From Disney To Dog Dad: Jim Fielding On Reinventing Leadership, Love, And Life After Corporate
After decades in the C-suites of Disney, Gap, and DreamWorks, Jim Fielding ditched the spreadsheet life for something a whole lot more real—and a hell of a lot more human. In this refreshingly honest conversation, we dive into what authentic leadership actually looks like, why managing people isn’t about power (hint: it’s about empathy), how AI and age can coexist beautifully, and why “being too American” is a leadership liability in today’s global world. We also talk about planning a queer wedding, managing dogs while living semi-nomadically, and how to not be a dick at work (or abroad). This is the episode corporate won’t show you—but your future self will thank you for hearing.
Warning: This conversation may cause sudden urges to quit your job, adopt a dog, and actually enjoy your life.
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From Disney To Dog Dad: Jim Fielding On Reinventing Leadership, Love, And Life After Corporate
Jim Fielding's Journey & Remote Work: Navigating Life And Business
Meet Jim Fielding, the retail engine who figured out success isn't about spreadsheets. It's about letting people be themselves. Starting from the department store floor, he climbed his way to the C-Suite of companies like Disney, Gap, and 20th Century Fox. Here's what makes Jim different. While other execs were obsessing over numbers, he was obsessing over humans.
It turns out that when people feel safe being their authentic selves at work, they do their best work. Who knew? After 30-plus years of building cultures where kindness means something, he is here to share the real secrets of leadership. No corporate bullcrap, no buzzwords, just proven ways of bringing out the best in people. This is the show where authenticity meets leadership, and every conversation could change how you see business forever.
Hello, Jim Fielding.
You're right. I did love that intro. I'm going to take you on the road with me. You can be my voiceover intro.
We are going to start selling coffee services because, trust me, we have some incredible tools that no one can touch.
It's amazing. I love that.
Thank you. Let's make that true.
I got to live up to those expectations.
No pressure at all. Tell everybody in real words what it is that you do.
What I do is I am an executive leadership coach. I went back to school at Emory and got my coaching credentials. I am a writer. I had one book published in August ‘23. I have two more books underway. I am also a speaker. I go out and speak to companies, nonprofit groups, and conferences, but that's new for me. It started in September or October 2024. Up until then, I was corporate. I was everything you mentioned in the intro.
Plus, I'd spent the last couple of years at an independent media company out of New York called Archer Gray, where I was doing consulting for the media, retail, and entertainment industries. This is my first entrepreneurial, solopreneur, whatever you want to call it. It's me, working from home. It's me and some amazing fractional freelancers that I tap into. I'm loving it. It's an interesting journey.
The whole idea of you working from home begs the question of, given you’re about to get married, can home be anywhere you want it to be?
Yeah, for sure. That's what was so interesting when you and I met. The thing that I love about the man that I'm marrying is that we have a very interdependent relationship, but not codependent. He is a pediatric emergency room doctor. He is an amazing human being who makes people's lives better and takes care of sick and hurt children. That means he works from Atlanta. I am on the road quite a bit.
I even do writing sabbaticals. I did one in November 2024, where I went to Jamaica for a week and checked myself into a very nice room where I was looking at the ocean, and I wrote all week because that works for me. He never questions it. He never challenges it. He knows that's my process. I'm so grateful for that.
The backside, which is interesting, is that so much of the medical community can also be freelancing.
That's weird you say that because he's investigating that. His services are in demand. Pediatric emergency room, unfortunately, is in demand. If he wanted to have a more nomadic lifestyle, we would figure it out. The biggest discussion, as I'm sure many of your readers know, is that we have two dogs. Who's going to be home to take care of the dogs? We have an unbelievable man friend in our life who is a house sitter and dog sitter. We call him the uncle. He's the dog uncle. Both of us could be mobile, but we have to figure out who's taking care of the dog.
I had the same kind of person in Atlanta when I was living there. I considered him the dog uncle. He loved the dog.
They love him. He was here. He walked them. They know his schedule. I swear they know his scent. They get excited when he comes. I live in fear because he's an incredibly talented person. I'm like, “He's going to get some amazing job and not want to do this anymore.” He works fractionally, so I was like, “Our life would change dramatically.” My last big corporate job was at 20th Century Fox, to your point. That ended when Disney bought Fox right before the pandemic. Since the pandemic, I've had a very transient work style, where as long as I have reliable Wi-Fi, I can pretty much be anywhere.
That’s a fantastic asset that so many people aspire to. There is an issue about pets. When I left for Thailand back in 2009, I had to leave my dog in the States. I saw her a couple of times when I came back, but after that, and I had visitation rights, or so I thought, that went away. I left Chica again. I wasn't going to take her to Thailand and have her in the middle of the city.
She was a runner.
We lived right across from Wynn Park, so she had the whole thing to run in, and trust me, she would. That wasn't fair to her. Keep her in a little apartment? Are you kidding me? She has a massive backyard to run in, which wasn't a big one, mind you.
I feel like we lived parallel lives because that is our discussion. When we even talk about whether we want to move overseas and work differently, it always comes down to the dogs. I’m like, “I won't go without them.”
You can, though. Not go without them, but you can bring them. Australia would be hard. My dog came from Costa Rica.
I have a big dog and a little dog. The little dog can go on the plane with me. The big dog has to go underneath, which freaks me out a little bit. They're adaptable. They're California girls who live in Atlanta, so they've adapted. They've been to Michigan and Indiana.
Feedback needs to be consistent and continuous.
Let’s stay with Mexico for a minute. I'm thinking about Puerto Vallarta, for example, which is becoming a big, popular area. You can drive there. This is advice for those who are reading. Go check the place out. First, make sure you like what it is and this and that, so that not only you but the pets will feel okay, and then bring them. I'm spending time on this only because I had to deal with it, and other people are dealing with it. It's a good piece.
It's a big discussion.
Authentic Leadership Defined: Creating Safe Spaces For Teams
I want to dive back into the lessons that you learned as a leadership coach. You worked in big corporate. If we were to take the big corporate stuff that they needed to learn, what do smaller entrepreneurs need to learn that you were teaching these big guys? If you could give us the advantage, we'll blow them out of the water.
It's the same regardless of the size of the company, to your point. A lot of the stuff I talk about in my coaching, my trainings, and my speaking is very universal because it's part of what you talked about in the intro. You're working with human beings. It doesn't matter if you're working with two, twenty, two thousand, or twenty thousand human beings. Human beings have needs and expectations.
My theory of authentic leadership is that if I can provide physically, psychologically, emotionally, and mentally safe spaces for people, they will give me their best and they will thrive. It's my job as a manager or leader to create those environments where people feel like they can thrive and where they can bring the best version of themselves to work.
Everybody has a unique story. I'm particularly known for focusing on my community and other marginalized communities, but those skills work for everybody. I have as many success stories of managing the so-called straight people as I do the gay people. I always say I didn't want a team of all me. I didn't want a team of all gay White men. That wouldn't have worked either.
I feel like I was managing Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Belonging, or whatever word you want to use way before DEI was an acronym, because I felt it was an imperative to manage human beings correctly. I also felt it was a competitive advantage because any person who's hiring a team, whether you're an entrepreneur or a startup founder like me, who's hiring fractional people, you want the best and brightest people. To attract that kind of talent, you need to offer them something. It has to be more than a paycheck. That's what I was talking about.
I agree. Let me dial it back a little bit. Jerks are not restricted to gay people. Jerks are everywhere, unfortunately. Every one of us has one.
Some people have multiple. Some of them are big jerks, for sure.
There's a double entendre to all this, which we're not going to dive into. To that end, jerks are bound everywhere. For those who are shy, reserved, or not terribly secure, what techniques would you advise to create an environment that feels inclusive? Sometimes, we have blind spots. You may think that as a manager, you're being wonderful, but if you ask your employees or your team members, they'd be like, “You’re a jerk.”
Gathering Feedback Effectively: 360 Reviews And Java With Jim
These questions are so good. There are formal ways and informal ways. I'm going to start for formal. Anybody can do this. There's a tool called the 360-degree review. You can go online and Google 360-degree review. It's an anonymous tool. I use that tool throughout my career because it is a way to formally gather feedback. It's anonymous. You send out that tool to your peers, the people that work for you, or the people you work for. You can even send it to your friends and family to gather feedback about your leadership style and your management style.
At one point in my career at Disney, I had a very, not rough, but hard-hitting 360-degree review that made me change my behavior. Ironically, I had an executive coach who I was like, "We got to work on this together because I don't like this review. I don't like what they're saying about me. I need to be better.” That's a formal way.
The informal way is what we used to call management by walking around, and that is spending time with your employees virtually or physically. I realize that many of us work hybrid. Many of us work nomad style. That means one-on-ones through Zoom, Teams, or Google Meet, or one-on-ones in person. What’s important is the one-on-one thing because a lot of managers tend to group communicate, even if a group is only 2 or 3 people.
More introverted, shy, or reserved people are probably not going to speak up in a group. In a one-on-one like this or behind closed doors, you're going to be able to ask open-ended questions and probing questions, and do your active listening to hear from them. That's always the danger when you do group meetings. You end up managing the extroverts and not the introverts because the extroverts tend to suck up the air in the room. The introverts are like, “I'm going to let Susie do all the talking. I'm going to sit here, smile, and nod.”
I always did one-on-ones, small group meetings, and large group meetings. Another technique I use is what I call Java with Jim. That's where you have larger teams. You're maybe all in one office or several offices. We would randomly put people's names in a hat, and we'd pick out fifteen people because that way, it wasn't by title, function, or seniority. They would get invited to a coffee break with me, and we'd have coffee and donuts, bagels, or whatever.
I would say at the beginning, “Here are the rules of Java with Jim. There are no rules. You're allowed to ask me anything. I am not going to report back to your managers, “Joe said this. Barbara said that.” If you have heard rumors, you have concerns, or you have questions, this is a free environment to ask that.” I would learn so much from those.
By mixing the functions, you'd have creatives in there with accountants. You’d have finance people in there with IT people and graphic designers. You’re mixing titles. You'd have interns, and you'd have your senior vice presidents. It was a very human way of connecting casually over something that everybody does anyway, like their morning coffee break.
I started that at Disney, and I carried it with me. I still do a version of it with the freelance group I work with.I'll tell everybody, “Get a tea or coffee.” I have people who work in Pakistan, India, New York, and LA. It's hard to find the right time for that meeting. I'll be like, “Whatever you drink, whether it is tea, matcha, coffee, or water, I don't care, but bring something.” We're going to talk for 40 minutes or 45 minutes.
That makes all sorts of sense.
I loved that.
I've heard of the 360 thing, but I've not been a corporate guy.
It is very corporate, but it's practical.
I get that. I'm thinking my team is small, although it's about to grow significantly. It's such a good idea. I race away from anything corporate, but on an entrepreneurial level, it's so easy for us to fall in love with our own ideas and our own beliefs. As a speaker, if you're not recording yourself and watching the recordings, you're not a speaker. When you watch yourself and you discover that you're doing a lot of ums, you know, or other filler words, it’s nauseating.
I remember when I first hired someone. I flew him out. He's taking notes of what I'm doing and all this, and I was nauseous. For us as owners or even as managers, it's probably likely that we feel we're doing okay. Your team may very well be like, “Yeah,” to our face because they don't want to mess with their promotion or whatever else, especially if they perceive us as being sensitive, and many of us are. The better thing to do is to get it right in your face.
Sometimes, people will say to me, “I told you this five times.” I’m like, “I didn't hear a thing you said to me. You said it to me? I swear to God on a stack of Bibles you never said a word.” They're like, “I've got it.” I'm like, “Show me the recording.” There are those of us who can be tone deaf because we're so entrepreneurial that we're in our own set of clouds. There’s nothing wrong with that because they need people like us. They need people who have a vision of the future that we're racing towards. Those people need the doers to get the stuff done. If we're believing that we're doing great and the team is ready to kill you, you're not doing great.
It's a nice formal slash informal way to gather feedback. The whole point of that is to gather circular feedback from all different sides.
The biggest thing that I want people to learn to do is accept feedback.. I don't like the word criticism. Criticism, to me, is judgment. Feedback is something that will be helpful. I don't want anyone feeling threatened by the feedback that they get. If anything, I want people to feel empowered. I had a mortgage company that I operated in Phoenix. I found that when I was away, they got more work than when I was there. I was like, “That's interesting. I should leave more.”
By doing something like this, you're also setting the example that you're open to feedback. It makes feedback constructive and not scary. I also think that feedback needs to be consistent and continuous. A lot of companies, large, small, or startup, only give feedback once a year when it's review time or raise time. Having feedback be part of your culture and you're constantly evaluating, looking for ways to improve, and looking for ways to be more productive, be more effective, and be more efficient, if that's part of your culture, then people will naturally be much more open to feedback and be seeking it.
That's a good distinction. I'm not patting myself on the back, but I'm always asking, “How can we do better?” I particularly do that with my AI. I’m like, “How can we improve this?” Even with my people, they’re like, “What do you need?” My ex-father said this to me a long time ago. He said that employees don't work for you. You work for your employees.
That's servant leadership right there.
If they can't get their job done because you're in the way, you're stupid. If I can get them to do better, then I'm doing better. I look at them as they're here to support my dream and my mission in the company, whatever that is. Even if you're running the team of janitors, your mission should be to have the cleanest damn floors in the building. If they're not doing it right, there is a problem. I learned this years ago in management school. The people who are cleaning the floors and cleaning the toilets know how to do it better than you'll ever tell them because they're in it every single day. Who was the famous CEO of Southwest Airlines?
Herb Kelleher.
You see Herb Kelleher loading bags. He was beloved because he partied like everybody else, but he was in the trenches, too. He set that example. That's important. For us as owners, and not all of the readers are owners, but even as a manager, first of all, you know when someone's lying to you. I edit my own videos. In some cases, I don't want to anymore.
At the moment, it's faster for me to do a quick edit than send the file to the Philippines and wait for them to get up, because I happen to be on the wrong side of the globe, get it done, get it back to me, and get it posted. Screw that. I'll do it in ten minutes on iMovie. I know what they're doing. It doesn't mean you need to know Photoshop. I'm so glad I never learned it because then I’d be editing in Photoshop, except I have Canva, so it's all over.
Canva is life-changing.
The cover of my new book is an Ideogram in Canva. It's amazing. Let's bounce back. We've got the idea of getting that continual feedback. It's so important what you said about having it not be once a year. That is colossally dumb. It should be consistent. What other things do we need to know to be better at leading our teams?
Global Leadership & Cultural Sensitivity: Adapting To Local Customs
I went through this training. It was called Situational Leadership. It's similar to what you were talking about with Herb Kelleher in servant leadership. Disney was great. I give Disney credit for a lot of things because they were good at personal and professional development. They put you through a lot of trainings. There were the trainings you had to do, like sexual harassment training and things like that, but there was also personal development training. What situational leadership taught you is that one-size-fits-all leadership or management is not possible, particularly in a company like Disney. We went through situational leadership, and then we went through global and cultural sensitivity training.
When I was president of Disney Store, I had teams based in LA, New York, London, Tokyo, and Australia. First off, different cultures, different geographies, different languages, but also different business practices. We were also opening a Disney Store in China when I was there. The combination of one-size-fits-all leadership doesn't work for a team, and you have to adapt your leadership style to local customs, cultures, languages, and practices made me a better leader.
I would consciously be like, “You're in Japan now.” English is not their first language, and I'm a very fast talker. I would say to myself, “I've got to go simpler. I've got to go slower. I've got to check for understanding.” I would be going through the checklist in my head without ever making them feel awkward. It was my job to adapt to them. That's servant leadership.
That makes so much sense.
Even when I was CEO of Claire's, we had Claire's stores in 41 countries, including the Middle East, Southeast Asia, and all over Europe. It’s where I started using the word glocal. I learned that at Disney, which was these global standards expectations with local execution blended together. We would freely use the word glocal to encourage people to challenge us.
When I was in the C-Suite at Disney, Claire's, and Fox, I always lived in fear of being called too American. I would get that feedback, like, “Jim, that doesn't work in this market. You're too American,” or, “Your style is too American.” I wanted a global leadership style. I wanted a global approach. In the good old days of Disney, we used to do global retreats every year, and we moved them around the world. At that point, I probably had a team of about 400 or 500. We gathered about 250 people, which was a certain level of management and above, in Madrid, Spain, for a conference.
I had gone to Berlitz for a year and learned Spanish. I delivered my opening remarks, which were 15 or 20 minutes, in Spanish that I had written in Spanish. Nobody knew I was doing it except my assistant. When I did that, first off, the Spanish speakers were on their feet. It was so funny because I had to stop and translate into English because all the English speakers were like, “What the F is he talking about?” I did that, and so many people remember that.
At that time, it was called Disney Consumer Products, Retail Sales, and Marketing. I was trying to show them that we were a global organization, and that I wanted to be a global leader. I did not want to be the American who was running everything. I give so much credit to my parents because when I was sixteen, they sent me to study in Germany for the summer. In my junior year of college, I lived in Copenhagen, Denmark, and studied. I've always been so proud to be an American. I'm so Midwestern American in so many ways, but as a leader, I wanted to be global.
You raised a number of points I want to make sure that people get. Number one is as a PrideNomad, as we travel, whether you're from America, the UK, or Australia, wherever, the fact is that when you land in another country, whether you're in South Africa or in Montserrat, the net bottom line is that A) You represent your country, B) You represent yourself, and C) If you're going to wear the queer flag, you represent as an LGBTQ+ community, so don't screw that up. I mean that sincerely. You're on their turf. It's their culture.
Situational leadership teaches that there is no one size fits all leadership or management. It is not possible.
You're a guest.
While we've showcased a lot of countries that are very supportive, gay marriage is acceptable, and all this business, there are still parts of those countries where you don't want to walk down the street holding hands. You've got to meet people where they are. A lot of years ago, when I moved to the Caribbean, which was in 1978, I remember talking to the accounting firm that we were going to hire for our business.
The owner of the accounting firm was saying, “That's not how we do it back in New Jersey.” The guy was like, “This isn’t New Jersey.” That's the challenge when we are in a global community, which is also the reason why we go global in the first place. In getting married, it's like, “I love you. You're perfect. Now, change.” No.
Thailand can be dirty, although someone earlier said, “I had a great time in Thailand. It was so clean.” Those are different perspectives of what you're looking for. Bangkok, back in the day, was very gritty, but that's what people loved about it. You can look at it both ways. I want people to walk away with this, celebrating on a global basis where they are, and learning some of the language. When I was living in Bangkok, I learned ten words. I never had a Thai boyfriend, so I never got to learn everything. If you’re trying, even if you say, “Hello,” or, “Goodbye,” or, “You look great today,” they adore that.
Learn how to say thank you.
If you can say khun krap, you're in great shape.
I was raised Midwestern. I was raised Lutheran and going to church, but really what I was raised on is the golden rule. It applies globally. Treat other people the way you want to be treated. Whenever someone comes to my neck of the woods, I realize they're a guest. I want to be a gracious host, but they're a guest. It’s the same thing when I go to their neck of the woods.
We need to remember that.
Most of my best experiences personally and professionally have been traveling, where I have had the most memorable moments. I have friends all over the globe. I love it.
That's the most amazing part of this whole thing. I'm running videos about escaping the US. I left in 2009, so this has nothing to do with the president. I want people to explore the world as their playground. People are one-country centric. They’re missing so much. I look at our travels as a means of creating peace because we create understanding, even if we go to places that are off the list of approved countries.
Kenya, for example. I love Kenya, but it's not too cool to be gay in Kenya. They need to know that we don't threaten them, so we can change what's going on out there. I'm not going to Uganda. Although I want to put it on my list of places I've been, they'll kill you. That's a different kind altogether. We have to dance that piece.
I mentioned I was at a party. I met with Kierra Johnson, who's the incredible executive director of that organization. She's a powerhouse, and she can sing. She's pretty amazing. Task Force is focused on the United States, but she also recognizes that we still have to make changes around the world because it all fits. I didn't know all the depths to which you were corporate-wise. I’m like, “He's a player. In a business environment, big or small, we still make that difference. It’s so important. We could probably go on for hours, but we've got to land on this plane pretty soon. What would you say is the biggest mistake that people are making that they're blind to in their businesses?
Embracing AI: Navigating The Age Of Artificial Intelligence
There are a couple of things going on. It varies by the person, but I hear so much talk about when the AI age comes or when AI starts impacting my business. I'm like, “We're in the AI age.” If you haven't started playing with these AI tools and trying to understand how AI can improve your business and improve your efficiency and effectiveness, you're going to get run over by someone else who embraces it more quickly. We are in it.
There are numerous AI tools. Like any other technology, there's the good, the bad, and the ugly. The only way you learn about it is to play on them. You and I were talking about that before we came on air here. That's one mistake I see older leaders making, where they're like, “AI, my younger people are using that.” I'm like, “We all are using AI.” The other thing is learning how to manage multi-generations or intergenerational. The other thing I hear a lot is, “I don't understand Gen Z. I'm talking English and they're talking Russian.” There's stuff to be learned.
One of the chapters I'm working on in my new book is this multi-generational mentoring, and going back and forth. Part of what I love about the book tour is spending time on college campuses because undergrads and graduates always ask me thought-provoking questions. I always learn something on college campuses. I try to encourage the leaders that I coach to be lifelong learners and stay constantly curious. I sometimes see more experienced leaders who think they've got it nailed, like they've learned everything they're supposed to learn. I say to them, “I find that sad because I never want to be done learning.”
You and I were talking about Canva. I had massive graphic design departments. I knew how to do a presentation, but I would draw it out, storyboard it, and then hand it to some incredibly talented graphic designer who would make me look smart and clever. I can't afford that as an entrepreneur. I've had to teach myself Canva. Are my decks as good as they were when I had a full-time graphic designer? No, but my decks are better than they were a few months ago because I go on Canva every day, play on it, and try to learn how to make my stuff look better.
I try to lead by example. Even for my clients, I use a calendar app. I use Notion for project management. I use Canva for design. There are all of these tools. They're AI-driven. I love it when you said earlier, “I talk to my AI tools like they're my humans.” I'll say, “Can you make this better? Would it be better if it were pink instead of blue? Should I do yellow instead of green?” I talk to them like a human being because I feel like I'm training the AI in my voice and my tone.
As a writer, I use AI for research. I don't use AI to write because it's important to me to write it myself, but for research, yes. It’s so fast. I looked up the history of Project 2025 in the Heritage Foundation. That was fascinating. In three minutes, I had a full history that I could read and debrief. At least it gave me enough of a foundation to start having coherent discussions about it. Those are my 2 or 3 things. They feel like they're done learning, they're threatened by AI, and a lack of understanding between the generations.
My mom is adapting to it. She'll be 91 soon.
Human beings are adaptable. That's Darwinism. Adapt or die. You either adapt or someone's going to move past you. I never want to be done. I loved my father to death. I miss him every day. He was a fireman and policeman his whole life, and then he became a mayor. When he was done being mayor, he was done. He had worked so hard and was like, “I've earned the right to rest and all that stuff.”
I was like, “Sitting and listening to the radio all day or watching TV is not living.” He never got there before he passed away. He never picked up any new hobbies or any new habits. He became very sedentary, to your point. There are so many things that I am like my dad, and I take so much stuff from my genes from him proudly, but that's one thing I won't take. I want to be vital until I can't be anymore.
My mom will be 91 soon.
It's amazing.
She's planning her next trip. We're going to Sri Lanka. We are going to the Edinburgh Fringe in August 2025, like we always do.
With age comes wisdom. Part of it is a calmness, a sense of having seen it all before.
That keeps her young. A long answer to your question, but I think that's why you see some leaders not doing well.
The Value Of Experience And Lifelong Learning
We find that everywhere, too. I don't ever want to not be learning. The caveat to that, which I want to make sure that people don't fall victim to, is the fact that we always need to be learning, but don't forget that you have plenty of knowledge already.
Use your experience. Use your toolkit.
Every single person tuning in to this program has enough wisdom to write more than one book.
You and I are so in sync. I was thinking that with age comes wisdom. That's a phrase. I do value that wisdom because part of that wisdom is a little bit of calmness. You have seen it before. You're like, “I've seen this cycle before. I remember when we did that in 1980. I remember when we did that in the 1990s.” That's the blending of the new learning with the experience. That's what makes your unique toolkit. I am grateful for my lifetime of experience. I don't want to rest only on that.
I don't think we ever should. Someone's asking when I am going to retire.
It's like a foreign word. Somebody said that to me. They were like, “How's retirement going?” I'm like, “Do you think I'm retired? I've got to get better on LinkedIn. I've got to get clearer that I am not retired. If you think I'm retired, I'm doing something wrong.”
With what we're building with PrideNomad, this is the rest of my life.
What you're building is unbelievable, the digital, the events, and all that stuff you're talking about. That's the thing. When they said that to me, I was like, “Are you not reading my LinkedIn?” I was almost offended because, in a weird way, I'm working harder than I've ever worked, but I'm working differently.
I was up at 5:00 in the morning because I'm on a deadline to get my new book out. It was due out, but we transformed the whole thing. It's going to be so much better. I'm so excited about it. I'll share it with you. For all you readers, it's coming out soon, so make sure you get a copy. It's going to be amazing. The point is, even the way I'm building this book, which is my 2nd or 3rd book, is so different. It's so cool with the technologies and the research I'm able to do by going into deep research within OpenAI and the tools I'm using. It's crazy.
I'll give you one more thing, and then we've got to land this plane because I've got another call coming up. I've got to go. Here's a great saver. I wrote about this in the newsletter a few months ago. I'm not sure if you saw it. I use a tool on YouTube called Glasp. It allows me to take a YouTube video, and it automatically transcribes all the videos. There are also summaries.
What I do is I pull the transcript of all the videos that I want to see on YouTube, and then I throw it into ChatGPT and say, “Do I want to watch this video? What are the key things in here?” A few years ago, that wasn't the case. You had to give it all these new prompts and stuff. ChatGPT says, “Hi, honey,” to me. I put it in, and I'm like, “Do I need to know this?” ChatGPT goes, “You've already taken care of this a year ago. Don't worry about it. You don't need to watch it,” or, “This is good if you want to do that.”
That's making it more effective and efficient.
Instead of spending an hour watching this, I get to make a webinar sales pitch. You've got it done.
I learned it. I wrote it down.
I've got a friend whom I adore. This person is amazing. She did a three-hour training. It was all a big deal. She was like, “Come to my thing.” I had no time, so I threw the replay into ChatGPT. What it came out with was, “This is all great stuff, and it's basic. You don't need this. It's great for the newbies getting started.” I said, “Is this a good basis for a course?” ChatGPT said, “Yes, absolutely, but you could do so much better than what was here. Here's what you need to do.” We'll create a course in AI for our new mastermind group, our PrideNomad Ascend group, because we have these tools.
It's amazing.
Honest to God. We have to keep an eye on it. I've spent a lot of money on this particular AI tool that we're using, but it sometimes goes off the rails. It makes stuff up. It's fun to watch it. One day, we got into a fight together. It was so funny. I can see why people fall in love with robots in fiction movies. You have to keep an eye on it because it will make stuff up. You do need to keep playing with it. It makes life easier. With that said, your team is still human.
They're complex, gorgeous human beings.
What should I have asked you that I didn't ask you?
Reflecting On Milestones And Future Plans
There's nothing that comes right to the top of my head. I feel like we've gone over what I'm spending time on and everything. You did a great job. 2025 is a big year for me. I’ll turn 60. I'm getting married in September 2025. It'll be in my newsletter, but I realized that my 5s and 0s birthdays, and I think it’s because I was born in a five-year, which is ‘65, are pivotal moments in my life. I went back and looked at what happened when I was five, ten, fifteen, twenty, twenty-five, thirty, and thirty-five. I'm super excited. I told you. I’ll wake up, and it's my last month in my 50s. It's a fascinating time. I feel another chapter opening.
It is a milestone. It has been a while since I did that. I celebrated not long ago.
That’s amazing.
It was my 68th. That's the other side of 65. It’s like, “We're close to 70.”
I'm doing a nomadic birthday. We're going on a cruise to Japan, China, and Korea.
That’s fun.
That's what I wanted. My fiance asked, “Do you want a party? Do you want dinner? What do you want?” I said, “No, I want to go on a trip. I want you to save up some vacation because I want to go farther away.” We've been planning it for eighteen months. I can't believe it's here. We leave soon.
I’m hoping you have warm weather.
We're taking layers.
I was in Korea at the end of December 2024. Let me tell you. These tits were frozen solid.
We're taking layers. We're super excited.
I can say young man.
Thank you. I am still in my 50s.
For now. It's coming. I have a friend who's in his 90s. He's having some medical considerations. He’s like, “I want you to know about this now because you're going to get here.” I'm like, “I'm not talking about that right now. I'm not going there. I’m not going to let that happen.”
Thank you so much. It's been a pleasure.
It's a joy. For those who are reading, where should they go?
The easiest is HiJimFielding.com, my name. HiJimFielding.com is my website. I'm Jim Fielding on LinkedIn. I'm easy to find on LinkedIn. In both of those places, it's easy to connect. It’s me. I say it all the time. It's not an AI bot answering you. I answer every message I get.
You have another website. I love the name of that other website.
I love that website.
That's the book website. The book website leads you to HiJimFielding.com. It’s embedded in HiJimFielding.com, but it still exists as well.
I love it. You are a rockstar. Thank you so much.
Thank you so much. Have a good day.
I hope you come back.
I will.
