Twenty years ago, ABC World News featured me and used a description that has stayed with me ever since:

“A one-man marketing machine.”

At the time, artificial intelligence wasn’t part of the everyday conversation. There was no ChatGPT sitting beside you helping organize an idea. There was no Claude breaking down a complicated document. There was no Grok helping people investigate a subject in seconds.

If you wanted information, you went looking for it.

If you wanted something published, you figured out how to publish it.

If you wanted an audience, you built one.

And that was the world I came from.

I Was an Information Hog

Long before AI made information instantly conversational, I had already developed an obsession with gathering information and turning it into something useful.

I read.

I asked questions.

I studied people.

I studied business.

I studied media.

And then I created.

By the 1990s, I was already building websites. I was writing books, shooting video, producing television, publishing magazines, taking photographs, developing relationships, marketing products and figuring out distribution.

I wasn’t waiting for one industry to define me.

I was learning how all of the pieces connected.

Publishing connected to television.

Television connected to marketing.

Marketing connected to relationships.

Relationships connected to opportunity.

And technology eventually connected everything.

That way of thinking became my lane.

AI Didn’t Create the Instinct. It Expanded the Tools.

That’s why this new age of artificial intelligence feels so interesting to me.

I recognize the philosophy behind it.

Gather information.

Organize information.

Create.

Communicate.

Distribute.

Repeat.

The difference is that what once required numerous people, expensive equipment, office space, production teams and tremendous amounts of time can increasingly be managed by an individual sitting at a computer.

AI hasn’t replaced my experience.

It has given my experience new leverage.

That’s an important distinction.

I’ve lived through publishing deals, film deals, television production, magazine publishing, brand relationships and the constantly changing landscape of the Internet.

I’ve watched industries change.

I’ve watched gatekeepers disappear.

I’ve watched new gatekeepers appear.

And now I am watching something much larger happen.

The Middleman Is Becoming Optional

For generations, millions of people had ideas but didn’t know what to do with them.

They didn’t know how to write the proposal.

They didn’t know how to build the website.

They didn’t understand marketing.

They couldn’t design the presentation.

They didn’t know where to research.

They didn’t understand distribution.

So the idea remained an idea.

Artificial intelligence changes that equation.

Today someone can ask:

How do I start this business?

How do I write this book?

How do I structure this documentary?

How do I build this website?

How do I market this product?

How do I improve this idea?

And instead of staring at the ceiling wondering where to begin, they can begin having a conversation.

That is revolutionary.

Think About the Kid on the Back Porch

I keep imagining some young person sitting on a back porch in Iowa.

Maybe nobody in his family understands what he’s trying to create.

Maybe he doesn’t live in New York.

Maybe he doesn’t live in Los Angeles.

Maybe he doesn’t know anybody in entertainment, publishing or technology.

But he has Wi-Fi.

He has a cellphone.

He has imagination.

And now he has access to tools capable of helping him turn imagination into structure.

He can write.

Create video.

Produce music.

Build a business.

Publish his ideas.

Find his audience.

And communicate with people anywhere in the world.

His heart, his personality and his ideas can connect with a tribe of people he may never have physically met.

And from his own home, he might build a living.

Think about that.

At 61, I’m Still a Student

Maybe that’s the part of this moment I appreciate most.

I’m 61 years old, and I’m still excited about learning.

I’m not standing outside of technology complaining about how much the world has changed.

I’m inside it.

Experimenting.

Building.

Connecting systems.

Studying tools.

Finding ways to combine everything I’ve learned about publishing, storytelling, television, websites, marketing, music, books, relationships and entrepreneurship.

The technology is new.

The instincts aren’t.

I’ve been working this way for decades.

Artificial intelligence has simply increased the speed.

Ownership Changes Everything

And now there is another possibility that excites me even more.

Ownership.

I’ve spent much of my life creating opportunities, building brands and participating in other people’s systems.

Today I can create systems of my own.

And I can invite other people into those systems.

Partners.

Creators.

Writers.

Entrepreneurs.

People with ideas who never understood how to connect the pieces.

That’s where I see tremendous opportunity.

Not simply using AI.

But using AI to create ownership.

Billions of Stories Haven’t Been Told Yet

There are billions of people on this planet, and most human stories haven’t been told.

Most businesses haven’t been created.

Most books haven’t been written.

Most films haven’t been produced.

Most inventions haven’t been developed.

Most people haven’t even discovered the full value of what they already know.

Artificial intelligence won’t automatically make somebody successful.

But it can help remove the excuse of not knowing where to begin.

Ask.

Learn.

Build.

Publish.

Improve.

Repeat.

That’s powerful.

Twenty Years Later

Twenty years after somebody looked at what I was doing and called me a one-man marketing machine, I’m looking at a technological world that increasingly makes the one-person enterprise possible for millions of other people.

And I’m fascinated by it.

I’m grateful I lived long enough to see this chapter.

I’m grateful I’m healthy enough to participate in it.

And I’m grateful I’m still curious enough to be a student.

I don’t know exactly what the future has waiting for me.

But I know this:

I don’t wake up wanting to waste time.

I want to create.

I want to learn.

I want to build.

I want to help other people understand what’s possible.

And if I can wake up when I want, work when I want, create what I want and continue riding this extraordinary intersection of technology and storytelling, that’s a life I can appreciate.

Twenty years later, the machine is still running.

Still hungry.
Still learning.
Still building.

— Relentless

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