How Everyday Americans Can Use AI To Build Wealth

AI isn’t a someday problem, it’s a right now reality, and it’s forcing a hard question: is the American Dream disappearing, or is it evolving into something new? We sit down with entrepreneur, author, and business strategist Bradley R. Amon to separate fact from fear and talk plainly about what artificial intelligence means for work, wages, and everyday opportunity in the United States. If you’ve felt anxious about automation, layoffs, or getting left behind, this conversation is built to replace doom with direction. 

Bradley shares what pushed him to write Success In An AI World and his broader American Dream series after traveling, meeting people from every walk of life, and hearing a growing belief that only the elite can succeed. He argues the opposite: AI can become one of the biggest wealth-building tools the middle class has ever had, because access to information and guidance is now at your fingertips. We dig into why most people underuse AI, how to think beyond a basic search bar, and how AI agents can help you research industries, spot trends, and reclaim time for higher-value work. 

We also get real about motivation. Bradley’s “head in the sand” warning and his unforgettable bear story underline the stakes: you don’t need to outrun the future, but you do need to move. From career resilience to entrepreneurship, we talk about finding problems worth solving, learning fast, and using AI wisely to build a life that actually feels like progress. 

Subscribe for more conversations like this, share the episode with someone who’s worried about AI, and leave a review. What’s one way you want to use AI to improve your work or income? Bradley's Books On Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Bradley-R-Aman/author/B0H52Y38WV or his website: https://youramericadream.com/

Transcript

AI And The American Dream

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Artificial intelligence isn't coming someday. It's already changing the way we work, earn, and build our future. But does that mean the American dream is disappearing or simply evolving? Today we're joined by entrepreneur, author, and business strategist Bradley R. Amon to separate fact from fear and explore how everyday Americans can thrive in an AI-driven world. Stay with us.

Meeting Bradley And Why This Matters

SPEAKER_02 0:23

Well, hello, my friends, and hello, my new friend Bradley. How are you today?

SPEAKER_03 0:30

They never see what goes on before this, do they?

SPEAKER_02 0:33

Y'all have no idea what Bradley and I just went through to make this happen. So you better not go anywhere, guys, because we worked hard to make this happen today. Thank you so much.

SPEAKER_03 0:45

Yo, and thank you. Listen, I I first want to say uh that I am a huge fan, and I know you hear that all the time, but I am. I I never enough. We're yeah, we're we are very much kind of kindred spirits.

SPEAKER_05 0:58

Yes, sir.

SPEAKER_03 1:00

In the very same dynamic. And uh so I'm very glad to be here. And on top of that, uh wonderful our 250th anniversary as a nation. What a great, what a what a great time to be alive for the 250th and excited to uh to celebrate it with everyone.

SPEAKER_02 1:19

I I I have to tell you, is as soon as this came across my well, not my desk, but I guess technically my desk uh for this interview, I cannot tell you how fast of a yes this was for me. So they yeah, they they run it by like, are you interested in um you know doing this interview? This is what the book is about, this is what you know that the bio, you know, the whole works. And um it within seconds, I was like, yep, book it, make it happen. So I was so excited to talk to you for multiple reasons. One, patriotism. I just I love I love my people who love love this country. And uh I do believe that I saw in your bio that you're a veteran. So thank you so much for your service. Um yeah, yeah, have my heart right at that alone, that alone. Um, you got me. So yeah, thank you.

SPEAKER_03 2:08

No, so glad to be here and so excited, and what a pleasure. This is I recently uh uh ticked off one of my uh bucket list items. I uh uh I took a trip. I'm a pilot, and so I fly, I fly myself, and um we uh we took a trip overseas in my plane. Wow flying over water, and you get it to a point where you can't see anything but water for you know hundreds of miles. I mean, it's scary. Yeah, and always always wanted to do it. And I went to the Bahamas. I went to I went from Florida where I live part-time, and I flew to Exuma, and uh I achieved a bucket list that and for me, I'm 67. It took a while to get that done. You know what? It it took courage to get that done.

SPEAKER_05 3:02

Sure.

SPEAKER_03 3:02

You know, I fly a single-engine aircraft, and you know, you leave it to the Lord because when that engine goes, there's no second engine, you know. But uh but anyway, I don't know why I brought that up, but I I don't know, but I love that you did.

SPEAKER_02 3:15

That's so incredible. And I would have never guessed that you're 67. So you're everything that you're doing, you're doing it right, sir, for sure.

SPEAKER_03 3:23

Well, that's uh that's exactly why I like you so much. You're you're you're honest.

SPEAKER_02 3:32

I am honest, I'm very honest. And um, so another thing that I I was excited about in talking to you is is this topic. So your book, listen, we could sit here and talk about all the stuff and things all day. I know that we could, but I I promise you I'm not gonna keep you all day long. I could try, but that's not very fair to to your wife or anyone. So um I will ask you about your book because you're talking about a topic that I am slightly obsessed with talking about to anyone who'll listen, which of course is AI. AI seems to make people feel like one of two things, right? Either they are super, super excited about it, or they are incredibly nervous and and resistant to it. So I would love to know um what was the moment that made you think like, I need to write a book about this?

SPEAKER_03 4:22

It's a great question.

Why He Wrote The Books

SPEAKER_03 4:24

Um well, so uh just a little background. I uh I retired in October of uh I I rehi I retired Halloween of 23.

SPEAKER_05 4:38

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_03 4:39

I don't know why. I don't know why that as the closing date, that was it. But my wife and I uh and as a pilot, we traveled everywhere. We all we did before that to some degree, but we really traveled once um my commitment to that company left. And um we we really engaged with people of all walks of life. We we engaged with farmers, we engaged with uh manufacturers, we engaged with doctors, we you know, we just ran into everybody between um uh hotel lobbies, uh airport FBOs, uh dinner engagements. Uh we we I've always been one of these people that really love to hear the story about successful people. But so I'm having conversations, and what we find, and what we found during that time, was uh became alarming to us. It wasn't so bad in the beginning, but it within a year um we we found a lot of people that have the feeling that the American dream is no longer obtainable, and uh that it belongs only to the elitists, that only those that uh you know are well educated, well connected, only those people can can go out and make things something happen for themselves. So I have no idea where I do have an idea where this started, but it's progressed and progressed.

SPEAKER_05 6:10

Sure.

SPEAKER_03 6:11

And so, you know, the American dream is the backbone of our country. Our American dream was you can I can go as a child, I can leave the nest, I can go out, and I have every opportunity to do well, to uh let my children do better than me, and you work hard to get that done.

SPEAKER_05 6:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 6:32

And uh, but this is I I noticed that it was it was going away. There were fewer and fewer people that believed in it. And I would suggest to you that if you went to any tenth grade class, uh any high school and talked with 10th graders, there would be no way they could even describe to you what the American dream is. Matter of fact, I would suggest to you that they would want to look around and make sure that no one's hearing them because of how we've barred language anymore. But right uh so uh through that process, um I I'm I'm like, oh man, I I don't know if I want to step into this at all. But then I started hearing people, then then of course, this is when IA our AI came up so prominent. Everywhere you went, it was you know, artificial intelligence, artificial intelligence, it's gonna take my job. Why do we even try? Why don't we just hey, you know, when that bomb goes off, all I want to do is walk toward the light. You know, I don't want I don't want to be involved, and nothing's gonna happen. I'm just gonna live in my parents' basement or I'm gonna do whatever. But very uh, very, very negative. And uh I couldn't figure out what what the what the reason for that was. And uh so um I I started and I said I gotta do something. So I just became I started writing at first and uh taking notes and thinking about doing a book, and you know, and then the more I dialed in on the dream and on on AI, I realized that somebody's gotta tell the story. Somebody's gotta tell the story that when you wake up in the morning, you control your future. Period. End of story. Okay? Yes, sir. That's how I did it. I know a bunch of people that did it. It is available. I could do it today, just like I did 40 years ago.

SPEAKER_05 8:29

Right.

SPEAKER_03 8:30

If not, matter of fact, I think today it would be easier.

SPEAKER_05 8:33

Sure.

SPEAKER_03 8:34

So um I spent a lot of time at my house in Florida and looking out into the ocean and thinking deeply about AI, thinking about people's troubles, people's disbelief. We've lost uh the motivation. Now, don't get me wrong, we haven't lost it everywhere. By the way, there are a number there are probably millions of kids that have it really dialed in. People, unfortunately, they don't ever get the press. You don't very we rare very rarely get to meet them. So I'm not saying that all of our kids, all of our young executives, all the stuff that all the young people coming out of college are all this way. But there is a very big percentage that are. And I want to my thought process is how can I reach them? How can I entice them? How can I get them involved in the American dream? How can I show them that they can go do this? Okay. So uh the unfortunately maybe it's mixed uh and it's categorized not maybe 100% correctly, but my books are about the American dream. My book is how do I how do I motivate you to step out, to find your passion, to do everything necessary to achieve, and and do what you want. If you're if your passion is you want to be a uh, you know, a doctor without borders, and and you want to do that six months a year, and you're gonna you're trying to figure out how to do that, and that's your that's your dream, then go, you know, it it can happen. Do it.

SPEAKER_05 10:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 10:08

Design it, implement it, work on it, succeed. Although I, you know, I don't I did a lot of research and I don't have uh you know a significant background in artificial intelligence, but what I'm here to tell you is that artificial intelligence is it's not about programming. Okay, you know this. It's not about your ability to build a program, to create an app to do anything, it's nothing like that. And unfortunately, people are very seriously uh they

Fear, Job Loss, And Head In Sand

SPEAKER_03 10:44

they they don't understand it and they're not trying. So what I do is I have this thing called the head in the sand segment, you know, it's in uh I think my second book. And you know, the problem that you have is you got people, workers, who I know I've got a uh I've got a reel out there with like 50 people all with their heads in the sand, you know.

SPEAKER_05 11:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 11:09

And saying, you know, time to wake up, time to get your head out of the sand. The problem is, is people won't. Um they take the social media evidence that tells them that they cannot succeed over AI. AI is coming to take your job, AI is going to eliminate the human race. Uh, we're all gonna go on universal basic income. You know, there's it's gonna be done for us. Why do we try? Why do we try? Why are we trying? And um, so those people that believe that are going to have very limited success as we go forward.

SPEAKER_05 11:46

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_03 11:48

So I'll tell you, yeah, I'll tell you a story. I have this uh I have this I have this story in one book, and this is really what I want to point out because this is a situation. We're in a we're in a an age, it's difficult for people because there are only going to be so many winners.

SPEAKER_05 12:06

Right.

SPEAKER_03 12:07

It's just like today. Nobody's not a winner.

SPEAKER_05 12:10

Right.

SPEAKER_03 12:11

You know, we everybody's not a winner. The people that are winners are the ones that went out and worked, set their objectives, worked super hard, had uh, you know, uh very specific goals, woke up every day, worked hard.

SPEAKER_02 12:25

Anyway, yeah, did the things that other people weren't willing to do, right?

SPEAKER_03 12:29

That's the thing.

SPEAKER_02 12:30

Or do the things that, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 12:32

And so uh there those people are are are with us now, but this is gonna be much more emphasized and much more dramatic with AI. Right. Because they're the AI is gonna be, you know, AI is the head of the snake, that it's the head of the corporation, and so all they're looking to do is to cut costs, to find a better way to do it. And um there will be a lot of people displaced because of that.

SPEAKER_05 12:57

Right.

SPEAKER_03 12:58

All right. So as with human nature, uh, many people will just kind of go down with the ship. You know, they won't, they won't go, they won't pursue it. They'll they'll say that.

SPEAKER_02 13:10

They refuse, right? They they kind of like refuse. They just say, I'm not gonna take any, I'm not gonna participate in this, I don't like it, I don't agree with it, I don't understand it. So I'm simply not gonna do it, right? I mean, you see, do you see that?

SPEAKER_03 13:21

I'm simply gonna head to the beach and bury my head, you know. So it's very much going to be a very competitive, a potentially competitive situation. And that meaning that, and this is what the books really are all about. It's like, okay, get your head out of the sand, realize that you are in the midst of one of the greatest opportunities in your life. Yeah, AI will produce more millionaires, draw more people out of the middle class than anything that's happened in the past. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 13:56

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 13:57

And so uh I tell the story in the book about uh the two hikers that are walking through the woods when they suddenly become uh uh upon a uh huge bear on the trail, you know, about 150 yards down there. Bear notices one hike, one hiker immediately drops his backpack, pulls out a pair of running shoes, and starts lacing them up, right? And the other hiker's looking at him all despondent. He's like, What are you doing? You know you can't outrun a bear. And uh the first hiker

Opportunity Mindset And Bear Story

SPEAKER_03 14:30

says, as he stands up, he says, I don't have to outrun the bear, I just have to outrun you.

SPEAKER_02 14:36

There you go. I love that. I love that so much because that that is such a uh depiction of so many things in life. So many things, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 14:48

And so that's kind of where we're at. So you what's gonna happen is we have this incredible opportunity where if you'll do some things, you know, like in my book, I have uh uh uh the I first of all I have uh Success in an AI world, which is the book that you promote. And then a few months ago I released another book that's called um uh No One's Coming to Save You. Okay, success in an AI World. And uh I the third one is at the publisher now, and that's uh uh uh American Dreams Guide for I don't know if the title's quite done, but guide for entrepreneurs.

SPEAKER_05 15:26

But yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 15:27

The point being is that there will be all kinds of opportunity. And if you'll if you'll just go like, okay, so in the past there was was opportunity available, okay. Granted, you know, some people, a lot of people saw it and ran to it's kind of like uh Bitcoin, right?

SPEAKER_02 15:44

Sure, right.

SPEAKER_03 15:46

Bunch of people say, Oh, I'm so excited, I'm so excited. They all ran there, they all bought it. They either did well or they didn't do well, and I have stories on both sides. But uh in this case, this is a monumental change that's gonna create so many fantastic opportunities for the middle class. Think about it, the middle class no longer has to go to Yale, they have at the at their fingertips the most the biggest database of information anywhere forever. Okay, yeah, so you could be in you know Sparta, Tennessee, or you know, Spearfish,

AI For The Middle Class

SPEAKER_03 16:24

South Dakota, and you literally could walk away with a significant education that would bring you to where you want to go. There's just numerous opportunities that what AI is going to produce. You can be a one-man company. You could absolutely absolutely you could pick out your product, you're going like, I believe in this product. Everybody tells me this product's gonna do so well. I agree. Okay, well, then you could literally build uh AI agents that do your marketing, do your accounting, do all your sales, okay, do all your uh all of your interaction skills regarding vendors, uh, and you could you could make $10 million a year and enjoy life too.

SPEAKER_02 17:06

Right. Yeah, it's that is so so true. And and I'm such a huge advocate of using AI wisely and and for it, I mean, for everything that you're saying, I to for me personally, AI has been one of the greatest things to come into existence because I understand how to use it. And and I think, and and I think you might agree with me that so many people, particularly our our middle class crowd, our older generation too, um, they think it's just like another Google search bar. And they, you know, they'll they'll type in or yell in, you know, where where is the closest Chinese restaurant to me? You know what I mean? It's like, oh my gosh, you you there's right? Like you can unleash the entire world. And I love what you said about just it being at your fingertips. I I love that I can have any idea in my head, and I have massive ADHD, so there's a thousand ideas a second going on in my head, and I can just put it into my I use chat, I can put it in there and tell it right and tell it to okay, I want you to build me a step-by-step plan to achieve this goal by X day, blah, blah, blah. It's like I my prompts are huge, like they're super long prompts, lots of detail and everything. Um, and what I love so much about what you're doing is that you are opening up this lane of accessibility to a part of our society that is just not understanding the value that's at their fingertips, like you said. Um, so I love that you are doing that with these books and that you um that you understand it, that you recognize the the value in it. And of course, we could talk, you know, you and I could talk all day about the negative aspects of AI and and the the downsides of it. But I mean, that's always has to do with human usage, right? The way that humans are using it. So right, yeah, it's just incredible.

SPEAKER_03 19:19

It it is incredible. You know, for example, uh, for your listeners and viewers, uh, every day I have an

AI Agents And Practical Use Cases

SPEAKER_03 19:27

AI agent that goes out from all day, 24 hours, goes out and it looks for specific things on AI that I'm interested in. For example, I'm interested in how AI negatively impacts the you know, the nation's workforce.

SPEAKER_05 19:46

Sure. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 19:47

And then then I have one that uh it goes out and it finds um corporate decisions, you know, looking at adding staff, reducing staff, building structures, how it impacts, you know. I I I also uh I also put in there, and it's this one's pretty lean, but you know, I want to know any discussion that comes up about um universal income.

SPEAKER_05 20:17

Right.

SPEAKER_03 20:18

You know, because you know, there's this big thing going on right now where they're the corporations are downsizing, and uh not but the the point of it is is that they're simply doing it for profits, and they're using AI as an excuse. And that's what they're using. So, you know, there's like, well, we've been waiting for this opportunity to shed, you know, for whatever reason, and now it is it's here. So I want to know how much is true and how much is not true, how much is actually being uh replaced by AI and how much is actually being excused by AI. And uh so those are yeah, yeah, that's what I want to know. So every day it doesn't matter. I want you to know that if you have uh uh someone that follows you, and let's say let's say they're into collecting stamps, man, and I'm really really reaching here, okay. I don't know how that came out of my head. Okay, but uh you know, they obviously have a wide collection of stamps, and they can literally they could literally scan the stamps, put them into chat GPT, create a very specific agent that would A, take a look at your entire portfolio, and every day it would come back and tell you what the advanced price is on every stamp that you have by percentage. Yeah and then it would go out and they go, Listen, I'm interested in acquiring this, this, this, and this, you know. And if you wanted to do that by yourself, it would can you imagine the amount of time you'd have to spend trying to do that.

SPEAKER_02 21:52

Your whole lifetime.

SPEAKER_03 21:53

Yeah, and right, you know, substitute golf clubs for stamps, doesn't really matter. And uh and then And then you tell chat that you want to prioritize. Here's how I want to prioritize them. And here is the maximum price at this time that I'll pay. And there's people that are deeply into stuff like that, you know?

SPEAKER_04 22:11

Right.

SPEAKER_03 22:12

And uh every morning you wake up, have your cup of coffee. Here comes. Here's your net value. Here's where they found stamps all across the world. Here's the pricing. I mean, it's just people don't understand what they they're like. You said they're using they're using a Maserati to go pick up pizza.

SPEAKER_02 22:31

Yes, yeah. Makes me crazy. Because like, don't you know what you have at your fingertips? Like anything you want to learn, anything you want to know, anything you want to understand how to do, like you can get you can find out now from your bed if you wanted to. You know what I mean? Like you don't even have to get out of bed to to learn these things.

SPEAKER_03 22:52

It's it's you can just slip on you can slip on your uh what are the new glasses coming out?

SPEAKER_02 22:58

Uh oh, I know what you mean. Those are they the meta meta yeah.

SPEAKER_03 23:02

Yeah, you wouldn't have just put your glasses on while you drink your coffee. Yeah, yeah. But so it's it's

Motivation And Adapt Or Get Left Behind

SPEAKER_03 23:08

there. Uh we've got to find a way to get people intrigued. I think it's gonna take, unfortunately, I think it's you know, everything that happens worthwhile, uh, there's generally a period of fear.

SPEAKER_05 23:26

Sure.

SPEAKER_03 23:27

Okay, and that fear is what drives people to do something, to break habits. If your habit is to, if you're sitting in front of a screen doing accounting all day, and then you're and then you come home and you don't you don't have any other goal beyond that. You just come home, make, make dinner, feed the kids, go to bed, and that's your day. Nothing's gonna change. Okay. Um, those are the people that are gonna be subject to some very negative things.

SPEAKER_05 23:56

Right.

SPEAKER_03 23:56

First of all, if you work in front of a computer all day, you're it that's gonna be taken over. I mean, obviously, not everybody, but yeah, anything that anything that uh uh artificial intelligence can do faster and quicker, and it will, and it'll those jobs will be gone. So you have this this whole theory about uh, you know, how do we wake people up, how do we get them involved, what can we do to to uh get them motivated. And the problem you have is you have the same people who aren't motivated today.

SPEAKER_05 24:29

Yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_03 24:29

They go to work, they do their thing, they come home. This isn't whatever their priority is, it's not about becoming more independent financially and personally. They just wanna they just want to live this life. Well, if you think those people are gonna shift over when things get really tough and go, oh yeah, I'm gonna get involved. I'm gonna go to school, I'm gonna learn about AI, I'm gonna go, you know, I'm in uh the drafting, computer drafting, I'm gonna learn how how that's being changed, what I can do, you know, those are the things that people are gonna have to do in order to come out ahead. And I'll uh I go right back to the bear story. Yeah, you know, if you if you do not think that this is going to impact you, then just keep going. But if you do, now I got a book that'll tell you exactly what to do.

SPEAKER_02 25:19

I love that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 25:20

I look forward to it.

SPEAKER_02 25:21

And you know, yeah, and and I and I think, you know, I'm so glad you said that the way that you did, because I think that's a huge part of this, too. That um, you know, not only am I telling you, meaning you, not only are you telling us that this is what's gonna happen, you know, because we hear that all the time. Everybody's, you know, everybody will tell us, or people will say all the negatives of something. This is happening and this is gonna happen, and that's gonna happen, but nobody gives you a solution, an alternative, a different way to look at the situation and a different avenue to go down to take that negative and turn it into something positive for yourself. And so I I really admire that you took something that's being perceived as very, very negative and does have negative aspects to it, of course. Um, but you took that, you looked at the problem and you said, well, where's there what's the solution? What is a solution to this? And you're like, I've got the simple solution, and I love the straightforwardness of it. Like it's you know, it's adapt or get left behind, get eaten by the bear. Adapt or get eaten by the bear. It's it's like that, you know, it's that simple. And I'm old school, so everything for me is like, you know, can be very black and white. Like it is that simple though, right? Like if you're not going to, you know, join the race here, then I guess I don't know, step aside and and let other people go, I guess, right?

SPEAKER_03 26:50

I I don't think, you know, uh uh the you know how it is in the school system today, you're the school system only moves at the pace of the slowest child. It does.

SPEAKER_02 27:02

Yeah, it's true.

SPEAKER_03 27:03

I mean, in practicality, it does.

SPEAKER_02 27:05

Right. Yeah, I get what you're saying.

SPEAKER_03 27:07

And um, and so in this case, we can't be bogged down by that. If we're if if you're if you have motivation, if you have a desire to do better, if you believe

The 777 Doctrine And Career Scenarios

SPEAKER_03 27:20

that Americans fought and died for your right to have a better life than your parents to protect our country, um, if you believe in all those things, then you should believe in the fact that uh bigger opportunities are available for you. And you all you need to do is step forward and go grab them. They're there, you know. And uh I have hundreds of examples, you know. In the first in the first book, it goes, I actually picked out like uh I don't think you remember, but I picked out um people like uh the airlines and travel agencies and physicians and lawyers and accountants and paralegals and uh assistant um administrative assistants. Sure. And I went through I went because you couldn't do them all. You know, people grow super bored, but I walked through that and I told them exactly what you had to do, step by step. Here's what here's how you do this, you know. That's what it was supposed to be designed for. It was a solutions book. It was designed for, here's what's gonna happen, okay, and why. All right. And here's what you can do. And it's just like you mentioned, you know, there I tried to provide solutions because right now there's no there's nobody out there doing that. All they're doing is trying to tell you what AI means. I mean, honestly, I don't I don't care what AI means.

SPEAKER_02 28:48

Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_03 28:48

I want to know what it's gonna do. I'll never be a computer programmer. Okay, I don't want to be a computer programmer. Okay, but in this in this era right now and going forward, you'll never have to do that. That's all gonna be done for you. You're simply gonna, you know, tell it what your outcome is, and it'll tell you how to get there, you know. That's pretty impressive.

SPEAKER_02 29:10

It's so impressive. I and it's uh it's so impressive to me that you took something that most people will view as as complicated, overwhelming, like just too much information, and you're giving it to them straight. And I I think that's so important that you're not bogging it down. Like I, you know, I'll use as an example. You ever see uh a recipe online, and it's like this, you know, long thing of their trip to Italy and the mountains and then this, and then you know, you don't get to the recipe till the very, very, very end. The very last section has this like little tiny recipe, but you had to go through all this stuff to get to it. Um, and you know, people, you know, our attention, let's face it, our attention spans are very short now. Um, so I I love that you put all of the meat in the books or books. I'm sorry, I said book, books, uh, in the books so that they're getting exactly what they need from it and what they want from it, which is so huge. It's so valuable at this point. I love that you actually thank you, thank you, thank you.

SPEAKER_03 30:15

And you know, um what people need to understand is I mean, I I I'll probably never make a dime off the book, any of the books. Okay, it's not about the money. It's about the it's my it's my way to give back because you know what? Uh I became a millionaire by the time I was 40. But what they don't know is that when I was 10, I was selling juicy fruit gum door to door in my neighborhood. Okay, I'd buy it for five cents a pack and I'd sell it for 10. And uh yeah, and got already an entrepreneur, yeah. Yeah, I bless my parents, you know. I I can only imagine them going to the local shop, dragging the their son along, and one of the neighbors sees us, you know, and they're gonna like, oh, I feel so sorry for them. You know, they're obviously really in really bad straits, you know. Right, right. Oh, that's my but um so in my second book, I I tried to take it a little bit further, and I came up with something called the 777 doctrine.

SPEAKER_02 31:18

Okay. So I already sounds interesting.

SPEAKER_03 31:21

Yeah, well, I'm gonna tell you this that uh that's that's two years, by the way. Okay. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 31:27

Okay, thank you.

SPEAKER_03 31:28

That's where that comes from. Okay, and uh and yeah, so I didn't pull that wasn't some kind of uh uh demonic uh set of numbers looking for you know some some kind of out-of-body experience. It's about two years, it's talking about two years. And what it basically what it says is that's what's for you to completely excel, and you when you and you have the time, you let's use it as an example. You have a job. Yeah, you're uh you're an operations manager in a paper warehouse, okay? And uh you are work diligently working every day, looking at inventory levels, looking at uh when paper's coming in, where it is in the scheme of the production schedule, uh what's the volume that's coming in, how how do you adapt, you know, all that stuff, right? And you've been there 10 or 12 years and you're just doing an outstanding job. And every review, you get all the positive stuff, you know. But as you are there, you're starting to look at like uh all of a sudden they bring in a new computer and they it has a uh you know uh what I want to call it, you know, a dash panel, and I'll come up with the word in a minute. But anyway, you go to that head panel, and there's everything there, you know, production schedule, uh just click, click, click, click, and then add some things, do some things. So you see that, and then you start reading about all the automation coming in from um AI, and then you notice that uh there are fewer jobs related to entry-level, like internships. Every year the place used to be packed with interns, you know, and uh that's when they would be evaluating them and looking like who they're gonna make offers to. Uh now there's less than half the amount that were in there before. Okay. But you're seeing all this, and then at lunch, you know, you and your coworkers are all talking about, well, you know, AI is taking away a lot of jobs, you know. What do you guys think? Are we in line for any of that? Or, you know, blah, blah, blah. Okay. Well, they set in stoop, and again, their heads are in the sand. They they do not, many, the majority of them do not think outside of the box about what what can I do? What should I do? How should I do it? Okay. And then one Friday, uh, you know, the guy gets a call to HR, and he thinks it's probably because he's he's got a raise coming, you know. And he goes in, and in 20 minutes he's he's out with his severance package. Uh, AI has taken over all that uh all that job that he did. You know, they he trained AI how to do it, you know. Right. Okay, so now you got a guy that's got now heading home. Uh, by the way, there's you know, 4,000 people in his community uh every year that are getting laid off from AI. Now he's got this big group of people he's competing with to find any job that's even close to what he had. You know, uh the next thing you know, the 401k is being used up, uh the kids' college fund is being used up, and they're in crisis. So now let's backtrack and go, okay, same deal. Um now you're you're at working there and uh uh you start to see the same stuff. It's a you know, this person went, you know, same skill level, same type of personality, started at the same time, knows just as much, and um they uh they start to see this. They start to see, man, and and instead of uh you know going home and playing uh video games, they're they're learning about AI. They're they're trying to figure out how can I, how does, you know, they're doing tremendous research about how does AI play in the in this particular industry? What you know, what what are the things that are happening, what are parallel industries that would be helpful? They're doing all in the meantime, they're also learning AI, they're using it at work the best they can. They try to move toward uh AI related areas because they want to know it because they they they see it coming.

SPEAKER_02 35:26

They see it coming, they see it coming right down the road, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 35:29

Yeah, you know, and so uh long long story short, uh they soon become the person, the go-to person of all the people in the building because she that you understand AI and they need help. And and then the management starts to recognize it, and then they're they're saying, Well, listen, we want you here, there, and you know, the the narrow term would be, yeah, you're gonna run the facilitation of AI as it gets set up throughout the building, or you've learned it so well that you went ahead and started up a second enterprise, you a side job where you're you know you're managing you're you're building a AI logistics arm that can go into these businesses and save them lots of money. And unfortunately, it's either it's the bear scenario. If you go in and go like, well, if I do that, they're gonna lose 40% of their employees, you know. Well, if you're gonna be altruistic, you may this may be a problem. You'll be out with the others sitting with their head in the sand, right? But but otherwise, you're going like, I'm gonna, I've got to spend time figuring out how I can get around this, how I can help this, how I can do this, what can I do? Yeah, and you have to have that mentality, and it is learnable, you know. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 36:46

Um, and so sorry, do you think that is is it unfair of me to say or to to think or to say that AI is really no different in that it's like every other advancement over the decades that everybody says this is gonna be the end of this, like go all the way back to calculators, you know. And I'm sure there were people back then saying, Oh, you're gonna dumb people down now. Calculators are gonna take away, you know, our brains and our ability to add numbers together. What now is are they wrong? Probably not entirely wrong. But I again it comes down to, I feel like it keeps coming down to that same thing that you and I have have talked about from your bare analogy that like I mean, keep up or not, and you know, the consequences will be what they're gonna be. If you don't keep up, you will get left behind. But if you keep up and excel, uh you've got great opportunities potentially, right? I mean, am I oversimplifying, do you think?

SPEAKER_03 37:57

Or well,

History Of Change And Skilled Trades

SPEAKER_03 37:59

um, just a real quick uh comment about the AI and all that. You know, I can't control what happens with AI. You know, if AI, if that turns into a uh, you know, a matrix situation for our world, I'm not the guy that's gonna fix that. So I I tend to be on the more positive side. And I tend I tend to believe that the goodness in people will overwhelm that before that ever happens. Now, that being said, um AI will be uh will become uh the most incredible wealth builder for those that want to embrace it than ever before. You know, you had the agricultural era, right? Yeah, you know, uh for example, outside of Chicago, 80% of the people were were employed in agriculture in some fashion.

SPEAKER_05 38:50

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 38:51

And uh then the war, people came back, and then they went into the cities, and then they started being getting into manufacturing and all that stuff. So there's always been massive amounts of change, and people have adapted in whatever way they will. However, I don't think we've ever seen anything that's uh so vibrant as what we're going to have here. This is going to be incredible. And so people need to educate themselves and then they need to embrace it. They need to uh you know be smart about the process and they need to figure out where they fit in there. You know, if you're if your feeling is, hey, I'm a uh I'm a programmer and that's all I can do, well, it's gonna be a it's gonna be really bad for you.

SPEAKER_04 39:37

Right. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 39:38

Okay. You you should go like, well, hey, you know what I've been reading about are the skilled trades. Wow. You know, they're br they're using technology now to design all kinds of things. I'm a programmer. I there's gotta be a way I can fit into that industry. You start, you know, it's very simple. I I've simplified it. I know I have. And the problem that I see is just the motivation. It's the same motivational problem that existed 10 years ago, 30 years ago, 80 years ago. Yeah, it is, it is, but it's gonna be so much uh it'll be so much in the light, right? That we're gonna you're gonna get calls for all kinds of things like universal basic income. And you know, I that's another story for another day.

SPEAKER_02 40:30

We're gonna have to make sure there's another day for another story because uh the topic is so huge. There's so many lanes we could go down talking about with this, right? So we'll we're gonna need a second, we're gonna need a second conversation for it. Um if if viewers remember like one lesson from your books, what do you hope that

His Family Story And Core Lesson

SPEAKER_02 40:53

it is?

SPEAKER_03 40:53

Well, I'd I'd like them to uh to understand that uh my father grew up in a sod shanty uh on the river in the Midwest. He didn't even have uh indoor plumbing, he never saw indoor plumbing until he went to junior high.

SPEAKER_04 41:09

Wow.

SPEAKER_03 41:10

And uh he was during the depression, and his his father was unemployed. There was uh there was something called the Civilian Conservation Corps back in the day. And what they did is they brave they laid bricks for streets in their community. So the government would haul in, you know, tons and tons of bricks, and that's what they did. They tore up the the ground and then they put placed bricks bricks in there. And now I don't know if you've ever been to any smaller communities, but they still have those roads. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 41:39

Yeah, I've seen them, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 41:41

And um anyway, uh it was it was so bad that his mother, my grandmother, uh when he was nine, committed suicide because of the of the life. You know, she just couldn't deal with not having anything any longer. She was just anyway. So I went from that to a father that went off to war, came back, saw all the goodness in the United States, believed in everything that was good, believed in our country. And he passed that on to me. And he told me that uh you could do anything you set your mind to. There's nothing in this country that you can't become if that's what you want. And uh, and so that's why I sold gum at you know, up and down the street and all the other stuff. But uh, so no matter what level you come from, whether you've you know you've grown up in wealth or in poverty, the American dream is available for you. It's always there. So the first thing is don't sell yourself short, get motivated, do something that is going to make you happy, produce uh success and wellness for your family. Put some put something together that's gonna last, it's gonna have some type of hereditary value. And then uh so understand that's available to you, and then understand it it's just hard work, it's no different. It's just that right now the hard work provides tremendous returns. Yeah. If you do it right. You don't you don't have those, didn't have those.

SPEAKER_02 43:22

Everybody had opportunities, but this is when like this is not it's a whole other level of opportunity that I think, right? Uh correct me if I'm wrong. The thing that often stopped people from uh achieving whatever dream that they had in their head of doing um was access to the information to do the things, and of course, money are the two deterrents or lack thereof are the two deterrents, right? And now you have this tool in your hand that erases one of those problems. And there's so many other tools out there to achieve the goals that you want without having to spend a great deal of money, which was never the The case before, right?

SPEAKER_03 44:01

Yeah. I mean, not only that, but the the government will give you money.

unknown 44:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 44:07

If you're if you are if you want it bad enough, they will give you the money. SBA will give you money. They'll do it. Um, so anything that you want to accomplish is is available. There's nothing today that should hold you back. Any idea. And what I you know, what's crazy is I know you, I don't know you very well, but I think you might be somewhat like me, and that is, I mean, I walk around all day and I see I see hundreds of ways to make money.

unknown 44:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 44:35

Hundreds of hundreds of things. I'm not kidding you. And uh whether they're, you know, some are are going to be uh, you know, gonna be working class stuff, some's gonna be bigger than that. But there's all kinds of ways. All you have to do is have your eyes open. So my last my last thing would be just open your eyes. Look where

Where To Find The Books

SPEAKER_03 44:55

look, you know, your biggest opportunity is where problems exist. Find problems, okay? Find that find the problem, put the solution in. It has so many people have become so wealthy just doing that.

SPEAKER_02 45:11

Yeah, it's it's so incredible. And and I I just want to touch on that really quickly, too. That that is absolutely true. I mean, you can anybody can look up that information right now, and that is a fact that that this is uh the invention, the creation of AI has afforded the possibility and the ability for so many more people to achieve financial wealth that it it's it's mind-blowing the the possibilities that are that are out there. And and um I I love that you created a series of books that will help people motivate them and inspire them to actually make proper use of of those tools and those opportunities for them. But man, oh man, you hit it right on the head. It takes work, you know, it's not the back breaking physical labor work, you know, that that once upon a time that it had to be in order to achieve anything. Now it's like literally, like we said, just sit sit down and think and work.

SPEAKER_03 46:14

Well, listen, nobody uh you you are a prime, I'm guessing you are a prime example of what we've been talking about. I doubt that somebody came to you and said, listen, uh Elsa, here's a million dollars and here's the roadmap. Nope. And if you just go, if you'll and call me if you need help, you know. Right. Uh and uh and you'll be successful. You fought through that. You you you had, I can only imagine a number of moments when you were prepared to give it up, just like I can't do it anymore.

SPEAKER_02 46:46

Yeah, I don't know about you, but um, in my particular lane, there was nobody around me, no one in my my I call it my real life, in my real life who does the things that I do. So there was nobody who understood or understands um what I do. Like nobody has, I don't think anybody really has any clue what goes on behind the scenes. And you could probably say very similar, like nobody understands the things that you have done or do in order to achieve the things that you want. So it's like you know how unique that is.

SPEAKER_03 47:18

People have no idea uh how unique that skill is, that ability to see what's happening, to uh to try to fail, to try to fail, and learn from those failures because everybody's gonna have them. And uh so yeah, I I I'm excited. Uh, I wish more people could get that. There's nothing out there that gives you that level of satisfaction.

SPEAKER_02 47:43

It's so true.

SPEAKER_03 47:45

So, so true.

SPEAKER_02 47:46

You're so right. Um, Bradley, this has been such an unbelievable joy to sit and talk with you and listen to you. Um, I'm very excited to read your books. I I feel like I'm gonna gain a lot out of them. So I personally thank you for writing them. I really look forward to reading them. I look forward to uh our audience getting the opportunity to check them out as well. Could you please tell everyone where they can find your books and your website and all of that good stuff?

SPEAKER_03 48:15

You bet. Uh, well, you can always get uh the third book will be released here before too long, but the two books currently you can get at Amazon. And uh if you look up on Amazon with my name, Bradley Amon or American Dream or Success in an AI world, any of that, that'll come up. Uh you can go to my website, which is uh www. your America Dream, not American, your Americadream.com, and then you can you can link from there to buy the books as well. In there there are there are blogs uh and um so you you can you can read up more on what my philosophy is on it, but it's all about people trying to reach their potential. That's all I love that we got we got to have you know we're gonna we're the greatest country on the planet, and we need people that understand that and have a desire to bring that forward, to continue that process, not weaken it, be part of the solution, not part of the problem.

SPEAKER_02 49:26

Yeah, yeah. The American Dream series, uh, it is um, I am a firm believer in the American Dream. I love it, and whatever that means for every individual, whatever that means to you, um I know what it means to me, you know what it means to you. Uh, and and it is it means that this is the land of opportunity and that has not changed. That is ever the case. And and I love that you are giving another app uh opportunity and an avenue for people to just find that lane for themselves in in this AI world. So again, thank you for doing that. And you're welcome. Thanks for having me. Absolutely. This was me.

SPEAKER_03 50:06

It uh it see, I told you about that uh bucket list item earlier.

SPEAKER_02 50:10

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 50:10

Meeting with you today, another bucket list item.

SPEAKER_02 50:13

Oh, my heart, thank you so much. My goodness, you're gonna my ego is just gonna be huge. Thank you. It's not, it won't be. I'm humble and grateful. Thank you so much. Take care, and we will, guys, uh, guys, the um the links will be in the show notes for you all. So you'll be able to click right on it, go right to his books and his websites, and um check out everything that Bradley's got going on. And we'll keep an eye out for that third book, too. So thank you again and have a great rest of your day. You've got a story worth sharing.

SPEAKER_00 50:42

Now it's time to tell it

Host Book Promo And Closing

SPEAKER_00 50:44

well. Whether you're an author, entrepreneur, influencer, or podcast guest, stepping in front of the camera or microphone can feel overwhelming. On the other side of the mic is your practical, encouraging guide to becoming a confident, authentic, and engaging interviewee. Written by media personality and best selling author Elsa Kurt, this book blends real world wisdom from hundreds of interviews with a touch of humor, grace, and heart. It's more than a how to, it's a roadmap to presence, professionalism, and peace in every conversation.