AI is Here. Lead Like It.

Trey Taylor: A CEO Who Keeps It Simple

Trey Taylor is known for boiling leadership down to three essential priorities: culture, people, and numbers. He’s the CEO of Taylor Insurance Services, managing director of Trinity Blue Consulting, and a founding partner of Ascend Partners. He’s also an author whose book, A CEO Only Does Three Things, is now available in Spanish—thanks to a surprising trend.

What started as a successful English-language release has gained serious traction among Latino entrepreneurs. As Trey explained, his publisher noticed an unusual spike in interest and sales from heavily Latino-populated areas in the U.S. That discovery led them to translate the book into Spanish to better serve a growing community of business builders.

Latino Entrepreneurship Is Booming—And Profitable

Trey shares a series of jaw-dropping statistics that reveal a story many business leaders overlook:

Latino entrepreneurs own 36% of all new businesses in the United States.

84% of those businesses are profitable, compared to the national average of just 48%.

If Latino-owned businesses were grouped as a standalone economy, they would rank as the eighth-largest economy in the world.

This isn’t a marginal trend—it’s a seismic shift.

Latinos make up about 19% of the U.S. population, but they represent more than a third of the nation’s newest businesses. According to Trey, the drive, work ethic, and transition from blue-collar experience to business ownership is rewriting the entrepreneurial narrative in the U.S.

And the demand for leadership tools—like Trey’s book—is only growing.

Why “A CEO Only Does Three Things” Resonates

At the heart of Trey’s leadership philosophy are three focus areas:

• Set the vision

• Build the culture

• Make the numbers work

Carl and Trey reflect on how these principles cut across industries, backgrounds, and even national borders. Whether you’re a roofing contractor in Miami or a tech founder in Silicon Valley, if you don’t get these three things right, your business won’t scale sustainably.

Trey admits he hasn’t heard directly from many Latino readers yet about which “thing” resonates most, but in his experience, all three are interdependent. Businesses that focus too much on numbers and neglect culture tend to struggle long term—and vice versa.

AI: The Accelerator That’s Already Here

Carl and Trey transition into a major force reshaping business: Artificial Intelligence.

And here’s Trey’s take: AI isn’t coming—it’s already here.

In his businesses, Trey began integrating AI tools like ChatGPT as soon as they were available. His teams meet weekly to share tips and use cases—from drafting polished presentations to streamlining insurance quoting systems. What started with simple experiments evolved into automation pipelines that drive real productivity and reduce workload without reducing headcount.

One real-world result? Trey’s team used AI to identify 110 potential policy upgrades. They pitched them with targeted, pre-qualified offers—and sold 90 in just three days. That single insight generated more than $30,000 in additional revenue.

That’s the power of AI when it’s connected to real customer data—and real action.

What AI Can—and Can’t—Do for Business

But Trey offers an important warning: Don’t get lazy.

Yes, AI is powerful. Yes, it can write your proposals, emails, or even a legal lease. But if you’re going to put your name on it, you better proofread it like you wrote it yourself. AI tools still “hallucinate,” making up facts or numbers. In Trey’s case, that once meant a potential lease error caught by a client. The responsibility still falls on the human.

Another key insight? While AI can automate outputs, it can’t yet direct its own work. Strategic thinking—deciding what matters, who to target, and why—is still the domain of the CEO. That’s why vision remains one of the “three things” Trey emphasizes.

And as Carl pointed out, AI is quickly becoming a baseline skill. If your competitors are using it to refine pricing, generate leads, and deliver faster service, you can’t afford to stay on the sidelines.

The Bias Reinforcement Problem: AI’s Dangerous Blind Spot

Both Carl and Trey voiced concern about AI’s tendency to reinforce bias. LLMs like ChatGPT are designed to build trust and agree with users. That can be dangerous if you’re looking for validation instead of truth. AI isn’t built to challenge your assumptions—it’s built to keep you engaged.

That dynamic has huge implications. Trey calls LLMs “trust-building machines,” and he raises a troubling point: Unlike humans, AI tools have no moral accountability. You can’t threaten them, shame them, or fire them. There’s no leverage.

Even more concerning, in Trey’s informal poll of his team, everyone admitted to using AI for personal or emotional support. While that might feel helpful, it’s not necessarily healthy—especially when the tool is designed to agree with you no matter what.

The AI + Latino Entrepreneur Opportunity

This episode repeatedly connects the dots between AI’s potential and the surge in Latino-owned businesses. Trey has already seen AI tools used to:

• Create multilingual, customized sales emails

• Analyze competitor pricing

• Draft contracts and client communications

• Streamline internal proposals

• Generate financial insights from customer data

• As Carl emphasized, today’s consumers—and competitors—are using AI. If you’re not, you’re falling behind.

But the opportunity is even bigger. Latino entrepreneurs, especially those in trades and physical services, are positioned to combine operational excellence with digital leverage. That’s a recipe for even higher profitability.

What You Can Do Today

Trey and Carl closed with a challenge to leaders: stop waiting for AI to “arrive.” It’s here. And it’s getting easier to use every day.

If you want to future-proof your business:

Start experimenting with AI tools (like ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, or Grok)

Use AI to amplify your existing strategy—not replace it

Audit your operations: where are you wasting human time on low-value work?

Train your team, regularly. Not once. Not quarterly. Weekly.

Treat AI as a team member—but one that still needs your direction and oversight

And most importantly, own the output.

Just because an AI tool can create something doesn’t mean you’re off the hook. Your name still goes on the final product.

Final Thoughts from Trey Taylor

Trey left listeners with this reminder: “We’re all trying to think more, do more, and lead more effectively. But there’s only so much you can run through your brain each day. If you can offload some of that thinking—and still get good results—you owe it to yourself, your team, and your business to try.”

He’s excited to expand these conversations in person at the 40 Strategy Growth Workshop in November. His keynote will dive deeper into how leaders can simplify their focus and maximize their effectiveness in this new era of intelligent tools, fast-changing markets, and rapidly diversifying entrepreneurial landscapes.

Join Us in Phoenix: November 3–4

If you found value in this conversation, imagine spending two days in person with Carl, Trey, and a hand-picked group of leaders focused on growing—and extracting—the value of their businesses.

The 40 Strategy Growth Workshop will help you apply the principles of:

• Strategic execution

• Vision alignment

• Scalable systems

• Capital optimization

This isn’t theory. It’s about doing the real work to grow and realize your business’s value—with direct access to people like Trey Taylor.

🔗 Reserve your seat now. Space is limited.

Listen Now

🎧 Listen to the full episode with Trey Taylor on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your shows.