What People Get WRONG About AI! Focus on This Instead… (1:1 with James Laughlin)

I'd like to ship you a free copy of my book Habits of High Performers. If you come and join the 2026 goal setting workshop, I will ship you one of these today. The link is in the notes. Please come and join me to set up the very best 2026 you could imagine. If you've set up goals in the past or New Year's resolutions and they haven't substantiated, I'm here to help you across all the key pillars of your life nail your goals. I'll see you there.

Welcome to Lead On Purpose. I'm James Laughlin, former seven time world champion musician and now executive Coach to global leaders and high performers. Each week I'll publish a solo cast where I'll share my top high performance habits and methodologies to supercharge your life and career. If you enjoy the show, please take a short moment to subscribe and leave a rating and review. I'd greatly appreciate it. Thanks for taking the time to connect today and and investing in yourself. Enjoy the show. A very special thanks to NZ Mortgages for sponsoring this episode of the Lead On Purpose Podcast. You can check them out at nzmortgages co nz. Here's what your number one priority needs to be this year. Personal growth. That's right, personal growth needs to be your biggest priority this year. Nothing else. Everything else comes second because to personal growth. Why? Well, everything rises and falls on growth or decay. Which way do you want to be going? I imagine because you're watching this, you want to grow. So it's so critically important that you have a simple structure to follow. And when you're focused on growth, it requires you to be really focused and disciplined and acquire new skills. Those types of humans on the planet will be relevant for decades to come. I hear so many people raving on about AI and it's going to take over jobs and we're all going to pure rubbish. Absolute hot garbage. I disagree. Yes, AI will help us be more productive. AI will replace some roles, but let's face it, people who are valuable, people who grow, people who know how to use AI will always be relevant. Please be on that side of the coin. Don't sit and wait, don't wonder. And you don't need to be an AI geek or an AI legend or know it all. You just need to be able to use it. Just like email. If you don't know how to use email in this day and age, you're stuffed. You need to be able to use email, right? To function in our world. AI is going to be no different. But don't go and focus on just learning about AI. Focus on personal growth. You can apply personal growth to any topic or subject. I work with some of the highest performers on the planet, people day in, day out who just are top of the pops in their industry. Some of them are the best real estate agents in their town. Some of them are the best athletes in their country. Some of them are the best leaders in their worldwide industries, all different levels of people. But the one thing that ties them all together is this personal growth. They're committed to it. They have a personal growth plan, a pgp, as I like to call it. Do you have a pgp? Let me help you really simply. This is going to be super short today, but it's going to be really, really valuable. Please do this. If you're serious about staying relevant, of making sure that you add value to whatever market you're in. Your market might be real estate, your market might be wealth advisory, your market might be babysitting, your market might be selling cars. Your market be working for the government, whatever it might be. I want you to always be relevant. If you're relevant, you'll always have value to add and you'll always be remunerated for that which gives you freedom. We're after that. We're after personal freedom. So here's one thing that if you do this this month and in fact do it today, do it right now, after this. It's going to make a huge difference. Now, before I share that with you, please go and get yourself a copy of my high performance planner. It's just a template with the templates that I use to help myself and clients. It's free, it's in the show Notes. Click on that. Go get it, download it. You'll see how I go about planning, how I approach goal setting. It's right there, right now. My gift to you. Please go get it. So first thing I want you to do is pick your topic. Pick your topic. What is it that you're passionate about? Is it tiddlywinks? Is it crocheting? Is it golf? Is it how to build a garden shed? Is it drumming as it used to be for me? Is it teaching people how to do whatever it is you love doing? Is it leading teams? Is it building a company? Is it making your first $10 million? Whatever it is, I want you to get clear on a topic. Pick a topic that you're interested in right now. Some of you might be going, james, come on. I've got like 12 topics. I don't want to pick one. I'm asking you to pick one right now. If you had to go into solitary confinement or a deserted island, what would you bring with you in terms of a topic that you'd like to just geek out on and learn a bit about that you're just interested in? What is it? Pick the topic right now. Second, I want you to to buy five books on that topic. Five books that are either bestsellers or they're renowned in the industry. But buy the top five books if you're like James, how do I do that? Easy. Go to ChatGPT, type in I'm interested in tiddly winks or I'm interested in becoming a great chess player, or I'm interested in coaching someone how to kick the ball further, whatever it might be. What are the top five books on the planet in the last five years on that topic? Or even ask for the top 20 and then you get to pick the five you want. Order those books today. If you can't read or you hate reading, or there's something that stops you from consuming and learning when you're reading, get the audio version of the book. Okay? Do that. So pick a topic. Buy five books. Next. This is the most important part. A huge thank you for listening to Lead on Purpose. One small favor to ask of you, and that is this. Please share this one episode with one friend, a family member, a colleague, someone who you think might enjoy this episode. I have no clue how algorithms work, but what I do know is that when a real human recommends something to another real human, it lands. So please do me that huge favor and share this one episode. I deeply appreciate it. Next. This is the most important part. Who read them? Absolutely. Get them out and read them now. I don't know about you, but I usually read two books at a time. I get bored reading the same book usually, unless it's riveting. But I'll have a couple of books by my bedside or in my bag that I'm going to work with. Always a couple of books so you know, you don't need to read the one and just stick to the end. You can read a couple and keep it interesting, but read them and take notes. I'm the guy who highlights underlines, makes notes, puts little dog ears on each page. At seems interesting. Why? Well, here's the last step of that. You're going to go back once you've finished the book, each of those five, and you're going to write out what are the top three Takeaways from the book, just the top three. Then you're going to share them with a friend or a colleague or a family member. Or you're going to send it out to five friends by text, whatever it might be. Why am I asking you to do that? Well, when you share, it requires you to distill the information you've just learned. I know people who read 50, 60, 70 books a year and I'll ask them about it and they'll go, oh, I can't really remember that book. What's the point in reading it, right? Let's make sure we honor our time. It's very finite. We don't have all the time in the world. I promise you that. That is a promise. You heard it here. Probably not first, but I'm sure you've heard it before. We all will end at some point. We came to Earth, we will leave Earth. Let's make the most of this time. So read the book, underline, highlight, go back, distill it down to what are the three key messages or three key learnings. Then share that with a friend or a family member. That's going to set you apart. That's going to make personal growth a part of your DNA. You will become passionate about it, excited about it. I had a client recently, I was working with him one to one, started with him maybe a year and a half ago and he didn't really read. At the point that we started working together and I started sharing some things with my framework, my high performance framework that I use to help people really rewire their minds and it really helped him get clear that he needs to be clear on his vision. He needs to understand what belief systems are helping him or hindering him. He needs to have habits and discipline to follow through and have an end point that he's moving towards. Now that same guy is now coming to me going, james, have you read this book? I'm like, no, hey, James, have you read this book? Here's what it's about. He has gone deep in his industry and he's sharing those insights with me and others family members. He's inspiring other people. I was speaking to the CEO of that company. They're blown away by how he's operating and the results he's getting financially, the results he's getting for the team, how he's showing up and the attitude that he brings. So what I share with you is not hearsay. What I share with you is not something that I hope might work for you. I've seen it. Time and time again. I'm not a big believer in wasting valuable time. If I start a book and it's just rubbish, a chapter, half a chapter in, I'm like, this doesn't make sense. Boom. Done. Next. Move on. I won't waste my time. You might think it's a bit ruthless, but this is my time. I will die one day. That is guaranteed. I don't want to waste time on a book that brings me no joy, no value, no entertainment, no education. Next. Move on. It's not the book for you. That's why I've asked you to order five. Get five books on the topic that you love, read them, underline them, distill each one down to three messages and share it with as many people as you can. I promise you, you will remember what you've learned. You. You'll be way more likely to actually apply those lessons and it will allow you to keep growing. That's why I believe the number one priority for you this year is personal growth. For now, please get out there and lead your life on purpose. A very special thanks to NZ Mortgages for sponsoring this episode of the Lead On Purpose podcast. You can check them out @nzmortgages.co nz. Thanks for tuning in today and investing in your own personal leadership. Please hit that subscribe button and I'd love if you'd leave me a rating and review. I've got some amazing guests lined up for you in the coming weeks and leaders. It's that time to get out there and lead your life on purpose.