Business Authorities

In this special episode of Biz Bites, hosted by Anthony from CommTogether, guest Johan Nagira, founder of Business Authorities, shares his journey from experiencing personal tragedy to building a successful platform aimed at supporting entrepreneurs. Nagira discusses the inception of Business Authorities, which began after the loss of two friends, highlighting its mission to aid businesses through connection, no-pitch events, and valuable knowledge sharing. He outlines the growth of his community from 150 to 3,000 members and the impact of real, authentic storytelling in business growth. The discussion shifts to the impact of the pandemic on his initiatives, leading to a pause but with plans to reactivate soon. Nagira emphasizes the incredible potential of AI in transforming businesses, sharing insights from his venture, CometSuite, and the rapid adoption and innovative uses of AI technologies. The conversation also touches on the importance of genuine human connection, the future of AI in business, and the balance between leveraging technology and maintaining the irreplaceable value of human creativity and interaction. Anthony and Nagira delve into the role of businesses in making meaningful impacts and the evolving landscape of entrepreneurship influenced by technology and personal purpose.

00:00 Welcome to Biz Bites: A Special Episode on AI

01:01 Introducing Johan Nagira: The Genesis of Business Authorities

01:34 The Tragic Inspiration Behind Business Authorities

02:45 Building a Community of Business Growth and Support

04:03 Navigating Business and Growth Through the Pandemic

08:26 The Power of AI in Business: A New Era

11:55 AI Beyond ChatGPT: Expanding Horizons

16:25 The Human Element in the Age of AI

22:47 Exploring AI’s Impact and Future Possibilities

23:47 The Evolution of AI and Its Creative Potential

29:23 Personal Anecdotes: AI in Family Life and Business

34:57 Reflecting on Personal Growth and Entrepreneurial Journey

43:39 Engaging with Business Authorities and Wrapping Up

Description: Think AI is just sci-fi hype? Think again! In this conversation with Johann Nogueira, we dive deep into the future of AI. We crack the code on how AI can supercharge your creativity and efficiency, but also why it won’t (and shouldn’t!) replace you entirely. Learn the secrets to working alongside AI, discover the coolest AI tools on the market, and get ahead of the curve before the robots take over… (just kidding, kind of). Tune in and take control of your AI future!

Transcript:

Anthony Perl: [00:00:00] Welcome to Biz Bites brought to you by CommTogether, helping businesses like yours build their brand through telling amazing stories to engage and grow audiences on multiple platforms.

Well, hello everyone and welcome to a very special episode of Biz Bites. Biz Bites I say special because, uh, you know, anyone that knows me knows I love talking about AI and finding out how that’s going to make a huge impact on business that already is. And lots of people playing with that. Well, my guest today playing with AI is probably an understatement, uh, of what he does.

We’ve got to know each other a little bit in recent times. And, uh, well, I think without further ado, I’m just going to introduce Johan Nagira. He is, uh, well, Uh, a real pleasure to have on this program.

Johann Nogueira: Thank you, Anthony. A pleasure to be [00:01:00] here.

Anthony Perl: And I guess let’s just start with a basic introduction. From your perspective, um, the brand is business authorities, but tell me a little bit about, you know, where that is going at them, where that is, what it does and where it’s going.

Johann Nogueira: Yeah, for sure. So, um, business authorities, we started that about, well, we did start it five years ago. And the reason we started that it was because Well, I was, we were doing pretty well in the business and to say the least. And then unfortunately, yeah, this is a sad way to start the podcast. I didn’t think you were going to go straight there, but this is the reason why it started.

Um, unfortunately two of my friends, they, they had, they took their own lives and it was a horrible thing to happen. And, you know, one of their funerals, there was 500 people there and I went. Wow, like this, this, this should never, ever happen. And because in business, you and I, we both know one decision, one offer, one new joint [00:02:00] venture, one decision can actually change the entire trajectory of the business.

And I felt bad that I wasn’t around her because I was busy with my head down, 18 hour days building this other company. And I said, wow, if I had been there, I could have helped them. And then I started calling up all my other friends who were also in business and said, how’s business, how’s business, how’s business.

And they were all, all the, everything that they were saying was, you know, I saw patents, you know, they don’t have enough time. They were running out of cash. They, their team members were, they were. Not adequate. There was all these, all the same common things that everybody experiences. Uh, some of them, you know, they were relying on big projects that got taken away and they didn’t know what to do.

They’d been in, they’d been in business for five, 10, 15 years, and they felt stagnant. They couldn’t grow. They’d reached a plateau. They didn’t know what to do. So I said, Hey, I’m going to, I’m going to find all the most amazing people that I know that have helped me in my journey. I’m going to put them on stage and I’m going to say, Hey, These are not trained speakers, by the way, not the speakers who are fully polished to come up and say that, [00:03:00] uh, by the way, you can buy my course and the value is 50, 000.

But if you buy today, you’ll get it for 5, 000. It was none of that. The rules of the game, they wanted to come play and be on this stage was you had to come and you had to over deliver. And there was no pitching. And by not pitching, guess what happened? Everybody gets business. Right? Because people understand the real value of what the people are sharing.

And so by the end of that weekend, and it was a, it’s a formula, like a step by step, 10 step formula to build an empire. And so by the end of that weekend, everybody walked away with a blueprint of how they could grow their business. So that was the inception of how Business Authority started. It started with 150 people at the Pullman Hotel in the auditorium, um, over a two day weekend.

And then by the time that three years had passed, we had grown to 3000 members. So it’s a pretty epic growth curve there. And every time we ran an event, it would get sold out in 24 hours because we would just have real authentic people sharing [00:04:00] how they’re building business. And the community really grew and rallied around that.

And then what happened was the pandemic hit and I have ADD. I can’t sit in front of a zoom screen for, you know, more than an hour. That’s pushing my limits. And the events that we used to run started off at midday and they used to go until six o’clock, the official time. But what would happen is most of the people would still be there at midnight because of the network that was created.

And they were just having so much fun. And we always, every event we set up, like it was a wedding. We would know exactly who’s on the guest list, who they would need to sit next to, so that they could join venture and do deals together. So that’s how we built the culture of business authorities. And by the way, business authorities, it’s got, it’s not about me.

It’s about the people who we, who are the authorities in their nations to get them to come up and share. And it’s all about sharing. And so through business authorities, I met Paul Dunn. Right? And you and I both share him as a common friend. Paul Dunn is one of the most incredible humans to ever walk the planet.

This guy, at this point, he was [00:05:00] 75 years old. He’s now 80. 75 years old, he rocked the stage. He was the, the closing finale act of the event. And man, the man has some energy. And so connecting with him, and then through B1G1, that’s how we can create impacts. And every event that we ran from there was, you know, you know, donated back to B1G1.

That’s, B1G1 is an amazing organization. I might let you talk a bit more about them as well, if you like. I’ve been doing a lot of talking. So that’s, that’s the inception of how Business Authorities started. And, um, after the pandemic, we put it on pause and it’s been on pause, but we’re going to reactivate that again shortly.

That’s where we’re at.

Anthony Perl: I love that. And geez, you cut a lot of territory there and we’re maybe almost sort of working backwards a little bit, but, um, but yeah, certainly, and I’ve spoken about it on the podcast before B1G1 is, is an amazing organization. And anyone that, uh, doesn’t know anything about it, you do look them up.

We’ll include a link in the show notes as well. [00:06:00] I’ll remember to do that because, uh, they’re a fantastic organization that really do allow any business of any size to be giving back. Uh, you know, in a very meaningful and simple way, and it’s how we change the world. And I think, you know, you and I have spoken about that separately as well, that, uh, and I think that’s where it’s almost where the, the impetus to start things from it, it links beautifully with, with that, because here you have.

People that, that you lost and, you know, being able to give back and make sure people are okay and change the way people think and engage is just such an important thing to be able to do. And I think when. You know, businesses, there’s a lot of talk about businesses being purpose driven, and a lot of the time, I think it is just talk.

I think the difference is when you can do something meaningful, as I know in you’re doing in your business, and I know that’s what B1G1 does, [00:07:00] that is where that. That you really differentiate yourself from the, from the herd. And there’s so much evidence that, uh, Paul will tell, talk to the cows, come home about why there’s so much evidence to suggest that when you do this, it makes a real impact on your business and your clients because it is real.

And I think that’s, that’s probably a good summary of, of B1, G1. And, uh, we’re going to keep saying it and I’m, I’m going to talk to Paul tomorrow. So. Um, hopefully by the time this episode comes out of the podcast, I’ll have been recorded or ready to record the episode with Paul because he’s promised me he’ll, he’ll get on the show.

So we’ll, uh, we’ll unpack B1, G1 and other things a lot more, uh, when we, when we do that. Um, and I love the fact that, that, um, you and I connected because of Paul. And then that shared sense of, of technology and wanting to collaborate. And in fact that that’s what you’re doing in your, in your business as well.

And I think, you [00:08:00] know, that I love the way that, that, that happens and magic does happen when you get the right people together, doesn’t it? It’s just, and taking the time and attention to work that out and sit the right people together. is just huge. That, that

Johann Nogueira: is the, and that’s, you nailed it, you know, the right time, energy, and the right people.

When you put those together, magic happens. And so my business partner, Walt Bayless, so he interviewed me on a podcast. I think it was about six years ago now. And then pretty much every through every quarter, he would chase me up going, Hey, What are you up to? What are you up to? Can we be in business? Can we be in business?

I’m like, dude, man, I’m, I’m sorry. I can’t. And the reason I would say that is because if I can’t give my a hundred percent to something, I’m not gonna, I’m not gonna waste anybody’s time. And you know, so the, the, the stars happened to align. We were in the middle of the pandemic and we got a break. So I’m in Melbourne, Australia, but we got, [00:09:00] we’d been in lockdown for 300 days and it opened up.

You know, we said, Hey, we can fly again. I went, cool, grab the kids, grab my wife. We fly up to the Gold Coast. Cause we missed being in warm weather, the beach, we love the Gold Coast. So we go up to the beach and then I wake up early. So I messaged Walt and I said, Hey, I know you’re on the Gold Coast. Uh, do you want to have breakfast?

He’s like, I’ll be there. And so we, we caught up for breakfast. And over breakfast, I’m like, man, this is one of the most genuine geniuses I’ve ever met. And I’d asked him, Hey, what are you working on? And so he, his brain works differently. He’s got the, that engineer logic, creative, I know those words, those three don’t usually go together, engineer, logic, and creative, but he can just create these amazing solutions in his brain.

And so he showed me this technology that he had, and he actually had eight pieces of technology. And I was just, my jaw was dropping, dropping, dropping. By the time he showed me the eighth one, my brain had [00:10:00] exploded. My jaw was on the floor. I was like, man, this is absolutely incredible. And he was running the company with eight separate companies, eight separate entities, eight separate marketing strategies, all this stuff.

I was like, dude, you need to combine all this. Cause it’s one avatar and launch it this way. And he did that. And he called me back two weeks later and he said, Oh my God, you just changed everything. What has just been created is absolutely insane. Do you want to be part of this? And I said, you know what?

All right, cool. Uh, I, I would like to be part of this and I wrote him an email and I said, here you go, you have it in writing you have, and this was April, uh, April, 2001. I said, you have until December and then, you know, the end of December, you can kick me out at any time, but I’m going to work in this company like it’s my own.

And we did that, and it grew, and it grew, and it grew, and it just kept, every time I got on the Zoom with somebody who I wanted to show this to, their jaws would drop. They’d be like, oh my god, this is absolutely incredible. How long has this technology [00:11:00] existed for? Now this is pre ChatGPT, right? ChatGPT came in, AI came in, AI wasn’t even a thing.

Walt was already onto AI. You know, two years prior to that. Um, so that’s, that’s how all this happened. Um, so AI has been a major part of everything that we do in our business. The business is called Comet Suite and Comet Suite has been growing at a rapid pace in the last, you know, two, three years, two and a half thousand.

People and the two and a half thousand people have just come on board in the last two years. Before that it was 50 because we were getting growing pains and starting to learn how to sell this new technology because everybody’s like AI, what do you mean AI? I don’t understand how AI works. So we had this adoption curve where we had to educate people and show them the power of it.

And then they’d say, wow, that looks, that’s great, but that’s too much. But now thanks to AI, everybody’s got access to it. They understand the adoption is much more easier and they just go, yep, I want it. I understand it. Let’s go. So yeah. Um, back to you, Mr. Anthony.

Anthony Perl: Yeah, well, and I think there’s, there’s, again, there’s quite a lot to unpack, but I think that’s the [00:12:00] interesting thing, isn’t it, that, that, um, at the moment when you say AI to people, immediately they go chat GPT and, which is great, not only are they competitors to chat GPT, AI is not limited to what chat GPT can do.

And, um, you know, as great as that is, there’s, I’ve, I’ve watched a lot of businesses. Just create new roles for them within the business. So they’ve, they’ve fixed one, one role by having chat GPT, but in order to get that working and functioning as they should, they’ve created another role. So it’s kind of like, are they better off?

I don’t, I don’t know. Um, and I think there’s a lot of that finding out period at the moment with, with people and playing with the technology, but AI is so much. More than that, as you say, it existed before. Um, I’ve worked with companies that, that were using it before. Um, you know, there’s certainly a, a, a well known not for profit in the legal profession that has been [00:13:00] using, uh, a version of an AI type tool to help with legal documents.

Um, and that’s been around for, for a number of years now. And so it’s amazing how there’s, Some of this is catching up, but there’s a lot of advancement that’s going on in the background that is more than just simply, Hey, can you write something for me, um, you know, and out spit something.

Johann Nogueira: So do you would, you would probably be, uh, remember when the internet first came out, right?

Everybody was like, it’s a fad. It’ll go, you know, what am I going to do? Just send an email. Big deal, boring. But now the internet is actually all around us. It’s plugged into what we do. If I’m sitting here and talking, I’m sure my Google assistant is listening. You know, it’s, it’s, it’s part of our lives.

It’s part of everything we do in terms of the internet. And now AI is becoming at that point as well. What I and my company could do in six months, We can now do it [00:14:00] with AI in one day. So the efficiencies that can be created are absolutely crazy in terms of output that we can achieve. Of course, you can only achieve that output if you understand what the inputs need to be.

So therefore, you know, garbage in, garbage out, but if you know exactly what you want, you will get the outcome and probably better. So on the weekend, I was just sharing with Anthony, on the weekend, we ran an event, a workshop for occupational therapists. There was 30 of them in the room, and they deal with, Kids, you know, kids who are autistic on the spectrum, you know, they’ve got some sort of something that they need help with.

And so they have to, they’re helping these kids live better lives and to, you know, what’s the word, integrate into society better, etc. And they are a pivotal part of the development of those children. So, over six hours. We used AI, and not just [00:15:00] ChatGPT, we’re talking about AI, we, we used ChatGPT, we used MidJourney for the artwork, we used Suno, S U N O dot AI to create songs, and by the time those six hours were done.

We created six new games that didn’t ever exist that were playable. They had play tested it, they pitched it to each other and, you know, that was invested, we’d sort of had a shock tag type thing happening, but in six hours, if I had to build that without the use of AI, that would have taken about. Six months at least.

So what they did in six hours in teams of five and six fives or 30 teams of five, six hours, they achieved what somebody would take six months to do per game. It’s AI is changing. Amazing.

Anthony Perl: It is a, it is amazing. Um, how. That can happen. And I think there are two, two important points there. One is that there’s not one solution, you know, when it comes to AI, there’s, there’s [00:16:00] multiple things that you’re plugging in and it’s the, the ability to be able to plug those things in together, which is going to create better outcomes than simply looking and saying, Oh, there’s one solution.

That’s fine. That’ll do everything that I need because it just doesn’t. Um, and I think that’s one thing to understand. And then on the flip side is, is the other part that you said earlier on, which is, it’s about what you put in, you know, garbage in, garbage out. You’ve got to put the right things in. The interesting thing about both of those points, Is that just mimics human nature as well, because we don’t have meaningful conversations.

If we don’t input meaningful conversations and, and what you and I can achieve separately is nothing like what we can achieve together. So it’s really interesting to me that, that even though there’s this whole kind of people are trying to. Bring AI in and thinking it’s shortcutting and everything into it does to a degree, but there’s still this, this it’s never going to replace the human element that is going to need to put that input in and be able to [00:17:00] see how things can be utilized together.

That’s where the value is. It’s just shortcutting processes to get to better outcomes quicker.

Johann Nogueira: So human intelligence plus artificial intelligence allows you creativity, unstoppable creativity and including their time. We talked about time, the value of time. You can only do these things. You can only achieve these efficiencies.

If you have time, time gives you time to process, to think through solutions. If you’re reactive all day, every day, um, you’re not going to create solutions that are as good as if you had time to sit down, think through it all. Talk to the AIs that we have available, by the way, there’s, as you said, not just chat GPT, did you know that you can get different results depending on which AI you talk to?

It’s become just like the search engines were, you know, Yahoo gives you different results. Google gives you different results. Bing is that part of it? Bing is Microsoft. Yeah. So depending on which one you talk to, you get actually different data. So now you need [00:18:00] to learn. how they all work and think. Um, another thing is the human brain is such a complex and smart, um, organ that now, as soon as you read something, your brain already, already knows whether it was written by AI.

Have you had that experience? Where you go. Yes. Yes.

Anthony Perl: Well, let me, let me, let me, let me share, let me share with you in the listeners, uh, something because, um, uh, anyone that knows me knows that I post on LinkedIn fairly regularly, uh, in fact, three times a week, and I do so very genuinely. And. It frustrates me no end that people are ticking the box by commenting without actually engaging properly.

So they’re using an AI tool. And the reason you can tell so easily is that I have deliberately had this strategy for a little bit where I write a, I write a headline much like a newspaper would write a headline to drag the rep to [00:19:00] drag people in unashamedly about that, what that headline looks like. And the connection with the video that I ultimately post is sometimes minimal.

It’s enough to tease you into the concept, but it’s not necessarily exactly the same thing. The content of the, of the, of the post generally says something along the lines, has one statement and says, watch the video pretty much bare bones. The amount of times where I get posts, which say things like, Oh, I’m looking forward to watching that video later.

Really? It’s a 60 second video. When later are you planning to watch it? Why would you comment on that? It’s because they’re ticking a box with commenting and you can see, you can also, you read the comments and you can see if you read 10 in a row, I guarantee you this, there’s at least three that are almost identical to one another.

Um, and AI is playing in, in just in a space as simple as that. And we can tell when it’s. When it’s someone real and it’s [00:20:00] not, because at the end of the day, the human element, that’s why I love podcasting so much is because sharing stories, they’re our unique experiences and our version of those unique experiences.

That’s what separates one person from the next. And. AI can’t replace that. And it can’t give you those stories in the same way. And it doesn’t have that ability to respond. I plucked out that story on about LinkedIn because of something that you said, AI does not have that ability to know my stories and to choose that right story to say in a particular way, because I could have told that story and made it last five minutes rather than 30 seconds, depending on the audience, right?

So All of those factors is what the human element is, which is huge because there’s what we connect with. The AI is providing that link to make processes run, run better and consistently, but not to replace the human part.

Johann Nogueira: [00:21:00] And the re the reason I said, do you remember the internet that I started the internet, because this history repeats itself, what we experienced with the internet, we’re now experiencing with AI.

When the internet came out, Google was the worldwide web. Everything was about the world and then a couple of years later, it became granular and down, it became localized and our data became all about what’s around me. If I touch in restaurant, I didn’t get the restaurant in my nearest city. I got the restaurants within a kilometer or two of my house.

So it became tailored. And I believe that that’s the same thing that’s going to happen with AI. We’re talking about the AIs that are commenting. So that was back in the day with the internet, when Google came out, Google released Google reviews. And you could see very well that these, all these reviews were all fake reviews just created by a bot.

And they had bots back then. They were just, wow, five star, A plus, great food. And it was just thousands of these things. And you went, I’m losing trust in this. What happens when people start to do that, uh, they abuse the [00:22:00] system is regulation comes in and then things are put into place to avoid that. And so that’s, you know, we’re with the speed at how AI is moving.

I don’t think regulation is far away. Um, there was, uh, an image of, I think it was the White House or something with fire, which then caused the stock market to take a dive, like in a couple of hours, because that went viral. This was, I don’t know, a couple of months ago. It went viral and then they had to announce it all over the news that it is a fake, you know, generated photo.

It’s not real. And then the stock market came back to normal. So there is going to be, and there’s regulation around, there will be regulation, I believe, it’s not there yet, around what images and stuff you can create. Uh, or people that you can use it. Actually, I’m already starting to see certain names that you put in into mid journey, for example, it’s a tool that I use it, the image will pop up, it’ll generate it, but then in about 10 seconds, it gets deleted because mid journey now is starting to put in protocols to delete those images.

So [00:23:00] yeah, the regulation will come. History will repeat itself. And because we have lived it, we knew what came with the. com. We knew what came. With, you know, mobile, uh, the mobilization of all of our technology. I think we will have a good grasp on what’s about to come with AI. The tools are there. People are going to abuse it.

People are going to use it for good. With great power comes great responsibility. That’s a geek in me. And so we have to, It’s, it’s the ones who learn how to maximize it and use it for good that will thrive. And that’s what we’re seeing right now. You know, there are thought leaders who before they couldn’t, they, they was too scared to publish now because they are, they can, they can get it out there on multiple platforms, et cetera.

They’re getting a good audience. So yeah, back to you.

Anthony Perl: Yeah, I think it, and I think that is the interesting part is, is where is AI taking us? And I know, um, I’m just going to a little, little plug in here that, um, for, for listeners of the podcast, [00:24:00] um, there’d be some bonus content afterwards. So you’re going to have to follow the link, um, in the show notes afterwards.

And we’re going to be talking a little bit more about leveraging AI. Uh, to connect with the right leads and grow and growing your business. So there’ll be some bonus tips in there. So we’ll come back to that later on, but just to talk about the, the future really with, with AI and systems, you know, where do you see the next steps and where do you see it happening over the next five to 10 years in terms of, uh, how it’s going to integrate with business?

Johann Nogueira: Yeah, for sure. Great, great question. Um, where do I see it going? So, first of all, I don’t think anybody in the world can answer what’s going to happen in the next five or 10 years because of the rapid pace that this thing is moving at. A year ago, when we first got it, no one knew that Today I could sit here and we could type in and generate a video that looks like a movie.

My kids, my, my kid is eight years old. My son is eight [00:25:00] years old. My daughter is six. We sit down at night and just for fun, we’ll make up a story. And we will say, hey, it’s on the phone, ChatGPT has got an app, here’s the good guys, here’s the bad guys, here’s the scenario, here’s the weapons to use, here’s the obstacles that they have to overcome, here’s the ultimate goal, and we’ll put it, we’ll input the hero’s journey essentially.

And it’ll be about dragons, it’ll be about magicians, it’ll be about ninjas, it’ll be about whatever, and it’ll craft the most beautiful story, and it’ll involve them in there, and all this kind of stuff. Now this was not possible a year ago. Now it is in six months or three months, probably it will be able to take that story and turn it into a video.

We will, they will no longer need to watch Netflix. They’ll be able to tell it, create me a story about that, that, that, that, that. And because they know, they know the story arc frameworks and all that sort of stuff. They’ll be able to input that, you know, other people who don’t know those things, they will not be able to.

Excuse me, ask those [00:26:00] questions, or give it that input. So, these kids, that, I grew up with the internet. Um, I, I got the, I got internet in 1996, I think I was about 17 years old. My kids have, have had access to technology their entire lives. They have access to AI at this young of an age. It’s, English is now the biggest, the largest, the most widely used programming language.

It’s no longer C and stuff. As long as you have a good command of the English language, you’ll be able to talk to it and tell it, and it has comprehension and it understands what you want. So you asked me, what do I see in the future of this? I believe that it is going to be all around us. We will be able to simply talk and tell it what we need and it will craft it.

In fact, um, yeah, actually, no, I’m not going to go there. Uh, I know that that is already happening. It’s already going to be happening. You’ll just be able to talk and things will be getting built and you’ll be able to watch it coming to life right in front of your eyes. And as I said, what used to take us six months now [00:27:00] takes us six hours, which will soon take six minutes, which is even more mind blowing.

So one of the things that I always wish for was the ability to live a long life. And I think now with this technology, we will be able to live a much longer life because we are able to compress time. I know we’re probably getting philosophical and stuff in there, but, uh, yeah, I’ll, I’ll, I’ll let you guide me there.

No,

Anthony Perl: no, I love that because I think that’s the biggest thing, isn’t it? It’s, um, time is something that we can’t get back. It is something that anyone that’s been in business is usually time poor. And it’s something that you do want to create more time. Um, it is a, uh, it is one of the great things about AI that it is, has that capability of, of giving back time, uh, to put into other things and you choose what you want to put, put attention into.[00:28:00]

And I think that’s. Couple that with, as you say, I think people are living going to, they’re already living longer and that’s going to extend further, which puts, you know, other pressure on the fact that people are going to work longer as a result of it as well. The sort of the idea of retiring, um, you know, uh, sort of 60 or thereabouts, uh, is probably going to be a thing of the past, uh, very quickly.

Um, and so, you know, The, the value that people can bring. I think that’s where it changes. Cause I even look at it and say is what’s really interesting is, is, you know, even some from my parents generation are still working, but their idea of working is they go into the office for a handful of hours a week.

That’s mostly, they’ve still got an office there and it’s mostly sitting down and having a coffee and having a chat and sharing some stories with the, their older clients and some of the people that are there and still just. inputting a little bit of information. Well, I think [00:29:00] that that, if the AI is capturing some of that, then that’s going to be creating more value on an ongoing basis for people.

So I think that there’s this whole flow on effect of where time is going to, our perception of time and what it, what it does for us is going to change. And I think, Bringing that even round full circle, you were talking about your kids. And I know you’ve spoken about them to me in the past is that here’s the thing is that AI is enabling you to spend more time with your family and be able to work from home and do all of those kinds of things at the same time, AI is allowing you to engage with your family and allowing your kids six and eight to create businesses for themselves.

Right.

Johann Nogueira: Yep, yep, exactly. They’re building a portfolio of books that they’re going to be launching on Amazon. Then my son is creating artwork on Midjourney, 3D artwork. which he’s then going to be using a 3D [00:30:00] printer to print. He’s using, um, um, what do you call it? CHAT GPT. Now he’s starting to use Gemini where he’s creating stories behind each of these pieces.

Um, so for example, he’s got a, a crocodile with a rock guitar and he’s got a rock band and all this kind of stuff. And he’s making up stories about these, these characters. And then he’s, Selling them to his friends. So they already excited to get the crocodile rock guitar guy. It doesn’t exist. It like, it doesn’t exist in anywhere else other than in my son’s head and on his phone and now on his 3d printer.

And then he’s going to be selling this to his people at the age of eight. I had no idea about business. He’s learning about business. He’s interacting. He’s getting, he’s getting people excited. Here’s another fun, uh, little thing. We’ve just started playing board games every night. So every night we spend time, we play board games with the kid before, with the kids before going to sleep.

One of the favorite games right now is called Snake Oil. Now it’s, it’s, it’s a funny, uh, [00:31:00] parody on like, um, cards against human, here, uh, card, Cards Against Humanity. That’s it. So it’s where you pick up a card, and you are a customer. And then all the other people around have six cards in their hand, and they have to make up a story with two of the cards.

So Snakeoil is all about being a Snakeoil salesman. It’s the best pitcher, right? So the age of eight, this kid is standing up in front of an audience of three, four. Now, every, every time anybody comes over, he wants to play the game. So he’s learning how to pitch and how to sell and how to use his imagination to create different things.

I can’t wait to see what these kids actually do with the technology. Once they understand the true power of what it can do.

Anthony Perl: Yeah, it is. You know, do you know what I love about all of that as well is that we talk about AI in terms of. Um, being able to do things that otherwise we might not be great at. So whether it’s writing, whether it’s creating an image, um, we talk about it in terms of systems and, [00:32:00] and man, you know, creating systems and creating consistency in systems and speeding up those processes.

But what’s really intriguing about all of that is, is there’s also, um, I think going to be an increase in creativity for too long. The arts has been put aside as not being, um, a major thing, you know, we’ve, we’ve got this whole idea of what. Art is, is something that’s, you know, most people don’t, haven’t valued it.

You know, it’s, it’s too many people have the artworks that they have on their walls, uh, just prints of something that I don’t even know what it is, or it’s just, you know, without, you know, creating original artworks and lots of other things around it and art stems into that whole idea of creative focus.

And I love the fact that what you’re doing with your children is, you know, Um, in terms of creating the books is again, it’s only as the output is only as good as what you’re putting in. And so [00:33:00] it is that imagination and encouraging that in imagination that it sparks all of these new characters and opportunities and things that come out of it.

And that that’s being taken next level and being shared with people. It’s not just a, it’s not just a creative writing essay that you’re being forced to do in a classroom. This is next level, right?

Johann Nogueira: Yep, yep, exactly. And you’re talking about art. Yeah, you are 100 percent right. The arts have been sort of, you know, we don’t have time to do art anymore.

Whereas if we look at history, you know, there was some amazing artists, the stuff that they’ve created in the past. Uh, we would struggle to try and recreate that. Now I’m talking about architecture, uh, buildings, et cetera. Uh, you know, the big giant cathedrals that we sold, we don’t build those anymore.

With the, with the access to these tools, it allows people to start creating again, thinking and being free. And when you free [00:34:00] someone of the constraints, they start to create some amazing things. Somebody, uh, I’m a, I’m a member of Facebook groups, which is to do with ai, art, and I, every day I see the most.

amazing things. This morning I saw, um, Sarwowski, uh, inspired fruit where the, the entire fruit is crystal, but it still shows you the inside of the fruit. And that artwork is absolutely brilliant. And just to see how, how it looks and the imagination that, you know, that prompted it to create that, I was just blown away.

And it’s going to, it’s going to, it’s going to be the next, um, I was going to say the next enlightened age, but there is going to be something magical happening because people have access to these tools.

Anthony Perl: I love that. And we’re going to come back to, as I said, in the bit of the bonus content, talking about leveraging AI, um, and, and really helping you connect with leads and growing your business.

We’re going to come back to that in our bonus content. I just want to change the focus a [00:35:00] little bit for, for, uh, for now, because I’m fascinated by your journey and you’re so passionate about it. Motivated. And, and, um, as you said, it’s a bit of a ADD, but the, but it’s, it’s getting into, um, it’s, it’s really going with all of that technology and moving in that.

But tell me about it when, you know, You’re there, you are a 17 year old and the internet’s just come out. I’m sure there’s no way that you would have thought this is where you’re going to end up at this point in time in your life. So tell me what was the, what was the dream at 17 years of age? Where, where were you going?

Johann Nogueira: Wow. Okay, cool. At 17, I wanted to go work on a cruise ship. That was, that was my thing. I wanted to go work on a cruise ship. My father said, you can go work on the cruise ship, but you have to pay me rent of 5, 000 a month. And I said, but that’s how much my salary is going to be. And he goes, well, you’re going to pay it all to me, or you have the choice to go to university.

And I said, it’s a, [00:36:00] I get zero balance. I go, fine. I’ll go to university. And so I went to university and when I went, when I got to university, that’s when the internet came out. I don’t know if you remember the old printers with those holes in the side and I’ve got cheese, cheese, cheese. You remember that?

I remember printing something going, wow, I just printed that. I was looking at the screen and then it popped out over there. That’s amazing. And I registered my first email address. I remember we had projects to do it and they said, use the internet. And I had to do a pro by the way, I did agricultural science.

So that was my, my, my bachelor’s was an agricultural science. My PhD was in secondary biofuels and climate change. So just to show you, it’s absolutely nothing to do with what I do right now. Um, so we went. So back to agricultural science, internet just came out. I typed in how to grow radishes. Now for the listeners, you know, this is R rated, but the first thing that popped up was, how would you like to play with my radishes?

And I was like, what the hell is [00:37:00] this? At 17, 17, that’s, that, that’s the, um, that’s how regulation came into play. Right. Everything on the internet was porn when it first came out. And then all of that got removed from the internet, luckily, but. I couldn’t do an assignment on how to grow radishes without coming across that stuff.

Um, and it’s evolved now, and we don’t, we don’t see any of that, which is great. So anyway, so does that answer your question about 17? 17, I had no idea what I was going to do. In fact, 27, I had no idea what I was going to do. Only at 37 did I realize what I wanted to do. So I think it takes a while for any person.

On their journey to figure out what they actually want to do what impact they want to create. And I think there’s a famous saying it says a person lives has two lives or something like that. The first one they born with and the second one is when they realize why they were put on this planet. And that’s when you’re filled with impact and you just, you know the value of every day every minute every hour.

And what you want to create in this world. [00:38:00] And so that’s what drives the motivation. My motivation is fueled by, Hey, I might have only 20 years on this planet based on my family’s genetic history. So I want to maximize the amount of time, like the amount of impact that I can create in those 20 years. And impact is only created by sharing with other people, by lifting other people up by changing lives.

And when you do that, That’s when you’re truly happy. I was sharing with somebody earlier. Um, we had a call and I’m mentoring this guy and he said, Hey, you know, when you first started your agency, how was, how was the, you know, how was business? I said, well, I went through all these hard times, which every business owner has to go through.

And then there’s the period of happiness where everything is systematized and everything’s working. And you’ve got more time, more money than you know what to do with. And this was in my twenties. All I did was go potty, play pool, you know, go out night clubbing and stuff. And then four years later, I woke up and said, There’s got to be more to life than this.

And that’s when I found my purpose. And when I found my purpose, I’ve just been motivated ever [00:39:00] since then. So, yeah, again, I

Anthony Perl: absolutely love that. You know, do you know what the funny thing is, is, um, so I sat in a session recently with a demographer. And one of the biggest growth areas is going to be in Australia is definitely going to be around that agricultural science area and integrating technology into that.

So you might be going full circle yet. You might just not have realized it. So it could be, it could be, it could be coming back. I mean, I find it interesting, um, that there certainly was, uh, and I, and I don’t know if. Um, and it’ll be interesting to know what you’re going to be like when you’re, when your kids are a bit older, if they’re the similar kind of attitude in terms of pushing towards the university, um, age, I had the flip side with my children.

To be honest, they, neither of them, um, went through university. They’d have done other courses and things. And, um, one of my, one of my daughters would like to do the cruise ship thing, but that’s because she’s a singer. So there’s a, there’s a reason for doing it, but [00:40:00] the, um, the interesting thing is about having, um, Uh, you know, parents that really wanted you to go down the path of university and to have these solid degrees and do those things behind you and I experienced similar thing where I, you know, I, I studied broadcast journalism at a BA in communications at a university.

And, you know, I know my mom, um. If you’re listening, hi mom, um, that, uh, at the time she said, but afterwards, you’re going to do a real degree, aren’t you? You’re going to do economics or do something like that, aren’t you? And it was, and I never did. Um, but it’s interesting how there was that generation that, that really pushed you.

And perhaps as a result, while you’re so entrepreneurial as you are, because you’re incredibly entrepreneurial with everything that you’re doing, you’re clearly pushing that down to your, to your kids as well. And seeing that, that impact flowing through, because it’s not for everyone, that kind of idea of growing things and creating new things and, and watching them, you know, blossom.[00:41:00]

Johann Nogueira: Yep. Well, I remember I used to work at McDonald’s and we’re talking 1996. I was getting paid 5. 46 an hour. And I remember coming home and my dad said, how many burgers did you make today? I said, well, I think I made, if I calculated probably around 400, 450 burgers. He’s like, wow. And how much does a burger cost?

I said, oh, it’s about five bucks. He goes, so you made them that amount of money. And I went, wow, I made that amount of money. Wow. And I only got paid, what, 25 for that? That’s crazy. Um, so that was one of my first, you know, aha moments. The second one was I was working at Hugo Boss and me and the other team members, we would compete and we would compete to see who could sell more suits.

Now each Hugo Boss suit was 2, 000 and on average I’d sell about 10 a day. So every day I was generating Hugo Boss. 2, 000, uh, 20, 000. And I used to walk home with 150 and I went, hang on a second. [00:42:00] There’s something I need to either be Hugo Boss, I need to be the store that’s selling these things and make better margin.

So that’s how the entrepreneurial spirit came in. You asked me about university and my, You know, my kids, they won’t have the pressures to go to university. They, if they want to, they will, they will go if they want to, but we won’t be pressuring them the way we were pressured. The reason being they are learning so much from being around people.

They are learning so much from being around the friends that we have. Um, when I run events, they are on stage. with me. My son was coming to entrepreneur events with me when he was, I think about one year old. I would literally carry this baby into networking events and sit down and network with people with the baby.

So, you know, I promised them that they would never have a normal life. That’s, that’s not what they are going to subscribe to. That’s not, we’re going to, we’re going to subscribe to them. Um, and that’s, they’ve accepted that and they see the difference between what they do and how they think. [00:43:00] Versus their friends.

Um, you know, this morning, I don’t know if you know, The Colds has these little Pokemon things. And so my daughter went, Okay, cool. I have five spare. And she says to her brother, You’ve got five spare. I challenge you. Let’s see who can come back home with the most traded to complete our collection. I, by the time I walked to the school at the gate, she went to somebody, Hey, do you want to swap Pokemon?

Did you have any, she asked about three people. One had it. And then she did a deal before she even got to the school gate. You know, I was like, that’s my daughter. So yeah, they’re going to be entrepreneurial for sure. And I’m excited about that.

Anthony Perl: I love it. Um, just to wrap up the main part of the podcast and again, um, reminding everyone to, uh, look for the link to be able to see the bonus content.

Um, How do people engage with you? What’s the, what’s the opportunity around business authorities and working with you moving forward?

Johann Nogueira: Yeah, for sure. If you’re interested, feel free to [00:44:00] email me. I’m a pretty, um, easy to get a hold of. Just email me at Johan at J O H A N N at business authorities dot com. Or look me up on Google and jump on my Facebook.

Message me on Facebook and that’s how you can connect with me. That’s my main platform of communication. I don’t do LinkedIn, unfortunately, but I am going to attempt to try and get it up. In the next couple of months. We’ll convert

Anthony Perl: you eventually into, into, uh, into the ways and means of, of LinkedIn. Um, yeah.

And just thank you so much for being an amazing guest on, on, um, the Biz Bites program. Uh, you know, it’s, there’s more that we can explore and there’s more that we will explore in future episodes. Uh, I, I feel. I feel absolutely positive about that. But for now, before we go into the bonus content, um, just thank you everyone for listening in and Joanne, thank you so much for being an amazing guest.

Johann Nogueira: Thank you so much, man. It’s been an honor to be here and I love doing this. So thank you. Thank you for having me. [00:45:00]

Anthony Perl: All right, everyone. Well, stay tuned, of course, for the next episode of Biz Bites. Don’t forget to subscribe. And of course, look in the show notes for how to get in contact with Johan and how to access the bonus content.

Biz Bites is brought to you by CommTogether for all your marketing needs. So you can build your brand, engage audiences on multiple platforms. Go to commtogether.com.au, follow the links to book an appointment for a free consultation.