EP13: Everyone's Content Is Fake Now. Here's Why We Both Stopped Watching.

Both of us caught ourselves doing the same thing recently: the second we sense a video is AI-generated, we scroll straight past it. Not because AI is bad — we're about as pro-AI as two people get — but because we're no longer sure it's them. And if we can't tell what's real anymore, neither can your audience. That's the thread running through this whole episode. It kicks off with Ryan Levesque's new book Return to Real and the growing sense among people we know and respect that we're heading into a moment where the only thing that'll cut through is authentic, human, personal connection. The irony isn't lost on anyone: the more powerful the tools get, the more valuable it becomes to be unmistakably, verifiably you. George and Paul get into the "AI slop" flooding every feed — the fake fifty-grand-in-five-seconds reels, the "secrets are in the chat" prompt farmers gaming the algorithm — and why that whole game has quietly trained people to tune out. Then it gets practical. Paul lays out how he'd build a business today if he were starting from a blank page: AI in the dead center, and only then the question of how many humans you actually need around it. He makes the case that newbies have a hidden advantage here — no legacy payroll, no established relationships to unwind, no emotional cost to designing lean from day one. George counters with the honest, messy reality of doing it the other way: three months working harder than he has in a decade after selling his 23-year-old company on an earnout, rebuilding every system from scratch, and then re-hiring the human executive assistant he'd let go — because some calls, like coordinating speakers for a live summit, still shouldn't come from a machine. (His EA's reaction when he told her to be "more AI efficient" is worth the listen on its own.) Out of that comes a live pitch for an AI-centered business think tank — disassemble your company, put the black box in the middle, rebuild. But the episode doesn't stay in tactics. The back half turns into the kind of conversation this show does best. Paul makes his case that "balance" isn't something you chase — it already exists, and you're just not seeing it. Drawing on John Demartini, he argues your bank statement is a confession: you already spend your money in perfect alignment with your true values, and the word "money" itself spells out "my one" — my one most important thing. There's the uncomfortable line about what your forties reveal about your real priorities, why 80% of lottery winners go broke (they've had a spending plan since childhood and never a wealth plan), and why comparing yourself to a millionaire on his third marriage is a rigged game. It closes on the journey itself — why kids are more excited on the way to the airport than at the hotel, why the drop is the best part of the roller coaster, and why so many people quietly sabotage the goal they claim to want, because staying on the journey feels safer than the empty baseline that comes right after you finally arrive. Oh, and George found money in his account from print-on-demand recipe books he wrote fifteen years ago and forgot about. Sometimes the old work just keeps paying. Two hours. No script. Real humans, talking about how to stay real. Free tool mentioned in this episode: Paul shares a free piece of software (CFO Sylvia) that lets you upload your financial statements and see exactly where your money goes — mapped against what you actually value. Have a play with it. Listen & subscribe: Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0i1GYauyKzywre3YbAlPOT Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-rethink-podcast/id1896340851 YouTube (full video): https://www.youtube.com/@RethinkAndGrowRich Get the books on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B001K7ZD68/allbooks Download the free Rethink Habits planner: https://rethinkhabits.com