In this episode of the Proteus Leader Show, host SPEAKER B interviews internet pioneer and CEO Dominic Miserandino about leading in the era of AI. Dominic emphasizes a simple yet powerful mantra: "Try." He encourages leaders to experiment with AI tools beyond basic commands, treating AI agents like over‑zealous interns that need clear direction, feedback, and oversight. He illustrates this with the "butter bot" metaphor and stresses the importance of iterative learning, building a suite of purpose‑driven agents, and maintaining a running log of their actions. The conversation shifts to the concept of reinvention, which Dominic frames not as a clean‑slate phoenix rebirth but as a mutation that builds on existing skills. He highlights transferable abilities—listening, interviewing, self‑talk—that have persisted across his varied career. Finally, Dominic offers concrete takeaways: leaders should get hands‑on with the technology (e.g., printing photos in a lab to understand the process), learn the "language" of AI as a programming language, and use that fluency to guide teams with authority, understanding, and clear communication. The episode closes with resources for listeners to learn more about Dominic’s work and Proteus International’s leadership development services.
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Welcome to the Proteus Leader Show, a podcast for forward-looking leaders driving transformation in their organizations, within their teams, or for themselves. Your host today is a senior leader at Proteus International, a firm that partners with companies around the world to make true transformation easier through change consulting, leadership development, and executive coaching. If you're looking for fresh perspectives and practical insights you can take back to work today, you're in the right place. Enjoy the episode.
Nearly everyone is thinking about AI these days, and it's not just idle speculation. 80% of CEOs interviewed say their role is at risk if they don't deliver results by the end of this year. And at the same time, people are still struggling with how and when to use AI. A PwC survey shows that only 14% of workers worldwide are using GenAI on a daily basis. So how can we best navigate through this critical inflection point? Hi everyone, and welcome back to the Proteus Leader Show. My guest today is Dominic Miserandino, an internet pioneer since 1995. Founder of thecelebritycafe.com, lecturer, author, consultant, and board member. Today, he's the CEO of RTM Nexus and a senior advisor to TheStreet. He's led through the dot-com era, search, social media, mobile, e-commerce, and now AI, repeatedly having to decide which old assumptions still matter and which ones have become liabilities. So welcome to the show, Dominic.
Thank you so much for having me.
Oh, I'm really looking forward to this conversation and to hearing your insights about how to lead best in the era of AI. AI questions are the ones we, we are getting most often these days.
Absolutely.
So let's roll.
Let's roll into it.
Okay. So one of the things I'd love to talk about is how to make people ready for AI-driven change. without pretending that the future is settled, that we know everything that's going to happen. So what advice would you share for that?
Try. That's the one-word answer, but I'll give you deeper. It really is trying and trying to expand beyond what you've done the last time. I think we all know when you call out, hey Siri, what time is it in Istanbul? But now it's a question of, attempting a little bit more. Can I have it check all my emails? Can I have it find commonalities? Can I have it tell me what I'm doing wrong or right? And then eventually, the more you're working on it, like I have, I think it's about 5 or 10 different agents constantly running at any given moment, checking one. All it does is check a database. One all does is update this database and find more things to add to it. And it started with just the try saying, hey, can I turn this simple spreadsheet into a real database? Great. Can I try to figure out how to add to it? Can I figure out now? I sometimes will equate it to, there's a Rick and Morty episode of the cartoon Rick and Morty. Rick and Morty.
Yeah.
And he said he designed a bot and the bot says, what's my purpose? To deliver butter. And I kinda like telling people, think of it in those blocks. If you have a bot that just delivers butter and another bot that does this.
Yeah.
That to me is how you're starting it. You're saying, okay, what am I doing next? What am I doing next? How am I building? Until eventually you have a comfort level and you're thinking the right way in terms of how to approach AI.
That's great.
So it sounds like, I mean, you're kind of at one end of the spectrum. You've been using it a lot, so long stuff, and a lot of people are at the other end. So it sounds like you're saying that your main advice would be, as you said, try to encourage people to experiment. And I love what you said, kind of experiment with a purpose. Like, what do you want to make happen? Okay, try some things.
Exactly. I mean, I use that example of the butter because if you can understand, okay, I checked the weather, that's good. Now let me check the weather amongst my whole trip. Got it. You know, now I want to plan my trip. Can you compare the hotels on every single step of the way, et cetera? And then eventually—
It's not like learning anything. You're just stretching, right?
Absolutely. Because I think in and of itself, it can be scary. It could be a lot. I was reading an article recently how, like, most people with Alexa will just, what's the weather, play the music.
Yeah.
You can't think of it like that. You have to go, OK, now what? Now what? Now what?
Yes. I love that because it's sort of the nice halfway point between, all right, I'm just going to only keep asking Alexa the same things I always ask, and oh my gosh, the whole world is being taken over by AI. It's like—
Exactly.
We're not—
don't go there yet is my point. You can't, as a leader, jump into have this bot run my entire business and call it a day. Because you also have to understand in using it how It works. I will usually say it's almost like having a very overzealous intern.
Yeah. Yes.
Who's had too much coffee.
You know?
And yeah, that's great. If you think in that context, now you're saying, okay, I have to make these directions.
Yes.
Like that. Report back to me. Or a lot of things I'll do is say, keep a running log of what you've done. So if I check in on you at 6 o'clock tonight, I'll know what you've done and can readjust.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's great. That's great. And one of the things we've been telling ourselves and our clients is it really is like that. It's helpful to think of agents in many of the same ways that you think of young employees. What kind of clarity, what kind of direction, what kind of step-by-step, what kind of feedback, all that stuff.
Absolutely.
All right, that's great. And then, so we're talking a lot here, just even here, about Reinvention. And clearly, looking at your profile, you've been a master of reinvention. Thank you so much. So you're welcome. So what does repeated reinvention teach a leader? What has it taught you about changing your own mind?
I think we look at reinvention almost as isolated buckets. I was once a Potter, and now I'm a baker, and those skills are non-transferable. No, I was doing celebrity interviews, interviewing Led Zeppelin and KISS, etc. But now I'm in the retail space with major execs. And yes, having interviewed Wu-Tang Clan definitely gave me a skill to deal with the VP of marketing from such and such. So you have to also think Reinvention is not an erasure of your past.
Yeah.
Reinvention is taking those previous skills, grabbing them, and saying, okay, now what, essentially.
Oh, I love that. So kind of what can I bring forward, and then where do I actually have to change? Change my understanding, change my mind, change my—
Absolutely. I certainly had to learn certain things that were different. There were many on that. But I think the point is I had to take away certain skills.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And usually, I think the word reinvention is a dangerous one because it implies a phoenix-like rebirth. But it's not that.
Yeah.
It's a mutation, not in a negative way. It's a mutation by growth. Oh, no, that's great.
I think you're exactly right. I think reinvention implies, OK, clean slate, everything different.
Yeah.
But that's not true. And in fact, in our change practice, one of the things we always talk to leaders about is, Emphasize what won't change or what's the same or what they can still keep doing. Because otherwise, people just go to, oh my gosh, Phoenix, reinvention, nothing's going to be the same.
Yeah, the word is not the right word. It is viewed as an erasure. And I can say within any given week, I am quoting something from a past, not in a negative way, simply, oh, this was a skill. from a reinvention stage that I'm now using again.
That's great. And you can, you can reapply things, you can reuse things. There are certain things that— certain skills— oh, I was just talking the other day to someone and I was saying there are a handful of skills that have served me since my 20s and are going to serve me till I die when I'm 110. Listening, managing my self-talk, But, you know, there's just this handful of things that don't— through all the evolutions that just are useful and recurrent, right?
I would 100% concur with that logic. And it's true. You have a certain set of skills that are always throughout and they enhance. So my certain skills I've had, I mean, I've done 500+ celebrity interviews and I would say that skill now in reverse enhanced. By doing a lot of these corporate interviews.
Yeah. Yes.
Now, I might not have done a celebrity interview in a few months, but actually, no, I did one recently, and I was just, like, even better at it having adopted that new skill.
Right? Because you've used it in different contexts now.
Exactly.
That's great. Alright. This is awesome. You know, Dominic, this is one of those—
I love these questions. You're very thoughtful when you thought them out.
Yeah. Okay. So Last but not least, we always promise our listeners practical takeaways. So from your point of view, what can leaders start doing like now, like today, to better guide and inspire their folks toward this future, which is different all the time?
Yeah, I mean, first of all, I'm always an advocate of doing it in the sense like I was CMO of AdoramaPix. We printed photos and I went to the lab and I Literally got out there printing the photos with them. I went on the presses and said, I'm going to figure out how to print. I delivered orders once or twice. I think we can't lead unless we're also understanding of the mechanisms.
Yeah.
And now with AI in particular, it is not insurmountable. I think it is a language. It is a programming language to learn. But in this particular new direction of the world, I think it is specifically by doing it as we discussed in the first part.
Yeah.
You're starting to be able to guide the team, not just, hey, you shouldn't do this.
Yeah, yeah.
But understand their pain points and then appropriately say, wait a minute, you know, maybe you shouldn't do this. Maybe you should do that instead kind of thing.
That's great. Something I've always thought is true, and I think this is what you're saying: if I'm going to teach somebody a skill, some leadership skill, if I have— if I don't use it myself, if I'm not literally practicing what I preach, I don't have the kind of moral authority to encourage people to do it. And they can feel that. People can feel that, right?
I think that's a factor. You don't have the moral authority. You don't have the insight.
Yeah.
I would also argue you don't have the language. So a lot of what I'm proud of is I've been a CMO. I've been a developer. I've been a CEO. I've been a CRO. And each of those languages are different.
Yeah.
And so you as a leader might understand, but without doing it, you're not really using the correct language to get your messaging across.
That's great. So if you as the leader aren't yourself kind of dealing with the same thing of how do I move into the future, what do I need to learn differently, how can I become more future ready, you're not going to be able to help other people do that either.
And guide them with the authority, with the understanding, and with the proper language. Each of those buckets.
Oh, now if I remember that after the coffee, I don't know.
There'll be a recording of this. Oh my gosh, thank you so much. This is so Timely and useful and fascinating. I just find all this.
I love this.
Thank you so much.
I appreciate you having me on, and I really hope people get something out of it. Yeah.
Yeah. Okay. So listeners, you can find out more about Dominic and his work at Missarandino.com.
Missarandino.com.
Missarandino.com. And how you spell that will be in the show notes, so don't worry. And to find out how Proteus develops leaders and supports them to be ready for the future, just go to Proteus International. And click on What We Do.
I love it.
Thank you again, Dominic.
Thank you so much.
And thanks to everyone for listening. And until next time, here's to creating the life you truly want.
Thanks for listening to the Proteus Leader Show. We hope you're leaving with ideas you can put to use on your team, in your organization, or in your own career. To learn more about how we support true transformation through change consulting, leadership development, and executive coaching, visit us at Proteus-International.com. Until next time.
