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? Because 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 sound bites. 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 want to be able to share with people in sound bites. 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 gonna call that layer one. And layer one 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 one 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 that, you know, the, 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 two of people that build and produce. And most of the people following me now, if you're listening to this, you are a level two on the Internet, right? You, you produce or you have a job or a career or a business that is integrally in integrated into the Internet. Now, level two 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 two on the Internet. And then you've got the influencer economy, right? You've got things like TikTok influencing. You got only fans, 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 three. Now level three is not as big as level two. So if you're imagining this, it's like level one is a small block. Level one is actually the biggest block, right? Because it's, it's the people who use the Internet, which is everyone. And then level 2 is still huge, but slightly smaller. And then you have level three, and level three 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 three blocks and these three 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 one AI is people who are using AI and think about the fact that two years ago, or it was just about two 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 two 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, how to hatch my own chicken eggs. You know, it's becoming, 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, the algorithm is feeding certain things that they 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 one. Layer two 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 two of the Internet. So level two of AI is learning how to build and produce with AI. So it's not just about producing content, it's about hiring a 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 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 two 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 going to build any sort of GPTs? What are you going to do to help produce in your business? Level two, now level three, which is the smaller one, 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 one, get really good at number two, 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 two. 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 three. I need to help you guys understand how to become level two, right? And so if you are a consultant and you that 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 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, because there's this fear around, like, is AI going to 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, are coming for those things too. And I also think that if you are very Internet savvy, it's going to 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 two in the AI world and then possibly a level three, and to stay curious and open about the opportunities that are going to present themselves. The entire industries of 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 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 the. It's like the Internet is, is about to take over. 1996. I keep saying 1996, but maybe it's more like 2000. I don't know. My, my dates are, are. Are messy there, but it's like 2000. And that's where we are in the moment of AI but it's going to move faster and it's going to be more disruptive. So 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, keep pushing forward. You're stronger than any challenge you face. I'm Julie, and this has been Million dollar Grand.