11/26/2025
The $15,000 Paperweight Collection
Last week, a business owner confessed something to me.
$15,000 spent on AI tools last year.
Couldn't name three things they actually did with them.
I didn't judge. (Okay, I'm a little judgey.) But mostly I recognized the pattern because I've seen it thousands of times before.
Just in a different context.
Rich Schefren told me something a while back that I didn't want to hear but couldn't stop thinking about:
"The real money in AI isn't innovation. It's integration."
I rolled that around in my head for a week. Because here's the thing...I'm Harvard-trained. I studied under B.F. Skinner (yes, the pigeon guy). I've been around long enough to know when someone's selling snake oil versus truth serum.
This was truth serum.
And it landed differently because of what I'd been watching:
Entrepreneurs hoarding AI tools like they're limited edition Pokémon cards.
Businesses buying enterprise subscriptions that collect dust like that Peloton in your spare bedroom.
Founders caught between FOMO and overwhelm, which is a special kind of hell.
The market keeps screaming "INNOVATE! INNOVATE! INNOVATE!"
But what do you actually need?
Integration.
Why I Actually Know This (And It's Not About AI)
I spent 35 years helping over 13,000 people out of pain.
And you know what I learned? The treatment plan doesn't mean jack if it doesn't fit how someone actually lives their life.
I could give you the perfect adjustment. The textbook-perfect protocol. The ideal frequency.
But if it required you to show up at 6 AM three times a week and you're not a morning person?
Failed before we started.
If it meant cutting out the stress triggers in your life, but those stress triggers pay your mortgage?
We're done.
The best plan executed poorly beats the perfect plan never executed.
Every. Single. Time.
AI is the exact same game—just with fewer neck cracks and more prompts.
The Integration Playbook (That Actually Works)
Stop asking "What can AI do?"
Start asking, "What would give me back 10 hours of my life?"
Don't try to integrate AI into every damn process. Pick your THREE biggest bottlenecks. The ones that slow everything else down. Start there.
Design for YOUR constraints, not against them. If you're scattered by 3 PM, don't build workflows that need focus at 4 PM. Work with how your brain actually works.
Keep the human in the high-value moments. Let AI handle the setup, the grunt work, the soul-crushing repetition. But YOU show up where creativity matters. Where connection happens. Where judgment counts.
This is why I don't call myself an AI consultant or strategist or whatever buzzword-bingo nonsense is trending on LinkedIn this week.
I'm The AI Integrationist.
Not because it sounds cool (though it does).
Because the businesses winning in 2026 won't have the most AI tools.
They won't have the newest models.
They won't even have the "best" tech stack.
They'll have integrated it best into their actual operations.
Their real team. Their actual constraints. Their human messiness.
What This Book Actually Does.
"Talk Human to Me" launches December 5th.
It's not another book explaining what AI can do. (You already know. You can't scroll LinkedIn for 30 seconds without someone telling you.)
It's not a tech manual. (Boring. I fall asleep reading those, and I WROTE one.)
It's the guide for integrating AI without losing yourself in the process.
Because the question nobody's asking is:
How do you use AI to become MORE human, not less?
More creative, not robotic.
More strategic, not scattered.
More present, not checked out.
More YOU, just with better backup.
That's what integration actually means.
The future belongs to integrators, not innovators.
And if you're reading this thinking, "FINALLY, someone who isn't trying to sell me another course on prompt engineering,"
You're my people.
Ready?
