542 The AI Mirage

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AI Hype Reality Check

Jeffrey Feldberg: Deep Wealth Nation, welcome to another episode of the Deep Wealth Podcast. Today's a special solo episode, and we're talking about something that you're probably thinking about, maybe even experimenting with, perhaps even it's keeping you up at night or you're feeling pressured to get into this. Any guess, Deep Wealth Nation, what I'm talking about?

I'll give you a hint. It's two words, and those two words are shortened to two letters. Best guess, what do you think?

Artificial intelligence.

AI.

And let's be honest, when we look around right now, founders are throwing all kinds of money, time, and attention to AI because nobody wants to be left behind.

We're looking at AI sales tools or customer support, customer retention.

How about AI research?

What about workflow automation in AI?

Dashboards in AI, AI everything. It's in the headlines, it's in the articles, all types of podcasts, and on the surface it sounds absolutely incredible. Think about it. The narrative is with [00:01:00] AI you can get more speed, or more efficiencies?

What about more profits?

Yes, it all sounds terrific. But, and it's a big one, let's go below the surface, as we always do here at Deep Wealth, because there's an uncomfortable truth. A lot of founders, they're not getting richer because of AI. They're getting busier, more distracted. Life and business becomes more complicated and in so many cases, too many cases, the margins are quietly bleeding.

So let me ask you something.

Have you ever bought a tool, started a pilot, maybe you brought on an advisor or a consultant, you approved a subscription because you heard another founder say, "Hey, we're using AI," and you felt that pressure in your gut?

Or if you have a board of advisors, they're saying, " where are you and the company on AI? Everyone's doing it. Why aren't you?"

And the quiet voice inside you says, "Well, are we falling behind?"

If so, you're not alone. But here's the [00:02:00] question that most founders aren't asking before they spend the next dollar.

Profit Leaks First

Jeffrey Feldberg: Where exactly is profit leaking from the business right now, and this is important, and does this AI initiative actually fix it?

We don't want to confuse activity with progress, especially when it comes to our profits because AI without strategy, it's not leverage AI without clarity, that's not innovation. And AI without the profit discipline is certainly not progress. It's expensive complexity wearing a shiny new suit. Now, I want to be clear, this is definitely not an anti-AI episode.

Far from it. AI, when used properly, is incredibly powerful, and yes, it can boost and catapult your profits. AI can help serve customers better, remove, eliminate, or reduce the manual work, help you make better decisions, and free up you and your team for [00:03:00] higher value activities. But, and it's a big one, it's only when it's pointed in the right problem.

Is it garbage in, garbage out?

Or as we love to say here at Deep Wealth, actually, it's platinum in and it's platinum out.

But this only happens when AI is pointed at the right problem. Otherwise, you may be putting a rocket engine on a business that's leaking oil, it has flat tires, and is driving in the wrong direction.

You won't end up with a faster business. You end up with a faster problem. 

Tools Aren’t Strategy

Jeffrey Feldberg: Now, I learned this lesson when I was building Embanet, my e-learning company. And you may be saying, "Well, Jeffre, wait a minute. AI wasn't around when you were building Embanet." And you're absolutely right. The conversation back then, it was not about AI, but it certainly was about technology, systems, automation.

And just like today, there is always another shiny object promising speed, scale, and efficiency. [00:04:00] And this is the human condition.

And Deep Wealth Nation, this is what I want you to think about because I saw this firsthand. The experience taught me something no matter what's going on the tool is never the strategy. The strategy must always come first. The operating system, what we affectionately call the Deep Wealth Operating System, must come first.

The profit logic is always coming ahead of time before anything else. Then, and only then, can and does technology become leverage. That thinking helped me and my team go from saying no to a seven-figure offer to saying yes to a different buyer, a different offer, and a nine-figure deal. And here's the good news.

You don't need to be preparing for an exit to benefit from this. Whether you're, hey, I just want to grow my profits today with no plans to sell, or yes, I do want to grow my profits and I have in my mind an exit in the very near term. The great news, the principles and the strategies, it's the same. The [00:05:00] Deep Wealth Operating System will take you to where you want to go.

So AI must answer to profit, not the other way around. This is not hype. This is not pressure. Profit. So in today's solo episode, I'm going to pull back the curtain on what we at Deep Wealth call the AI Mirage. And as you know, here at Deep Wealth, you may have all the answers. You're not asking the right questions.

I'm going to reveal those questions that you probably should be asking, but you may not be.

Defining the AI Mirage

Jeffrey Feldberg: So let's talk about what we here at Deep Wealth are calling the AI Mirage. You heard me say it before. I'm going to say it again. The AI Mirage is everywhere. Let's talk about why automation without the right profit strategy makes your business weaker, not stronger.

AI does not create clarity. AI amplifies the operating system already inside your company.

And nudge, nudge, wink, wink, are you implementing the Deep Wealth Operating System?

It's the only [00:06:00] operating system from the trenches that comes from a nine-figure exit deal. And even if you don't want to exit, the strategies are one in the same where the focus is on growing your profits and you determine if and when there's an exit.

With a Deep Wealth Operating System, everything is clear that allows AI to actually create leverage. But if your operating system is confused, AI will accelerate more and faster confusion. That's the AI Mirage. It's the illusion that a powerful tool will somehow fix what leadership hasn't clarified.

Sure, the dashboard may look better. The workflow perhaps is moving faster. The team, they feel great. Yes, we're modern, we're using all the latest tools. Look at us. And the leadership meetings, yeah, they sound more innovative. But underneath, when we go below the surface, the real question remains unanswered.

Does the business actually improve?

Are margins getting stronger?

Are profits getting [00:07:00] stronger?

Hey, how's our cash flow?

Are our customers happier?

Is the team focused on higher value work?

And is the company easier to run?

If not, AI may not have created the leverage that you were hoping for. It likely created a more expensive version of the same problem. And this is where most founders get caught, not because they're careless, but because they're responsible. Yes, they want the business to keep up. Yes, they want the team to have better tools, and they want their customers to receive the absolute best service, and they want to grow without adding unnecessary headcount or complexity.

On paper, it all sounds incredible. But AI becomes dangerous when it's placed on top of unclear strategy, broken processes, weak accountability, or fuzzy profit logic. AI, yes, it can make a business stronger, but AI can also make a weak process not only weaker, but make it weaker much [00:08:00] faster.

An automated bad process is still a bad process, even with all the AI around it. An AI-generated report that nobody acts on, it's simply noise, wasted money, time, and effort. A customer support automation that frustrates your best customers, that's not innovation.

Even sales automation, perhaps it fills the pipeline, but what if it's with the wrong types of prospects?

That's not growth.

It's an expensive activity with a monthly subscription.

And I learned this lesson the hard way when I was building Embanet. This was when AI wasn't even around. Again, let's look at the human condition.

Back in the day, yes, there was plenty of new technology that promised more speed, scale, and efficiency. The tool may have been different, but the pattern was the same. Technology did not replace clarity. Technology rewarded clarity. So when the strategy was clear, the technology became the leverage. When the process was clean, automation helped [00:09:00] scale And when the team knew what the outcome actually is, what the systems were that helped us move faster, that's when it became a competitive advantage.

But when the thinking's fuzzy, every new tool that you add, it adds complexity and cost. In fact, it can take you further behind, not further ahead. 

Start With Big Picture

Jeffrey Feldberg: And that's why the Deep Wealth Operating System, it doesn't begin with the tools. It begins Step 1 Big Picture, where we're asking the question: What's a small inflection point?

It may be a whisper right now, but we can identify it. We can figure out a world-class solution. We can ask, "Well, what are we building? Where is the profit leaking? What must become simpler? How can we improve this for the customer? And going beyond improving, how can we solve this for the customer?"

And let's stop depending on founder heroics. Let's actually look at where the marketplace is, where it isn't, and find that gap that nobody's addressing. It's [00:10:00] only after those questions are answered, that's when a technology potentially deserves a seat at the table. So you may be asking, "Well, that sounds great, Jeffrey, but what AI tool should we try next?"

Well, that's not the question to be asking. The right question to be asking is: Where is that profit leak right now for you, for the marketplace, for your existing customers, for your future customers?

Because that one question shifts the conversation. AI is no longer a trend. AI is not a pressure response.

AI stops being something that you use because everyone else is using it. AI becomes part of the profit strategy. And I'll take you back. I'm going to date myself somewhat here. This is when something called the World Wide Web came onto the scene, and there was something called these websites, and everyone got a website for the sake of having a website.

You know who benefited the most? It was the companies creating these websites. And looking back now, those websites, and with twenty/20 hindsight, I can say this, the websites were [00:11:00] ugly. They weren't usable. They had these flashing icons everywhere. It was hard to navigate. But everyone felt good because this is where the marketplace was going, and they can brag to their friends, to their customers, "Hey, look at our website."

But it was the absolute wrong thing to do. You would've been better off without a website. So let's fast-forward to today when it comes to AI. Again, the technology has changed, and this is the important part, the human condition hasn't. Business hasn't. So if you're taking nothing else from this section, I want you to walk away with this.

Don't ask, "How can we use AI?" Instead, ask this: What profit problem actually deserves AI?

When AI improves your profits, your cash flow, your customer experience, now that is leverage. When it doesn't, you're building complexity, and complexity dressed up as innovation is still complexity.

Founder Pressure Trap

Jeffrey Feldberg: So all that said, Deep Wealth Nation, from one founder to another, let's talk about the founder pressure [00:12:00] that's behind this AI gold rush.

Now, Deep Wealth Nation, I'm not going to talk about the real driver behind many AI decisions because the truth is it's pressure. It's not data, it's not strategy, it is pressure, and that pressure is known as AI.

Today it's AI, tomorrow it'll be something else, a new platform, a new growth channel, a new automation tool, a new management system, a new technology promising speed, scale, and efficiency. In fact, with the team members, there's often a joke when the founder is on a business trip or even on a personal trip, and they're flying on that airplane, they have time to unwind and think.

They come back, and they say, "Hey, this is a new strategy of the week," because they read some fancy article or had a great headline, but there's no substance behind it. It's all fluff. It's all hype. So the name changes, the pattern doesn't. And this is why the Deep Wealth Operating System is so powerful.

It's not built around trends. It's built around timeless founder principles from [00:13:00] the trenches, best practices. That's why they're called best practices. They actually work. They're timeless. The best practices transcend technology.

And let's face it, every few years these days, it seems like every few months or every few days, the market will give to us as founders a new shiny object and says, "Move now or get left behind." In fact, many company fortunes that are creating this buzz, this hype, there's nothing behind it, but they're doing it so they profit, and we as founders lose.

So if you're a founder, you know what I'm talking about. That pressure is real because the pressure from competitors talking about what they're testing, you hear the pressure from vendors that are flooding your inbox, and the pressure from your own team pushing for these new tools. And the loudest pressure of all, it's that quiet voice inside of you saying Well, yeah, what if we're actually falling behind?

You're already watching your profit and your cash flow. You're trying to grow. You want to simplify. Yes, you're even trying to protect the [00:14:00] future, maybe even predict the future. And now AI feels like one more thing that you absolutely cannot afford to ignore. So you make a move because movement, that activity, it feels like leadership.

But again, movement without clarity, that's not leadership. It's anything but. It's simply a reaction, and a reaction dressed up as innovation, otherwise known as AI. This is how, as founders, we weaken the business. We get the opposite result of what we want. It's interesting. I'm recalling right now a conversation I had with a really smart founder who went through the Deep Wealth Mastery program, and they were rolling out three very specific AI tools over the next 60 days.

The three areas were sales, marketing, and operations. Yes, on paper, it looked terrific. It looked strong. The founder's board was excited. The team was excited, and the founder, she felt like the company was moving.

And then in the [00:15:00] mastermind, I asked one question. It's a simple question, not to confuse simple with simplicity. The question was, which one actually improved profit?

And the entire mastermind room, it went quiet, not because a founder was careless, and not that the other founders were careless.

Each one of the founders found themselves in a very similar situation. Now, this one particular founder, she's smart, she cared, and she wanted to lead, but the pressure had taken over the driver's seat. The pressure was now driving, and that pressure is a terrible driver because pressure transforms complexity into sophistication, and pressure makes us as founders mistake being busy for being strategic. Again, let's go back to Embanet. This is before AI was even around. It doesn't matter. It's the same human condition. AI wasn't the issue. It was technology. It was systems. It was automation And there was always that pressure to move faster.

But then the lesson was always [00:16:00] the same. Yes, a tool, it may in fact reduce work, but it will not remove confusion. A new system, sure, it may create speed, but it will not create strategy or the right kind of speed. And automation, yeah, sure, it can save time, but it's not going to tell you whether the work should exist in the first place.

That's the founder trap. As one incredible guest on The Deep Wealth Podcast shared, "Jeffrey, as founders, we get caught in this trap. Why are we thinking about improving efficiencies or even profits 5% or 10%? Why don't we leave some of those areas, let them be inefficient, and put our focus on 10, 20, 30 times increasing profits?"

Now, that's a conversation that I want to have, and I know, Deep Wealth Nation, that's the same kind of conversation that you want to have. And it's not just with AI.

With every new trend, every new shiny object, you're promised growth. But first, there's no clarity. You feel the pressure. You want relief. You want speed. You [00:17:00] want confidence, so you add the tool. But the tool, it doesn't reduce the pressure. It simply gives the pressure a new place to hide, at least for a while.

Now the team is asking, "Which system are we going to use?" And finance, they're seeing more subscriptions run through. And the leadership meetings, they include the updates. It's taking up time, effort, but not the profit improvements. That's not leverage. That's pressure wearing a technology costume. 

Three Questions to Lead

Jeffrey Feldberg: So when you feel the pressure's rising, I want you to stop, and I want you to ask three critical questions.

Question number one: What exactly am I afraid will happen if we do nothing?

I want you to name that fear because once you name it, it stops quietly driving that decision. And sometimes, you know what the best decision is?

Nothing.

No action.

Now, this is not taking no action by burying your head in the sand.

It's an informed decision to say, "We're not going to do anything." So again, [00:18:00] question number one: What exactly am I afraid is going to happen if we do nothing?

Founder question number two: What specific profit problem are we trying to solve?

This is not a technology problem. This is not a trend problem. Let's keep it focused. It's a profit problem. Revenue, cash flow, customer experience, you name it, they're all there. They all funnel into profits.

And then founder question number three: What measurable outcome proves that it's actually working?

Is it a shorter sales cycle?

Is it a higher closing rate?

Is it a lower servicing cost?

Is it faster onboarding?

Is it better cash collection?

Maybe even cleaner reporting. Now, those are business outcomes. Those are the kinds of business outcomes that we want because they are profit outcomes.

So I want you to think about that. Ask and answer those three questions, and that's when the magic begins to happen. You stop reacting, you start leading. You [00:19:00] eliminate fear of missing out to now having a very strong profit discipline.

Deep Wealth Nation, your business doesn't need you to be first with every new tool.

Your business needs you to be right about what actually moves the needle.

Because today it's AI, I promise you, I don't know what it's going to be, but I promise you that tomorrow it'll be something else. The principle never changes. It's the human condition. Tools do not create, pun intended, deep wealth. What does create deep wealth, it's clarity, discipline, profit logic, and the right operating system.

Activity vs Profit Growth

Jeffrey Feldberg: Now that we have a foundation, a solid one at that, let's roll back the curtain even more because I want to talk about the dangerous difference between AI activity and profit growth.

Deep Wealth Nation, the dangerous assumption that too many founders are making is that more AI activity equals more profit growth.

They are not the same. AI [00:20:00] activity is easy to create. Hop into your favorite AI bot, ask the questions. You'll get lots of information. I'm not even calling it data. You'll get lots of information. And yes, you can launch all kinds of tools, generate reports that you never had before, automate replies, the list goes on. Create dashboards and fill your calendar with all kinds of activities. But to repeat, profit growth is none of that.

Profit growth is different. Profit growth demands clarity, discipline, measurement, and follow-through. Sure, we can confuse activity with progress, where activity makes everyone feel more productive, but profit growth, it strengthens the business. It's interesting. 

When AI Doesn’t Convert

Jeffrey Feldberg: When I was speaking with another founder, he was so proud of his team, and he was sharing with me how they adopted AI in this area, in that area. Marketing was creating more content. Sales, they were sending more messages. He went on, customer service was replying faster. And on the surface, yeah, it looked impressive.

It really did. [00:21:00] But then in a one-on-one mastermind, we began to look at the numbers. And I asked a simple question, "Okay, it's wonderful that you have all this content. We are not about the likes or how many replies or how many posts that are out there.

Are you converting?

What does that look like?"

And it turns out the content was not converting.

The sales team, yeah, sure, they had more activity, but the leads weren't the right fit. And then we dug a little deeper, and I said, "Okay, you have all these AI replies. You've even automated some of them for your customers. Are you getting any customer feedback?" And the customer feedback came back loud and clear. The replies were too generic.

They felt frustrated. It was not specific to them. So yeah, automation rates went up. The amount of time it took to reply to the customers went down, so yes, he had more AI activity, but not more profit growth, and that's the trap.

AI, yes, it makes it easier to create more emails, more reports, more workflows, more summaries, more meetings. The [00:22:00] list goes on and on. The company gets louder. The team gets busier. But again, when we walked away from that meeting, the founder had a very simple mission, it's all about profits. We must increase profits.

Shortly after, in the next mastermind I checked in, many of those processes were stopped. 

Activity vs Profit Growth

Jeffrey Feldberg: Some of the subscriptions were stopped, And the company went back to basics. What's the actual problem we want to solve?

Because movement is not momentum. Speed in the wrong direction is a liability. So let's make this practical. AI activity, it sounds like this. "Yeah, sure. We're using AI in sales. Jeffrey, check out our marketing. It's all being done by AI." Or, "Look at operations. Look what's happening with AI. We're using AI to save time." And yes, on the surface, it's true, but it's not enough because profit growth would sound something like this.

I'm just going to make this up.

Our sales cycle was reduced by 39%. Our [00:23:00] closing rate went up two times. Our profits have increased. The onboarding time went down 24%. Customer retention improved by 52%. And by the way, our cash collection is now three times faster. Wow, that's a conversation that I want to be a part of. That's a very different conversation.

And truth be told, to get those results, it may not even involve AI. It may not be needed. And that's the kind of conversation that as a founder we must absolutely insist on having. Saying yes, opening up the checkbook, putting it on the credit card, that's the easy decision. Just because you have the money doesn't mean you should be writing the check.

It's asking the tougher questions.

What's the actual problem and does AI, in this instance, solve it?

Three AI Buckets

Jeffrey Feldberg: So before you approve any AI project, put the idea into one of three buckets.

Bucket number one, it's all about driving profits.

This directly improves revenue, cash flow, [00:24:00] customer experience.

Bucket number two, it's productivity support.

This is where you're saving time. You're reducing or eliminating, if possible, manual work, and you can clearly show how the saved time becomes measurable business value. So as an example, you spend all this time, money, and effort on this AI tool to take a process down 73%, but you shouldn't have been doing the process in the first place, so it's a complete waste of time.

And then bucket number three, identifying which on the surface look great, but below the surface, it's a distraction. Yes, it sounds useful. Sure, it feels modern, but you can't connect it to a real profit outcome.

Deep Wealth Nation, most AI experiments live in bucket number three.

Do not shoot the messenger.

Let me say that one more time. Most AI experiments, they live in bucket number three. Of course, you're hearing success all because of AI, and [00:25:00] yeah, that does exist, but more times than not, it's simply an illusion. It doesn't mean that AI is bad or the examples or the initiatives are bad.

It simply means that a particular initiative, it may not be ready. 

Measure Real Outcomes

Jeffrey Feldberg: The test is simple. From the AI activity, we're asking, well, what did we do?

From a profit growth side, we're asking, what actually improved?

We're measuring the before and after.

We're asking ourselves, did costs go down?

Did conversions improve?

Did our profits go up?

Did cash come in faster?

Are the customers noticing this in a good way?

And if the answer is yes, congratulations, you may have leverage. If the answer is no, and more times than not, at least right now, it may be a no, you may have found another version of the AI Mirage.

Automating Broken Processes

Jeffrey Feldberg: So with all that said, Deep Wealth Nation, do you want to know the most expensive AI mistake that most founders are making?

So let's talk about why automating broken processes shrink [00:26:00] margins and profits. Automating a broken process, yes, it feels smart. Sure, we're taking a slow workflow, we're making it faster. We're taking a repetitive task that's draining the team, we're making it quicker. We're taking a customer touchpoint that feels inefficient, and we're making it more efficient. The natural reaction is, let's absolutely automate all this.

Why shouldn't we?

But before you ask, can we automate that?

Ask the harder question: should this process exist in the first place?

Because AI will not fix broken processes. It makes them faster, more expensive, and harder to unwind later. Faster waste is still waste, no matter how you look at it. And faster ways is dangerous because as founders, it gives us that emotional reward of movement, of activity, while the business quietly pays the price.

Founders often mistake a symptom for root causes. Inefficient sales. Yeah, sure, let's throw [00:27:00] AI at lead scoring and outreach. Support is overloaded. Well, of course, we have to add AI chatbots. Our reporting's too slow. Well, yeah, for sure. Let's get that new AI service where we can generate more dashboards effortlessly and automate them.

But the real problems are much deeper. It's unclear positioning. It's weak qualification, maybe not even having the right sales team. It's confusing onboarding. It's a bad customer fit. It's too many approvals, or it's legacy processes no one's challenged in years because, hey, if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Is this starting to sound familiar?

If you automate those, and I sure hope you don't, you're not creating efficiencies. Deep Wealth Nation, you're creating a faster way to drain your profits. Imagine your sales team spending hours on unqualified prospects. Sure, AI gives you more outreach, better sourcing, faster proposals.

On the surface, it looks like progress. But if your offer attracts the wrong customers in the first place, or it may even be the [00:28:00] wrong offer that AI generated for qualified prospects, you're now burning money at a faster rate. It's the same with your customer service. If support is overwhelmed and you deploy AI, sure, maybe tickets drop.

But what if the real issue is a bad onboarding experience?

It's weak sales handoffs or it's expectations that aren't right, and you're doing this right up front. Now your customers are getting frustrated faster. Your renewals weaken, your refunds increase, and your best customers, well, they start feeling like they're talking to a machine instead of a company that understands them.

Your eternal efficiency at the cost of a customer experience, that's not a win. That's like a thief in the night that's coming in and robbing you blind when it comes to growth and profits.

And I have to tell you, Deep Wealth Nation, this is why the Deep Wealth 9-step roadmap starts with Step 1 Big Picture. 

Three Founder Questions

Jeffrey Feldberg: So before automating anything, three more founder questions I want you to ask.

Founder [00:29:00] question number one, what is the profit purpose of this process?

Wow, try saying that 10 times fast. What is the profit purpose of this process?

Does it drive revenue?

Does it protect our profits?

Does it improve cash flow?

Does it strengthen our customer experience?

And you can't explain it very clearly in one sentence.

Stop.

Stop what you're doing because you might be automating a habit, not a strategy.

Founder question number two: What should we remove before we automate?

Sometimes the most profitable automation is no automation at all. As we often say here at Deep Wealth, either delegate, automate, or eliminate only when it makes sense to do any of that. You're eliminating when the process in and of itself doesn't make sense. So perhaps for profit, you're eliminating a step. You're simplifying an offer. You're no longer speaking to the wrong customer segment. You're fixing the accountability because when you eliminate, when you remove the wrong things in the first [00:30:00] place, that's what accelerates your profits.

Founder question number three: What will we measure at 30, 60, and 90 days?

And it's not activity. It's actual improvement. We're talking speed, cost, quality, customer response, and profits. If you're not measuring that, you're guessing. And guessing is not a profit strategy.

As part of the Deep Wealth Operating System, we simplify before we automate, we eliminate before we accelerate, and we clarify before we scale. And yes, AI can help you go faster. But as a founder, we're there to make sure that faster is taking the company in the right place. So before you ask, "Okay, what's the next AI project going to be?"

I want you to ask this one question: Are we making a good process better or making a bad process faster?

Because that question will protect your profits more than any tool that you can buy.

AI Profit Filter Framework

Jeffrey Feldberg: So with all that said, we've now dispelled that myth, otherwise known as the AI [00:31:00] Mirage.

Let's talk about the Deep Wealth AI profit filter, otherwise known as revenue, profit, cash flow, and customer experience. Let me make this actionable for you. We've dispelled and exposed of the AI mirage. We've talked about the founder pressure. We've separated activity from real profit growth, and we've looked at why automating broken processes can shrink margins like a thief in the night.

So the practical question becomes, "Okay, Jeffrey, where does AI actually belong in my business?" And I'm glad you asked that question. Here's the answer. You can run every AI idea through the Deep Wealth AI Profit Filter. Heck, you can even make this an AI prompt. There are four non-negotiable lenses: revenue, profit, cash flow, and customer experience.

And Deep Wealth Nation, I'm deliberately not including margin. Instead of margin, I call it profit. Margin means nothing. You can have a high margin but no profit. It's all about the profit. So again, the four [00:32:00] non-negotiable lenses: revenue, profit, cash flow, and customer experience.

And your benchmark is that an AI tool or initiative, even if it's free in the beginning, if it doesn't improve at least one of these areas, it's not a strategy. It's a distraction. It's an AI mirage

Revenue and Profit Lenses

Jeffrey Feldberg: So the first lens is revenue. Stop asking if AI can generate more leads. Ask if AI can help create better revenue. Can it help you attract higher quality customers, more qualified customers?

Can it help your sales team focus on the right kind of prospect instead of noise?

Can it help you identify which customers buy more, stay longer, refer others, and create less friction? That, that's profitable revenue. Everything else is just vanity. It's just activity with progress.

Okay, the second lens, profits.

AI can improve profits when you eliminate waste, you reduce work and rework, where your quality strengthens and lets your team deliver more value with less [00:33:00] effort. But AI can hurt your profits when you're adding subscriptions, you have integration headaches, your training time, your management complexity, your customer frustrations are all going up with no measurable return.

So be careful with the phrase, "It'll save time." Save time is not automatically higher profits. Only captured and redirected time becomes profits. Otherwise, it's a nice story that we're telling ourselves. Yeah, it's a great narrative, but it's the wrong results. And comforting stories, they do not pay the bills. Profit is what pays the bills.

Cash Flow and Customer Experience

Jeffrey Feldberg: The third lens is cash flow. Cash flow is everything. Cash flow is oxygen. You can look profitable on paper and still feel suffocated. Why do you think that businesses, even that have been around for two decades, they can go out of business? They have the proven track record. It's cash flow. They don't have the cash flow to take care of their needs today. Cash flow is everything.

And this is where AI can make a meaningful difference when we have the right measurements. We ask ourselves, [00:34:00] can AI help us invoice quicker?

Can it spot collection problems earlier?

Can it reduce billing errors?

Can it forecast our cash needs quicker and more accurately?

Or can we see which customers are profitable from a cash flow perspective, not just a revenue perspective?

Because growth that burns cash, without improving cash flow, that's not freedom. It's a bigger future problem.

And then the fourth lens is all about the customer experience. This is everything. This is where, as founders, we must be careful. Customers don't care if you're automating something. They care whether the experience gets better, not worse.

Faster answers, fewer frustrations, real understanding, more trust. So before you automate any customer touchpoint, I want you to ask this Does this make the experience better for the customer or easier for us?

Let me ask it again.

Does this make the experience better for the customer or easier for us?

Because that one question, it may protect your reputation, your retention, and your profits.

Mission Audit Your AI

Jeffrey Feldberg: Now, here's your mission, [00:35:00] if you choose to accept it, and if you don't, either way, this message will self-destruct in 20 seconds. Just kidding there, but here's your mission, if you choose to do it.

I want you right now, you and the team, look at every AI tool and initiative, whether it's active right now or it's under consideration inside your team and your company right now, and next to each one with the four lenses, you either are going to write revenue, profits, cash flow, or customer experience. Or perhaps some initiatives have more than one. That's okay. But either way, be honest.

Which profit outcome does it actually improve?

And how are we measuring it?

Maybe you don't even know how to measure it. That's okay. We're being honest with ourselves.

Because if you can't answer clearly, you've now found the gap. Congratulations. That's not a failure. That's clarity. This is where we want to be. Then from there, we can begin to make a better decision.

Do we keep it, fix it, pause it, redirect it, or eliminate it?

Because one focused AI initiative can create more profit than 10 [00:36:00] scattered AI experiments.

So Deep Wealth Nation, you do not need an AI-first business. You need a profit-first business that uses AI wisely. And as I'm thinking about this, I'm reflecting back on the Embanet days, because we lived through what I call the dot bomb, what some people call the dot com era. This is where profits didn't matter.

It was how much you can spend and all those other crazy business models that didn't work. Embanet survived another day because we were a profit-first business. The same principles apply when it comes to AI. So the next time, whether it's your board, a team member, a colleague, someone pushes you for more AI, ask the one question that matters.

Which of these four will it actually improve?

My revenue, profits, cash flow, or customer experience?

It's got to be a clear answer that we're moving forward. If it's not a clear answer, you caught the AI Mirage before it costs you time and money. And that clarity, [00:37:00] that's where deep wealth begins. That's where the Deep Wealth Operating System is embedded at that intersection of clarity, confidence that leads to more profits.

Profit First Leadership

Jeffrey Feldberg: So Deep Wealth Nation, as I begin to bring this home, the bottom line, that is the bottom line. It's everything. AI is not going away. It'll get better. It'll keep evolving. The vendors are going to keep on selling. The pressure, I guarantee you, it'll keep rising. But the founders who win are not the ones that are chasing every new tool because it's the flavor of the moment.

They're the ones who are asking better questions. And the most important question is this, and I want you to think about this before you go into your next activity, your next call, your next meeting. Ask this one question:

Where can AI actually improve our revenue, profits, cash flow, or customer experience?

Ask that question first and you stop reacting. You start leading. You stop adding complexity. You start building real leverage. That's the Deep Wealth [00:38:00] Operating System. That's the Deep Wealth way. Profit first, then technology. Outcomes first, then the tools. Clarity first, always.

Today it's AI. Tomorrow, who knows what it's going to be. And yes, of course, tools and systems matter. What's more important though, it's strategy and clarity. That's what matters more.

And it's that discipline, Deep Wealth Nation, that is where you want to be. That'll take you from where you are to where you want to be. It's those same principles, whether you want to grow profits today and keep the company forever, or you want to grow profits today and sell the company tomorrow.

It doesn't make a difference. It's the same strategies. It's the same questions. Because you're building a business that's worth owning. You're building a business that gives you freedom instead of stealing your freedom. You're building a business where technology serves you, your strategy, and the team, not the other way around.

Action Step and Wrap Up

Jeffrey Feldberg: So here's your action step. Before you try an AI tool, whether it's free or whether you buy it, or you renew another subscription, [00:39:00] or green light another pilot, run it through the Deep Wealth AI Profit Filter.

Which one will it improve: revenue, profits, cash flow, or customer experience?

Again, revenue profits, cash flow, or customer experience.

How will you know?

You'll have a clean answer. You'll move forward. No clean answer? Stop. Stop what you're doing. Stop your time. Stop your money. Stop the tool itself.

Now, Deep Wealth Nation, let me ask you something.

Did this episode speak to you?

If it did, and I'm truly hoping that it did, I want you to send me an email.

Send the email to success@deepwealth.com. You know success, S-U-C-C-E-S-S at Deep Wealth, D-E-E-P-W-E-A-L-T-H.com. Again, success [at] deepwealth [dot] com. One more time, send that email to success [at] deepwealth [dot] com, and in the subject line, put AI or AI Profit Leaks. And when you send that email, that'll come directly to me.

And whether you're focusing on growth today, keep the company forever, or growth today and sell the company tomorrow, it doesn't make a difference. Send that to me. We'll see where you are and how we're able to [00:40:00] get you from here to there without the clickbait, without all the hype that doesn't get you the results, with strategies from the trenches that work.

And again, these are the same strategies that helped me catapult the growth of my company and helped me say no to a seven-figure offer, and in less than 24 months, I said yes to a nine-figure exit deal. So regardless of where you are, I'm a growth only or an exit only, doesn't make a difference. It's the same Deep Wealth Operating System.

So again, email success [at] deepwealth [dot] com And while you're at it, think of a founder.

Do you have a founder that could benefit from this episode?

Let's you and I pay it forward together. Forward this episode to that founder. Have them listen to it. You can be that one person who made a huge change in the trajectory for your friend, for that founder who can take their company to the next level because, again, as founders, we're what make the world go [00:41:00] round.

We're changing the social fabric of society one founder at a time.

When you share this episode with another founder who's under the pressure about AI, chances are they don't need another tool, they need better questions.

And Deep Wealth Nation, just before we wrap up, I want to thank you for investing, I'm not even going to say spending, for investing your most valuable asset with me today. It's your time. We can always make more money. We cannot make more time. So again, ask those hard questions, lead with clarity, protect your profits, improve your cash flow, and serve your customers better.

And when you do that, you get the freedom, the profit, the impact, and the legacy you deserve. So all of that said, Deep Wealth Nation, congratulations. It's official. This is a wrap. And as we love to say here at Deep Wealth, may you continue to thrive and prosper while you remain healthy and safe. Thank you so much, and God bless