Confessions Of A Reticent AI Adopter

Precious humans,

I’ll be honest with ya… I’ve been a bit scared to talk about AI on the internet. I’ve been online since dinosaurs roamed the internet and my arse has been ripped approximately three billion new ones for having different opinions to other people, and I was just not open to having it ripped a new one again.

About a year ago I mentioned the word AI *ONCE* in a post and somebody wrote in to tell me I was an arsehole who was going against every single value I’d ever espoused. I tried to have a really chill chat with her… I respect where you’re coming from, we probably won’t align perfectly on this, I hope you’re okay with my opinion being a little bit different… and she wrote back that there was no in between here and I was just wrong.

And then I crashed a fan’s health food store. She was working seven days a week, getting interrupted every five minutes, maxed out on time and maxed out on money, and every idea we came up with she’d say “I’d have to hire someone for that”… so I asked if she wanted me to show her how Claude could take some of it off her plate, and she said FUCK YES. And something in me went… oh. Women building businesses need to know these tools exist, and if somebody rips me a new one for saying so, I’ll wear it.

So Tam and I hopped on our tiny fierce ponies and galloped straight into the spiciest topic of the year.

For anyone side-eyeing AI from behind a cushion, a bit scared, a bit cross and a bit worried about getting left behind.

Spoiler: it built a whole meditation corner in my Academy in about an hour, and a little email it helped me make had members writing back THANK YOU FOR NOT JUDGING ME.

In this episode:

• 😤 How I went from “zero interest” to angry AI avoider to actually using the bloody thing
• 🪦 The grief and future-griefing that turns up when your industry starts shifting under your feet
• 🦄 Why I moved from ChatGPT to Claude
• 🤖 Generative AI vs functional AI, and why lumping it all together makes it so much scarier
• 🥪 Why women adopt AI later than men, and Tam’s theory about packing snacks for the road
• 🕯️ The street lamp lighters who retrained as electricians
• 🗑️ The delete, automate, delegate process I’ve taught for years, now with an AI upgrade
• 🧚 What I’ve built for Academy members: course tutors, a fairy website bot, the Sales Star Review Studio and instant custom course plans
• 🔄 Why I’m allowed to change my mind (and so are you)

Key takeaways:

• Mid freak-out, I wrote a whole list in my journal of other careers I could do and what they’d earn. I’m doing none of them, and it still calmed my nervous system right down.
• AI is useless until it knows your business. Budget a week or more of a couple of hours a day to feed it context… your products, your prices, your values, how you like to do things.
• Decide what you WON’T automate. My newsletters, sales emails and blog posts stay mine, and I edit the absolute shit out of anything that starts as a draft.
• Start with the stuff you suck at, not the stuff you love.
• Use it to make your ideas happen faster, so the fun creative bits stay yours.
• Ask it which features you’re already paying for and not using. That’s where my re-engagement emails came from.
• Discernment is the new skill. Does it look right? Does it sound like you? Does it connect with your people?
• Save your human hours for the stuff only humans should do, like coaching and accountability.
• Any chatbot you build should hand people to a human the second they ask.

“This is not it taking away my creativity, but now when I have ideas, I can execute them so much faster.”

“You’ve either got a thriving business that is profitable or you’ve got a very expensive hobby.” (Tam)

 

📺 WATCH NOW:

🎧 LISTEN NOW:

• Spotify
• Apple Podcasts
• IHeartRadio

🌱 LINKS + RESOURCES:

• Unicorn Biz & Life Academy (Meditation Corner, Sales Star Review Studio, custom course plans, Make Your Money Back Challenge): leoniedawson.com/academy
• Take Action Club productivity power hours: leoniedawson.com/action
• Episode: I Crashed A Fan’s Store To Help Her Find Her Missing Money!
• Claude: claude.ai
• AI First by Adam Brotman + Andy Sack
• Khan Academy: khanacademy.org
• Australian Wildlife Conservancy: australianwildlife.org
• Bush Heritage Australia: bushheritage.org.au
• Tamara Protassow: tamaraprotassow.com

And if you ever ask the little fairy bot on my website something and it doesn’t help you, tell me so I can fix it! It’s trained to hand you over to a human the second you want one, because nothing shits me more than a chatbot that makes you say some magical potion of a word before you’re allowed to talk to a real person.

If this one resonated for ya… make sure you hit subscribe so the next episode finds you. A review helps other creatives and hotties find the show too.

Big love,
Leonie