#Clockedin with Jordan Edwards

#257 - AI: Friend or Foe? With AI Expert Peter Swain

• Jordan Edwards • Season 6 • Episode 257

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What if technology could give you back your life instead of consuming it?

In this mind-expanding conversation with AI expert Peter Swain, we explore the profound ways artificial intelligence is reshaping our world—for better and worse. Peter doesn't sugarcoat the challenges: "It's smarter than all of us" is the uncomfortable truth we must face. But rather than retreat in fear, he argues we must engage thoughtfully with these tools that are evolving at breakneck speed.

The possibilities are staggering. Cancer research that once required 20 years can now be completed in three days. Problems deemed financially unviable to solve are suddenly within reach. Peter shares the remarkable story of how AI solved his years-long home networking challenge in hours when multiple humans had failed for years.

Most powerfully, Peter explains how AI offers us the gift of choice. "What used to take hours now takes minutes," freeing us to reclaim our time for what truly matters—family, health, purpose, and joy. He challenges the false dichotomies that have defined modern life: success OR family, health OR wealth. With the right approach to technology, we can replace "or" with "and."

Through personal stories—from his 93-pound weight loss journey to transforming his marriage by serving "the relationship" rather than each other—Peter demonstrates how intentional choices and measurement create exponential improvement. His framework for evaluating decisions through the lens of "business, bloodline, and body" offers a practical approach to living with greater alignment and purpose.

Whether you're AI-curious or AI-anxious, this conversation will transform how you think about technology's role in creating a life that's not just productive, but deeply fulfilling. The game is being played whether we participate or not. The question is: how will you use these tools to create the life you truly want?

To Learn more about Peter: 

Website: peterswain.com/mastermind/

To Reach Jordan:

Email: Jordan@Edwards.Consulting

Youtube:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9ejFXH1_BjdnxG4J8u93Zw

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jordan.edwards.7503

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jordanfedwards/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jordanedwards5/



Hope you find value in this. If so please provide a 5-star and drop a review.

Complimentary Edwards Consulting Session: https://calendly.com/jordan-edwardsconsulting/30min

Speaker 1:

Hey, what's going on, guys? I've got a special guest here today. We have Peter Swain. He's one of the good guys in business and in life. I've known him for five plus years and he's always been there to offer a hand down and a hand up. Peter's a leading AI expert in the world. He's always on the cutting edge and this is another amazing opportunity to learn from the best. So let's welcome Peter Swain. He's here for the second time. Thank you for coming on the Hashtag Clocked In podcast and Peter for the first question is should people be concerned about losing humanity with AI?

Speaker 2:

I mean, the simple answer to the question is yes, because when what's at stake is losing humanity, you should always be concerned. There's no risk-reward equation, where that's okay. The problem it sounds a little bit philosophical, but the problem is with AI is we've invented something smarter than us and since we crawled out of the swamp we have always been the apex predator on this planet. So every single thing that we do, that we feel, that we think, that we believe, is informed by the fact that we're it like we're it, and unless you're on the savannah with a lion, you're, you're pretty much gonna rule the roost. Um, so we've invented something that's smarter than us and it doesn't have any of the biological frailties that we have. So how we use that is really important.

Speaker 2:

Now, to bring that to like a more current day versus the philosophical issue is there's there's lots of questions around what should we let AI do and what shouldn't we let it do?

Speaker 2:

Because I don't know how to skin a deer, for example. I don't think I know how to light a fire without fire lighters and a lighter. I think you do something with a stick and rubbing, but I don't really know what it is. So, throughout our time, we have invented tools or technologies that we then use to replace our skills, and we forget those skills. The difference is with this is, what we're replacing is some things that help us with our critical thinking skills, and so losing, um, actualized skills is fine. Losing passive skills like the ability to think, not fine, um. So so that's this interesting trade-off that we're going through right now, and the whole world is kind of coming to grips with that in one way or another of well, what does this look like? So should we be concerned? Absolutely what we shouldn't do as a result is not play the game, because the game is being played, whether we like it or not.

Speaker 1:

Absolutely, and people are becoming exponentially more efficient with everything going on, so it becomes a challenge of how do I keep my sanity, how am I still thinking through ideas without completely losing trains of thought? So what's one truth like pretty much, what's one truth about AI that you think most entrepreneurs would feel a little bit uncomfortable hearing, or the common person would feel uncomfortable if they had to accept that truth?

Speaker 2:

It's smarter than you I mean, it's smarter than all of us is really the most worrying thing. Yeah, but then where I get worried is slightly different. Ai is what's called a reinforced learning algorithm, so the more you use it and the more it gets results, the more of that it will do. And traditionally, historically speaking, what happens is bad actors are very quick to pick up a new technology and exploit it. I heard the other day that scamming, phishing, scams, where people replicate people's voice are up 16,000% year on year. Oh wow, like so.

Speaker 2:

People that want to use this for bad intent, for malintent, are very, very quick to pick up something new and go. How can we use this to screw people over and go? How can we use this to screw people over? People that are on the flip side and they're inherently good are often more wary and slower to adopt something. So, by staying on the sidelines, what they're actually doing is making it so that the reinforced learning algorithm is actually doing more of that thing, of the negative loop that we don't want it doing.

Speaker 2:

So where I get concerned is um, you know, we have basically deregulated ai in the us, the europe, europe is looking to follow suit to the degree where meta the other day opted out of the european ai act, which would have never happened if the us had. If we're in lockstep, um, I'm not trying to be political, that's just that's what's happened. So the floodgates are open and, you know, gloves are off and everybody's going faster, not slower. So it is concerning about how it's going to get used, how it's going to get deployed, because self-regulation has never worked in the history of ever. Why would it? Yeah, so the ai companies are pushing the boundaries as far as they can, governments are encouraging them to push the boundaries as far as they can because they see it as a national defense issue, a national security issue, and then bad actors are kind of coming on board at the same time and using this for things that we'd rather than use them for. So we're we're actively calibrating as we're going.

Speaker 1:

Because everything's going so fast. Yeah, and it gets faster, and as it gets faster and faster, you're seeing literally years compress into months and days and weeks and people don't realize how fast it is.

Speaker 2:

Well, let's just dive into that, because there was an interesting thing yesterday of a company announced they have found proteins that can be used to enhance T cells, like your immune system, in order to essentially give them GPS to detect and fight cancer. Oh, wow, and they are in phase two trials. It looks like they may have made a real, genuine breakthrough in curing cancer. It took the AI that was working on that. It took the AI three days to get it done. Now, the three days is in comparison to what the estimate was of the human vert way of doing. It would have taken 20 years. So you're talking 20 years to three days. But that isn't even the biggest reason that there's a benefit, because what actually is that I find more inspiring is if you said to somebody it's a 20-year project and you may or may not get results, but we need 30 million dollars to do it, yeah, most of the time people are going now we're not gonna, we're not gonna risk that, just to find out in 2045 whether this worked or not, whereas if you say it's three days and it's two thousand dollars, it's like, well, let's try it. So it's not just the the speed to market, that's the impressive thing. It's actually more the amount of different things that are now being tried, that were never tried because they were just unviable commercially to put the people in place to do it.

Speaker 2:

So I saw another statistic the other day that said cancer research is, in terms of hours worth of output, is up 280 x over last year. Oh, wow, because there's just now all the ideas that everybody had. People can go and try them. So we're looking back at decades worth of research where people went this, this might be the answer, and then they went, but I'm going to need 150 people and I'm going to need this equipment and I need that equipment and the the finance just was like we just can't take that risk. Now they're saying, yeah, I'm going to need five days of a supercomputer. Yeah, okay, sure, have five days, we can model the protein, we can do the work and away we go. So the I just thought so. The benefits that we see in ai, in medical, are in insane and otherworldly and can't be ignored.

Speaker 1:

Um, so yeah, it's an exciting time it is and that starts to realize that we can do so much more with our lives and we're going to be able to live longer, we're going to be able to do more things. But it's, how do you find that purpose? How do you find what you're still looking for in life? So let's go down to like the common person day to day, like, should they even be sharing information about AI? Like sharing information about themselves to AI? Because I was listening to a podcast today and some people are like I gave it my net worth, I told it my job, I told it where I live, I told it what I'm doing.

Speaker 2:

To give it more context so it can give better results. 100%. So, yeah, I share everything with my AI. I call it my. It's essentially my thought partner, because if it doesn't know that I'm trying to achieve this or I've got this issue or I'm facing this problem, how can it help you with that? And I have this phrase called whole life advice of I only want AI to give me whole life advice. I don't want it to give me business advice or money advice or health advice or relationship advice or parenting advice. I want it to make sure that it goes after all my goals with everything I tell it. So if I say I, I want to do this, it comes back. I'll give you an example.

Speaker 2:

I was asked to be a columnist for a fairly right-wing publication but huge reach, like multiple millions, and I went into Jet, which is what I call my AI, and said hey, jet, what do you reckon?

Speaker 2:

And she went this only passes one of your three tests of what I call the hero triad of business bloodline and body.

Speaker 2:

This satisfies your business in the short term, but in the long term you become a running side joke. For QAnon, I think, was what she said yeah, which will lead to stress down the line, which will not help you on your health goals, and it will lead you to places that you don't want to show up and you don't want to honor your family. So it's going to achieve one of the three, so it's a no as far as I'm concerned. That's her saying it's a no. I'm like okay, it's a no and she's like but it sounds like we need to explore opportunities for pr and press and columns. Like yeah, so why don't we open up chat gpt agent and set that going and find an alternative? Yeah, half an hour later, she has written seven emails to seven publications that are all aligned with my political stance, asking and saying I'd like to set up a quick call to see if they're looking for a contributor on AI. And here's a sample article that I've written recently.

Speaker 1:

So that's. It's incredible because you start to realize you can make better decisions. So I was actually recording a course earlier today and what I realized was saying no is saying yes to something else, it's saying yes to our goals. So the amount of times we say no, everyone thinks it's a bad thing, but it's really truly an eye opening thing of hey, this is actually better for us, this has alignment of what we're trying to do. So if you can have a gauge to go is good for us or this is bad for us, it starts to open up a lot of doors I think there's two modes to that.

Speaker 2:

I think you know I think you've got an amazing audience. Hi, by the way, everyone um, I think you've got an amazing audience and I know from our conversations they span a quite an age range. Yeah, and I would say, if you're younger and you hear this, don't do that. Say yes to everything. Um, say just, just say yes, like don't even ask what it is, just say yes as long as it isn't going to kill you and it isn't addictive. Just say yes. And I'm talking like up to 30, I think. Just say yes, just say yes, try it.

Speaker 2:

Let's find out and be honest and open with people that you might be tapping out quickly or you're not committing to it, but try everything, um.

Speaker 2:

And then, as you start getting older, wiser and you start having a really firm north star, like where am I going in life and what am I doing, that's when I think you start saying no to stuff. Because if you an easy way, if you don't have a goal and objectives and a plan, an easy way to figure it out is actually just work out what you don't want to do. Um, yeah, and the only way you can really work out what you don't want to do is to try it first. So I'm a huge advocate of like, jumping into everything and trying everything you can. Um, until you're at the age where you're like, yeah, you know what I've, I've got a really good idea of what I want my life to look like. I think I know what I was put on this planet for. And when you're in that mode, then you're 100 right, it's no, I don't want that. No, no, thank you, no, thank you, no, thank you.

Speaker 1:

Let's do this the biggest part that I think you said there was the framing where you go hey, it's yes, but I'm only going to give it a month and then I'm going to decide again, because a lot of people think yes is forever and that's not true. You can put parameters on these things and it makes you a lot more comfortable jumping into different activities instead of being locked in, for I have to do this for five years. That's not always the case.

Speaker 2:

Well, and you just reminded me, I had a major breakthrough with my coach, probably about a year ago now, and she asked me what my definition of integrity was, because it's on my list of values. Integrity is one of the things. And I said integrity is really easy Do what you say and say what you do. That's what it is. And she said you know, you can never be successful that way. I'm like sorry, I'm like what? And she explained it and she went well, think about it.

Speaker 2:

Either you're playing so small that you're always able to achieve everything that you say you're going to achieve, like right said, or you play so big that what you then have to do is you have to borrow from other areas of your life in order to keep the honor, the commitment you made. Like what do you mean? She's like well, if you said you're going to do this in your business, maybe you don't have dinner with your wife, maybe you don't play with your kids, maybe you don't go to the gym, and you're borrowing this from everywhere else, right? She's like if you're going to be successful, if you're going to achieve what you want to achieve, you have to be comfortable with restoring integrity versus staying in integrity. I'm like, wow, that is completely correct. Um, and she would. She then went on and it kind of nailed down. What I realized was that integrity is actually a, a self act. It's nothing to do with the other person at all, and it can be. But a more powerful form of integrity is integrity to yourself, of going no, I'm going to get to the gym, I'm going to release my weight, I'm going to be an amazing husband, I'm going to be an amazing father, I'm going to have an amazing business, and we talk a lot in kind of the mastermind and the stuff that we, we curate about.

Speaker 2:

Ai's true gift is that you can now use the word. And instead of using the word or it's not, do I want to be successful in business or should I spend time with my kids? It's not. Do I want to have a great sex life or do I want to go to the gym? It's now no, I want a great sex life and I want to be a great husband, and I want to be a great father and I want to have a great business and I want to have a great relationship with my maker, or whatever you believe in that area, and AI cuts out all of. As you said earlier, it makes life so efficient and increases the capability of decision-making that you can actually start using the word and, instead of using the word or, and I think that's incredibly powerful, incredibly profound and incredibly scary all at the same time it really is, because it opens up so many doors and it gets people thinking differently.

Speaker 1:

And a question that comes to my mind is if ai is better at making decisions for me, should I let it make decisions for me?

Speaker 2:

No. So I was in an interesting panel conversation about I don't know how I ended up here, but it was about intimate relationships. I think I was supporting a friend and one of the questions was would you be okay with your partner using AI? Was, should what? Would you be okay with your partner using ai? And the the person that was the relationship person said absolutely.

Speaker 2:

I think that everything in relationships is about consent. So if you discuss it as a, as a couple, and you're both okay with bringing ai into the equation, then why wouldn't you? And then they asked me and I said I think that's the worst answer I've ever heard um, and she's like well, I'm like well, where do you draw that line in a relationship? Can I start curating the friends that my wife has? Can I tell her when she can and can't talk to her mom, like when she can and can't talk to her brother? And yeah, well, no, I'm like, well, what's the difference?

Speaker 2:

Because what you, what you're implying in your there has to be consent before you talk to ai is that the, your wife or your husband, doesn't have agency. It's it's up to them to use whatever tool, whatever conversation, whatever person to to bring whoever they want into their life. It's still on them to make the decision as to whether they listen to it, whether they take it on board, etc. So I have no interest in telling my wife who she can and can't talk to, what tools she can and can't use, what influencers she can and can't follow, because she is a sovereign individual in and of herself. I have a lot of interest in her owning whatever decisions she makes. I'm like so no, I'm not gonna seek approval to use AI. I wouldn't ask my employees to seek approval to use AI. I want them to deliver the outcome and I want them to own the outcome and stand by the outcome, whether they used AI or not. It's still.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I love this full accountability of each person being their own individual, and then you make yourself be the best version of yourself and you come together for relationships. So now it's one plus one equals 11, instead of two, so you guys can come together. A big thing about you, peter, that people might not know is that you have an incredible ability to change, whether it's you're always on the leading edge with so many different things, and I just want to bring this up because I know the audience is sitting there going. Ai is scary. I'm not sure how to use it. What's going on? And it's not just about AI, it's about how do you make any change in your life. They want to start going to the gym. They want to start doing this. What are some of the ways that you use change and you embrace change instead of fearing change?

Speaker 2:

Well, as you said, I've always been pretty good at it and because I work in education and coaching around AI, I'm now pretty consistently presented with people that aren't good at stepping into that. They know they have to, so they do, but they're really hesitant and my conversations are normally well, what's the worst that can happen? They're like well, if it no, no, no, I didn't say in like the five-year plan. I'm like if you were to open up chat, gpt now and like tippy, tap some keys, what's the worst that can happen? I'm like the answer is you lose five minutes of your life like that. That's, that's the answer to the question. So it doesn't really sound that bad. They're like yeah, but what if? I'm like why are you borrowing trouble? Why are we into what if this or how about this?

Speaker 2:

Or just it's hyperbolic. Because you're trying to understand something you've never experienced. So you can't do that. Intellectually. There's no way to understand something that is completely alien, like and when I say it's no way, I mean the brain chemistry doesn't work of as soon as you encounter something new, you you create a neuron, another neuron and you have a neural pathway that link those things together so that your brain can go oh, it's kind of like that, and for the beginning it has to be kind of like that. So that's the way people learn stuff. Yeah, if you're looking at stuff that you've never experienced like you've only ever experienced hardback books and I say there's this new thing called a paperback book, you would say, oh, so it's kind of like a hardback but floppy. I go, yeah, exactly that. And you go cool, and now we have a new thing in your brain called a paperback book, and now you can start developing an understanding of what a paperback book is versus what a hardback book is. But if I say, oh, this is smarter than anyone that's ever lived and it can do anything and it never sleeps and it never eats and it never walks and it never talks, and it's basically just like having a conversation with another intelligence, because it's not at all, by the way, it's an intelligence.

Speaker 2:

If I say all that, you go what? There's no way for you to connect it to something else in your brain, so you don't understand it. So the only way to understand something that is completely nonsensical to you is to try it. The only way to get over that is to actually tap on the keys and do it yourself and we we see people do this it takes about a week max. We call it a eureka moment, where somebody literally goes. I've watched people back away from their keyboard. I can't believe it just did that and literally they go, like I've seen it so many times. It's so funny. They put their hands up and literally like whoa, what just happened? Because it's unbelievable until it. What just happened? Because it's unbelievable until it does. And then it's like a drug, like when you get that first moment you're like I want to do more because it can do everything.

Speaker 1:

It can do everything like cool yeah, I I honestly that that eureka moment happened to me when you explained to me about the PowerPoint with Gamma, because I took it and I showed my sister-in-law and her boyfriend and the boyfriend goes no way. And I go, dude, one minute. And I made another one and he goes no way. And he just starts playing with it. And we're literally there on Sunday and we're just playing with this software and he's like, how do you do more? Because you start to realize what is possible. He goes dude. I spent 20 hours on powerpoints. This is one minute and then you can edit it very easily for 15 dollars. Like what are we talking? And for the free version, is the free version like what are we talking about? And you start to realize, like, the effectiveness of, like if you have a problem and you can find the solution. It is such a game changer, like it truly is. But it's that ability to step into the uncomfortable.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, they released something called ChatGPT Agent the other day which can go and browse websites and perform autonomous actions for you over a long period of time. So one of the things I've been trying to get done for years is get my home office Wi-Fi extended into the house, because I've got gigabit fiber in the office but cable broadband in the house. I have tried, my wife has tried, my assistant has tried to find somebody that covers this area that can basically do commercial level service, but in a home environment. Yeah, um, and I said to chat gpt agent hey, I need to find someone that can extend my home office into my home wi-fi. This is my postcode and I live in the middle of the countryside so I'm not like a major metropolis.

Speaker 2:

Um, she sent three inquiries out, so she went through the web, found different links, found the thing on one of them the contact form didn't work. So she went and looked up who owned the domain name I kid you not to find the owner of it, to then send them an email saying hey, just so you know your contact form is down. And, by the way, do you cover this area? Like what? That's incredible, just happened, right, and this morning I got two emails and two quotes and I've accepted one. Three, three smart humans have worked at this problem for three years and tapped out before they found an answer. I'm not saying we couldn't have done it. Of course we could, but we tapped out.

Speaker 1:

It's because there's too many things on our plate where stuff happens and we go. I don't want to deal with that. I don't know what that is, but I want this problem solved. And how do we solve that issue?

Speaker 2:

I have an agent running for a company that I'm on the board of at the moment and it's been running for two hours now and it's sitting there finding every grant that we can apply for for this business, putting them in the order of preference that we think that she thinks we can win them and then writing the grant application for each of them. That's a full-time job. It's a full-time job. It's $100,000, $200,000 a year full-time job. It's a hundred two hundred thousand dollar a year yeah, you wouldn't even give that to a person.

Speaker 1:

They're literally a grant-raising person. You'd have to hire an agency, do a full thing and yeah that face like no, because I think about how many things I've done.

Speaker 1:

Like we're traveling to europe in, uh, september for seven weeks, and so I was like mad, like I was talking my wife, I'm like I think it would be cool if we email some of these hotels and we tell them we'll shoot content, like we already, like you, take pictures of everything anyway, like let's see if we can get some places we can stay and do this. So I took a Sunday and I took, I wrote out like 15 emails and I just copied and pasted. But it took a long time. But if you could just throw it in this thing and it just keeps working.

Speaker 2:

That would take 30 seconds of your time.

Speaker 1:

Think about how many opportunities.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, we're looking to visit the following hotels, the following locations. We need permission to shoot content and also ask if they have a local guide and if they have any access to any camera resource. Yeah, go and you're complete. That's it. You don't even need email addresses and you just put the name of the hotels and it will go and find the email addresses to do it, it's that's incredible, and so now it becomes this opportunity of how do we get people to take the action.

Speaker 1:

And the way I like to think about this is everything is reps, which means you're going to be bad at things in the beginning. It's inevitable. We're always bad at stuff when we start, and the problem is that a lot of us don't try new things too often because we don't like to be uncomfortable. We've gotten so comfortable being comfortable that it's. How do we step into that uncomfortable? So, peter, for you, you're constantly bringing new ideas to the ai mastermind, new products, new things. How do you step into that uncomfort? I know you have a lot of reps doing it, but how do you see people being successful with this?

Speaker 2:

my honest answer sounds really self-serving of, but I think it's my best answer of like well, that's why you just joined the mastermind and let me do that bit for you, because I I spend 40 hours a week researching, trying and then working out what the, what, the small win is. Because when I introduced chat gpt agent last week, for example, people like wow, that's amazing, but I don't know what to do with it. Um, and that's the normal reaction I get of like wow, it's amazing, I see it, I get it, but how does that apply to me? Yeah, so then last week I went here's five different use cases and one of them was applying for grants, to which people like it can do that. And I always get reminded of the fact that when Edison a lot of people don't know this Edison the light bulb was actually a proof of concept to prove that electricity worked.

Speaker 2:

He had no interest in inventing the light bulb, he just kept trying to explain electricity to people, saying this is what it can do. And people went I don't get it. And he's like no, we'll be able to generate the electricity over here and we'll be able to use the electricity over here. And they're like I don't get it. So he literally invented the light bulb to prove that. He could flick a switch here and the electricity got used over there, to which people went, wow, that's amazing. And then they go. So we can do this, we can do this, we can do this.

Speaker 2:

As I said, if you can't link the neurons together, if you can't form the neural pathway, you have to be so bold in how you paint the picture for somebody so that they can latch onto it. So don't try stuff new, just come to somewhere like the mastermind or somewhere else like that, or follow somebody else and let them go through the journey of discovery so that they can hand you the moment on a plate, so you can go oh okay, it can do that. Got it understand? Um, so that's kind of what my I think now my main job is is just throwing enough air balls up for you to be able to hit one out the park like and yeah, for you it was gamma, for example. Like for your, your brother-in-law it was gamma. He's like whoa, what else can we do?

Speaker 1:

yeah, but it's important for people to realize this because it's a moment in time. So it's that moment of like why is this important to you? For me, literally the day after I spoke to Peter, the day before I spoke to Peter, I was starting to do weekly presentations for a new group that I'm running and I ran one and it was just white presentation sheets and it was just really poor. So the gamma thing was the perfect item for me. Going whoa, I didn't even know I needed it until you start to see it and you're like that's amazing. So you start to realize that there's different use cases for different things.

Speaker 1:

If you're not presenting or doing PowerPoints, what's the point? Like it's not really needed, but there's a lot of different areas. But you have to understand what is possible and what you do on a day to day and where this stuff can kind of fit in to become aware of this. So I hope this podcast is just raising everyone's awareness of, hey, what's a challenge you have, what's something that takes some time and maybe where's an opportunity for that?

Speaker 2:

100, it's, it's, it's, it's thrive or die time, and all of those sacrifices that we just willingly accepted in our life, we don't have to accept anymore. So what do you?

Speaker 1:

mean by that? What are some of the sacrifices?

Speaker 2:

well you go, it's to me, it's the, it's the family or the business or the health or the wealth or the. Those things just don't need to exist. They just don't need to exist because what used to take hours now takes minutes. Like what you take, hours now takes minutes. What you take days can take minutes. So your capacity to either do more or to do less, but have more life, like the amount of time.

Speaker 1:

I get it. You don't have to work 100 hours a week.

Speaker 2:

You could work 40 and be significantly more efficient 100, or you can work five and be as efficient as you were. Yeah, so you can be like I wanna. Yeah, like I've got over this summer, we're running a you know two, two and a half million dollar company and I'm taking my son to rome and then my daughter to malta and then I've got a weekend. Like I've got five holidays across this summer. I I've run multiple multi million dollar companies and I can't remember the last time I was able to get christmas day off, let alone multiple holidays at multiple times, because I can now ask Jet, hey, what are the top five emails we've got? Push that to this person, push that to this person, push that to this person. I can do that with my voice and I can do it whilst I'm walking the dock so I am able to be consistently productive in a way that doesn't tax my time at the same time. And, yeah, as you said, I've got more reps, for sure. But those first level wins, like Gamma, descript, vo, they're so in grasp for everybody that if they just accept this, then yeah. The first question you had is like what's the biggest challenge you've got? It's a great question. The next question, which I love, is who would you want to spend more time with, if you could. Yeah, jesse eiser said something, uh recently that really hit me. He's like my parents, uh, in their 70s, so it's a best case scenario. We've got like 15, probably 15 years left with them, he's like, and then I stopped and worked out that I see them twice a year. Case scenario we've got like 15, probably 15 years left with them, he's like, and then I stopped and worked out that I see them twice a year, which means I've probably only got 30 more visits. There's only 30 more times I can hug my mom, yeah, and I was like that's, that's real profound. And he's like so maybe I could go four times. Yeah, because I don't want 30 more, I want 60. I want 90. I want 100.

Speaker 2:

And if you start looking at, if you start auditing your life of where do I spend my time, none of it really correlates with what you want to celebrate on your deathbed, which is sitting at your desk, working Like no one goes. Yeah, I really sat at my desk and worked. Go me. That's not what we want to do. We want to say that we had great kids and we had a great relationship with our wife or our husband and we met god somewhere along the way and we did all these wonderful things. Those are the things that we celebrate, so those are the things we should be doing with our time. But we didn't ever have that choice, because if you wanted to earn enough money to be secure and be stable and be successful, you had to sacrifice that other stuff to do that. And I don't really, genuinely don't believe you have to do that now.

Speaker 1:

I love that. I love that and it's a perfect, very fitting, because at Edwards Consulting, we have five pillars, which are mental health, physical health, community service, philanthropy, spirituality and relationships. Which are mental health, physical health, community service, philanthropy, spirituality and relationships. And so I ask every client, which I'm going to ask you as well, just so people can get a broader perspective of who you are and how you can kind of align so on your mental health today it's just July 25th 2025, on a one to 10, where do you see yourself and, like, maybe, what are some of the reasons that you're there?

Speaker 1:

10 why are you 10?

Speaker 2:

because I'm happy with I. I'm happy with the decisions I make. I go to bed every night knowing that I tried my best. I'm certainly not perfect. I'm certainly flawed um, just like every human is but I'm. I've put a lot of work and a lot of time into me and I feel really good. I'm doing what I want to do for who I want to do it in the way I want to do it. There's nothing misaligned, which is the first time in my life I've been able to say that I'm in full alignment of how I yeah, if I audit again, going back to if I audit a 24-hour period I am fully aligned with how I want to spend that time. So I can't be anything other than a 10 on that I love that.

Speaker 1:

And and how do you find that alignment? Because I know that there's people in the audience sitting there going, well, good for peter, but they might not see all the trials and tribulations that you had to go through in your life, so, like obviously. So I mean just for them, what is? Maybe some questions or maybe some ways you kind of like started to figure out of? I want this in my life or I want some of this stuff.

Speaker 2:

I think there's two things that help me, um, one is to remember that you have a hundred percent track record of surviving your worst day, yes, um. So nothing whoever's listening to this, nothing has ever beat you, because you're still here. You haven't lost, you haven't failed. You can't fail until you quit. So as long as you're still having a go, you haven't failed yet. So the first one is that I think humans are incredibly resilient and things can hurt very acutely in the moment physically, mentally, emotionally but they dull really quite quickly. It's only two, three days before you're like well, that sucks, but it's no longer this existential angst. So that was the first thing. The second thing that really helped me was I used to believe that there was an escape velocity. So what I meant by that was that I could earn enough or be enough or do enough to recover from the problems that I was creating for myself. So I was great at solving a problem today by creating a problem for tomorrow. I was fantastic at that, and a stupid example would be in COVID, when I lost every customer I had. At the beginning of COVID I took out $100,000 worth of loans at crazy high interest rates. So I solved the problem of the day because I had $100,000. But what comes from that is I've got to pay $160,000 back over five years. So I solved today's problem by creating a problem for tomorrow. I would do that in my relationships. I would solve the problem today by creating a problem tomorrow. Another way you can do that is by saying yes to something you know you're not going to do. If somebody's pushing you or you're like, yeah, yeah, okay, yeah, let's do it, and you know it's not aligned, yeah, let's do it, and you know it's not aligned, it's gonna go wrong. There's no doubt it's gonna go wrong. The right thing to do is to say, no, I'm not gonna do that, I don't want to do that. And even if they go but it's great for you go, yeah, sure, maybe, but I'm not gonna do that because I don't want to do it. It sucks, it's terrible idea. If you actually speak your truth in the moment, you don't create the problem for tomorrow.

Speaker 2:

So when I realized that I was never going to escape that if I carried on leaving leading my life the way I was, I was going to die miserable and stressed, I was like this this doesn't work, my plan doesn't work. So I started not just saying no, but I started undoing yeses. I started back to people and saying, hey, you know, I said I was going to do that. They're like yeah, I'm not, I'm not gonna do it. I should never have said it. I'm really really sorry. And people would say, but I'm relying on you. I'm like, yeah, I know, but it was a, it was a dumb thing and I can't. I can't go through with it. Um, and I lost I lost a few friends from it, to be to be fair.

Speaker 2:

But coming out of cleaning everything up, like doing my own kind of 12 steps on myself, um, life feels light. Yes, like, because I don't have commitments to people that I don't want to keep to anymore. Yeah, like, I wake up and look at my diary and I'm excited. Um, I used to wake up and I can't believe I've got to do that call on Thursday with that person. What are they going to say? How are they going to feel? What are they going to do If I get one of those? Now I pick up the phone and say, hey, listen, I, I'm canceling that meeting. I don't want to do it, but you said you would. Yeah, I did. I shouldn't have. I'm sorry.

Speaker 1:

That's so empowering because you start to sit there and realize, like what is the most important thing in keeping that top of mind for you? I love that. Now, physical health I know you've made a vast improvement so I can imagine what you're going to say. But on a one to ten, what do you think your physical health and what were some of the things that helped you?

Speaker 2:

oh, really okay, but I think it was near zero. Um, so in 20, just before just after covid, so 22 um, I had nine, uh, urgent blood markers. Um out of 100. That they were. All this is probably going to kill you within a week. I weighed 160 kilos, 360 pounds. My blood pressure was 210 over 180. Um, like I was willfully trying to hurt myself apparently. Um, if you look today, I've got none of those blood markers left. Um, I'm no longer pre-diabetic. I've reversed out of that. Congratulations, thank you. My blood pressure is now 150 over 120. And I've lost 93 pounds now. So I'm now 122 kilos and I said 4 out of 10 because the health score. I've got multiple things that monitor and they say right now I'm a 4 out of 10. So I'm a 4 out of 10. Oh, and my metabolic age is down from 64 to 48.

Speaker 1:

Wow. So I want you guys to realize Peter is a very, very smart guy, but what he did there is he measures and monitors. The more you measure and monitor you can actually see progress. Most people only measure their weight. Notice how peter had six different wins on his physical health that were not his weight, and that's important to realize well, the weight isn't actually.

Speaker 2:

The weight is actually just the end result of everything else. What's actually more important is spo2, vo, max, visceral fat, um, body to muscle, weight, lean to fat, ratios, like all those things are actually more important than the weight. But the weight's the number, because the weight's the number we want to measure. There's an interesting study I think it's Harvard that says 30% of the results come from measuring something. So if you measure something and try not to do anything, you'll still get 30% of the results than if you measure it and do something, because our reticular activating system will start finding different things. So if you start measuring something literally just the sheer act of measuring it will make you find improvements that you don't even realize you're finding.

Speaker 2:

Yes, you'll. You'll have five grams less of sugar, or you'll have one bite less of, because you just become tuned into. This is important. You'll have five grams less of sugar, or you'll have one bite less of, because you just become tuned in to. This is important. Your brain is the smartest, dumbest thing in the world. If you actively point it in a direction and say this thing is important to me, it will go okay and it will go and find the wins for you without you really having to do any work.

Speaker 1:

Yes.

Speaker 2:

So I would say I'm very proud of my physical journey. It's been relentless and one of the hardest things I've done and it's not done yet. So from one perspective, I'd love to say like a 10 out of 10, just for how I feel now versus how I felt. Um, I bought a shirt off the rack for the first time in two decades.

Speaker 1:

Oh, let's go.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, that's super cool, but the number is the health score is currently 410 out of 1,000. So 4 out of 10.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, absolutely so. I appreciate the honesty because it allows us to know that we can all make a change at any moment. That's really what it empowers us to do. The third one is community service philanthropy. Some people are active in this, some people do different things, some people find different ways. What do you think about this?

Speaker 2:

I think we do a lot of scholarships and let people into the AI mastermind with disability, and we work with people from 501c3s in different ways than we work with people commercially. So I like to keep it aligned to the thing I want to do and the thing I'm good at, which is helping people unlock this tech. So if I can help charities unlock this tech, then I can help them raise more. So part of me says that's an eight out of 10 and part of me says that's a cop-out and it feels like a four out of 10.

Speaker 1:

So I'll average it and give it a six. So that's a really interesting one. People don't realize the value that they already have and can give to others. Right, we want everything to be oh my God, everyone does this, Everyone does this. We don't give any specials.

Speaker 1:

And then sometimes it's like hey, you're already providing incredible service. Like, why don't you allow or work with some people so it can become a win-win for both sides? If your true mission aligns with more people being involved and impacted, then they should be in there. So I think that really opens up a lot of doors for the people listening going hey, maybe there is ways to give back. I'm actually really good at, like, consulting people. Maybe there's a way that you could just go consult nonprofits and get on their board and help them. So I just I think it's.

Speaker 1:

It's so much more than hey, I donated this check or I did this thing. And sometimes the littlest one is literally I've done this, I haven't done it recently, so I'm, I'm, I'm at fault too. It's. I literally drove, went to the food store picked up like bananas, waters, chewy bars, whatever it is, and we would go out around and give it to the homeless people. Forty dollars takes zero time, like maybe an hour, and you feel good about yourself and you're helping these people, especially in Florida. It's so hot, it's brutal, it's brutal, but it's important. The third, the fourth one is relationships. Where do you see your relationships? You could take this business life wherever you want to take it. I know it's obviously part of the bloodline, so it's important. Nine Okay, and why do you think that is what's maybe something you're doing that someone could apply to their life that would help them with their relationships?

Speaker 2:

relationships. So I think if you take my marriage this is the easiest way to see it of liz and I have been married for 13 years and in that 13 years we've we've had good days, bad days, good years, bad years, and we're in a really good spell at the moment. And the reason is that, or from my side anyway, the reason is that I decided to be in service of the marriage, not in service of her. Oh, interesting, because when I was in service of her, it lends itself to a transaction and you start looking at what they're doing and what they're not doing and how they're performing and it can, in bad days or negative days or down days, it can get a bit yeah, whereas if you're in service of the marriage, what does the marriage need from me versus the me and her, then it changes your frame and your reference.

Speaker 2:

So I've started looking at my relationships kind of all through that lens of like, well, what does, why does this relationship exist? So in a business we you know business partners so we can get X done that means that for me to that, I'm not that. I'm serving this, not them. Yeah, and they're not serving me. We're both serving this, yeah, yeah, and they're not serving me. We're both serving this, yeah, and then I'm happier to call people out if they don't step up, because it's not about them letting me down, it's about them letting the thing down that we committed to representing.

Speaker 1:

I Get what you're saying, so it takes the ego out of it. So, instead of it being one verse, one, it's hey, we both agreed on something and we're going to have full accountability to that one thing, that these are our responsibilities, and I feel comfortable saying like, hey, like, the cohesive is being let down by this well, let's take.

Speaker 2:

Let's take the podcast as an example. Right, we are currently co-creating an episode of the podcast, yeah, which means that you, you and I have a relationship with each other, but we also, you have a relationship with the podcast. Yeah, I have a relationship with the podcast. Yeah, we and and it's a very different power dynamic because it's yours yeah, but we still have our own independent path to play in. That, correct? Which means then, if I turn around, if you were late and if I was doing it with you, I wouldn't say anything, but if I'm doing it for the podcast, then I would say something, even though I'm the guest, I would go dude, you're late.

Speaker 2:

Is that how we're going to roll this? Yeah, because it's not about you're late to me, it's you're late to the thing that we said we're going to do, yes. So is this thing important, yes or no? Because if this thing is important, let's step up and act like professionals Not that you were late, by the way, for everyone. And if this thing isn't important, then great, let's be honest with each other and let's not do it absolutely so.

Speaker 1:

I'm in service of the thing, not in service of the person so it changes the frame and it's not me versus you, but it's us both working together towards your vision and then I'm willing to speak my truth.

Speaker 2:

I have to fool myself into speaking my truth because I I don't like hurting people. I'm a big guy so I've been taught not to be aggressive because as a kid if I got regressive, people got hurt. So I have to consistently hold myself back and if I don't say what I feel or think, it dwells and it festers and it gets worse and worse and worse. So I have to find ways to speak my truth. So if, if I'm in service of the thing, there isn't anything I won't say for the thing because you want the thing to be successful.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, got you it's not about me, I don't care, it's about the thing. Yeah. So if I see my wife doing something, I don't care, it's about the thing. Yeah. So if I see my wife doing something that I don't feel is in service of our marriage, I don't mind saying, liz, what are you doing? That's not what we said we're creating together. We said we're creating this. That behavior doesn't get us this. Yes, so are we still going after this? Do we need to recalibrate?

Speaker 1:

because, as far as I'm aware, this is what we're trying to build and that also opens up the door for her to stay the same about you 100. So it's full accountability where everyone's like, hey, are we working in the direction we want to and that comes to the back.

Speaker 1:

It's not judgment it's just assessment, yes, and that kind of comes to the decisions you make in regard to the business and how this all aligns and what's the type of lifestyle you want to develop and how do you overlap this all to? I'd rather like even your one decision of I'd rather live in this middle of the like, outside the city center, than in the city, where it's so chaotic we can't find each other. We're both commuting every single day. It becomes chaotic, it's too much chaotic. We can't find each other. We're both commuting every single day. It becomes chaotic, it's too much. So it's it's these decisions that create the lifestyle you want. And then someone gets to look at it 25 years later and they're like, oh, he got lucky.

Speaker 2:

And you're like, yeah, yeah come and walk a mile in my shoes and then tell me it was luck it was so.

Speaker 1:

It was so, it was so intentional. I had someone do that to me where I was telling him about this trip. I'm going on and he's like that's so cool, like how did you even do that? I go, dude, five years ago actually 10 years ago I studied abroad for the first time and I was like this is really cool. Then I started dating my wife and I was like she's never really been to europe and I was like hey, like we should go. So we did a week long trip and we're like that was brutal. It was so fast, so many flights, I hated it. So then I was like why don't we do your own study abroad? And she was like how? And I'm like I don't know. But we can like start, and you just start to work towards these visions together and it unifies you to the, to the big goal that you want.

Speaker 1:

So the last part is spirituality. So spirituality for you. Where is that? On a one to ten, some people are active, some are not. I heard you make a few mentions of it. Where do you land?

Speaker 2:

you could share as much or as little as you want yeah, I don't have a number for it because I think, if you can ever quantify that, it's probably a weird thing. But it's a journey, it's not something. It's not something, not, it's not that I don't want to share it because I don't want to share it. So I don't know if I have value to add there.

Speaker 1:

Okay except that's. That's an awareness, peter, though that's an awareness to go.

Speaker 2:

Hey, I think about this, but I'm not the expert in this, you know I think that all I would, all I, I guess the only thing I would ask of everybody is to remember that there's this weird statistic which is do you know how much DNA we share as humans?

Speaker 1:

I have no idea 99.98.

Speaker 2:

99.98 of your DNA and a black woman or an Asian man or an Indian child is 99.98% the same. We have so much more in common than we do apart, and unfortunately, we seem to spend a lot more time focusing on what makes us different than what makes us the same. And the one underpinning that I have found in every religion that I have looked into, studied being part of is, is tolerance and acceptance. Um, and I think that we live in quite a divided world. We live in a world where social media puts us into our echo chambers and feeds us more of our own beliefs until we believe that they're right and they're no longer beliefs. So I would say, whatever your journey is is awesome. Show up for yourself, respect yourself and there's probably something else out there and who knows what it is but being in in service of others and understanding that life is a multiplayer game, not a single player game, yeah, it's probably going to be in your service.

Speaker 1:

That's awesome, Peter. I appreciate you sharing that. I know our time's coming to an end. Where can people learn more about you? Where can they learn about the Mastermind?

Speaker 2:

Yeah. So Peter Swain, 24-7 on any of the social channels. We're getting a lot more active there. It's quite fun because each one is a slightly different vibe. So if it's TikTok, you'll see a more fun side. If it different vibes, so if it's tiktok, you'll see a more fun side. If it's instagram, you'll see a more how-to side. Linkedin, you'll see a more professional side. Um, and then peterswaynecom, and then for the mastermind, it's peterswaynecom, forward slash, mastermind, and we have a two-week free trial, um, because, as you said, there's a lot of people I don't know if this is me, I don't know what to do so we wanted to make it as risk-free for everybody to come and see what we do and come hang out with us and stuff. So, peter swaincom, mastermind, you'll get two week free trial. See if you like hanging out with us and if you do, welcome home. And if you don't, we love you. Anyway, I love it. Thank you, my pleasure. Thank you, and thank you for the invite. I really appreciate being back, absolutely.

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