Quick question. When’s the last time you scrolled past the AI answer at the top of Google? Be honest. If you’re like most people, you read what it told you and moved on. No clicks. No page two. That’s the world we’re all building our businesses in right now, and that AI answer is either picking you or it isn’t.
In this episode of The Happy Hustle Podcast, I sit down with my man Joshua B. Lee to talk about trust, credibility, and what it really takes to become the answer in this new AI era. Our buddy Garrett Gunderson connected us. After Joshua spoke to our media mastermind group, I knew I had to get him on the mic.
Joshua has built 17 businesses, and yes, he jokes about how many times that means he messed up. He got his start in digital marketing back in the MySpace days, then worked with Yahoo, Google, and Oracle and managed over $1 billion in ad spend. In 2014 he founded Standout Authority, and Favikon named him the number one LinkedIn growth expert in the country. Today he’s the cofounder of YOUmanize, a trust intelligence platform that measures how people and AI actually read a leader’s credibility. He’s also the author of Balance Is Bullshit and a dad of three. And get this, he once ran American Ninja Warrior and hit the buzzer just to show his son he could.
What makes this episode matter is simple. The rules changed. The hacks and tricks that worked for years are fading, and AI now decides who gets recommended in a fraction of a second. Joshua has watched every algorithm shift since MySpace, and his message is refreshingly human. Stop trying to speak computer. Start being someone worth trusting.
Be the answer, because there’s no page two anymore. Joshua calls it a zero click mentality. People ask ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, or Gemini a question, get one answer, and they’re done. If AI can’t quickly confirm you’re the right person to recommend, you’re gone, and it doesn’t come back for a second look.
Trust isn’t what you say about yourself, it’s what others say about you. As Joshua put it, it’s not your name out of your mouth, it’s your name out of someone else’s. He learned that the hard way when the best man from his first wedding stole a million dollars from him. Real trust has to be verified, and AI looks for the exact same thing.
LinkedIn is the most underrated tool in your toolbox. Joshua broke down why LinkedIn gets indexed so heavily by Google, Copilot, ChatGPT, and Gemini. His challenge is to ask past clients to turn their testimonials into LinkedIn recommendations, and to publish your newsletter there too. Make the title a question and answer it in the first paragraph, so AI can match it to what people are actually searching for.
Build relationships, not lead lists. Blasting a thousand messages to land one sale just annoys the other 999 people. Joshua says a conversation builds a relationship, and a relationship creates an opportunity. Treat people like humans and you might turn them into advocates, which he says is even more powerful than a sale.
Show up as your whole self, on and offline. This is the heart of Balance Is Bullshit. Joshua doesn’t believe in balance, he believes in integration. You get one life, so live it the same way everywhere. He shared how he stepped back from the stage for two years when his kids needed him. Then his daughter told him something he’d said on a podcast had helped a friend through a hard time. That’s when he knew he’d made it.
We also dive into his early job at Chili’s and how he got fired over a free bowl of soup. He shares what divorce taught him about money versus time, why the first two hours of his day are phone free, his sauna meditation practice, and why trusting his wife’s intuition is his best money hack.
This one hit home for me. So many of us hustle to look impressive, when what people really want is someone real. Someone who’s been through it and isn’t afraid to say so. Joshua is living proof that being honest about your wins and your scars is what builds the deepest trust.
If you’re ready to stop chasing algorithms and start becoming the answer, give this episode a listen. Head over to caryjack.com/podcastin to hear the full conversation.
What does Happy Hustlin’ mean to you?
For Joshua, happy hustlin’ means that he can actually go to bed every single night feeling accomplished and wake up the next morning ready to accomplish more.
Connect with Joshua
Find Joshua on this website: https://youmanize.ai/
Connect with Cary!
Get a copy of his new book, The Happy Hustle, 10 Alignments to Avoid Burnout & Achieve Blissful Balance
Apply to the Montana Mastermind Epic Camping Adventure
“It’s time to Happy Hustle, a blissfully balanced life you love, full of passion, purpose, and positive impact!”
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