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Stop Asking People Like Me What to Do
Mentors, consultants, and AI can give you better information, but they cannot make the decisions that depend on your goals and context. Ray argues that repeatedly outsourcing the thinking itself can weaken your intuition—and that the better use of outside expertise is to form your own hypothesis first, then invite someone else to challenge it.
What You’ll Learn in This Episode
- Why knowing what to do is often not the real problem.
- What outside expertise can tell you—and what it cannot know about your business.
- Why your goals and context make some decisions impossible for an advisor to make for you.
- How to use advisors without becoming dependent on their answers.
- Why forming your own hypothesis before asking for advice protects your judgment.
- How AI makes information cheaper while making independent judgment more important.
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Welcome to The Ray J. Green Show, your destination for tips on sales, strategy, and self-mastery from an operator, not a guru.
About Ray:
→ Former Managing Director of National Small & Midsize Business at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, where he doubled revenue per sale in fundraising, led the first increase in SMB membership, co-built a national Mid-Market sales channel, and more.
→ Former CEO operator for several investor groups where he led turnarounds of recently acquired small businesses.
→ Current founder of MSP Sales Partners, where we currently help IT companies scale sales: www.MSPSalesPartners.com
→ Current Sales & Sales Management Expert in Residence at the world’s largest IT business mastermind.
→ Current Managing Partner of Repeatable Revenue Ventures, where we scale B2B companies we have equity in: www.RayJGreen.com
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Transcript
Every time that you outsource your
thinking to someone else, whether that's
::a mentor, to a consultant, to AI, your
own intuition is getting a little bit
::weaker. And I say that as a guy who
sells expertise for a living. Alex
::Herozi was on Chris Williamson's podcast
recently, and he said something that has
::really stuck with me, and it is we need
to be reminded more than we need to be
::taught. And if you if you think about
why so many life lessons sound like
::cliches or something that you would read
at a meme on your on your on your feed,
::it's because they you already know them.
Like knowing wasn't really the problem.
::Executing is the problem. Which means
most of the answers and most of the
::knowledge that you need to solve the
problems that you're facing today, you
::probably already have it. But instead of
digging for it, you're looking for
::outside help, outside inspiration,
somebody else's playbook, somebody else
::who's been there and can shortcut it for
you. And your intuition, it works like a
::muscle. You know, the the more that you
use it, the stronger it gets, the more
::accurate that it gets. And the the less
that you use it, the more you rely on
::other people's guidance, the weaker it
gets. That compounds over time because
::the next time that you don't have an
answer, instead of digging a little bit
::deeper to rediscover what you already
know or even figure out what you
::believe, you reach for the phone again.
And if you do that enough times, you end
::up in this place where you may not even
know what to do, but you don't even know
::what you think. Right? And and here's
the part that I I need to be careful
::with. I'm not telling you to not ask for
help. Like my business exists because we
::provide customers with expertise that
they don't have. And sometimes asking
::for help is is strength. It's wisdom.
It's what I tell my kids. It's not
::weakness. But there is this line between
outside experts and what they can give
::you and what they can't. And I can tell
you how to hire a salesperson. I can
::tell you how to increase the probability
of success of that hire, how to increase
::the speed to result. 20 years of sales
management, that is what you're buying.
::What I can't tell you is whether hiring
a salesperson is the absolute right
::business for your move right now based
on your goals because I don't know what
::your goals are. If your goal is to own a
tiny soloreneur business that pays you a
::solid income and you don't want
employees might be the wrong move
::entirely. The how you can buy whether or
not based on your goals you can't like
::nobody can carry that for you. So,
here's here's the practice. Like, next
::time that you're working a complex
problem and you reach for the phone or
::you reach to open up Claude, pause for a
second, sit with it. Like, ask yourself,
::what do I think I should do? What do I
think the answer is? Like think about
::it, sit on it, come up with an idea,
then make the call, then bring the
::problem and the solution and have
whoever you're talking to poke holes in
::it because you still get the outside
perspective, but you're not letting your
::your intuition atrophy and and it
matters more than it ever has right now
::because AI is putting more knowledge and
information at people's fingertips and
::it's less valuable. Judgment is more
valuable. knowing which piece to
::implement, how to apply it, when to
apply it. That doesn't come from a
::prompt. And and it comes from you. Like
you have all the context that you need.
::There's more in there that you than you
give yourself credit for. And and the
::next time that you scroll past some meme
that reads like a cliche, remember if we
::all did the things that we all know that
sound like cliches and memes, we
::wouldn't keep cycling through the same
[ __ ] and the same problems over and over
::and over. So trust yourself. sit with
the problem the next time that you have
::it. Make yourself force yourself to come
up with a hypothesis or a solution on
::what you would do. Then bring that to
your adviser and ask him to um to dig
::through it and tell you why you're
wrong. You get the outside benefit, but
::you don't atrophy your own intuition.
Adios.
