David Rogier

I stutter. In school, I’d raise my hand to ask a question and teachers ignored me, afraid I’d stutter. My questions went unanswered. Starting today, everyone gets their questions answered—by the best in the world.

Introducing: MasterClass On Call.

I asked Grok Bot to lease us a new car. My rule: I don’t talk to a salesperson until we’re going to sign. The car was dropped off this weekend!

I started a bit terrified, but it was incredible and honestly a car salesman schooled me on my agent structure.

We started by giving Grok a list of our car specs. 36 months. Captain’s chairs. Black on black, etc.

It looked up all the cars on the manufacturer’s website, AutoTrader and Cars.com for ones that met our specs. It emailed 64 dealers. Said we only want to communicate via email. Handled all comms back and forth (over 331 emails). At first it had me approve every draft. First lesson: I don’t want to be the human in the loop. I want to be less in the loop.

So I said it can send them without me. It did.

Then it negotiated the best offers against each other. It got the price $6k below the average price. It was ready. We said do it. It was Friday night, we scheduled the car drop off to be Saturday afternoon.

Then we remembered a friend said they had a salesperson who can beat any price. It was late, but we texted him Friday night -- could he beat our Grok price? He said he would and sent us a link. I asked Grok -- how did we not talk to this guy? Grok said: we did! We sent him multiple emails and he flaked. Then it took his offer, went back to the other dealers, and got someone to beat it. We were now $10k ahead. Second lesson: human relationships can change prices and AI can use it!

The car shows up. The salesman asks why did we only want a 36-month lease, the 39-month lease he sent us is actually cheaper? I paused. I didn’t know. I hadn’t handled any of his emails. I asked Grok -- Grok said it ignored it because it was 39 months and I said I want 36 months.

Third lesson: the spec is SUPER important. I was too strict. Grok did exactly what I asked, but I should have said targeting 36 months but open to less/more if it’s a better deal.

Total savings using Grok: about $12,000, roughly 40 hours, and no time with car salesmen until signing day.

We've worked with 300 of the best in the world, but the best conversations are always off camera. And always about their businesses. So we decided to launch a @MasterClass first, a podcast, called Other People's Business, about well...other people's businesses.

First two episodes:

1) @MarthaStewart on the Business of Being an Influencer
2) Professor @JeffreyPfeffer on the Business of Power

Coming soon: @Gladwell on the business of storytelling and @DJDRAMA on the business of hip pop.

It's my first time ever hosting so love feedback! Check it out:

Youtube: lnkd.in/g5J_KHKi
Apple: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/oth…

Actual career advice we are giving at MasterClass Executive, because it's true.

1. Ignore anyone who tells you to work hard, find great mentors, stretch yourself. They are simply wrong. Working hard and great mentors have almost no impact on your lifetime income.

2. Don't take on most stretch projects. You learn less, disappoint, and slow your promotion down.

3. The most important thing by far is what company you work at. It can increase your income by 200-300%! Example: you're a copywriter. Do you claw your way up at Wieden+Kennedy? You can, and you'll earn $90k. The same job at Meta earns $225k. That means you'll retire with millions more.

This is worth diving into because it has such a big impact. You need to find a high-paying firm, because that sets your bar. The best way to do this is: pick the industry first and then look up the real total comp (e.g. use Levels.fyi) at different companies. Don't use Glassdoor, it averages comp. Pick a company that pays in the top 1/3. If you don't work there yet, figure out how to.

4. Learn to learn quickly. The more soft skills and constantly changing scarce skills you can learn, you can increase your income by up to 50%. Skills are always changing, that's ok! That's opportunity.

5. Get a promotion where you manage a P&L. You get real scope. Nothing to do with title, it's about scope. This results in 30-80% more lifetime income. How to do that? Politics (the fastest-promoted managers spent ~48% of their time networking/politicking and only ~11% managing well) and learn constantly (see step #4). Instead of asking for a raise, ask for more scope. Chase scope, not raises. Raises are capped by the company at 2-4% anyways. Scope is where the step function happens.

In a sentence: effort decides almost nothing, it's what company you are at and how fast you learn.

Honored to do this with @drfeifei!