I need your help...

There. I said it.

And I fucking hate saying it.

“I need your help.”

I have spent most of my life being fiercely independent, resourceful and capable, which sounds great until you realise the shadow side of being “the capable one” is that you become absolutely shit at asking for help.

I’m brilliant at helping other people. Need an idea? I’ve got twelve. Need a problem solving? Put the kettle on.

But needing help myself?

I’d rather struggle, Google, procrastinate and spend three hours figuring something out than ask somebody a question that might take them five minutes to answer.

And then along came AI.

AI is changing my relationship with help

I originally became fascinated by AI because of what it could DO. Now I think I was asking the wrong question. The interesting question isn’t:

“What can AI do?”

It’s:

“What can I do now that I have access to this kind of help?”

Because there is something incredibly liberating about being able to say:

“I don’t understand this.”

“I’m stuck.”

“I don’t know what I need.”

“Can you help me think?”

There’s no embarrassment, no worrying that I’m bothering somebody and no pretending I understand something when I absolutely bloody don’t.

I can just ask.

And I think that is potentially revolutionary.

I want to help a million ordinary people

My mission is to help one million ordinary people do epic shit that matters with the help of AI. Not tech bros. Not prompt engineers. Not people building billion-dollar AI companies.

Ordinary people trying to grow businesses, write books, change careers, sort out their finances, launch ideas, improve their lives or make something happen in their communities.

Because I don’t think the biggest opportunity with AI is MORE. More content. More emails. More automated outreach. More AI-generated crap fired at people already drowning in content.

I think the real opportunity is HELP.

AI gives millions of people access to something that can help them think through problems they might previously have struggled with alone. And that changes what feels possible.

But what help do you actually need? 

This is where it gets interesting, because most of us are terrible at answering that question.

So look for the friction.

What are you avoiding? What keeps appearing on your to-do list? What are you pretending you understand? Where are you wasting time? What would you love somebody to just bloody sort out?

Help often hides behind frustration.

And before you ask AI to fix everything, use it to help you figure out what kind of help you actually need.

Try this prompt

“Act as my thinking partner and help me identify where I most need support right now.

Ask me thoughtful questions, one at a time, about what I’m trying to achieve, what feels difficult, what I’m avoiding, where I’m losing time or energy and what keeps getting stuck.

Don’t jump straight into solutions.

Once you understand my situation, identify the five biggest areas where help could make a difference and separate them into:

1. Something I need to think through myself

2. Something AI could help me with

3. Something I need to learn

4. Something I could delegate, systemise or automate

5. Something I need to ask another human being for help with

For each one, suggest one practical action I could take in the next 24 hours.

Finally, challenge me if I’m making life unnecessarily difficult because I’m reluctant to ask for help.”

That final category matters.

Because AI shouldn’t stop us asking humans for help.

It might actually make us better at it.

Which brings me to my ask

If I’m serious about helping one million ordinary people do epic shit that matters with the help of AI, I can’t do it on my own.

So here are five ways you can help me:

1. Introduce me to rooms I should be in — organisations, conferences, networks, communities, schools or businesses trying to make sense of AI.

2. Put my books into people’s hands — recommend one (I have 6 on offer), review one, gift one or send one to somebody who needs it.

3. Invite me to speak — on stages, podcasts, panels, inside businesses and in communities where conversations about practical, human-first AI need to happen.

4. Tell me what you need help with — not which AI tool you want to learn, but the actual problem you’re trying to solve. Those conversations help me understand what ordinary people really need from AI.

5. Help me reach the million — share something I’ve written, tag somebody, make an introduction, bring someone to a masterclass or simply tell another human about the mission.

You don’t need a massive audience. One person helping one person counts. That’s how a million moments of change happens.

Human by human.

Maybe asking for help is the real AI skill

I used to think being capable meant figuring everything out myself. I’m starting to think I had it backwards. Maybe capability is recognising when you’re stuck, understanding what kind of support you need and being brave enough to ask for it.

AI is helping me learn that.

So I’m practising. But I still need your help.

I want to help one million ordinary people do epic shit that matters with the help of AI.

Who do you know?

And perhaps more importantly…

What do YOU need help with?

Julie x