How Community Founders Are Growing With AI

In this episode, I share my own journey into AI, what it’s been like to transition back into entrepreneurship, and why I joined an AI community called the Collective. You’ll hear from co-founders Jonathan Foltz and Umer Hadeed on what it means to be an AI integrator, the role of community, and their vision of being “AI Enhanced.”

For me, The Collective has been more than a network.. it’s been a space to learn, connect, and expand alongside other visionaries. This conversation explores why community matters right now, especially as we integrate AI into daily work and build companies of the future.

Resources & Notes:
– The Collective AI
– Brooke’s Collective AI offers - Listeners of this episode can access a special reduced rate for the upcoming mastermind in Tulum this October.
--> My podcast episode reviewing their Bali mastermind here.

Some of the links here may support the show if you choose to join through them  at no extra cost to you.

– My AI Starter Guide (a simple free intro resource.)

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"How I AI" is a concept and podcast series created and produced by Brooke Gramer of EmpowerFlow Strategies LLC. All rights reserved.

Transcript

Brooke: 0:03

Welcome to How I AI the podcast featuring real people, real stories, and real AI in action. I'm Brooke Gramer your host and guide on this journey into the real world impact of artificial intelligence. For over 15 years, I've worked in creative marketing events and business strategy, wearing all the hats. I know the struggle of trying to scale and manage all things without burning out, but here's the game changer, AI. This isn't just a podcast. How I AI is a community, a space where curious minds like you come together, share ideas, and I'll also bring exclusive discounts, and insider resources, because AI isn't just a trend, it's a shift, and the sooner we embrace it, the more freedom, creativity, and opportunities will unlock. I first got into AI a little over two years ago. It was a Mindvalley conference they were doing for free online, and I remember to this day, listening in as I was getting ready to go to my corporate job, at the time I was working for a lifestyle boutique hotel, doing marketing for them and I was completely enamored right away about the revolution that was coming our way. What they said initially was, you're not gonna be replaced by ai, you're gonna be replaced by someone using ai. And that really caught my attention. From that day forward, I started seeking out resources. How to learn and staying caught up on the news and all the developments of tools that were coming through. And then eventually I learned about a local community, which is now global at this point, called the Collective AI. They started hosting in-person events a couple times a year. They were doing weekly workshops, and it gave me the opportunity to connect with people in person about AI. I was no longer alone about my journey to learn to explore and it gave me that final last push I needed to go back to working for myself. I have over 15 years of marketing, events, and creative advertising experience. I've worked in Los Angeles, New York, and now Miami. I had had some entrepreneurial pursuits in the past. I have a background in life coaching I've also have experienced freelancing and consulting while living in New York as well. But I had experienced such major burnout when I was freelancing in the past, and this was because nothing was automated, everything was manual, and I was managing a bunch of clients and demands. But this time around, now that I'm leaning back into my entrepreneurial journey and launching a podcast, providing AI enhancement consultant services. Still leaning on my background in marketing and events and partnerships. I'm building my own brand reaching individuals, and I don't feel burnt out. I feel like I'm finally at the capacity where I have a work life balance, and this is really due to two things. It's due to AI enhancing me and my time and my energy and effort. And also a local community and an online community. These two things together have truly brought me into a position where I feel like I'm leaning into my creative pursuits. I'm leaning into my purpose and mission, which is to lead and inspire others through speaking and through in-person events. And I credit The Collective so much, and I'm really excited to interview the co-founders here today. And we're gonna be speaking a lot about what it means to build community, why that's so important with this impactful time that we're all experiencing right now with the AI tech advancements and revolution. I'm really excited to speak with them more individually about creating this community we have all known to love in my personal friend group we'll get to share a bit about what it means to go to a hacker house, what is, uh, AI mastermind like, and we'll share about some fun future events they have coming up and why we think you should join, and our personal invitation to have you be a part of the community. There's a few things that The Collective offers. They offer a paid community, which I'm a member of personally, they offer done for you AI solutions through their AI enhancement consulting programs, and a way for you to learn ai. They do weekly academies they also created a really cool new platform called Vortex ai. We're gonna dig into this today and a lot of my guests that we've had on the show have been either speakers at their events or members of their community. So I hope you enjoy this special episode today you hear me talk about it every week, but maybe you wanted to learn a bit more about The Collective, and this is the perfect episode to dive deeper and to learn more about why they have been so pivotal in my personal AI journey. All right, Umer, Jonathan, thank you both so much for being here. I'm excited to chat more and hear just In your own words about The Collective listeners hear me talk about it every week. My network and resources and talent I've had on the show have mostly stemmed from The Collective. So I love this opportunity. And my first question for both of you is. What kind of founders or creatives are a great fit for The Collective? What are they typically struggling with before they join your community?

Jonathan: 6:13

Hmm. You wanna begin and I finish?

Umer: 6:17

No, but it's up to you. I think it's not that hey if you're struggling with something and you you should join the collective. It's just that the mission, if you align with our mission mm-hmm. And the mission is to take up all the emerging technology. And, The most important thing is also. If you're ready to level up,'Cause that's who we are. Mm-hmm. We always try and stay ahead of the curve. We are always, Into what's coming up, what's new learning adapting. Yeah. And then executing on all of that. So that's one element of the collective. So it doesn't necessarily mean that you, are. struggling and then hey, the collective is your solution now, right? Collective is always gonna be your solution because this is what collective is. It's at the forefront of the technology shift, whether it's today, tomorrow, or Or. Years down the road. Mm-hmm. That's one mission. and the other mission is of course, We are working on ourselves. We are trying to enhance ourselves, the human part of it, The conscious part of it. So we are working on that part. So if you connect, in one way or the other mm-hmm. Or collectively to both mm-hmm. Then of course we are your people. And. Surprisingly, we have been, Gravitating or Not gravitating but attracting those people mm-hmm. Who are not only, Looking to, Learn about the new technology that is coming up, but also they're trying to level up in their own life, In their field and their businesses in other aspect of their life. So, yeah.

Jonathan: 7:45

Yeah. And here's the thing, it's like an amalgamation of different things of what it really is.'cause like I get the stories from people, Some people wanna make money and they want to know how to use it with ai. Mm-hmm. They're, they possibly could be struggling and their business and they're like, man my friends are doing AI stuff, they're doing well. Yeah. But more than anything it's like. There's a lot of benefit from coming into the community, from seeing what others are doing. So the reason I love doing communities, when I first got into e-commerce, there was a community that I was in and, when I saw people's struggles, their challenges, their wins it help me know that I can also do it too. It's also a very advanced way to learn more about AI and find other people that are just as obsessed as we are. Yeah. Right? Like I wanna be around people that are literally obsessed with AI agents, AI infrastructure, exponential shifts. Escape velocity, like I wanna be around these type of people and It's hard to find these people out there. Mm. Especially very successful people. And some people that may not be successful, but they want to level up, right? So it's like this is the place where people are coming together to help each other, make more money, bring up the network, bring up their knowledge, stay ahead of the curve, and then have a group of people. That are going to take each other to the next level. Mm-hmm. The other mission that Umer was mentioning is we want to help build the conscious leaders of the future. And more and more I'm starting to see the collective more as a mm-hmm. Launchpad and accelerator for people's, companies, businesses, And endeavors. and we're seeing more and more success starting to come because of the collective, and that's one of the most beautiful things.

Brooke: 9:12

Mm-hmm. Yeah. You're really setting the stage for transformation and I love that you're all about conscious. Leadership as well. Could you maybe share about some aha moments and some key testimonials you've had since launching this community? Maybe there's some case studies you wanna share on.

Jonathan: 9:31

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, There's, a ton of stories, but one that just happened, So, Toby that came into Literally just learning AI, had no idea, was doing film and everything like that. He came to our hacker house. Mm-hmm. So excited. Within five days, he closed his first$5,000 AI client. Wow. And he just learned ai. At the hacker house. Like he had no idea right before that, right? Like he had absolutely no clue. Also we do a lot of JVs with people, right? Yeah. So, joint ventures, for those that don't know like right now, because you can leverage audience, you could leverage the marketing power, you could leverage someone's technical skills. A great story from two of our members is that one member had an AI training program. He gave it to a girl named Olivia. Mm-hmm. She translated it with AI into French. She sent it to her list. Boom. She made like$10,000 the first week. Wow. Wow. And that was her first endeavor. You know that same gentleman also. Jeff Hunter, he's doing really cool stuff. He also closed$150,000 client that happened to come from one of the members in the community. Mm-hmm. These other two guys they raised$500,000 for one of their endeavors from one of the connections of the community. Mm-hmm. So it's like more and more were starting to see people get this success. Like one person, they're able to triple the amount of their clients because they started adding AI agents. one of our others that we actually did a joint venture with them. Mm-hmm. And we just did a really good webinar where we started to sell AI enhanced websites. Like she obviously did great because she started to make money together with the collective, actually, as a matter of fact. Yeah.'cause she's high level branding. Ashley Hann big ups to her'cause she's doing insane websites out there. She did that and she's like, completely shifted into the AI space and expanded horizons. So it's like. All these things start to happen because you come into what we like to call the vortex. Mm-hmm. And this vortex gives you the energy, gives you the insight, gives you, you get the advice, you get to ask questions. Just by being around these People, don't realize how much further it takes you. Yes. While a lot of people are trying to do it on their own. Learn from a YouTube video, learn from a friend. It's not linear. Right? Mm-hmm. Coming into a community is more exponential and trying to do things on her own and trying to learn from little tit tat here, friend YouTube, whatever. mm-hmm. Is a slower way to do it. So, yeah. We love to Be able to help and support people to the highest degree.

Brooke: 11:42

Absolutely. You spoke about Vortex, which is also coincidentally the name of your new application. I spoke a little About it in the solo episode, recapping the hacker house in Mastermind, But I love to hear in both of your words, Umer, you can kick it off. What is Vortex and why do you feel like it's. Such a, revolutionary tool and platform.

Umer: 12:05

Okay. So Vortex is primarily A, tool, which is always gonna be in in a stage of getting better. Mm. Because why it's so progressive. cause it's based off of ai, right? Mm-hmm. Why is it different? Because A, it's open source B, It gives you more, Power in terms of What LLMs what models of those LLMs you can use Yeah. To build agents for you to build assistants for you. So right now There you have limited options, right? Open AI offers you only four, and then besides that, There's a community section to Vortex Where companies can come on, they can create their own Part of the Vortex, And assign their teams to it. And they can assign different roles and they can chat, they can interact, use the same agents that they create, the whole team can use it. Wow. They can create departments within that word. So. It's ever evolving. Baby. But of course, It's exciting'cause It is using ai, it's open source. And we are adding features as the, Pop up, Every day, every week. We already have people using Vortex and taking advantage. So I'm just excited that, We've been able to share What we have built for our people, for our community. Yes. And of course for all the people like, Outside our community too. Yeah. They'll be able to use it eventually. But right now We have only open to our community And it's very powerful and powerful to an extent where, you can create multiple assistant and you can share it with your team. And John can elaborate further on like you know what he feels about Vortex.

Jonathan: 13:27

Yeah. yeah. I mean, for me it's very simple. It's a ever evolving live system that's like a ChatGPT on steroids and you're not. Chained up to one company, or one LLM or one of these agents, you can literally go and use any of'em. So that's what's cool about it, that it's like it's unchained, it's, open source and it can literally allow you to do. a multitude of things that you cannot do. And I believe the future will be about jumping on seamlessly from platforms to platforms, from tech to tech. And you can't be stuck to just one company. And that's why we came up with the vortex.

Brooke: 14:04

Awesome. Another offering that the collective has been providing its community and its its network has been AI enhancement consulting services, which is so crucial right now because to Umer's point in our recent podcast, it's never been a more critical time to start to integrate and to build out your AI strategy because. You're just gonna fall so far behind that you won't be able to catch up. So if you could share more about what it is that you're doing for people and businesses with AI enhancement consulting.

Jonathan: 14:42

Yeah. Yeah, go ahead. Oh, so The AI Enhancement consulting. We used to do consulting. Mm-hmm. And we really never wanted to get back into it. Yes. But we saw just such a ridiculous need from our members, our friends, and there was a lot of people doing. Very amateur stuff or doing things not the best. And that's why we actually started like our original agency, digital age business. Mm-hmm. It came from the idea that we got screwed over so many times, but people didn't know what they were doing. And we were forced To actually have a marketing agency that can actually give good services. Yes. So it Derived from that of a lot of people need this right now. And then as we looked into it more and more, so it's like everyone's doing a bunch of things that are either extremely inefficient, they don't matter anymore. They will not matter soon. Yeah. So it's like it's one of the largest blue oceans ever, and a lot of people need help and support, and it will also help us with some of our own endeavors. So we realize that people need to integrate this because this is not like. When you added social media, maybe it could do a 20% lift, a 50% lift, maybe a hundred percent lift when you're doing AI implementation to the high degree.'cause most people think having ChatGPT and using notebook LLLM. Mm-hmm. They think that these things are doing, justice, but there's other people that are truly integrating ai Yeah. That are moving 10 20 x. So this is the most drastic improvement that has ever happened. In the history of written mankind that I know of personally, Yeah. And this is my own personal opinion. I'm sure there's other people think otherwise. But most of the experts are on this page. Most of the people that, were retired from tech have come back full swing to go back into ai. Mm-hmm. Because it's such a fundamental shift. So if we can help companies get AI enhanced, We're coining this word, obviously it's a word that people can use, but we've been coining it really hard because you can enhance the humans, you can enhance the company, you can enhance the business. Idea that I may have had. At some point in time and I can move 5, 10, 20 times faster. Mm-hmm. and the, results will start to show. And you're gonna start to see the largest companies in the world. And, the big advisory companies are gonna come in, figure out what works. For example, customer service reps. And we're just doing customer service, like very simple information, There's a good chance they're gonna be replaced completely with ai, Even sales reps Yeah. And this is happening all over the board. Anything digital is going to be displaced, replaced, and then humans yielding this technology, using it to the highest degree are gonna be at a far advantage. And this is not a 50% advantage. It's like literally sometimes 500 or a thousand percent. Mm-hmm.

Brooke: 17:10

Yeah. Anything you wanna add to that Umer?

Umer: 17:12

Yeah, a couple of things. John hit it absolutely right. This is what you believe, AI enhancement is, so here's the thing, When AI came, everybody was fearful, so that's nothing but human nature. You judge or fear. Yeah. So it was like, hey, we are gonna lose lot jobs and people are literally losing jobs, right? All the big corporations, They're downsizing. They don't need those people. Yeah. cause AI is plugging into all those tasks, which are mundane, which are like, basic level things and can be delegated, and AI is taking those delegated tasks and then doing those repetitive tasks over and over again better, and it's only gonna get better. So people are losing jobs. That's the reality. So what is AI enhancement? AI enhancement is the hope that people thought never existed Because they only thought that, Hey, we are gonna lose jobs and what's gonna happen? We are gonna get replaced. And then the word that we use mostly is displacement. It's not replacement. And the first array of displacement was AI integration or AI enhancement. You AI enhance yourself. Yeah, there's an opportunity in the market and there's a huge gap in the market where if you are AI literate and AI Really better than most of the people, let's say 90, 90 or 80% of the population. Mm-hmm. What you can do is now, you can still be an agency, which is not The, legacy agency model, social media marketing agency, or digital agency. Are no more required.'cause most of the tasks are being done by ai. Right. But if you know ai, how to plug in AI into the business, SOPs and systems and processes and structure, then you are in demand. Then, now companies are looking for those people who can come in and automate and make their systems efficient. Mm-hmm. Hitting them, their bottom line, Their top line. By, implementing all those AI system that they're not ready to, or they're not aware of, they cannot do it on their own. Yeah. So there's a gap in market. And then if you guys listening, if you are a freelancer, if you're, Owner of an agency, you gotta switch. You gotta pivot. Yeah. And You gotta say we are AI integrators. Yes. That's what We are educating People who are really skilled with 15, 10, 5 years of experience in their own field. Mm-hmm. For example, people like, Who are consulting with other companies. Mm-hmm. And, let's say in design and marketing And, branding in, in development. What is needed is For them to understand how AI can be beneficial with their skillset. cause they already know the fundamentals of what companies require. Yes. And by plugging in AI into all those system where it is Really fruitful. You, Become, not indispensable, but an integral part of the whole ecosystem. So, so that's what AI enhancement is? AI enhancement. We do it for the companies cause we also Do it, execute it. We are really good at it. and We are also educating and then, and creating that army of people mm-hmm. Who can go on their own now who are fearful. What am I gonna do?'cause now my job has been taken by ai. Mm-hmm. Now what you can do is you can come Learn about AI and then go ahead And now you can enhance companies through integrating AI to plug in AI So, so that's what AI enhancement is.

Brooke: 20:13

Yes, very well said. And that's exactly why I'm getting licensed under the collective as an AI enhancement consultant. And why I invested my time and energy into learning One thing I also wanna chat about is upcoming events that you have. You have an exciting Tulum hacker house coming up. Share about why a founder would wanna be at an event like that.

Jonathan: 20:35

Yeah, so, so actually. Last year was the Tulum hacker house. Um, this year coming up, like we separate what our hacker houses and our masterminds are. Masterminds are a little bit more teaching. Mm-hmm. We bring in high level speakers. The networking is very high. There's a little bit less implementation, but I feel like we're gonna start doing more of it. So theoretically this year is gonna be a Tulum mastermind. Got it. Usually masterminds are done in the USA and then hacker houses outside of the USA. Okay. This happens to be so close to Miami, which is our home base and headquarters. Mm-hmm. And so many people were asking about it Mm-hmm. That like, We had to do it. So we're gonna be having an amazing time and it's gonna happen October 23rd to 26th. Mm-hmm. And we're so excited about it because like last time we did it, on a whim in a three week span oversold the event and it was absolutely incredible. And for some reason there's something Insanely magical about Tulum. And What they say is there's underwater cenotes So there's some weird resonance that happens. Yeah. So we tend to have a lot of magic happen and due to popular demand, we're bringing it to Tulum this year. Yeah.

Brooke: 21:39

Exciting stuff. I think for my final Wrap up, I'd love for you each to share what it means to have community in this rapid change of AI and why community is so important right now. In your own words.

Umer: 21:54

I'll begin. So, yeah, listen, there's an old saying and I say it over and over again. And if you're gonna go fast, go alone. That's, there's nothing wrong with it. But if you wanna go far, go together. Yeah. Cause nobody is perfect. Nobody's complete. We are all fill in each other. Voids. We all become each other's strengths. Where weaknesses lie. So if you're somebody, if you're a, solo rider, And if you think hey, you can do it all. No, you cannot. you have limitations, you have time limitations, you have energy limitations, you have skill limitations. Mm-hmm. You have, you your, execution limitations. So find your other, Belgian horse, a person who's. Who's really good at certain things that You do not possess come together. Yes. And then you're gonna realize how big and important, it is to work with other people, And build community. Yes. Because the change only happens, of course. It is triggered By one person or by one entity. Yes. But then the fusion effect with the help of community The fusion effect becomes like an exponential, right? Mm-hmm. So it's important, Especially current times.'cause for me it's, not about any more smartness, it's about, it's model time now. Mm-hmm. Model speed now. Mm-hmm. So More can be done. more can be learned. More can be achieved And more can be executed in a community setting, Whether it's for your company, for yourself. For me that's the biggest takeaway Of, community. The process of learning mm-hmm. Is so exponential. The process the shortcut that you can. Get through community's help. Absolutely. And then Us people say, Hey, ins, inspiration, inspirational. Mm-hmm. Inspirational, And, motivation. They always go up and down, right? Mm-hmm. We are all. Nothing but human. And that's where the community also helps you find other people. I find Jonathan, who in my low times he, says that, Hey dude, this is what I'm doing. This is what we are heading. So, so he's helping me level up. So I see him behave, performing at the highest level. Yeah, I need to go there. So there's so many things, small, little details. that we miss out on. Yeah. Which community really helps and benefits you, which we oversee or overlook when we try and do everything on your, on our own. And we, think that, we can do everything. So that's great. that's for me, that's the biggest takeaway for of communities. Strength.

Brooke: 24:03

Beautiful. Anything to add, Jonathan?

Jonathan: 24:05

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. When I made the decision to step down from the public company and then to sell one of our other companies, I knew AI was going to move ridiculously fast. So I actually put a lot of time and effort into what my next moves would be. Mm-hmm. And it always just came back to community because, launching a technology, launching another course, Like building this next company with community, we're now creating a hive mind of people that are out in the field. Getting information'cause there's too much information out there. Yes. And then you get to come back, feed the entire mind, let's just call it. and then now we can move much faster and we're gonna help support each other while things get very chaotic. Yeah. They get out of the way and then simultaneously people are going to start seeing a little bit of Crazy volatility. It's the reality it's going to happen. Geopolitical, social, We may see unrest and everything. Mm-hmm. So why would you not wanna be around a group of people that is gonna help each other? Yeah. That is global and basically helping each other to the highest degree. So once I saw that, I knew community was the biggest thing. And I've, if I had to go back and do it all over again, there's two things that I would do. I'd find a community and I'd find a mentor. Mm, okay. And then that would help me get to the next degree way faster from all the endeavors that I've done. And that's why I think community is important.

Brooke: 25:18

Beautiful. Well, thank you again so much for everything that you've created and impacted and I see you both as mentors in this time of my life as well and embracing, adapting ai. And thank you again so much for being here and I was just happy to share more about the collective with everybody.

Jonathan: 25:33

So Yeah, and I'm super proud to see you with this amazing podcast that is necessary during the times right now. And I can't wait to see this thing blow up'cause you're doing an amazing job. Thank you.

Umer: 25:43

Yeah, no, thank you. Thank you very much for having us. And yeah, like Jonathan said, keep it up. And I'm pretty sure you're gonna make it big. Yay. Yeah, let's do it. Alright. thank you.

Brooke: 25:54

During this time of rapid technological change and evolution, it's more important than ever to be leaning on each other, to be learning from each other and growing together. This is why I am so active in my community. I try to lean into tech communities and women's communities, speak in engagements whenever I can and grow this online community under the podcast How I AI, because we are all in it together. And there really is no one right way to be learning, to be applying this in your business, to be using it personally. This is why community is so important when it comes to artificial intelligence and how we are adapting it and using it. This is my mission behind the podcast, how I AI and why I love partnering with the collective as a sponsor of my podcast because it's the best way to start to share resources, to learn from one another, to get creative sparks in ideas share our mistakes, share our key findings, share our learnings. We go further together than we do alone. This is really the core impact and center of community. If you wanna learn more about The Collective AI, I can share a ton of resources in my show notes that are exclusive for you. And a thank you for tuning in.