Your Greatest Business Risk Isn't AI — It's Becoming Ordinary Like Everyone Else
That line lands differently depending on which side of it you're standing on. And it's exactly where Julie Holmes opens her conversation on the ActionCoach Podcast — a conversation that reframes AI for business owners in a way most of the "AI hype" content out there completely misses.
Julie spent two and a half decades in technology before becoming a specialist in something every business now needs: the human skill of actually using AI well. Her core message isn't about prompts, tools, or productivity hacks. It's this: AI is not a technology problem. It's a technique problem. And the businesses winning right now aren't the ones with the most AI — they're the ones who know exactly where AI belongs and, just as importantly, where it doesn't.
Here's the shift nobody's talking about
For the last couple of years, the fear has been about becoming obsolete. Julie argues that's the wrong fear now. Everybody has AI. Your competitors have it. Your customers have it. So the real risk isn't falling behind — it's becoming ordinary. AI is a great filter that pulls everything toward the middle, the common denominator. If you lean on it without a clear point of view, you end up sounding exactly like everyone else who typed a similar prompt.
The floor is rising. It's never been easier to be "good." Which also means it's never been less impressive to be good. So where's the actual opportunity?
The framework that changes how you use it: 20-60-20
Julie shares the exact collaboration model she uses in her own business and has posted on her wall — 20% you leading and giving context, 60% AI doing the heavy lifting, and 20% you back at the end, reviewing, validating, and owning the result. It sounds simple. It's the difference between businesses that get generic AI output and businesses that get output that actually sounds, thinks, and sells like them.
A six-factor formula for researching every single lead
Before AI, this kind of deep prospect research took hours nobody had. Julie walks through the exact framework she injects AI into — not the other way around — to understand what's happening inside and outside a prospect's world, what happened before, what they're chasing next, and what "more" and "less" actually means to them. It's a masterclass in using AI as a thinking partner instead of a shortcut.
The customer journey exercise that reframes everything
What if you mapped 100 steps in your customer's journey — from the moment they're in pain to the moment they're so happy they're referring you — and then asked which of those touchpoints should stay human, and which can be handled mechanically? Julie's answer to "how do I build a fully systemized process" might be the simplest, most useful piece of business strategy in the whole episode.
Why craftsmanship is about to become a competitive advantage again
This is the part that should get every small business owner's attention. As AI makes automation cheap and universal, Julie makes the case that we're entering a new age of craftsmanship — where hand-built, hyper-personalized, unmistakably human experiences become the premium offer again. Small businesses, not corporate giants, are best positioned to win this.
Plus, the 8 AI principles Julie runs her entire business by
Not rules — beliefs. Things like "AI handles the mechanical, we do the meaningful," "if we can't explain it, we can't delegate it to AI," and "we use AI to sound more like us, not like everybody else." Julie shares all eight, and by the end you'll want to write your own list for your business.
There's also a genuinely emotional detour into why a theme park ride matters more to this conversation than it sounds like it should — and it ends up being one of the most memorable moments in the episode.
If you've felt any mix of excitement, guilt, or overwhelm about AI in your business, this episode won't tell you to use it more or less. It'll help you get precise about where it belongs — so you can spend your time on the moments only you can create.
Watch the full episode of the ActionCoach Podcast with Julie Holmes by clcking the video below:-
