Why Most People Stay Stuck — And How Top Performers See Opportunities First - Featuring Zan Monroe

What separates top performers from everyone else?

It’s not talent.
 It’s not luck.

It’s how they see the world differently.

In this episode of Finding Your Innergator, RB Wright sits down with longtime friend, speaker, and author Zan Monroe to break down the mindset, awareness, and daily disciplines that allow high achievers to recognize opportunity early—and act on it.

From powerful life lessons to real-world examples in business, fishing, and personal growth, this conversation dives deep into how trends develop, why most people miss them, and how you can position yourself ahead of the curve.

They also explore one of the biggest shifts happening right now—artificial intelligence—and how to use it as a strategic advantage instead of falling behind.

If you’ve ever felt stuck, uncertain, or like you’re missing something… this episode will challenge you to think differently.

 What You’ll Learn:

•  Why recruiting, growth, and success all start with identity
•  The difference between chasing opportunities vs. attracting them
•  How the “lily pad effect” explains success and failure trends 
•  Why most people miss opportunities—even when they’re right in front of them 
•  How to use AI as a thought partner, not just a tool 
•  The role of daily discipline and tracking in long-term success 
•  Why your comfort zone is the biggest threat to your growth

 Key Takeaway:

You don’t fall behind overnight.
 You fall behind slowly—until one day it’s too late.

Top performers don’t wait until the pond is full…
 They recognize the trend early and act.

 About Today’s Guest:

Zan Monroe is a speaker, author, and coach with decades of experience in real estate, leadership, and personal development. Known for his ability to simplify complex ideas and inspire action, Zan has helped countless individuals and organizations grow through mindset, discipline, and strategic thinking.

zanmonroe.com 

 Call to Action:

If this episode impacted you, share it with someone who needs to hear it.

And if you’re ready to take control of your mindset, your discipline, and your results:

• Explore the Innergator system
• Connect with RB
• Start building your next level today

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:12

Hello, everybody, and welcome to Finding Your Innergator Podcast, where we talk about discipline, relationships, and the habits that release to greatness that is already inside of you. I'm your host, RB Wright, and I am so glad that you're here. In each episode, we'll explore powerful lessons, real life stories, and practical strategies to help you live intentionally, build meaningful relationships, and unlock your full potential. But greatness isn't something you stumble into, it's something that is built every single day. So let's get started and begin the journey to finding your inner gator. All right, hello everybody. This is RB Wright, and I am so glad you're here. I'm glad you're listening to Finding Your Inner Gator. You know, we talk about it all the time that Gator, the acronym is greatness achieved through optimizing relationships. But when you break it down to the pillars, the G is you got to get clear. Every morning, you've got to get clear. A, you've got to act with intention, with purpose. T, you've got to track it. I told you, if you measure it, you can manage it. If you manage it, you can improve it. O is what is really the premise of everything we talk about. Optimizing relationships. And then R, this is what most people forget. Every day, no matter what you're doing, every day, you've got to have time at the end of the day to reflect and reset. So when you get that sleep that night, you wake up in the morning, and guess what? You're ready to get clear. We also talked about the daily disciplines, the discipline of the mind, right? Your health, your calendar. You've got to control your calendar. We talked about relationships. That's a daily discipline. I you'll always hear me talking about that. And when you do all those things, as we talked about last week with Allison, the money, the finance portion, it comes. And then you're able to have the freedom associated with that, and you also are able to have an impact. I told you last week, uh, or emphasize you know, just about every episode. I've talked about uh a good dear friend of mine, and he's the one who actually introduced me to Allison probably four or five years ago, Zam and Roe. So I'm delighted today to have actually for the first time on Finding Your Inner Gator, Zan.

SPEAKER_00 2:49

Zam and Roe, how you doing, brother? I'm good. Good to be with you again, as always.

SPEAKER_02 2:56

Well, what people don't realize is uh we had this this set up, and you know, typically I get on, I say, all right, here's gonna be the flow, blah, blah, blah, blah. Uh Zan and I have been talking for 50 minutes. We could have recorded that whole thing, Zan. It was great catching up with you, man. It was great catching up with you.

SPEAKER_00 3:16

I just looked at the clock. I was like, oh man, we've been on the phone an hour already.

SPEAKER_02 3:20

Yeah, and you, you know, I I uh I have uh I always talk about the relationship portion, and there's so many relationships that uh uh local and afar that I've met as a result of of my relationship with you. And and Alison was uh was one of those. I don't know if you had a chance, but she she was our guest last week, and Zen, what a phenomenal story.

SPEAKER_00 3:47

Well, uh I was gonna tell your listeners, that was a masterclass and success. If if if they can stop listening to us and go back to last week's session, I think you said it released last week. Um, you gave me an advanced copy. That's the best thing I've heard in a long time.

SPEAKER_02 4:08

Well, thank you. But she was all I did was just ask questions.

SPEAKER_00 4:13

She is Yeah, but you asked the right questions.

SPEAKER_02 4:16

She is uh what is just a phenomenal story and to and to me the uh the the impact part. Uh I know whoever listens to uh anybody you listen to or I do, you and I can listen to the same thing. And if we debriefed afterwards, uh actually had an honest conversation about our takeaways, there would probably be some the same ones, but you may have something that impacted you or related to you um more than me and vice versa. And uh I loved when you when you look at the the pillars of of Inner Gator, you could you can see she is a true uh example, or better put, she is evidence that that what we're talking about uh does work when you apply it, but what I walked away with was after everything she's been through, the impact that she's able to have today, and really not in a we're not talking 30 years, we're talking a short period of time, right? Yeah. So yeah, I just I I tell you when I talk about the ability to be able to optimize and leverage relationships, uh I I appreciate our relationship for a lot of things, but the people you've introduced me to have been phenomenal. So so thank you for that. Do me well do what? Go ahead. No, I was gonna say, do me a favor. Uh I know you probably as well as anybody, and I could probably tell some stories that you don't want me to. Yeah, but uh I know you and I have been on boats together, we've been on stage together, we've been uh in in meetings together, we've been at lunch together, and we've been hunting together. Uh we have been on more calls, brainstorming, uh and and we I think we think a lot alike, and and I love the fact that we we help each other think and look at things differently. But I don't know uh that everybody that is listening to this uh knows they may have heard your name, but they don't know who Zam Monroe is. Uh you've got a couple of great books out there. I think you're working on another one, but if you don't mind, take a look. You you have permission to talk about yourself for a minute, and that's not something you do very well. Uh every time I every time I ask you about you, you start you flip it on me. Today you don't get to do that.

SPEAKER_00 6:56

Well, uh I'll start with I'm just a country boy from eastern North Carolina. Yep. Um so uh the short version is uh my daddy died four days uh before I turned eleven years old, and I became the man of the family. Uh I had three older sisters and my mother on a farm, and I had I learned quickly that I was the only male on the farm. I mean, the cows were female, the horses were the dogs, everything on that farm was female. So um uh, you know, I became the man of the family early, and it was the worst thing that ever happened in my life. It was also the best thing that ever happened because it made me who I am. I mean, at 12, 14 years old, I mean, if the tractor went down, Mama would look at me and go, You gotta fix it or figure out what's wrong. And and you had to figure it out. So my whole life's been, well, let's figure it out. And uh you you uh so I grew up on the farm, I started my first business at the age of 16, formal business. I was raised in a very entrepreneurial uh world. My mother uh and that whole generation was uh entrepreneur, so I started my first formal business at 16, teaching some people to swim and play tennis. That blew into uh uh building a uh uh Ploverfield tennis and swim complex. Um as I got out of college at the age of 20, we had to wait until I turned 21 to incorporate because you can't own a corporation before you're 21. Um ran it 10 years, did land development. We'd always been into building and real estate industry, so I was doing land development, doing a little bit of building during that period, and then sold the club, got into real estate formally as an agent, manager, owner, broker, you know, did it all and uh ran companies, um, ran one of the biggest building and development companies in in town. And all along I was teaching real estate because I'm a teacher. And um one of the things I learned early in life was my central purpose is to teach. My wife laughs at me, um, you know, we can be out and I can learn something, I've got to teach it to somebody within the next three or four minutes. But uh so I uh I've written a couple of books, uh stories of Uncle Adrian, and then Seven Lessons for Success, and I'm working on one now called Building Leaders, and we're gonna build a house and build an organization, the footings and the foundation or the beliefs and the culture, um, the um framing is the people and the wiring is the communication, so we'll get to use my housing background on that. And um, and then I get to travel around and speak and meet people and uh consult all through the real estate industry, uh mainly uh some universities and uh other businesses, but uh mainly in the real estate world. So um, which includes everything mortgage insurance, title, um, housing, construction, all that. So it's been a fun adventure, and the way that along the way you and I started, um, I'll tell them that you know, one of your very first speaking gigs was with me, and I was young in the business. You and I did uh presentation at the library on how to buy Cliffdell Road, how to mortgage them, yeah. Cliffdale Road Library. So you and I've been playing for years.

SPEAKER_02 10:49

Yeah, but the the difference is then back back then, and and this is telling of our age, uh Zam and Road walks in and he's prepared. Because we had those big flip charts back then, and I had written everything out and all. But my I think they made coffee thermoses better today because and I was driving my my little car across town and uh uh got there and realized that the coffee had poured all over my presentation, and uh I was not experienced enough in the speaking realm uh to today you kind of roll with the punches, right? You do something every day, you get good at it. Uh I had not done it every day. And so Zan goes on to greatness. I mean, Zan is is all over the country speaking, and uh um I was stuck in my office for a long time after that. But it was uh the it was the start of uh one of my and I I don't say this often, but probably cherished relationships. Uh in fact, you you may not believe this, but sitting on my desk right now while I'm talking to you, and it's here every day, is actually your business card. And I got it propped up on a wall under my I've got a huge uh um 55-inch screen I use for a monitor, and it's propped up under that. And the reason I do that is I look at that and it reminds me of a lesson that you gave me a long time ago, and and I say it all the time, and then I'll get into the what we're gonna talk about in a second, but since we're talking about this, you you uh told me a long time ago that uh the word inspiration means to break to breathe life into. So when I and you you had a a goal that you hit uh originally, I think it was inspire a million people, and then it was inspire beyond. Um and so that's something that has stuck with me uh since you told me that. So your business card, and I don't use business cards anymore, but yours is sitting right there as a reminder that my deal today is I've got to be able to inspire somebody. So just just know that I got your number memorized. I got your phone number memorized. It's one of the few. It's not just a button I push. I've I've dialed your number so many times, I've got it memorized, I know your email address, and I know what you look like. But I have that there because your arms are crossed with your red tie on staring at me, and you're saying, RB, did you inspire somebody today? And did they get it? So just know you're you're the only card that's on my my desk. So and I I'm gonna take a picture of it and send it. I'm gonna take a picture and send it to you so you know that I'm not just making that up.

SPEAKER_00 14:05

So uh there and you and I had this conversation before we came on on the show, and and you can say all those accolades and all those things and all these places you've been and done and seen, you're just a person.

SPEAKER_01 14:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:20

You're just a guy. I mean, I'm just a guy. You're just a guy. We just have have taken the opportunity. I always tell my wife, I said, umors open all the time around you. There's the opportunities open up for people all the time. But you've got to walk through that door. Just because the door of opportunity opens doesn't mean you're gonna be famous. You gotta walk through that door. And if you stay in your desk or hide and hide in the garage and don't walk through that door, you never get that opportunity. So I mean, you and I both have had opportunities that if we rewound back to when we were kids, you go, really? I could do all these things? Well, yeah, the opportunities are gonna be there, but you gotta walk through that door.

SPEAKER_02 15:18

Zana, this was not at all what I was gonna talk to you about. That never seems to fill up. I got I gotta ask you something on that. Uh you know, this week I I was sharing with you, I'm gonna be talking with a few hundred people on some things. Yeah, one of one of the the pieces uh is I I believe the the mindset of a top performer. Doesn't matter if you're uh a mortgage banker, real estate agent, insurance agent, a car salesman, uh, or a mechanic. I mean, it doesn't matter. I mean, in in today's world, you got a certain number of vehicles you're trying to get through, right? But when you look at getting to the next level versus being in your comfort zone, I told you Jennifer told me that in that tournament you can't be committed to your comfort zone and your goals at the same time. When you're looking at being able to see that door open, you see it open. Everybody, most people's it's not that they don't see it, they ignore it. What causes that fear, Zane? What is it that holds people back from that?

SPEAKER_00 16:27

Oh, the uh my daddy would say the greatest unexplored territory on the universe is underneath a man's hat.

SPEAKER_01 16:35

Huh.

SPEAKER_00 16:37

Because your mind is holding you back, or a woman's hat. Um we prevent ourselves from achieving uh and and again, like I say, that we should have recorded the first hour of this conversation. Every I told Allison Blanchard this after y'all recorded that last session and I listened to it. I told her, I said, it drives me nuts to talk to Brian because I get off the phone and go, Oh, I gotta do better at what I do. I mean, Brian's Brian's like, I gotta do better. Then she goes, Well, that's how it is talking to you. I said, Well, yeah, that's my job. But every time you and I get together, I finish and I go, I gotta do better. I mean, I gotta just do better. Well, most people are too afraid of their own failure to go out there and screw it up. Yeah, and and I've made a career out of going out there and screwing it up. I mean, my staff, I uh I I told my staff almost daily, I go, if you're not screwing stuff up, you're not doing your job. That means you're not pushing the envelope, you're not trying things you've never done before. And and I know you and I wanted to talk about trends today and how to recognize them, but if you're thinking you can do the same thing over and over and over again for the rest of your life, you got to rethink that because the world is moving and shifting and changing, and if you're not moving and changing with the world around you, you're getting behind.

SPEAKER_02 18:18

Um one of them I had a I had a guy in my uh came by the shop last weekend. Uh when I say shop, you've been to what we affectionately call the swamp, and you know that I've got a spot down there. I like to to tinker and build my lures, and where they're at today, some of them look really, really good. Yes, they do. A guy came in and goes, RB, this these look good, man. He said, Uh, you know, how long you've been doing this? How did this this happen? Well, I reached into a drawer and I pulled out the first lure that I ever made. And it looks like uh something that you know a four-year-old made out of clay. It it looks horrible. I look at it with a lot of pride because I look at it and say, you know what, I could have, in my mind, I had it looking like what you see today. But this is what came out. And I had a choice to make right then. Do I give up or do I make small tweaks and keep working at the craft till I could get it to where I want it to be? So whether it's building a lure, whether it's doing yard work, selling real estate, writing mortgage loans, recruiting, what whatever it is that you do, if you expect to walk out day one and be a professional, to be an expert, you're setting yourself up. And and the best thing to do is say, okay, you know what? I'm gonna see where I'm at today, and then I'm gonna look at it and say, what do I need? You learn from that. Part of what we talk about, the reset and reflect, is not just looking at what you did right, it is what did I do that I need to improve. Uh so I did not mean to get on that tangent, but I can't help it when I'm with you. So I appreciate that greatly. Uh you know, one of the the uh things that you just mentioned was the the trends, and and a reason that that was on my mind, there's there's a lot of things. But you you just recently uh Zan and I share each other's recordings with each other, A, for feedback, and B, uh Zan sends me something. I'm riding down the road, I take the time to listen to every bit of it because I'm going to uh hopefully learn something I didn't know prior. Uh but you're talking about trends, uh specifically, I think, with real estate. But let's talk about you've been doing a lot of research on some things, but let's talk about trends and uh no matter what your role is in life, what it is that you do, whatever your calling is, talk about how to identify trends, the importance of trends, and kind of your your philosophy on that.

SPEAKER_00 21:23

Well, the the I've always said to myself, I'm a big picture person. I like to see from 10,000 feet what's going on. And um when you you know when you come back to how can I keep up with the rapid changes that are going on in our world today with artificial intelligence and uh communications and uh all of that, you need to train yourself to begin to see trends. And trends are all around us, we just don't pay attention. And I'll I'll uh I'll use you as as an example. Um you got a new puppy.

SPEAKER_01 22:11

Hmm.

SPEAKER_00 22:13

Yes, we did.

SPEAKER_02 22:14

That's like having a two-year-old in the house.

SPEAKER_00 22:17

Yeah. You got a new puppy. He came in at at what'd he weigh 10 pounds, 15 pounds when you got him?

SPEAKER_02 22:25

So he was uh no, he was 32 when he came in at 12 weeks.

SPEAKER_00 22:30

Yeah. And how big is he now?

SPEAKER_02 22:32

Uh 56 pounds and he's five months old.

SPEAKER_00 22:37

Yeah. That's a trend. Oh yeah. But you don't see it because every day you feed him, and every day you throw the ball with him, and every day, um, is it Jake?

SPEAKER_02 22:53

Uh Riggs. Riggs. Yeah. Yes. I wanted to name him Jake. I was not allowed to, but Riggs.

SPEAKER_00 23:00

No, no. Yeah, I like that. But you don't see that trend because it changes so slowly in front of you, but I will see it when I come and look at the dog and go, oh my God, he's growing. So so think about your kids. They change in front of you, but I go see my grandchild's and and you know, you go, wow, you've grown three or four, and their mama will go, Well, is she? Yeah, she's growing because that trend. Well, the world is shifting. Now the question, can you track it? Can you pay attention to the trends? And um I always use an example of the lily pond. So um let's say every morning you go for a walk and you walk around this little lake, and in the spring, lily pads begin to grow. So in the first day, there's one lily pad, and lily pads double every day. So on the second day there's two, and then there's four, and then there's eight, sixteen, thirty-two, hundred and six, you know, 128. They all grow. But when will you notice them? Most people won't notice them early. And and let's say that it takes 30 days and the lily pads have completely covered the lake, which means on the 29th day the lake's half full, and on the 28th day, it's a quarter full.

SPEAKER_02 24:33

So I'm I'm gonna stop you just a second because I'll I'll uh a couple things I need you to know. Uh I've validated. I I'm smiling right now. Uh I had uh uh one other time in my life I had heard the lily pad story, and I have been to ponds that were covered, you know, growing up bass fish, and and I can remember going and thinking, man, I didn't think there was this many lily pads here last week, you know. And so so I I validated through two or three uh sources, and I'm not talking about people I know, I'm talking about I did some research uh that they double every day. And so the the thing the thing about it that I love about this analogy is when you notice it half full, and then you come back today and the whole pond's covered, it's too late, Zan. It's too late.

SPEAKER_01 25:41

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 25:42

So your whole premise and and what what I picked up on was how do you event identify trends early? And and folks, for the record, we're not just talking uh uh and I'm not just talking about business trends, sales trends, your your look at your your fine, your fine, your personal finances. All the things that we talk about, if you measure it every day and you're able to manage it, you can identify the trends that are either going to help you be extremely successful in that area, or the trends that are going to be like the lily pad and overtake you. Does that make sense, Ann?

SPEAKER_00 26:29

Oh, absolutely. And and that's one of the first keys. You gotta measure. Um I love your quote. I use it all the time. I'm gonna steal it and put it in my next book. Um, if you can measure it, you can manage it. If you can manage it, you can perfect it. Well, if you can measure it, then that's where people don't measure. So so I had a friend a few years ago, and I said, So what are you gonna do this year that's cool? And he goes, This year I want to play more golf. I said, Well, that's great. How much golf did you play last year? Huh? He said, How much golf did you play last year? I don't know. Uh well, how will you know if you've played more this year? Well, you gotta you gotta you gotta count, you gotta track. And most people don't want to track their life, their diet, their food, their exercise. It's a lot of work, Dan.

SPEAKER_02 27:25

It's a lot of work.

SPEAKER_00 27:26

Yeah, it takes I mean my wife is is counting calories, she's lost a bunch of weight, looks fabulous, and and I'm on the couch with her after dinner, and it takes her like 30 seconds to load her calories into her little app on her phone. Your wife is a is a workout phenomenon. She is as as much in shape as any human I have ever met. And she tracks. I you know, she counts, and and um, and you count business, I do too. But I you've got to measure what's going on around you because just like the weight of your puppy, if you didn't weigh him, you'd just go, well, he's getting bigger, but you don't know the trend.

SPEAKER_02 28:14

So I'm I'm gonna take this just a second and tell you that uh for Christmas. I I Jennifer said, What do you want for Christmas? I'm like, I don't I don't know. She goes, Is there anything you need? And I was like, baby, no. If I if I want something, I usually just get it. Um but you know something? Because she is a big research, big research person. I said, I want a book that when I get back from fishing, fishing tournaments, or just fishing for myself, that I can write down everything from that day. I mean, I don't want to have to I want it to be a I want this information to be in it. So she here's what she had made for me. She had this book made. It's in this leather, it's like a leather journal. And when I walk in, I can I can put down the date, I can put down the uh temperature, the water temperature, the tide, the wind, uh lunar information, sun information, uh water clarity, um baits that I used, live bait, uh artificial, what they were, uh the depth of the water I was in, all these things. I mean, two, I mean, more detail than probably most people would have. But what I started realizing, and I started using it.

unknown 29:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 29:54

When I look and see the weather and the water temperature is gonna be pretty comparable and the water clarities, I know exactly what I need to use and where I need to go. Yep. Now, used to when I'd fish, I'd say, I caught fish here before, but the thing I couldn't tell you was what the tide was doing, right? What what just like you would fly fishing, you don't know what, I mean, if you don't know what the hatch is, what fly are you gonna use? So I I know that may make it very, very simple, and to some people it may complicate the joy of fishing, but I guarantee you my results are going to be better because I identified the trends and applied it. And and and that's to fishing. Imagine what it does to your money, imagine what it does to your business.

SPEAKER_00 30:43

Well, and to your life and your health. Yeah, exactly. Because you have trends in in everything you do. Uh, to go back to your to knowing the conditions, uh, years ago I took my family to Abaco and we went bone fishing.

SPEAKER_02 31:01

That's a dream.

SPEAKER_00 31:02

That's a dream of mine.

SPEAKER_02 31:04

That's a dream of mine.

SPEAKER_00 31:06

Uh and I had a guide who turned out to be a famous guide. I'm trying to think of his name right now. His daddy set the world record for uh bone fish, uh the largest bone fish ever caught. But we're fishing. I mean, we're wading waist deep in the water. I can see bone fish in front of me. We're fly fishing for them. The guide's telling me where to cast, where to cast, where to cast. We've been out there. And he goes, Oh, we're done. I said, Excuse me? He goes, We're done. I said, What do you mean? He said, the tide just turned. I said, that quick? He said, Oh yes. He said, the minute the tide turns, they quit feeding. And we got back in the boat. We were done. And I was like, that quickly? He goes, that fish knows the minute the tide turns. That's understanding the trend. So that's a great example. Yeah, I mean, and you do the same thing. Uh people laugh when I tell them about you and me because you're at the coast fishing in a boat with giant fish and giant rods, and I'm in a stream that's six inches deep, trying to catch a six-inch trout on a fly that I can't even see. And and it's the same principle. You've got to understand the the you know what the surrounding trend is that's that's gonna going to uh Yeah, we you know, you think about it.

SPEAKER_02 32:36

Uh some of those uh rivers and creeks, uh they control, I mean, they're there there there's dams that control that water flow or heavy rains. Uh that all that water is coming off the mountain, so that six-inch creek, all of a sudden, when it's eighteen inches deep, I can tell you the fish are going to react differently. And and folks, we're not trying to simplify this and talk about fishing, but I believe you everybody knows I'm I'm a uh captain here. I love to fish, but I think that there are so many life lessons in fishing. And and understanding the trends is one that that I've never really talked about. But but it's it's true. And and you know that six-inch creek versus when that water is 18 to 24 inches, the reaction in the bite's gonna be completely your approach has to be completely different. And it's the same thing in business and life.

SPEAKER_00 33:41

So let's do a let me can I do a trend that everybody needs to be paying attention to?

SPEAKER_02 33:48

Please.

SPEAKER_00 33:49

Artificial intelligence.

SPEAKER_02 33:51

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_00 33:52

See, I talk to people, I am the well, I am not an early adopter of anything. I'm an observer. I sit back in the corner and I go, yeah, this is kind of cool. And artificial intelligence has been around for years and it's been growing and it's been changing, and you hear a lot about it. And you pushed me because you explained some of the things that you were doing, and I went after some speaking friends, and we do a retreat. And guess what we do on our retreat? We go fishing. But um, they gave me a couple of books, and and so that the trend of artificial intelligence, the the lily pad trend of artificial intelligence, this lake is gonna be full here pretty quick.

SPEAKER_02 34:38

If it's not already.

SPEAKER_00 34:39

If it's not already. Now, here's the problem. Everybody is using it wrong. You're not, I'm not, but everybody is using it to uh the best example, they're driving a Ferrari to the grocery store.

SPEAKER_01 34:57

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 34:59

If you think of artificial intelligence as your new employee, as your uh executive assistant that has a degree from Harvard and MIT and the University of North Carolina and Duke University in different disciplines, artificial intelligence can become a thought partner with you. Instead of using it to write emails or draw a picture of yourself in caricature, which you know comes and goes, if you used it to say, Zan, why are you doing it this way, why don't you do it that way? Or to rethink what you're doing and to use it as a as a you know, if you could have Brian Wright come into your office every morning and go, why are you doing that way? Why don't you do it this way? Have you ever thought about this? Have you ever thought about that? If you had Brian Wright or Zam Monroe or some you know professional coach to come into your world, your wife to come into to train people, if you had an expert, well you do. It's called artificial intelligence. Now the problem is you got to be smart enough to use it and use it correctly. And I can tell you, you use it a lot more than I do. I look at it and go, I should stop and use artificial intelligence to help me think through this process. Well, that's the key. So one of the big trends that you cannot ignore anymore is artificial intelligence. And and it's um you know the numbers are just staggering. Um 2025, we spent 88 billion with a B to build data centers to help artificial intelligence grow. I mean, those industries did. You and I didn't spend it, but it was spent. It was one percent of the gross domestic product of the United States. That's how big this is. This trend is not gonna go away. So, you know, one of the trends that that people need to be looking at is artificial intelligence.

SPEAKER_02 37:25

So I I and I don't mean to cut you off, but AI. Um when I first saw, you know, we were talking a while ago about opportunity and the door.

SPEAKER_01 37:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 37:40

Um it was a little scary to me. Part of it was it was intimidating, right? It's intimidating to uh not understanding that uh it's not here to replace me. It's here to increase my if used properly, it increases my capacity. Um that I I have become over the last 90 days, I've always been felt pretty good about my my routine and my schedule when I got stuff done. Uh Zan, the amount of stuff I'm able to get done today as a result of of AI has been amazing, amazing. Um part of it was for me being able to look at it and instead of working as a doer, working as a director, uh, you said um and you gotta know how to talk to it, you gotta know how to put the prompts in, you gotta know, be very specific in your questions. Um, but you said, you know, the Ferrari to the grocery store. I ought to a lot of people use AI and they think it's the coolest thing in the world. Well, let me ask Grock, let me ask ChatGPT, and it's what temperature should I cook my steak to? Well, you can Google that, right? When I look at it and and I actually name mine uh Charlie. That way I and I use the voice interaction with a microphone, and I can interrupt and she picks up, just like when I'm talking to you, if you say something and it triggers a thought, I'm gonna say something to you, she stops and she turns around and she responds to that. The coolest thing that I've been able to figure out is the um, and I think I've shared this with you was the red team. Um when I say I'll say explain that to me. Yeah, so I'll I'll have this this thought. Um look, we've got a uh Jennifer and I have a small lure business. We've got a small uh uh duck call, which is really cool. I need to tell you about that sometime. Business. We've got uh three or four different things that we do um outside of everyday life. Now I give her credit, she manages a lot of that stuff, but the AI portion, uh, the the directing portion, uh, I'll sit down and uh maybe I'm on a plane or it's at night or weekend in the office here and I'll I will be having my conversation. This is what I'm trying to do. I need you to work as a uh I need you to think like a lawyer, I need you to think like a sales consultant, I need you to think like a marketer, whatever role it is, identify their role first. Tell them what I'm trying to accomplish. They go through my apps and all this stuff, they build out what I'm looking for, and then I'll just say, Charlie, let's red team this. Military term that looks at it and says, all right, let's punch some holes in this. These you've looked at the best case scenario to start off with. Now let's look at is if you do it this way, where are the cons? What are the potential uh roadblocks that you're gonna come into? And if you know what they are ahead of time, you know how to avoid them, right? If you know the potholes on Main Street or there's road construction on Main Street, why don't you turn down front, turn left on second, come back up first and bypass all that? The red team concept, uh, Charlie, my what I've named it, will go through and identify every every it doesn't tell me what I want to hear. Your term that you told me a month or so ago when we're meeting with the um owners of real estate companies, you use that term thought partner, and I'm and I wrote it down with the other 17 pages I notes I took from you when you were talking. But the thought partner piece describes it perfectly that whatever your mindset is, your idea is to be able to look at all eight sides of a the pros, the cons, you miss this, or it'll it will actually say to me, RB, that's a great idea. However, you may want to go this way. It's Zan, and and here's the when I said to you, it may already be here. Every aspect of my life, if I call Odyssey Mechanical, and it drove me crazy for a long time, it would say, Thank you for calling Odyssey Mechanical. This is Alyssa. I'm the virtual assistant. How can I help you today? At first, I thought this is a voice prompt thing. I talked to Alyssa like I'm having a conversation, and it's absolutely amazing. Amazing. And it's it's in it's in your when you're checking out at the uh grocery store. They still haven't, even though I do all my checkout, they still haven't invited me to a Christmas party yet, Zan. I do all my self-checkout, they haven't invited me to a Christmas party. That's right. It's employee group, yeah. It's in every aspect, your vehicles today. My editing software I use, what we do at at Union, I mean, it is everywhere. And if you if you have not adapted, you're using it whether you know it or not, and if you haven't adapted to it and started using it as a thought partner and as a resource more than a Google or web search, you're going to miss the boat. The door of opportunity is there. You've got you've got to you've got to walk in that thing and bust it down wide open.

SPEAKER_00 43:47

Yeah, you gotta start thinking of it like uh uh an executive assistant. That's brilliant. And um, and I get the when I speak on artificial intelligence now I get this question. Well which one should I use? I don't have a clue. There's I don't care. I don't care which one you use. If you use it you'll learn. And if you don't like it, go find another one because there's gobs of them out there.

SPEAKER_02 44:17

Well I can tell you the primary one I started with Grok and I there's some things about I just didn't like. That's just a personal preference. I broke down and I'm a pro level with uh Chat GPT. But in a conversation with ChatGPT I said there's something I want to do are there other are there other I asked her and and the voice is a girl and I named it Charlie right so because it chat GPT. So I said Charlie are there other and I don't remember the the right term but AI mechanisms maybe what I said that do a better job at what I'm trying to accomplish here than you're able to do and came back and it introduced me to another one. I did some research on it before I I went to it and uh I'm able to integrate the two which was kind of kind of cool uh but it's a uh uh that one is more for building websites for the the coding at a different level than chat GPT does so the the answer to that question uh when people ask you hey what's the best one was really what is your application? What is it that you're looking for, right? And so for me it's a more of a productivity than an entertainment. It's a productivity piece and I want it it it actually thinks the way that I do now. I've used it so much it it will actually go back and remind me of something I said three weeks ago and it's uh it has become a thought partner executive assistant uh and it's it's helped me control my calendar which I believe you've got to control your calendar we all have 24 hours in a day and it's helping me get more out of that one of the coolest things is I had to I was doing a brief conversation oh Mile um I can't even remember I was at uh it was Columbus or someplace and I I put in there hey look these are what the topics have been all day I need a two minute close can you give me bullet points of some thoughts and uh within 37 seconds I had about 15 I only needed a couple I had about 15 bullet points and it said at the end of it which I thought was really cool. RB I know you don't have enough time to talk about all of these however the first two uh seem to be the one that were most of the conversation you may want to hit on those if you drop down to number seven it can emphasize number one and I'm looking at it and I'm thinking you know out of the 14 15 items that came up 10 of them I probably could have thought about just writing down the other five uh gave it a different perspective and I'm like wow and and Zan it works 24 hours a day I don't have to pay it more than my monthly subscription it doesn't it doesn't charge me for overtime and it gets it done and then I can go back and say I don't like the way you did that you you you missed it here and it's it doesn't think that I'm being mean or I've hurt its feelings. It says you know what you're probably right let me go back and look at that.

SPEAKER_00 47:59

Yeah now I will tell your listeners one thing when you sign up make sure you go into the uh your personal documents your your security level and say do not share any of my information or don't you know take it into the public domain because if you give it your company's balance sheet or you know your company's five year plan that goes immediately into the public domain but you can tell it no no anything I give you is stays with me. That's me in charge you don't share it out to the rest of the world. You don't use it to teach the rest of the world. So um you don't want your personal and you still have to be careful not to tell it truly personal things but um yeah this is one of the trends that is here and and the lily pads are you know doubling every day. Artificial intelligence there's some books you should read um and and that's another way to s recognize the trends keep up with the writers and what they're writing.

SPEAKER_02 49:11

I know you read are you still reading as much as you used to book about every other week yeah I I believe fully that uh um you know Grant Cardone was right you got a 52-1 advantage over your competition if you read a book a week so I I still I'm still averaging about 26 a year uh and right now uh oh I was trying to I don't have it in here I'm trying to uh a guy named uh Dan Martell I believe he's uh the AI guy that uh I really have been following yeah I I love this guy uh but he's got a book uh buy your time back get your time back or something along that line that deals with the I the with AI and uh it's uh that's the one I'm in the middle of right now one thing I was going to tell you on the real estate side uh that I saw and that was actually uh Dan I was watching one of his videos you're a real estate agent you're a buyer's agent and you think about this and I'm the buyer's agent Xan you're I'm showing you a house okay it's say it's uh a house here in Topsoil area uh you look at the house you like the house and you want some more information of it I can go into AI I can get every bit of information I need on the property but I also can have it when it shows the pictures of the house go to your social media pull off pictures of you and your family and as people are looking at the house they may see your dog you may see your dog laying on the the or out in the backyard on the wall you see a picture of your family all of a sudden it allows them to visualize themselves in that house and you did that in 37 seconds yes you talk about a close you talk about a close I mean that's that is using AI to help people visualize what it actually would be like if they were in that house.

SPEAKER_00 51:26

Yes. Isn't that amazing and and most people can't visualize things so when you can show them a I mean you know a picture's worth a thousand words it always has been three fourths of us are visual learners when we see it we believe it and um the we could spend a whole session on the real estate industry and how it's dramatically changing all of that but um you know the to circle back to your topic on trends just reading paying attention um you know one of the biggest um book series that ever helped me with trending was written in the late 1990s and early 2000s called megatrends and and this guy worked for the military he worked as a military intelligence officer and they read headlines all over the world to pick up trends so you don't have to read the article just read the headlines you're seeing the trends right in front of you now ninety percent of it's clickbait it's you know it it's not real but those are the trends we're involved with so um you know just absorbing information and then I'll come back to gatorizing your day at the end of a day you you said that you you know to to reflect and reset take some time at the end of each and every day to go what did I do today what did I do right what happened where did I go what did I learn like you said who did I inspire who inspired me and then how are we going to take that forward to tomorrow because I'm gonna be a different person tomorrow you're gonna be a different person tomorrow. The world will be a different place that trend is moving us all to a new place. How do I step up into my new role tomorrow? And if I'd had all this information when I was a young person man this is some good stuff.

SPEAKER_02 53:52

Indirectly is that the trends are taking place the pond is filling up with lily pads but most people are going through their day and have no clue what's happening around them. And you've got to you've got to be acutely aware uh to to what is happening and the direction it's going otherwise you're gonna get passed passed by. So Zan I I appreciate you you hitting on that do do me one last do me I was I always love talking to you. Do me one more favor if if I went to zanmonroe.com Zanmonro.com uh am I able to find stories of Uncle Adrian am I able to find the seven lessons for success tell me about about what I can find on your website um well you can find information I do personal coaching group coaching uh I do um you can find all my books and recordings I've got a couple of big events coming up I hadn't even told you about these uh in June I'm gonna do a um uh an event for about 10 real estate agents called the Habits of Highly Successful Agents it'll be um in Fayetteville North Carolina and then in July I'm gonna teach a two-day event on doing presentations um if uh if you do presentations for your work or for you like to be on stage and do presentations for large audiences we're gonna teach you that so um people can go famineroe.com find all sorts of fun stuff. Well I can tell you um uh I know that you uh update things and I I but I've said in a couple of your sessions over the years and presentations and uh when I sp I get I get the opportunity to present uh quite a bit um but I can tell you that um uh a lot of the flow the style the ability to be able to connect is a direct result of being uh a part of those uh sessions and and around you uh those of you that don't know Zan uh if you ever get on the the opportunity to hear him speak you will walk away uh inspired and looking at the world differently if you are someone who who is speaking today or someone who uh aspires to do that uh I highly recommend and endorse uh you being a part of that that session in in July uh Zan you know uh I said it earlier and don't say it often I cherish our our friendship uh you appreciate everything that you have uh inspired me to do but I really appreciate the fact that you spent some time with us today well it's always a pleasure and uh anytime I can spend time with RB whether it's on the phone or on the boat or in a trout stream we will. Well I I've we've talked about it for a little bit uh things are gonna be slowing down in probably the next 30 days or so uh need you uh and Cameron if he's available uh come stay down here at the the coast with us and let's uh let's go let's go fish man I would have loved and here's the thing people don't know this when we're fishing yeah we're talking about the fish but the conversation that we just had that's pretty much the conversation that we we have anyway we have all day all day baby all day well tell tell Laura we said hello thank you so much for being a part of this and uh I look forward to connecting you with soon my pleasure RB always a pleasure all right buddy see ya everybody thank you so much for listening to the Finding Your Inner Gator podcast you know if today's episode helped you share it with someone who needs to hear this message remember greatness is achieved through discipline intentional action and optimizing the relationships around you I look forward to getting with you next week. Now go Gatorize your day