0:00
I can tell you three things number one
0:03
believe in
0:04
yourself believe in yourself to your
0:07
core believe that you know that you can
0:10
do the job right number
0:15
[Music]
0:20
two welcome to a new episode of the
0:22
death device podcast and today I have a
0:26
special guest with me Mr Jonathan
0:28
welcome to the show Jonathan well thank
0:30
you very much it's great to be yeah um
0:33
if I'm not mistaken you're in New York
0:35
right New Jersey but very very close to
0:38
Manhattan okay close close I got the
0:40
first part
0:42
right nice yeah yeah we meet on LinkedIn
0:46
and I saw you're doing quite some
0:47
amazing stuff uh regarding Ai and uh not
0:51
just uh you're teaching Ai and you're
0:54
actually applying AI in in your business
0:56
so I'm very curious to hear what it is
0:59
you're doing
1:01
today yeah uh today has been an amazing
1:04
day if we just want to talk about today
1:06
alone um I had I had a great meeting
1:09
with an
1:11
educational uh company down in Florida
1:13
that is interested in both utilizing AI
1:18
to help them uh write their grants write
1:21
responses to Grants as well as builds
1:24
curriculum for uh for the students to
1:28
understand how to utilize AI
1:30
and then right before I came on here A
1:33
friend of mine asked me to design a logo
1:36
of of of a high five and in 20 minutes I
1:41
created a brilliant logo and I have a
1:44
background in graphic design but still
1:46
in AI I was able to just sit on my couch
1:49
and create an amazing logo so e every
1:52
day is amazing today was even also is
1:55
just as amazing a quick note from our
1:58
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description yeah and look at and now
2:24
today we're even having a podcast so I
2:27
mean that's as good as it gets but what
2:29
I said to today I I actually really
2:31
wanted to refer to like your business I
2:34
mean what uh your business please tell
2:37
us more about the business what it's
2:39
called and and what is the core of your
2:41
Ser I mean where they got a glimpse just
2:42
now but uh it's if I'm not mistaken it's
2:45
hellard Consulting right yes so I run
2:47
two companies I run halard consulting
2:50
which is AI implementation for
2:53
businesses I generally focus on small
2:56
businesses startup and businesses that
2:58
have under 50 employees and then I own
3:02
trigonal Gallery which started off as a
3:06
physical art gallery and then during
3:08
covid had to shut down and we've now
3:11
pivoted that company to be an Ecommerce
3:14
 uh AI generated uh product retail
3:17
company so very exciting stuff and then
3:20
in
3:21
2024 I'm I'm launching a new company
3:24
called trigonal Foundation which is a
3:27
nonprofit to teach Advantage Youth and
3:31
incarcerated individuals about
3:34
AI oh boy you reallyu going on yeah you
3:40
you have you earned your entrepreneurial
3:42
badge that's for sure so you're doing
3:45
amazing stuff and you're also combining
3:47
art and artificial intelligence which I
3:50
always admire I mean I have a Graphic
3:52
Design background as well and I can see
3:54
in your like physical background there
3:57
is some artwork even and you manag to
4:00
transform your gallery into an
4:04
e-commerce store which I find amazing
4:06
and I'm I'm I'm sure you're also
4:08
applying some kind of AI to this to your
4:12
to your to the artwork that you're
4:13
selling online right all of the artwork
4:16
is AI generated and I too have a
4:19
background in graphic design my my
4:21
undergraduate degree is in graphic
4:22
design and photography my I have a
4:25
master's of Science in computer science
4:27
and then I have an MBA in
4:28
entrepreneurial studies which has
4:30
allowed me to grow my entrepreneurial
4:32
business wow amazing amazing so um this
4:38
this AI Consulting so if if you would
4:40
give us a gist like what what are what
4:42
are the core things that you can uh you
4:45
can help with um like I said like a
4:48
mediumsized company today uh what is
4:51
your approach and what are the what are
4:53
the areas you focus on what what are the
4:55
problems you're solving right now with
4:56
your AI competence yeah so the first
4:59
thing that we do when we're onboarding a
5:01
client is we ask them to take the Howard
5:04
AI Readiness survey which is available
5:06
on howard. Consulting and from that
5:09
we're able to understand what their
5:13
understanding is of AI what their
5:15
ability to work with AI is and what
5:18
their needs are right because a lot you
5:21
know when I sit across and I just did
5:22
this this morning when I sit across from
5:25
people and I explain to them that I can
5:28
respond to a gr
5:30
by you know you providing me the
5:32
information and then it creates very
5:35
very simply the answers to the responses
5:38
and I can do that in a day when they
5:40
would be hiring a grant writer that
5:42
would take weeks for them to respond to
5:45
a grant it it blows them away and they
5:48
get very very nervous some get very
5:51
nervous and they Wonder like how can
5:53
this magic be happening but you know all
5:56
magic is really just science that hasn't
5:58
been explained and that's really what AI
6:01
is and you know I use tools within AI to
6:05
allow me to narrow the focus and I was
6:07
explaining to somebody this just the
6:09
other day imagine that you had all the
6:14
information that was in the Library of
6:16
Congress which is all literally every
6:19
book I my book my old book that I wrote
6:21
in the 90s is in the Library of Congress
6:23
which is pretty exciting I have a new
6:25
book coming out at the end in the middle
6:27
of this year that hopefully will also be
6:29
included in the library Congress but the
6:32
idea AI has this huge brain and what you
6:37
actually as me as the prompt engineer
6:39
what I have to do is control that brain
6:42
and say I don't need information on
6:46
astrophysics and NASA and you know all
6:50
of these things that AI understands what
6:54
I need is the answers to very very
6:57
specific questions that I'm providing
6:59
you so being able to write the prompts
7:02
correctly and interact with the AI
7:06
appropriately and also providing it the
7:08
information so that it can give a good
7:11
response allows it to be narrow and
7:13
focused and that's where the best
7:15
results really
7:17
are yeah yeah I agree yeah it's exactly
7:20
as you yeah that's a very nice
7:22
description of what it is and what it
7:24
does right this huge brain that has all
7:27
this information but you just have have
7:29
to you need to know how to talk to it to
7:32
get what to get the results that you're
7:34
looking for right yeah and you have to
7:36
move the client beyond what they're
7:38
seeing on the news every day which is a
7:41
ton of people are going to lose their
7:43
jobs and you know AI is you know ruin
7:46
the future and things like that and you
7:48
have to kind of ease them into the
7:51
ability that I have to control the
7:53
information in Ai and get the right
7:56
information
7:57
out exactly
8:00
yeah and U I'm sure that your services
8:03
can make a huge difference as you just
8:05
said you know to cut down this time from
8:07
weeks to a day to respond to a grant or
8:11
do other like text processing proc
8:14
things uh and you created a logo earlier
8:17
today so
8:19
yeah that's that's all amazing and uh so
8:23
yeah the one of the main topics of this
8:26
podcast is your life story I mean where
8:29
you are today is pretty exciting but I'm
8:32
sure it's even more exciting to hear how
8:34
did you get there what was happening
8:36
with 10 year old Jonathan what yeah
8:40
that's a great that's a great question
8:42
i' I've watched your podcast before so I
8:44
know I knew this question was coming saw
8:46
originally originally I was going to
8:49
tell the story of in high school when I
8:52
started to screen print t-shirts and got
8:56
my artistic expression through that and
8:58
then I thought to myself well that
9:00
wasn't really me at 10 what was me at 10
9:03
and then I remembered that back when I
9:05
was 10 which was like in element you
9:08
know uh middle school high you know
9:10
middle school instead of high school um
9:13
we had a uh an on on on school premise
9:19
kind of a um a garage sale and a kid had
9:25
come in and he had I don't you we're the
9:27
same age so the the big giant Star Wars
9:32
comic book right the one that was uh
9:34
oversized and it was you know very very
9:37
big and he was selling that and now I
9:39
was a Comic Collector and I knew that if
9:43
I could get that from him at a cheap
9:45
price that would be worth a lot of money
9:48
and I'm not somebody who is going to
9:50
give something back after we negotiate
9:52
it and this is a 10 and you know what
9:56
happened was I guess like everybody saw
9:58
that I got very excited about buying
10:00
this piece and they like asked me why
10:03
was I so excited and I said well the
10:05
value of what I bought was so much more
10:09
than what he was selling it for and then
10:11
the teacher got involved and she had to
10:13
like you know calm the kid down and like
10:15
F this is a negotiation this is you know
10:18
10 years old you wanted to sell this at
10:20
a at a price and I bought it at that
10:22
price even though it's worth four times
10:25
as much and I have that still in my in
10:27
my house that great star War comic book
10:30
oh wow so you didn't capitalize on your
10:34
on your good deal you just appreciation
10:37
is always very critical okay so age 10
10:42
you already knew how to first of all to
10:45
see the value of this thing and then to
10:49
negotiate and to make the deal happen I
10:52
guess that's uh quite sophisticated for
10:55
a 10-year-old don't you think yes yes
10:58
looking back at it
11:01
now yeah and then so how was your
11:03
journey from there from from from this
11:06
part of your life to I guess you somehow
11:09
went to study somewhere you collected a
11:13
few degrees I hear yeah so you know it's
11:16
not all roses right it's not you know
11:19
you know it's not there there are many
11:21
bumps in the road along the way but yes
11:24
when you look at my entrepreneurial
11:26
career starting from that Star Wars
11:29
going to selling T-shirts in high
11:31
schools using uh you know uh in press
11:35
pressed ink right on on t-shirts um I
11:40
then uh you know High School wasn't
11:43
really easy for me right I wasn't a a
11:45
test taker which is critically important
11:48
in America if you you know I know that
11:50
like in France it's more of a discussion
11:53
and it's more kind of it's a different
11:55
kind of but in America it's multiple
11:57
choice and if you're you're not good at
11:59
multiple choice you're not a good
12:01
student and so I kind of you know a B
12:04
minus student and I went to a college
12:07
that I didn't do well in and dropped out
12:10
and then did an associates degree which
12:12
is a two-year College um and then from
12:16
there then I went on to get my uh grad
12:19
my graphic design degree at ringland
12:21
College of Art and Design down in
12:23
Sarasota Florida and at that time again
12:27
now you have to understand like I always
12:29
have the my eye on the future right so
12:33
when I graduated in 93 well if you think
12:37
back to
12:38
93 that was right when the Apple
12:41
Macintosh was came out right and there
12:45
was this amazing transfer of of process
12:50
in the college at the time for graphic
12:53
design student to graduate I was in the
12:56
first class to graduate having worked on
12:59
macintoshes the year before me they
13:01
didn't touch the computer so when I went
13:04
out for employment I was way ahead of
13:07
everybody so I got myself a nice little
13:09
job back home uh graphic design on a
13:13
computer and of course you know looking
13:15
back at it you know what I was able to
13:17
do in 93 compared to what we can do now
13:21
is radically it's it's it's like Stone
13:24
cave you know caveman you know taking
13:28
the the the
13:29
the wheel right yeah yeah um but that
13:33
you know that kind of led to my I then
13:37
got into the
13:38
Dooms and the Dooms managing e-commerce
13:42
systems during the Dooms and again this
13:44
was you know if I say to you WebCrawler
13:48
do you remember WebCrawler do you
13:50
remember Internet Explorer at Netscape
13:52
this is what we were working on there
13:54
was no Google there was nothing like
13:57
that so again ahead of the curve and
14:00
being able to see that this was very
14:02
empowering as an entrepreneur and so
14:05
once the dotc coms collapsed
14:08
unfortunately I went and got my Master's
14:11
of Science degree in computer science
14:13
and that then opened up a whole new area
14:16
now it's funny because here we are back
14:19
again uh to an area where in AI if you
14:24
know knowing programming to be you know
14:27
to be able to move that one step further
14:29
but gosh I'll tell you something I am 53
14:33
years old and I am not writing any more
14:36
code I am done I did it in the dots and
14:39
I did it for 10 years after that and I
14:41
am just done so I'm easily hiring all of
14:45
that out not that it even needs to be
14:46
done that way because I can talk to the
14:49
AI system and say I need to create this
14:52
bot using Json or whatever code it needs
14:56
can you help me write this you know the
14:58
other day my the survey wasn't working
15:00
correctly so I put the code in and I
15:03
said can you analyze this for me and it
15:05
was able to come back and it said well
15:07
you know it may fail on certain browsers
15:09
so why don't I rewrite it for you with
15:12
these errors that can then correct it I
15:14
was like brilliant that's it I'm done
15:16
fantastic go ahead so from there really
15:20
 uh I I moved myself because of the dot
15:24
crash I then moved myself to a more
15:26
corporate situation and then buil bu out
15:29
their e-commerce systems here's an
15:31
interesting story so I was hired simply
15:35
because the larger Corporation had
15:38
purchased a smaller company a subsidiary
15:42
and in that company there was an
15:44
Ecommerce system and they didn't
15:48
understand how to run it at all and I
15:50
got in and within a week I was able to
15:55
fix the code and they were finally
15:57
getting sales but then they sent me out
15:59
to Seattle where the company originated
16:02
from and I met the guy who was running
16:06
it on his systems over there and I spent
16:09
the day with him and I thought it was so
16:11
strange that every once in a while he
16:13
would run to the back office and I
16:16
finally said to him at the end of the
16:17
day what are you doing you have to tell
16:19
me what you're doing in the back office
16:20
and he goes well you
16:23
know we're not really
16:26
processing the sales through e-commerce
16:30
and I said what this is before I had
16:32
fixed everything this was this was the
16:34
conversation that I had I said what are
16:36
you doing he goes well I'm making it
16:39
look like it's processing through the
16:41
e-commerce but I'm ringing up the sales
16:43
in the front of the store and I said
16:47
you're
16:48
fired I said I said you know and I went
16:52
back and I got into the code and I fixed
16:54
it and then we you know we went from
16:56
zero really truly zero sales he was
17:00
claiming that there were seven you know
17:01
thousands of dollars in sales to over
17:04
$40,000 in sales within a a thre Monon
17:07
period and then grew it from there so
17:10
after that you know look I can only stay
17:13
in one Corporation for so long right
17:15
there's only so much people are gonna
17:17
tolerate with a know- it all
17:21
right so I lasted there for about five
17:24
years and that's when I built halard
17:26
Consulting and from halard Consulting
17:28
which originated as an SEO website
17:31
design which I always really disliked
17:35
because and I was just telling somebody
17:37
this the other day you know for whatever
17:39
I was GNA charge there was somebody in
17:43
another country that was gonna undercut
17:46
me and I just wasn't happy with that but
17:49
now having transformed this into an AI
17:53
related business it's really my
17:56
connection with the client
17:59
it's not about you know am I going to
18:01
get you ranked on page one because
18:03
truthfully Google doesn't matter maybe
18:07
I'm I'm above ahead of the curve and I
18:10
am utilizing chat GPT and AI systems
18:15
more than everybody else's but I haven't
18:17
gone to Google in four
18:20
months I haven't asked Google anything
18:23
in months serious yeah the TR
18:29
I can get so much more information I can
18:31
get exact detailed information of the
18:33
questions that I'm asking in Google I
18:36
put a question in it's going to send me
18:37
to a website that I have to read whether
18:39
or not the information's right if
18:41
everybody is doing SEO and trying to get
18:44
in the front pages it they're not even
18:46
necessarily relevant for the questions
18:48
that I'm asking so AI systems are going
18:52
to defeat Google I'm claiming it here
18:55
now I'm sure listen they have plenty of
18:57
money they'll pivot to something else
18:59
but that's that's the future and then
19:02
from there really you know the gallery
19:04
and everything like that and what I'm
19:05
doing with the
19:07
foundation fantastic oh yeah I
19:10
completely agree I mean once you
19:11
experienced how AI can generate like a
19:14
real response to your question like
19:17
browsing Google becomes obsolete yes
19:20
because nobody wants to deal with all
19:22
these websites and figure out if they
19:24
are actually a good fit or not and if
19:26
they know what they're talking at all
19:28
example again today was an amazing day
19:31
one of the other things that I did today
19:33
is so I have side projects right so I
19:36
have a vested interest in a construction
19:38
company and I have a vested interest in
19:40
a cannabis company and I was talking to
19:43
an investor and the investor said send a
19:45
pitch deck and I you know I'm I'm kind
19:48
of the connector right and I said to the
19:51
company I said do you have a pitch deck
19:52
ready to go and they said yes and they
19:54
sent it to me my name wasn't on it at
19:56
all and I sent to C GPT should I send
20:00
this without my name anywhere on it and
20:03
it came back and says that is not to
20:05
your advantage because who are you that
20:08
you're sending this pitch Deck with your
20:11
name that's not on it I'm not the
20:13
contact I wasn't listed as an employee
20:16
so I called up the company and I said
20:18
listen you know I'd love to send this
20:20
but we have to make a couple of changes
20:22
we made two changes it's going off
20:24
tomorrow that's it but I wouldn't I
20:26
would be second guessing myself whether
20:28
or not I should have sent that pitch
20:29
deck without my name on it and Chad GPT
20:32
very easily helped me answer that
20:34
question there you I could have gotten
20:36
that through
20:36
Google yeah exactly that would have been
20:39
very
20:40
tough yeah so um for our
20:44
listeners uh what would be your like
20:47
number one AI tool and Method uh problem
20:52
solving thing that helps you every day
20:54
would it would it be like chat GPT like
20:57
what you what you said just now now or
20:59
what is it if you had to pick one of all
21:01
the tools that you have right now what
21:03
would it be it's definitely chat GPT but
21:05
you have to understand how to create
21:07
personas right so when I'm working on
21:10
the grants it's a grant writer Persona
21:14
I've created a custom instruction
21:16
Persona with Specific Instructions
21:19
telling it hey you're not chaty PT
21:22
you're a grant writer and here's how you
21:26
behave as a grant wrer WR these are the
21:29
things that you know these are the
21:30
things that you can search for these are
21:32
the things that you're going to produce
21:35
and that is critical right it doesn't
21:37
matter it could be I have a business
21:39
development so when I'm on LinkedIn I'll
21:42
tell you I have a I have a great funnel
21:45
right you're a marketing guy so you
21:46
understand funnels and and you
21:48
understand because we talked on LinkedIn
21:50
so every single day LinkedIn I'm giving
21:53
I'm giving really gold information out
21:55
here right so every day LinkedIn says to
21:59
you this person is having a birthday
22:01
this person's having an anniversary now
22:04
you know before I would just ignore all
22:06
that right
22:08
now I say happy birthday happy
22:11
anniversary if somebody responds I then
22:14
go into LinkedIn and I look at their
22:16
profile and I open up my bizdev I open
22:19
up a new chat I put in their information
22:23
from the LinkedIn profile I go to the
22:25
website that they of the company that
22:27
they work for I put that information in
22:30
and I say to chat GPT oh and of course
22:32
and understand that the custom
22:34
instruction has my business plan for
22:37
Howard Consulting has my business plan
22:40
for trigonal gallery has all of the data
22:43
about who I am my resume all of that so
22:46
i' I put in all this information about
22:48
that person that responded to my hello
22:51
congratulations happy anniversary and
22:53
their and the company that they work for
22:55
and I simply say to chat GPT as my
22:58
business development
23:00
agent how can I help this person and it
23:04
comes back and it says this person would
23:07
do great with you with halard or this
23:10
person would be great with trigonal or
23:13
this person is an investor and would be
23:15
great with I bud you and with that it
23:18
writes a response email that I then put
23:21
in LinkedIn and of course I always say
23:23
to it add in that I want them to take
23:26
the AI read survey on Howard do.
23:30
Consulting regardless of whether it's
23:32
trigonal or whether it's ibdu or whether
23:34
it's halard or whether it's j Peterson
23:36
which is the construction company and
23:39
that then allows me to have two
23:41
conversations the conversation about
23:44
whether what I can do for them for
23:46
trigonal and what I can do for them for
23:48
hiard so it's a real winwin and then of
23:51
course bringing them down that funnel
23:53
into the AI Readiness survey I'm then
23:56
able to say back to them I I provide
23:58
them with a report and it says it talks
24:02
about their company talks about what
24:04
they could be doing in Ai and then of
24:06
course you know that really helps in
24:08
closing the
24:09
deal fantastic yeah that was definitely
24:12
a golden nugget for our listeners thank
24:15
you so much for sharing this I mean my
24:17
thought would be how could we take this
24:19
one step further where like there was an
24:21
AI bot would kind of do all this without
24:25
you being involved I mean could you
24:27
automate entire process could your I'm
24:29
sure I could but I want I want some
24:32
control right I don't want C3PO uh you
24:35
know out there doing my business for me
24:37
I want to be able to you know and also
24:39
it has to sound a little human right
24:42
sometimes sometimes it'll write an email
24:45
very very it's a great email but it's
24:48
not personal right and so I say to it
24:51
make this simpler make this friendly and
24:54
it comes back and it rewrites it in a
24:55
way and I have to do some editing but if
24:58
I if it was automatic and I didn't have
25:00
that control then people in my LinkedIn
25:03
would be getting you know uh I don't
25:05
want to do a sales pitch I'm not
25:07
pitching you on sales right I want this
25:09
to be hey you're in my LinkedIn you're
25:12
you're a connection to me I have 5,000
25:14
connections tell me why why are we doing
25:17
why are we connecting you know if if
25:20
you're I'm if I'm interested in what
25:22
you're doing let's talk about it if
25:23
you're interested in what I'm doing
25:25
let's talk about it but that's what
25:26
LinkedIn is for a lot of people outside
25:29
of the United States don't really
25:31
understand how critical LinkedIn is
25:34
right it's it's very very powerful yeah
25:37
that's why we are talking today because
25:39
we met on LinkedIn man yeah there we go
25:42
fantastic dude that was that was amazing
25:45
 um and yeah we're doing a lot of similar
25:48
things I would really love to learn more
25:49
about uh your uh you know the the depth
25:53
of your AI
25:54
strategies um but yeah this is not the
25:57
podcast for that maybe we can do it
25:58
another time
26:00
absolutely well today I I would uh I
26:04
would like to hear as a as a closing
26:06
part um what are your nuggets of wisdom
26:10
that you would share with uh other
26:13
people who start the entrepreneurial
26:15
Journey or with ch 10-year-old Jonathan
26:19
for that matter so if I mean you have
26:21
learned a lot so if you had you know to
26:24
put out two three things to share with
26:27
someone who is struggling to get started
26:29
in his entrepreneurial Journey what
26:31
would that be I I can tell you three
26:34
things number one believe in
26:37
yourself believe in yourself to your
26:40
core believe that you know that you can
26:43
do the job right number two make sure
26:49
that you are working with your local
26:55
surroundings networking right you need
26:59
to connect I go to networking events all
27:01
the time despite the rain and the cold I
27:04
go out there and I meet people because
27:07
people are interested in what I do which
27:08
is a very positive reinforcement right I
27:11
went to an event the other day and
27:13
everybody was talking about what they
27:14
did and they were standing up and I said
27:16
oh I do Ai and then for the rest of the
27:19
day everybody wanted to talk about AI
27:23
right and the third most critical thing
27:25
is and especially in the United States
27:28
understand that there's money out there
27:31
if you're struggling to get your
27:34
business off the ground I would say to
27:37
you if you live in a city if you live in
27:41
a state particularly a blue state that
27:44
there is and there there is there is
27:47
money out there I can't I can't stress
27:49
this enough there are grants for
27:52
regardless of whether you're a nonprofit
27:54
there are grants for you there are uh uh
27:58
there are projects that you can work on
28:00
within your city right so anytime that
28:03
there's I live in a city right outside
28:05
of Manhattan and there are meetings for
28:09
entrepreneurs and small businesses to
28:11
work with that City they have a budget
28:15
specifically to work with local
28:18
entrepreneurs and it's critical that you
28:21
have to work with them you you have to
28:23
make those
28:24
connections oh yeah those are my three
28:27
definitely that's these are very good
28:29
three man and I think a young
28:31
entrepreneur would should definitely
28:33
look into these and maybe even talk to
28:36
you for or connect with you we
28:39
definitely want to leave you know your
28:41
contact details below this video below
28:43
this podcast so um when somebody would
28:46
like to reach out to you and maybe learn
28:49
more about their AI Readiness there will
28:51
be a link for that and maybe even your
28:53
LinkedIn profile and uh at this point I
28:56
would just like to thank you so much for
28:59
joining this podcast and your insights
29:02
and also would like to thank our
29:04
listeners to hanging in with us and I
29:06
hope you learned a lot so we stay in
29:08
touch Jonathan and thanks for Jo thank
29:10
you so
29:13
[Music]
29:17
much