Natalie Franke
I’m not allowed to have favorite episodes, but I can honestly tell you that this is one of them. I had the honor of sitting down with one of my favorite tech savvy humans, Don Richardson to talk all about artificial intelligence. And we go deep in this episode, we’re not skimming the surface here, we not only talk yes about the big picture and what this means for us as independents, but we dive platform by platform talking about things like chat, GPT, and even platforms that we’ve been using, like Canva and notion and the AI tools that are being integrated to change and transform our everyday lives. Don Richardson, my guest, she is extraordinary. Don’s journey has taken her from software engineering, to wedding photography, and then back to the world of tech, with the launch of her business tech savvy creative. Her mission is to create a safe, fun and welcoming corner of the internet where creative entrepreneurs can learn how to leverage and implement technology in their businesses, whether that be automations, AI tools, software and systems or even just choosing the right computer hardware. Don’s goal is to create content that is friendly, and easy to understand. Now, when Don’s not working, you can find her spending time with her husband, her two little girls, maybe even searching for the best Margarita in San Antonio, learn indulging in some trashy terrible reality TV. You can also find her speaking on stages like the one that her and I shared just a couple of weeks ago in Dallas, Texas when I heard her give this presentation about AI tools and knew immediately that this needed to be on the podcast. So I begged her Yes, begged her and she agreed to come on and share a little bit of her genius with us. And I can’t wait for you to listen. Hey, everyone, this is your host, Natalie Frank, and you’re listening to the independent business podcast, more people than ever are working for themselves and building profitable businesses in the process. So on this show, I sit down with some of the most influential authors, entrepreneurs and creators to break down the science of self made success so that you can achieve victory.
Natalie Franke
Hey, Dawn, thank you so much for joining us.
Dawn Richardson
I am so excited to be here, Natalie. Thank you for having me.
Natalie Franke
All right, I want to jump right in. I want to jump right in. Because you and I have had some conversations about tech over the past couple of months. And as an independent business owner looking into 2023, how should our listeners even be thinking about technology? What is the big picture when it comes to tech and tech tools? And then we’ll get into AI in just a little bit?
Dawn Richardson
Oh, yeah. So technology is obviously very quick to evolve. And as business owners, if we can leverage that and jump on the train, while it’s passing us, it’s gonna help us in our businesses. Because at the end of the day, like we can always earn more money, we can create new products, we can do all these things, but we can never get time back. That is our like finite resource we can never get this time. So these technology tools that are at our disposal right now are really allowing us to have more time. So whether that be streamlining and using basic automations in your business to send that invoice or to create that SOP or whatever that might be. Or if it looks like you’re utilizing AI tools to brainstorm and get ideas and take information and maybe write it differently, that is going to really transform our businesses to create more, to reach more people and make a bigger impact with less time. And that is the goal for any entrepreneur out there. I’ll speak to and especially moms, I’m a mom, I’m a mom to you. So time is of the essence. And I would much rather be spending my time with my family. And, you know, watching them grow up rather than spending all of my hours working. So that’s a super important part for me.
Natalie Franke
And I agree with you, I am on the same track mind, we did a little equation a couple of weeks ago, where if you’re losing 45 minutes a day to a broken client flow or any aspect of your business that could be automated or we’ll and we’ll get into this, you know, kind of streamlined in a certain way. You over the course of your career. If it’s just 45 minutes a day, over the course of your career, you’re losing an entire year of your life. It’s actually more than a year but it’s like 400 days. So I hear you on this. However, what I hear all the time from Independence is okay, that sounds great. And I agree with you and I’m nodding I’m nodding from the CSS like the keynotes going on. But I just don’t have time or I’m hesitant to try new technology it feels out of reach It feels overwhelming. There’s almost like a mindset block, where a lot of us as independent business owners are either afraid or just feel completely out of our element. When it comes to tech when it comes to new tech tools. Why do you think that is? Why do you find that so many of us struggle to adapt these new technologies and actually put them to work in our businesses?
Dawn Richardson
Oh, I love that. I think. I mean, there’s always a threshold for technology. I feel like some people are really like, if you’re looking at like a spectrum, there’s some people that are very resistant to technology. There’s some people that are kind of interested. And then you have people that are like, all in like, where do I send my money type thing. But I think there is a lot of fear in the unknown. And that is where with tech savvy, creative, I really wanted to create a safe corner of the internet, where they can learn those things and fill those gaps. How can I use this? Is this safe? Am I smart enough to use it? This is something that I hear from creatives all the time. And it it’s, it’s hard because we are so intelligent, we are smarter than this tech, it might not feel like it. But like even when we talk about ai, ai, and the stuff that it is generating is built from the publication’s of humans, humans are still the ultimate knowledge base, right? So how can I create a safe space where creatives realize that they’re actually brilliant. And they can use this too. And a lot of times, things are just poorly worded, or these tech tools want to sound extra Smart. So they use these verbiage in this language that’s really intimidating and techie. And that really turns off the creatives, because as creatives we’re artists, we want to do what we’re best at as business owners, we’re creating our product, we’re marketing our product, we’re doing all of these things, and it’s just scary to think of something that’s not you, in your process. And it’s intimidating, but again, it’s it’s gonna it’s like, you know, learning how to ride a bike, like it’s scary at first, right? Another example that I love, I was watching an interview with Elon, and recently, and he talked about technology and AI in particular being like the airbag, when the airbag was released, we were all like, you want to launch what at my face at a bazillion miles an hour. And people are like, this is gonna cause more harm than good. Like, you can’t do this to me like I was fine in the past. But over time, that really changed the safety as a whole, right? Things be cars became safer, cars became more reliable, it was safer to ride in the cars at that point. Because that technology evolved and adapted. And even though there was some resistance, it had a greater impact for the greater good over time. So that’s how I see technology and AI as well is we’re in that resistant phase, we’re in the airbag just got released phase. And everybody’s like, no, like, I’m in control this, I don’t like this. But I think as we go, we’re gonna see how to use it properly, we’re gonna see how other people are using it well, and we’re gonna learn how to take advantage of that, and grow our businesses and what we’re passionate about at the same time. So it’s okay to be resistant, you know, like, it’s okay to be resistant, it’s okay to be afraid. But give yourself the time, the grace and the the ability to sit down and actually dive into these tools. So you can get to know them, figure out how it’s going to work for you. Because if you just assume it’s some like crazy robot in the background, that’s what it’s going to be. It is what do you think it is? So
Natalie Franke
that’s so powerful. One thing you said there that really resonated with me really, really resonated is, Am I smart enough? Because when I heard that, the little child in me, my inner child, kind of went, like I just because I’ve I’ve, I’ve thought those exact things about technology in particular, like am I, you know, smart enough and the fear of taking on something new and not knowing how to use it and looking like a fool. And you know, as business owners, there’s so much pressure on us to be at peak performance all the time. And so when technology is flying past us at this unbelievably quick rate, new things being invented every day algorithms changing by from the time we brush our teeth until we’ve like, you know, had breakfast in the morning like that 45 minute span. There’s a new algorithm that’s popped up. It feels that way. Right. And so I think that increase of pressure. In a scenario where we already feel the way to the world, don’t we like we already feel the way to the world and running the business and being parents or caretakers partner. As friends, we feel all this pressure. So when technology is happening so quickly, it really does dig into those insecurities that maybe we’ve carried in other areas of life. Am I smart enough? You know, what will people think of me? If I use this tool, or if I don’t use this tool will I fall behind? And so you combine those insecurities with, you know, like, he talked about the scale of adoption, someone who’s an early adopter, and really, really loves new tech to like, the full resistant, you know, like, I’m never gonna use a keyboard, I’m still using a typewriter in 2023 lifespan. And so I see a lot at play there. And when we hear the term AI, because now it’s just being used constantly, I also think a lot of us don’t really understand what that even means. It feels so intimidating, right? But yet so simple, because it just two letters, AI, that’s it, but yet we hear it and we’re kind of like, our brain immediately goes to, you know, a world futuristic robot scenario, at least,
Dawn Richardson
my robot gets a Will Smith like, Yes, true. You’re gonna hit that
Natalie Franke
meme. That meme is happening in the in the video side of this podcast, for sure. But I say that to be like, What the heck is AI? Don, what is it help us out here.
Dawn Richardson
So you are spot on about like people just like dropping the word AI all it’s a buzzword right now. And you know, it’s funny is like.ai is like a browser extension that like people can use and so like tools that are not even AI tools are using that for their domain. And so it’s like blink.ai, and you suddenly think it’s an AI tool, but it’s not. So it’s a buzzword out there. Now, AI is when the software the technology learns and adapts over time. Okay, AI is not automation. So for example, a, you know, honey book, sending out a automated email that is not AI. Right now, if that tool down the line, could read that email, make a decision on how you want to respond to that email in your tone of voice, and then send it based off of like, this input output, that’s when AI starts happening. It’s learning it’s evolving, adapting over time. So there’s a lot of people that like use the word AI, when it’s not truly an AI tool, it’s more of an automation. So another example, when the tool itself is making decisions based off of its surroundings. So an example of AI would be like autonomous cars, okay, like a Tesla that has self driving or something like that. It is taking the information all around it. And it is processing that information and making educated decisions based off of that information, that is an AI tool, that is artificial intelligence, that tool can even go further. And notice that every time like every time we get close to a stop sign, I might put my hands on the steering wheel, or I might force it to slow down. So it can learn me over time, it’s going to evolve, it’s going to get smarter, and it’s going to grow with me. So when we talk about AI tools, that is what we are referencing are these tools that are adapting to the scenario and evolving with it. Who I related to the
Natalie Franke
I know, it’s I relate a lot to the car, the car scenario, because I remember hearing that, with Tesla in particular, that it’s almost more of a software company than it is a car company in the sense that all of these Tesla’s on the road are gathering data and Intel in the self driving capacity and then reporting it back so that it can basically make better decisions. Like it’s kind of using the cars as like case study, you know, examples sending data back. It’s just It’s fascinating to me. And so AI really is something that is learning and kind of taking a more intelligent let’s I know it’s a delicate word in tech, because I immediately go to Turing test in my college days, but a more intelligent approach, you know, versus something that’s maybe a more simple automation. When I heard you speak at the creative educator conference back in January in Dallas, Don and I had a chance to share the stage, which was so fun and see one another. You actually talked about something on the more simple automation side. And so I want to start out there. And then let’s work our way into some examples of AI for business owners and how they can be using them. So on the most simple side of this with automations. You mentioned shortcuts like phone shortcuts. Could you explain to me why should a business owner be aware that their phone has something like shortcuts and what could you possibly use? You know, that type of tool for in your business blow our minds Dawn blower I’m
Dawn Richardson
ready. This is no this is my favorite hack to any human because we all use it you don’t have to be a business owner to use it. But on that the simple side of the automation spectrum is what I like to call it you have add your text replacement your keyboard shortcuts. And if you are in the Apple ecosystem is built directly into the OS. So what I like to suggest to independent business owners or to anybody is, what are those things that you might have to type out over and over again, or do you have to go into a note and copy and paste it over. Instead, you can create a tech shortcut. So by just typing a couple of letters, it will autocorrect to something else. So built into the Apple ecosystem, if you type in Oh, MW, it’ll autocorrect to on my way. So that’s an example of what a keyboard shortcut or a text replacement is, was what they call it officially. So as a business owner, I can use that to, for my like, Instagram link, I can use it for my link to my sales page, I can use it to links to my affiliate links. I use this all the time. If I type in HB A F F, my HoneyBook affiliate link auto populates, so I don’t have to go find it, I don’t have to copy and paste from anywhere, I just type in five letters. And there’s my affiliate link. So it allows me to not only serve the person that I’m talking to much faster, but it saves me time, because I’m not going somewhere and pasting it back in. Another way I use it is for my hex colors for my brand. The tech savvy brand is very colorful, very welcoming, very fun. And I could never for the life of me remember the exact shade of coral that my brand is. So if I type in hex coral, it’ll auto populate to my Hex code for the coral, I use my brand. I also use it for my Google Analytics number ID number that I can never remember or my Pixel ID number that I can never find when I need it. I also use it for hashtag groupings. I like to make these little groupings of like five hashtags. So if I’m talking about the iPad, I can type in iPad ht, and it will auto populate to five hashtags I like to use when I’m talking about an iPad. So there’s really countless, an endless number of ways that you can use something like tech shortcuts, but it all comes back down to time. This saves me time, it saves me time from having to go, you know, find that note and paste it back in. or God forbid that we have to go on to like Facebook or Instagram to get something I don’t know about you. But as soon as I open that app, I forget what I’m doing. Like, instantly, and I get distracted or sidetracked. So that saves me time because I can quickly serve the person that I’m talking to, it benefits me because a lot of times that’s going to be a sales page for me, or it’s going to be an affiliate link for me or whatever that is. And it’s really a win win for everybody. So if you’re not already using text replacement, you need to get on it right now.
Natalie Franke
It’s the most simple thing. When you started talking about, you know, text replacement in shortcuts, I my mind truly was blown, because I got to see kind of what your shortcuts look like in your phone. And it was just amazing to me. Just knowing kind of what I know about the brain, you know, the more decisions that we can reduce in a day, the more the more things we don’t have to remember in a day just frees us up for more space to do other things. So, for example, with hashtags, yes, you could sit down every time you post something on social and go, Okay, wait, what were the five hashtags that I should be using, or let me go into my notes app, let me scroll to find that note where I’ve stored all my hat, or you have a shortcut. And it’s like, you know, whatever it is hashtag or, you know, you could even just be shortcut could be like hashtags. And it could just yeah, the five that you tend to use every single time, that simple. And you can go in and update it easily. It’s just it’s mind blowing. I love that on the simple side of tech. And then we kind of lean into something more complex like AI. And so let’s open up the can of worms that we have come to open today. Let’s go leashing for source of knowledge in the sea. That is your brilliant mind. When it comes to AI, you know, what is the benefit here truly for an independent business in using AI? If you had to sum it up in like one sentence? I’m a business owner, I don’t got a lot of time. Why should I care? What’s What does it matter to me? What’s the benefit for me? Short and sweet? What would you say?
Dawn Richardson
Ai handles the mundane. So you can focus on your creative genius.
Natalie Franke
You sold me? You absolutely sold me doing more of the things I love and the things that only you can do right in your business? What are some of the tools that you think every independent business owner should be aware of? Let’s go through them.
Dawn Richardson
So in terms of awareness, it doesn’t hurt to be aware of all the things but that doesn’t mean you have to use them in your business. So keep that in mind. That’s my little caveat here. The first and probably the most popular form of AI that people are talking about right now is for content creation. We’re talking about tools like chat GPT Canva has magic right built into it. notion has AI built into it. Now, there’s all of these content creating tools out there that will help me generate content or refine existing content. Another tool that I love is Jasper. So I use Jasper AI. I love Jasper because it’s built for businesses, and it has these templates that can basically kick off what I’m trying to create. So for example, if I am trying to create a product description for my new product, I can open up the product description template in Jasper, it’ll ask me what the name of the product is. Tell me about the product. So I in my like sloppy thought process can just like just type a bunch of different things like, Oh, well, this is for photographers, it’s gonna help them backup their tools, whatever XYZ, it’s going to ask me who it’s targeted for. And it’s also going to ask me what tone of voice I want to use. And based off of that inner information, it can generate a description that uses all of that information. And like basically puts it puts a bow on it and hands it to you. Right. So that is content generation. So the other type of AI tool that is available to us as business owners are a voice generating AI tools. So one of my favorite tools is to script. The script is a video editing tool that not only allows me to edit by removing text from my transcript of my video, which is pretty amazing. But over time, and as I give information, it can learn my voice. And I can simply type in what I want it to say. And it will say that in my voice. So if I said something maybe not so clearly, or if I wanted to change how I said something, all I have to do is type it in and it will generate my voice in that tool. So stick a slide deck over it, you know, use that tool, but that prevents me from having to go back into the recording studio and rerecord something because I wanted to add a single sentence. There’s another voice AI tool called prime voice AI and 11 Labs is who owns that. And they have some pre generated voices that you can use, but you can also create yours. And they advertise in particular, that you can record audiobooks using their AI tool. So instead of sitting in a suit, I know I know, Natalie, you’re
Natalie Franke
I’m sorry, I’ll be right back.
Dawn Richardson
Instead of sitting in a studio and recording your whole audio book, you can have this AI tool do it for you, whether that’s in your voice, or that’s in some like prefabricated friendly sounding voice. They’re talking about how it can be used for accessibility? How can we make our content more accessible? By turning it into a voice script? Can I take this blog post and turn it into a YouTube video without doing anything other than utilizing this AI tool to generate my voice for me. So there’s going to be a lot of interesting things coming down the pipeline with AI and voice generation. But there’s also the video side. And this is kind of where things get really freaky is when it’s like taking your face. And it’s like changing, you’re evolving your face. And you hear things about like deep fakes and all of this technology. And so on the video a side, there’s a tool out there called Be human. And essentially what it can do is it can create like a welcome video for you like Welcome to my pores, but it has like variables in it. And instead of saying welcome to my course Natalie, it could say welcome to my course lately, or whatever. And it actually like changes the face. And that is like it’s it’s not perfect by any means. It is evolving and adapting. But it’s just really interesting to see where AI is going. But also something that I want to touch on. While we’re talking about this. As business owners, we instantly think of these AI tools as like this content creation, we think of chat GPT we think of like, it’ll make me a blog post. But in reality, AI has been around for a very long time we’re talking years, chat GPT was just one of the first to create a public interface to this technology. So we are getting a glimpse at something that has been in process for a long, long time. Content is not the only use case for AI that is just a tiny, tiny small piece to the magic and the revolution that AI is creating. It’s being used to diagnose patients to make better medical diagnoses and treatment plans. It’s being used for autonomous cars is being used in legal battles to determine what the correct solution is based off of laws. It is being used in we already talked about health it’s being talked about a used in software development. It’s being used in like change release management. I come from a software engineering background. My husband is also a software engineer. And we’re talking about how this these AI tools can find the bug. They can find where things are broken. Is this going to change how quickly we can get things to, to the public? Is this going to change what we’re doing? The expectations of these companies? There’s a lot of questions out there. But again, what we think about as small business owners with content generation AI, is just a small drop in this amazing world. That is AI.
Natalie Franke
You were even saying you use it for meal planning. Is that true? Did you test it out? Today, your meal hashtag AI for
Dawn Richardson
moms? Really, so Okay, so I use chat GPT. This is one of my favorite use cases. And we’re going to talk about like how to use it like later as creatives or business owners. But one of my favorite things to do is to jump into chat TPT, I say I need a seven day meal plan that is kid friendly, and doesn’t have fish in it. Because my daughter doesn’t like fish, whatever. It spits out a full set a day breakfast, lunch and dinner meal plan. And I love this because it takes away the decision. Yeah, decision fatigue, we talked about decision fatigue. And as business owners, we’re just so overwhelmed with all of these decisions that we have to make. And these tools are just lifting that burden off of our shoulders. So I can spend the time with my kids on a Sunday morning, instead of heads down trying to figure out what meals I’m going to plan. Now, not only did chat TPT spit me out like a perfect seven day list of meals. But then I can say, Okay, thanks for that. Can you make me a shopping list from that? Or can you get Can you change the steak? The steak tacos? Can we replace that and it’ll generate me something different. Or I can say like, okay, let’s make a shopping list. And then it’ll create me a perfect, like, categorized shopping list of all of the items from above. So that took me a little two minutes. From there, I could decide if I needed, you know, did I need to add the the bell peppers to the shopping list or not. But my task that normally takes me hours, because I’m so paralyzed by like, if I’m making my family eat chicken for seven times in a row this week, it made the decision for me. And I can spend time either working on another task or spending time with my babies,
Natalie Franke
which is the goal. It blows my mind how something that simple as you’re saying it, you know, like, I never would have thought to do that. I just never, it wouldn’t have crossed my mind. And yet, that is something that week over week, my husband and I talk about, I do feel stuck, I get very stuck with something like meal planning, because I’m exerting all of my brainpower to all the other decisions that I’m doing both as a mom and as a business owner. And as you know, in all of the hats that I wear, so it comes to something that should be so simple. What are we going to eat this week? What do I need to get at the grocery store, but it becomes so deeply hard? Like it just becomes so hard. It’s amazing, but I never would have thought to do that. And I bet there are a lot of business owners listening. You know, they hear about chat GPT in particular, it’s been, you know, the beloved child of 2023. We talked about the fact that, you know, chat, GBT hit 100 million monthly active users in roughly two months, which it I mean, it’s mind blowing, because I believe it’s that’s the fastest adoption rate of any software or platform or technology in history. And just for reference, you know, it took tick tock nine months, just around nine months to hit 100 million active users every month, it took Instagram two and a half years to hit that same number. Again, Chachi Beatty did it in like 60 days,
Dawn Richardson
and we use those tools every day. That’s amazing. Like, it’s amazing tools every day, and they’re so big. And then you compare that to something like Tai Chi beauty, it’s just mind blowing.
Natalie Franke
It’s gonna change the world. I mean, truly is already as I mean, just changing one person’s life changes the world changing the way that one parent can, you know, accomplish more with less time get the mundane done, it is changing so many different facets of how we live. And again yet I would say I just don’t even know where to start. I don’t think I would know how to use that technology in the way that maybe feels so natural to you. And so I would ask with chat GPT in particular, as a business owner, what are some of the ways we can be using it? How could we take advantage of this tool?
Dawn Richardson
I love that. So my favorite ways to use chat JpT and what I would recommend everybody starting with I use it as a tool to brainstorm ideas, brainstorm names for something, brainstorm topics, ask it, its opinion or to rewrite something that you might have. So for example, this morning, I threw into chat GPT. Give me 15 reels content ideas about technology tips, and it spit out 15 Instantly, it was like tech shortcuts, how to backup your images or like all of these different ideas. And then I can take that, and I can create content from it. Or I could ask it, what are photographers struggling with the most when it comes to technology? And then it can spit out these these questions for me, I can use that content, or that that information to create content for my business based off of those ideas. I love that type of use of these AI tools, because it really is giving me as the Creator. The power, right, like I am creating the end result is just helping me brainstorm. It’s like having a friend across the room, like, what do you think about this, like, it’s letting you do that. So I really, really love using chat GPT for that, I have also used it in ways where I take something that I might have like voice memo to myself, or, you know, just kind of mind dumped, I’m guilty of that, like when I’m on a walk, or I’m driving or something, I’ll use Siri to be like, create a blog post. And then I’m just gonna, like start, like talking, I’m just gonna talk about all of these random things. They’re terrible sentences half the time, they don’t make any sense. But I’ll be like, talk about this backup system, make it automated. And here’s what to do if this is overwhelming to you. And what if this happens, and I just kind of like mind dump all of the information. And then I can put it into a tool, I chatted to BT and be like, Kay, make this better. And it would fix those sentences for me. Or it would reformat those sentences and fix the grammar issues. I can name horses, I can name products, I can plan meals, I can even give it input like a URL, and it will bring it back to me. So this morning, I did that with notion AI. I said, generate five Instagram captions from this blog post. And then I gave it my URL to my blog, like to a blog post. And it not only did it give me five, like two sentence captions, but he also put hashtags in there for me. So it’s like, here we go. And it took pieces from my post and just created these five little snippets. Again, am I going to copy and paste this? And like, call it a day? No. And I know we’re gonna get into that here in a little bit. But does it help by the decision fatigue, and help that paralyzed feeling of like, oh, my gosh, I have to do this, here’s a blank screen with a cursor on it. Pass Oh, man, it a really gets you past that blank page. And that is huge. It also like how much content as creators are we not creating because of that blank page. And that’s where I really feel like these tools are going to be just amazing. We’re gonna get so much more content out there. Now, I don’t believe that you should go into chat GPT and be like, write me a blog post about XYZ, copy and paste it to your blog and call it a day. I don’t think that’s the best way to use these tools. But do I think that these are a great tool to get started in the writing process, brainstorm ideas, maybe even create an outline so you can do your magic and create that post that’s in your tone of voice? That’s for your audience? Absolutely. And I think that’s pretty amazing.
Natalie Franke
I love that. I think a lot of people though, when they hear about all of this, they’re very quick to think Wow, just copy and paste it. Yeah. You said you wouldn’t do that. And I’m curious why why is that not something that you would do?
Dawn Richardson
So legal issues aside, technology is evolving so fast. And the legal system does not evolve as fast. Correct. And, disclaimer, I am not a lawyer and I have zero authority when it comes to this topic. But I think things are going to change when the legal system does catch up. These AI tools are using human publications to make its decisions. We don’t know what those sources are. So there is some gray area about is this just pulling it from somebody else’s blog or from some help article somewhere is that mine? And I think that’s still being defined. And there’s a lot of regulation ones that are coming into place to like actually outline like what that means is this yours, I believe the copyright office came out last week and said anything generated 100% by AI is not able to be copy written. And there’s gonna be a lot of questions with that. So I’m a firm believer in like, yes, use this tool, use it to generate ideas to help you and support you, in your creative genius. But don’t use it to just simply copy and paste and habit, I call it a day. I like to think of it as like, caffeine, you know, like, we wake up in the morning, and like, we drink our coffee. And it’s like our jolt of caffeine for the day. So we could do our jobs better. Think of AI the same way. It’s like a little jolt to your workflow and your process. So you can do what you do in a better way. So I think it’s gonna be interesting to see what changes here and the next, you know, year. And sure, I know, they’re scrambling, because this is moving so quickly. And there are going to be people out there that do that. There are going to be people that copy and paste this content and call it a day. And we’ll see what happens. I don’t I don’t know what that’s going to look like. But
Natalie Franke
yeah, yeah, and there’s always a chance to that it could be incorrect, like part of what you mentioned, too, is you know, it’s pulling from these other sources. And as a lot of us know, gosh, I’m like going all the way back to those days where they’re like Wikipedia is not a source, like I just remember, you know. So it’s kind of like, you also just need to check for the for the validity. But all of the points that you’ve shared, and just ways to use it are so powerful, I think where I would encourage folks to is, you know, if you get to a point in your business where you feel stuck, where you start to identify these places that you know, either there’s friction because you don’t enjoy it, like you talked about the mundane. There’s friction, because it’s just the blank page syndrome. And when you mentioned the captions, even I’m like, oh, that’s always so tough for me to come up with the captions, I have all this great long form, I’m creating this, but then I sit down and I’m like, What am I going to say in the caption? You know, those places where you’re feeling the friction? Just ask yourself the question, is there a way to take this off of my plate with technology or with AI in particular, and I think starting there is great, there is though a fear that a lot of people have, and we’re gonna go there, there is a fear that AI will replace us there is a fear, you know, whether you are a copywriter, or a designer or a photographer, or you know, you are a consultant or you know, whatever you whatever independent business you run, there is a fear will AI replace the work that I do? What do you say to that? What are your thoughts on that?
Dawn Richardson
So do I think that AI is going to replace people? I think that businesses are going to try. I think there will be people and there will be businesses that try to take these tools and replace humans. I think we’re going to learn that that is not the answer. And I also like to challenge how business owners are thinking about this, because there is a lot of doomsday mentality around this like, oh, like my job is gone. Right? But it comes back down to No, this is freeing up your time. So you can focus on what you’re best at. One of my favorite examples right now is imagine AI. Imagine is a photo editing software. It is incredible. And it made me question if I left the photography industry too early. Okay. So I can so imagine, I’ll tell you a little bit about them they. So I went through the process to try it out because I love trying new tools. Even though I’m not shooting anymore as a photographer. It took over 3000 on my photos, I gave it three full weddings. It learned how I edited in certain scenarios, dark church outside night shot all of these things, and created a profile around my editing style and how I adapt to certain situations. Then I can send it a Lightroom catalog and it can edit a wedding in 10 minutes. Like I just saw your face job. Natalie, it is absolutely insane. Now am I going to take that Lightroom catalog immediately export it and hand it over to a client and call it a day? No, I’m not. I’m still gonna go through I’m gonna make sure that my creativity is in it that’s telling the story that all the pieces are there that I’m creating this product but by doing this first pass and mind you it’s an amazing first pass by doing this first pass of editing. I now have so much more time to spend on the client experience to maybe spend on some extra stuff like you know, surprise and delight at the end because I’m not heads down in a cave editing for the next two weeks. So the reason why I bring up imagine AI is because when I was talking to somebody but they were like, Well, what about your editor? Like, I adore my editor? I love Kelly, she was a huge part of my photography business. Is this a threat to her, I feel like it’s a threat to them if they let it be. But to me, what I see all these AI tools, I see an editor using the AI tool. And not only getting these images back to the, to your client faster, but that gives me so much more time to really go through these photos and fine tune them and to make them exactly what they want. And maybe I add something like, I actually will upload them to your gallery for you. Or maybe I, you know, can take three times as many clients because it takes me a day and a half to edit rather than two weeks to add it. So I don’t think this is going to replace people. But I do think it’s going to allow us to either take on more clients to grow our business, or it’s going to allow us to adapt and change our process to make it even better and a better experience for everybody involved.
Natalie Franke
I love how you framed that done that for me was very, very eye opening. Because in the same respect, I think, you know, a lot of us can approach this thing with fear and say, oh, gosh, it’s it could replace us let’s we’re gonna we’re gonna push it away. We’re gonna resist the airbag. Right? Yeah, what you’re saying is, you don’t need to use it. But and it doesn’t need to be a threat to you. If right, you’re willing to learn about it, and perhaps even see if there’s a way to leverage it so that you can do more of what you are exceptional at or what your editors exceptional as a copywriter, like maybe as a copywriter. If it’s giving you getting rid of the blank page syndrome, you can produce twice as much content in half the time and then do something extra and leverage your unique creativity and skills to offer something you know, kind of above and beyond that you couldn’t before I do, I think there’s a way to kind of live alongside live with, you know, leverage leverage as a part of your business. And that is really going to be interesting to see how that plays out.
Dawn Richardson
Another notable way that AI is making an impact is on meetings. So there is a tool out there called notI it’s an O T y.ai. And what that does is it actually is listening to your meetings, whether that be on Zoom or a meeting like this. And it’s transcribing real time into a document. But not only does it do that, but then it takes the entire meeting. And it generates a summary. It generates action items and generates follow ups. So at the end of the meeting, not only do you have a transcript of who said what, and even in some cases like the slide that’s on the screen, but you have tangible action items and information from that meeting, and you didn’t have to do anything, you just simply have it you can send it out, you can put that in an email and again, create that amazing client experience without really spending much time on it. So Wow, pretty amazing there. Another AI tool that I have encountered recently, I have not personally tried it yet. I think I found this late night scrolling last night. But there’s a tool out there called rationale. So what it does is it will let you ask a question like should I launch this before Christmas, and it will create a SWOT analysis for you. It’ll create pros and cons for you. It’ll create decision making tools for you, to help you with that decision based off of information about like past experiences and things that you didn’t consider. So huge fan of that, again, I have not used it myself personally as of this morning. But that’s where AI is going. It’s helping us really take away that decision fatigue and make decisions on our behalf so we can move forward with the information that we want. So pretty cool.
Natalie Franke
Wow. I think I think my face for this whole episode is just gonna be this like, just like over and over just me like, What I’m sorry. What? That’s amazing, though sample, right? Yes.
Dawn Richardson
It’s all about the mundane. Yeah, AI handled the mundane. So you can focus on the things that actually matter,
Natalie Franke
Mike drop. Now to kind of bring this AI conversation and wrap it up just a little bit. What is the risk of not learning about new technologies like AI? As a business owner? What is the risk of like, Do you have a hot take here? Is there an unpopular opinion be real with me for a second? If somebody’s listening to this? And they’re saying yeah, I I’ve listened to this episode, and I feel like I get it. But I’m not going to learn about these tools. What’s the risk? What are they really leaving on the table?
Dawn Richardson
So here’s the thing with AI tools. Even if you don’t use it, it doesn’t mean If the person next to you is not going to use it, just because you don’t want to use the tool, it doesn’t mean that your competition or your community is not going to do that, you’re going to see the people around you in your community use these tools, and their businesses are going to evolve to the next level. And I think that’s really where your risk is, you can absolutely choose not to use these tools I don’t think anybody is forcing you to make to make that decision. Like you have to do this right now. But if you’re wondering why the photographer next to you can shoot 45 weddings a year and deliver them in 48 hours, or whatever that is, and you can barely handle five a year, there’s probably a piece to that puzzle that you were resisting that they are utilizing. And you’re not. So it’s something to consider. I felt like that that’s the case with a new technology out there.
Natalie Franke
Like, yeah,
Dawn Richardson
i Same question goes for, you know, Lightroom. You know, if you think about those photographers out there that were actually processing film in a darkroom, right. All of a sudden, they have this new tool where there’s digital, and then there’s Lightroom, does that make that person less photographer? I mean, some people had some things to say about that. But now we’re at that point that as a photographer, nobody would question the other photographer using Lightroom, right? But we’re gonna have to make those decisions, you’re gonna have to decide what’s best for you. But just because you’re not using something doesn’t mean the person next to you decided the same. So that’s your risk. You technology is going to evolve, you know, in six months, it’s gonna be a totally different conversation, we don’t know. But if you don’t have if your business does not evolve with the technology, you are going to be left behind. And if you’re comfortable with that, then that’s your decision. But where I am seeing creatives go is that they’re being resistant. And then they’re wondering why, like, why they’re not all like with the curve, right? So that’s going to be a challenge for a lot of professionals out there is how do I want to use that? Where do I want to use it? Where is the best use of my time, and really making the best decision for them?
Natalie Franke
Oh, it’s a good hard truth. And I do love how you in particular, make it accessible and make it not feel as terrifying. And that’s something that I’ve always loved about you, you have the software brain and you have the creative brain and you find this way to kind of merge the two worlds. And I appreciate that so much. As we close out with our final question here. Before we share a little bit more about the resource that you’ve been preparing for this incredible audience, I want to kind of circle us back to the heart of this podcast. And so we are on a quest, we’re on a mission here to uncover the science of self made success. That is what this podcast is about. We want to empower our listeners with understanding what it takes to find success in their own life. And so I’m curious as we kind of close this out from you, Don, what do you think is the biggest thing that separates the businesses that succeed from the ones that fail?
Dawn Richardson
I love this question. I think the biggest thing that differentiates these businesses is mindset. There are people behind these businesses, and how they think is going to determine where they end up. When it comes to technology. And when it comes to introducing it into your business. If you right off the bat think I’m not smart enough for this, this is going to ruin my business, I’m going to be replaced by this have this doomsday mentality. And that’s exactly what’s going to happen. But if you can take this information, whether it be AI or technology or some other facet, and say, How can I leverage this to make me even better, to make my business more successful, to give myself more time to do what I love? Those are the businesses that are going to take off. Don’t be afraid. Change your mindset that this time in our lives is really exciting. It is truly an amazing time to be alive. And only you can decide if you’re going to ride the wave with technology, or if you are going to stay where you are. And watch it pass by.
Natalie Franke
Dawn, this has been incredible. Thank you so much for joining us and answering all of my questions. I have a feeling this won’t be the only interview we do on Tech because as we both know, between the time we are recording this and the time it goes live. We don’t we don’t even know what could happen. There’s so much unfolding. But the beautiful thing is that because I follow you and I’m engaged with all of the content you’re putting out I’m always in the know and I want our listeners to be in the know also and so, you know, if you could just let us know, where can our listeners find you and there’s a resource I heard a rumor about that you’ve been creating to help them and I would love for you to share a little bit more about that.
Dawn Richardson
Absolutely. So you can find me at tech savvy creative.com And also on Instagram at tech savvy, creative, and I have created a free resource for you called the AI toolkit for creatives. It is a resource hub with information about the basics of AI. It’s also where I’m storing all of my content related to AI in one place, as well as a whole bunch of AI tools that are accessible to us as business owners, so you can try them out for your self and decide if they are a right fit for your business.
Natalie Franke
Amazing. Thank you so much.
Dawn Richardson
You are welcome, my friend.
Natalie Franke
That ends our episode of The Independent Business Podcast. Everything that we’ve discussed today can be [email protected]. Head to our website for access to show notes, relevant links and all of the resources that you need to level up. And if you’ve enjoyed today’s episode, be sure to subscribe to the podcast so that you never miss our future content. Drop us a review and leave our guests some love on social. Thanks again for listening.
