The most exciting thing happening right now? The combination of (API) automation and AI.

Tools like Zapier and make.com have made it easier to access the API layer of the internet for years.

In case you don’t know, APIs are the behind-the-scenes access points that allow digital platforms to connect with each other. For example, if you wanted a list of all your YouTube videos, it’s far easier to use the YouTube API than to manually scrape them one by one.

Power users have been using APIs forever, but for the average person? Automating mundane tasks has had its limits in practical utility.

But now? Many of the processes that waste your time can be automated with these tools plus the added layer of AI to make them even more powerful and robust.

What if you want to automatically download all invoices from a gmail account, sort them, rename them based on the content, and organize them into a single folder?

What if you want to automatically log every sales call, determine the sentiment, update the prospect’s database dynamically with the information of that call (including their attitude), so you never need to take sales notes again?

These things are here right now with the combination of make.com and ChatGPT.

If there’s one exciting thing about today’s moment in AI evolution, this is it.

My chat bot looks forward to talking with your chat bot.

It’s been long cited that people fear public speaking more than death, but in an era where everyone seems to have no problem pointing a camera at themselves and blasting their opinions to milions, I wonder if that’s still true?

Even still, the most savvy content creator can be paralyzed by actually speaking in front of a live audience. That feeling rises up inside… Fight or flight kicks in. Is this anxiety? Or is this a panic attack? I think I’m going to throw up… What if they all hate me? What if I pee my pants on stage and I destroy my career and then I die poor and alone, all because the very fate of my existence hinged on this one speech or presentation or interview!?

Well that’s anxiety talking.

But here’s where people with a theater background have a major advantage in business. I was a theater kid. And I did improv comedy for hundreds of people at a time for over 6 years. I can tell you, that what separates a “performer” from someone who’s terrified of performative situations, isn’t that one experiences anxiety and the other doesn’t.

The reason performers can’t be happy unless there’s an audience is the same reason that adrenaline junkies keep jumping out of planes. Wasn’t once enough??

Some people fear adrenaline, some embrace it. Some people fear performance anxiety, others see it as excitement. For me, I love that tingly feeling coming into a show or sales call or big meeting. That tingly feeling tells me “you’re alive”. And you guessed it, without it for too long, I feel “unalive”.

That’s why performers constantly seek the limelight. If you don’t consider yourself a performer, one of the best things you can do is simply not identify that feeling with “anxiety, fear, or stress”, but rather connect it to “alertness, aliveness, and awakeness.”

Maybe it’s not terror, but excitement. Because on the other side of that emotion is connection, fun, and community. If you could learn to embrace that one feeling, your fear of public speaking would disappear.

The number one skill learned and taught in improv comedy is how to be present. Learning to be in the moment benefits anyone trying to communicate anything.

We ignore so much of what’s happening around us, as we…

…barrel through a presentation.

…speed through prepared remarks.

…tick off agenda items in a meeting.

Improv comedy done well is the simple act of listening and remembering. Listen to what others say. Remember it to use later. Pay attention to how they’re reacting. Roll with the punches.

Respond to what’s what’s actually happening.

Much of the public discourse around AI is about what human jobs it will replace.

Yes, there are many human roles that will sadly be lost to AI.

But a conversation fewer seem to be having is, what about all the things that humans aren’t getting done?

When we see a piece of trash on the road, no human has picked that up.

When we see a Texas-sized island of trash in the ocean, few humans are racing to do something about it.

When we see a patient miss the window for life-saving treatment because no one read their chart, we realize that no human can read millions of charts at once.

When we see abandoned buildings, crumbling concrete, and societies that can no longer function, we become aware of just how much humans are falling short of getting everything done.

Yes, there are certainly human jobs that AI will replace.

But more interesting? All the things that no human can do or wants to do.

Until everything around us is a flawless, utopian society, it’s clear that AI has enormous power to get done that which we can’t/won’t.

This past weekend, I did something I’ve never done before…

A Wim Hof-style ice bath, hosted by my friend Stephen Posner.

It was cold outside. It was grey. It was already raining.

Standing in front of a kiddie pool full of ice, there was just about nothing I wanted to do less than get in that thing.

But peer pressure (and my life philosophy) dictated that I must go in. Sigh.

At first? I did not handle it well. At all. I tried to breathe, but I just couldn’t. The body’s physical response left me feeling powerless.

But after about 30 seconds, I was able to breathe again. I was able to balance. I was able to find a sense of calm that let me stay in that water for another 2.5 minutes.

The feeling of self mastery and personal breakthrough was astounding, and it was so important for me to get over that initial hump.

How many things in life are just like this?