Embracing AI as a Tool for Business Growth and Automation
Overcoming Resistance to AI:
When faced with new technology, it's natural to feel some resistance. We may not fully understand its potential or how it can help us save time and grow our businesses in a sustainable way. However, just like when the Internet and smartphones first emerged, we eventually adapted and embraced these tools. As business owners, we must do the same with AI.
Assessing Your Stance on AI:
Before diving into AI, take a moment to assess your thoughts and feelings about it. While some AI applications, such as deepfakes, may seem unsettling, there are many ways to harness AI's power in your business. Consider how you can use AI to automate processes, brainstorm ideas, and refine your messaging while maintaining your unique voice.
Leveraging AI for Email Automation:
One of the most straightforward applications of AI in business is email automation. By setting up automations on the backend of your opt-ins, you can ensure that resources are delivered automatically when triggered by specific actions. This saves you time and ensures a seamless experience for your audience.
Brainstorming and Refining Your Messaging with AI:
AI can be an excellent tool for brainstorming and refining your messaging. Use AI to help you articulate your ideas more clearly, succinctly, and impactfully. Remember, AI is a tool to assist you, not replace you. Your unique perspective and empathy as a human are invaluable and cannot be replicated by AI.
Streamlining Backend Systems with AI:
AI can also help streamline your backend systems, such as bookkeeping. Some platforms use AI to auto-categorize transactions based on past behaviors, saving you time and effort. However, it's essential to review these categorizations and ensure they are accurate, as you are still the business owner and ultimately responsible for your finances.
Creating Long-Form Content and Repurposing with AI:
Your long-form content, such as podcast episodes or blog posts, can serve as the foundation for all other content in your business. By using AI tools like Cast Magic, you can break down your long-form content into smaller, more digestible pieces, such as social media captions and emails. This allows you to maintain your voice and style while delivering more value to your audience.
The Power of Curiosity and Experimentation:
As a business owner, curiosity and experimentation are key to growth. Be open to trying new AI tools and seeing what works best for your business. When you find something that works, double down on it and explore ways to make the process even better. If something doesn't work, view it as an opportunity to learn and improve.
Conclusion:
AI is a powerful tool that can help you grow your business, save time, and create more impactful content. By embracing AI and using it strategically, you can automate processes, refine your messaging, and deliver more value to your audience. Remember, AI is not a replacement for your unique perspective and empathy as a human. Instead, it is a tool to help you work smarter and achieve your goals more efficiently. So, get curious, experiment with AI, and watch your business soar to new heights.
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Transcript for Episode 340. Leveraging AI to Save Time
Amy [00:00:06]:
Whether you love it or you hate it, it's safe to say that AI isn't going anywhere. As entrepreneurs, we can use AI as an amazing tool to help automate and grow our business. A lot of times, the resistance with AI is coming because it's new. We don't know what to expect. We don't know the power, the potential. Anything new is almost a threat to our brains. So it takes a while for us to really wrap our brains around what is this and how can it help us save time and grow our businesses in a sustainable way that feels good to us? Think about it. Back in the nineties when the Internet was just really becoming more mainstream, we didn't know much about it.
Amy [00:01:04]:
There was a lot of resistance. I still remember when smartphones came out and text messaging was a thing. I'm like, I am never going to text. This is just crazy. I'd rather call somebody, and now I'm totally the opposite. I would rather text someone, like, shoot me a quick text message, reply back when it's convenient for you. The world is evolving, and as business owners, we have to embrace this evolution because we're holding this beautiful resource for use. Now, don't get me wrong, there are some AI applications that I'm, like, not quite on board with, and one of those is the deepfake.
Amy [00:01:48]:
Have you ever heard of this? Sometimes you'll see ads for it on social media where you upload your image and videos of yourself, and it literally replicates you saying different things, speaking as you, there are even some podcast hosts out there that record videos. You can upload the transcript and it will look like me in my likeness and give you the video that looks like me recording. A lot of hosts do this with the audio. You upload the whole transcript. I'm here to tell you, this is me. This is what you get. And it kind of creeps me out a little. So for now, as awkward as I can be, what you see is what you get.
Amy [00:02:36]:
You know, it is me and my top not here to provide you with value. So step one, you really need to assess in your business, where do you stand? What are your thoughts around AI? And for me, what I do is I realize that I can harness this in certain cases. I embrace AI for certain things in my business because a lot of what's happening right now is business owners are going to tools like chat, GPT, they're typing in something, copying and pasting the caption, and it's bad. Let's just face it, it's bad. And if you start to really get curious when you're consuming content. You realize, ooh, a person didn't say that. That's totally created by some of these AI tools. You start to see these words like, oh, embark on a transformational journey to up level your business.
Amy [00:03:38]:
And this, that, and the other. Who talks like that? For real? Like, who in the world talks like that? But here's how I do leverage AI. The first one is through email. Every single opt in, you have an automation setup on the backend to automatically deliver that resource, my friend. That is AI. You're using AI to automate so that when something happens, it triggers something else to happen. That is AI working for you. Another great application of AI is brainstorming.
Amy [00:04:20]:
I brainstorm with AI all the time. I use it to really help me refine my messaging, refine what I'm saying, to clearly articulate my own voice in a way that is more impactful, more succinct, more able to really convey the points and the topics that I'm trying to articulate. Because sometimes you know what you want to say, you just don't know the right way to say it. And a lot of people, when AI first came out, they're like, oh my gosh, it's going to replace me. No, my friend, like, it is a tool. It is a tool that can help us. Can certain things eventually be eliminated? Maybe. I don't know.
Amy [00:05:06]:
I don't think anybody knows right now. We're on the cusp of something brand new that's still evolving day after day after day. So get curious and embrace this as a tool. You can even use AI to help you on your back end systems. I know that my bookkeeping platform that I use, it auto categorizes transactions based off of past behaviors. So this is another application of how we can leverage AI to save us time. Because even though the little bot categorizes it, I still go in and double check. Yes, this is an advertising expense.
Amy [00:05:48]:
Yes, this is office supply. Yes, this is this. This is that. Make sure you're still coming to your business as the business owner. Yes, AI is awesome. But you know what's even more awesome is you. All the value that you provide, how we have that empathy, how we can relate to others and really make them seen, feel heard, feel valued, acknowledge what they're going through. You have the power to help someone because you are a person.
Amy [00:06:29]:
You are a human. And that human to human connection piece is so often overlooked. Showing up just as you are showing up as the beautiful flossom person that you are, flaws and all, that's what connects to, to each other. The days of picture perfect Instagram feeds are out. They're out. People aren't relating to that anymore. In order to stand out, you have to do something different. And AI is a powerful tool that can help you as a business owner.
Amy [00:07:13]:
Another application I use AI for is with my podcast. So the podcast, for example, this is my long form content. And for you, that may look a little different. Maybe you're a blogger, maybe you write out blog posts, maybe you have other content, other places, your long form content. I always pop my podcast. I have a tool that I use called cast magic. I literally have my team pop in the recording, the audio recording, and it breaks it down. So every email, every social caption, everything I do in my business, that is the starting point.
Amy [00:07:55]:
That is the starting point, because what it does is it takes my own content and breaks it down. It takes the guesswork out of it for me. So I'm not having to spend the time repurposing all of the content I recorded me. And it breaks it down as me maintaining my voice, maintaining my tone, my style, and delivering more value to you. So as a business owner, it's a no brainer. My long form content is what I'm doing to really create all the other content in my business, which is such a beautiful, beautiful thing. Being a business owner takes strategy and really taking advantage of tools like this, getting curious, exploring what is out there and seeing, okay, let's try it out. Let's see if I can make it.
Amy [00:08:55]:
For me, it all comes down to curiosity and business. We're seeing what works and what doesn't. And then once we have that information, we double down on, okay, those things that are working well, how can we do more of that? How can we make this process even better? And the things that aren't working, let's curious, why aren't they working? How can we turn this challenge and flip it upside down to turn it into an opportunity? Because there are opportunities right in front of us that we're often too focused on those limitations to see the opportunity right in front of us. So get curious and see what technology is out there. What can I try, what can I test and experiment with to see if I could automate this process? And again, this goes back to something we've talked about before, those standard operating procedures, those workflows. That's why it's so, so important to have that out of your brain and onto paper. If you don't have standard operating procedures. That's okay.
Amy [00:10:13]:
Super easy to start. Let's start with your onboarding process. The next time you go to onboard a client, I want you to start writing down every step by step thing that you do, every task you complete, okay? From the time the prospective client contacts you, okay, how do we reach back out? How do we open up that conversation to the call, to the onboarding through step by step by step payment contract, even into offboarding? Start tracking it. Just write it down. Write that process down. And then ask yourself, all right, with this process, are there automations available? Because chances are there are, there really are. And it is the coolest thing ever when you are able to automate it to leverage AI to help you grow your business. So try it out and form your own opinion.
Amy [00:11:14]:
Form an opinion based off of what you need as a business owner. And when you do, you will see your results skyrocket. I am here cheering for you. And until next time, cheers to making the money you want so you can create the impact you desire.
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