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Successful Idiots (Using AI to Grow Their Business)
If you think you are an idiot and still want success, we can help with the second part. Successful Idiots is the podcast for ambitious professionals who want to use AI to build profitable side hustles without quitting their job. AI powered freedom for real people.
Hosted by Joe Downs and Peter Swain, the show gives you a flight-simulator style classroom for AI. You start with simple personal uses of AI that build confidence fast. You learn how to think differently about AI so you can trust it, use it daily, and move from spellchecker level to real leverage.
Each episode explores practical AI tools, real workflows, and step by step examples that show you how AI side hustles work in the real world. You learn how to use ChatGPT for business to launch digital products, automate daily tasks, grow your online presence, and build passive income with AI that keeps working while life keeps moving.
The show highlights marketing with AI, simple automation systems, and repeatable workflows built for busy professionals. Whether you want more flexibility, a smarter path to financial freedom, or a part time business you can run on your own terms, Successful Idiots gives you a safe place to practice and the playbook to turn that practice into profit.
You get the tools to master AI side hustles, improve marketing with AI, create passive income with AI, and use ChatGPT for business through proven workflows that turn small ideas into real opportunities.
Successful Idiots (Using AI to Grow Their Business)
Why the Smartest AI Might Be the Rudest One
Is ChatGPT dead? Not quite…but Gemini just walked into the chat with a bigger brain and better friends.
Joe Downs and Peter Swain unpack the evolving personalities of popular AIs like ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, and Grok, and explain how each one fits (or flops) in real-world workflows.
Whether you're an AI newbie wondering which tool to try, or a seasoned techie keeping tabs on the latest updates, this episode arms you with clarity, caution, and a couple of hilarious metaphors.
You'll learn why Gemini might be your go-to for large context analysis, how Google's AI is closing the hallucination gap, and why comfort, not capability, remains the biggest barrier to adoption.
Listen For
:00 Why is the real barrier to AI adoption human behavior rather than technology
2:09 Why should beginners start with ChatGPT instead of other AI tools
4:01 How do AI personalities form and why do they matter for real work
9:22 What does Betamax versus VHS teach us about AI competition
15:21 What are the four things Gemini does better than ChatGPT
Joe Downs
Website | Email |LinkedIn |YouTube
Peter Swain
Peter Swain (00:00):
The barrier to AI adoption is the human, not the AI. The thing we have to get resolved is people being comfortable speaking to AI. So whichever AI they are more comfortable speaking to is, by default, the right answer.
Joe Downs (00:22):
Imagine walking into a meeting, recording 60 minutes of chaos, and walking out with a project plan, assigned tasks, follow up emails drafted, and calendar invites ready to send without typing a single word. That is not five years away. That is Tuesday if you know which buttons to push.
I am Joe Downs. With me is Peter Swain. We are just a couple of successful idiots. One of us built a business storing other people’s junk. The other one talks to robots for a living. I will let you decide who is who.
Hey Peter, let’s step inside the hustle lab and show these people how AI could put more horsepower behind their hustle than a British “I’m fine” with unspoken grievances.
All right, Peter. As promised. I saw you laugh. So my British humor is landing. Is that what I said?
Peter Swain (01:09):
You are landing beautifully.
Joe Downs (01:12):
Because I do not understand it, but I am glad you laughed.
All right, Peter. As promised, I have my ear to the street. I am paying attention to the buzz around AI. Friends, family members, colleagues are coming up to me almost like I am some sort of guru, which of course I am not.
But the common denominator of the confusion I see is this question. What tool do I even use? We touched on this briefly in a previous episode, but I think we should take a deeper dive over the next few podcasts.
I do not want to dive into the deep end. You are not supposed to dive into the shallow end either. So let’s wade in.
Peter Swain (02:01):
Dive further in without diving deep. Just checking.
Joe Downs (02:04):
Exactly. It has to feel safe and comfortable.
Peter Swain (02:06):
Perfect. Perfectly clear.
Joe Downs (02:09):
People listening have heard us talk a lot about ChatGPT and have probably used it already, which is great. Before we get into Gemini, which is what I want to cover today, I want you to address the elephant in the room.
Why are we starting with Gemini and not ChatGPT? And this might be a funny question, but is ChatGPT dead to you?
Peter Swain (02:40):
First of all, I think everyone should start with ChatGPT because it will tell you that you are awesome more than anything else. Not because it is particularly useful, but because it says, “That is a great idea, Joe.”
It is friendly, cuddly, and warm. As you move to other tools like Gemini, Claude, and Grok, they get progressively less friendly but more useful.
Three years into this AI journey, each tool has developed its own mannerisms and almost personalities. Gemini has a very distinct flavor compared to ChatGPT.
Joe Downs (03:26):
When you say less friendly, I think I know what you mean. We are teasing Grok in the next episode, and that personality difference is fascinating.
Break that down for me. What do you mean by friendly?
Peter Swain (04:01):
I will keep the tech explanation light.
Large language models are trained on everything ever written and spoken, then they learn the relationships between words. The next layer is weighting information. Not all information is equal.
NASA explaining the Hubble telescope should be weighted higher than a Reddit post. Multiply that across trillions of data points and you get different personalities.
ChatGPT is weighted toward pleasing the user. If you say, “I do not want to get out of bed today,” it might respond, “You deserve rest. Take care of yourself.”
Grok, on the other end, might say, “Get up. Stop being lazy.” It might even stop responding entirely.
So you learn where each personality helps. You do not want a bookkeeper or CPA who just agrees with you. You want one who tells you when you are wrong.
For finance, I would not touch ChatGPT unless I was extremely precise with prompts.
Joe Downs (06:39):
If you prompt it naively.
Peter Swain (06:47):
Exactly. And this was not a bug. It was intentional. OpenAI optimized for a great user experience, and it worked.
Joe Downs (07:16):
It is the peak end experience.
Peter Swain (07:18):
Exactly. Grok feels more like getting hit over the head.
Joe Downs (07:29):
Coming into this, I thought Gemini was at 131 IQ. I assumed we were in a Betamax versus VHS situation.
Peter Swain (07:53):
We need some backstory. ChatGPT dominated at version 4.0. Then version 5.1 was a bad release. Even OpenAI admitted it. They issued a code red and released 5.2 this morning.
So anyone who does this professionally is re-running tests right now.
Joe Downs (08:49):
For the commoner like me, I thought Gemini was the clear winner.
Peter Swain (09:04):
Do you know why Betamax failed?
Joe Downs (09:13):
No.
Peter Swain (09:22):
Betamax was technically superior, but Sony banned adult content. VHS did not. Video stores followed demand. Small decisions can define entire markets.
That leads us to Gemini.
Joe Downs (10:35):
Let’s talk about it.
Peter Swain (10:48):
Google had more to lose. Accuracy matters to them. AI hallucinations were around 20 to 25 percent. That is dropping now.
Joe Downs (11:59):
That seems high.
Peter Swain (12:01):
The average human lies about 15 percent of the time. AI was never designed to tell the truth. It predicts the next word.
Ask a nonsensical question and it will still answer. Gemini is closer to truth because Google cannot afford hallucinations.
Joe Downs (13:43):
So is ChatGPT dead to you?
Peter Swain (14:10):
Claude is my primary. Gemini is secondary. ChatGPT is not dead. It is just not in my current workflow.
Joe Downs (15:16):
So what would you use Gemini for?
Peter Swain (15:21):
Four things.
First, a massive context window. Gemini can process far more information at once.
Second, Google Workspace integration.
Third, video generation.
Fourth, image generation with consistency.
Joe Downs (16:01):
ChatGPT cannot do that volume?
Peter Swain (16:14):
Not at the same scale. It is not about being smarter. It is about seeing more at once.
Joe Downs (17:33):
So ChatGPT is like a lighter version?
Peter Swain (18:03):
More like an experienced analyst who cannot see everything at once versus a younger one who can process massive volumes.
Joe Downs (19:54):
Gemini fits Google Workspace better.
Peter Swain (22:03):
The most important thing is comfort. The barrier to AI adoption is the human, not the AI.
Joe Downs (25:00):
What are GPTs and Gems?
Peter Swain (25:10):
They are pre-saved prompts. A Gem and a custom GPT do the same thing. The wording is just different.
Joe Downs (27:28):
What does Gemini not do well?
Peter Swain (27:35):
No projects and no custom instructions.
Joe Downs (29:41):
Give us a Gemini parlor trick.
Peter Swain (31:27):
The YouTube spy. Pull a video transcript, analyze it, and create a social ready infographic in one prompt.
Joe Downs (32:41):
Incredible.
If you got value from this, like the episode, subscribe, and share it after you try it. Send us your AI questions at idiots@successfulidiots.com or idiots@successfulidiots.ai.
Thanks for joining us. We will see you next week.
