This live interview with Blockchain Pill started on ICP, but it drifted into everything else I'm actually doing right now: how I use AI, why I only go live anymore, my dating life in full, and a brand-new local business idea I'm excited about. Here's the whole second half.
How I use AI in my workflow
Blockchain Pill asked how I use AI in my workflow, in real life, and to do research on the Internet Computer. The honest answer is I love AI. It just speeds everything up, but you have to bring your own discernment to see where it's wrong and where it's getting it right. So I use multiple models. I use Claude, Gemini, and ChatGPT, because often one or two of them will be screwed up on something and the third one will have better information.
For example, I use Gemini for anything plugged into Google and YouTube. When I did my BitTensor TAO video, another FUD video about TAO, it was because I see so many people in the ICP channel chat who are so positive about BitTensor TAO, and I'm like, you guys need to research this. This is a horrible setup. Bobby Oh just destroyed it in that debate. So here's what I do. I find Bobby Oh's video on YouTube, watch it, and instead of taking notes during it, I give Gemini the video and say, pull out the key points where Bobby destroyed this BitTensor TAO guy. It does all that. Then I pull out another video that's FUDing it and say, give me the key points out of this one. Then I pull several hype videos that I couldn't stand to watch — as soon as I see the creator's name I'm like, ugh — and I put those in and say, give me the key points where it's hyping this.
Then I take all that data and I say: now my overall thesis is that this is garbage and it's hype, use all this data from all these videos plus what I've said, give me an outline for an entire video destroying this one point at a time, acknowledging the hype, and tell me if I'm wrong anywhere. Boom — an entire viewer-facing outline for a 40-minute video. Instead of me rambling and repeating the same thing ten times, what I'm saying is now backed by research. The AI takes the feeling and the basic idea I had and makes it much more concrete. A new person watches it and goes, wow, this is solid, because it goes point by point and it all logically flows together.
Then I dump the entire 40-minute live stream into a folder on a separate hard drive inside my computer — the drive was about $500. I have Claude and Ubuntu installed on that. I just type, "turn this video into a blog post," and it actually does. It asks me a few questions, but it has a workflow I've already set up. It takes 10 or 20 minutes. I have a $100-a-month Claude subscription, and it just craps out a blog post. I'm like, God, this is miraculous. And then that goes straight onto the ICP blockchain and it's instantly indexing on Google. I'm like, wow.
Why I only do live streams now
Blockchain Pill asked whether I cut my live streams into separate videos. This one I'm going to cut into videos, but my regular live streams, not anymore. I used to. A week or two ago, what I'd do is film an hour or two-long live stream, hit record on OBS, talk through a specific point, stop, and upload that as a clip. The problem is, if you watch the whole live stream, I'd hate for you to then watch a clip from it. And going live with all these specific pre-planned ideas and generating thumbnails isn't optimized for the live format.
So now I'm just going live, because live is the best form of content I can do. I see the community, we come together and talk to each other, I have a great conversation with the people supporting me — and it keeps me focused. What's the best thing I can do on YouTube? Live streams. Okay, just do that. Don't clip videos, don't do shorts, do what you're best at. Then the algorithm knows: oh, this is a channel that goes live. And what's great for me is that because I speak well without a script and without a filter, and I know the terms and conditions well enough to generally not go over them, people see "Jerry Banfield was live" and they're not expecting a polished video. So viewers are more likely to be satisfied. If I upload a video and it's rambling and unedited, people feel like I wasted their time. But if they know upfront it was a live stream, that's fine. So my current strategy is only live streams. You can follow all of this on my Life playlist.
There are some exceptions — maybe somebody coming to my studio, like Angela and Lindsay, who aren't as familiar with YouTube's terms. We might not be able to live stream that, because they don't know where the community guidelines sit as clearly as I do. I actually edited some of that footage, because we used specific terms about specific things. Blockchain Pill asked what you should avoid saying in a live stream. No swearing, and don't reference sensitive subjects the way the community guidelines flag them — jokes about your past, the specific concrete terms for how to do certain things. I keep it vague even here, because we don't want to trigger anybody or be a bad boy on the Google algorithm. I try to keep my language a bit safer, because I'm on YouTube's platform.
That's my whole online business right now — I'm going to build a local one too, but you just have to be a good boy on YouTube. It's nice that AI today can help you more than ever. It used to be a black box: you'd upload your video with no idea whether it was within the terms. Now the AI will tell you. I put an hour-long transcript in and it goes, okay, you can't say this thing right here, that's a no, but the rest of what you said is fine — that one part could be a community-guidelines violation. It's really helpful.
Blockchain Pill remembered a moment from our first podcast, where I told a story about going on a date with a woman who was a little overweight, and we laughed about it — it was funny. When he added that short to YouTube, there's the ad-suitability questionnaire where you self-select. He thought about it and flagged it himself: listen, we made a little fun of a group, but not very much, we were okay. And it was fine — YouTube said it could be monetized, no problem whatsoever. I usually try to stay away from controversy of any sort, and breaking rules or making people feel bad is never my intention. We want people to feel confident, to be healthy, to have fun and learn something. That's why they watch.
My dating life, in full
Blockchain Pill said dating is the second thing people love from me, after ICP — he consumes the dating videos every single day at the gym, in the car, like it's a TV series, his guilty pleasure. He offered to let me go over some of my recent dates live so he and the chat could give feedback. I love talking about this stuff, so yes. Dating is so important for your life, your happiness, for having kids. The Jerry Banfield dating channel is the smallest and most recent of my six channels, but I have a huge passion for it.
So here's where I'm at. The youngest woman I've gone out with recently is 23 — she came to the house on Monday. The oldest is 57, about six months ago, so that's a 34-year age gap. I met the 23-year-old in person at a friend's house, the same night a girl from yoga I hadn't seen in six months messaged me for a date (she later ghosted me after the one date), and the same night I'd taken a woman out from Bumble to that party. So I literally had three dates set up or happening in one single night.
This 23-year-old — I'm trying to keep this as unidentifying as possible — is living in basically a trap house and has had a rough life, to say the least. At least five red flags, minimum. And I felt this thing, like I'm going to save her, I want to save her. I gave her my number and she was impressed. I told her I'm a YouTuber and she went, you're a YouTuber, huh? With women in their 20s and 30s, when you say you're a YouTuber some of them have a really positive reaction, whereas a woman like my ex, or another woman I went out with who's 43, goes, a YouTuber, what's that, how do you make money? And I'm like, what is concerning about me making videos and printing money at home? But at least the young girls get it.
So I got her number, texted her every day, took her to the beach — and our vibes were off. She wore her ugliest clothes, it was not fun, we walked on the beach, and I'm like, okay, that's done. I invited her to one more thing thinking I was finished, and she didn't respond for about three weeks. Good, I'm done with her. Then all of a sudden on Friday she messaged me one word: "hey." I'd literally just been thinking about her right before she texted, after weeks of not thinking about her much. The next day she invites me to three different things — breakfast, a yoga class, and a cold plunge and sauna — any one, two, or all three. So I met her for breakfast. The yoga class was full, so I did my work responding to comments, then met her after and we went to the cold plunge and sauna. I was impressed — she had to bail out of the sauna before I did, she got too hot. I'm 42 — look how good shape this body's in.
We were really vibing that day. Then I went to see her at work on Sunday, and she actually spent an hour hanging out with me while she was supposed to be working, kind of blew off her job, which is funny. Then she came over to my house to cook on Monday. And that's where I had some conflict. The brain on my shoulders was saying, this is a bad idea, this girl has too many red flags, she's not good for you, you need to actively discourage this. And then other brains were like, go, come on, let's do this — I haven't had a woman over to my house who isn't my ex-wife or my mother the whole six months I've lived here. So they're like, girl, girl, come on.
The whole time I was following her around my house feeling uncomfortable, because I wasn't all in. Can you picture me being that divided against myself? You can see this is me on ICP — I'm all in, all my brains agree on ICP. But not on this girl. We held hands, took a walk, cooked, laughed, but it was awkward. We almost kissed, and right after we almost did, I'm like, no. She said something — I think she'd just been with somebody the day before — and thankfully that put me off enough. I'm like, I don't know, I need to stop this, she needs to go.
Then I called my friend in AA, and he's like, you do need to stop that. She'd been using a marijuana vape pen at my house, and I'm sober — my house is not a place you vape marijuana or get high. As soon as she left, I'm like, this has to stop. He's kind of a backup sponsor for me. So I decided I'm done with her. She texted me yesterday, "hey, how's your week going, hope you've had a great week," and I'm like, nope, I'm working right now. If I just don't respond, my energy is going to be clear, I'm going to do my work, and I'm going to have a great day. None of this is advice — it's just what I needed to do for my own sobriety and peace, and the kind of thing I'm always happy to talk through with somebody on a call.
Right after that, I got a match on the matchmaking service, so I have a date Tuesday from that. And then there's a woman I ran into at a local networking meetup who was flirting with me. I won't identify her too specifically — she's from another country, she's desperate to stay here, and she wants a visa, looking for a man to marry her and give her babies so she can stay. What's funny is, you'd think I could provide that service, but she seems distracted with somebody else right now. Last time I asked her, so what are you doing after this, and she's like, oh, I'm going to retire and go to sleep. So I just walked out. I'm like, all right, I'll go home, play video games, take a walk, clean my house. I don't need to be messing with you. I have a better offer than that — I have a lot more range of possibilities, so I can afford to say no.
I did delete the dating apps, though. Dating apps conflict with my creativity, because there's something addictive and emotional about swiping or dropping roses instead of doing my work. I feel so bad sitting on the couch swiping for an hour when I could have done a live stream in that time, something useful for people. And I can pick women up in person too — when there are no dating apps, I'm out there talking, trying. If you've got to hunt, you go out hunting.
Blockchain Pill's feedback on the 23-year-old was clear: if you were also in your 20s, that'd be a great memory, but otherwise it's going to end badly. He said he remembered when he was younger, you'd find a lot of women like this who loved drugs and alcohol and knew everybody when you went out — that guy, that guy, the DJ — they're fun, but there's no future there. He said it's good I saw that, and that because I value my sobriety and want a wife and kids, that puts me ahead of 95% of men, because most men just want to have fun. Women are going to value that I want something real.
Then we talked about the second woman, the one who wants citizenship and kids. Blockchain Pill asked whether I felt the relationship should start on a different premise than "you can provide her a green card." Ideally it would start on something like love — but there's also practical value, and I can offer a lot to her. What I really like about her is that she's very healthy. I'm a really picky eater, because the easiest way to mess my body up is the food I eat and what I drink. Choosing what you put in your body is more powerful than almost anything else. She's a picky eater too, ultra healthy, she really cares about family, I find her attractive, and she wants a traditional relationship — she wants to be led, wants a guy who provides, she's not trying to be the dominant one. That's what I want.
Blockchain Pill's advice was not to count this woman out just because she wants the green card. He said, swap the roles: if you were in her place and found a woman you're attracted to who's healthy, and you married her and had a couple of kids and also got the green card, that's win-win — it doesn't make you fake, you like her, it just happens that marriage also gets the green card. So unless you're not attracted at all, you're not being disingenuous. I'm attracted, but I'm also expecting her to give me some clear signals she's interested. I'm not going to lead her into a relationship. I think she's distracted with someone else right now — she was around a guy about 10 years older than me — but she's aware of me, I'm on her mind. These days a woman really needs to let you know she's interested. Last night I gave her a perfect opening — what are you doing after this — and if she'd been really interested she'd have picked up on it and signaled she was available. She didn't. So I watch for the subtle signals. I'm very interested in dating her, we've had deep conversations, I have her phone number, but I'm not going to ask her out unless she makes some kind of approach.
Blockchain Pill said he agreed with my stance 100%: don't be a puppy. You hold the power here — you have something she wants, she has something you want, potentially kids, marriage, and beauty, and you're attracted. That can be a big relationship. The young one, he'd advise no — maybe if you just want to have some fun, but it's not worth it. And it's not.
This connects to a man who went to jerrybanfield.com and paid for a 30-minute call with me. He'd been watching my crypto videos, but he didn't want to talk crypto at all — he said, I've got to tell you what's going on in my life and get your opinion. He told me a heartbreaking story, one awful thing after another. And looking back, I'm like, what did he do to set this up? He got with a crazy woman. That was the choice he made, and from there it was one thing after another. This 23-year-old is a crazy woman, and if I choose to go there, I'm also choosing all the other crazy stuff that could come with it. Especially after listening to that guy, the day after she came over, I'm like, please no. I'd rather be single and do a good job in my business, help people online, and raise the kids I have with no crazies. Blockchain Pill agreed it can spiral negatively fast — one thing leads to another, maybe a puff from the weed pen, then a few beers, and it goes the wrong direction. And I value my sobriety.
My new local business idea
Blockchain Pill asked for one more story to end on, and I wanted to share my newest business idea. I had a lot of ideas yesterday. Imagine you told me: you have to make $100,000 by the end of the year, and you can't do anything nasty — no launching a meme coin, no shilling some sketchy token — you have to operate with integrity, give your gifts, and make $100k. How would I do it?
I think doing something locally would actually be an easier way to bring in a lot of new money than online. Online, I feel locked in on what I need to do — live streams, jerrybanfield.com, the Jerry Banfield Family — that's a solid formula that should keep growing, with maybe some spikes whenever ICP comes up. But am I going to make $10,000 a month from live streams and the membership? I don't know. Online, my skills aren't as special — sure, over a billion views, but online there are people way bigger than me, like Mr. Beast, who make me look like I've never done anything. Online I don't stand out. But put me in the local community in St. Pete, and now I stand out: this guy has some really valuable skills.
Locally there's scarcity. I hired a dating coach for $1,200, and she messaged me right while we were talking. There are so many dating coaches online, but having a woman coach me in person and go to in-person events with me is priceless — paying $1,200 for it felt like it was free. Online is abundant, in person is scarce, and I always like to offer what's scarce. So I realized I need to offer my skills locally. That dating coaching has been so fun — she took me to a run club, took professional pictures I'm going to put up soon, and just hanging out has been awesome, and I'm not even done with it.
So how do I get people locally to find me? Well, what do I know how to do? I know how to make websites and I know how to do Google Ads. There you go — all I need is offers. Yesterday I talked to ChatGPT and Gemini for a while, and I bought jerrybanfield.org, because jerrybanfield.com still has a crypto flag on it from Google Ads a decade ago, so I can't send people there. What I'm going to do is use Claude Code and ICP, just speak what I want the website to be, and crank out landing pages.
One offer is local AI help — I'll come to your business and look at what you're doing with AI, because locally there aren't many people who use AI as much as I do and actually do things with it. Another offer is for content creators who come to my studio to film, or I set them up: imagine meeting me in person and having me build an entire YouTube studio in your house, where all you have to do is hit record, talk, hit record, and your video is done. Some rich person would probably pay $20,000-plus for me to just buy and set everything up so all they do is walk in, hit a button, talk, and record. Then I'll have a lifestyle-design offer for sobriety, health, and all that. Then an online-business audit. And then a legacy-preservation offer: picture someone in their 60s with a lot of money, thinking about how their grandkids will remember them after they pass. I come in, we record 10 or 20 hours of video, I use AI, and you get a book, a podcast, a YouTube channel — your whole life preserved, everyone can learn from your wisdom. Somebody would happily pay $25,000 for that, and it'd be a great way to spend it.
The process is the same each time: I'll dump my voice or an audio file into the AI, have Claude Code build the whole website, stick it straight on ICP, pay the cycles, then go into Google Ads, make ads, and send everyone to the landing page — then to Zoom, the same Zoom I use already — and then to the Skool membership as an alternative. Like, hey, if you don't want to pay for a call, join the Jerry Banfield Family, DM me, and we'll talk. I think I have a good shot to make $50–100k locally within the next six months, because I can just start dropping $100 a day on local Google Ads. That'll be everywhere — in people's Gmail, all over YouTube — people all over town seeing me every day.
Blockchain Pill loved the studio idea. He said his brother told him people in Romania do something similar: they set up podcast studios and rent the space — you have the backgrounds, the professional cameras, often editing included, and people pay around $200 an hour to come record a podcast. He thought my version might be even better: set up a studio, maybe at the client's place if they don't want to own the equipment, and have them come back again and again, weekly or monthly. He also liked the legacy-preservation idea for older people — capturing their regrets, their achievements, their whole life on video so it lives on.
That got Blockchain Pill reflecting on his own father in Romania. He said his father had a genuinely interesting life, and that most of our parents and grandparents lived harder and in some ways more interesting lives than the younger generations. We grew up with computers and didn't have to work in factories or hold down three, four, five jobs just to barely survive. There's real wisdom in what that generation lived through — communism in Romania and across Europe, where even if you had money there was no food to buy. He loves that idea of preserving it.
Wrapping up
Blockchain Pill closed by saying he's bullish on these ideas, and that I'm laying the foundation with the YouTube channel and the Skool community to get the ball rolling, then expanding locally. He said he thinks I'll see a lot more success now than when I was just trying to do books and wasn't really a content creator anymore. As he put it, I'm amazing at making videos and I shouldn't be held hostage in a book — I need to express myself in as many mediums as possible: video, audio, live, the more the better. That's the winning formula for Jerry Banfield.
And honestly, him saying that helped me see it. Live streams are the best thing I can do, and that's where I need to be putting my energy — not writing books. Lots of people can write beautiful words; not a lot of people can get on a live stream and talk for two hours.
This was more fun than Blockchain Pill thought it'd be. He went in expecting to be nervous and came out feeling like he did great — and he did. He asked some brilliant questions. It was a pleasure meeting all the new people in the chat, and I'm looking forward to talking again. Blockchain Pill is in the Jerry Banfield Family too, so come find both of us in there — we might even do some secret community live streams to bring people in. Thank you all for spending your time with us, and I'll see you on the next one.