Fast Isn't Forward: My $35,000 Harvard Lesson for the Age of AI

Sabine Kvenberg: AI is here for you if you use it in the proper way and if you start now building your brand. Now let's go back to the prediction that those visionaries in the AI field and technology have. Of course, one of them we all know by now is Elon Musk. And he and many others say that welcome to the Become Podcast. My name is Sabine Kwenberg, founder of Impact Communication Coaching. In this podcast, we talk about how to become empowered in our personal and business lives. I feature interviews with successful individuals from various industries who discuss their professional and personal journeys, how they overcame adversities, and the strategies they used to achieve their goals. We must become the person we are meant to be, to live the life we are destined to live. The content will inspire you to reach your aspirations and become the best version of yourself. Thanks for tuning in and supporting this podcast. And don't forget to follow our show so you won't miss when we release a new episode. And as always, we appreciate if you can give us a five-star rating. And leave a review. Without any further ado, now let's dive into the show. We are living already in the future now. And of course, what I'm referring to is the AI experience that we all have right now, right? Because at the end, we cannot avoid, right? And one of the things is that when we embrace it, we can thrive. And in my book, Gumpchen, sacred whispers, bold moves, and the courage to become. I talk about that a lot because we are faced with situations that can be scary. But you know the saying, right? Lesson learned. Or doesn't kill you make you stronger. Of course I had to do that, right? No, but seriously, they make us stronger. They challenge us to get back on track. And oftentimes we Motivated only by money. And even though money is a good motivator, but it's not everything. Sometimes it even gets you off your path. And it can end up in misery. And I'm sharing some of these in my book. And I would like to read a chapter that is exactly what I'm talking about. I call it my Harvard experience. So here it goes. A few years ago, I invested about $35,000 real estate business mastermind. On paper, it looked like the perfect opportunity: a way to replace the income from my studio, work alongside my husband, and build something new together. But there was one big problem. It had nothing to do with my passion or purpose. You know, real estate. Deals, flipping houses, searching for properties, none of it lit me up. And my husband didn't enjoy it either. After months of trying, I finally admitted the truth. It wasn't for me. Walking away wasn't easy, but it was necessary. Could I could I eventually succeed it if I stuck with it long enough? Probably, probably. But would I have been happy? Most likely not. And that was the lesson. Don't stay in something just because you started. There's a difference between perseverance in your purpose and forcing yourself into something misaligned. When you do what you love, everything else, money, opportunity, connections falls in place. I didn't become an actor for the money, but the money followed. I didn't write become empowered for the money, but it brought me deep fulfillment and opened doors. And here is what matters most. Become empowered became a number one international Amazon bestseller. So I reached my goal, but even more importantly, I created something that filled my heart. In the process, I helped others use this book as their calling card. Share their stories and make a difference in people's lives. And that is the kind of legacy I want to leave behind. So now I'm asking you, where are you on your journey? And are you scared about AI and the process? But here is something very important you can never forget, never underestimate. AI technology versus human storytelling. Yes, you can ask. AI. Create story for me about ABC. It will come up with something. But it never replaces you, the person, your uniqueness, the person who you are, how you are being perceived, who you are, how you speak, how you behave, audio quirks and everything. That is the difference. And more than ever, people want to see that. But here is another interesting fact about AI, and we cannot forget that. And that is the Prediction of what AI technology will do in our lives. Number one, there are experts who say that in two to five years, AI will have displaced so many jobs. And we are again faced in a situation or in in life where we see, well, what are we doing now? What's next? And that's what I often ask myself. What I share in my memoir, what's next? Don't be scared of what comes next. Be excited about it. And I know what you may think. I don't know what you think, but you may think that my gosh. I identified myself with this job that I did for so many years. And for the younger viewers, you may invested in your university education, you know, fifty grand or even more. And now you see Those jobs disappearing. Don't be afraid. Embrace an opportunity that comes our way. Nobody really knows how it looks like, but one thing I do know for certain. If you are not preparing now, and then you might be surprised and have to catch up and maybe left behind. I don't know. Here is one important fact. What I have seen when I look back in the past. And I actually gave a talk about. Back to the future, how we can manifest anything if we take advantage of our past and our future. And by that, our past is our experience, our future is our vision, our now, our present moment is where we have the power to make changes. So let me dig into that a little bit deeper. When we look back, just five years from now, when we had the COVID crisis, how many jobs were lost? Many people. Had to stay home. And I was affected by that too. My business. I still had a brick and mortar business, my performing art school at that time. And we were not allowed to do business, which is another thing to discuss. That's not the right time and place. What I wanted to say is: yeah, that's where we were. And what happened? A lot of people started a new business. Online business, because that's what they could do sitting at home, having a computer, and thank God for technology. And I also saw the marketplace of coaching online businesses exploded. Now, the good thing is, with technology, it is so much easier to start a business today than it was just 10 years ago or 20 years ago. But you know what they say: if something is easy to do. Something is also easy not to do. And something what is easy to do maybe also bring a lot more people to it. Because all of a sudden, people see that is easy. I can do that too, right? So here is something that I wanted to point out to you. And please, if you see it live, ask a question or put your comment in the chat. And if you See it in the replay. You still can do it. I read it. Now, during that time, our space, my coaching space, my online space that I'm in had many, many more people, meaning more competition. And it became at the same time harder to be successful because so many people were here now. And the importance is that you set yourself apart, that you create your brand. So that you get a head start. And because I already started developing my online business, my coaching business prior to COVID, I had it a little bit easier. When people started Googling, I'll show up. Now, fast forward to today. You just Google my name and you see everything that I've done over the past years. That is the difference for getting prepared. And now Let's jump into the future. And I just want to give you a couple examples of how fast AI is moving along. You see, one year ago, AI platforms like ChatGPT, Cloud, Gemini, you name it. There's so many more out there now. But I'm just gonna name some of the most popular one that people probably know, like ChatGPT. It was a good assistant for us. We could ask some questions, help us writing, maybe, right? It was great. But six months ago versus now, it became more reliable. It became a problem solver. What you can do now with AI is incredible. And here again, when you start adapting quickly and fast, you always will stay ahead of the game. When ChatGPT first came out, I started using it, you know, like. Playing around with it, but it fascinated me. And then I attended a business mastery program, learned tons of it. It also was a little bit overwhelming and I had to step back a little bit, which is okay. But I learned the basics, and I most importantly not only learned it, but I incorporated it already into my business. And it made a difference. Now, just this year, guys. Again, I always try to keep up as Best I can. But most importantly, is when you do this and you apply it, it will help you in your business. So today we can even do coding. Well, we don't have to do the coding, but we can use AI to do the coding for us. We have agent workflows. We can create websites. Yes, I am using a platform that have all the clicks and pre-pro. Pre-done templates and it's so much easier now. But now what I can do? I can just give a command. I don't even have to have a proper prompt, which three years ago when I did that mastery program, where you had to learn the prompting the correct way. And then there was a new job created called the prompting engineer. Today, just two years later, guys, this is how quickly it moves. You don't have to be a prompt engineer anymore. You can just talk to your AI in your voice and it understands and it creates what you wanted. Amazing, amazing, amazing things, especially for us online creators, coaches, and authors. Same thing. You can use this to do the marketing for you, working with your clients. Now I created my own GPT that I started creating first for myself because. I did it because I saw it was a little bit overwhelming and I needed to have structure. So I cre I had that conversation with my AI, and my AI knows me very good because I I built my communication clone. By the way, if you're interested to know how to do it, get in touch with me. You can always do it by writing a comment or send me an email, Sabine at SabineKvenberg.com. So I First of all, built my communication clone, meaning it's he knows everything about me, how I write, how I think, what I do. Now, this is not from like telepathy. No, no. I have to feed the data. See, AI is still data. Even if you think, he speaks like a human being. It's not. It's the data that you feed your AI. So for example, I fed my AI. How I speak, a blog post, how I my my course, how I write emails. I even feed my AI, my book. So my clone knows exactly my thoughts because I wrote this book not using AI. I wrote this book from my heart, from my memory. And yes, did I ask for some correction? What is the right word for this? Or You know, of course, this is technology, but I wrote this book and together with my wonderful, wonderful editor Chrissy, we created a masterpiece. And I'm so proud of it. But with that said, now my AI knows exactly how I think, what my experiences were. Think about that. And now it can help me write like I would write. Because It knows my voice, it knows my cadence, it knows my rhythm and everything. Maybe you think, gosh, that can be scary. Well, it depends on how you look at it. You can look at it, my god, it's scary and put the head in the sand, or you can look at, hey, it assists me, it helps me. And with that said, AI is here for you if you use it in the proper way and if you Start now building your brand. Now let's go back to the prediction that you know those visionaries in the AI field and technology have. Of course, one of them we all know by now is Elon Musk. And and he and many others say that, you know, Peter Dem Dimendez, I think that's the proper way to pronounce this. He has been written books and I've had some of his books. about the future technology and AI. Same thing. Job replacements. And guess what happens? We still need meaning in life because we are human beings who cannot sit 24-7 on the couch. Well, maybe after you lose a job that you hated and maybe like gosh, no, I'm just gonna binge Netflix. But let me tell you that. After a while, This becomes boring. And we as human beings have to have something that fills our hearts and our minds. We want to explore things. We want to travel and we want to make a difference. Because that's the six human needs that we have. That's part of it. The four basic human needs, and I talked about that too, is of course security, shelter, enough food to eat, right? Having A steady job, but if we don't have that, maybe we get that universal income check. You know, that is our security. And some of the experts predicting that this is going to happen in the future. But that will not sustain our happiness and fulfillment. We also want to have significance. We want to have variety in life. We we want to have love and connections. But here are the two human needs. That makes the big difference. Growth, you as human being, learning, continuous learning, and contribution. What do you give back? And I'm ta I talk about that in my book, Gamchin. I have a whole framework on that. So if you want to grow, if you want to make a difference, then get that book. Going back to our field, the field of coaches, authors, podcasters, entrepreneurs, business owners, online creators. We will have more of that two, three, four, five years from now. And it's gonna be a big fog of people who are in this space. And I'm using this as a metaphor. I recently, that was in January to be precise, January 2nd, I was in Germany visiting my family. And our flight was supposed to go back to the States January 2nd. So we arrived at the airport like at six o'clock, five thirty, six o'clock, and On our way it started to snow pretty heavy. We left the house where we stayed and it just had a few snowflakes. By the time we arrived at the airport, it was covered in white. First thing we saw, our flight was delayed. Said okay, that can happen. Four hours later, we finally got into our plane. But then we stood. For another two hours. We were waiting for the de-icer. At that point, it was very, very bad. And another hour later, the captain made the announcement we cancel this flight. We cannot get out of here. Disappointment. We were so aggravated and so sad. But hey, what can you do? Now, it took us another four days until we were able to leave. Now, why am I sharing this story with you? Because this is how I see our space as coaches and entrepreneurs, online creators be as well. Think about an airplane. If there's fog, snow, or fog on the ground, you cannot see, no visibility, ice, whatever, let's stick with fog. You cannot get out. But if you are before that snowstorm starts, before the fog sets in, if you can lift, if you can leave. Lift up, even when it's snowing with this fog, you keep on flying. And this is exactly what happens with us coaches. You got to start now. You got to lift off now so that you are ahead of the game and not finding yourself lost in the fog. Set yourself apart and you can do it. And because I see this future challenge, and I also see the challenge that we have in the Present by many, many coaches. And some of my clients are faced with this. I help my clients to create their signature talk. I help them to present it in the most effective way. I help them structure their talk so they can sell what they offer without selling, because it is structured in a way that makes the most sense, that gets People engaged and that creates the no like and trust factor, sets you up as the authority so people want to come to you and buy from you. This is what I currently do. And I had some great successes with my clients who booked stages, who got more people to want to be on their mailing list, to have more leads coming in. But there's still one piece that was missing, and that is The assets that you need to have. I have a very good website. I have my speaker reel because of so many years' experiences. But most people who get just get started have no idea. And you know, I just had an experience speaking with a person. I had no idea what he was doing. Because on all his platforms, social media platform websites, he had a different message. And yes, he could do all those things. I have a lot of stuff that I can do throughout my life's experiences, but I have a very clear message. And once you get people into your universe, then you can then they can explore more of what you do and you can add to it. But especially when you start out, you have to be crystal clear and you have to have the assets. So I created a program which I call the Signature Studio Day. In which I invite people to join me for two days. Well, one day the evening before we all meet to make sure we get well, actually it's more than just two days, but two days in person. I have all the preparation time online. But the one studio day is where they get all the assets. The time prior, we worked on their signature message and we film a about five minute talk. In which they tell their story, what they do, and also share how they can help others. And they do it in a way that is most exciting, inspiring, and very professional. We film that. It will be edited. So you will get your professional edited video that you can use for your website, for your landing page, for your social media, for anything in between, because you can also cut it up. And we get you The images as a photographer takes headshots, lifestyle pictures. We're gonna do some interviews. You have so much, so much information and so much, so many assets that you can use. And then we help you also build your speaker kit that also includes a one sheet. So you will have one sheet with your images and everything that needs to be on there. All done for you. It's a boutique experience, a maximum of eight people. And It's all done for you. So if you are starting out, you have to make sure to set yourself apart, to get that plane. That means you off the ground now. And the only way to do it is to have the right assets, to show your uniqueness and to get started promoting it so you get clients, you get booked on stages, and you can make income fast. If that interests you, I will put the information in the description, in the show notes, so you will know where to find it. But I thought it was very important to share this today. Because oftentimes we are searching for that one thing that makes us money that, you know, says, okay, this is a secure the best deal you can do, right? As I shared in my book. I I did it because someone said that's the best way. This is fast. And and then of course I was at a event and they had that program and it was just not listening to my intuition. And when I do this, I usually am right. But then again, you never know why that excursion was necessary for me. Of course, I also learned something from from that experience, without saying I just learned what not to do, but there were some skills. Everything we do. But I always come back to the point. Do what you love, love what you do. Follow your heart. Serve from the heart. Follow what you are good do what you're good at. Follow your passion and learn the skills. That's another thing. Because when we do not learn or invest in ourselves or in our business, we are always lagging behind. If you don't learn how to tell Your signature story you will lag behind if you don't master that. I know you have deep in your heart something that you want to do. And you know what you must do. And sometimes we do have scary thoughts around it. And the scariest thought is: I don't have the money. Trust me, I have been there. But I also know for a fact that starting a business needs investment. And when you give the universe the signal, I'm ready, I want to invest into it, the universe will give you the resources. Maybe there is a check that comes in that you haven't expected. Something will happen when you think about the power of attraction. Because when you are fearful, when you have limiting thoughts, when you think I can't do that, guess what? You put this out into the universe. And the universe said, okay, she thinks she cannot do it. Okay, all right. Well, we'll let her figure it out herself or let her stay where she is. I experienced that. So I want to leave you with that. So never forget that. Yes, there is investment. You have to commit if you feel it's right for you and if you know this is what you need, then go for it. And the universe will direct you to the right resources. And what one of my mentors, Tony Robbins, always says, it's not Of it's not the lack of resources that we have, is the lack of resourcefulness. Yes. And there's one more story that just came to mind. I remember many, many, many years back, I started my journey. And then I had an opportunity to to go to the Tony Robbins event and invest into a program that my then coach That was $5,000. It was $5,000. And I knew I had to do it. I just knew it. But f I didn't have $5,000. And just thinking about it made my my the the palm of my hand sweat. But I did some discernments and and I said, I have to do it. So I have to be resourceful. And my coach helped me along with that. Said, okay, here's what you can do in the meantime. And I did, and I made a little mid money, not yet the whole 5,000, but I did created some income that offs offset some of the cost, you see, but it got me started thinking and being resourceful. And I tell you, that experience gave me so much, number one, the growth that we have, but also the connections and everything else that came along with that. It was unforgettable and I never forget that. But so if you find yourself in a position that is, I don't have the money, just take a deep breath. I understand. And I'm not saying it or speaking it. I do understand because I was there. Take a deep breath and just kind of go out for a walk, right? Let this busy monkey mind just relax for a little bit and ask the right questions. Said, yes, I feel it's right, universe, God, angels, whatever you, whatever your spiritual belief is, just ask for help and assistance. Show me the way. It's always a good way for me. Just show me the way. And then go for it. And the resources will come if you know this is what you have to do. All right, this is it. Now, finally, no more stories for today. But sometimes when I think of something, I just have to share it because. Stories are powerful, visualizations powerful that hits our heartstring. It's just powerful to understand it more and understand it better. All right, my friend. Master the moments no one sees, to lead the moments everyone remembers. Go master those moments. Go out to learn the skills. Go out to invest in yourself and take that time to build something so that your airplane can take off now. And you are not lost in the snowstorm or in the fog. Thanks for listening. Until I see you again, always remember, serve from the heart, follow your passion, and live the life you imagine.