Truth in a Digital World

Send us Fan Mail

For years, most of us have used AI like a smart search engine: ask a question, get an answer. Meta's new AI agent, Muse, is built around something different. You give it a job, and it keeps working even after you close the app. In Episode 24 of Truth in a Digital World, host John Delaney shares what a month of real-world use looks like, and why the bigger story is the shift from prompting AI to delegating to it.

This is a solo episode, and a special welcome goes out to new listeners from BabyBoomer.org. John, who was born in 1960, covers what Muse is in plain English, what it has done in his business, where it falls short, and what Baby Boomers and one-person businesses should know before trying it. It's not a product review, and it's not hype.

What You'll Hear in This Episode

• What Muse is, in plain English, and how an AI agent differs from an AI that only answers questions
• A real morning workflow: a daily brief that pulls together calendar, email, and open work into three short sections
• What happened when John went on a cruise and his AI reviewed 1,785 emails and handed back a one-page "what actually needs you" note
• The honest limits: it can be wrong, it can't see everything, and it works best with clear goals and a human reviewing the results
• The boundary John set: AI prepares the facts, but he does all the client communication
• How Baby Boomers can use an AI agent for appointments, forgotten subscriptions, paperwork, and hold-music marathons
• A scam warning every listener should hear, now that AI can imitate voices and write polished fake messages
• Where solopreneurs and small business owners should start, and how to judge any AI tool in two weeks
• A balanced look at privacy: what Meta says, what critics say, and where to read the policy yourself
• Five questions to ask before handing any AI agent the keys

Key Takeaway Delegation is an act of trust, and trust carries responsibility. Start with one recurring job, connect only what you need, judge the results for two weeks, and keep a human in the loop on anything that carries your name.

Try This This Week Pick one small, repeatable task, like a morning summary of your calendar and email. Connect only what it needs, and decide in advance what you will never delegate.

About the Host John Delaney is the host of Truth in a Digital World and founder of ClearBrand Digital, an AI consulting agency serving entrepreneurs primarily in Southwest and Central Florida.

Support the show

Truth in a Digital World is a production of ClearBrand Digital Inc.

Send us Fan Mail

Your team isn't stuck because of a missing tool, a missing process, or a missing hire. It's stuck because nobody owns the finish. In Episode 23 of Truth in a Digital World, host John Delaney talks with Dana Hetté, a Fractional Chief of Staff joining from British Columbia, Canada, about what she calls the Operator Vacuum: the gap between a founder's vision and what actually ships.

Dana spent years as a software engineer before moving into product and then fractional leadership, and she has run point on delivery everywhere from early-stage startups to a four-year enterprise engagement. She writes a weekly blog, Closing the Loop, for founders and CTOs.

What You'll Hear in This Episode

• How a software engineer's "systems thinking" helps spot gaps in how a team works
• What the Operator Vacuum looks like in a real meeting, including a Friday 4 p.m. "do we roll back the release?" example that only the founder can decide
• Why Dana describes the operator as a "first officer to the captain"
• Why throwing a tool at a problem treats the symptom instead of the cause, and why diagnosis comes first
• The difference between someone who tracks a project and someone who owns it, and why the "operator seat" is rarely a junior role
• A first-week warning sign: when you ask why a process works the way it does and nobody can answer
• What Dana calls the "agentic fog": AI lets you produce far more than you can explain, so you have to stay in the driver's seat and manage AI the way you would manage an engineer or intern
• How to question your AI the same way you'd question a team member
• A simple test: if you went off the grid for two weeks, who would make decisions on your behalf?
• Why someone on your team may already be doing the operator's work informally, and how to make it official

Key Takeaway When something isn't getting done, look for the owner before you look for a new tool. Ask: if this fails, whose name is on it? Tracking isn't owning, and AI doesn't replace accountability. It makes it more important.

Try This This Week Pick one stuck project. Write down the single person who owns it, start to finish. If you can't name one, that's your first step.

About the Guest Dana Hetté is a Fractional Chief of Staff and the author of Closing the Loop.

Connect with Dana: Free diagnostic PDF: https://blondiegeek.com/diagnostic Blog (Closing the Loop): https://blondiegeek.com/blog Website: https://blondiegeek.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dana-hette/

About the Host John Delaney is the host of Truth in a Digital World and founder of ClearBrand Digital, an AI consulting agency serving entrepreneurs primarily in Southwest and Central Florida.

Support the show

Truth in a Digital World is a production of ClearBrand Digital Inc.

Send us Fan Mail

Dr. Craig Kaplan on Safe AI, Collective Intelligence, and What the Rest of Us Can Do

A handful of companies are building the most powerful AI in history. Governments are scrambling to write the rules. And everyone else is mostly watching and hoping it works out. In Episode 22 of Truth in a Digital World, host John Delaney asks a question that belongs to all of us: who gets to decide where AI goes from here?

His guest is Dr. Craig A. Kaplan, a pioneer in artificial intelligence and the inventor behind technologies designed for safe superintelligence. For more than four decades, Dr. Kaplan has worked where intelligent systems, ethics, and innovation meet. He began his career collaborating with Nobel Laureate and Turing Award winner Dr. Herbert A. Simon, then founded iQ Company in 1993, whose intelligent systems powered financial technology that executed billions of dollars in trades on Wall Street. In 2020 he refocused the company entirely on safe architectures for artificial general intelligence (AGI) and superintelligence, and made those designs freely available at SuperIntelligence.com.

The conversation is calm, plain-English, and practical. No science fiction, no panic, and no hype.

What You'll Hear in This Episode

• A lesson from working with Dr. Herbert Simon that still shapes how Dr. Kaplan thinks about intelligence
• What building AI for Wall Street taught him about the upside and risk of powerful, autonomous systems
• The difference between the AI most of us use today and what people mean by AGI and superintelligence
• The real risks of advanced AI, explained in everyday terms, and which ones are overhyped
• Why Dr. Kaplan argues that AI alignment requires collective intelligence rather than control by one company or government
• Why democratizing AI could be key to humanity's survival and flourishing, and how he answers the concern that it makes dangerous tools available to everyone
• Why he gives his safety designs away through open source
• Whose values advanced AI should reflect, and how ethics and governance get built in
• One practical thing business owners, pastors, and parents can do to be part of the solution

Key Takeaway Don't sit in the stands. You can take AI's risks seriously without panicking. Learn enough to have an opinion, ask who the technology is for, and use your voice, your vote, and your business to push it in a direction that serves people.

About the Guest Dr. Craig A. Kaplan is the founder of iQ Company and iQ Studios, which produces videos that help the public understand AI, AGI, and superintelligence safety. Learn more and explore his open designs at https://superintelligence.com

About the Host John Delaney is the host of Truth in a Digital World and founder of ClearBrand Digital, an AI consulting agency serving entrepreneurs primarily in Southwest and Central Florida.

Listen now: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2624208/episodes/20010237 Learn more: clearbranddigital.com

Support the show

Truth in a Digital World is a production of ClearBrand Digital Inc.

Send us Fan Mail

When someone searches for "church near me," your website is the front door. In Episode 21 of Truth in a Digital World, host John Delaney has a casual, fun conversation with David Graham, founder of Five Loaves Marketing, about what makes a good church or faith-based nonprofit website, why SEO matters for ministry, and how to get found in a world where people increasingly ask AI tools for recommendations.

From Middle School Websites to a Calling David built his first websites in middle school and fell in love with it. In college he started freelancing for churches, and he has been using his professional skills to further God's kingdom ever since. Today Five Loaves Marketing, based in Maryland, serves churches and faith-based nonprofits with website design, church SEO, Google Business Profile optimization, and AI search optimization. The company name comes from the story of Jesus feeding the five thousand, a miracle that began with one small offering.

What You'll Hear in This Conversation

• What hooked David on building websites as a kid, and how it became a calling
• What "five loaves" means for churches and ministries working with small budgets
• What makes a good church website
• The best thing a church can do to reach more people online
• The most common mistakes that make it hard for a first-time visitor to find what they need
• Why a church should consider investing in SEO, explained without the jargon
• How AI tools like ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini are changing how people find a church
• How to think about evangelism through a marketing lens without it feeling like a sales pitch
• One free thing a church can do this week to get started

Key Takeaway Your website isn't a brochure. It's a welcome mat. The same approach applies to small business websites: people arrive wanting a quick answer that solves their problem, and the same practices (clear layout, accurate information, a strong Google profile, and helpful, honest content) apply whether you're welcoming a first-time visitor on Sunday or a first-time customer on Monday.

About the Guest David Graham is the founder of Five Loaves Marketing, a digital marketing agency serving churches and faith-based nonprofits.

Connect with David: Website: https://www.fiveloavesmarketing.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fiveloavesmarketing LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/five-loaves-marketing

About the Host John Delaney is the host of Truth in a Digital World and founder of ClearBrand Digital, an AI consulting agency serving entrepreneurs primarily in Southwest and Central Florida.

Support the show

Truth in a Digital World is a production of ClearBrand Digital Inc.

Send us Fan Mail

Jeremie Bacon on Venture Capital, Human-Centered Technology, and Building Without Losing Yourself

The most dangerous lies in business usually aren't the ones we tell investors or customers. They're the ones we tell ourselves because they're comfortable. In Episode 20 of Truth in a Digital World, host John Delaney sits down with Jeremie Bacon, venture capitalist, entrepreneur, and adjunct professor of entrepreneurship at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, for a candid conversation about seeing reality clearly while you build.

A View From Every Side of the Table Jeremie is Managing Partner of Izou Partners, where he invests in human-centered technologies that expand human capability, healthspan, and quality of life, including AI, robotics, neurotechnology, longevity, spatial computing, and human-machine interfaces. He has started companies, operated real businesses, raised and deployed capital, served on boards, taught founders, and helped create billions in exit value. He has also watched plenty of smart people confuse a good idea with a good business.

Ambition and Family, Honestly Jeremie is a husband of nearly 30 years and a father of four. John has been married 40 years, with three daughters and three grandsons. Together they talk about the tension that rarely makes it into business conversations: chasing ambition while staying present at home.

What You'll Hear in This Conversation

• What Jeremie understood about building things as a kid that still shapes how he thinks today
• How nearly 30 years of marriage and four kids have shaped his view of ambition, leadership, and success
• What separates a good idea from a venture-scale company
• What Jeremie is really looking for in a founder beneath the pitch
• The most common lies founders tell themselves, and how to see reality more clearly
• What "human-centered technology" actually means, and why now is the right time for it
• How to think about AI, robotics, longevity, and human-machine interfaces without getting swept up in hype cycles
• Advice for builders who want to create something meaningful without losing themselves, their families, or their integrity
• What raising four kids teaches about negotiation, leadership, patience, and crisis management
• A painful business mistake that became a great story

Key Takeaway A good idea is not a good business. A busy calendar is not a healthy life. And you can build something that matters and still be a person your family wants to come home to, but it takes honesty, and deciding in advance what you will not trade away.

About the Guest Jeremie Bacon is a venture capitalist, entrepreneur, operator, and adjunct professor of entrepreneurship at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. He is Managing Partner of Izou Partners.

About the Host John Delaney is the host of Truth in a Digital World and founder of ClearBrand Digital, an AI consulting agency serving entrepreneurs primarily in Southwest and Central Florida.

Support the show

Truth in a Digital World is a production of ClearBrand Digital Inc.

Send us Fan Mail

Should your town say no to data centers? In this solo episode of Truth in a Digital World, host John Delaney takes on one of the loudest debates in America right now — the "No Data Center" movement — with a simple goal: separate what's true from what's scary, hold the industry accountable on water and power, and keep a stewardship mindset about both. John does not give new data centers a blank check. He also doesn't think blanket opposition works. Here's where he lands, and why.

What Is a Data Center, Really? A data center is a building full of racks of servers that store and share data — and they've been around since the 1960s. An AI data center is a specific, hungrier kind built for the massive computing behind artificial intelligence, with much heavier power and cooling demands. They're not the same thing, and the debate gets muddy when the two are treated as one.

You Already Use Data Centers Every Day Your phone, texts, email, and social media. Online banking, direct deposit, and credit card processing. 911 dispatch, police records, and fire department dispatch. Hospital patient records, imaging, and telemedicine. Air traffic control. GPS, weather forecasting, school systems, government services, streaming, and cloud storage. The real question isn't whether data centers should exist. It's where new ones get built, how they're powered and cooled, and who pays for it.

What You'll Hear in This Episode

• The difference between a traditional data center and an AI data center
• A detailed list of everyday services that already depend on data centers, from 911 to hospitals to air traffic control
• John's position on water and electricity: new data centers should be required to help pay for upgrades to local water and power infrastructure, not leave neighbors holding the bill
• Why new data centers take roughly 3 to 7 years from site selection to full operation, and why power-grid connection is now the biggest bottleneck
• Why a meaningful share of near-term growth can happen in buildings that are already permitted and zoned, and why no local movement can stop that
• How closed-loop cooling and modular designs are shrinking water use dramatically
• What Superagency by Reid Hoffman and Greg Beato says about past panics over the printing press, mainframe computers, the power loom, and more
• A faith-anchored case for stewardship: using what we've been given, and taking care of it while we do
• Practical advice on showing up to a county meeting with questions instead of just a sign

Key Takeaway Stewardship means holding both hands open: welcome what's coming, and hold people accountable for how they bring it. Bring questions about water, power, and who pays, not just a flat "no."

About the Host John Delaney is the host of Truth in a Digital World and founder of ClearBrand Digital, an AI consulting agency serving entrepreneurs primarily in Southwest and Central Florida.

Listen now: [EPISODE_URL] Learn more: clearbranddigital.com

Notes & Sources

• Superagency: What Could Possibly Go Right with Our AI Future by Reid Hoffman and Greg Beato. Source for the historical examples of past technology panics: the printing press (15th century), mainframe computers (1960s congressional hearings), and the power loom, telephone, camera, and automobile. Overview: Shortform, Marketplace
• Data center construction timelines (roughly 3 to 7 years total; grid interconnection as the main bottleneck, often 3 to 4+ years alone): Planera, ATK Energy, Verse
• Water use figures (about 300,000 gallons/day for a mid-size facility; 1 to 5 million gallons/day for large hyperscale sites; projected 32 billion gallons/year for AI-related U.S. data centers by 2028): AKCP, University of Tulsa
• "No Data Center" grassroots opposition and projects blocked or delayed: Wikipedia, Data Center Watch, Yahoo/AP, Pennsylvania, The National Desk
• Closed-loop and zero-water-evaporation cooling, plus modular designs: Data Center Dynamics on Microsoft, Data Centre Magazine, Abundance Institute
• The point that existing permitted and zoned buildings can be converted without new approvals, and the list of everyday services that depend on data centers, reflect the host's own analysis and general industry knowledge rather than a single cited source.

Support the show

Truth in a Digital World is a production of ClearBrand Digital Inc.

Send us Fan Mail

Clayton Thompson on Boring Markets, AI, and Building to Last

$110 billion flows through homeowners associations every year, and almost nobody wants to build software for the people running them. In Episode 18 of Truth in a Digital World, host John Delaney talks with Clayton Thompson, co-founder and CEO of HOA Start, about why the most overlooked, "boring" industries are so often the best opportunities — and why the real danger in the AI era isn't moving too slow, it's racing to be first without knowing what you're actually building toward.

From Sump Pumps to SaaS Clayton didn't set out to build HOA software. Nineteen years ago, he and a business partner noticed property managers wanted more than a basic website — they wanted software that could replace broken, paper-based processes. That instinct built a company to 5,000 associations before it was acquired, and Clayton is doing it again with HOA Start today. His read on why "boring" markets like this work: the stigma that keeps other people away — HOAs, septic tanks, sump pumps — is usually exactly where the opportunity is hiding.

What You'll Hear in This Conversation

• Why $110 billion flows through HOAs every year, and why almost nobody's building good tools for the boards running them
• A real, live example of AI collapsing a weeks-long paper process — getting architectural approval for a home improvement — down to minutes
• Why property management companies turn over every three years, and how that's driving self-managed HOA adoption
• How HOA Start evolved from pure software into software-plus-services as the market pulled it there
• Why 65+ board members are some of the most AI-resistant users Clayton serves, and how tools like Meta's "Muse" are about to change that
• Why Clayton believes you "shouldn't be racing to be first at anything when it comes to AI" — and what he means by a business's real moat
• A real story of a lead that found HOA Start through ChatGPT and signed a contract within two days — and what it means for how businesses need to be found now

Key Takeaway AI can get you 80% of the way to a working product overnight. It can't replace the discipline of actually knowing who you serve, how they find you, and what makes them trust you enough to stay. The businesses that survive aren't the fastest movers — they're the ones who never let speed replace judgment.

About the Guest Clayton Thompson is the co-founder and CEO of HOA Start, software built for volunteer boards running their own homeowners associations without a property manager.

About the Host John Delaney is the host of Truth in a Digital World and founder of ClearBrand Digital, an AI consulting agency serving entrepreneurs primarily in Southwest and Central Florida.

Support the show

Truth in a Digital World is a production of ClearBrand Digital Inc.

Send us Fan Mail

An conversation with Louis Swart on Delegation, Burnout, and AI as a Stewardship Tool

Letting go of work is rarely a logistics problem. Most business owners already know what could be handed off tomorrow — what actually stops them is identity. In Episode 17 of Truth in a Digital World, host John Delaney sits down — virtually, from opposite sides of the planet — with Louis Swart, business coach for coaches and founder of Ironbrij, for a real conversation about why so many capable leaders end up as the hardest-working, lowest-paid person in their own company, and how to actually stop.

A Conversation, Not an Interview — From Florida to Sydney John recorded this one from Southwest Florida. Louis joined from Sydney, Australia — literally about as far apart as two people can be on the planet. It's a fitting backdrop for the conversation itself: a discussion about how good delegation, and AI used well, can make distance almost irrelevant to how well a business actually runs.

Thirty-Five Years of Watching the Same Pattern Over more than 35 years building and selling companies and managing more than 450 staff, Louis kept running into the same story: talented people running businesses that couldn't survive without them, mistaking exhaustion for commitment. That observation became Ironbrij, a human-AI-powered virtual assistant company built to help coaches avoid burnout and build businesses that don't collapse the moment they step away.

What You'll Hear in This Conversation

• The biggest mistake coaches make that keeps them stuck doing everything themselves
• A moment when things didn't go according to plan for Louis, and how it reshaped his approach
• A belief Louis once held strongly that he's completely changed his mind about
• A hard truth about the coaching industry most people avoid talking about
• The problem Louis is obsessed with solving right now through Ironbrij
• What he's had to unlearn as AI became part of how Ironbrij actually works
• What he'd want someone to hear if they were exactly where he was five years ago

Key Takeaway Make a list this week of everything that currently requires you. Then ask an honest question about each item: does this actually need me, or does it just need to get done? That gap is where delegation, elevation, and — done wisely — AI, actually belong.

About the Guest Louis Swart is a business coach for coaches and the founder of Ironbrij, joining from Sydney, Australia. He's the author of The B Myth: How Successful People Accidentally Build Businesses That Steal Their Lives, a top 50 finalist in the Next Top Speaker competition, and speaks internationally on reclaiming time, profitability, and peace of mind.

About the Host John Delaney is the host of Truth in a Digital World and founder of ClearBrand Digital, an AI consulting agency serving entrepreneurs primarily in Southwest and Central Florida.

Support the show

Truth in a Digital World is a production of ClearBrand Digital Inc.

Send us Fan Mail

Most leaders don't struggle with vision. They struggle with the gap between the vision and the technology decisions required to actually get there — the gap where good intentions quietly get replaced by whatever's convenient to believe. In Episode 16 of Truth in a Digital World, host John Delaney talks with Cameron O'Brien, founder of Brass Helm, about what it really takes to turn a leader's vision into reality through technology.

From an Airport Security Team to the Boardroom Cameron's path here started in an unlikely place. Years ago, as part of an airport security team, he stood beside a possible IED, waiting for bomb squad with no way of knowing if it was real — close enough to ask himself what he'd actually done with his life, and what he wanted it to become. That moment led him to leave law enforcement, start over from zero, and spend the next decade earning his way into the room where technology decisions get made. Today he works as a fractional CTO, sitting on the leader's side of the table, with no vendor commissions and nothing to sell — just his honest read on whether the technology in front of a business will actually get it where it says it wants to go.

What You'll Learn in This Episode

• What that moment beside a possible IED forced Cameron to confront about his own life and purpose
• What it actually took to rebuild a career from zero and earn a seat in rooms where technology decisions get made
• Why Cameron built his fractional CTO role with no vendor commissions and nothing to sell
• Where the translation from vision to technology decisions usually starts to break down
• The full story behind a mid-market health insurer that cut its entire 20-person call center for voice AI — celebrated a 67% success rate — and the real number underneath it
• How to tell the difference between a metric your business can trust and a number that's just convenient to believe
• The first question every leader should ask before handing a piece of their vision to AI or new technology

Key Takeaway Vision isn't the hard part — most leaders already have one. The hard part is refusing to let the technology decisions in between get made by whoever's easiest to believe. If you can't explain exactly what a dashboard or success rate is actually measuring, you don't have a bridge from vision to reality — you have a guess wearing a number's clothes.

About the Host John Delaney is the host of Truth in a Digital World and founder of ClearBrand Digital, an AI consulting agency serving entrepreneurs primarily in Southwest and Central Florida.

Support the show

Truth in a Digital World is a production of ClearBrand Digital Inc.

Send us Fan Mail

What good is being findable if nobody has a reason to stay? In Episode 15 of Truth in a Digital World, host John Delaney sits down with David Levine, author of Old School Service, New School Tools, to talk about the two things every business needs and rarely holds in balance: visibility and loyalty.

David has spent nearly two decades running a small business and networking with thousands of entrepreneurs, building his career around one conviction — sustainable growth comes from being found, and from creating an experience worth returning to. He helps organizations improve their online visibility through SEO, WordPress, digital marketing, and AI-powered tools, while strengthening the customer experience at every stage of the journey, from first impression to loyal advocate.

What You'll Learn in This Episode

• The most common reason a genuinely good business stays invisible online
• What's usually the real diagnosis when a business owner says "nobody can find us"
• What business owners still get wrong about how people find them in the age of AI search
• The "old school service" principles most businesses forget while chasing new tools
• Where technology has actually strengthened the customer relationship instead of cheapening it
• Where David draws the line between AI helping a business get found and AI making it feel less human
• Simple, practical steps to improve visibility and customer loyalty starting this week

Key Takeaway Technology will keep changing — SEO today, AI search tomorrow, something else in five years. The businesses that last are the ones that never let the tools replace the fundamentals: being genuinely findable, and genuinely worth finding.

About the Guest David Levine is the author of Old School Service, New School Tools, built on the belief that the most successful businesses combine timeless customer service principles with modern technology. He joins the show from Zur Hadassah, in the Jerusalem District of Israel.

Connect with David: iamyourvirtualprofessional.com
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/mrdavidjlevine
Facebook: facebook.com/mr.david.j.levine
Get the book, Old School Service, New School Tools, on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Old-School-Service-New-Tools-ebook/dp/B0H6CG2F9Y/

About the Host John Delaney is the host of Truth in a Digital World and founder of ClearBrand Digital, an AI consulting agency serving entrepreneurs primarily in Southwest and Central Florida.

Support the show

Truth in a Digital World is a production of ClearBrand Digital Inc.