The AI Reframe You Can't Afford To Miss

Welcome to Million Dollar Grit, the podcast that dives deep into the world of entrepreneurship, where tenacity meets strategy and dreams meet reality. My name is Julie, and I explore the raw, often overlooked truths of what it takes to succeed in business and in life. It's not just about the glossy success stories. It's about the grit it takes to get there. Hey everyone, this is Julie. Hope you're doing well. Today I want to talk about the sort of existential angst that I feel as I watch the news around artificial intelligence just take over my Twitter feed and the feeling that everything is about to change. And I want to try to also help people understand where I think AI is going and why even if you're not techie, this is something you should be paying attention to. So I'm going to use the example of the invention of the internet to try to make an analogy, but keep in mind that I think AI, the dawn of AI, is more disruptive than the internet. I think it's more disruptive than electricity. I think it's more disruptive than the invention of the wheel, and I'm getting that opinion by constantly reading from other experts, right? 'Cause I'm not necessarily an expert in AI, but I am an expert at finding good content to read and absorbing it and then picking out the soundbites, right? And if you were around in 2020, I did this for COVID for a group about 2,000 people and I curated the news every day. Well, I feel a similar feeling right now with AI that like all this information I'm absorbing, I wanna be able to share with people in soundbites. Okay, so let's go to this analogy of the invention of the internet. So prior to the internet, there was no internet. Isn't that profound? But there were also no jobs related to the internet, right? There were no web designers. There were no social media managers. There were no, you know, Facebook ads folks. None of that existed, right? There was an entire industry that most of us live in and breathe day in and day out did not exist prior to the internet. So when the internet was born, there was the first layer. We're going to call that Layer 1, and Layer 1 was learning how to use the internet. And this quickly became something that everybody needed to learn in some fashion. Now, quickly is relative. You know, it took maybe, let's say, 10 years or so, and there were always the early adopters, but today everyone uses the internet, right? Everyone has an email address. Everyone uses GPS. Okay, maybe not everyone, but the large majority of the population uses the internet, right? So that's, that's level 1. Level— so we call that like the consumption of the internet. Level 2 is production or building. And so there was an entire industry born of people who started to use the internet to produce things, to build things, right? So these were web designers and bloggers and social media managers and social media companies and this entire sort of building ecosystem that, you know, think about it like the, you know, the stock market, like the S&P 500. You've got like Google as one of the giant companies that drive the economy of that stock exchange, right? It didn't exist prior to the internet. So you had this very, very large layer 2 of people that build and produce. And most of the people following me now If you're listening to this, you are a level 2 on the internet, right? You, you produce, or you have a job or a career or a business that is integrally integrated into the internet. Now, level 2 has just grown over time, right? Think about all the local businesses that now have websites and the local businesses that now use Facebook ads, right? And, and this has just been growing and growing and growing to the point where There's a huge, huge portion of the population, of the entrepreneurial population, that is a level 2 on the internet. And then you've got the influencer economy, right? You've got things like TikTok influencing, you got OnlyFans, right? Where more and more of the population is trying to use the internet as a level 2, right? To build and produce, you know, even if there are ethical concerns about what they're building and producing, it's still getting bigger and bigger. And then there's Level 3. Now Level 3 is not as big as Level 2. So if you're imagining this, it's like Level 1 is a small block, uh, Level 1 is actually the biggest block, right? Because it's, it's the people who use the internet, uh, which is everyone. And then Level 2 is still huge but slightly smaller. And then you have Level 3, and Level 3 is even smaller. And these are people who don't just use the internet, They don't just produce on the internet, but they teach people how to produce on the internet, right? So these are your B2B coaches and consultants, right? I have a lot of these people in my audience. Okay, so let's use these like 3 blocks and these 3 layers and think about it in the internet. And now let's move over to AI. So AI is like a new layer of our society, bigger than the internet, more disruptive than the internet. So level 1 AI is people who are using AI. And think about the fact that 2 years ago, or it was just about 2 years ago, ChatGPT came out, right? And now how many people know when you go to a dinner party and say, use ChatGPT, most people know what you're talking about. And 2 years ago they didn't. And now the number of people that are using it for basic, you know, search and answers and questions, like I just used it the other day for like how to hatch my own chicken eggs, you know, it's becoming adopted very, very, very quickly. Okay, so that layer is going to be the biggest layer because a lot of people don't realize they've been using AI for a long time with like predictive text in emails, you know, or they use it, the algorithm is feeding them, you know, certain things that they, uh, want to see, like on TikTok, right? So that's just getting bigger and bigger and bigger, and this is going to permeate everyday life, you know, with appliances and talking to AI agents and AI avatars and AI teachers and AI, you know, analysts and all this kind of stuff. So that's level 1. Layer 2 are the people who produce and build. Now, this right now, I would say, is still kind of in the early adoption phase, but if you are an internet marketer, a business owner, a web designer, social media manager, copywriter, ads person, you are in level 2 of the internet. So level 2 of AI is learning how to build and produce with AI. So it's not just about producing content, it's about hiring agents, it's about building GPTs, it's about developing those skills or a unique specific set of skills that allows you to produce and monetize this layer that's slowly descending on us. And so if you are thinking to yourself, well, gosh, I don't, I don't really, I'm not in AI, you know, I, I don't do AI, I'm a therapist, right? This is the same thing that happened in, uh, the dawn of the internet. I'm a therapist, I don't want to learn how to build my own website. Okay, cool. So there was a level 2 internet person who was a website designer that said, hey, I'll build your website. And the therapist was like, great, fantastic. But you'll notice that more and more therapists, as the tools get better, are now building their own websites, doing their own social media, right? And maybe they're hiring it out because they don't want to learn, and that's fine. But they are actually more and more are becoming level 2 internet producers. And so the same thing's going to happen with AI. And so what I'm saying to you is, if you've been ignoring it, you want to think about the level 2 in AI for yourself, not just using it but also producing. Are you going to hire AI agents? Are you build any sort of GPTs? What are you going to do to help produce in your business? Uh, level 2. Now level 3, which is the smaller one, uh, but you know, listening to this podcast, I'm sure are plenty coaches and consultants that teach marketing, that teach web design, that teach coding, that teach business building. You are going to have to number 1, get really good at number 2, and then be able to, to turn that around and integrate it into your teaching. And so this is kind of where I am today, right? I would definitely say I'm a level 2. I'm not, you know, I'm not an expert by any stretch, you know, like I can find a bajillion people who are way, way more advanced than me, but I think I'm using AI more than the average person, and I need to become level 3. I need to help you guys understand how to become level 2, right? And so if you are a consultant and you are in that, um, bucket of teaching people Facebook ads and social media management and all that kind of stuff, business to business, this is where it's headed. And so even if you think, well, I am not an AI person, that would be like saying in 1996, I'm not an internet person. And so that's sort of my call to action, uh, today. And it's hard to foresee what kind of jobs and opportunities are going to come, right? And so no one could have predicted in 1996 or 1998 that Facebook ads would be a lucrative career, right? Nobody knew that Facebook was going to exist, and so therefore nobody knew that there were going to be Facebook ad strategists that were needed. So some of this is being comfortable with the uncertainty. And I had a client say to me today Do I have to learn a trade? You know, 'cause there's this fear around like, is AI gonna take my job? And I would really, I mean, yes, you can definitely go learn a trade if you want to because there are a lot of things that AI is not doing yet, yet. But humanoids and robotics are coming for those things too. And I also think that if you are very internet savvy, it's gonna take a lot of momentum and work to like abandon ship and go do a trade. So I don't think that that's the right, way to go. I think what's a better way to go is to think about how can I become a level 2 in the AI world, and then possibly a level 3, and to stay curious and open about the opportunities that are going to present themselves, the entire industries of, uh, AI builders, AI regulators, AI educators that are going to be born, and We are in 1996, right, of the internet. If you felt like you were late to the internet, like, you're not late to AI. Some people who are extreme into AI will say you're late into AI, but just ignore them, uh, because there are people still learning the internet today, right? So I hope that that gives you a sense of like encouragement, but there is a, a large amount of disruption coming. And so your best bet is to follow people that are pushing that frontier and stay curious and maybe carve out a small portion of your day and time to start thinking about this. Like, it's like the internet is about to take over, 1996. I keep saying 1996, but maybe it's more like 2000. I don't know, my dates are messy there. It's like 2000, and that's where we are in the moment of AI, but it's gonna move faster and it's gonna be more disruptive. So, uh, anyway, I hope this was helpful and I'll talk to you soon. And there you have it, folks, another dose of Million Dollar Grit. I hope today's episode has left you feeling inspired, equipped, and ready to face your own entrepreneurial journey with resolve. Remember, until next time, embrace the struggle, harness your grit, and keep pushing forward. You're stronger than any challenge you face. I'm Julie Chenell, and this has been Million Dollar Grit.