Jake "The Wizard" Tlapek

🎥 Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OL7oNW13D3U 🛠️ Hire me to implement AI in your business: https://mjs.link/work?s=fbp-ep98 🎓 Join my community and learn how to leverage AI: https://mjs.link/mbs?s=fbp-ep98 💡 Book a 1:1 advisory call with me: https://mjs.link/advisory?s=fbp-ep98 🎙️ About this episode with Jake "The Wizard" Tlapek Jake "The Wizard" Tlapek built his agency on TikTok. He only started posting because a networking group needed someone to give a talk on social media, he was one month away from quitting it forever, and then two videos in a row hit a million views. At his peak he was pulling about 20 leads a week from organic TikTok alone, and he grew Wizard Marketing past seven figures before it was acquired. I'd been watching his stuff for years, and what got us talking was a recent video of his about walking away from done for you work to consult instead. I commented, we went back and forth, and here we are. We go through the whole story first: Air Force IT, a board game that sold 300,000 copies, a marketing job he took knowing nothing about marketing, and the day he handed his boss a resignation letter and an offer letter from his own agency in the same meeting. Then we get into where things are headed. Jake is pro AI and treats it as a tool, with a folder of 74 projects he's building with Claude and ChatGPT. He thinks execution is the first thing to go, gives Meta ads about two years before the whole thing is "give us your website and your budget," and argues that the part of this work that holds its value is the human, emotional side of helping a business owner. I pushed back a little from my side, because I think you can build a system that knows you well enough to catch some of that too. We also get into his book Eight Dominoes, his mastermind, why fun is the fuel, and whether this is the last great boom. 🔗 Connect with Jake "The Wizard" Tlapek Website: https://www.jakethewizard.com Book (Eight Dominoes): https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0HD48KJGD Mastermind: https://www.jakethewizard.com/mastermind Consulting: https://www.jakethewizard.com/consulting TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@itsjakethewizard YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@itsjakethewizard Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/itsjakethewizard/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jacob-tlapek-10b55962/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/itsjakethewizard X: https://x.com/JakeTtheWizard 🔗 Connect with Mark Szymanski Website: https://markszymanski.co Facebook: https://mjs.link/fb?s=fbp-ep98 Instagram: https://mjs.link/ig?s=fbp-ep98 LinkedIn: https://mjs.link/li?s=fbp-ep98 X: https://mjs.link/x?s=fbp-ep98 YouTube: https://mjs.link/yt?s=fbp-ep98 🎧 About this show Fueled By Progress is a long-form conversation series with builders, operators, and thinkers exploring business, technology, and what it actually takes to build a meaningful life in a modern world. If you're new here, welcome. If you've been here since episodes recorded in my car, thank you. We're still just getting warmed up 💪 🆓 Free Value - Get your AI Resource Bundle: https://mjs.link/resources?s=fbp-ep98 - Full AI Crash Course: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1cd_ntgOuY - Claude Code Beginner's Guide: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0nJ_8_77Yg - Follow my thinking between videos: https://mjs.link/newsletter?s=fbp-ep98 ⏱️ Chapters 00:00 Cold open 00:40 Intro 03:51 Meet Jake the Wizard 05:12 Air Force IT tech to marketing 10:04 Marketing is a game with victory conditions 13:21 Hearing aids, free vacuums, and learning offers 17:37 The technical side: complex WordPress builds 20:26 Quitting and making his old boss his first client 24:33 The networking talk that put him on TikTok 26:55 About to quit social media, then two million-view videos 27:51 20 leads a week from organic TikTok 29:29 A nine-person team of executors 32:55 Lives, and why he never sold to other agencies 35:36 The worst creator in the history of creators 38:38 The Eight Dominoes Mastermind 41:54 Most owners already know what to fix 43:19 Writing Eight Dominoes, a 10-year process 47:08 Why every first-time author needs an editor 49:41 From doing the work to consulting 50:36 Consulting takes the energy of two people 54:09 Selling his shares and going solo 55:32 Fun is the fuel 58:40 Enter AI 1:02:31 Beating up Claude and a folder of 74 AI projects 1:03:24 When AI takes the shovel away 1:04:47 The six types of working genius 1:07:57 Everything gets commoditized, then artists get to play 1:09:41 Why hire Jake when you could ask Claude? 1:12:13 Execution is the first thing to go 1:13:10 Jake's case for emotion 1:17:34 You can't hold the hope, so borrow mine 1:19:45 Building an AI that knows you better than you do 1:25:39 AI vampires: 4x the output and more time 1:26:11 Is this the last great boom? 1:27:41 I want you to graduate 1:30:01 He wants to create experiences 1:30:55 Where to find Jake 📃 Ethics Statement: https://markszymanski.co/policies/ethics-statement/