay we use the second brain and perfect it so that they can self-serve in the future so for

00:19:48.440 example we've agreed on what makes a good story we've agreed on what makes a great youtube video

00:19:53.360 we've agreed on what makes good short form content then the details inside i don't get involved in

00:19:59.680 those are unnecessary details if i have a challenge we look at the principles we look on

00:20:03.520 the structure and we fix that we don't get involved in the pieces and the best part is

00:20:08.320 the brain can keep learning so every two weeks i have an ideation meeting with my media team

00:20:13.520 we go through all these crazy ideas i'm having they present their crazy ideas we save it that

00:20:17.920 gets fed into the brain everybody on the team figures it out this is a wild way that only in

00:20:22.400 today can you actually crack through that level by having your team own work but what i notice is

00:20:27.840 when people reach that one million well ceiling people start to slow down who's pushing them to

00:20:33.440 get better which brings us to level four one to three million plus success can make you comfortable

00:20:40.080 it's like big dog syndrome it's like when you started you had nothing and then you started

00:20:44.160 building and you started creating it was hard but you did it and now you have money and what's funny

00:20:49.040 is when you started you had a vision what's possible what could i create but then along that

00:20:53.680 journey you realize oh i got something to lose now so instead of keeping on the march to the

00:20:59.040 journey to the top of that mountain you decide to settle you decide to get comfortable because it

00:21:04.640 feels good you've already got some money you've already got more than most people around you

00:21:08.800 so why do you keep pushing and unfortunately if you're thinking that way so is your team what

00:21:14.240 happens is you'll keep growing a little bit but it's no longer exponential remember those first

00:21:19.680 few years when you went like pow pow pow things are going well but people aren't making the big

00:21:26.080 changes i faced this not too long ago in one of my companies so much so that i made a decision

00:21:32.400 to shut the company down for two days and teach every person how to use clod code back then to

00:21:39.040 become technical enough to solve problems using ai and i'll tell you a lot of people were scared

00:21:45.600 a lot of people thought well if i build a solution to do my job what would my job be so what i did

00:21:51.280 is i brought everybody together i put them into teams of three i brought in external folks like

00:21:56.720 my friends at six summit who literally do this for big companies all the time and they worked with

00:22:01.760 the team to not only get it installed learn how to code learn how to deploy apps but really focus on

00:22:08.880 and creating the value that gave them the most time back

00:22:11.600 for them to do the thing only they could do.

00:22:13.680 When I'm sitting down with my media team,

00:22:15.120 I want them to be creative.

00:22:16.700 I don't want them to be moving

00:22:18.160 and managing files and processes all around.

00:22:20.520 When I sit down with my revenue team,

00:22:22.260 I wanna make sure they're really talking with customers

00:22:24.420 that we might be able to help, not doing data entry.

00:22:27.420 And what's crazy is after only two days,

00:22:30.900 they built dozens of different AI tools

00:22:33.880 and every one of these teams built solutions

00:22:36.680 to do their whole job.

00:22:38.160 And after that hackathon, I just saw everything,

00:22:41.040 problems get solved faster, things get deployed,

00:22:43.440 and we went exponential in our growth.

00:22:45.820 And the prize for the top team was $3,000,

00:22:49.400 $1,000 for second place and third place.

00:22:51.780 But what was crazy is they didn't even care about the money.

00:22:54.900 What they love most is that they all felt

00:22:57.280 like we just invested in them

00:22:58.720 to develop a new high value skill.

00:23:01.220 See how that works?

00:23:02.240 People don't stay for the money,

00:23:03.720 they stay if they feel like they're growing.

00:23:05.660 So sometimes we have to be the example

00:23:07.840 and push.

00:23:08.960 The barrier at three million

00:23:10.840 is that it's comfortable to stay the old way.

00:23:13.340 Do nothing, get the same results, you become complacent.

00:23:16.080 The fix is to be the example,

00:23:18.420 to be what I call the chief instigator,

00:23:20.660 to come in and challenge people

00:23:22.620 to change the way they think.

00:23:24.280 That is your responsibility.

00:23:26.080 You set the pace, you use the tools,

00:23:28.460 you show them what's possible,

00:23:30.260 and then you make space and room for the team

00:23:32.960 and encourage them to change how they work.

00:23:36.380 Your number one goal is to give people time

00:23:39.080 to think bigger, better, to do the work.

00:23:41.700 And that requires them to get better

00:23:43.660 at the three things AI is gonna have a hard time doing.

00:23:46.280 That's have better taste, better vision, and better care. 0.88

00:23:49.580 Our jobs as leader to break through that wealth ceiling

00:23:52.560 of 3 million plus is to build the people.

00:23:55.020 The people build the business.

00:23:56.860 So here's how you can run your own AI hackathon.

00:23:59.660 First off, show the team what's possible.

00:24:02.320 If you haven't gone through some of my other videos

00:24:04.360 or what's available today,

00:24:05.840 dive into the tools yourself, find an example,

00:24:08.540 either that you build or somebody helps you build,

00:24:10.720 or maybe you can just find somebody in your industry

00:24:12.460 that's done something online and show the team,

00:24:15.260 show them the tool, show them the results,

00:24:17.740 invite them to play with it.

00:24:19.800 Number two is carve out.

00:24:21.640 I mean, you don't have to do two days.

00:24:22.880 You can do one day, you can do a half a day.

00:24:24.980 I think that people need to sleep

00:24:26.460 and come back and work on it again.

00:24:28.100 And we did it Thursday, Friday.

00:24:29.740 So the ones that wanted to could work the weekends,

00:24:32.060 a little strategy there.

00:24:33.080 And then on Monday, they all had to pitch.

00:24:35.600 And then just invite them to clear their schedule

00:24:38.220 so that the people have time to build.

00:24:40.060 They have time to connect, they have time to learn,

00:24:42.660 and then you have a clear direction.

00:24:44.800 Here's the prize, here's how we're gonna assess it,

00:24:46.940 we're all gonna vote, and then people get really excited.

00:24:49.860 And the third is actually have them work on something

00:24:53.100 that automates the work they're doing.

00:24:54.980 They need a real working project

00:24:57.300 of something they know intimately

00:24:59.740 to then work with the AI to automate the whole thing.

00:25:02.740 So because they know it so well,

00:25:04.160 they understand where the data is,

00:25:05.440 understand what the interface looks like they know what it would look like bad or good and the best

00:25:10.420 part is if they do it and they present it they'll actually get their time back the key is keep the

00:25:16.120 team small two people three people max have external people come in to support them folks

00:25:21.800 that are technical enough to be able to help them get unstuck and then the fourth step my favorite

00:25:26.320 part is have everybody demo to the whole company what they've built that idea of show and tell is

00:25:32.260 is probably the most powerful part of a hackathon.

00:25:34.440 I literally just got back from spending a day in LA.

00:25:37.720 Google and I sponsored an X-Prize.

00:25:40.580 40,000 teams entered, five teams were finalists,

00:25:44.420 and I got to go on stage

00:25:45.640 and hand out checks to the people that won.

00:25:47.720 It was a wild thing.

00:25:49.060 The largest AI hackathon ever run.

00:25:51.920 And this is something that you can do yourself.

00:25:54.100 And again, if you want support,

00:25:55.340 reach out to the team at Six Summit.

00:25:57.080 The link's in the description.

00:25:58.500 They do it for all of my companies.

00:25:59.980 So this rhythm of like coming in

00:26:02.160 and being the cheap instigator,

00:26:03.820 back then it was clogged code.

00:26:05.260 Today, I just did it with GrokBot.

00:26:07.120 You can decide to do it with just anything.

00:26:09.540 You can just decide to surge on the problem,

00:26:12.280 to shake it up,

00:26:13.420 to get the whole team thinking differently.

00:26:15.320 If you do this,

00:26:16.200 you will break through that high level

00:26:18.160 3 million plus well seal.

00:26:20.100 And the fun part is once you do,

00:26:22.200 you go back to learning your deck's high value skill.

00:26:24.800 It's a cycle.

00:26:25.480 It's a loop and it never stops,

00:26:27.240 but that's the best part about being an entrepreneur.

00:26:29.080 Because if you think about it, at each new level,

00:26:31.860 there's a new devil.

00:26:32.880 Every one brings a challenge that has to be conquered.

00:26:36.000 And every level requires a new version of you.

00:26:38.780 I've always asked this question,

00:26:40.340 who do I need to become

00:26:41.480 to easily achieve this next level goal?

00:26:43.880 It's not about tactics always,

00:26:45.840 because we have this world of AI, let's partner with it.

00:26:48.180 Let's have it help us break through these well ceilings.

00:26:51.240 But at the same time, let's look in the mirror

00:26:53.320 and ask ourselves, who do I need to become?

00:26:56.940 I need to ask you that question.

00:26:58.460 in the comments below.

00:26:59.620 What's one thing that you know you'd have to change

00:27:02.080 to be able to break through your next ceiling?

00:27:04.540 Is it developing a new high-level skill?

00:27:06.700 Is it valuing your time?

00:27:08.500 Is it working with your team on a second brain?

00:27:11.000 Or is it becoming a chief instigator

00:27:13.100 to get everybody else to level up?

00:27:15.640 Leave a comment below and let me know what your answer is.

00:27:17.740 And remember, if you run a business

00:27:19.680 and you wanna grab my free Scale Your Business Workbook,

00:27:22.220 just scan the QR code

00:27:23.340 or click the link below in the description.

00:27:24.960 Now, next up, if you wanna level up your AI tool stack

00:27:28.100 with the latest and greatest.

00:27:29.600 Watch this next video.

00:27:30.840 I'll see you on the other side.

Dan Martell - October 14, 2026

The Best AI Strategies by Income Level： $35K, $100K, $1M+

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