AI Can’t Replace This & It’s Costing You Clients w/ Lauren Najar

You’re using AI to create content, write your marketing, maybe even build your strategy, so why isn’t it actually bringing in clients?

Everything looks fine on the surface. The content sounds good. The ideas are there. But it’s not landing, it’s not connecting, and it’s definitely not converting the way you expected.

In this Business Chaser episode, I’m breaking down what’s really going on when AI “isn’t working” in your business. Because the problem isn’t the tool. It’s how you’re using it. I’m sharing a behind-the-scenes story from my own business that completely changed how I see AI, value, and what I actually get paid for.

I also get into the piece most people are missing when it comes to AI, your ability to think, ask better questions, and actually understand what your client needs. Because that’s the part AI can’t replace.

If your content feels generic, your messaging isn’t hitting, or you’re wondering why AI isn’t getting you results, this will help you see what’s actually missing and how to start using it in a way that supports your business growth.

So, AI isn’t replacing you. But the way you’re using it might be the reason your business isn’t growing the way you expected.

Chapters:

00:30 What these short episodes are really for

01:45 Why everyone is suddenly switching AI tools

03:30 Why your AI content sounds like everyone else

05:00 The real reason AI isn’t working for you

06:00 The client story that changed everything

07:30 Why I felt guilty charging for faster work

08:30 What AI made me realize about my value

09:30 The one thing AI will never replace

11:00 Why generic advice keeps failing you

12:00 What AI should actually be used for

13:00 Why your input changes everything

13:30 The shift you need to make with AI

Let’s Stay Connected:
→ Follow Lauren on Instagram: www.instagram.com/laurennajar
→ Learn more or work with me: www.laurennajar.com
→ Follow Business Over Cocktails on IG: www.instagram.com/businessovercocktails
→ Attend Growth & Connect retreats & events: www.instagram.com/growthandconnect

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Welcome to the Business Chaser, your quick pour of strategy, clarity, and momentum. We skip the small talk and get straight to the strategy here in these bite-sized episodes. We're here to help you grow smarter, market better, and chase what matters all in 15 minutes or less. I'm your host, Laura Najar. Tune in and let's chat. Hello, hello. Welcome back to the podcast. We have another Business Chaser episode, which I'm excited to talk about this. And I wanted to kind of like lay the groundwork first. So in this Business Chaser episode, again, these episodes are very quick, 15 minutes or less. And they are meant for just like really targeted, specific topics, really like bullet pointed. And this is kind of like this is definitely kind of like a discussion because I'm not gonna like teach anything necessarily, but I do want to kind of like change your mindset, shift around something, and that is about AI. And I wanted to talk about how to really utilize AI to further improve your business and maybe some of the frustrations that you're having. And maybe it's in the way that you're kind of like using it. So let me just kind of get into it. First and foremost, if you have never listened to this podcast before, welcome, welcome, welcome. I'm Lauren Najar. I am the host of Business Over Cocktails. And on Mondays, we have longer episodes where we talk about stories and we have guests on there. And then these 15-minute or less episodes are called Business Chaser episodes, where we are going to dive into a very specific topic every Friday, either with one of our guests or myself. And so today we're going to talk about AI. And I wanted to tell a story really quickly. So this is in my own journey and how to use like AI for my business. And I think the trend of the world, so to speak, maybe two years ago, is that it's going to replace everything and it can think for you, right? And I think that it's funny because I think now we're seeing a rise with Claude. So I'm recording this in March of 2026. By the time someone listens to this, it might be different. But right now there is such a rise with Claude. Ever since the Super Bowl, ever since the whole government fallout thing, everyone's kind of like mass switching to Claude, which is wonderful. And everyone is finding out how awesome it is. And everyone's kind of ditching open AI and Chat GBT. And I think that has probably been a long time coming for a lot of people because there have been frustrations with Chat GBT of not remembering things, and people are complaining that everyone sounds the same, which I agree with. And that's really because of how people think they know how to use it. And really that's not how we're just not utilizing that tool to its best of abilities as well. But anyway, so as of now, we're seeing like I'm seeing the same content that I saw two years ago when ChatGPT was like the number one thing. And what do I mean by that? I'm seeing a lot of content creators, like Instagram gurus or like business coaches that have like a lot of courses. They're almost like repackaging their offers that they previously had with Chat GPT, but now just like slapping a Claude symbol on there and being like, this is how I use Claude. And that's very smart and very easy to do. But I think, you know, here we are going up this mountain, right? We're climbing and scaling this mountain pretty quickly. And all of a sudden it's going to kind of like settle and ease out at one point. So let's just talk about truly how to use AI to the best of your ability when it comes to your business. And this is in my experience. This is in my experience with my clients. And this is in my experience as a coach for my clients. And also just like hearing, I probably am surrounded more by beginner AI users versus like if you have been utilizing it and you know and you feel very confident with like how you use it and you're happy with it, and you do all these crazy amazing projects with it, like then this probably won't be a valid conversation for you, or you might just be like, yep, I I feel that I'm with Lauren, or I agree with you, or I see this, or maybe I'm just opening your eyes to like how like a lot of people feel about this. So I think like I feel like there's different levels, right? I feel like people are utilizing it to replace certain tasks and certain thinking. And I feel like that's the first step into it, right? It's like, okay, cool. Like what can you do? And like it's like, oh wow, like you can actually do all of these things. And so then it actually starts giving you stuff that you're like, oh, cool. Like I don't even have to think anymore. But in reality, you still have to give it input. So I recently, it was like this was probably three years ago now, definitely two, maybe two years ago now, two and a half years ago. I was utilizing Chat GPT a lot. And I was just like dipping my toes in it. I was trying to get the muscle memory of like, I can use AI now. I don't have to like think about all these things, or it can really help me with some of these tasks. So I was going through and I was putting together a comprehensive marketing intensive for a client. And I had all the plans, right? Like I had all of the questions that I asked the client. I have the call recorded, which love a good AI note taker. I have the transcript of the call. I prompted him for the questions my client, I should say, on the call for 60 minutes. It ended up being like a 90-minute call. I got really deep into his business. I wanted to know what his goals were. And so I asked all of those questions to get that information out of him. So then I started creating the strategy based on those goals, right? So mind you, was not using AI yet. And I'm creating this from a Word document and I'm kind of like typing up to be like presentable for the client. And I'm like, what can AI help me do? And so I actually fed it all the information that I wanted to help the client with. And I'm like, can you like make sense of this or can you like format it to where it's like easy to read? And so I did it, and like it took me. Usually an intensive takes me like a day and a half to carve out, like up until this point, right? Where I'm like formatting things and typing things, and just these intensives sometimes have a lot of work to do. Where now I can just talk to the bot and give it like a transcript of a voice note that I'm leaving it, and it will create a nice document of like everything of all of my thoughts, right? But there was a part of me that was like feeling guilty that I was charging X amount of dollars because I was done a lot quicker than I would be. And that was the first time that I realized I was actually like tying money only to the amount of hours I was working versus my brain. And this is kind of where I want to go with this is AI now is teaching me how smart I actually am, or how much I should say, or you can reword it, maybe maybe I'll own that. I'll own that. I like what I said. But also how much work I've done and how much learning I've done and how much knowledge I carry. And that is actually worth more than the hours I work typing up a document for a day and a half. And that was eye-opening to me because that right there is a prime example of something that AI can help me do and be more efficient on. And that's wonderful, right? But that's not replacing me. I still had to feed it the information. I still had to give it the information. I still had to ask the client and have the call with the client because again, some of those questions maybe AI could have asked, but I was able to ask those questions based on the feedback I was getting from the call with the client, meaning I was hearing his voice, hearing his tone of voice, how his tone changes, what he really wants. And that's what makes me a good coach, and that's what makes me a good marketing consultant strategist, is I can hear the change in tone and voice of if someone is really wanting something, or maybe they mean something else, or maybe I need to dig deeper, or maybe I'm not clear enough. And so that right there, emotional intelligence, intuition, AI can't replace that. AI can replace me asking questions of like, what are your goals in the next six months? And let me draw you up a plan. But if they just say, Well, I don't know what my my goals are, well, chat isn't going to help you do that, they might, but then there's going to be something different and deeper that we have to dig through of like, well, why can't you create goals for yourself for six months? So that's my that's the story I wanted to share of like, these are a lot of realizations I had in this moment of now I understand all of the work I've done and put in and the investments I've made into courses and all of these things have brought me to this turning point of I finally get to get paid for my brain and for the knowledge that I have. And it does not matter how long or short it takes for me to type up a document. And even recently I had this moment of like guilt where, again, it didn't take it was a task that didn't take me that long for deliverables for a client, but I had to really tell myself, I did everything. It was my voice, it was my transcript, it was me talking. And all I wanted AI to do was format the document for me to make it very clear. And then I even still go through the document line by line to make sure that it picked up on the right stuff and it makes sense. But it is taking a shorter amount of time to really just like do this work. And so I really want to bring this home for you. I want to do full circle moment, is it's not going to ever replace you, nor should it. And when you are going to go to some sort of AI tool and ask it for a marketing plan, that's why you're going to get generic advice and it's not going to work for you. There has to be some sort of business input, goal input, feeling, emotion, input that you're giving the bot to then help you ideate, help you brainstorm on a marketing plan. So, yes, you can get generic advice from any of these tools, but if we could do that, then why isn't everyone making money then? What it really comes down to is still your knowledge. And it's a tool to help you be more efficient. It's a tool to help you brainstorm. It's a tool to help you see things more clearly. It is not meant to replace the knowledge or the intuition or your emotional intelligence in order to like help a client out or even help your business. It's never going to replace that. And so we can't lose those things. And that is why you probably have frustration around a lot of generic advice, whatever bot you're working with is giving you. Because the less input you give it, the more generic it's going to be. And then it's not going to sound like you. It's not going to make sense. And then you're wondering why it's not working because we're taking what these bots are saying as Bible and it's going to give us a million dollars or whatever it is. But you also have to understand these bots are fed the information by anyone who's inputting with it, right? And so these bots get smarter. However, they don't know your business specifically. They don't know the ins and outs unless you tell it, right? Unless you give it the numbers, unless you have all of the information already ready for yourself. So that is a huge thing to remember, is that it is a tool to make you more efficient. It is a tool to take away for some of the things that are just floating in your brain space, but it's never meant to replace the knowledge that you have and the knowledge that you need to continue to evolve upon to grow your own business. It can help you brainstorm, ideate, can help you do a lot of other things to be more efficient and complete tasks faster, but it's never going to replace what it is that you need in your business. So I hope this was helpful and maybe changing your mindset around how to effectively use tools in your business. That's your quick hit of clarity and momentum for the week. If it sparks something, share it with a friend or tag us in your stories at Business Over Cocktails and or at Lauren Najar. We love seeing what resonates. Don't forget, Mondays are for full-length episodes with rich conversations. And Fridays are the Business Chaser episodes. These are bite sized insights pulled from our guests to keep you inspired and aligned throughout the week. Do you have a question or takeaway? DM us at Business Over Cocktails. We just might feature it in a feature episode. Cheers.