AI is not going away despite how we feel about it. This week’s episode is a little different. Hear from various business owners about their feelings around AI, how they are using and my thoughts about how our insides might be contributing to our fear of using it.
Resources
- Rose Crompton – Content Marketer and Copywriter
- Chantelle Davis-Gray – Squarespace Websites, Brand and Card Deck Designer
- Ruth Furman – PR Consultant
- Josh Hall – Web Design Coach and Podcast Host
- Kinsey Soderberg – Founder, Authentic AI®
Listen on Spotify
Listen on Apple
Disclaimer: A lot of below is copy/pasted from the transcript. There are grammatical errors and typos. I’ll fix them another day.
Fight It or Friend It? That’s the question we’re exploring today when it comes to Artificial Intelligence (or AI), specifically for us solopreneurs. How do we decide whether, or how, to use AI in our business?
The idea for this episode was sparked from a comment I saw on a Emily Aborb’s post. She’s a copywriter and she shared ethical ways to use AI in our business, and someone commented – taking issue with how AI is built using copyrighted work, asking how we, as creatives, can support something that potentially devalues our work.
That comment stuck with me. It felt like it highlighted a real tension but maybe missed offering solutions or deeper education.
So, consider this episode my attempt to share some of that education. It is by no means comprehensive. I invited five guests to share their unique perspectives – their take on fight it or friend it. My hope is that hearing these different viewpoints helps you digest the arguments and form your own informed opinion. Because ultimately, AI is a tool. It shouldn’t make decisions for us.
And let’s be clear – when I say AI today, I’m mostly talking about the generative tools many of us are hearing about – ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude – the ones we might use for writing, brainstorming, or other business tasks. I’m not going into cost or environmental impact today, just focusing on the core ‘use it or not?’ question for solo business owners, in a sort of more ethical/self exploratory perspective.
Before we move on, couple of notes… one, I’m going to share exactly how I used AI in the creation of this episode and as usual, there is a supporting blog post with reference links for all the people who contributed today if you’d like to follow them for their wisdomness and connection at compassdigitalstrategies.com/ep57.
[intro]
So this whole AI thing threw me for a real loop when it “hit the scene”. I had an initial feeling of ‘whoa, hold up’ – what’s going to happen to my job? What I do? Will anyone need me anymore? I had a lot of fear about my worth. (Like I don’t have enough of that to deal with so let’s just tack on so more shall we?)
I noticed I was feeling super guilty about using it. Like oh my gosh, people are going to think I’m a fraud, and then all of a sudden shame appeared. And I’m what the shit. No. I’ve been trying to work all this personal crap out over the past couple years and some new technology is gonna undo all that? No way. Nu-uh.
I can’t recall what helped me explore more but I started thinking ‘Hmm, I wonder…’ And now I’m in this space of really trying to figure out where AI actually fits in my business. And how can I use it in a way that I don’t feel icky.
First up, let’s address the ethics, the feeling that AI might be undermining creative work. Let’s hear from someone who consciously chooses to ‘Fight It’ based on these principles…
Chantelle Davis-Gray… Squarespace Websites, Brand & Card Deck Designer
As far as AI goes, it’s not something I use personally or in my business pretty much. I hate that it is essentially using stolen intellectual property and creativity.
Within my business of website and card deck design, I don’t use the AI options, like not just chat GPT and those kinds of things, but now there’s a lot of AI options actually built into the software that I use.
So I really keep my work, human humanity, human made. But I also do understand why other people use it .
So in general I’m pro-choice about it. It’s a no for me. But you do you. However, I really wish there was more consent. Like so many companies now essentially force us to opt into them. Mining our words and imagery to feed these apps.
And so I hate that aspect of it. Like for a lot of these apps, if you don’t want them to do that, you just can’t use the app at all. And I feel like there really should be an option to just not let them do that part.
The point about protecting intellectual property is absolutely valid; I can’t imagine anyone disagreeing with that part.
It’s tough when you see your work out there without your permission. I know photographers who have been dealing with this for years.
But I think it goes a bit deeper than just ownership. It’s also about what this kind of unregulated AI generation does to the quality of what we’re seeing and the trust (sometimes blind trust by people) we have in it. It kind of waters everything down.
On that note, I want you to hear from someone who deals with the power of words every single day. My copywriter, Rose Crompton, who writes for websites and various mediums has some viewpoints that will interest you…
Rose Crompton… Content Marketer and Copywriter
Hi, I’m Rose Crompton, content marketer and copywriter for small businesses and fellow freelancers, and I am largely anti ai. So a question that was put to me is how do I use AI in my own business? And right now, I currently don’t. I haven’t signed up for Jack DTP, Jasper, or any of those equivalent AI chatbots at the minute.
And the reason is because I’m quite wary of this technology. Right now I don’t have the time to sit and learn about all of its capabilities whether good or bad, and how that works. Now, I know I read a lot of stuff about how these large language models are being fed creative work that the companies essentially don’t have copyright to, and that it is doing creatives out of their living and their income.
I don’t really wanna support that.
Why would I add my own personal details or my business IP to a machine that seems to have a lot of negativity around it if I don’t have the time right now to fully understand what else is capabilities are. So I guess. You would liken it to the sort of feeling that you might get when a door-to-door salesperson or charity worker might come round and they’re asking you to sign up for something to donate to something, and you are kind of like, whoa, I need time to think about this.
I don’t wanna stand here and feel pressured into doing something, which is kind of how it feels like with everyone who’s like, oh, ai, ai, ai. It’s the best thing ever. It can speed everything up. It’s so great. I don’t want to feel that when it comes to my creative outlets and my business and the control I have over it right now.
I don’t wanna hand that over to a machine that I don’t understand at this point. So in a similar way that you might say to those people who come and knock on your door, thanks for calling in. Thanks for letting me know that you’re there and that you are around. I will do this in my own time. Right now it’s a no and you close the door and you go about your day.
That’s kind of how I feel about. Using AI in my business right now. So I don’t, at this time I don’t because I can’t find out everything that I need to, to feel comfortable and happy about bringing something into my business that I don’t fully understand. I’m just struggling to see at this point in time how using AI for copywriting is really benefiting my clients rather than just unnecessarily taking up their time when they can just talk to another person, talk to me, talk to the copywriter that they’re working with, and get what they want.
In an easier, smoother way. I don’t wanna say quicker, because it might not always be quicker. But to get something that is easier and smoother process in terms of how it’s working, rather than feeling something into a machine, having to think about it, tweak it, and then possibly fact check it and then publish it.
It just seems like a lot of unnecessary steps. So I am working with a client at the moment who used chat GTP, for the first for the first time. I’m working with a client who’s used chat GTP, on her copy and her website, and she’s asked me to rewrite it, which I’m happy to do. I’m happy to take a look at it now.
This is just my first experience of being faced with AI generated copy that I’ve been asked to rework. And honestly, I’m finding it kind of. Difficult to pull. What’s good from it. There are a few words and phrases, but the structure is all over the place. The copy sounds very generic. There’s no feelings to it, there’s no kind of connection between what’s written and the person that she’s trying to target, her ideal clientele.
And so I’ve just found it easier to scrap the whole thing and, and write it. Starting again, really? So, but this is my only, this is my first experience of doing that, and so that I realized that’s an unfair. Approach. And so I asked a fellow copywriter and colleague who does do lots of this work for her clients, how does she find it?
Like how does she find editing AI generated copy versus editing copy provided to her that’s been written by another person? And. Interestingly, she said that time-wise there isn’t much difference between how long it takes her to edit AI copy and human written copy, person written copy. But she said that there is a difference between the changes that are needed.
So AI has a habit of sounding outdated. It writes in patterns, so the copy becomes very monotonous which isn’t what you want for marketing copy. You don’t want it to, you don’t want the reader to switch off. You want them to stay engaged and feel energized and excited by what they’re reading so that they take action and they do the thing you want them to do.
And so she says that for her editing AI copy, you know, she needs to. Switch up sentence lengths, play with the structure a little bit more, change some of the wording so it’s more up to date. Whereas when she’s editing copy written by people, the challenge is making sure that all of the detail is there.
Because I guess as humans, we sometimes have a habit of getting ahead of ourselves in some respects. Or we might just assume our reader knows something when they don’t, and so we’ll need to fill in the blanks. And she said for her editing human copy means making sure all of the information that the, the reader and the person taking in the copy needs is there and is on page.
And if it’s not, then that’s when she edits and she fills in gaps or asks the writer to go back. So while to, to kind of sum up a little bit, while I’d never tell a business owner not to use AI copywriting. I would always ask them what are they wanting to get out of their copy. If they are looking to have something written that’s very short, very quick, that’s maybe placeholder or if their, their mail, their main sales revenue isn’t going to be driven by the copy itself because sales come through another avenue then okay.
Use. Use a chat bot, use AI copywriting because the likelihood is that you are not the right client for a copywriter anyway. And I realize that sounds brutal. But what I mean by this is if you’re just looking for speed and you’re looking to get something turned around quickly, AI can do that for you. And it’s likely to do that for you quicker than than working with a copywriter, assuming you only need a small amount of copy and something quite simplistic because you’re gonna get out what you put in, right?
That’s been said a lot about ai, but the copy you get out of AI is only as good as the prompts you put in. And I did get sent a video about an AI generator that’s able to make a really long form sales page and that it is performed very well for the company that used it, but it took a 30 page document in order for the chat bot to come up with that, which seems huge and I’m yet to meet a small business owner.
Who doesn’t like writing as it is to have the time, the inclination, the effort, the energy, the know-how to come up with a 30 page document in order to get the, the long form sales page that they want. So if you are looking for copy that’s different to your competitors. If you’re looking for copy that seamlessly ties in with your brand and that is consistent and that is creative and that can maybe look at things from a different angle to, to what’s been gone before, I don’t think AI can replace that creativity of a human copywriter.
You can’t, you can’t replace that with artificial intelligence at the minute, and you have to remember. That is because it scrapes what is already out there. It scrapes what has already gone before. It’s not going to give you anything new. It’s not going to be able to interview your clients for you. It’s not gonna be able to sit down in a room and look at their faces as they answer questions about how they felt when they used your product or your service.
Okay. It can’t talk to them. It can’t hear that intonation, that tone of voice. Can’t get that. There’s a great thread by Vicki Ross UK copywriter on lines that she doesn’t think AI could have ever written. And, and you know, I, I think that speaks a lot to the differences between the creativity that we can get from our minds, even though if it takes us longer to get there, so be it.
It comes from us. And I don’t think a machine is gonna be able to replicate that. And there’s been a huge trend at the minute of putting in old adverts, really successful old copywriting and adverts that did well. You know, like the VW ones of like, how does the man who drives the snowplow get to the snowplow?
You know, those ones or they laughed when I sat down at the piano. Then they all listened when I started to play. They’ve been uploaded into AI and people have asked it, oh, you know, regenerate this. But for a modern product. And it’s just spitting out the same thing. It’s not coming up with those new, big, creative ideas.
And I think that only people are gonna be able to do that and can do that. So yeah, that’s, that’s my take on AI right now. Hopefully there’s been something useful in this in terms of how you might feel about it when it comes to using AI copy. Specifically in your business, and if you found this interesting, I do write more on AI copywriting in my own blog, which you can find@rosemcrompton.com.
So, you hear how Rose talked about the impact on the actual words and how they feel. Now, think about how that ripples out into the professional world. If the quality feels off, if it lacks that genuine human touch, how does that affect how businesses and individuals interact with each other?
How do you build connections and trust?
Ruth Furman… PR Consultant
Let’s get PR Consultant, Ruth Furman’s, take on all of this and the importance of authenticity in her field…
In my business, I run a 24-year-old public relations and marketing firm based in Nevada, and I do work nationally and. Regionally as well as locally in various markets, including Nevada. And I am going to be candid and share that I have been a lurker and observer, but a late adopter to ai and.
One of my challenges and one of my issues with AI in my business is that many journalists that I work with are very su suspect, suspect of AI applications in public relations. So occasionally I. Clients will respond to a media inquiry and they will either respond using AI or they will run their responses through ai.
And it’s, it’s super obvious because it seems. Too perfect in some cases, and it’s not authentic. It doesn’t feel like it’s in their voice. So because of that, I have really been suspect that being the case, I really am starting to look into ways that I can use AI in my own business, in my own marketing, my own promotions more efficiently.
And occasionally I will use it for social media but in many cases. I am very inefficient and do everything super old school, so something I’m really curious about. Just something that I’m cautious about.
So, we’ve heard some really great points here – the ethical considerations, the potential dip in quality, and that popular business element of authenticity.
If these concerns felt like they hit the nail on the head with you, it might be because of the pride you feel in your reputation, your services, and your brand. You fear these are in danger in some form. Or maybe there’s some guilt creeping in. But more on that in a little bit.
There are people like us who are starting to find really practical ways to use AI in their businesses. It’s almost like moving from seeing it as an enemy to figuring out how it can be a helpful, even necessary, tool to get things done more efficiently.
Let’s hear from someone who’s embraced this shift – Here is Josh Hall, Founder of web design coaching community Web Designer Pro™ and web agency In Transit Studios, and podcast host of Web Design Business with Josh Hall, boy that guy is busaaaay! – Let’s here how he’s utilizing AI.
Josh Hall – Web Design Coach + Podcast Host
Hey friends, this is Josh, founder of Web Designer Pro ai. Now, it’s interesting because I’m somebody who is a late adopter to AI and definitely somebody who’s more on the less impressed, more hesitant side of ai That said. I think it would be foolish to not use AI in some capacity in your business. So what I’ll do is just share quickly how I’m using AI right now as a community builder and for ideation and a few other ways, and then maybe just share a couple things in regards to the.
The understandable apprehension for creatives. So let’s actually start with that, because a lot of creatives, artists, writers, designers, feel like AI is gonna take jobs and ruin, basically, you know, take work, steal it, and. Whether they get paid themselves or just take jobs, whatever it may look like, that’s the app.
That’s the main apprehension that I’ve noticed and, and I felt in, in some way. But here’s what I’ve realized, and it’s a cheesy quote, but I do believe it’s very true, especially now, I. AI is not going to take it. My audience is web designers by the way. So I’ll just frame this towards web designers, but just know it will work towards graphic designers, SEOs, copywriters, any creative.
But the quote is this, and the idea is this. AI will not take web designers jobs. Web designers using AI will take web designers jobs. So lemme say that one more time. AI will not take web designers jobs. Web designers using AI will take web designers jobs, meaning the idea of AI is just to become more efficient and quicker and more productive.
All the cheesy corporate terms you could think of is kind of true when it comes to ai. Now, that said, I, I think AI itself and all of these different large language models and different tools, and even some of these like site builders and. I think they’re a long, a decent bit far away from somebody saying, Hey, build me a website, and it being dang good.
I think it’s a good starting point with some of these AI builders and I think the general public is getting a little more savvy to prompt, although that’s probably gonna be, I think people using AI is going to be a much, a much longer process like the average people than the AI capabilities like. We all know any tool and system could be top-notch, but it’s about how you use it.
So I think that’s where we’re actually the most safe as designers and creatives is good luck having your client, figuring out what to use and where to go, and how to prompt it correctly. But again, AI’s a great starting point in the case of web design, at least for like starter sites or basic templates.
But I’ve never seen an AI site kick something off. It’s like, wow, that is incredible. Now I could eat my words on that. I don’t know how far we’re away from that.
I want to push a point that Josh made… “Al will not take web designers jobs. Web designers using Al will take web designers jobs.”
The efficiency or the use of AI isn’t about replacing the human element, but about allowing us to channel our energy to focusing on what we do best by handling some of the more time-intensive aspects of our work. He’s found a way to integrate AI without losing that core expertise that defines his value. To see how this looks in practice, let’s hear more from Josh about a specific way he’s actually using AI in his day-to-day operations.
The areas of AI that I think is really important to think about is actually anything that can be repeated, automated or that is more of a junior low level type task.
When it comes to things like support. If you can do, if you can use an AI agent, for example, for support or if like for example, in my community Web Designer Pro, I use a platform called Circle and they actually natively came out with an AI agent, so I didn’t need to find something or it’s one reason I love Circle, they just built it in automatically.
I was able to actually just literally with a click of a button turn on this AI agent. We called it Brock. I let my daughter name it, she named it broccoli. And you can give it certain things to train it. And in my case, it was just every aspect of my community and I filled it with some additional content as well.
And now that little AI agent Brock in my community is answering questions for members, both support finding information, and even doing coaching based off of my newsletters and my coaching that I’ve done inside of Web Center Pro. And it is literally. It has, and I’ve only, I’ve been using it for less than a month and it’s literally probably, I would say maybe 10 xd, maybe a hundred xd, the amount of communication that I would’ve received.
But it’s already going back and forth. ’cause I can see the communication with members and it’s basically, I’ve replicated myself times a hundred and less than a month with just this AI agent. So. That’s one good practical example of how I’m using it and how I’m understanding the value of it. The cool thing about Brock is we are using it just for web designer pro material, so it’s not scraping other websites or pulling from the internet.
It’s just my IP and my source material inside a pro that people are getting access to. But instead of DMing me and waiting for a reply, members can always do that on, on the coaching level for me. But now all members get a chance to get indirect knowledge, basically like ai, you know, driven knowledge. And some of the answers are exactly what I would recommend.
So that’s kinda how I’m using it, is for support, for time saving. And those are the kind of things when I stack myself up against other community builders, I would ask, are they doing something similar? Do they have a way to offer support that is, there’s less friction to get your answer, whether you’re finding something, whether you’re looking for advice, whatever it is, there’s definitely always the need for human element when, especially when it comes to strategy and bigger picture things and vision, especially something that hasn’t been created yet.
If you are thinking about. A plan or thinking about something in detail. Now chat, GPT and other large language models can come up with ideas pretty good. But I think we’re, I think humans are safe from the standpoint of either being human, just being authentic, being real, being you, putting your life experience into your stuff, into your marketing.
That’s going to separate you from AI stuff immediately, but also. Moving forward, like being a business partner. I don’t know. In short, as I’m talking my way through this, I don’t know if AI at any time soon is gonna be a business partner for business owners, but creatives do have that opportunity. And yeah, those are the thoughts.
I really don’t think it’s gonna take over completely now. It’s something to continue to keep an eye on. And I think the problem with AI as a whole is it’s just moving so dang fast and there’s so many options and there’s so many tools. I think just like websites, it’s gonna be more of like, who do you trust to follow in this space?
Who. What tools do you resonate with? What just feels good to you? And it’s probably gonna be a matter of if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Like, just like you could switch web design platforms every week, it’s probably gonna be the same thing with AI models. You could use Chat, GPT and Claude and few others.
And with website builders, almost everyone has some sort of AI integration. Now, like I said, circle has the AI agents, like it’s really is gonna be a matter of, of what tools you trust and like to use, and then what people you wanna follow in the space. So. I think that’s gonna be a challenge, but overall I would say absolutely don’t.
Don’t sleep on ai basically. And this is coming from somebody who is not an early adopter and who is skeptical and who I’ve had to begrudgingly start to use ai. But I think what really, apart from some cool things that chat GPT in itself has helped me with, with ideas and just back and forth and ideation.
And a lot of times as a course creator and community builder, I might have some ideas and I’m like. I feel like I’m missing something. What am I missing? I’ve got like, you know, if I wanted to come up with like 10 steps to do something and I’ve got eight and I ask for 10 steps, I’m like, oh, Dov, it’s SEO related.
Yeah, I forgot about that. That is super beneficial for ai. But for me, I. Brock, our AI agent and web designer Pro has just shown me the value of having AI in my business because it has magnified my reach without literally pulling time away from me and then subsequently my family. So, and it’s a huge value add to Web designer pro.
And a lot of members of my community are now saying, like, I had a chat with Brock and he had this to say, and I was like, oh, that’s ama, it’s amazing. Like he’s become kind of this new little member and pro. So yeah, those are some of my thoughts on ai. I hope, I hope they help. And if you’re a designer, just remember that quote, AI is not going to take design jobs.
Designers using AI are going to take design jobs. So put that on your wall above your fireplace, wherever you need to be reminded of it.
What Josh is doing with ‘Brock’ is a perfect example of AI acting as a true tool. It’s not replacing his expertise or his community connection; it’s adding to it. It’s handling those repetitive support questions and organizing information in a way that frees up his time for more strategic work and direct interaction and frankly, freedom.I can definitely relate to that. Even for me, using AI to help organize my thoughts or summarize information has been incredibly helpful in terms of output clarity and efficiency. And I think the really key takeaway from what Josh shared is that ‘Brock’ is trained on his content, his knowledge base. So, while it’s AI, it’s still based from his own intellectual property and unique perspective.
So, we’ve seen how AI can be a powerful tool for individual efficiency, helping us get time back and streamline tasks. But I believe the conversation needs to go beyond our own productivity.
Why might it be important for us, as individuals, to actually engage with AI on a deeper level, even if we have initial reservations? It’s not just about making our own lives easier.
It’s also about actively participating in shaping how this technology evolves. And on that note, I want to share insights from Kinsey Soderberg, founder of Authentic AI®, who has a really important perspective on why diverse voices are absolutely crucial as AI grows.
Kinsey Soderberg – Founder, Authentic AI®
Hey friends, I’m Kinzie from Authentic ai, and when Barb invited me to give my 2 cents on this episode about ai, friend It or foe it, I was really excited because there’s an issue when it comes to embracing ai, esp. Especially for women entrepreneurs or women in general, underrepresented voices in our culture.
That really fires me up. So I’d love to share with you today. Here’s the deal, okay? There’s been studies done that AI. There’s been studies done that men are two times more likely to use the top 50 AI tools than women. And this is an issue for a few reasons, but honestly, one of the bigger reasons is because.
This could dramatically increase the gender income gap instead of decreasing it like we’ve been working at for years. Right? So AI tools have been proven to boost your productivity by up to 40%. That’s like working two extra days per week. So if you think about this in terms of the workplace, if more men are using AI tools than women, they are getting more.
Done. And who is more likely just in general to get that promotion or get that pay raise? Right. So this could dramatically increase the gender income gap in the workplace instead of decrease it and make it more equal like we have been really, really wanting. Right. And then on top of that, the current AI.
Tools, LLM models are actually trained by the users at this point, right? So that means that anything that we are putting into these tools is going into the giant swirling database that these tools are trained on and future models. Could be trained on the information that these tools are giving it, right?
So a lot of people ti sometimes get scared. Does that mean that AI tools are going to steal my ideas? All that different stuff? Well, no. Here’s the thing. The data that these tools are trained on are. Giant like databases, right? Your individual ideas and thought processes aren’t going to be something that these AI tools are going to like, copy, paste, and quote unquote steal.
However, if more men are using AI tools than women and. Putting their ideas into these tools, having their thought processes go into the swirling training databases for future models? Well, in general, more the future models are more likely to reflect the input from the mail users. Right. Whereas. When more women start using these tools, we will all start to add our feminine energy, our empathy, our way of speaking, the things that we care about, right to these tools and future models will be more equal in.
Reflecting our feminine thoughts, perspectives, energy, language, right? So it’s really important for more women and underrepresented voices to use these tools to not only actually get a leg up for once in our history of actually being able to maybe equalize ourselves in the work. Place and whatnot, generate more income for ourselves, save more time for ourselves, create more freedom, which I mean, let’s be honest, women deserve this more than anything.
But also we, it’s up to us to put our feminine energy to use these tools so that future models can. Reflect our own perspectives as women, right? I truly believe that the more diverse people using these tools and putting their own thoughts, opinions, beliefs, into the tools, like the more diverse the data set, the better the future tools will be and the less biased they will be, which they already are biased now, but if we can all start using them more, man, it’s gonna make such an impact in these future models.
And honestly, the way AI shapes our future society.
Kinsey brings up such a great point about diverse voices shaping AI. She and I were talking in a past episode here on the Sweet Spot and she mentioned how women have a sense of guilt when using AI.
I could definitely resonate with that one as I mentioned earlier.
This feeling like we’re somehow ‘cheating’ or not doing the ‘real work’ if we lean on AI tools.
It almost felt… not genuine, like I was taking a shortcut and oh my goodness, that was a trigger around my work ethic. There was this fear that if I used AI, that my work would somehow be less valuable or less mine.
Hearing Kinsey talk about the importance of our voices in shaping AI, it makes me wonder if some of our underlying feelings of whatever we’re feeling, might actually prevent voices from fully engaging with and helping to influence the technology.
Let’s hear more from Kinsey on this idea of guilt and how we might begin to work through these feelings, if we choose to.
I like to share this story of, I still remember the first time when I was being interviewed on another woman’s podcast about AI stuff, and she looked at me and she said, so what do you say to the women who feel guilty for using AI tools who feel like they’re cutting corners and they’re not doing the work?
Right? And I kind of looked at her and I was like. Oh, of course. This is a thing, and this goes so much bigger than just AI tools, right? But AI tools play into it so perfectly. But I have had conversations with multiple women where they feel like using AI tools is kind of cheating. It’s cutting corners.
They’ll be judged for it. They won’t, their work won’t be respected if they use AI tools, right? And of course this makes sense as women. I mean, it’s just kind of the reality of the society that we have been raised in, that we really do need to be more concerned with how we show up in the world. We need to be more concerned, work twice as hard in order to demand the same respect that we get, right.
We need to show that we have worked hard in order to be worthy of the respect and the success. That we see, right? It’s just how our society is and it’s something that truly does need to shift culturally, and it does thankfully start with women ourselves, right? Often we are kind of putting this. Shame, this guilt on ourselves, these expectations on ourselves.
And it’s not our fault. It’s the way that we have been raised in a culture to believe this, right? But if we can shift these internal beliefs within ourselves, and remember that these are tools that we can use to help us. Boost our productivity and save some time using these tools are not cheating. And do you think that our counterparts are feeling guilty for using these tools?
Oh, no, no, no. So let’s go ahead and shift these internal belief SY systems within ourselves and start opening ourselves up to embracing the tools that truly can help us. And while we’re at it, let’s not shame any other women or any other person for using these tools that truly can create an. Equal advantage for all of us in the world.
AI tools are so wonderful for women especially who are managing the burden of the household along with our jobs. They’re great for accessibility for people with disabilities or chronic illness to give them a leg up in a society that has not been fair to them in the past. Right. So when it comes to.
AI tools should you friend it or fo it or whatever it is. I really, really encourage everyone to start embrace using these tools. If anyone has any other AI hesitations or scaries that they wanna chat through with me, please reach out to me. I am at authentic AI for entrepreneurs. I can totally talk to you about climate impact, ethical issues, about how AI tools is not cheating, and also how you can use AI tools.
In an authentic way, because that’s actually what I teach with my brand, authentic ai. Thank you so much for listening to my AI soapbox, my friends, and I’d love to connect with you online or through Barb or whatever it is. And please just continue to get curious about using AI tools because we really need a more diverse population to be using them, and especially putting stuff into these tools that you care about, the things that matter to you so that we can shape the AI future We wanna see.
That’s such a powerful perspective from Kinsey, isn’t it? That really sparked something for me on why it’s so important for all of us to actively engage with AI, even if we have those initial hesitations.
It’s about contributing our unique experiences and perspectives to help educate these technologies. If we step back out of fear, we risk AI being shaped by a very narrow set of voices.
Think about the Mona Lisa. Get a visual in your head. Some would say it’s a masterpiece, right? Now, think about the artist, Leonardo da Vinci. He used the tools and techniques available in his time to create that iconic image.
New tools, new brushes and styles, have come out since then. Has that diminished the Mona Lisa’s significance? Not at all.
Instead, these new tools allow new artists to create entirely different masterpieces, reflecting their own unique visions and the world around them.
Our individual “brushstrokes” – our ideas, our styles, our very human things about us – are like those new tools for AI.
By engaging with it, we’re not replacing the ‘old masters’; we’re adding our own distinct voice to the evolving landscape of creativity and technology.
It’s like saying, ‘Yes, there’s this incredible tool, but what masterpieces can we create with it today?’ Instead of fearing it will replace the Mona Lisa, maybe we can use it to inspire entirely new forms of art and expression that we haven’t even imagined yet.
So, we’ve covered a variety of perspectives and thinking points, yeah? From very real and valid concerns around ethics and quality – the ‘Fight It’ perspective – to the practical efficiencies and, some might argue more importantly, the call to engage with and shape the future of AI – the ‘Friend It’ perspective.
And I really want to highlight the following as the takeaway for this episode… AI is a powerful tool. It’s not here to replace your uniqueness, your critical thinking, your creative spark, or that genuine human connection you’re able to have with your audience.
Remember that the choice of how – or even if – you use AI in your business is ultimately yours. But I kindly encourage you to get informed, to explore resources like this episode, and if you’re feeling even a little bit curious, maybe dip a toe in and experiment cautiously, when you’re ready. Don’t allow an underlying fear make your decisions.
Define your own ethical boundaries, figure out what feels right for you and your brand. Because who knows what exciting new things might come about when we approach new tools with an open mind.
I’d like to offer these questions to ask yourself if you’d like to dig a little deeper to your insides.
You don’t have to ask every single one. Just pick one and keep it in your head for a few days. See if you answer yourself while you’re in the showering or cooking dinner or some other activity you love that allows your mind to roam around.
I have 6 for you to choose from.
- When I think about using AI in my work, what’s the very first feeling that comes up for me? Is it a sense of anxiety, fear, or something else?
- Beyond the idea of AI ‘stealing,’ what are some of my biggest worries about using it into my creative process?
- What are some other big changes or shifts in technology that I’ve been hesitant about in the past? What were the underlying reasons for that hesitation?
- If I were to experiment with AI in a very small, low-stakes kinda way, what would be the absolute easiest first step I could imagine taking?
- Let’s say, for a moment, that the copyright issues around AI were completely resolved. Would my feelings about using it change? If so, how?
- Could it be that part of my hesitation with AI is tied to a fear of the unknown or a feeling of not being in control of the creative process?
I’d love to hear your thoughts on all of this. If you’re listening where comments are available, please share your perspective! Or feel free to reach out to me directly on Instagram or through my website at compassdigitalstrategies.com.
Behind the Scenes on How I Used AI for this Episode
Okay, so now I’m gonna share. I didn’t write this part out. I feel like I always go off on tangents and things just come out kind of blubbery like that. Blubbery, that is not even a word. But I wanted to share exactly how I went through this process for this particular episode, because yes, guilt is still weighing on me and it’s gonna take a while to get through that.
And it, this was a lot of my thoughts, but it was more that it was written by actually a combination of chat, GPT and Gemini. So, for example, all the questions, those definitely are not mine. I am not in the the space of knowing what questions to ask myself. So I always have to find out what questions to ask from somewhere else.
So all of those were not mine. The idea to prompt those questions? Definitely mine, because I’ve been exploring that over the past couple of years, and I know that when people say that, I’m like, okay, well what am I supposed to ask? How do I hear this? I don’t even know. So that’s why I wanted to give that bit of information about going and taking a walk or doing whatever where wherever you have your mind, where it can roam around and not think, that’s when things come into your head.
If you can keep that one question in the forefront of your head, then it might just pop in as an answer. Maybe it won’t. That’s the other thing too. It’s just all like, woo, whatever. And when I got the idea for this episode, the title is actually what first came into my head. I was like, oh my gosh, this would be a great episode.
Like let’s think about friended or fight it. I don’t even know where that came from. And then I wanted to put the other part, I wanted to put that at the beginning ’cause I think I really like that fight it or friend it sort of perspective. But then the title I was like, oh, I can’t use chat GPT for this now because it’s gonna come up with something that I really like and I didn’t want to use it from chat GPT.
So I was like, no, I need it to come from my head. And then I came up with the rest of it. I really hate colons, so then I had to rework it some. And so at the moment of recording here, the, the title is fight It or Friend It, the Case for AI in Small Business or something like that. But I might change it too ’cause I know that the title makes a big difference to get people in, right?
Just like blog posts and trying to do something where it kind of looks like it’s a, a two-sided. Sentence with colons, I cannot stand colons anymore. I just, I can’t do it anymore. So I use dashes and or I really try hard to come up with titles myself. Because a lot of the times when I do try to get them from CHATT or Gemini, they just feel overused already.
And part of the, the catch with this is I’m in marketing, so I see a lot of stuff. So I get really disgusted with things that are used over and over and over. Stand over again. So I’m always trying to find new ways to do things. So what I did was I pulled, I first asked everybody, actually, I didn’t even know how I was gonna do this.
All I knew is that I wanted people to contribute to the different perspectives. ’cause I wanted both sides. ’cause I know a few people with different, different perspectives. And I said, Hey, I wanna do an episode and I’d like to include you, but I don’t wanna have it, you know, to be. Crazy hard for people to do like timings and things like that.
And I’ve heard of these sort of narrative type episodes being done. Since I’m such a podcast junkie, there’s one called Nudge. I forget the guy who who does it, but it’s a really great one. I. If you’re looking for another podcast episode to listen to, and he does it sort of narrative style usually, and it’s really intriguing to me.
And so you can build a story around it and it just kind of goes back and forth. And so I asked different people and these people were able to send something in and I asked some other people too. And, and some people declined and that was okay. And then I thought, okay, well now, oh, how am I gonna do this?
Because I’m not a writer. And I’m also one that when I’m talking, my speaking and my written words are completely different. So a lot of the times I will script my podcast episodes because I wanna stay on point. I don’t wanna forget anything. So I usually do like bullet points. Then I write out everything.
But then I sometimes take, like in this one, I will take certain phrases that I don’t like and I will put it into Chachi PT or Gemini, and I say, can you please rephrase this? So it’s still my thought. It’s just better. Grammarly basically is what it is. So. That’s what I did with this one. So I took everybody’s information and then I put that the transcripts of everything, the audio into one page and then in another page in a Google Doc.
’cause you can do separate Google Docs now. I dunno if you knew that it’s really cool, over on the left you can create like another sub page. And so I put like a prepping doc and I just blurted out everything. I just put it all into the page. Like everything I was thinking about why I did this episode and then like my perspective on it.
And just different things that I was thinking, but in bullet, bullet point, fashion. And it took me a couple days because a lot of the times when I work on these things, I do, I do some work on it, and then I sit for it a couple days or overnight or something, and then I think of something else. So I took all of that stuff.
I stuck it into, let’s see, what did I do Gemini for that one. I stuck it into Gemini and I said, Hey, do you know about this thing, this episode, or this? This, what do you wanna call it? Oh my God. See, this is why this this way that they do podcasts where they talk back and forth and, and then Gemini was like, oh yeah, this is how you do it.
It’s like n narrative story or something like that. And I said, okay, well this is what I want to happen. This is what I want for the intro, what I want to say from my notes, from my prepping notes and how I want it to lead in. And I said, but I don’t know how to connect like the rest of it. Like how do I get from.
My notes, my thoughts, and how do I weave the perspectives into a story. And then I said, and when they go away from this episode, here’s what I would like it to, to feel like, or what I would like them to get from it. And the overarching feeling from the, the episode and it came back and it gave me an outline.
It didn’t even give me all of the words, so it gave me the. The angle of the intro, and then it gave me some pieces from the transcripts and said where they were on the pages and what they started with so I could go pull them. And then it said, here’s how you can transition into the next one. So it gave it all that, and then I said, okay, great.
I. Because I don’t know how to write and it would take me, I, okay, so on a side note, because this is relevant. When I used to do my own blog post, it would take me, I don’t even know how many fing hours to write a first draft. And I don’t know if it’s, I don’t think it’s necessarily because I can’t write. I think I’m still scared to say things out loud or I think it’s gonna sound weird or something.
I don’t even know. But there’s something that does that. So I finally gave up doing my own blog post, and now Rose does my. Blog post and it is tremendously helpful. I will never, ever. Rose, you’re just stuck with me forever. It has been so helpful. I, I don’t like the writing and and I don’t want to I guess as another side note, see, this is why I have scripts.
As another side note, this is why I personally for my blog do not like to farm it out to AI tools. I personally like to give it to a person who knows me and can change their ways with me, and they know all about me and I tell them stories and they can weave them in there super easy. And there’s other ways that you can train, train ai.
Sure. But I really like that personal connection and that that back and forth that way. I like working with people so. Anyways, I think I was lost at, oh, so I put it into Gemini and it came up with it, and then I said, okay, that’s great. And I read through it and then I said, okay, well let’s just take each section one by one.
So I said, okay, can you draft the first introduction and it came out with something and then I was like, okay, that’s kind of great. But then I read through it and I spoke it out loud and I was like, oh, that’s really not me, like in certain spots. So I like would change some words around or. I would ask it to change it or change the angle and that kind of thing.
There was a whole section in the, in the middle where it was talking about that Mona Lisa and it referenced it. ’cause I had thought about that. ’cause I had read somewhere, I don’t even know where I read it, but that Mona Lisa had it was painted with new brushstrokes and I don’t even know if that’s really true the way that it came out.
But the idea behind the fact of. It’s still a masterpiece no matter what tools it’s used. It kind of referenced it when it was creating some of the draft for me, but it didn’t do it in a way that I felt good with. I was like, no, no, let’s, let’s change this up a little bit and I want you to use this specific angle from that story and put it in there and relate it into this idea.
So it did that. So that’s how I used the AI tool for this particular episode, and I really enjoyed the process. I really appreciate the idea behind using AI for things like this and planning things out, and for me for writing things like this.
I wouldn’t use it for everything, like I said, for my blog post, but for my episodes right now, it’s helpful because I can go back and forth and say what I want and I don’t have to just use bullet points where I might forget something and or it just doesn’t come through succinctly enough. So that is how I used AI for this particular episode.
