How to Think Like an Entrepreneur in the Age of AI

Thinking like an entrepreneur has less to do with your job title and more to do with how you handle change.

In this episode of The Firestarter Podcast, host Willa Kammerer sits down with Jim Keyes, former CEO of 7-Eleven and Blockbuster, inside his hangar at the Addison Airport outside Dallas. They talk about what it means to think and act like an entrepreneur, whether you’re leading inside a corporation or building your own company, starting with the three things Jim calls his gift: change, confidence, and clarity.

Willa and Jim talk about why keeping a paycheck while you build can make you a stronger entrepreneur, why risk should be calculated rather than avoided, and why a liberal arts education may matter more than ever in a world of AI. Jim shares how his character formation at Holy Cross helped him turn down a path that could have made him rich or landed him in jail, his Coke versus Pepsi definition of personal branding, and how showing up on social media led to a collaboration with MrBeast’s team and an audience that is now 40% international. They close on overcoming the fear of AI, what Jim calls HI, the meta skills that set humans apart from machines, and why change equals opportunity.

If you’re weighing the leap into entrepreneurship or wondering how to build a personal brand that holds its value as AI changes everything, tune in to this episode of How to Think Like an Entrepreneur in the Age of AI with Jim Keyes.