Episode 30: Quit blocking your shots because you may be making things more challenging

Mama, if you're skeptical about AI and what it means for your business or job... think of it as your new work buddy! AI can improve your business or how you manage your schedule working from home and make you feel better about the time you'll save, the mental bandwidth not being stretched to its limit, and how you can generally protect your business! All you have to do is embrace it, try it, and make it the support you've always dreamed of, which is explored in this week's episode! 

Connect with the host, Brittany Drake:

• On LinkedIn @copywritingbritt
• Visit Momhomie.com to read the blog for more WFH Mom realities
• Email any inquiries to momhomie@copywritingbritt.com

Thanks for listening, and you're doing great, mama!


Note: Looking for the WFH Survival Guide?... Well, I've been ashamed to admit this, but it's not done yet. However, I am ready to confess because if Netflix can fail hard on their live stream of Love is Blind Reunion (with a whole production team and crew) and ask for forgiveness, so can lil' ol' me.  Thank you for your patience, and it will be done very soon! 

Transcript

Brittany 0:02

Welcome to Mom Homie, a podcast that advocates work from home moms who want to balance their careers with their little ones in the mix. I'm your host, writer, fellow mom and family woman, Brittany Drake. Every two weeks I share my experience, what I've learned, and ideas and hopes of easing and affirming feelings about the work from home mom life. In continuation of this month's theme of quitting, I have decided that I'm going to quit not shooting my shots. I know that's a really roundabout way of saying I'm gonna take all my shots, and the reason why I wanted to talk about this specifically is because I know that there's been a lot of chat about AI and what it's gonna do to our jobs and things like that. Or you have people that are completely on the other end that are like ai. What? Um, for example, my husband, I had mentioned something to him and he was like, nah, I haven't heard of chat G P T. I was like, what? Where, where are you living? anyway, I wanted to make sure that we talked about this cuz it's what's current. It's what's new, it's what's scaring people. Some people are excited about it. And I just wanna talk a little bit more about, uh, my feelings about it and what I think it could actually do to help us moms. So with that said, like all new things. I was ignoring ai. I was like, eh, you know, it's just one of those new like trendy. hot topics or whatever. And I tend not to be this like trendy person who's like, let me get in and see what everybody else is doing. I know when um, Instagram first came out, I was like, eh, I remember my friend was the one who actually made me get on it cuz she was, she was living in illinois and I was in California at the time and she's like, I wanna see what's happening your life get Instagrams, you can take pictures. And I was like, okay. I guess, I mean I could also just like text them to you, but And so I just was somebody who wasn't. On board with trends and in retrospect that actually hurt me a few times and I don't want AI to be that thing. So initially I was kind of ignoring it. I was like, eh, whatever. You know, it's already been in our lives, like what's the big deal? And then I started to worry about it a little bit more because it seems to be really shaking up a lot of people in marketing, just for the simple fact that it can come up with ideas for blogs or write whole blogs in some cases. Or write, um, out somebody's like complete social media plan and like what they should post on their social media in terms of um, tweets and uh, captions and things like that. And in some cases it can generate a photo. So there's just been a lot of like nervousness around what is AI going to due to our jobs? And then all of a sudden I was like, you know what? I need to be on board. I need to be on board because if I'm not on board, it's going to take my job. It is. It's going to take my job if I'm not on board. So I was like, let me figure out how to make this new coworker, um, work with me instead of being like, Ooh, I think that, uh, AI is coming from my job and trying to get promoted to a higher position than me. Because the truth is, is that none of us can beat ai. We can't. It is a collective brain. So if you are someone who thinks that you can be ai. Your ego may begin in the way. So I would say think about how AI can make your job easier instead of how it could take your job. And that's gonna give it a whole new context. And the reason why I want you to think that way is because I don't want you to get swallowed up in not having a job because you were stubborn and didn't want to learn this new thing. And just like everything else that's happened in our industry, we're always gonna have to ride a wave of new things happening and new behaviors from our clients, so our clients, and also our audiences I should say. So, you know, now is the time. It really is. And I would say that getting on board for me is usually something that takes months, sometimes years, but again, like you don't wanna wait too long and miss your chance, and I just don't want anyone to miss that ship. Especially if you're in a business, especially if you're a mom who's doing everything by yourself. Like you need to figure out how can you make this your assistant? How can you make this your coworker? How can you make this make your life easier? And so there have been, um, like I said, times where tech has presented itself and it's been a little scary and a little like, how's this gonna change the landscape of things? Don't get left in the dust. And I also wanna say like when using ai, think of it from an ethically moral place because AI itself is not bad. There's going to be people that use AI in a bad way. And that's just how is when we have things that are new, there are people that use Instagram in a bad way. There are people that use money in a bad way. There's people that use their power in a bad way and. you cannot base your decision based on how other people use the tools and the resources that are out there and available to you. So think about how you're going to use it ethically and morally and responsibly into your business, into your life, whatever it is that you wanna do to make it easier for yourself. And I think that initially we are going to see a lot of people copy and pasting whatever is in AI and whatever it generates. But the truth is, is that our audiences are smart and they're gonna be able to tell when something fits the brand voice and when it doesn't. And that's where people like me come in, the copywriters, the marketing strategists, the web designers, and the graphic designers, and the people that cut and edit videos and things like that. And I was even watching the news last night and it mentioned, Rabbis are using it to write full sermons, but that AI doesn't quite understand religion, so they still have to go in and like make their changes and things like that. So don't get into the mindset of this is going to eliminate my job, because at the end of the day, people are what make connections. So keep that in mind. One of the things that I think is going to be interesting when our audience does start to say, Hey, is that ai or is that a real person? Is that. they may be looking for those human touches, like filler words, like, you know, and like, and, um, And I think that they're going to be looking for, um, words that are phonetic, like gunna and finna and bout to and things like that. And AI's not gonna do that initially. Maybe it'll learn that later, but it's not gonna do it initially. And it may even look for improper sentence structure or half ideas or half thoughts or, um, the hesitation in the voice that shakiness, that nervousness. Basically what my transcript to my podcast looks like before I edit it. So it's gonna be interesting to see people want that raw realness. And I can say with confidence that Gen Z is kind of the generation right now. That's like I don't want that polished look that those millennials had with the glowing and the, this, that, and other makeup, whatever, you know things. They want some of that, like real rawness, you know? And I think that, uh, with that generation and with generations that come after, they're gonna be looking for more of that sort of authenticity. So I'm curious to know like what it's gonna look like. And even just a few years. So moms, if you are ignoring AI or you're feeling skeptical about it, I want you to think about the one resource you wish you had more of. Can you all agree with me that we all want more time? Right? Like, I know for me time is such a struggle. I'm actually like trying to do this podcast right now, work on some client things, spend time with my family, think about dinner and how that's gonna get cooked and who's cooking it and who's getting the stuff to, you know, all that. And when there's so many things going on, and it's hard to stay organized. It's hard to stay focused. It's hard to think about the next step. It's hard to put together the plan for the next step. It's just like constant, right? Our bandwidth is just like being stretched to its very, very, very limits. And so, Having more time would help that. And I actually think that AI is a thing that's gonna help us with that. I talk a little bit about how to use it as a personal thing for yourself and your personal life with raising children and just balancing family in my blog from last week. So if you haven't read that, check that out. But the other thing, is that we can use it in our business as well, whether you are working for someone or you run your own business. If you're working from home. You're doing all of the things, you're managing your own time. You are, you know, getting, uh, projects together. You are getting plans together and proposals and all those sorts of things. And if you're doing it all by yourself like me, then you are going to find AI very helpful. So before we dive into that, let's do our affirmation which is I'm confident in my professional abilities and open to enhancing them. Right? I mean, we do this because we love the growth of it, right? I would hope so. I mean, we love the money of it too, but we also love the growth of it, right? I hope that you feel confident in your professional abilities and open to enhancing them. It's okay to do things that are gonna make the job more efficient that are going to enhance it, that are going to help you reach your goals. So let's embrace it. Right? We'll talk a little bit more after this break. Hey, Brittany here. This is not a commercial. It's a moment for you mama to take a break and go pee, grab a snack or take a breath. So go ahead, put me on pause. I'll wait. Okay. So we're back One of the things that I found that chat g p t does well, and I'm sure any of the other AI platforms, I just haven't explored them as much, is coming up with ideas. And one of the things that I was doing one night, it was just asking it to come up with lists of, what I need to do to put certain plans together. And so one of the things that came to mind was, Timelines. So I could say, can you create a list of things I need to do to put together a 30 slide deck about X, Y, Z, and it will go ahead and make a list of what you need to do. And then when you have that list, you can create a realistic timeline as to when you'll get that done. Because now that you have the steps in front of you, you can look at your calendar and you can say, I'll do step one on this day, I'll do step two on this day. I'll do step three on this day. And if you find that you need more time with one step over another, cause maybe one step's a little bit more in depth or complicated, then you'll know, okay, I need two to three days for this one step. And that'll help you figure out a more realistic timeline instead of saying, Hmm, I think I can get it done in. you know, like you can be confident in the amount of time that you need to do it because it will have all the steps there for you, and it'll remind you of what you need to do so that you're not missing anything or you're not, uh, giving yourself a small amount of time on something that needs more time, um, in terms of research and finding images and, um, using the proper language, whatever it is that you need to do. And so that kind of bleeds into the next thing. Coming up with ideas for presentations or what SWOT analysis should look like, or a business proposal. I had a friend tell me that she has a aunt in New York who wants to open a skating rink, and I guess, they're giving out grants. I'm not sure who the day is exactly, but some part of the government is giving out grants to new business owners or people who want to open a business rather. And so her aunt called her and asked her about writing a business proposal. And my friend was like, I don't really do that, but she said, Hey, why don't you go on to chat G P T and ask it to write a business proposal about X, Y, Z. Right? And it did. It came up with an entire business proposal. And so, While some people may be like, oh wow, that's crazy. Like, aren't, isn't the bank gonna see straight through that? Or whatever it is. The answer is, I really don't know. We have to try it and see what happens. And the other thing is that she did tell her aunt, like, go in there, make sure you read it, make sure you change it. Um, in terms of. the actual ideas that you have, making sure that it reflects who you are and things like that. Um, not to just copy, paste and go, because that I think is where you may run into some issues that aren't ethically the best thing to do, but. It saved her aunt a lot of time from having to research how to write a business proposal, and it also gave her, I guess, the agency is what I wanna say that's the word I want to use to say, Hey, I can do this. I have a really good idea. Let me go in and present this to you all so that I can open this up for my community. And I think that's a actually a great way to use chat, g p T. So if you're somebody who is, you know, not the most educated on how to put together presentations or proposals or analysis and things like that, you can use chat g p t to your advantage to help you figure out how you're supposed to do that, whether you're asking it to give you steps or you're asking it to write something rough for you so that you can go back and tweak it and put in the things that matter. Take out the things that don't. I like to think of it as a recipe. So if I look up a recipe online, I may or may not follow it to the T. But if I don't follow it to the T, I'm still coming out with the same meal. I'm just using what somebody else has already done in terms of steps, so they don't have to figure out flavor profiles and what tastes good together because I'm not an expert at that part of it, but I can at least cook something. Think about it that way if you're like, but isn't that wrong? You know? Yes, there are definitely things that are wrong that you can do with AI again, but think about what that means to you. Think about where you're towing the line and what side you wanna be on, and how would you go about defending that if someone were to challenge you? So think about those things if you are wondering ethically, where do you stand? Because the truth is that we're all kind of figuring it out right now, and so. There is a risk of doing the wrong thing, but that's what happens when there's something new and then you figure out, okay, that felt icky, that felt wrong. I'm not gonna do it again. Apologize, redo it, whatever it is you need to do so that you're on the side of this that you want to be on. Another thing I have on here is using it sort of like a idea for human resources. So when I say, using it to say, Hey, what top five questions should I ask my client before I onboard them? That sort of thing. Or what? Top five questions should I ask a virtual assistant before I hire them? Because while we want to do everything, when we work from home or when we run our own business, It's really hard, as we all know. So with that said, if we can have something, help us figure out what questions we're supposed to ask in these sorts of situations, then we're not doing anything wrong. We're getting ideas on how to be efficient. Go ahead and use it as sort of an hr. I'm not saying to use it for the legal reasons necessarily in terms of creating the hiring paperwork or contracts necessarily. That is completely up to you if you want to use that. But I would say use it to help you come up with ideas on what you should do if you don't know what to do or if you don't already have a process in place. The next thing I have is actually using it for contracts if you're a freelancer or an independent contractor. And the reason why I say this is because there's been a few times where I have worked with people and I haven't had a contract with them, and then scope creep happened. If you're somebody like me who is a little scared of the legal stuff, but you want to protect yourself in some way, then you can ask chat G P T to outline a contract for a freelancer working with an X, Y, Z business or doing an X, Y, Z project to be a little bit more specific. And it'll probably make something rough for you. I haven't actually tried this out, but when I did put together my own contracts, I was on the internet looking at what I should do, and I found a website that was like, go ahead and take this template and change it so that it works for you. And so I did that. Took me a couple of hours. It wasn't terrible, but if you can ask chat g p t to do it, it'll probably save you a lot more time to where you just have to review it and make sure that it makes sense for you versus having to go to the drawing board and figure out all for yourself I would say be careful what contracts you do because for. that was solely about me protecting myself. But if you are talking about a contract for a client, because you're somebody who works in a legal field and you're trying to put something together for them, I would probably not do that just cuz it's your profession and you should know how to do it. And for me, because I don't know how to do it, I felt like, hey, if anyone is going to get in trouble for this, it's just me. I'm not putting anybody else at risk So think about it in that way if you are wondering, you know, what kind of contracts you can put together. The last thing I have on here, and this is sort of an extension of HR, is coming up with ideas for crisis prevention or for mergers and acquisitions. So I know one of the things that I studied when I was getting. Masters in communication management was crisis prevention, mergers and acquisitions. And a lot of the discussion was around how to talk to your team when those sorts of changes are happening. And there was a lot of case studies that we went over a lot of focus groups that we watched. And it was interesting because it was all very emotional in a lot of ways, um, for many people. But it was also one of those things where there was a lot of paperwork and there was a lot of skepticism and there was a lot of, I would say pessimism about the whole process and the things that could happen along the way, like having mass exodus of employees or, having situations where you have to hold a press conference because you have to address, you know, things that happened with the water or whatever it is. for example, I know that with this, train crash in Ohio and the contaminants that are in the water, there's been a lot of, you know, keep the train company responsible for this and figure out how are we gonna clean up this mess. And I'm sure their crisis prevention team is going through all types of things right now, trying to figure. What are they gonna do? How are they gonna show up in the news? How are they gonna show up, um, legally, you know, are they gonna have to pay out in all these things? So, um, you can use it for ideas for crisis prevention and for preparing yourself for things that happen. So, on a smaller scale, for me, I may be like, what should I do if a client is delinquent in their payment? I might say, Hey, chat G P T, what should I do if a client is delinquent on their payment? and that way I have something already written out and ready for me when there comes that point, because as a freelancer, unfortunately that's one of the risks that you have. And so it may say, you know, make sure to come up with a contract so that you don't reach, any sort of like scope creep, you know, or it may say, require that they put down a certain percentage before you get started, or it may say, uh, stop all work immediate. and make sure that you don't give them access to what you've already done or whatever it is. And like, even while I'm sitting here thinking about it, I'm like, Ooh, I don't know, actually, I probably should ask it that. And you know, again, it's hard to be all the things and it's hard to even realize what you may be missing. So use chat G P T to help you figure out how people have efficiently run different parts of their businesses and look at it as as advice, I should say. Don't look at it to be the thing that makes your business, your business. Rather look at it at how it can make your business stronger. Moms, do you have something to say or add about the work from home mom life? I'm looking for a diverse array of guests who want to share their experience, knowledge, and support to offer solutions that make work from home mom life easier. If this sounds like something you want to be a part of, contact me using the info in the show notes. Thanks. Now back to the show. Okay, so to conclude this episode, when you run a virtual business or you work from home, you are all of the departments. And so if you can use chat g p T to help you figure out how to run each of those departments efficiently so that you are not exhausting yourself or missing anything, then by all means do it. Use it as your assistant, use it as your coworker. Use it as your makeup. Use it as your recipe. You know, use it to make your life easier. And again, you can use this in your personal life as well. I was sitting in bed the other night and I was like, Hmm, maybe this can help me plan a few things with my family. And I'll talk more about that another time, but I would say use it and think about it in a way of how can this lighten my mental load or take away the administrative part of my job when it comes to having to figure out and plan and research and position yourself to save time. Because as much as I love having my own business and being a freelancer, I do not care about the administrative part of it. I'm like, just let me do the job. I just wanna do the copywriting part of it, right? I don't care about the emails, I don't care about the time tracking. I don't care about those things, but I have to do them, right? So if there's anything that can make that easier, So that I'm not running on low fuel or feeling like I wanna give up or whatever it is, the feelings that we go through as moms that are working and busting our butts every day, then use this to your advantage. And if you feel weird or icky about it, dig into that a little bit. You know, think about like, why does this make me feel weird? And come up with your own moral code and ethics, and don't feel bad if you do do something that feels wrong because we're all learning, right? Learn from that and say, you know what? I'm never doing that again, or, let me fix this because that felt weird, or whatever it is. Let me know what you think about ai. I'm really curious to hear from everybody else. So if you're listening to. Go ahead and reach out to me. I'm now on LinkedIn. I'm not on Instagram, so if you wanna continue the conversation, please, I want to hear what you have to say. I hope you feel supported and encouraged to keep being the wonderful mother you are, while sustaining balance with your career. Thank you so much for listening today. I hope you have a wonderful week. Ciao.