The Undeniable Leader with Rob Cressy

How a 19-Year-Old Got Ahead of 99% of CEOs at AI

• Rob Cressy

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They told him AI was cheating and coming for his job. Three coaching sessions later, he was ahead of 99% of CEOs at AI. In this episode of The Undeniable Leader, Rob Cressy sits down with 19-year-old Alex Nowak for a raw before-and-after on what happens when someone goes from using AI like Google to building websites in two hours, running his own weekly systems, and seeing his entire future differently. 

You'll hear the personalization shift that changed everything, why a growth mindset is the real advantage in the AI era, and how the people with the most time to learn are the ones positioned to win. This is what becomes possible the moment you decide to show up and put in the reps.

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SPEAKER_01

Before we get to today's show, the best version of your AI experience starts with one thing: making it yours. I built a free playbook called the Unlimited Method that walks you through exactly how to personalize your AI so it thinks like you, creates like you, and sounds like you. It's at robcresty.com backslash AI playbook. Go get it now for the show. What's good? It's Rob Cresty, and I am 15 out of 10 excited for this conversation. Alex, how are you doing today?

SPEAKER_00

Doing great. How are you, Rob?

SPEAKER_01

Fantastic. So, Alex, you and I have a very unique relationship because probably about a month and a half ago, you and I did three one-on-one, one-hour AI coaching sessions together. And it was something that I'll allow you to explain your background, who you are, where you're at in the world, and sort of like what your reservations were about AI. But what I wanted to do was sort of give a before and after. And right now we're in the after side of your AI transformation. So uh before we get this party started, Alex, give a quick overview on who you are and where you're coming at when you came to me.

SPEAKER_00

Sure thing. Yeah, I'm Alex Nowak. I'm from the Chicago suburbs area and currently going into a sophomore year of college. Um my reservations about AI that I had were before our sessions, I kind of felt like it was uh kind of a hallucinate hallucination machine, you know. I didn't believe that it was actually the future because I would use it for schoolwork and I would use it for for homework and health and such things, and it would just hallucinate, and I would get the same thing from friends and family, and I didn't realize that I could actually use it in the ways that I've been using it, which I'm sure we'll get into.

SPEAKER_01

And did you have any reservations about what would happen after college about entering the workforce because of AI?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, I did. And especially because I'm planning to major in accounting, I keep hearing the same thing that oh, AI is gonna steal all the accounting jobs. Accounting's not a good major anymore because AI is gonna take all the jobs. And I keep hearing the same thing, and I was getting scared, you know, because I'm in I'm going to major in accounting, I'm in the business school at U of I, and I keep hearing the same thing that AI is gonna take all of our jobs and that we're not gonna be able to get anything when we graduate. And so I was getting scared. I was looking for answers, and I went to my parents, I went to friends, and I wasn't getting any real straight answers.

SPEAKER_01

Cool. So heading into our engagement together, what was your expectation of this?

SPEAKER_00

Uh, I honestly came in with an open mind. Uh, because I hadn't really gotten any insight or any guidance on how AI works and how to actually use AI. So when I was coming in, I was just open-minded. I was ready to see what you know AI can really do. And I think we did achieve that in our sessions together.

SPEAKER_01

So, okay, so over the course of the conversation, let's set the baseline for sort of where you were coming in. Um, how often were you using AI, or what were you using, or sort of give us your capability of where you were at at that time.

SPEAKER_00

Sure thing. Looking back, uh, zero. I basically used it like Google. I would, you know, have a question in homework that I didn't know the answer to, and I would just use AI and I would ask it what the answer was, not even you know, to teach me the subject. I didn't even think it, I didn't even think of it at that time. But yeah, I would just use it as Google as an answering machine. And I saw a lot of my fellow classmates and and peers doing the same thing as well. So experience was zero basically.

SPEAKER_01

And after three one-hour sessions together, how would you describe where you're at right now?

SPEAKER_00

Well, honestly, after learning all the stuff that I did, I still feel like a beginner, but my mind has opened for sure. Like the sky's the limit. I do things that I didn't think were possible even two weeks ago with AI, and I keep thinking of new use cases because I came in at zero. I had no idea, and now I'm using AI to you know, an example is is building uh a weekly ritual. I built a weekly ritual where I take what I did in the previous week and I set that down. Claude keeps it into notion, which are you know buzzwords, but uh I have that there, and then I have goals for the next week, and I actually am putting ones over zeros, and I am monitoring my progress, which is not something I did before. I just kept it all in my brain. And that's just one case of how I've used AI in this past month or two, and that's that's honestly one of the smaller things. Even after our first session, I I built a website, which I never even knew would be possible before our first session. I I thought that was something that only people in tactic, only people with coding experience would be able to do. But when I started building that website with Claude, I did it in like two or three hours, which was just mind-blowing to me. I I honestly I I couldn't believe it. And it was a working, there were some bugs, but it was a working website, and it was look, it looked good and it it felt good to use. And I was just I was just starstruck. I was mind blown with what I could use this tool for, and possibilities just opened up. You know, I could use this for recruiting, I could use this for school, I could use this for scheduling, like I could use this for so much, and I still feel like a beginner. I still feel like there's so much more that I could do, and I'm excited.

SPEAKER_01

And what would you say are some of the light bulb moments you've had along the way? So you talked about these little things, but if you're gonna be passing along the things that have helped you on this journey, you're like, wow, now that I see this, man, it was a major light bulb shift because I even love how you reference stacking ones over zeros, right? It's just it's a little inch right there, but I hear the language because I know you picked up on a certain thing. What are some of those light bulb moments you had along the way?

SPEAKER_00

For sure. Um, well, I already mentioned it in my in my past, but I built that website in two or three hours, and it was like, if I can build a website in two or three hours, what can I do in a year? You know, I I don't even know. It's probably insane, but I won't harp on that too much. The the second big one was personalization with the AI. I mean, before I had personalized, AI, I mean, it talked like a robot, obviously, because it didn't know who I was, it didn't know how I worked, it didn't know what my strengths and weaknesses were. But over this past month, after our final final sessions, and because I was on vacation, I had a lot of time to really personalize like I never had before. I obviously did some before, but it was really the personalization that opened my mind to what I could use this for because I would feed it personality tests, uh, my strengths and weaknesses, how I work. And after I did all that personalization, I mean, it the difference was immense. It didn't talk like a robot, it talked like someone that I would want to be my mentor, someone that I would respect and that pushes back on my ideas, doesn't just agree with everything that I say. Something that makes my weaknesses not as noticeable and tries to push me to be better. And I think that was my biggest light bulb moment is that you can put just a little bit of effort into personalization, and the experience is just it's so much higher. And that was definitely my biggest light bulb moment over our sessions together.

SPEAKER_01

And when you look at how this has created an advantage for you, so it's like two months ago version of you before this versus you now, and you're already speaking this of like a oh my god, I can only imagine what this is like a year from now for me. And what does that look like for you? Because I remember at the very end on the last session, you just talking about how this is just life-changing, what you've learned from this, which, from my perspective, my purpose in life is to be a positive force for good that leads others to what's possible. I truly feel a responsibility and an obligation to share this and pay it forward because I know there's not a lot of people who one know this and have experienced this, and then number two, who are passing this along. Because once you've got this um vision, this capability, this confidence that everything can change. So talk to me about your outlook moving forward now that you see this, because previously it was like, oh my god, I'm an accounting, AI is gonna take all of our jobs, but now what's your outlook moving forward?

SPEAKER_00

Well, my outlook has definitely shifted to the positive. I mean, I can't even imagine what I can do over the next year, and instead of AI taking my job, I definitely feel like it is actually going to help me find a job because really all the possibilities open up when you get good at using AI and you understand how you can use AI. Because I just can you you can use it for everything and like truly everything. And I can I can use it to help me with stuff like recruiting, which before was something that I had no idea how it worked, I had no idea what I had to do to start getting in those in those rooms and having those conversations with the right people, and now I can just, you know, put a prompt in the claw. I can say my end goal is to get in rooms with the people who are recruiting for these for these companies, and it'll give me step-by-step instructions to get there. And that's just an example. I could do that with anything, and I just see the possibilities open up because all the things that have barriers and that have friction that were in my life that I was scared to do or I didn't want to do because I didn't think I could do it. The first friction is gone. Because I don't have to find you don't have to find the right person anymore, you don't have to find the right place to find the information anymore. You can plug it all into AI and it'll give you that information. It'll let you know where the friction is, it'll guide you there. And so I I see my future and uh it looks bright.

SPEAKER_01

Talk to me about the competitive advantage you feel you have over others, both your age and not even your age, because I even said it to you, and it's one of the things that before we started recording this, I was telling you how inspired I am from our engagement together. Because with no hyperbole, you have experience and know more about AI than 99% of CEOs in the world because we are in the ultimate show me your receipts era. Meaning, if you put in the work and create the experience, you will create the receipts. But if you don't, AI doesn't care about how old you are. Do you have a degree? Are you 19 or are you 50? Do you have a million dollars or $10? And what sort of advantage this gives you, both for your peers, right? You said you're gonna be going into your sophomore year in college and looking around at what everybody else is doing. And I would have to imagine now with the the information and knowledge you've obtained, you're seeing things a lot differently then, but also the market as a whole moving forward, knowing that you have an experience of AI that 99% of people in the world do not have.

SPEAKER_00

Well, uh, I guess I'll start with what my peers are doing with AI, which I already touched on, but yeah, it's it's simple. It's it's Google search, it's little things. And I I'll give an example here of my freshman year. So I was in this investment banking club, and our big you know, project throughout the semester was to create this slide deck that was a process recommendation for a company as an investment bank. And I mean, this project took two months of work with me and three other people, and you know, we poured hours into this slide deck. We would go to their library at on Wednesday and we would get there at seven and then we would leave at one. Like we would we were spending a lot of time on this. And I mean, with AI, that that PowerPoint and all that learning, uh, no hyperbole could be done in one day. And that's the advantage, is that you can do everything as the way it's supposed to be done, and you can go through this and make your own PowerPoint and do all the grunt work. Or you could use AI and you could do these things that take people months to build, and you can do them in days. I mean it's absurd, and you can learn along the way. It's not like you're just handing it off to someone else to do it for you like you're cheating. No, you you can actually learn how to do this as well, and that's the advantage. It's just you you eliminate all the friction that goes with doing the work, and all you need is the idea and the ability to execute with with AI. You just you need that end goal, and that's that's the advantage. That's as simple as I can put it.

SPEAKER_01

What do you see now that your elders don't? Your teachers, people in business, maybe even your parents, right? Because it's once again, this is the ultimate leveling field. It does not matter who you are right there, but it's it's one of the big things that I took from this engagement together is how equipped you are. And I even said this on our very first call when it was like, be careful around auditing your inputs of are your teachers your number one AI influences? Is it your parents? And I'm a parent myself, so I'm aware of the relationship between a parent and their children, but at the same time, you just proved in three hours you can accelerate past anyone from your capability right there. And it's a very interesting dynamic because this ultimately gets to almost the systemic nature of things. Oh, here's the teacher, they teach, they know more than you. And Alex is like, actually, let's hold that real quick because if that was not the case, you would not have been going through that project for several months in something that could have been done a day. Because where I sit right here as an entrepreneur, a speaker, a coach, and a champion for everyone is I know our three-hour engagement together could have been live streamed to a million people. And you and I could have just absolutely changed the world. Because if you could have you experienced this and these are the results that you got, well, then anybody could have received that same experience if they showed up the way that you do. But there's a disconnect somewhere that the education system or the teachers or the parents, and one of the things that I said to you that's your biggest asset is time, right? So the big flip in, oh my God, AI is gonna take all the jobs for future college kids is uh wait a second, they're the ones with all the time to learn all of this stuff. So I smile because the last thing you said to me on our last call was like, Rob, what would you have me do moving forward? What would you have me learning? And I've got all summer and all the time in the world. What's the thing the teachers, the parents, the CEOs, and the business people do not have? That's time. So, what's your perspective on that? Because from where I sit, it is I have I would say I would call it like omnipotent confidence, right? Because when you see it and you know it, you see it, but when you see what is not that, you quickly know what that is not as well. So it's like the quote is you cannot give to others that which you are not experiencing yourself. That's why this engagement worked well. What would you say about that relationship to more seasoned people in life?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, I mean, as it pertains to new tech, it's always some sort of thing where it's like, oh, this thing's bad. It's change, you know. There's people hate change. I mean, it it it it's it's different. It it people will say, like my teachers would say in my high school classes and my college classes, don't don't use AI. It's cheating, don't use it at all. And I actually listened to them in high school. I would just not use AI for anything, and I only started using it in college. And it's just a shame because knowing what we know now, would would you tell kids when computers in the internet first came out to not use them and to not learn how to use them? The answer is no, of course not. Everything's on the internet now. We're always using we use a computer every day in school. We have a Chromebook, we use it every single day. And it's it's going in the same direction with AI because this is the most powerful tool in the world, and you can't have people just not using it. And I think it comes from fear and fear of change that people will say, Oh, you know, you shouldn't use AI. It's it's cheating, you have to do it the right way. And I hear this from my professors as well. They'll they'll say, like, oh, you know, I I asked them, Do you think AI, what do you think the landscape is going to look like in the job market for accounting or something? And they would say, they would give me an answer that was like, Yeah, I think this and that about AI will take some jobs, but you know, there'll still be some out there. But none of them said, learn how to use AI. All of them just just completely discounted the use of this new tool. They were like, Yeah, AI is not might not take your job, it might take your job, but none of them actually guided me and said maybe you should learn how to use the thing that might take your job. I mean, it it makes no sense in my opinion, because it's the greatest tool that we have right now, and everybody needs to learn how to use it if they want to continue on. Because, you know, if an accountant 50 years ago or however long ago when computers first came out, wanted to use their little their little, I don't even know what it's called. Abacus. But like the math thing, the abacus. Exactly. And they wanted to use their abacus to do their accounting while someone else was using Excel, then that person would lose their job. And I think that's the disconnect right now is that we're not getting we we're not having young people use this tool. We're we're straying them away from it.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, and that is a massive red flag for me. It's why this is a responsibility and an obligation for me in this, because you said people have. Hate change. Rightfully so, you said that, but there's one thing that I want to give you as a gift and everybody else, and it's a perspective, and the term is most people, right? So, air quotes most people hate change. Except Alex, ask me that question. Rob, do you hate change?

SPEAKER_00

Rob, do you hate change?

SPEAKER_01

No, I love change. I do it by design. Right? Because if you're not changing, you're staying stagnant. Because for me, this is growth mindset 101. And Alex, one of the most impressed I have ever been in my life is from you when you told me you were already reading Marcus Aurelius. I was like, I didn't learn how to read a book until I was 30 years old, right? So you're so far ahead of me, it's ridiculous. But one of the foundational books that changed my life was Mindset by Carol Dweck. And it's where she introduced the concept of a growth mindset. And the difference between a growth mindset and a fixed mindset is a fixed mindset says, I'm trapped. I cannot make my position better. It's just like life is happening to me. AI is here, it's cheating, there's nothing we can do. There'll be some jobs lost. Maybe you can find some. We're fixed in this situation. That's what I'm hearing from these air quote teachers or leaders of scholar about AI. And then there's a growth mindset that says I can always make everything better because that's my position, right? And I want change. And for me, the AI era is about giving you an unlimited opportunity to make your dreams and goals and vision happen faster, better, and in any way you could conceive of, period. And it's it's very challenging for me to, and I think this is the only time in my entire life, this right here is the only time I've had a conversation with somebody about the way that I feel about the education system as it relates to AI. Because one thing that I am not is a troll online for the people who don't like AI, right? Because the I don't like AI crowd brings out their pitchforks and their picket signs, being like, I can tell you wrote with an M-dash. How dare you do that? Or you're using AI, that's cheating, right? I'm not gonna go in the comments and be like, wait a second, what are you guys talking about there? But from both of our experiences, it's like, wait a second, how can we have three hours of conversation, change your life and perspective forever, and trillion-dollar educations in the entire system? Says using AI is cheating, right? Because here's the true reality of the situation. Alex, who am I more likely to hire when you graduate college? You are the person who has never used AI because the teacher said it's cheating.

SPEAKER_00

It's me, yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Why? Because if I'm hiring somebody, I need somebody who's doing the things that I would do in my business right now, which is use AI. And it's one of the things that's very challenging about um education or people who rest on their laurels or are in a position of authority because the teachers are not incentivized to have you learn AI because that means they have to learn AI, and then that becomes a threat for their job. Whereas I can almost guarantee you this, and I'm just gonna call this for what it is, Alex. I can almost guarantee with certainty, I will find myself at some point in my life, probably soon, inside a university teaching AI and entrepreneurship to students, and I can completely transform the entire university because of this simple perspective. AI is cheating versus cool guys, throw all that in the trash, show me your receipts, right? Because the way that we are learning is changing, right? So imagine, welcome to class one. You guys are brand new to AI. Cool, sign up for the paid version of Claude. You're gonna create a website by the end of this month, and you're gonna be like, wait, what? You did it, you did it in one call. That's call one with us. But look at the difference. AI is cheating versus build you a website in one month or one call. And that to me, ironically enough, gives me the biggest optimism and advantage of my life, right? And the same for you because I sit here and I'm like, oh my God, if this is what how Rob and Alex are rowing our boats when the system is teaching everybody to not use AI. So now imagine you're four years in college now, having learned AI versus the exact version of you in a different school where they're like, you can't use this. Imagine the life trajectory those two people are gonna have different. Like, you can see where this feels like a responsibility, right?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, I yeah, of course.

SPEAKER_01

I can so um my encouragement for you, and just burn this into your brain. You are not most people, you don't want to be most people, right? Because the AI era in success, in entrepreneurship, and personal excellence isn't made for most people. Because by design, we're gonna do things very few people do, and we're gonna create a life that very few people have. Doesn't mean it's harder, doesn't mean we're more tactical, doesn't mean we're doing something unethical. It's actually the complete opposite. We're doing everything the way that a growth mindset would do things. Anything you want to add to that?

SPEAKER_00

I mean, I think you really hit the nail on the head. I mean, the growth the version of myself that has a growth mindset versus a fixed mindset is I can't even imagine. Because a person with a fixed mindset would have been like, no, I don't want to do AI calls. AI, it's it's you know, it's a fad, it's not gonna, it's not gonna take off, and AI is is cheating. I should do it the right way. And I would be stuck going into my sophomore year, doing it the traditional way, when you know, all these all these other people my age, I mean, there's gotta be some that are doing this stuff with AI with a growth mindset. And I'm just lucky enough to have been exposed to what I can do with AI, and just being able to have this mindset where it's like, you know, just because it's changed doesn't mean it's bad. And just because it's something new and it might be scary and and it's it is something it's something that I haven't done before, it doesn't mean that it's not something that's gonna help my trajectory, and just that mindset of being able to go into new things and charge into them like a bull instead of just fearing fearing away and not doing it because you're scared. It's I mean, the difference between success and and failure.

SPEAKER_01

Alright, Alex, two final questions for you. Number one, um in our creating together, is there anything that you experienced that you did not expect?

SPEAKER_00

Ooh, that's a good question. I would say just the speed of how how fast I was able to do all these things. Because anytime there's a big tool in my life, like for example, I produce music and I had to learn how to use it uh a music production software. Anytime I've had to use a new software, it's been this big thing where it's oh you need to learn this and this, you need to watch YouTube tutorials and you need to do all this stuff. With AI, it's it's there's there's there's no there's no f because the device in which you learn is right there in front of you. You can ask AI how to do and use AI. I mean, there's really no friction, and I just learned so fast I didn't expect it at all. I mean, I after our first session together, even I felt more prepared than I've felt in years, and I felt more confident in my future than I had in years. In one hour, in one hour. It was the speed was it was crazy.

SPEAKER_01

Love that, and then what would you say to others about learning and creating around with AI?

SPEAKER_00

I would say first thing you should do, uh just have fun, just mess around with it. I mean, if you had an idea that you wanted to execute, but you know you didn't want to because of XYZ reason, use AI. Try to do it. Why not? And I think a lot of me sticking with AI and using it for you know daily for months at this point, is having fun with it. Because if you don't have fun with something, it's hard to continue doing it. The person who's having fun with something is going to beat the person who's just slaving away, grinding away at it every single time. And so I would say if you're just getting started and you're getting used to how AI works and you want to start learning, just have fun with it.

SPEAKER_01

Last question. Someone is sitting here watching or listening to this or had a conversation with me in the past, and they're considering working with me to help accelerate their AI journey. What would you say to them about your experience moving forward on if they should do this or not?

SPEAKER_00

Well, I'll tell you this. I won't try to convince you of anything, but in in one hour, my entire worldview about AI changed. In one hour. And you know, that's something that is so important for me specifically because I had no idea what I was gonna do. It brought it brought me clarity.

SPEAKER_01

Love that. Well, Alex, I am super proud of you on all this, your journey. Um, let me know when you start accepting applications to invest in your future moving forward, because I would like to uh place some jelly beans in the in the Alex fund, we'll call it, of whatever you do moving forward. I'm in because you, my friend, are a rocket ship. Um stay on after we end this year because I'm gonna say some boring shots, but um, I appreciate all these thoughts. I am I'm so proud of you. You're a shining star of what's possible. And um I'm so looking forward to what you're going to create um because you're gonna do some incredible things in this world.