Why AI Isn't Helping Your Business (Yet) | 074

Profit doesn't happen by chance; it happens by

design. Let's dig in today on the Profit Connections podcast.

I have an amazing guest. She is absolutely great at everything,

and she has become an expert. Oh, stop shaking your head! She

has become an expert in in an area that is blowing up, and

people maybe just don't know how to harness all of this power.

And Lisa has learned to harness all this power. So let me,

hello, Lisa. I won't let you say hello.

Lisa M. Brewer: Hi, hello. How are you?

I'm going to read you Lisa's bio so that we

can you can get a really good idea of exactly what she does,

and then we will jump in. And so Lisa M. Brewer is a business

architect and AI strategist who helps coaches, consultants,

healers, and service-based professionals stop committing

random acts of AI and start building a business that

actually works. Lisa believes that AI doesn't build

businesses; people do. And when the right foundation is in

place, AI becomes the most powerful thing a business owner

has ever had access to. She recognized a pattern that nobody

in the AI space was talking about. People were deploying AI

into businesses that weren't fully designed for it, and

weren't getting the results that they thought that they would. I

am so excited to talk about this today, Lisa. I have had lots of

people come on and talk about AI, and the perspective that

you're coming from is the perspective of yay, we've got

all these toys now. How can I make money with them?

Lisa M. Brewer: Yes, and I'm excited to be here to talk about

this as well because you know I'm a Gen Xer. I'm sure there's

plenty of us out there, and we love a good movement, don't we?

We love a good like we're you know rebels with a cause, and

without a cause, we'll just do whatever. So I have felt that

while AI is great, because I've also been like a super tech

girl, and listen, especially us elder millennials, Gen Xers,

we've gone through so many different levels of technology,

and we've seen how it's helped us. We've seen how it's become a

crutch. We've seen all these different things, but for me, AI

is not the mass savior in the way that we want to like act

like it is right now, or the way it's being touted, and I love

the fact that I can do what I what used to take me weeks for a

client, like market research and things like that. Now it takes

me a few minutes. What I also find though is that we're

committing these random acts of AI, and what are random acts of

AI? We used to talk about throwing spaghetti against the

wall to see what sticks-that's what random acts of AI are. So,

like, I come across so many people, and I did this for so

long, where I'd read on X, or I'd read on Instagram, or I'd

read somewhere. I'd be like, "Oh, this is the best prompt

ever. It's gonna like solve all my marketing problems, or

there's seven successive prompts I gotta put into chat or perplex

you or whatever, and I would do all this stuff, and just like

when we were going from free webinar to free webinar to this

to that, and just kind of grabbing all of this information

from great coaches and great mentors and great teachers, but

it was too many different cooks in the kitchen, and so we could

never come up with one actual straightforward plan on how we

were going to execute and create, grow and scale our

businesses. And that's what random acts of AI do, yeah. It's

that's almost

yeah. That's I. While you're talking about that,

I'm like I'm seeing myself do that. I'm seeing other people do

that, and people are out there like, oh yeah, here, just just

use this prompt, and it's going to solve that problem. And and

and then we believe it, and we take it, and and then we go down

the rabbit hole, and without you know, we without having I love

that in your intro or in your bio you use the word foundation

because that's what I love. I'm all about foundations and having

a clear foundation and a plan as opposed to oh my gosh I have

this thing let me just go in and piecemeal do this thing or I saw

that great prompt so I loved all of that,

Lisa M. Brewer: yeah, yeah, and it is really all about the

foundation that we're building upon. Because what we do when we

all those prompts are great, and they do different things, and

and they accomplish different things for us. The problem is,

is that if you don't have a clear path on what. What you

want your output to be, then you're gonna get garbage, right?

So it's garbage in, garbage out. Us old school coders will

remember that garbage in, garbage out. You've heard it

before, but it's the same thing, and it's not that what you're

presenting is garbage. It's that there's no real foundation, no

real structure. So all the AI, all the LLMs, right, large

language models, all these things, all they can do is take

what you give them, and then come up with an output that they

think that you want,

right?

Lisa M. Brewer: And if you don't have a clear idea of where

you're going and how you're you kind of want to get there, and

more importantly, how your client wants to achieve that

transformation, then it's just going to be random acts of AI.

Yeah,

Lisa M. Brewer: every other week you're going to be changing your

branding and everything. Like that doesn't work.

I love the I love that you said that piece

because what I found out about AI is that it will just come up

with it will rewrite everything every time you ask. You ask it

the same question every time. It will rewrite it the answer

differently every single time. It doesn't. It doesn't retain

that. And I was telling you the other day that I was

brainstorming with a with the AI and it it got it went off on a

completely different topic and I kept trying to pull it back to

the topic and I had to ask it like three times because I

didn't have the parameters around it because it was

brainstorming it it didn't have the parameters so it took like

three times as long to get where I needed to be

Lisa M. Brewer: yeah absolutely and. and that even happens to

me. So, gosh, how long has Chad been out? I feel like it's been

over three years now, probably close to four. And at first,

when it first came out, it was like this, like crazy, like

cool, like you had to be a part of the Cool Kids Club to get in

there. And now with with there being five or six different

ones, now what we find out is that I and me personally, I will

go down a rabbit hole, and it can be a deep one, or it can be

a series of rabbit trails that go off cliffs. Like it is just

intense, right?

Yeah, I like to call those side quests.

Lisa M. Brewer: That's much better. I like the side quests

rather than going off random cliffs all the time. I'll keep

this for later. Exactly, exactly. So when we have these

side quests or when we have these ideas, right? This this

large language model is just designed to help us work through

all of that stuff, okay? It's not it, and and it really wants

to help us investigate all of this all at one time. The key,

though, is to you set things up at the outset, okay? So, just

like we have, you should have file folders and email folders

and all this, right? We need to have these projects in every

platform that we're using, and you can set the parameters of

the project. So it really is going to be very helpful for you

to create a Word document or a Google Doc that then you kind of

upload into the project files to say this is what this project is

for. These are the rules of engagement, and you develop

those rules of engagement from the very beginning. I just

recommend that everybody. I don't care if you've been in

business for one year, for one month, or 11 years. I don't

care. What I want you to do is I want you to sit down with your

language model of choice, and go through and really talk about

your business with it, and say now today in 2026 at the time of

this recording, who is my real ideal client? Because that ideal

client could have changed, or this has been my ideal client.

What are the current issues for that ideal client? What do we

project that? What are the trends? I want you to get all of

that down so you can put that in your project files. That way,

you're always referencing back to the project files, and it'll

be a lot easier for you to come back to center when you're

creating all of these new wonderful programs or or

funnels, or you're just trying to figure out whether or not you

should implement AI onto your website or not. So you know it's

it's all these things. I want you to stay in there so you're

not going so far off on the side quests, at least not right away.

Yeah, and and when you talk about rules of

engagement, I think that's a really good. It's a good visual

for me that I know. Okay, this is exactly what I want, and

these are the these are this is the box. You know, try to stay

in the box.

Lisa M. Brewer: Yes,

set my microphone dancing. I guess that

means I get to dance too. So talk and talk when okay. So

let's let's get specific. I have a you know briefly like you know

high level. I have a marketing campaign that I want to run

through the AI and the rules of engagement that I need to make

sure are in there are like talk me through a couple steps of

that process.

Lisa M. Brewer: Yeah, so I would make sure first of all to tell

it at the outset. You know my ideal client. You know my

mission. You know the the services I'm providing, or the

transformation that I am assisting my ideal client to do

to to experience, and then I typically ask. I even still do

this now. I ask, do you remember all that, or do I need to go

grab

it? I've done that too. Do you have enough

information to answer this question. Oh, and my favorite

thing. Sorry, I know that. But one of my favorite things to do

is when I'm done, like with the question, do you need anything

else? Because sometimes I, I'm, you know, I'm only giving little

pieces of breadcrumbs because I think it already knows.

Lisa M. Brewer: Yeah, I, I still, I do that as well. Now to

help us with this, though, this is my recommendation. I would

take the time to again, whatever platform you're using, and you

and that platform take maybe a half hour, maybe an hour. I

don't know how long it's going to take. Create a brand

positioning document. A brand positioning document.

I love that.

Lisa M. Brewer: So, what that brand positioning document is

going to have? It's going to have your your goal, your

vision, your mission, your ideal client, the demographics, the

characteristics. What is the transformation or service you're

providing? Your brand colors, all of that contained in

one

Lisa M. Brewer: document.

One document. Can that be a Word document that

you upload? Yes. Okay. Yes,

Lisa M. Brewer: I created it one of I and I updated about every

six months just to make sure. But if things have changed a

little bit, but what we do then with that brand positioning

document, and it's kind of interesting to hear the large

language model repeat back to you how it views your business.

It is the best cheerleader you're ever going to create.

You're really going to be like, "Oh my gosh, I'm amazing!

Because you, I do that. That's me. But you are amazing, and so

let it create this document for you, and then download it. Keep

it on your hard drive. Keep it on your phone, wherever this is.

Every time you get ready to do a new marketing campaign, go grab

that document and attach it. It doesn't hurt. Yeah. That way,

you're sure it has all the information it needs in order to

properly execute that marketing, right? That marketing campaign.

Also, always tell it to execute marketing campaigns that are

similar to I wouldn't say award-winning, but highly

successful campaigns for competitors in your area.

Whether they're a Tony Robbins or I don't care a Marie Forleo.

It doesn't matter to me. That's fine, but let let it look at

what's working and someone that you really like and that you

enjoy their marketing because your market's going to enjoy

their marketing if you do.

Wow. Oh, that's such a salient point because

sometimes I sometimes I would be, and I think other business

owners would be like, oh, you know, Joe Smith is is is is

being is so popular right now. But if you don't like, you just

ask it to model Joe Smith, but that's not you at all, and

you're like, you know, Joe Smith is great, nothing wrong with Joe

Smith, but that's not my style. That's not me. That's not how I

talk. That's not my what my market is used to and what they

want to hear. And I and the piece about you know you're not

ethically stealing. Like go out and look what the you know what

this person is doing. I I resonate with them. My market

would resonate with them. And it and and the powerful thing is it

can go out and look at it in seconds and come back and be

like ah okay this is what they're doing that's working

yeah and that's really important I think sometimes with the AI

because sometimes it will just lean on its own understanding so

if you can be specific and go hey go look at this website or

go look at this marketing and you know pull out the stuff that

that matches me. I love it

Lisa M. Brewer: absolutely, absolutely. And don't be afraid

to do that, and don't be afraid to experiment with with with new

things, with new ways of talking, right? With new phrases

like this is why I do check out what my. Ideal client is do is

doing saying what is top of mind for them because this

everybody's got to remember the marketing isn't for us your

business actually isn't for you it's for your clients so if you

don't keep that top of mind and who you're here to serve and how

you're here to serve them I don't care if you're a plumber

or you're a psychiatrist. You are here to serve your client.

What do they most need from you? What are they looking for most

from you? Let that be your foundation, okay? And not the

other way around, like the latest and greatest, whatever

you know, type of program or I don't care. Whatever it is,

don't let that be your foundation. Let you, your

purpose, your vision, your mission, and how you best work.

Let that be your foundation.

That is. That's exactly what we need to hear

because I know a lot of times we'll get caught up in so and so

just did something and oh, I want to do that. It's like that

shiny object, and yes, go do that and make it you make it

you, and make it and make it you and them. Like because it is for

them. So what are they going to resonate with? And then make it

your voice. Yeah,

Lisa M. Brewer: absolutely.

And and when you can be that specific, when

you have those rules of engagement, and when you have,

you know, put the box around what you're creating for your

large language model, that is, that's going to be so much more

efficient, and it's going to get you further towards where you

want to go. And we didn't really talk about this, Lisa, but I

know that you are. You know where are we going? We kind of

just have to decide that first, as opposed to oh, I need to

this. I need to answer this question. I need to do this. I

need to do that. That was what you were talking about in the

beginning, having a plan to get where you're going.

Lisa M. Brewer: So for me, I think this is maintaining the

humanity, right? Like I get it that AI. I mean, everybody's

talking about AI is coming from you for your job. AI is coming

for this. AI is coming for that. Yeah, I'm not gonna sugarcoat

it.

Lisa M. Brewer: The fact that I can create like 30 days of

content in like at least the outline within like 30 minutes,

you know, it's pretty. Yeah, it's it's great, right? The

thing that AI is never going to be able to replace is a human to

human contact and B human wisdom. So when I say create a

foundation, I want you to think about you as a human being. How

would you want someone if if you were the client? How would you

want you to interact with them, right? Yeah. Like because you

actually, and I know this might sound weird, but especially with

consultants and and and coaches and healers, we are are our

ideal client. We were them once upon a time,

yeah.

Lisa M. Brewer: And so now we got to go back and remember when

when that was the case. When I was that person, what did I most

need? What did I most want? What did what was I looking for? But

then taking that and saying, in the current frame of time right

now, what would that be?

Yeah,

Lisa M. Brewer: that's the foundation that you build

everything on, and then also be very realistic about how much

time you have, how you like to work, and you might you might

have to just kind of like figure it out as you go along a little

bit. You might think that you want to teach and do like a lot

of one-on-one intensive stuff, but you might find out that that

that's not your thing. That you would much rather create a

series of courses, or what have you. And and you're not that

much of a people person. You might think find that you want

to create an app or whatever like that. I don't know. But you

investigate it, try it. But the foundation always has to be.

This is who I serve, how I serve them, what transformation or

service I'm providing for them, and then how do we actually

monetize that, right? And know and keep that foundation that

way. Any the revenue has a place to land. It has a place to be

stored, you know. There's different in different spiritual

practices. They'll talk about having a storehouse to receive

or having a container for blessings to flow into or flow

through. If you've if you've not built a container, then there's

nowhere for it to land.

Wow, that's powerful. That's really powerful

and a great a great moment of highlighting what's what that

that piece of the foundation that tells your money what to

do. So that's perfect. I have a question for you, Lisa. Every

business owner has a moment where things didn't go as

planned. What's a moment in your business that didn't go as

expected and forced you to change how you do business and

how you operate?

Lisa M. Brewer: Believe it or not, that's probably been about

a year, maybe year and a half ago, and I was in the midst of

either creating or recreating. Like I, I had moved out here.

I'd come to North Carolina from Wisconsin, born and raised, and

I'd been here for a little bit, but I still the business still

wasn't growing to the extent that I had assumed that it

would, and we were in kind of in this mix mix of AI, and I had

people telling me you need to do it this way. You need to stay

stay with just working with people that are spiritual

entrepreneurs. And I mean, everybody had a everybody had an

idea on what Lisa should do, and I had been listening to

everybody, right?

Yes, yeah,

Lisa M. Brewer: but it wasn't working. Every, I felt like

people, although we were well, although they're well meaning,

they put had me in this box, and I was tired of being in the box.

So I decided I'm building my own box, just like the reason why I

built this business in the first place. Yeah, I cre I created my

own space for people that needed to know how to actually build a

successful business based on 30 years of corporate sales,

marketing, and customer service leadership that I had under my

belt. And when I decided to finally just be who I am at my

core, unapologetically and openly, that's when things

completely shifted.

I love that. And and what do you what do you

do now differently because of that shift?

Lisa M. Brewer: I trust my gut a lot more, and and I and really,

what I do differently is I, I have this confidence. I I talk

sometimes about building confidence with yourself,

because

Lisa M. Brewer: if you don't have that confidence that and

belief in yourself, and it goes beyond just imposter syndrome.

It's knowing that you know that you know this. You really

matter, and what you're offering to the world is amazing. And and

once I built that confidence within myself, now everything

that I do now, when I speak about things, when I when I

write posts, when I write articles, when I do you know

appearances like this, it it just it it flows, it glows. It I

emit it, and I and I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that I

listen. I'm a Gen X guru. Like I, that's how I'm the Gen X man.

Like I'm the Gen X Jedi. Like AI Jedi. Like that's who I am,

right? Of course, Star Wars. Right? AX the AI Jedi. Anyway,

but that's what I did differently. And when I started

doing that differently, then everything, every client I take

on, every everything that I do now, is is aligned, and so

things flow very so much better. They just the whole business

flows.

Yeah, and and how has that impacted your

results?

Lisa M. Brewer: You know it. I have more. I have more kind of

bespoke, customized boutique kind of clients, and I love it.

It so that has positively impacted my results, and it also

gave me the space and the courage to build my own app that

I'm about to launch here within very short time period from the

time that this is being recorded, and I'm so excited

because it is, I believe, revolutionary in this space. So

it has really just given me confidence, and it's given me

like the go ahead to like step out of the boat. So my my

results I think have become better just because I now I get

to do things I love to do and I get paid for it. I mean, that's

awesome. I love

that. that That's really amazing. And Lisa,

um, you mentioned that you have a little gift for our podcast

listeners and watchers.

Lisa M. Brewer: I do. So, um. I have created this tool called

the Business Opportunity Scan, and it's a very quick little

kind of quiz. You'll just answer some questions and rate either

your current business or the business you're thinking about

building. And at the end of it, it'll. Give you a report based

on my build platform, which is yet a branding and a unique

offer, impact leadership and durable growth, and so it'll

give you that report and give you an idea of what area your

business can use AI the most right now to impact

it. Oh, and that's what we talked about at

the beginning. That that you know we have all these tools,

and and where do we actually deploy them to the most benefit

of our our business and our customers? So wow, this is an

amazing gift. Thank you, Lisa. So make sure that you get that.

And here's how you're going to do that. We have a community

called ProfitConnectors Club. That is Profit Connectors

because you're the one doing the connecting. ProfitConnectors.

CLUB. That's the website address. If you go to

ProfitConnectors. Club, you can see Lisa's information. Watch

this episode again and have her gift right there. All you have

to do is go in. It's totally free, and in addition to getting

Lisa's cool stuff, you'll also be able to access all of our

other guests and their gifts and their podcasts as well. So it's

a really easy way to go in and get this amazing gift from Lisa

and also the other the other gifts that we have had on

previous podcasts, and thank you, Lisa. This has been such a

powerful conversation about how to take this juggernaut that you

know we're either you know doing side quests all over the place,

or we're you know deploying in in overwhelming ourselves and

not knowing what to do at all. This is such a beautiful,

powerful starting place, so that we can figure out what what is

that next best step when we're using our AI and how do we put

every our things in that direction. Thank you so much for

that gift, and thank you so much for being here, Lisa.

Lisa M. Brewer: Oh, thank you so much for having me, Shan. I

really appreciate it.

This has been really fun. So I appreciate you

joining us once again for the Profit Connections podcast.

Remember to build with clarity and lead with purpose. Thanks

for joining us. We'll see you next time.