AI Can’t Replace You (If You Do This) with Amber Vilhauer

Look, right now, a lot of people are scared. And honestly, for good reason. AI is reshaping the world faster than anyone expected. In fact, Goldman Sachs predicts up to 300 million jobs could be displaced by 2030. So question is, what happened to you? In today's conversation with my longtime friend and marketing visionary Amber Vilhauer, we talk about how becoming an entrepreneur isn't just about making money. It's how you take your life, your freedom and your future back into your own hands. We also dive into how to stay aligned, calm and purposeful in an uncertain world. And why? Your humanity, your authenticity and your relationships will always be your greatest advantage over AI. So if you've been feeling a little overwhelmed or uncertain about the future, this episode will remind you you're going to be okay. I'm excited because when I asked you what you wanted to talk about, in fact, I'm going to, I'm going to reference the text message you sent me. You said, let's talk about the state of the world. The sheer overwhelm, uncertainty and exhaustion. And I can say why this is so crucial that we focus on self care and get into alignment. And I was like, phone drop? Yes. I mean, there's nothing that I think is on people's mind more. Well, I was going to say more than the state of the world, but the state of their lives is more. But then it's like the state of the world, they're almost interchangeable. Like, oh my gosh, what's going on? AI is taking over. Where are we headed? The. It's never felt so uncertain.

Where. And even people like Tom Bilyo, if you watch Tom, you know, he's like, I'm like, my whole world has been like predicting the future based on trends. And he's like, AI has completely taken that ability away. So with all of that, I'll let you start where you want. Based on that text, talking about the state of the world, where would you like to start?

Well, March of this year, so I'm healing from my concussion and I've been in business for almost 20 years, so I have been able to see market trends, predict certain behaviors. I work with a lot of leaders and emerging leaders who want to help be in service to other people in a variety of ways. So a lot of authors, speakers, coaches, I help them build their brand online. I do bestseller book launches. So I'm really plugged in with a really interesting vantage point. I have people who are brand new entrepreneurs, people are just thinking about writing a book to CEOs of major international, you know, Fortune 500 companies and everything in between. Right? Yeah. So It's March of 2025 and I'm healing from my concussion and I read this report from Goldman Sachs saying that by 2030, 300 million jobs would be displaced by AI. Then, you know, about a month later, I hear another report that's saying 85% of the jobs haven't even been invented yet. That will happen in 2030. So I'm sitting here doing the math, thinking, well, how, like what the heck is going to happen to all of those people? It's not like they can just jump to another career. I mean, effectively people are no longer relevant in the workforce. So I started imagining a lot of these employees would start to explore freelancing entrepreneurship. They've heard these rumors of freedom, but what we know about entrepreneurship is it's not easy. Most people fail. Right, because there's not a very good infrastructure to teach entrepreneurship. Then, you know, it also requires a certain type of person with a certain type of mindset, emotional regulation abilities. They have risk taking and, you know, overcoming challenges. And not everybody's like that. So my big question was, you know, less about how to serve my existing audience because I believe this is going to be the rise of entrepreneurship and people that are presently entrepreneurs or are learning entrepreneurship right now are going to have a massive market advantage. But my heart goes out to, and I'm not discounting my current audience, of course I love them, will help them, but my heart really goes out to this other. You know, people are predicting as much as 90% of employees are going to have their worlds really rocked.

Wow.

Inside of the next three to five years now, I'm not a doom and gloom person. I'm the person that's like, okay, get that superhero cape out of the closet, it's time to fly. And all summer long I've been working on building that infrastructure to help teach people entrepreneurship so that they can take their life back into their own hands and really experience freedom and stability inside of their family income and so on. But what I'm the last thing I'll say is that I'm just so keenly aware and attuned to how every individual that I am coming across, and I don't use absolutes very often, but like every individual I come across, they are feeling very scared inside. And they wouldn't necessarily label it that way, but it manifests an exhaustion overwhelm. They're more guarded, they're. They have more mood swings, they're more erratic in Their behavior, they're, they're waiting to see which is the worst thing that you could be doing. This is a time to be proactive. So that's why I sent you that text. I'm thinking we need to remind people that if you are well, like you are proactive with your self care, it's going to give you the most resources to tackle the day. And when you are in alignment, which I know you and I are, that's a big keyword between us right now. When you're in alignment, that is when you know things happen more naturally to your highest benefit. So we have to be well and then we need to be in alignment so that things are happening naturally to our benefit. And that's my, my opening for you.

I love, I love that and I love that you took the, or that you approached it from the perspective of that Goldman Sachs article which I read and I think many people did, right. And, and the idea that a, a large majority of, of employee careers of jobs are potentially gonna be replaced by AI and then there may be many new ones, right, that that's a possibility. But, but the bridge there is entrepreneurship. And that's where I love that you took it there because I think that if you haven't been an entrepreneur, it's, it's an unknown, intimidating like venture. Like oh my gosh, I don't. Entrepreneurship is almost as scary as like what AI might do. Like both of them are unknown to me. And the, the way that for anyone listening, if you're not an entrepreneur at this stage, but you're, you know, you're either thinking that you want to be or you're maybe thinking that might be the best option. Here's how to think about it. It is problem solving. That's it. Entrepreneurship is problem solving. You look for a problem out there in the world or problems and then you offer a solution. I'll give you some examples. My first venture into entrepreneurship, I was in sales for Cutco for six years. And then I, I wanted to be an entrepreneur. I actually was a entrepreneur, right? Like I want to start my own business and set my own schedule and have freedom and be able to generate more income. And I asked myself what am I? What, what problem am I qualified to solve? And I realized at that time in my life all I had done is I had sold a lot of Cutco. I figured out how to go from being really mediocre and undisciplined in my life to, to achieving at a very high level as a Cutco sales rep and Then I went, well, that's really all I'm qualified to do, is I could go help other Cutco sales reps go from struggling and settling for less than they want to achieving at a really high level. I will be a coach. And so that's how it. Right. Like, that was my first ventures. That's the problem that I'm qualified to solve. So I started reaching out to all these Cutco sales reps and, hey, you want to coach with me? I'll give you a big discount. And. And then my coaching career took off, and then that evolved into, you know, books and speaking and all the things. But. But the point is, if you're. What I'm. I'm just sharing that story for anybody that's watching. That's like, I don't. I don't even know how I would be an entrepreneur. It's, what problem might you be able to solve? Ideally, what problem has someone else helped you solve or have you figured out and then how might you solve it for others? And that's the first step, like to demystify that word, entrepreneurship. It's just solving a problem. Right. What would you say to that?

I love that. And you know, I have a slightly different story that I started this crummy little blog, and I was writing these blog posts about things that I found interesting. I had no desire to be an entrepreneur. Never thought that was in the cards for me. I just was interested in these topics from, what is this digital marketing thing? And, oh, people are making digital products and sales pages and SEO and social media. I just wrote blog articles based on what I was interested in.

Okay.

And then all of a sudden, this woman from Canada comes to me, reaches out and says, I just found one of your articles. And then I was hooked and started reading all of your articles.

And.

And I wondered if I could hire you to build me a website. And I thought, what, like, record scratch? Like, can. I don't know, like, can I do this? I mean, I built my own blog, you know, and that's where NG began, was just it attracted into me. It was meant for me.

Yeah.

So I think if you were passionate about something, like maybe you're learning something about AI or how to solve standards relevant in the marketplace or, you know, you have such a unique vantage point in the world. We all do. And it's based on this unique set of experiences that you've had and the belief set that you have, the values that you have. So I think the biggest challenge is overcoming trust. Like, just trust yourself, trust your Instincts and go to LinkedIn and start writing LinkedIn articles and then see what the response is. And if you, even if you're writing about a variety of topics when you see a lot of people, people are commenting and engaging on a certain topic, perhaps fan that flame a little bit and see if it's something that you can turn into a business from there.

I love that. Just different. Another perspective on. Yeah, yeah. On how you find it. And then I think about like miracle Morning was like I solved my own problem of exactly. You know, and it was actually the interesting thing is the problem wasn't I'm not a morning person. The problem is I'm struggling financially and I can't figure out how to turn it around. And then this Jim Rohn philosophy of your level of success won't exceed your level of personal development. So then I'm like, oh well then I need to develop myself daily into the person that's capable of creating the success that I want. I did that. It called it the miracle. Right. Like, you know, it's like, it's so interesting but you were just pursuing something that for you and then you realized oh, I have a responsibility or an opportunity or both to help other people do what I figured out. Right. And that was same thing with me. I figured out this thing and I'm going to share it with others. I love that. So your book Infinite Impact the Entrepreneur Strategic Guide to Books and Business Success, you taught I, I want you to, I'd love to hear kind of your philosophies on what we're talking about. Meaning you don't think about entrepreneurship from a data business. Right. Like financial stand like that. That's all a result of you for alignment service like your, your, your, your way of approaching business. And I've, you've built our websites before. Like we've worked together, known each other for, for decades. As you said, it's one of the most human relationship oriented approaches to business. And like when we, when you help me with my promote our book, it was like this is how you reach out to people in a non salesy, non selfish way. So I would just love to hear your philosophies around, you know, so if someone's listening and they're like okay, AI is here or it's coming, whether they're already an entrepreneur, they're now maybe thinking about it as a possibility. What does entrepreneurship look like from your perspective to be successful at it in any human values, relationship oriented way?

Well, I'll tell you, maybe some of the roots of where it comes from first, I think one was definitely Cutco, right? I mean Cutco was all about word of mouth, advertising, getting referrals, building rapport, building relationships with Mrs. Jones. That was one, two was that until I was about 18 years old when I started Cutco, I was invisible in the world because I actually learned from an early age that it was safer if I were invisible. Because it seemed that there was this pattern that every time I was seen and heard, something bad would happen. Including my 16 year old story where I got jumped at a party after sharing a truth, something that I thought was going to help somebody else.

So I felt like, you know, there was this interesting dynamic of just so craving relationship, craving connection for so long growing up. Now I'm, I'm in this Cutco world where everything is about connection and relationship and how it can grow your book of business, it can grow your fame and you know, you can get promotions and you can get national trips. Like the more you understand relationships, the, the better you can be in that world. And then when it came to entrepreneurship, I guess I carried all of that with me. And I made a decision really early on in my 20s, where my grand vision in the world is to help each individual in front of me be seen, heard and valued. Like that's what makes me come alive. It's not making money. I love money. Respect it, want it, spend it, all of it, right? Invest it, give it away. But for me, my whole life's journey has been about connection with others and the value of relationships. And I just know that when I feel connected, I feel this love that recharges me, it regenerates me, it inspires me, it like activates my superconscious self. So to me, it's a, it's a way of sustaining life, right? Like this is a really big deal. Now we're in business and I'm thinking, well, I've got this customer in front of me, potential customer. I'm just gonna focus on helping them feel seen, heard and valued. And then I'm going to be really honest about what I can and can't do. And if they just happen to need whatever I can and can't do, then they'll hire me. And then if they hire me, I'm going to continue to make sure they feel seen, heard and valued at each touch point. And then they're going to be so pleased with what I do that they're going to want to tell everybody about me. Which is exactly what happened. I mean, how we've sold so Many millions of dollars worth of websites and book launches and marketing Prague programs and stuff over the years. I've lost count. The, the, the industries that we've shaped, the awards that we've won. It's been absolutely remarkable. All from this route of just wanting to treat people well and not inflating what I can do, which a lot of people do out of self preservation. I refuse to do it. I want to over deliver at each touch point move ongoing because I care about how people experience me, because I care about that at the root. Right? Yeah. I think business is really designed to be a self expression of who you really are at your deepest root. And I know that that's very different than the data driven, the finances, the metrics, et cetera. That's why I'm always talking about alignment. To me, alignment means living in line with your deepest values, beliefs and needs. So once you can really understand who you are at a root, let the business be an expression of that. Right. Where you're treating people really well. And I promise you will experience such natural abundance, you won't have to do meta ads and funnels and 365 email sequences. Like, I don't do any of that. And yet I never have to worry about where my next client is coming from, ever. And I have more than enough business always.

It's so interesting. I, I, I just, because we have similar philosophies and I, and we both started with Cutco, like there's, there's, there's got to be some, you know, there's, there's something in common. Well, what'd you say?

I just love Cutco. I, I mean, yeah, I, I think everybody should take that training program. It was phenomenal.

My daughter, I can't wait till, Yeah, I talked to her about it. I'm like, sweetheart, how soon before you start telling Cutco she's 16 now, but she too. No. What's interesting is when I was at Cutco and for those that don't know, right. High quality American made kitchen cutlery that is sold in home presentation. So I was 19, you were 18 when we started. And you don't knock on doors. You start with people that you know. So you're literally showing Cutco to your mom and dad and your neighbors and your grandparents and your aunt and uncle and your friends. Parents and your parents. Friends. Right. Like, and, but what I realized early on is I go, oh, I'm gonna focus 100 on getting referrals and being so creating such a rapport and connection and trust and Likability with the person in front of me that they feel comfortable referring me to their friends. And then I, I won't push the product at all. Like if they want to buy it, it, because I don't push the product. And I'm not hard selling them. I'm just like creating an awesome connection. But then they're, they're getting to cut stuff and be like, whoa, these knives are amazing. And I'm like, yeah, yeah, yeah. So anyway. Right, right. But that personal connection and focusing on serving people, that I think is what led to the success and to your point, you know. Yeah. Your, your, your business has done well because you're focused on values and alignment and service. What is alignment? Expand a little bit more on that. How? That's a loaded word, right? You can apply that in so many different contexts. In a personal context, living. Align in alignment with your values. Living in alignment with your priorities. Living in alignment with your highest truth. You know, whatever your goals. Just talk about alignment. Elaborate on that concept from your perspective.

Well, I lived a lot of years living in frustration. On the outside, everything seemed really good. I had it all. I loved my business, I loved the people I was around. But I was in this constant state of frustration behind the scenes and I didn't really understand why. Now it's really the bottom line is because I was living in avoidance of things that happened in my past that I didn't want to see them for the way that they actually were. I sugarcoated it. I put on my rose colored glasses and just tried to move on from it. But you know, those experiences embedded beliefs inside of me, you know, not beliefs that I consciously chose. We, we're talking about as far as being a five year old, right. And you experience the world with your underdeveloped brain and you see mom and dad fighting, let's say. And you carry this belief that relationships mean fighting. Let's just take something really simple like that. Well, so now you're an adult and all of a sudden that belief is inside of you. So you either avoid relationship or you attract in relationship where there is conflict because you believe relationship means fighting. And then you wonder why do I always keep attracting in the wrong guy or the wrong girl? And you don't really know the answer to that. Maybe you'll go so far as to going into therapy or doing journaling or meditation or something like that. It's really hard for us to get down to the root of what's really happening. I became obsessed with this after like right around the Time that Covid kicked off and everybody started getting nutty, self included. I was like, whoa, whoa, what's going on here? Why does it seem like I have all of these emotions and there's all of this chaos? Like, what's at the root of that? I just became really interested in human psychology. Turns out all of these beliefs embedded in us, whether we chose them or not, create emotion. Those emotions trigger our thoughts, Our thoughts of like, oh, my gosh, I should stay away from relationships. Oh, my gosh, I should be in a relationship. Oh, my gosh, I need more conflict in my life or whatever. Subconscious and conscious thoughts, those thoughts. Your monkey mind, the chatter helps you make actions like, I should go on a dating app, or I should not go on a dating app. And those actions create these outcomes that run our lives, whether we like our life or don't, or live in a state of frustration. So to me, as I learned this, Hal, I thought, oh, wait a minute, so if I just, like, circle all the way back from, you know, outcomes to actions, to thoughts, to emotions, all the way down to beliefs, if I can start to really uncover those beliefs and then evaluate which ones I like and want to keep, the ones that are healthy and productive and which ones that maybe I didn't choose, and I consider them outdated beliefs, and I would want to shift those so that all of my beliefs are in harmony and, you know, creating good emotions and good thoughts, good actions and better outcomes. So that's sort of the backstory that created this alignment framework that I developed. So, again, alignment in my version of it is living your life in line with your deepest values, beliefs, and needs. And your beliefs are kind of intertwined with all of that. And so I thought, all right, you know, the average person, they don't want to have this conversation. They don't want to talk about trauma and uprooting your childhood stuff and. And maybe you do that in therapy. But, like, a lot of people have a hard time with these topics right now. And remember that my work in the world is with entrepreneurs. So I'm looking at the entrepreneur, like, archetype, and I'm thinking, what are they going to need to create a business that's in alignment so they are more naturally successful and they're not constantly getting in their own way. They're not constantly having visibility issues or, like, undercharging or self sabotaging. This is why most entrepreneurs fails, because of these behaviors that they're not even in control of from beliefs that they didn't even choose. So in short, I created this foundational four framework. What I do, hal, is I help my clients imagine intuit an avatar. Right? You've heard of avatar before, but normally taught as an audience that you would like to serve. Instead, I use a visualization practice to help representative of the collective that you're meant to serve emerge. So now you see this one person representing this huge audience worldwide that is uniquely yours to impact. And I want to get to know that avatar. What are they thinking, feeling? What are their behaviors and their desired outcomes at the different stages of their life, like, really intimately get to know this person. Now, my avatar is a woman named Heather. And sometimes people get concerned. Like, I don't only want to work with women, though. Even though my avatar has been Heather for almost the entirety of my business, 70% of my clients are men. So it's not about.

How do you explain that?

Because what Heather has in common with my clients is the same values, beliefs and needs. They have the same inner frustrations or certain emotions or certain fears or visibility issues. So the point is, entrepreneurs, when I'm out marketing my business, I now know how to take the topics like book launch and building a website and marketing your brand and create content only for Heather by using what I know about her to get kind of into her inner world a little bit. And here's what it could look like. Are you somebody who knows that you have an impact that you could create in the world, but at the end of the day, you hate social media. You don't want to be an influencer, and you don't like marketing, yet you know that marketing is necessary to make that impact? Well, I completely understand how you feel because there hasn't been a model for what you would like to see online. And given that you struggle with visibility, you struggle with using your voice, you know, it can create these different emotions that make you feel like it's easier to just be invisible in the world or to not be seen, but it's not going to serve you in the end because ultimately you have this impact to make. Like, I understand the intersection of all of these challenges, and here's my solution for the way forward. So whether you're a man or a woman or old or young or whatever, if you have those same challenges in the specificity of what I am, you know, conveying in my content, you're going to think, oh, my gosh, how did she know what I was thinking and feeling? Like, this girl knows exactly what she's talking about. And they naturally are connected to me. They naturally want to see how I can help them in their marketing and then they become a client. Right. So the avatar and you know, is really almost a mirror into yourself and it's the first step of alignment. Once we know the avatar, there's a vision, why and values component to this framework that really helps you to get and stay in alignment, which you can, you know, express through your business as we spoke about. Or maybe you're an individual and this is just something that now you understand the true depths of who you really are. It is a faster, easier way to understand your beliefs without having to uproot all of your trauma because you're doing it through the lens of this avatar in this relationship that you have with them, if that makes sense. So in the book Infinite Impact, I go into a lot more detail. I actually give the book away for free. There's no opt in or anything needed. It's just on my website and it's your website people.

What's the best website for you?

Well, the book one is going to be@ambervillehauer.com and then there's a book tab and on the book page there's a button where you can get it for free. The company website is ng ng enterprises.com which stands for no guts, no glory. And that's where I hold my services for helping entrepreneurs to grow their brand or launch their books.

Okay, amazing. What I. I've got at least one or two more questions and it's about AI from your vantage point. If somebody is watching, if they are already an entrepreneur, if they're not an entrepreneur, how. How do we effectively use AI? Right. Rather than being afraid of it, like how do we align? Speaking of alignment, how do you align with it in a way where you still remain, you know, you still retain your humanity and your individuality and your originality. Right. Like there, I think there's a lot of people lazily use AI where they're like, write me a blog about overcoming procrastination. And then, right, it's like, that's AI's blog, not yours. How do you use it in a way in align with your business?

AI is only going to be as good as the questions that you feed it and the context that you feed it.

Yeah.

Most people either aren't good at asking questions or aren't good at providing context, the backstory. And so depending on the quality of the things that you feed, AI determines your output. Most people, like I said, they don't have quality input. So your output is recycled garbage basically. And it's Ruining the online landscape right now. Okay, but you know what, everybody? This is where the opportunity comes in. Because if most people are doing that, you go the opposite direction. Be the contrarian. So I'm taking a stand for preserving your authentic voice, rooted in your alignment, what you really want to say, and trusting the delivery of how you would say it. But AI is a phenomenal tool to help really get your content out faster with better structure or in a more optimized way. So I actually have a program and I'm not pitching it, but just to give you an example, it's kind of called Align Entrepreneurship. And what I've done is I have coded AI prompts to effectively tell AI, this is the strategy for writing a blog post. This is the client's authentic voice. You're not allowed to have any input whatsoever. You are only allowed to pay attention to this strategy and that voice. Now create the blog post and within a 90% or higher degree of accuracy, it's written only in that client's voice to their avatar, based on their unique vision, why and values in total alignment. And even to make sure of it, I developed what I call a congruence codex. So you can upload the final blog post with this congruence codex to confirm it has only paid attention to that strategy and that voice only. So I feel like the lesson there is to learn AI, not be afraid of it and then constrain it. You have to ask really quality questions, give it really quality context. That is your voice. One quick tip to do that would be transcribe. You know, if you want to write a blog post, go take a walk, get some exercise, get some fresh air, turn on your voice notes and just record. I want to write a blog post. This is what it should be about. I like this story. I like these teaching points. You don't have to go into any kind of order. You don't have to worry about the sequencing of your words. Just ramble and get it out. Let AI organize it for you totally. And then that way you preserve your alignment and your content.

I love that. Well, I know you've got a hard stop. I would keep talking to you for quite a while. But for anybody watching, the book is Infinite Impact, the Entrepreneur's Strategic Guide to Books and business success. Ambervillehauer.com and NGNG enterprises.com or where you can find Amber. Also follow her on social media. You're fantastic at social media. So I love looking at your Instagram and but you're the personal with you and your son and Also, all your great business advice. Amber, any final closing words for anybody watching? That is, you know, that's. That's now thinking about entrepreneurship, thinking about the future, their future, and taking control of it, so to speak. What would you say?

What I feel called to share is that it is going to be okay. Yes, it really is going to be okay. Maybe you aren't operating at your normal pace, at your normal capacity. Maybe you feel like you're limping along right now emotionally or mentally or spiritually. Maybe you are confused. You don't know what all of this is about. You don't know what is trying to emerge. You know, you have conflicting feelings and thoughts and everybody around you has an opinion or doesn't have an opinion. You know, there's. There is a lot happening right now. There's a lot energetically that feels intimidating and intense inside of us and around us. And don't buy into the fear of it. When. When those feelings arise, I want you to close your eyes and breathe and recognize that you can do hard things. You've done all sorts of hard things in your past. And guess what? You're still here. You're still kicking. Trust in your ability to make decisions and to know what to do. Once all of the information is available to you and it's time to make the decision to, you will be able to make the decision that is highest and best for you and for those that you love and those around you. So the best thing that you can do right now is get extra sleep, go on walks, stretch your body, drink more water, meditate, open up to safe people that you could really be your. Your truest self around. Start writing, trust your voice. Be consistent. Just be gentle with yourself. And remember, you are going to be okay. This too will pass. Yes, you will triumph once again. And you know, I just inspire and encourage anybody to reach out. If this episode resonated with you on some level, I mean, I would love to talk with you and get to know you and support you as a friend. Like, not in the transactional way. I'm just here in service to anybody that needs help.

Awesome. Well, I'm so grateful that we are friends, Amber, that we finally got to do this. And thank you so much for today.

Yes. Love you, Hal. Thank you.

I love you too.