Welcome to the Artificial Intelligence Podcast! Dive into the world of analog solutions in our increasingly digital age with our host, Jonathan Green, a best-selling author passionate about the implications and applications of AI.
Today, we're joined by David Ask, an innovative thinker who champions analog security solutions in a world dominated by digital advancements. David's entrepreneurial journey led him to create a unique thermostat guard, combining simplicity with effectiveness to tackle the common frustrations of thermostat wars in offices and homes. His invention not only simplifies temperature control but also addresses energy efficiency and security concerns in an accessible, user-friendly manner.
In this episode, David explores the significance of maintaining analog solutions amidst the surge of digital technology, emphasizing the value of simplicity, practicality, and user-centric design. He shares his entrepreneurial insights, the invention process, and his perspective on the balance between digital convenience and analog reliability.
Notable Quotes:
Connect with David Ask:
Website: statguardplus.com
Personal Website: davidask.com
Email: hello@davidask.com
Connect with Jonathan Green
Welcome to the Artificial Intelligence Podcast! Dive into the world of analog solutions in our increasingly digital age with our host, Jonathan Green, a best-selling author passionate about the implications and applications of AI.
Today, we're joined by David Ask, an innovative thinker who champions analog security solutions in a world dominated by digital advancements. David's entrepreneurial journey led him to create a unique thermostat guard, combining simplicity with effectiveness to tackle the common frustrations of thermostat wars in offices and homes. His invention not only simplifies temperature control but also addresses energy efficiency and security concerns in an accessible, user-friendly manner.
In this episode, David explores the significance of maintaining analog solutions amidst the surge of digital technology, emphasizing the value of simplicity, practicality, and user-centric design. He shares his entrepreneurial insights, the invention process, and his perspective on the balance between digital convenience and analog reliability.
Notable Quotes:
Connect with David Ask:
Website: statguardplus.com
Personal Website: davidask.com
Email: hello@davidask.com
Connect with Jonathan Green
Jonathan Green 2024: [00:00:00] Going analog in an AI world with today's very special guest, David Os.
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Presented live from a tropical island in the South Pacific by bestselling author Jonathan Green. Now here's your host.
Now, I brought you on the show people saying, oh, the show's all about artificial intelligence, but you are going in the opposite direction, which is actually very interesting to me. So your focus is on these security devices that protect like the thermostat in your house. And as a dad, this is something I think about a lot because I, here's something about me.
I can tell if one of the doors to my bedroom was open, 'cause the room temperature changes and I go crazy. So if my wife uses the bathroom, it doesn't close the door, the temperature changes. By half a degree. So many people have these like smart thermostats and I don't want an AI telling me if I'm hot or cold, like as much as I love ai.
Yeah. So I wonder just if you could talk about where you begin, how you got interested in this idea. 'cause so many people think the future is, everything is connected, everything's in a home. Your refrigerator can control your thermostat and all of that stuff, but you're going in opposite direction very interestingly.
How did you get interested in that and let's just start there.
David Ask: Yeah, so first of all, thanks for having me on here. This is super fun. I love having conversations about, tech and being an entrepreneur and just, how people just do their deal. But I, so I was working at a large telecom chain for many years, about 17 years, and in our.
Stores and call centers and things like that. Of course there's thermostats everywhere, right? And nobody can keep their hands off of 'em. If you've got more than two people in a room, you're gonna have a thermostat war. It's just the age old problem, just my mom and dad growing up.
And so it was funny, one day my brother-in-Law called me and he said he goes, Hey David, where do I get a thermostat guard with a combination log? And he was working for banks in Florida that owned foreclosed properties and they would get the, properties fixed up again and then realtors would come in to show the house and of course they'd want it really nice and cold inside.
So they, had to set the temperature and put a thermostat cover on just to, save money. 'cause they were getting these ridiculously high power bills. Nobody could keep up with that tiny key, so he felt that problem, right? So he called me, where do I get a stat guard with a combo lock?
And we started looking around and nobody made one. I. So about 10 years ago, we jumped into that arena and we've got several variations out now. And it's basically just a better mousetrap situation. Ours looks, it looks stylish, it looks a little sleeker, that kind of thing, but it's, just this idea twofold, it prevents people from tampering with really, whatever control that you have, right? We've had people buy these for light switches and just various power controls for, all kinds of things. So in, in all reality, especially if you're thinking about HVAC, maybe besides your lease payment or whatever you have, it's your, most of the time, your highest bill every single month is your heating and cooling, especially in the summer and the winter.
And if you adjust someone else's temperature as it were, or your own for that matter, just a couple of degrees, over 30 days, especially in, heat or cold, get ready, for a jump in your power bill. So we solve that problem, right? Don't touch my thermostat. This is my money, my budget, whether it's in your home or office or restaurant or whatever it might be.
But then we just basically solved the lost key problem. So it's a just a better mouse trip situation really. So
Jonathan Green 2024: what happens though, once the combination gets out, right? Doesn't the problem like repeat itself? Once one person finds out, then they tell someone else. Don't tell anyone, but of course they tell everyone.
David Ask: Yeah, exactly. And the nice thing is you can change the code so that, so if whatever the existing code is, of course you have to have that. But then you can, you can change it to whatever code you'd like.
Jonathan Green 2024: A lot of people now, like their thermostats are voice controlled or voice activated. They're controlled by an app. And I was just imagining if everyone at the office just pulls out an app and they're all changing the temperature, so you don't even have to walk over there to do it anymore. So what do you think about that world and like the world where we're trying to make everything connected?
David Ask: It's funny is even at when, when I was working for this large telecom chain, we had, really fancy thermostats. Some of them were accessible via, via the network and phone and so on, all of them. Here's what's fascinating. Every single one of them you could lock out digitally, right?
There was a code you would put in on that fancy touchscreen so that you couldn't adjust the temperature. Guess what? We still had to use thermostat covers because people would steal the thermostats because they're expensive, right? They customers would walk in, just rip it off the wall, stick it in their pocket and walk out, and they think nobody's looking.
Of course we had cameras, but we, we'd have people steal thermostats. But then also the thermostats are not cheap nowadays, I've got a, a nest couple of nests here in my house, and I think they were. Close to $200 a piece when I bought 'em. And of course, you go into a commercial setting, these thermostats are quite expensive.
But here's the interesting thing is quite often and this is what we experienced, as well, is when someone realized there was a digital code and they couldn't change the temperature. They would try to figure it out and they wouldn't do it very gently, so they'd be banging on that really nice, touchscreen trying to figure out the code and pushing here and pushing there and trying to bypass it.
And they would end up ruining the thermostat. They'd get really buck wild with it. And so it was funny because we ended up having to use the stat guards either way, not only for theft, but then just for people, just hampering with them in general. It's really
Jonathan Green 2024: an interesting approach because. Right now, so many times we always think, oh, we just need another electronic solution.
But sometimes analog is the solution. Like I've talked to a lot of people about AI and security because a lot of it is you're still talking to a computer online and if you're a competitor for the company that owns the ai, then you could really be dangerous place. And like the solution is to have an air gapped computer, which is an old tech solution.
You want a computer that doesn't have internet access. Yeah. So you can have, that's the only way to do it. So that's why this is very interesting to me and. I was thinking about like where I used to live, people would, a lot of people would come as backpackers and they would stay in a hotel that's $2 a night and they'd have a $3,000 laptop and a $5,000 camera and they would just leave it sitting on the bed and go out for the day.
Yeah. And I was like, I. Are you? Yeah. Think about the, sometimes you forget like the most expensive thing in your house. I remember this episode of a TV show when I was a kid, when they bought a really expensive safe to put stuff inside. And they're like, yeah, the safe costs more than anything else we own.
Safe has become the most expensive asset we have. So yeah, I think this is very interesting. So I'd love to know about your invention process, because a lot of people think. Inventing is finished, right? Everything's been invented. There's no more inventions. But that's not true at all. Because I see what happens to the patent office.
There's new ideas all the time. Yeah. So what was that process like and. Just your experience of creation.
David Ask: Yeah. It was neat. We I, I had always I think I was listening to one of your podcasts and you said, about one in 10 people are, really wired to be entrepreneurs.
And, it's, there's a lot of people that, in fact, I'm reading the book, the E Myth right now. By Gerber, I think it is, and it's fascinating. You you've got an entrepreneur, you've got a manager, you've got a technician, kind of personality styles, and it's the true entrepreneur is quite rare, right?
Just because you have an invention or an idea doesn't necessarily mean that it's gonna be a really great idea for you to take that to market. Because quite often you don't have the, the personality as it were to really scale something. Here's the funny thing though, right? I had always been really fascinated with entrepreneurs.
I remember growing up in a little town. I, I was so fascinated by the guys that, my mom and dad. Oh, they're what? What do they do? They're an entrepreneur. I'm like. The heck does that mean? And quite often it was mean, they, it meant that they had, various irons in the fire.
But there was something about their personality too, that it was just a bit different as well. There was something wild there going on. And so long story short, when my brother-in-Law called me and asked about, this a stat guard with a combo lock, neither of us had any idea how to start this process.
And really by defin, by definition, an entrepreneur. Every day is new. You're figuring it out. So we, we started asking questions, looking online, this was 11 years ago, and, okay. And at that point, like 3D printing was just starting to get popular. And so we, we started down the line of can we get someone in, to design something in cad, can we get it 3D printed so we can literally get our, our hands on it and start manipulating it and, looking at it.
And that's yeah, that's where we started. It was a cad, then it was 3D printed and then we started making, various, changes from there. Where do
Jonathan Green 2024: you think some of the future is for analog versus digital security? There's this whole idea of you have all this security and all these firewalls, but someone can just walk in and rip the hard [00:10:00] drive out of a computer.
It doesn't matter anymore, right? Yeah. It's like there's always the old school way still works. Yeah.
David Ask: Yeah. It's a great question and I guess it really depends on. The setting and your industry and things like that. But I think it's fascinating. I'll be honest, I, my gut kinda is telling me that, and it's not going to be for everybody.
'cause so many are just really plugged into the matrix as it were. But I think we might see a bit of a pendulum swing to, I like, I'll I'll use your word analog. I think that's really, I think people, go even with music right now. I live in Nashville. Look at the number of people around the country right now that are going back to old school records, plastic, vinyl, records and so on.
I think there's something that's culturally we've been. Teched up to the point where I think there's gonna be a little bit of a rebellion. So I think in general, I think people are going to look for simp more simple solutions that are cost effective, that aren't going to require that they stare at their stupid phone all day long.
And I think we might be surprised at, at what comes up that might seem like bonehead obvious, simple. And yet people want to touch stuff again. They want to, manipulate things with their hands and things like that. I'll be honest with you, my brother has a Tesla and it's fascinating. A stinking thing is crazy quick and all that kind of stuff, but guess what?
I don't want to have to touch a touchscreen five times to cha, adjust the fan setting. I like switches and buttons and I. Yeah. So in general I'm guessing that there's going to be a little bit of a a pen. We're obviously, the pendulum kind of has swung pretty wide, you, you can't go anywhere and people aren't staring at their phone just for the heck of it, adjusting the temperature in their own house because it's cool.
But I, I think we're gonna see something going the other direction, honestly. I think that's really
Jonathan Green 2024: interesting. So when it comes to marketing and promotion, a lot of people in the last year have jumped in going all in on chat, GPG, social media content, all of that stuff. And one of the things I noticed about you, one of the reasons I brought on the show in addition to what you're doing, which I love, is you have a really big LinkedIn following but you're posting different stuff than most people.
So I'd love to hear about that process and how you find that balance, because my feed is almost all. And I can tell, especially because like it's all chat GBT content, it's all the same stuff. So it's, there's, the thing that I look for is authenticity. Like I wanna post a comment and then the person I.
Responds and it's really hard. If I post a comment that you didn't on something you didn't write, then what are you gonna say back? 'cause then you're gonna go back and read the thing you didn't read in the first place. It's like we're talking about something that didn't happen, right? It's oh, I was talking about a dream.
Yeah. So how do you find that balance of, okay, we gotta get a lot of marketing messages out there, but we still need to maintain who we are, what our identity is, and the fact that like we. Because when you make a security device, it's all about trust, right? Like we recently saw a thing last year where a safe company made a poor decision and everyone canceled their orders and I dunno if that company's gonna be around much longer, right?
It can be one decision where people start to change their perception of you. That can make a big difference. Yeah. How do you find that balance where you guys are still doing some very cool things online, but maintaining your identity, your authenticity, and the element of security that's important for people that are buying stuff from you?
David Ask: Man, great question. I, so here's what's fascinating. My about, I would say half of my life is more on the personal side of things. In fact, I, when you use the words authenticity and identity, I actually teach a course with Dr. Andy Garrett called the True North Blueprint. And we walk not only companies, but individuals through.
Just base on a very basic level, it's self-awareness. It's understanding, what is it that lights me up? What are my strengths, my convictions, values, what type of dent in the universe do I want, what I want people to say about me when I die? And he has a really a different kind of approach to that.
But it's, I'm really passionate about, things of the heart as it were. And of course, I like. Opportunity like the next person. And I'm grateful that we live in a country space, time and history that we can, there's options, right? We have options. And I like to provide for my beautiful wife and my two teenagers and all that stuff, but I'm actually way more kind of mission driven.
Thus the, LinkedIn posts that you mentioned. I think it's, the, this is getting deep here, life is about people. There's no other higher purpose than relationships. And that's a whole nother discussion there, but I don't think if you start digging into it, people will argue much after we, about a five minute conversation there, right?
It's, it is all about the people that you love, the people that you come in contact with. Experiencing relationship. The rest of it is more of a context for relationships. So I get really excited about helping people. Dial in, on in fact, right behind me here, I guess it's over here. I have a quote by Benjamin Disraeli.
He's the former PM of England back in the 18 hundreds, and he said the greatest good you can do for another is not to share with him your riches, but to reveal to him his own. And man, when you think about everything from being a spouse to a parent, to mine for gold in someone else and bring that out, whether that's invention ideas or creativity or whatever that is, boy, what a gift, to do that for someone else and to see the riches in them and bring them out.
So
Jonathan Green 2024: I think that there's something that I talk about in a different way, but it's the same idea, which is that. When you think the approach, and this is really I think, a byproduct of social media, that people think, oh, the secret to success is shotgun is put out a ton of content. The higher the volume, the better.
If I can put out five videos a day, good, 10 videos, a days better, and I. It's this, the problem is that it's hard to come up with ideas, right? So the quality, maybe you have one good idea today, but if you gotta make 10 videos, I mean by video 10, it's like your worst idea. Yeah. And. There's a lot of people that misunderstand social media, like I don't know if you're, maybe you're close to my age.
You remember like social media used to be nice like 30 years ago. Yeah. Everyone would talk to you online. Everyone was friendly. Back when the most annoying email you get was the friend who would forward you jokes. They're like, I'm the queen of forwarding, or I'm the king of forwarding. Those don't even exist anymore.
Like that job has disappeared, but, and it's. That's the world I wanna get back to. Like people always think, 'cause I'm a tech guy, I love the internet. I'm like, I would never be online if it wasn't my job. If I didn't have to be on a computer, I would never use one. Which sounds crazy, but we are forgetting that Exactly.
It's about relationship. But I think the important thing about marketing and whether you, whatever tools you're using is that you, the person who's buying is still a person, right? The person you're reaching to. And a lot of people. Are missing that right now. And I think that, I was thinking about that I, this feeling about the pendulum swing you mentioned, which is that right now someone writes a script with an ai, another AI makes their video, then a third AI uploads it.
Then my AI downloads, it makes a transcript and then gives me bullet points. And it's like, why didn't we just talk to each other? It would've been so much faster, right? To get like the five bullet points between the two of us. Everything else was just ai, talking to ai. Yeah. And I do think that there is a shift towards.
There will be more and more of a shift towards real conversation, especially because you don't know online if it's an ai. People don't, and it's gonna get better and better. And so people, the only way to know you're talking to a real person is to walk up to 'em and touch them. So actually face-to-face is going to, I think, go up in value in the same way, like you mentioned with music, is that.
Concerts are through the roof, right? Concerts are now where artists make all their money. It's not online. It's all about performances. And as we've seen with some artists, you could do really well with live performance. It's really Yeah. Where things are going to, and that's how you made money as an artist before the 19 hundreds, right before the invention of recording.
You only made money when you perform live. So yeah, I think this is a very interesting place to be, and I think it's something important for people to think about is that there's a big danger with people who are who are focused on the result and forget that the process matters. Like the biggest secret to my success is that people like me, the more people who like me, the probably buy stuff.
'cause there's plenty of people who write books or teach online courses or host a podcast. What, how do you choose which one you buy from and listen to? And often, most of the time, right? We'll buy from the person we like rather than the person we think is really smart. Yeah.
David Ask: Yeah, I is, I such a great conversation here.
The, Donald Miller marketing guru, he. And it has that phrase, people do business with those that they like, know and trust. And I think that there, there might be some AI stuff out there, good sales copy, the whole nine yards, the, videos, the, all of that stuff that honestly is very entertaining.
But I get, you know what's funny though is I'm gonna be really hard pressed to give somebody like that my money. And actually do business with them unless I know their character, unless I, I get to know them a little bit. So I think that, you might get some flash in the pan, type activity and, make some sales doing some of that stuff.
But I think if you're in it for the long haul and you really want to grow, not just your business, but to grow your life grow your influence in this world. It's all about authenticity. It's all about being yourself. And it's what's interesting too is a lot of the business that I have gotten, in fact, I had a meeting with a large retailer on Friday, a hardware chain.[00:20:00]
And you know what was really neat is that guy, when I left the meeting, I said, Hey, is there anything else you think I can do as I, start meeting with your counterparts across the country. He smiled real big and he goes, David, he goes, you're so genuine. He said, just be yourself.
He said, people, he goes, we don't like a slick salesman who walks in here and, starts just running their mouth. He said, just smile, ask questions, tell 'em your story. He said, you've got a great product. And it's I really believe that, how about this might sound a bit cold.
But most people will see through the artificial on any level, and those who don't, right? Those who want to be plugged into that they're not my people. I don't necessarily, wanna hang out with them. And so I, I think that, you as you end up attracting, the type of tribe as it were that, you are.
And I, so I think that sense of genuineness and authenticity is. Is is super important. By the way I always tell people, 'cause I'm, I've got a lot of friends. I run two mastermind groups for entrepreneurs and so on. And as I've, become more self-aware, I'm 49 years old now. I joke with people, but not really.
And I say, by the way, I'm the best encourager on Earth and if you need some encouragement, let me know. And I can't tell you how many people have called me, even six months later and say, Hey David, is that offer still open? And I'm like, what Offer? I'm feeling a little down right now.
I could use some encouragement and I, man, I tell you what that is so part and parcel to who I am. It's, we're not human doings. We're human beings. And when we just operate in that comfortable, genuine, free, clarity filled space, oh my gosh, it's amazing. The magic that happens as it were.
I. I think this is a really
Jonathan Green 2024: good lesson because I always try to tell people that you have to put in checks and balances as much as we wanna do things faster, like I would never wanna post a blog post to my personal blog that I hadn't read or post something. So just because an AI wrote it doesn't mean you shouldn't read it first.
Like you have to at least do that because. It's about making yourself faster, not replacing yourself. That's the critical element is that who you are is what makes you special. And you have to be careful because I actually, when I see people post a lot of content that was written by ai, it actually creates ill will.
It's when someone emails you too many times and they're just sending a form letter. Like I get a lot of emails from people who wanna be on my podcast and they don't mention ai. And I'm like, this, it's in the title. Like we only do Yeah. That topic. So it has to be some come up.
With me is something that would make sense. Yeah. And I can just tell, and they have the follow-up sequence and all the emails are the same template and I get 20 or 30 of them a week. So I get 'em all the time and I'm like, if you. Just realize that I'm a person. It doesn't matter how big of a show is, right?
Like the show is about, it's really hard to sit down and do an interview with someone you don't like because I've had to do that. Sometimes I'm like, this is not working. This will not be a releasable episode. 'cause we're both uncomfortable. We're both pretending, but we secretly hate each other, right? It comes through.
I think this is a really good lesson for people to recalibrate and see that tools can be useful, but they're still tools. That's what I want to remind people of who are listening to this episode and they, it's great to be super keen about ai. I am as well, but there's definitely, there are some tools that I think go too far.
Once you take away your specialness, you get into a very dangerous area that can really, your reputation can be damaged. So I think this is really good. This has been a great episode. I appreciate you giving your time. David, where can people find out more about the things you're doing online? Maybe connecting online and see the type of things you're inventing and maybe if they're in the Nashville area, your mastermind is not something that'll be amazing for
David Ask: them.
Yeah, hit me up. I, so yeah. Thank you for that. So my, my main business is stat Guard plus so S-T-A-T-G-U-A-R-D-P-L-U s.com stat guard plus you can find me at david sk david a s k.com or email me at hello@davidsk.com. And I always like to say, if I can help you in any way, no strings attached let me know and I'll do my best.
Jonathan Green 2024: Awesome. Thank you so much for being here. Thank you everyone for listening to another episode of the Artificial Intelligence Podcast.
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