Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Welcome to Basic Business AI, a podcast dedicated to simple AI strategies for businesses who don't want to get an advanced tech degree or hire some marketing bro. I'm your host, Ana Gonzalez, and you can find me on social media. At Anabotprime, we bring on regular business owners like you and me to discuss practical strategies, ideas, and perspectives about AI without getting too far into the weeds of the tech Bb. AI is sponsored by Anabots. We build AI with heart. Our trained AI sales and support assistants work twenty four seven to increase sales, reduce costs, and free up your time so you can focus on growing your business. If you want to install a 24/7 near human sales and support team in your business, go to Anabotz AI to learn more. We have 100% free options and low cost options to fit any budget. Once more, that's Annabots Aihdenhe. Today's guest is Henry Woodman.
Henry Woodman, as a teenager, went in search of a lost city in the jungles of Honduras. He built a business in college, setting up video game machines and laundromats to feed his Pac man habit, produced travel films, and then developed a hit game show in Chile. Bootstrapped and scaled global tech platform that sold for eight figures, going full circle to fulfill a dream to produce a tv series from the book the Reincarnation of Marie.
So, Henry, welcome to the show.
[00:01:27] Speaker B: That's it. You said it all. I have nothing left to say. Thank you.
[00:01:31] Speaker A: Well, thank you so much for being here.
But anyways, just tell me something. I have one question for you. From your perspective, how is AI reshaping the future of your business?
[00:01:46] Speaker B: That's a very big question. Let's start with, well, obviously my previous business, the tech platform, it's incredibly impactful for a variety of things. One, you can write and QA quality assurance code much more efficiently, faster and less expensive.
Those of the people who once said, and this was years ago when I was hiring developers for ridiculous amounts of money, they had to be really good and they had to have the QA and you didn't want. You were mission critical.
You can get, oh my God. You can get AI to do the things for a fraction of the cost.
So, one, you're going to get better code, not just development, but also interfacing with other platforms. Two, I think the customer support thing, I'm not a big fan of the bots when you chat, and I just want to speak to a human, but I think they're getting better and they're more intelligent. So I think that the development of technology platforms, the service, the customer service portion, is all going to be aided. The one challenge I would probably find for any business would be in the sales and marketing side, because, oh, yeah, we can put up a lot more content on social media. Then it becomes a lot of noise. That's my opinion. The business I'm getting into. We'll talk about that later. Is more going full circle in my life going on the tv side and that not so much anymore. People don't write scripts with AI yet. They're not developing full television shows with AI yet. I. And I think there's a lot of pushback from the people that are the creatives that think that they shouldn't have their jobs displaced, and I understand that. But the world is changing, and it always comes down to the bottom line. So when money gets less expensive and concepts can be developed and things can be entertaining, I think AI will take on some of that as well.
[00:03:42] Speaker A: Yes, very interesting. You mentioned something about chatbots, and you said, oh, I just. I just want to speak to a human. And chat bots are not the same as they were 20 years ago. They have been evolving a lot.
I know that. In my case, I'd rather have someone who solves my problem right away. Like, right now. People are not as patient as they were. And if you submit a ticket and you're gonna wait a day for someone to reply, you're gonna be like, or at least I am, like, why so long? I want someone to tell me what to do right now. So tell me more about that.
[00:04:33] Speaker B: At the end of the day, how many times have you said, okay, look, I'll try this whole chatbot thing, and you ask a question that can be relatively specific.
It doesn't give you the answer, because it doesn't have the answer. Or it takes you to a generic answer, and you're like, that's not what I asked. Right.
[00:04:49] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:04:50] Speaker B: When you go into this circular loop of hell and you say, you know what? I would just rather speak to a human who can understand. Here is my issue. I'm having a challenge with x, y, or z, and when you ask the bot, it sends you to a, B, and C, and you're like, no, that's not what I asked.
I just don't like to waste the time, and I want to get right to the point. Now, I understand why they have the bots because it saves money. I understand AI will make it far better to understand specific inquiries. So I like you, and most people want to pick up the phone and say, listen here, is and get somebody pretty quickly. Here is my problem. Here's why I have a challenge and why I'm calling. And somebody says, oh, yeah, let me see what I can do, as opposed to, no, let me send you here, no, let me send you there. And you're in chatbot hell, right?
[00:05:37] Speaker A: And I think that goes hand in hand with something else that you mentioned about.
People are using AI to create content and now it becomes noise.
So it's about inputs. The quality of your input will dictate the quality of your output.
[00:05:56] Speaker B: And it's more than just quality. I mean, if a gazillion people are spitting out good quality, how do you filter through all of that?
And maybe AI does that for you. But at the end of the day, everybody's trying to get the eyeballs of somebody else so they can get them separated from their money. And AI might help them create content and blog and social media and stuff, but then it comes down to who's got time for all of this stuff, right? And there, and I think, lies the bigger challenge. It's not like, hey, I need to put out a blog and write stuff and be on social media constantly, but I don't have the time. But AI can. Now everybody's doing that.
[00:06:41] Speaker A: Yeah, everybody's doing it. And you know what? There's people who, for instance, Alex Formosi, creates 200 pieces of content, but that's because he has a team.
Like, if there's someone who's a solopreneur and wants to put up 200 pieces of content a week, it's not going to work the same.
[00:07:07] Speaker B: No, and I apologize. I didn't say that it's not going to work. I mean, it works for some people, but there are people like me that don't want all the inundated noise, spamish type stuff, right?
[00:07:20] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:07:21] Speaker B: So if you're putting stuff out there, posting and blogging and stuff for SEO purposes, great. It's not going to be easier than it once was. I believe I may be wrong, but the more people that are starting to use AI, and I say this, if you're not using AI, you should certainly look into how it can help your business. And if one of the things is creation of content for marketing purposes and the others are doing it as well, then you have more noise, if you will. I think that's challenging. How do you stand above the noise? And I don't know that AI has the answer to that, because then if they did, then anybody would be using it for everybody.
[00:08:07] Speaker A: Yeah, well said. So, Henry, tell us about who you serve and how can people reach out to you?
[00:08:16] Speaker B: Oh, well, right now I serve my dog. Well, I have three dogs now.
I sold my company and happily decided that I'm going to pivot. And now I am developing a television. Well, let me go back a little bit further. 40 years ago, I bought the rights to a book. I had this idea that I was going to produce and direct a movie. That didn't happen, but I kept the rights of the book and I never published it. And now, 40 years later, after selling my company, I decided now I want to get back and do that little passion project. So the book just got published. It's called the Reincarnation of Marie.
And the book is really going to be the concept that we develop a tv series. It is a paranormal romance, historical fiction.
So, yeah, that's kind of the direction that my life is headed. What would I do if I really didn't have to worry about paying the bills? And I just want to do something fun. It is, because, listen, tv production and stuff, unless you're the 1%, you're not making a lot of money. But I'm not in it to make the money. I'm in it just because I enjoy it. And it's a passion project.
[00:09:29] Speaker A: It's good for the soul.
[00:09:30] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:09:33] Speaker A: So where can we find the reincarnation of Marie?
[00:09:35] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, well, I think the best place because it's got links to different places to buy. And then also an update on what we're doing with the tv series. It's called mariethestory.com.
[00:09:53] Speaker A: Perfect.
[00:09:54] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:09:55] Speaker A: Okay, so we're going to wrap from here. Thanks to our guest, Henry Whitman, for joining us for a practical conversation about AI and its potential for business.
You can learn more about what he does or about the reincarnation of Marie. Visiting mariethestory.com dot if you run a business of any size and you have some ideas or strategies around the topic of AI, we'd love to have you on a future episode as well. We interview business owners of all levels of experience and exposure to AI so we can represent all voices, especially the 80% to 90% of us who are curious about Aih, but not trying to be tech geniuses. Apply for a future episode by going to basicbusinessai.com. and one more time, if you want to install a sales and supports team that actually has a heart for less than 10% of the cost of a simple employee, get yourself an anabot. Learn more at anabots AI. So see you next time on basic business. AI oh, and by the way, if you liked this episode, tell your friends. See you later.
[00:11:00] Speaker B: Thanks, Hannah.
