Contractor Marketing in 2026: How AI Is Changing Home Services

In this week's episode, Bill sits down with contractor and business owner Jason White to unpack the real world of contractor marketing. From building a business through SEO and reviews to adapting as technology and AI reshape the home services industry. They dive into the shifts happening in 2026, the future of automation, and what small businesses need to know to stay competitive. With plenty of laughs, job-site stories, and honest insights, this episode is a must-listen for anyone in home services or digital marketing!

It's the end!

No it's not! There's more. There's always more. Every Tuesday at 5AM EST we release new audio and video episodes. 

Come find us!

But wait!

Explore a wealth of tips, tricks, and insights on our various social channels:
📷 Instagram
🐦 Twitter
💼 LinkedIn
👍 Facebook
🕺 TikTok

For a deeper dive into our services and expertise, visit our website: 🌐 https://seapoint.digital/

If you found value in this episode, don't forget to show your support by giving it a thumbs up 👍 and hitting that follow button to stay in the loop with our latest content!

Thanks for listening!

Transcript

the young, cool, trendy thing and then all of a sudden I think I hit this like maturing point of turning 50 or going to turn 50 and then all of a sudden I'm like I'm not young and cool and hip anymore. You or never were. But I was young. Never. You are aging into your personality. Oh, I like that. I like that. Aging into my personality.

All right, we we going keep it light. Keep it fun, please. That's so You don't have to do that. Good morning, everybody, and welcome to the Free Dive podcast. I'm Bill, owner of Seepoint and frequent person on the podcast. And I gotta kind of give the backstory on our guest today. So, I have Jason White. Say good morning, Jason. Good morning. All right. So, here's the backstory on Jason White as our guest today. Jason White is actually my brother-in-law. Yeah. And his wife Christina actually works for Seintoint as well, which later I'm going to do an episode on nepotism in the workplace just to round this all out. Um but Jason's had kind of an interesting relationship with Seepoint. Um at times he's actually helped me. I early on in Seo we were working on a contractor marketing program. So he was influential in trying to look at what do contractors need and uh how we can market better to those in the construction industry. And then Jason eventually just became a client. So, you know, it's always good to take money from your relatives. Always. Always good. Jason actually is the owner of three businesses at this point in the greater Atlanta area. Uh, he owns Handy Jason. Does Handy Jason exist anymore? The website's up. Website's up. We still bring work in from it. the company might exist in paper, but it's all been kind of blended right at this point. Yeah. Um, Handy Jason started as a handyman service again in the uh northern Atlanta area coming Lake Laneir that area of Georgia and uh that's where we first started engaging with Jason. We built the handy Jason website. Uh we did SEO, we did some PPC for Jason in that regard. Um, since then you've become a partner of JCM Home Services. Yep. Half owner of JCM Home Services, which also owns uh Foco Cabinets, which is so those two kind of build off each other remodeling and then just a cabinet store. So that's the backstory. So you have an individual who's kind of connected to Seepoint both uh being family to Seint both in a literal sense and then also you know we we think of our office as a family very dysfunctional family um but also as a client and and that's kind of why we're here today or the topic of our discussion today is I thought it would be great to sit down with Jason as a small business owner and who's seen the evolution of his company. So, you know, we mentioned Handy Jason at the onset. Um, what year did you start Handy Jason? Uh, I believe I landed on the name when I found the website and I believe that was actually December 25th, 2012. Wow. So, 12 years ago, 13 years ago almost. I'm living in the past. Yeah. Yeah. I'm like, is this still 2020? No, it's not. It's almost 20 26. We're getting really old. It happens. It happens. You've got a lot of gray in that beard. A lot. Yeah. Um, so started in 2012. Handy Jason. Um, and well, we're talking nepotism here, right? You're you're working now with your brother-in-law. Yep. Jason Si. Oh, now uh John John I mean John Setti. John Si. Yes. Yeah. So started with Handy Jason. Uh we did well with that in large part to the work we were able to have coming in from the website. I mean that was where a lot of our work came from. Obviously uh repeat work and friends and family spreading the word. Um but I was really surprised at how much came in from the internet. Um,

it helps that contractors tend not to want to spend money there on an intangible thing and I was willing to with your insight and so that will gave me a good a good foothold. Um, and then from there uh when John and I merged uh I became part of JCM Home Services and so we've that's taken off and then Focal Cabinets also. So, how was it going from that transition? So, I know you're do still doing JCM as a major part of your business. How was it as far as changing the mindset of a servicebased company with JCM to a retails service with having a cabinet shop now? I wouldn't say that I've completed that change. Um, I'm definitely still trying to do both things. So the service side of it is definitely um bigger right now. So that's what we're doing. That's what's keeping a roof over over our heads and the uh the cabinet is the goal. Um so there's it's not just what's happening, but what we're doing. Um, JCM Home Services is just kind of a blah name. It it it is. It's a little open. If the company changes directions, that's fine. Uh, Foco Cabinets. You're going, "What what is FOCO?" Well, that's very specific to our area. We live in Foresight County. Thank you. I was that was going to be my follow-up question is what does Foco stand for? The beginning of foresight and county. um it's just a little kitschy phrase that they use locally. So yeah, it's not it's it's much more targeted. It's much more community- based and that's what we're doing with that company. Um so we're less looking at like PPC stuff and more looking at brand awareness, just trying to get that name out there and getting more people aware of the business. And so I do want to just back up a second. We can talk about FCO in a moment and the cabinets and how that works, but I do want to kind of go back cuz, you know, you think about this transition. You know, you've came from a background in surveying, um, drafting, you know, I know that's what you went to college for. And but I know you've always had a great love of construction and you're a high energy person. You love working with your hands, uh, all those things. So you know like that longitivity of starting a company in any field right so I think the statistics is most companies fail within their first three years I have no idea also 75% of statistics are made up I don't know if you if you were aware of that as well yeah I try not to look at how quickly it's going to fail right but it is true like the majority of companies don't gain that momentum and so you know I thought that was a nice idea to have you on the podcast because you really you're involved in three different companies that have all been successful and even like the handy Jason is not that Handy Jason failed and you went into JCM. It was just it was a strategic decision in order to grow grow growth. It was a growth decision, right? So, you know, there's a lot of people out there whether it's a service, maybe they want to start retail. Um, you know, we think about ourselves here at Seepoint. We've seen our agency evolve. You know, we've been here about 16 years now. What do you look at like what are the lessons if you could go back see that young 20some Jason White? Well, you probably weren't 20s cuz you probably still in your 30s there 12 years ago. I don't want to give your age away cuz you know just not played on a podcast. Like what lessons would you tell yourself young, you know, young, ambitious Jason White? Like what what were like what are some of the big points if you were talking to a young person who's like, "I'm going to become a contractor. I'm going to be a builder." Like what first of all, what were the points is like you were like, "Wow, that was a really good decision I made early on." That was a vague question. Yes. you gave me you gave me a few different directions I can go with um for a business

so one I was fortunate where I started my business there was a lot of construction work so that so some of this may not apply to somebody out in the middle of nowhere just ekking by and not having the ability to do what I'm going to say next which is uh set goals for your business um it it makes sense to love what you do. So sometimes you might be able to say, "Hey, I really like I prefer this line of work." And that's um no matter your business, you're going to get a wide range of what you're doing. And you're going to have the ability to focus it. Um you do that with Seepoint Digital. Obviously, there's the wide open internet. and then you've got ways that are more successful for you and you can focus on that. Um, for construction it's the same thing. Um, you can get calls for all kinds of different work and you might need to focus on a specific couple of trades to specialize. Um, you'll get calls in all locations and again you might have to be like, you know, that that doesn't fit my company goal. I need to say no to that. um and starting a business that is extremely difficult to say yes that will help me yes I can make money but that's not within my company's goals. Um having that confidence um helps you be able to grow the business not just in general but in the direction you want. So have a business goal and do make the decisions to say no sometimes. Um, I've seen other because I've had friends in the business and they didn't do that. And at times it was they would take work that was too far away or um that paid too low or wasn't what they were really good at because they felt like they had to because they were on a a slump in work or they had a a slow season or something. and then the good work came along and they couldn't get to it because they were stuck with something that didn't fit their company goals. Um, so having those goals and and sticking to them. Yeah, I can completely relate to that because it's, you know, at Seintoint, you know, and there's been times where I've been very excited about projects. Um, I think one of them that you were helping me with early on was I really wanted to make a marketing product for contractors and boy I sunk a lot of resources and trying to get that up and running. Yes, we did. we did, but you know, in the end it wasn't something that was viable with our our skill sets and and reaching the right audience and you know and that was something we we had to realize like you know what our our focus on insurance companies, our focus on banks um has been far more effective than um you know again where we may have had that affinity for a specific market having to make that pivot Yeah. Yeah. That goes that does go with it. You can't set an unrealistic goal and stick with it. Yeah. But I think you you do have you you will have to adjust the goals and and and taking that time to really analyze and pivot. And sometimes it takes honesty, right? Definitely. Because sometimes you might be like, "Oh, I want, you know, like you might be like, I really want to pursue this type of work." And if it's just not if your margins aren't good or it's, you know, it's not returning what you need it to return, it's Yeah. You got to pivot. You got to pivot. Yeah. What's the most unhinged thing that's ever happened to you on a job site?

You're like that I can talk about without the lawyers. Someone that wanted to pray with me that the new roof shingles matched the old roof shingles. Did it work? I don't know. I said that doesn't align with my faith and I'm not going to do it. But did the shingles match? I don't know because she refused to she fired me after that and I was okay with that. Wow, that's wild. That was that was an odd one. We're going to pray for the shingles. No, thank you. And then the next day, anybody that's not going to pray for my shingle collar, I I'm not going to work with. That's just fine. I mean I mean Jesus was a carpenter, right? Yet of all the prayers that I read for about Jesus, shingle color was not in there. So I stand by my decision. We don't know about his we don't know about his early carpentry his early carpentry uh skills if he wasn't like talking to his father going make this dovetail work. Make this dove tail work. Just just Okay. Okay. Well, now that we've gone into blasphemy for work blasphemy, um, it had to happen. It had to happen. Do you wear shoes and socks when you're at work or is this just a podcast thing? I do. Yeah. Now, yeah. Uh, one of my friends, he's a few years older than me, not not a not a huge amount, but he loves to tell the story when he's like, "Jason, get off the roof and flip flops. You cannot nail shingles and flip-flops." And I'm like, "There's just a couple left." That was quite a long time ago. Um, so yes, now I do wear shoes on the job site cuz that would have ruined your foot model. Myations. Yeah, you're modeling aspirations. Um, it would have. Yeah. You know, he can still dream. I can see. But yeah. All right. So, while we have you here, Jason, and we're talking all things contractor and and you know, we're talking about business, but let's just pivot and talk about your actual expertise. What home trend do you want to see die as quickly as possible?

I don't mind trends. But what if there was a a home trend you're just like, "Oh man, this is the worst and and people are going to regret seeing this in their house five years from now." I or do you have to be cautious because you're going to put something in and I don't get bothered by what people do in their house because it's not what I would do. They're still paying me to do it. So even if I don't like it, it's their vision. I'm And here's the other thing with trends. See, as contractors, we like trends because then you're just when it go when the trend goes away or a new one shows up, you're just going to you're just going to pay me to come back and undo it or redo it. And so I I like trends. I don't like wallpaper. I I will say that. I I don't like wallpaper. Is your bedroom wallpaper? That adds legitimacy to me not liking wallpaper. Did you just do that because you love your wife? Yes. That's why. Did you had nothing to do? I was about to say, did you just do that so you'd have more peace at home? Did you just do that because you know that you don't sleep in your own bedroom anymore? You see, you also being married to a Morgirl, being married to my wife's twin, you already know the answers to all of those questions. That is true. I would wallpaper my bedroom if Do you? I'm not I'm not going to ask you the same set of questions. No. Um, you know, I honestly thought this podcast would be more unhinged. They're just so well behaved this morning. And I don't know if it's just cuz we're filming this on a Monday morning and our cut caffeine intake has not hit maximum velocity yet. Maybe maybe we're both being good and holding back. I don't know. Maybe we're just growing. Well, I' I've been maturing. I Oh. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Maybe maybe this is what 50-year-old Bill's like.

next week. Yeah. Is Is it causing introspection for for you? It is. I'm sorry. You know, I will say this like joking around about turn 50, you know, like especially in the internet marketing world and digital and all things technology. Where's your oxygen? Yeah. You know, it's like a the young cool trendy thing. And then all of a sudden, I think I hit this like maturing point of turning 50 or going to turn 50. And then all of a sudden, I'm like, I'm not young and cool and hip anymore. You or never were. But I was young. Never.

You are aging into your personality. Oh, I like that. I like that. aging into my personality. So, let me ask you this, Jason. Where do you see your audience and home services? All right. So, if we have people listening that are own a home service business, where do you see your audiences right now being influenced to make decisions? Demand. I think a lot of contractors, a lot of remodelers follow what the demand is. Um, right. But I mean like where like Susie Homeain care like I want to do bathroom remodel. Oh, I was I was I was gonna get to that. All right. We we don't direct them. Yeah. They see stuff. They see stuff online. They see Pinterest. They watch HGTV. Uh they see pictures of what their friends. I guess what I'm saying is how are they getting to JCM at this point versus oh Bob's that is not what I understood your question to be at all. Yeah. No, I'm saying like where where are you seeing people making their decision? Not like not like why are people getting double sync vanities because they saw it on Pinterest. I mean why are people calling JCM versus calling somebody else? So, our I'll be honest. One thing that I wish we had a better online presence of is Google reviews. There's We don't have a lot. We have some. They're mostly positive. Everybody has like the one negative. Um I think that's what we've got. I I haven't looked recently. Um but when people contact me, they they regularly will say, "Your reviews look really good." because they they do read that. And um it's funny uh John and I were just talking about this I think two weeks ago that we've kind of gotten away from asking for reviews. Um so we're I I need to get that link again and of course trying to get signed in. You got to reverify and everything's a process online these days. Not your question. Well, that's why it's so helpful when you get those 15 phone calls a day with people asking you about your Google listing. Yeah, I answer every one of them. I give them my social, my credit card, every Yep. No, you need a reputable person. Um, not a fake reputable person, right? I like messing with those people myself. And and now for me, cuz like I get it right here at Coint, right? I get those same phone calls like 10 times a day like the auto dialer like your Google listing. We've been trying to reach you about your Google listing and I answer every single one of those. Partly because I think that they get charged per phone call they get. Oh. So like every time someone actually talks to them, I think they get like whoever's at the auto dialer, those companies get charged. Is that another statistic you made up? Yeah, 100% another statistic. But I also figure like if I'm keeping a scammer occupied, that's one contractor who's not getting scammed. So I'm like, "All right." And I love it because it's like I wait to see how many seconds before they hang up on me when they realize who I am and what I do for work. And I love it because it's like like you know they're like on the auto dialer that like they've obviously got a screen and they like they're looking up who this auto dialer is called and they're trying to be pleasant and like did you know that we've been trying to reach you? Yeah, we're here to help you with your Google listing and I hear them like I like as they're like yeah and then all of a sudden the like they don't even say like goodbye now. They just hang the phone hangs up on and I love that. Like yeah, I

did a little bit of that while we were trying the business marketing for contractors and we were I'd try the cold calls and it did give me a little sympathy now when I get them because I I get the auto dial far away, but then there's some more targeted people that they're like, "Hey," and they they might be in the region. Yeah. and they're did a little research and they're calling and it's it I hate it for them because it is it is like a terrible way to start but that's what they have to do, right? I get it. But I do like listen to them for a minute and then I let them know, well my brother-in-law does my digital stuff. He does a really good job. I'm not looking. And they are like, well, if you family, yeah, you're not going to step away from family. No, I'm not. All right. have a good day. So, I I get I'll get a hangup, but most of them that that usually kind of cuts that conversation short. They're like, "If your family ever gets separated, right? They're they're looking for uh yeah, some separation in our family and then I'll be they'll swoop in." No, it it's true. Like there is a difference and I you know for the podcast listeners out there as well like there is a difference between the auto dialers and then right people that work in sales and working in sales that's got to be a demoralizing slog of a especially like software sales and yeah yeah there's a lot of things I don't know how people do it and um what's getting me is now the in the introduction of AI into that process because it used to be all right. So like my email inbox, right? I get probably five emails a day asking me if I want to sell Coint and I probably get 10 emails a day of someone who wants to get me leads and they all now and in the past I was like it's lazy but you sent me an email directly and I realized it's just a copy and paste of and maybe you just sprinkled in like hi Bill you know. Yeah. Yeah. And now with AI, it's even worse because it's like AI is like, "Hey, I saw you did this X, Y, and Z about, you know, I saw this. I saw you you had a really great success story with Birkshshire Bank, for instance." And it's not that they actually read it. It's like they have an AI system that's now just scanning my website and I'm just like telling them what to say. Yeah. Yeah. And it's I mean, it's just writing the emails for them. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We always we think in our business, oh that's all right. But now the new Neo thing, I don't know how that's going to help me. I don't know how I'm going to justify buying one of those little robots and affixing a hammer to it. But there I'm I'm going to find a way. Well, you know what's funny is those robots. Okay, let's talk about the Neo. I love the I think the Neo is one. I think the Neo is adorable, right? Of course. It's like who the design on that is great, right? Like they took a humanoid robot and they actually made him non-threatening. Like like I'd want to hang out with a Neo, you know, like if I was going to have a robot like like look, he looks like he's made out of cotton, you know? Like he's like, you know, like it's just like oh, he's warm and fuzzy. We've got all these movies all the the the robots are rising. Here we go. All right. the most non-threatening looking flannel wearing Yeah. robot. But if you And I'm gonna give it a hammer. Well, if you read about it, okay, I'm I'm I'm getting back to your hammer thing here, though, because if you read about it right now, the robot is not actually a robot. It is somebody controlling it, like wearing a meta, looking through the eyes, and controlling it. At this point, it's like somebody in India or the Philippines is actually like your remote servant. Oh yeah. And if you read the like the fine print, that's what they're they're doing is like and they're they're having someone control this robot. So I hope people realize that. Yeah. Right. like, you know, you have this person like walking around your house and, you know, seeing you in your underwear cuz you you're thinking that hopefully. Yeah. Um Yeah. I I can't imagine like how they pitch this like in the third world country of, you know, like we're going to have you put on this headset and walk around this rich person's house and vacuum for them. But like you in construction, right? Is Ice going to show up and start throwing the robots in the back of the back of the uh van because super because they're like, you know, like Guatemalans with headsets that are now got hammers. Yeah. Yeah. See the Yeah. The Guatemalans, as long as they're in Guatemala, it's okay. With an Oculus on Yeah. Exactly. and and hammering away. And really, a lot of them could probably have two or three on at the same time. That is true. Productivity is going to go up. Productivity. It's a weird It's a weird world with that. Yeah. And I was seeing someone posted something about a hotel did the same thing similar like the idea like they've got somebody in India with their check-in disc and it's just a big screen now and checking people in and it's like these remote jobs. That was the the bank, one of the banks for me the other day went in to make a payment and there's a kiosk. I'm like, I I'm not quite 50, but I'm I'm up there. And I'm like, wait, I don't give this to a person. Nope, you just hit the button. And of course, my you see the age. So, I still ended up with a person coming. No, no, no. I'm sorry. There was get help. And then a person showed up and they've got a headset and I have no idea where they were and they're just like, "Oh, you just do press these buttons and I could have done it all on my own, but no, it just Yeah, there's the remote work thing is really neat. It's and and it's more like acceptable when you know that it's a person. It's when they try to make it seem like it's technology. It's not going to take long where we're not going to know the difference. We're not going to know the difference. It does crack me up because there was a couple early on AI companies and it turned out that it wasn't AI at all. It was just like 40 people in the Philippines answering your questions and I read about that. It just cracked me up. Yeah. But I you know it's it it is interesting I think in the political climate right now, right? because you know not straying into politics at all but there's definitely this sentiment you know on about like American jobs and and you know and some of these things um you know and deporting people and you know and I imagine that's a huge topic in your industry in construction so not specifically you but I mean just like the industry itself is impacted. Remodeling and new construction are pretty separate and I think that's going to hit new construction a lot more. Um

like with our business with remodeling, we're in somebody's house, so we're a lot more careful about who we bring in. Yeah. Um we use smaller companies, right? we use a lot of it is people we we've known for a really long time. Um with our business, we actually can't use illegals the way our business is set up. Um well, and not just the legal, not just the legal, oh, you got to find a way around. They're they're not going to be on our site. So it's that really isn't going to affect us specifically, but yeah, as it affects the new construction and yeah, I don't know what and I don't mean this in a polit like to go down a you know political topic here but I but I do think it's interesting right now the focus is on people from other countries taking jobs right but if the symptom is going to be the exact same when automations with some of these AI um AI I systems and you know and they they talk about that like right now AI is just in theformational space and I love cuz I you'll see people who make you know like like Tik Toks and they're like no one's replacing me welding a beam in the rain or no one's replacing me running wires or no one's replacing me doing have you ever seen a car get built right robots have been doing that a long time and that's what I mean like there's going to be automation that's going to impact these real world jobs. You could say, you know, bluecollar blue collar is going to get automated just like, you know, I think a lot of people in blueco collar jobs are like, I'm safe from where technology is heading because I'm no I'm bringing Neo in. Exactly. the when when someone can figure out a Neo to, you know, and to run a precision of a machine, you know, like the same precision that you get on your other machines, but to, you know, lay tile for you, like why wouldn't you bring a Neo in to lay tile for you versus hiring it out at that point? Um, I don't know yet, but at some point that'll have to be involved in my sales pitch. And maybe that will be like the sales pitch of like it's human craftsmanship versus an automated like you don't get that in an automated system versus you don't get the slightly crooked tile in the corner with with a robot. This will prove that a human laid your right. I'm going to make some sloppy mistakes so you can show off your human. They'll have to build that into the code. Yeah, that's what they'll do is they'll build that. They'll build that level. It's kind of like the the the slightly misspelled email. Exactly. The slightly misspelled email. So that makes it look like or you know my favorite is the emails that are totally AI generated that say at the bottom send from my iPhone. You're like yeah like yeah it's not I'm not buying it. Um, but I do think it's going to be interesting like 10 years from now what what jobs are automated by AI robotic um and and they are starting that. I have seen little videos of a machine that could lay a t that could lay tiles. Yeah. Um they're they're there. It's started. It's not practical because of the setup of the machine, but it's there and they're going to make it better. Yeah. Well, I was thinking like even Neo, right? Yeah. So, we're talking about that and I think that's why I'm excited. Like I realize it's somebody in Bangladesh right now. For now. For now with a headset on helping train the robots. Right. But but Exactly. They're not just controlling it, they're training it. And that's the point. And it to me it's like where we were with 1980s cell phone like the guy who's wear walking around with the battery pack and the big old you know thing there you know and it's like it's cool I got a phone I can walk with and I you know a lot of these initiatives are kind of in that that phase but like the area I was thinking about looking at that NEO can you imagine what it's going to do to the long-term care industry like how expensive it is if you're a person in your 90s wanting stay at home 80s 90s wanting to stay at home with medical limitations and the cost associated so us you know working with marketing and insurance we we think a lot about of insurance products and to me like one of those insurance products that has become incredibly expensive is long-term care insurance and you know for the actual is to figure that out and to um you know understand how much money has to be put away for one of those products so that you know when you are 70 80s and you have a stroke and now so you can stay in your home to have somebody come in your home 24/7 but we get to that point in 101 15 years it's not having a person in your home it's having the descendant of Neo who's has medical training He has home health. He's monitoring your vitals. like whoever the actuaries, it's got to be a really interesting thing for actuaries right now where they're trying to plan what that LTD product looks like and costs associated with it because you and I if we get to the point where we're retiring and we haven't entered the Mad Max, you know, societyy's all falling apart and that, you know, that trajectory of technology like that's going to very change the cost and I I think in a lot of positive ways like you know a person who can stay in their home and and just have a robot take care of them. Um I think it's going to be a huge impact. I had not thought of that. But again that'll be a huge benefit. But again like I think in the insurance industry which we again we think a lot about like how do they start accounting for that? Yeah. Like I feel like there's I feel like there's a sweet spot right now that LTD is going to not LTD, I'm sorry, but long-term care LTC insurance is going to be hugely the cost of administering it is going to be much lower than than it is now. And and you know, big corporations, they're really big on giving money back, especially insurance companies. So, it's it's really going to give us savings. Now, don't get me in trouble because that's that's that's who keeps Coint running is the insurance companies. So, I'm not going to I'm not going to disparage the insurance industry. But I but again, it's so hard for them to like that's the difficulty of their industry is understanding like what the costs associated and you know again like they have to deal with all the tom foolery in Washington to understand like even how to project like what's the cost of healthcare going to be next year. No one knows. And these poor insurance companies and they're getting the wrath of people when their when their um deductibles go up, when their premiums go up, you know, they're just trying to trying to project where things are going and keep up with all the rising costs of healthare and everything else. So that is one of those weird things though like everything is rising in cost, inflationary pressure, um you know medical costs are going up, drug prices are going up, politics is throwing a mess in all of this. So I guess there is that ray of sunshine that if we are looking at automation like could automation bring costs down in some of these on some of these services later and that's that's I think the potential is there. Yeah. Just like it might eventually bring the cost down for you to have someone lay your tiles when you've got your your tiling robot. Exactly. I said the word robot a lot and it's really funny cuz my wife makes fun of how I say robot. So, if I'm saying it wrong, you should definitely like drag me in the comments. Or maybe we can just take out a clip of me saying robot and ask Tik Tok if I say it weird and then you you know, maybe if you practice by saying it more often. Robot. That'll help. Robot in the distant future. In the distant future binary solo. 011 011 011. Only a niche group of people will get that reference. Okay, let let me ask you what a I what AI model do you like the most? I have never used any of them.

actually part of my trip up here um actually one within within the last two weeks um we John and I were talking I'm pretty sure it was last week John and I were talking about the potential of using AI for quotes and estimates and kitchen designs because obviously with a focal cabinet company we do a lot of kitchen designing Right. And not that we can Oh, hey, we can in 2 months we'll be only doing AI rendered kitchens, but we do think that there is a way. And that's actually part of my homework while I'm here is to uh pick your brain about which one I should be using. But I am, I think, in a rare position where I don't use AI, any of the AI. You're like a weird leadite in the wild. Yeah. Um, I live under a rock. Which is funny because your wife is a heavy AI user. She is. And in most things, I am the more technology savvy person between us, but not with AI at all. So, yeah. Um, well, I'm old. You see the white? Yeah. Well, I mean, I'm old, too, but I um I I you know, I shaved my beard and got into AI to stay cool with the kids these days. Growing into your personality. Growing into my personality. So, we can't ask you what's on your AI chat. Um, it's blank. What's in Bill's AI? What's Bill been looking at recently on AI that he can disclose? What should I ask my brother-in-law about when he does a podcast with me? Oh, that would have been a good thing to ask. So,

oh, my chat GTP is disconnected. Let's go to Gemini because I honestly use Gemini a lot more than I use chat GTP. Is it GPT? GPT. Um, I was asking it to make Conan the Barb barbarian movie poster image prompts for you. Uh, for a friend of mine. No, man. Are you going to be Conan? No, I it was it was for a friend of mine. The pictures actually came out really great. I have a friend who's going through some health stuff, so I I did some pictures of him and his wife as Conan the Barbarian. Um his wife is also Conan. Yes. Um

I did a chat on um trying to understand if HubSpot can use um IP information for landing page landing page um changing landing pages smart content on landing pages by IP businesses. So, what I was really hoping to do is if you hit a landing page and HubSpot IP tool says, "Oh, you're visiting from Midwestern Bank, for instance, would it could we make it say Midwestern, like people at Midwestern Bank, just to freak people out?" Um, turns out you can't. Um, but it was it was a good thought yet. Yeah. Um, I was asking about the meaning of the word atonement. Um, is it legal to use corn to bait for hunting in Maine? Turns out it's not. Um,

I Okay, the one I really Here's the one I loved. Wait a second. Wait a second. Yes. Maine has restrictions on how you can hunt. Yes. It's Oh, you know, it's funny cuz I was talking to a girl from the Carolinas recently and she's like, "Yeah, it's my brother and I. we we swap out each week putting the corn down in our hunting blind. And I was like, "Yeah, we can't bait here in Maine." She's like, "You can't bait." And I was like, "No, it's Yeah. Is it that she can't in the Carolinas or she check? She can't like legally they can't. It's just like every state has different hunting laws. Maine's not cool with you baiting deer. So instead, I just have a crab apple tree. you just grow corn. Yeah, that's what I need to do is I just need to start growing corn. Um here's the one. So, again, talking about being a man of a certain age and starting to lose um the understanding what the kids are up to these days, right? Starting. Yeah. I keep seeing memes about the number 67 and I still do not understand 67. And if it's something horribly inappropriate, I'm okay. Good. I'm I'm I'm glad I cuz like I didn't look it up yet. I've been seeing them also and I was like at some point I need to see what they're talking about and it's really close to another number that has a sexual reference. So I was 65. Yeah. 65. Okay. And so I was worried about the correlation with 65, right? Okay. Like that it was like some type of like also pervert number, you know, cuz if everyone's all of a sudden like 67, I was like could it be pervert stuff? So, I asked, "How disappointed were you that it's not?" I said, "Can you explain the 67 meme to me?" And the answer it gave me, "I'm having a hard time fulfilling your request. Can I help you with something else instead?" I really want them to start saying, "No, boomer." Yeah. And then it says, and I go, "No, I just see it all over social media and I don't understand it." The thing I do love about Gemini is that it will tell you what it's thinking, which is also great because sometimes it's just like, "This guy's an idiot." So, I'm hoping that I can help them understand, you know, like like Yeah, that's the best part. Inner monologue. The inner monologue. And then it goes, "Oh, you're not alone." It's one of those memes that's just confusing because it's not a single joke, but rather a reference to a specific rap song and the gesture that goes with it. Here's the breakdown of the core 67 meme. The 67 meme almost always refers to the song 679 by Fetty [ __ ] And you know, being a longtime listener of Fetty [ __ ] I should have got that right away. um which was a massive hit back in 2015. So I guess I just missed that completely. And then it's like the number the meme isn't just about the number 67. It's about the specific way Fetty [ __ ] says 679 in the song's chorus. It's not So you need to stop saying 67. It's just 67. 67. That's what That's what happens. It's just with a man of a certain age. 67, man. That's really bet. Start saying it as 67, not 67. 67 is really bet. I don't know what bet is either. Hopefully, you know, the more I like try to like wade into Gen Z slang, I know I'm going to say something like like that's going to cause HR to get involved or like it's going to be this podcast will be used later. Um, yeah. What else have I looked about?

Um, I asked it to tell me about LLM text files, which I think is going to be interesting. I asked it for hockey jersey um, nicknames. Um, I asked it for podcast help and you can see it's gone really, really well. I said, I'm the owner of Coint Digital and we have a podcast. And then, can you describe it to me? And then it said, that's great. A podcast is a fantastic way for a digital company to build authority, share experience, expertise, and connect with your audience. And it's like, how can I help today? And then I didn't actually continue with it. I don't know. I got really distracted. So, yeah, you should ask Gemini to help you uh focus. Gemini could help me focus. Yes. So, yeah, that is what's in my AI. Time to get to know the team member because I don't really know anybody that works for me. Well, which is odd since you uh do lots of Nepo hires. Yeah, you would think. You think you'd know them. I You would think with the Nepo hires that I have. It's bad when it is like either Christina or Maddie are the people that are the people that are the questions about. Oh man, I hope it is. Oh, well, ask me the question. All right, let's find out. So, we did your chat. Now, we're going to do my chat. My chat is a piece of paper. Yes. This This is in third person, but the first part of this doesn't apply to me. I have a phobia of spiders. Spiders.

But which team member collects them? Oh, that was an easy one. That's Maddie. Oh, it's a two-part question I'm seeing now. Oh, who has the phobia? Who has the phobia of spiders? It's not me. So, I know Maddie collects the spiders. All right. And and phobia of spiders just seems like it would be all females. I was going to say like except Maddie, obviously. Well, I mean, she could collect them and and have a phobia of them. I don't think that would be a case. Okay. I love the things that I'm afraid of. Um, you'd marry Amanda. That is true. Wow. Um, actually, you know what's really funny about Mattie spiders? Side note on this before I try to as I'm stalling to figure out who has the phobia of spiders. So, Maddie has a collection of spiders that she has at home. We covered that. Yes. And she has them little cages, spider cages, right? And cage what you love. Yep. And she has them in they have a finished basement. So she has them in a storage like a wall on her in her finished basement. And I think it must be hilarious that the spiders that are in her basement are like what are you doing in jail? Yeah. Like like there's a little spider jail going on. And are they worried they're going to end up in spider jail if they put their web in the wrong place or are they like oh we're freerange spiders? Yeah. Do you think they crawl over the cage and just show off? Yeah. Yeah. They're like, "This is what it's like outside in the world, but then they have to hunt for their own food versus Yeah. You win some, you lose some. You win." Yeah. Instead of having flies, I guess, just delivered to you or I don't know. I don't know. Delivered to your cage door. I I don't know how how you feed a captive spider. That might be for something when we have Maddie on the podcast. Okay. phobia of spiders. I'm going to say it's Courtney. I don't know whether or not Courtney does. Okay. But Courtney is not the name not the name listed. I know Deb has a fear of snakes. A phobia of snakes. Maybe she just has a fear of all the things that Maddie loves. I'm going to go Deb as number two. Deb may also have a phobia of spiders, but her name is not listed on this piece of paper. Is it Christy? Christy may also have Hold on a second. Christy, do you have a phobia spiders? Oh, Christy does not have a phobia. Do you have uh a spider jail in your basement? A wall of captive spiders? No. Okay, Christie, what is your deepest, darkest fear that we can share on the internet? I'll have to think about that. It is kind of funny that we are like publicly like, "Would you like to know what the deepest fear of our teammates is?" Clowns. It's clowns. So, you're 0 for three. Uh, I'm told that's as many guesses as you get. Yeah. So, you'll have to tell me, Rachel.

See, you know what threw me. And I even gave you a hint by saying female. Well, that's pretty much everyone works here except for Dim and you and Adrian and J. Wait, no. I saw Jared's name. Wait, let me back this up. Let me back this up and every all the other men in the office and all the other men and Dan. Yes. But okay, is that five? Six. Six. I guess what threw I guess what threw me off on this was I expected it's somebody in office to be phobia like because of Maddie rescuing the spiders from somebody else in the office and we would have known that from Rachel's time in the office but we have a buzzer can be like bad excuse yeah should have brought the buzzer the HR buzzer it's too busy right now having an HR meeting with Christina you know, all of Christina's HR violations.

If Christina had an HR violation, what would Christina's HR violation be? So, what would Christina's HR violation be? What would Yeah, she's very conscientious about time. So, I know it wouldn't be stealing time. Do you think it would be stealing paper products from stealing pens? Yes. She's she's here up here working for the week. She's probably just walking around like she's going to go home with like 30 pens. We're going to we're going to come in on we're going to come in next week and we're going to be like all the pens and sticky notes in the office are gone. Like that was really weird. We I didn't realize we were low. So low. How'd that happen? And you're going to like get you're going to hear like jingle jingle jingle in the airport on the way home. I am disappointed to say that I don't think I've had enough of an influence. I don't think she'd have an HR complaint. She might not. I will say, not that I think of any of my employees of being HR issues, HR bait. Yeah. Other than except this guy, you Yeah. And well, I'm gone. So, yeah, that's true. Um,

yeah, we're pretty H. Christina is probably going to be HR safe. She's Christina's probably HR safe. Yeah. Yeah. She's probably more I'll work on my influence. I'll say Christina is probably more going to be an HR complaint versus complainer. She's probably more likely to she's more likely to hit the buzzer than being why the buzzer is being hit. Yes. Yes. It's good to have good employees even if they are related to me. Y yeah. So hiring works until we do our Nepo our Nepo podcast. The Yes, Nepo Hiring Works brought to you from the 50-year-old white guy. Yes. On that note, it's been great having everybody here at the free dive. Hopefully, I don't get cancelled. But then you won't have to do them anymore. Fair point. Yeah. Goodbye. Goodbye.