Explore every episode of the podcast AI Literacy for Entrepreneurs

Most of the leaders Sira Laurel works with look like they're winning. Inside, they're exhausted.

Sira is an executive coach and facilitator who works on leadership, organizational design, cognitive load, trust and nervous system capacity. She has watched organizations get very good at making work faster while getting worse at deciding what the speed is for. AI raises the stakes on that question.

Her starting point is that capacity covers far more than time. It includes attention, decision-making, emotional bandwidth and creative energy. A tool can hand back hours on the calendar while draining every one of the others. When a team is more efficient and more exhausted at the same time, it has sped up its consumption of tasks and gained nothing it can use.

Susan and Sira talk about why trust and psychological safety are load-bearing, where our celebration of speed came from, and why burnout so often gets misread as a motivation problem. Sira also shares the simplest behavioural test for psychological safety a leader can run. They finish with a filter for deciding what to automate: remove the friction that drains people, and protect the challenge that makes the work worth doing.

About Sira Laurel

Sira Laurel is an executive coach, facilitator and the founder of North of Normal. She works with founders and leadership teams scaling through complexity, and with leaders feeling the personal strain of that growth. Her focus areas are leadership, organizational design, cognitive load, trust and nervous system capacity. Her practice includes executive coaching, culture change design, fractional Head of People work, and strategic offsites and retreats. She holds an MSOD and an MBA, and writes about sensitive leadership.

What we get into

(00:51) Leaders who are winning on the outside and exhausted on the inside

(01:55) Susan: every AI ROI conversation is about time saved

(02:50) What capacity includes: time, attention, decision-making, emotional bandwidth and creative energy

(04:31) Are we confusing efficiency with capacity?

(05:07) Efficiency and capacity as different currencies

(06:00) Room to think about second- and third-order effects

(07:00) "I have time, so I should be filling it": we do this to ourselves

(07:52) Susan: the feeling of being behind, and why there's no boat

(08:30) Fifteen years an entrepreneur and still feeling the pull of nine to five

(09:00) Four-day weeks and early signs of change

(09:45) The machine metaphor and the living-system metaphor

(11:54) Susan on AI champions carrying an unpaid second job

(13:08) Why change feels like going backwards at first

(13:55) Nervous system capacity, and why it belongs in the infrastructure

(15:40) Time-off policies only work when leaders take the time

(16:20) Hiring and firing by your values

(16:50) Investor pressure and chronic strain

(17:30) Trust, safety, clarity and coherence are load-bearing

(17:50) Check the hardware before running new software

(18:56) Where the celebration of speed came from

(20:00) Layoffs moving up the list of options

(20:30) Interrupted roughly every two minutes

(21:00) Masking at work, and burnout that gets mislabelled

(21:40) "Speed is a property of the machine. Capacity is the property of the system."

(21:58) Does everything need an agent?

(23:30) The better question: what is this time for?

(24:58) Susan: the paint night nobody wanted

(25:15) Gathering people for connection and trust

(26:30) A behavioural test for psychological safety

(28:00) Purpose, clarity and psychological safety

(29:18) Gatherings, offsites and retreats

(30:11) Friction worth removing and challenge worth preserving

(31:30) The right level of challenge

(32:30) Be careful what you automate

(33:08) Where to find Sira

Quotes

"We've gotten very good at making work faster. But we've gotten much worse at deciding what speed is actually for." - Sira Laurel

"You can save someone time while simultaneously depleting their attention and decision-making quality." - Sira Laurel

"Efficiency makes a task faster. Capacity is what you can bring to that next task. They're different currencies." - Sira Laurel

"If everyone is more efficient and more exhausted, that's a telltale sign that you didn't gain capacity. You just accelerated the consumption of tasks." - Sira Laurel

"We've treated those things as soft because they don't show up on a spreadsheet, but they are load bearing." - Sira Laurel, on trust, safety, clarity and coherence

"Leaders need to check capacity before adding speed, and not after a crash." - Sira Laurel

"Speed is a property of the machine. Capacity is the property of the system. And when only one changes, the other will break." - Sira Laurel

"Be very careful about what you automate and whether that holds meaning for somebody." - Sira Laurel

"There's no boat." - Susan, on the feeling of falling behind with AI

 

Three checks for leaders

From Sira's closing advice:

1. Name the inventory. When someone says AI is creating capacity, ask which kind: time, attention, decision-making, emotional bandwidth or creative energy.

2. Run the disagreement test. When did someone last disagree with you in public, in front of the team? If you can't remember, psychological safety is low.

3. Sort friction from challenge. Automate the work that is repetitive, low-value and draining. Protect the work that is hard but meaningful, because that is where people build skill.

Resources

Sira's website: leadnorthofnormal.com 

Connect with Sira on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/siralaurel 

Instagram: @northofnormalbysiralaurel 

YouTube: @NorthofNormalbySiraLaurel

 

If this episode landed, you'll enjoy Susan's book Swan Dive Backwards: Chapter 13, ROI Beyond Time Saved, on the Busy Work Trap and why the room AI creates for strategy doesn't automatically produce results. Chapter 8, Culture as the OS, for the psychological safety pillar. And Chapter 11, on AI champions and the unpaid help desk, which picks up Susan's point at 11:54 in this podcast episode.

Find Swan Dive Backwards here: wearenorthlightai.com/swan-dive-backwards 

Enjoyed this? The podcast has no sponsors and no ads. Ratings, reviews and shares are how people find it. Please leave a 5 star rating.

 

This episode skips the tools, the prompts, and the latest model release. It goes somewhere more philosophical.

Ian Alden Russell started out as an archaeologist and anthropologist. He was the kid who loved museums and Indiana Jones. Since then he has worked across history, contemporary art and culture in Dublin, Istanbul, Beijing, Hong Kong, Pittsburgh and Doha. Now he works as a strategist helping organizations make sense of complexity and line up around change.

His starting point is that change itself is old news. Humanity has absorbed huge technological shifts again and again. The new part is the speed. Transformations that used to take generations now happen inside a single career, so the people living through them have less shared ground than any generation before.

From there, host Susan Diaz and Ian cover why the big AI companies benefit from us picturing one all-powerful AI and why Ian expects the opposite. They talk about what email revealed about how we communicate, and why he thinks every skeptic in a room is right about something. Ian also explains why turning copywriters into editors is a promotion, and why freed-up time doesn't come with the skills to use it.

They finish with an argument for putting your C-suite and your dev team in the same room to talk about the stories they grew up on.

About Ian Alden Russell

Ian Alden Russell is a strategist working at the intersection of culture, commerce, technology and leadership. He helps organizations make sense of complexity and line up around change. He trained as an archaeologist and anthropologist and holds a PhD in history from Trinity College Dublin. He has led galleries and cultural programs at Brown University, the Mattress Factory in Pittsburgh, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, K11 in Beijing and Koç University in Istanbul. He is currently writing about how cultural differences will shape AI regulation and business frameworks around the world.

What we get into

(01:15) From archaeology and Indiana Jones to strategy work

(02:50) Why the US, Europe and China will build very different relationships with AI

(04:21) Tangible and intangible culture, and why the same tool serves different purposes in different places

(06:25) Why the tech giants benefit from us picturing one all-powerful AI

(07:30) The 16-year-old who builds their own model in their spare time

(09:54) What email revealed about how we communicate

(10:50) The mirror was never black

(11:58) Look at your culture before you blame the tool

(13:22) Susan: the skeptics have gotten more confident

(14:44) Ian's approach: everyone in the room is right about something

(16:00) The real novelty is the speed

(17:30) Younger employees and "distributed personhood"

(18:48) When change happens faster than a generation, gaps open up where overlaps used to be

(19:29) Film photography and the things that come back

(20:49) Susan's refrigerator story

(23:41) Sovereign AI in a less integrated world

(24:30) How the US, Europe and China think differently about data

(28:03) Tech CEOs as the faces of their products

(28:49) Why every school needs critical media literacy

(29:44) There aren't enough adults modelling healthy relationships with technology

(30:30) Making it safe to admit you're anxious

(31:00) Terrified or exhilarated: the same response

(32:27) Don't blame the mirror

(33:31) Copywriter to editor is a promotion

(35:05) Reading for subtext, the humanities skill everyone needs now

(37:30) Why freed-up time doesn't come with new skills

(39:07) Star Trek, Ghost in the Shell and shared reference points

(41:00) The "watch these five movies" consultancy

(42:46) Where to find Ian

 

Quotes

"The fact that there's a change isn't new, but the speed is new." - Ian Alden Russell

"It's just a crystal clear mirror. What makes the mirror black is whoever you are." - Ian Alden Russell

"Everyone is right in seeing something. They may or may not know how to frame it yet." - Ian Alden Russell

"Distortions can be valuable, because if they're felt, they still impact." - Ian Alden Russell

"You might be taking someone who's a copywriter and turning them into an editor. It's like a promotion." - Ian Alden Russell

"We cannot make the leap to assume that just because you've freed up people's time, they're suddenly going to have the immediate capacity to critically analyze." - Ian Alden Russell

"Every single child alive on the planet today deserves a relationship to a reflective, caring adult who can role model healthy relationships to technology. The problem is we don't have enough of those adults." - Ian Alden Russell

"Don't blame the mirror." - Susan and Ian, more or less in unison

Resources

Ian's work and writing: ianaldenrussell.com 

Ian on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/irussell 

If this episode landed, read this next in Swan Dive Backwards: Chapter 12, Does AI Make You More or Less Creative?, for AI as a paintbrush versus a photocopier and why taste and editing now matter more than output. Chapter 8, Culture as the OS, for psychological safety and building rooms where people can voice their worries without risking their careers.

You can find host Susan Diaz's book, Swan Dive Backwards here: wearenorthlightai.com/swan-dive-backwards 

Take the AI Archetypes Quiz to find out how you are geared to meet this AI moment: https://www.tryinteract.com/share/quiz/69cd787bde5b5fd533f2a4d6 

 

Enjoyed this? The podcast isn't sponsored or funded. Ratings and shares are how new listeners find it. Please leave us a 5 star rating.

 

A previous president from Lindenwood University (a former IBM executive) stands up in town halls and tells people he uses Claude - that it helped him organize the financial report. HR follows and says they used Gemini for an employee questionnaire.

Then James Hutson PhD. goes and asks employees whether they understood that as permission.

The answer? 'No. The policy says I'll get fired if I use it.'

That gap is the subject of this episode. James is Senior Professor and Director of AI-Enabled Academic Transformation at Lindenwood University, with two PhDs - the first in art history, the second in AI, which he went back for in 2023 once it became clear the technology was going to touch everything. He's since published over 200 studies on AI use across disciplines and industries.

His argument is that policy and governance have been swapped for each other. Policy is what you can't do - mostly, don't get us sued. Governance is how things get done, and far fewer organizations have that. Most think they have a strategy when what they have is a liability shield.

Also in this one: why he thinks a policy should be deliberately vague, what his AI readiness assessments consistently find, why employees hide their own efficiencies, and the reason agentic AI projects keep failing at organizations that seemed ready for them.

About Dr. James Hutson

James Hutson is Senior Professor and Director of AI-Enabled Academic Transformation at Lindenwood University in St. Charles, Missouri. He holds two PhDs - the first in art history, the second in artificial intelligence, completed in 2023. He has published over 200 studies on AI adoption spanning education, finance, and industry, has designed more than 25 online degree programs, and established Lindenwood's XR and Gaming Lab. His recent book is Art History in the Age of Artificial Intelligence.

What we get into

(00:47) Two PhDs - art history first, then AI in 2023, once it was clear this touched everything

(02:25) What keeps him up at night, and the three sleepless nights Ethan Mollick warned about

(04:52) The earliest adopters were administrators. They just never told anyone.

(08:44) Four institutional responses: lock down, FERPA-only, all-in, and the ungoverned middle

(10:00) Why blanket bans rest on a legal assumption that hasn't been tested

(12:08) Susan on dragging the next generation into the future

(12:52) Policy versus governance, and why most "strategies" are liability shields

(15:00) "People will do what they're allowed to do"

(16:50) When governance becomes a compliance checkbox

(17:31) The entrepreneurial mindset - curiosity plus a growth mindset

(21:05) The three literacies: functional, ethical, disciplinary

(26:33) If knowledge is cheap, what makes people indispensable?

(27:33) Power skills, habits of mind, and what should actually be assessed

(29:43) Stop testing recall. Test reasoning.

(31:15) Adaptive governance - why a policy takes a year to write and is obsolete on arrival

(34:14) The programmer who automated his own job, and whether firing him was the right call

(36:31) Secret cyborgs - why people hide how easy the work has become

(37:26) Susan on trust, and why efficiencies have always been hidden

(38:32) What AI readiness assessments actually turn up

(40:00) The three things employees say in every single organization

(42:41) Why agentic AI fails: the invisible work nobody documented

(45:28) Resources, and an open offer of his data

 

Quotes

"People will do what they're allowed to do." - the head of faculty development at Lindenwood, quoted by James Hutson

"Governance is how you get things done. It's not telling people what they can and cannot do." - Dr. James Hutson

"People say yeah, of course we have a strategy - but what they mean is they have a policy, which is 'don't get us sued'." - Dr. James Hutson

"You can't accuse students of cheating with AI if you didn't show them how to use it to begin with." - Dr. James Hutson

"Don't penalize them. Reward that type of discovery of change, so that you're not caught off guard." - Dr. James Hutson

"People do not know how they get work done. And this is why agentic AI is failing." - Dr. James Hutson

"We know what needs to be done. It's human nature and psychology that's slowing us down." - Dr. James Hutson

The Holy Trinity

James's term for the three voices that have to say the same thing before anyone believes any of them:

• Leadership - this is the policy, we are an AI-forward institution, I want you to do this

• HR - you can use the tools, you are not going to be fired for it

• IT - we are not monitoring you, and we are not going to report you for using an unapproved tool

His observation is that these three are rarely in sync in any organization, and that most leaders listening will immediately think of a time they collided.

The three literacies

• Functional - can you actually use it? How does it work?

• Ethical - what does responsible use mean in your specific field? Journalism, chemistry, and GIS have genuinely different standards.

• Disciplinary - what does your discipline require, including disciplines that are actively choosing to resist it?

Developed with his colleague Dan Plate, who chairs Lindenwood's AI governance committee.

Resources

• Lindenwood's employee use case policy for generative AI is here - https://www.lindenwood.edu/policies/list/use-of-generative-ai-in-employment-policy/ 

• And its AI and emerging technology policy: https://www.lindenwood.edu/policies/list/ai-and-emerging-technology-literacy/ James suggests pasting one alongside your own and asking a model what would need to change

• James on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/jameshutsonphd 

• His site: jameslhutsonphd.com 

• His book: Art History in the Age of Artificial Intelligence

 

Get host Susan Diaz's book, Swan Dive Backwards: wearenorthlightai.com/swan-dive-backwards 

Enjoyed this? This podcast isn't sponsored or funded. Ratings and shares are how people find it.

 

Most organizations govern AI the same way cities govern speeding. They set a rule, then punish people who break it.

Dr. Eugene Chan thinks that's the least interesting tool available. He's a behavioural scientist - founder of the consultancy Behavieural and Professor of Business at Tyndale University - and his argument is that punishment is a lagging response to a problem you could have designed out.

His analogy is a speed camera versus a speed bump. Both reduce speeding. The camera does it by fining you after the fact, and it needs maintenance forever. The speed bump does it by making the behaviour physically inconvenient, and you install it once. One punishes. The other just makes the wrong thing harder to do.

Apply that to shadow AI, or to the human-in-the-loop review that everyone claims to have and nobody actually does, and the conversation changes shape entirely.

Host Susan Diaz and Eugene also get into why universities are harder to govern than corporations, why a single institution-wide AI rule can't work when the philosophy faculty and the accounting faculty need opposite things, why the white-font trick some professors are using is a symptom rather than a solution, and what a provost should map before writing a single line of policy.

Susan and Eugene are building a governance mapping engagement for higher education institutions together. If that's you, get in touch.

About Dr. Eugene Chan

Dr. Eugene Chan wears two hats. He's the founder of Behavieural, a consultancy that uses behavioural science to help organizations solve trust challenges - AI adoption, customer loyalty, brand and PR. He's also Professor of Business and Marketing at Tyndale University, and has taught at TMU as well as in Australia and the United States. His PhD in management is from the Rotman School.

What we get into

(00:37) Two hats: behavioural science consultancy and the business school

(01:34) Policy versus governance, and why even the consultants can't define it clearly

(02:43) Susan's working definition: policy is the best practice, governance is the daily behaviour

(03:00) Confusing access with literacy - why handing out licences isn't adoption

(04:14) AI as the internet 25 years ago, and why there's no chief internet officer

(04:55) Who actually owns AI governance? "Talk to IT" isn't an answer

(06:07) The case for the CTO, the case for legal, the case for HR

(07:38) Why universities are structurally harder than corporations

(08:14) Three groups, three different toolsets, one institution

(08:55) Why "use AI and you fail" is a more rational position than it sounds

(10:47) But banning it is not enforceable. It's like banning the calculator.

(11:38) The better question: under what circumstances should it be used?

(12:21) Why this can't be one rule for a whole university

(12:41) Susan's classroom approach - use it, then defend it

(14:53) Why that teaches a skill most working professionals don't have

(16:34) Susan on delegation, and what "senior human in the loop" means

(18:24) The white-font trick professors are embedding in assignment briefs

(19:34) Turnitin, AI detectors, and what a 30% match actually tells you

(21:35) Governing by consequence, and where that runs out

(22:42) Speed cameras, speed bumps, and a Toronto argument

(24:22) Friction instead of punishment

(25:23) Applying it directly to shadow AI

(26:19) Cameras need maintenance. Speed bumps don't.

(27:31) Susan's reframe: leading indicators and lagging indicators

(28:53) Why human-in-the-loop fails when everything's on one screen

(30:12) Five screens instead of one

(31:28) The student problem - personal devices, personal subscriptions

(34:13) What higher ed leaders should be thinking about beyond cheating

(35:22) Map it, survey it, treat it as a situation analysis

(37:38) Silos, and why this has to come from the provost level

(38:50) Why an honest map is cathartic rather than damning

(39:16) The questions to answer before you write any governance

(40:14) If AI frees up staff time, where does that time go?

(41:29) The flywheel, and why the first turn is the hardest

 

Quotes

"You cannot ban the use of AI. At least you cannot enforce it. It's like avoiding the use of a calculator." - Dr. Eugene Chan

"The challenge is not banning the use of AI. It's finding the right use cases." - Dr. Eugene Chan

"On paper, there is human in the loop. But in practice it fails." - Dr. Eugene Chan

"Speed cameras do work, but they require maintenance. Speed bumps? You install it once, and it's pretty much lifetime." - Dr. Eugene Chan

"Can we somehow change the environment, or change the structure, so that it still produces the desired result - without fear of fines being the primary motivator?" - Dr. Eugene Chan

"It's basically like a SWOT analysis. Understanding where you are at." - Dr. Eugene Chan, on mapping AI readiness

"People are confusing access with literacy." - Susan Diaz

"There's something deeply cathartic about mapping it out. It's neither good nor bad. It has no sentiment. It's just a picture of things as they are." - Susan Diaz 

Resources

Dr Eugene Chan's consultancy: behavieural.com 

Get host Susan Diaz's book, Swan Dive Backwards: wearenorthlightai.com/swan-dive-backwards 

Working in higher education? Susan Diaz and Dr Eugene Chan are offering a governance readiness mapping engagement for institutions - a picture of how AI is actually being used across faculties, where the gaps are, and what governance should address first. Reach either of them on LinkedIn - Susan Diaz, Dr Eugene Chan

Enjoyed this? The podcast isn't sponsored or funded. Ratings are how people find it. Please leave us a rating

 

Episode description

Julie Cole and her co-founders started Mabel's Labels in a Hamilton basement 23 years ago, back when customers were still nervous about typing a credit card number into a computer. They figured out early that they weren't really running a label company - they were running a tech company that happened to make labels. Nothing off the shelf did what they needed, so they built it themselves.

Which is why her read on this moment carries some weight.

She's watched every technology wave since. She's not a skeptic and she's not a cheerleader. She uses AI, has a clear personal rule for when she will and won't, and is clear about where companies are getting it wrong with customers. But she circles one worry: young entrepreneurs are now building in a day what took her team six months in that basement, and she isn't certain the lessons survive the shortcut. She's worried AI is going to take the gift of failure away.

Also in this one: the LinkedIn post that made her furious, why she has two full-time people whose entire job is email, what her funeral-director son has to do with AI-proof careers, the Air Canada chatbot case, and why turning up in person has become a strong marketing strategy.

About Julie Cole

Julie Cole is co-founder and Senior Director of Mabel's Labels, the Hamilton-born company she and three co-founders launched from a basement in 2003 and grew into a household name. She's a recovered lawyer, a mom of six, an award-winning entrepreneur, and the best-selling author of Like a Mother: Birthing Businesses, Babies, and a Life Beyond Labels. She's a regular on Canadian television and a fixture at women's entrepreneurship events across the country - which, as this episode argues, is not incidental to how she's built the brand.

 

What we get into

• (00:33) Why a label company is actually a tech company

• (01:03) Hamilton, 2003, and the fact that there wasn't a nerd among them

• (02:24) Susan's shoe labels, and a core memory involving a three-year-old choosing fonts

• (03:08) Watching kids grow up through the icons they pick

• (04:02) Twenty-three years of technology waves - what's different this time

• (05:26) Six months in a basement versus one day now. What gets lost?

• (06:45) You can't put your head in the sand about this

• (08:10) "I didn't know you could write like that" - the LinkedIn post that stung

• (08:54) What fresh hell is this

• (09:49) Where companies are getting AI badly wrong with customers

• (11:13) Julie's litmus test for when she'll use AI and when she won't

• (11:55) Six kids, generational skepticism, and hiding the tab when they walk in

• (13:25) Susan's podcast platform story: how a 30-minute task became 24 hours

• (14:47) The Air Canada chatbot case, and who's responsible for what your bot says

• (15:58) Founder-forward PR, and the CEO as the next influencer

• (17:14) The fake expert problem, and how people will start telling the difference

• (18:17) Lower your production quality. Let the dog in.

• (19:08) Turning up in person is having a moment

• (19:55) "Don't tell me you're authentic. Show me."

• (20:29) LinkedIn's report-AI-slop button, and the problem LinkedIn built for itself

• (21:13) "If I rest, I rust"

• (22:34) Fifty employees, and the two whose full-time job is email

• (23:18) On companies that won't hire until you prove AI can't do the job

• (24:10) "I want them all to be plumbers"

• (26:15) The funeral director son, and jobs AI can't touch

• (27:26) Where AI actually shows up in Julie's week

• (28:25) Taking pain away from her team, not work away from them

• (29:26) Kids' budgets, biochem formulas, and a grade 10 history practice test

• (31:13) The gift of failure

• (31:59) Calculators, plagiarism, and what professors used to catch by eye

• (33:18) Susan's answer: make them defend it like a thesis

• (34:48) Neurodivergence, executive function, and where AI is an unambiguous win

 

Quotes

"I'm worried that AI is going to take the gift of failure away from them." - Julie Cole

"I like them to struggle. I like them to sit in their boredom. I like them to sit in frustration. Good stuff comes from that." - Julie Cole

"Back when we created something like that, it took us six months. They did it in a day." - Julie Cole

"You can save time all you want, but if you end up losing customers along the way, is it worth it?" - Julie Cole

"People are really going to start noticing who are the experts because they went to AI, and who are the experts because they've lived it and learned it." - Julie Cole

"Don't tell me you're authentic. Show me." - Julie Cole

"It's not taking work away from them, it's taking pain away from them." - Julie Cole, on using AI instead of queuing work with her design team

"If I rest, I rust." - Julie Cole

 

Resources

Mabel's Labels: www.mabelslabels.com

Julie's page, including her book: www.mabelslabels.com/juliecole

Like a Mother: Birthing Businesses, Babies, and a Life Beyond Labels

Julie on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/julie-cole-llb-ma-3794671

Julie on Instagram: @juliecoleinc

 

If this episode landed, read this next in Swan Dive Backwards: Chapter 12, Does AI Make You More or Less Creative? - the paintbrush-versus-photocopier question, and why AI-produced work reads as forgettable. 

Susan's book, Swan Dive Backwards is available on Amazon

Amazon Canada https://lnkd.in/dixxKJgV

Amazon USA https://lnkd.in/dFH5khHw

Amazon UK https://amzn.eu/d/07y3Gkvl

Enjoyed this? This podcast isn't sponsored or funded. Ratings and shares are genuinely how people find it. Drop us a 5-start rating please.

 

"We need AI" is the most common brief in business right now. David Cohen's read on what it means: usually nothing in particular.

David is the founder of Superposition, a consultancy for data and AI consultancies - a meta consultancy, as he calls it. He's spent his career inside both big and boutique consulting shops, which makes him refreshingly blunt about what's actually happening in the services world right now.

His diagnosis is that we're still in the solution-in-search-of-a-problem stage. Everybody's curious. Everybody's excited. There's enormous movement, enormous hype, and very few real outcomes. And most organizations hiring AI help have not identified the problem they're hiring it to solve.

Susan pushes on the bigger question underneath: if we're in the knowledge era and knowledge just got cheap, what happens to everyone who sells expertise for a living? David's answer is that knowledge didn't lose value - access did. What's scarce now is contextualized knowledge. The kind that accounts for internal politics, history, and the things no system can pick up from the outside.

Also in this one: why consulting content is so relentlessly boring, what surprised Susan when she asked clients why they hired her, and the two words that should precede any AI purchase.

About David Cohen

David Cohen is the founder of Superposition, a consultancy built for data and AI consultancies. He's a lifelong consultant with both big-firm and boutique experience, and over a decade of delivering data and AI transformation work at F500 scale. He now advises boutique founders on the existential problems of running a firm - go-to-market, positioning, pricing models, and hiring. He builds his workshops and content to be collaborative and genuinely fun, on the theory that the consulting world has more than enough beige. He's based in Dallas.

What we get into

• (00:58) Schrödinger's data consultants - where the name Superposition comes from

• (02:39) Why he serves other consultants, and the personal story behind it

• (04:31) What clients actually mean when they say "we need AI" (spoiler: FOMO)

• (06:03) The scale check - the average person does not care about AI tools

• (07:38) Automation has existed for decades. Generative AI is not the origin story

• (09:39) The two things every consultant is really selling - expertise and risk mitigation

• (10:49) Why clients now assume they shouldn't have to pay for intelligence

• (11:42) The consulting growth model, explained at a fifth-grade level - and why it's breaking

• (12:26) Is the knowledge era ending? David's answer: knowledge didn't change, access did

• (13:45) In the age of infinite information, the right information is the value

• (14:18) Contextualized knowledge - internal politics, feelings, history, and what AI can't pick up

• (15:22) The hype cycle, honestly assessed. Blockchain, Metaverse, VR, social

• (16:47) What AI becomes after the hype dies - the Google test

• (18:14) Asking rather than deploying first

• (19:58) Why consulting content is bland, boring, and forgettable

• (23:06) Susan's client research, and the two answers she never expected

• (24:51) The clarity problem: consultancies that don't know what they're selling

• (27:06) Ann Handley's joke about world hunger and 500-word LinkedIn posts

• (27:39) "A hammer in search of nails" - why real outcomes are still rare

• (28:59) The problem-first test, and when you should not be solving anything

• (30:04) Where the water's coming in the boat - assessing before building

• (30:54) Touch grass

Quotes

"I don't think they typically mean anything in particular. They usually say that out of a place of FOMO." - David Cohen, on "we need AI"

"In the age of infinite information, having access to the right information is the actual value." - David Cohen

"It's knowledge that makes sense based on factors that an AI system could never understand or pick up. Internal politics, feelings, context of the greater situation." - David Cohen

"Any consultant worth their salt is going to be focusing on the business outcome and not the tool." - David Cohen

"We are still in the solution in search of a problem stage. The hammer in search of nails stage." - David Cohen

"If you have not identified a real problem, there is nothing to solve there and you should not be trying to solve it." - David Cohen

"I'm not going to add one more drop to the bucket of infinite bad content." - David Cohen

 

Resources

• Superposition: superpositionstrat.com 

• David on LinkedIn (he posts daily): linkedin.com/in/davcohen06 

• The Superposition newsletter: superpositionstrat.beehiiv.com 

• YouTube, including his game show format: youtube.com/@Superpositionstrat 

 

If this episode landed, read this next in Swan Dive Backwards: Chapter 5, The Audit - the practical version of David's problem-first test, including the 60-minute starter. And Chapter 13, ROI Beyond Time Saved, for what to do once you've stopped counting hours.

Susan's book, Swan Dive Backwards is available on Amazon

Amazon Canada https://lnkd.in/dixxKJgV

Amazon USA https://lnkd.in/dFH5khHw

Amazon UK https://amzn.eu/d/07y3Gkvl

 

Enjoyed this? Drop a five-star review on Apple Podcasts. It's a free resource, and reviews are how new listeners find it.

 

Episode description

Everyone's arguing about whether AI can be trusted. Almost nobody's asking the harder question underneath it.

Grace Gravestock has spent more than twenty years leading change management on some of the highest-profile technology projects around - including the team that set the stage for the $67B Dell EMC integration. Her verdict on why AI pilots stall is unsentimental: it's the same reason ERP stalled, and CRM before that. People aren't using the technology the way it was intended. You can have the best tools in the world, and if people don't use them, it doesn't matter.

But the conversation turns when Susan brings up the trust deficit - the LinkedIn feeds full of complaints about AI slop, the comment sections litigating whether a video is real. Grace flips the question entirely: the crisis isn't whether we trust the machine. It's whether we still trust our own judgment.

Along the way: the Mac Mini that sat unused for months, why the longest-tenured experts are your real bottleneck, why young people are hitting the brakes hardest, and the one change that rescued a technology rollout that had already failed.

About Grace Gravestock

Grace Gravestock is a change management leader with more than twenty years on large-scale technology projects. She was part of the team that set the stage for the $67B Dell EMC integration, one of the largest tech mergers in history. Her work spans Deloitte, Dell, and Warner Brothers, plus years consulting inside the utility sector. She got her start in the UK on a government services rollout that touched every citizen in the country, at the front edge of the eGov boom. She's now turning that expertise toward AI adoption, and is writing Three Secrets to Making Change Fun and Easy.

What we get into

• (01:31) From a UK-wide government rollout to AI adoption - Grace's twenty-year arc

• (03:13) Why AI pilots are failing, and why the answer is boringly familiar

• (04:56) Why training isn't the root - and what has to happen before it

• (06:02) The surprise: young people are putting the brakes on hardest and fastest

• (07:10) Secret one - we get to choose. Why agency is the whole ballgame

• (08:23) Why your longest-tenured experts are the real bottleneck (and why you need them anyway)

• (10:35) The Mac Mini that sat there for months

• (11:47) Susan on being a ChatGPT person who barely opened Claude

• (12:29) "Am I training my own replacement?" - the fear leadership keeps answering wrong

• (13:22) Choosing to become more human rather than less

• (14:30) Monday morning heart attacks, and the work people don't want to go back to

• (16:50) The people who keep their jobs will be the ones who know how to orchestrate

• (18:48) How leaders should communicate when they don't have all the answers - WIIFM radio

• (20:06) The single change that rescued a failed rollout: executive bonuses

• (21:28) Two utilities, same state, wildly different outcomes

• (23:36) "We are not planning on cutting jobs. We're planning to 10x our results."

• (25:06) The trust deficit, LinkedIn, and the inauthenticity problem

• (28:35) The question that reframes everything: do I trust myself?

• (30:09) What leaders can actually do this week

 

Quotes

"You can have the best technology, and if people don't use it, it really doesn't matter." - Grace Gravestock

"The biggest reason people hate change and fear change is because it potentially means instability." - Grace Gravestock

"We get to choose how, not if, we're going to engage. AI is not going away." - Grace Gravestock

"There's no such thing as living in your glass house and throwing stones. You've got to be in the trenches." - Grace Gravestock

"Here's the biggest thing that we don't talk about, Susan. Do I trust myself? Do I trust myself to make my own decisions and use my own brain?" - Grace Gravestock

"The people that have jobs are going to be the ones that know how to orchestrate." - Grace Gravestock

Grace's three secrets

1. Consciously choose. Change begins as an individual decision, not an org chart mandate.

2. Align. Does this choice fit who you are and where you're going?

3. Be open to new ways. New tools, new working patterns, new definitions of the job.

Applied to AI: You do get to choose how, when, and where.

Resources

• Grace's book waitlist and a short video on the three secrets: funandeasychange.com 

• Connect with Grace on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/ggravestock 

• Susan's book, Swan Dive Backwards: wearenorthlightai.com/swan-dive-backwards 

If this episode landed, read this next in Swan Dive Backwards: Chapter 8, Culture as the OS - the trust recession, psychological safety, and why adoption questions are almost never technical ones. And Chapter 3, The AI Literacy Divide, for the fear Grace names from the change management side.

Enjoyed this? Leave us a five-star rating. This podcast is a free resource, and ratings are how new listeners find it.

 

In the final episode of the Podcast-to-Book series, host Susan Diaz sits down with change leader and AI education lead Melissa Penton (Sun Life) for a human-first conversation about what actually makes AI adoption work. They talk productivity vs room-for-life, why one-prompt culture is snake oil, the shift from prompt engineering to context engineering, and the simplest enterprise question that changes everything: "What would make Monday easier for employees?"

Episode summary

Susan closes out the Podcast-to-Book sprint with a conversation that feels like the point of the whole series: AI isn't a tool problem. It's a people problem disguised as a tool problem.

Melissa Penton shares her lens as a long-time change manager working in AI readiness and education inside a large organisation. Her focus isn't faster work. It's making room for what matters - and designing adoption in a way that's safe, honest, and grounded in real human tension points.

Together, Susan and Melissa unpack why generic prompting courses aren't enough, why people get hives when they hear words like "workflow" and "agentic," and how leaders can create real change by starting with everyday pain. They also go deep on psychological safety, the fear of "training your robot replacement," and what it looks like to lead with humility in the biggest transformation most of us will live through.

 

Key takeaways

Productivity is the doorway. Room-for-life is the goal.
Saving time is nice. The real win is using that time to live in your "zone of genius" and have space for the things you care about.

One-prompt culture is snake oil.
Useful AI work is iterative, messy, and conversational. The magic isn't the prompt. It's the human steering, correcting, and refining.

Prompt engineering is evolving into context engineering.
The skill isn't "write a clever prompt." It's learning to give the right context, ask better questions, and build on responses.

Enterprise adoption should start with one simple question:
"What would make Monday easier for my employees?"
That question forces leaders to solve real friction instead of buying shiny tools.

The biggest people problem masquerading as an AI problem is readiness.
AI is being thrown at people who don't know where to start, how it fits their real lives, or how it changes their work without threatening them.

Training should be experiential, not theoretical.
Courses can help. But capability sticks when people learn by doing, inside real workflows, with real tasks, and real feedback loops.

Psychological safety is non-negotiable.
People won't share pain points if they fear automation will erase their job. Leaders shouldn't make promises they can't keep. They should make learning safe and transferable.

Workflows don't have to be scary.
A workflow is just the steps you already take. "Ask a question → make notes → read notes → act." That's a workflow.

Low-risk experiments lead to higher-risk breakthroughs.
The "AI coffee warmer" might feel silly. But it's part of the lab. Small experiments teach the muscles needed for bigger transformations.

Leadership in the AI era requires humility.
Admit you're learning. Model curiosity. Use AI to explore recurring organisational stuck points, mediate perspectives, and surface patterns in conversations.

 

Timestamps 

00:03 — Susan sets the scene: the final stretch of the 30-day podcast-to-book sprint
01:12 — Meet Melissa: change management, training, and leading AI education/readiness
02:31 — Productivity vs "making room for what matters" (crochet, hikes, real life)
03:29 — Time saved is table stakes… what are we doing with the time?
03:58 — Zone of Genius living and why AI should move you toward it
06:44 — Snake-oil prompts, "one prompt fixes your life," and why it makes Susan grumpy
08:02 — "I am the prompt": AI as an iterative, human conversation
09:21 — Prompting → context engineering (asking better questions is the skill)
09:50 — The enterprise question: "What will make Monday easier for employees?"
11:02 — Voice mode and why it changes tone, cadence, and output quality
14:27 — The biggest "AI problem" is actually a people/readiness problem
16:20 — Start with real tension points, not an abstract AI adoption plan
18:23 — Why "prompting courses" can repel people (language matters)
20:39 — Courses aren't bad… they're just not sufficient
21:49 — Cleaning workflows as the gateway drug to agentic thinking
22:44 — Agentic AI explained simply: consecutive steps without you in the middle
23:20 — "Workflow" definition for normal humans (no hives required)
24:12 — First 3 moves in 30 days: Monday, conversations, embedded learning
26:00 — Psychological safety: fear of replacement and why honesty matters
31:03 — Skill recognition: you're learning transferable capability, not training your replacement
33:35 — Whole-human value: you are not your job title
34:22 — The spiritual lens: AI should expand what humans can become
35:34 — Why "small silly tools" still matter (science lab thinking)
37:29 — Low-risk testing as the path to bigger breakthroughs
38:00 — Leadership advice: be humble, be curious, use AI to explore stuck patterns
40:58 — Where to find Melissa: LinkedIn + Substack
41:30 — "Purple person": bridging tech and business communication

 

Connect with Melissa Penton on LinkedIn
Substack: Confessions of an AI User

 

If you're leading AI adoption, steal this question and use it today:

 "What would make Monday easier for our people?"

Then pick one friction point.
Make it safer. Make it simpler.
Let the learning compound.

Connect with Susan Diaz on LinkedIn to get a conversation started.

Agile teams move fast. Grab our 10 AI Deep Research Prompts to see how proven frameworks can unlock clarity in hours, not months. Find the prompt pack here.

Most companies do a few AI trainings, run some pilots, and then stall. In this episode, host Susan Diaz argues the only real future-proofing strategy is continuous AI literacy. She breaks down what "continuous literacy" actually includes (skill, judgment, workflow, norms), the predictable failure modes of the AI literacy divide, and a simple flywheel you can run monthly so capability keeps compounding.

Episode summary

Susan opens with a familiar pattern: a burst of AI excitement, a deck called "AI Strategy 2025" a few clever workflows… and then reality hits. Tools change. Policies shift. Vendors overpromise. Early adopters keep learning. Everyone else stalls.

Her reframe is blunt: AI is not a project or a software rollout. It behaves like a language. Best practices change fast. What was smart six months ago can become a bad habit in the next six months.

So future-proofing isn't about predicting what AI will do next. It's about building an organization that can keep learning without burning people out or gambling with risk. That's what continuous AI literacy is.

Key takeaways

Continuous AI literacy has four parts:
Skill: how to use AI.
Judgment: whether you should use AI.
Workflow: where AI fits into the process.
Norms: what's safe, allowed, expected (guardrails + governance).

If training only focuses on skill, you get chaos.
If it covers all four, you get adoption velocity without panic.

The AI literacy divide is already here.
A few people sprint.
Most people watch.
Leadership tries to govern what they don't fully understand.
HR is stuck between "train everyone" and "we have no time".

That divide creates three predictable outcomes:
Shadow AI (people use tools quietly because they fear bans).
Innovation theatre (lots of activity, little operational change).
Champion burnout (early adopters carry the organisation and get exhausted).

To future-proof, you need a continuous literacy flywheel.
Not a one-off workshop.
A system.

Susan's flywheel starter kit (run it monthly/quarterly):

1. Build the floor: minimum viable competence for everyone (basics of prompting, privacy, verification).

2. Role-based lifts: train people to do their jobs better with AI (sales, HR, marketing, ops), not "AI training" in the abstract.

3. Protect and pay champions: office hours, workflow library, recognition, and compensation so they don't become unpaid internal consultants.

4. Package workflows: move beyond prompting into templates, SOPs, and personalized tools (repeatable cognitive automation).

5. Measure better metrics: stop obsessing only over time saved. Track quality, speed to opportunity, risk reduction, and learning.

6. Refresh the loop: update what changed in tools/policy, what workflows are now standard, and what failure modes to avoid. Repeat.
   
   

How you know it's working:
You'll hear the language change.
Less "AI is scary."
More "Is this a good use case?" "What's the risk?" "What's the verification step?"
AI becomes boring in the best way.
Standardized quality improves.
Handoffs improve.
Fewer heroics.

A simple rubric for "good AI use":
Is it safe (data + context)?
Is the output verifiable?
Is a human accountable?
Is it repeatable enough to operationalise?

Timestamps

00:02 — The pattern: training + excitement + pilots… then stall
00:28 — Vendor "agents" promises and why reality disappoints
01:09 — The only real future-proofing strategy: continuous literacy
02:06 — Reframe: AI is a language, not a project
03:50 — What continuous literacy means in practice
04:11 — The four parts: skill, judgment, workflow, norms
05:40 — Why skill-only training creates chaos
06:05 — Culture as the OS: why literacy won't stick without safety
06:35 — The literacy divide: power users sprint, others stall
07:36 — The three outcomes: shadow AI, innovation theatre, champion burnout
08:24 — Continuous literacy as a flywheel (system, not workshop)
09:02 — Step 1: build the floor (minimum viable competence)
09:58 — Step 2: role-based lifts (train jobs, not "AI")
10:47 — Step 3: champions, guardrails, office hours, and compensation
11:27 — Step 4: workflow packaging (templates, SOPs, personalised tools)
12:21 — Step 5: better metrics beyond time saved
12:50 — Step 6: refresh the loop and repeat
13:49 — How you'll know it's working: language shifts, "boring wins"
14:57 — A simple rubric: safe, verifiable, accountable, repeatable
15:42 — A practical start: 60 minutes of literacy review weekly
16:39 — Close: tools expire, literacy compounds

 

If you want a future-proof organization, don't build a crystal ball.
Build a loop.

Start this week with:

1. 60 minutes of literacy review (what changed, what worked, what failed).

2. Pick one workflow to package into a template or SOP.

3. Schedule office hours so learning stays alive.
   
   

Tools will expire.
Literacy will compound.

Host Susan Diaz sits down with sales strategist Gazzy Amin, founder of Sales Beyond Scripts, to talk about the real ways AI is changing revenue, planning, and scale. They cover AI as a thinking partner, how to use it across departments in a small business, why audits matter more than hype, and how mindset quietly determines whether you treat AI as a threat or an advantage.

Episode summary

This episode is part of Susan's 30-episodes-in-30-days "podcast to book" sprint for Swan Dive Backwards.

Susan and Gazzy zoom in on the selling process first. Then they zoom out to the whole business. They talk about three camps of AI users (anti, curious, invested), and why the curious group has a huge edge right now.

Gazzy shares how she uses AI as a co-pilot across marketing, sales, and operations. Not just for captions. For thinking, planning, campaign creation, and building repeatable systems.

They also go into mindset. Gazzy's approach is clear: protect your mental real estate. Don't let recession talk, doom narratives, or fear-based chatter shape your decisions. Use AI to help you widen perspective, challenge limiting beliefs, and plan like a CEO.

Key takeaways

AI is more than a copywriting tool. It's a strategic brainstorming partner that reduces burnout and speeds up decision-making.

If you want to scale, map your departments and ask AI how it can support each one. Marketing, sales, finance, operations, hiring, delivery, and client experience.

Do a year-end audit before you set new goals. Feed AI your revenue data, launches, offers, and calendar patterns. Then let it ask you smart questions you wouldn't think to ask yourself.

AI doesn't erase experts. It raises your baseline. You show up to expert conversations more informed, so you can go deeper faster.

Documentation and playbooks become an unfair advantage. When knowledge lives only in your head, your business is fragile. AI helps you turn what's in your brain into systems other people can run.

Scale is doing more with less. AI can increase output without needing to triple headcount, if you're intentional about workflows and training your team.

Women have a big opportunity here. AI can reduce the invisible workload, expand access to expert-level thinking, and help women-led businesses grow faster - if women stay in the conversation and keep learning.

Timestamps  00:00 — Susan introduces the 30-day podcast-to-book sprint and today's guest, Gazzy Amin
01:10 — The three types of entrepreneurs using AI (anti / curious / invested)
02:10 — AI as a thinking partner vs a task-doer
03:50 — Why most people don't yet grasp AI's full capability (and why curiosity matters)
05:00 — Using AI for personal life tasks as a low-pressure entry point
06:46 — Recession narratives, standing out, and using AI to challenge limiting beliefs
07:40 — "Create an AI per department" and train it for specific use cases
09:10 — The opportunity window: access to expertise that used to cost tens of thousands
10:10 — The 2025 audit: asking AI to interview you and pull out patterns
12:55 — Will AI devalue experts? Why the human layer still matters
16:45 — How AI changes your conversations with experts (you go deeper, faster)
18:20 — Mindset tools: music, movement, and protecting your "mental real estate"
21:00 — Documentation, playbooks, and why small teams need systems
24:00 — Training AI on your real sales process to improve onboarding + client experience
27:20 — Do AI-enabled businesses become more valuable? Scale, output, and leverage
30:00 — Why people default to content (and how to make AI content actually sound like you)
34:15 — Women, AI, the wage gap, and why this moment is non-negotiable
40:00 — Gazzy shares her CEO Growth Plan Intensives and how she uses AI in sessions
42:55 — Where to connect with Gazzy (Instagram + LinkedIn) Guest info

Gazzy Amin
Founder, Sales Beyond Scripts
Best place to connect: Instagram (behind-the-scenes and real-time business building) - https://www.instagram.com/authenticgazzy/

If you want to use AI to scale in 2026, start here:

1. Run a 2025 audit with AI.

2. Pick one department and ask AI how to improve that workflow.

3. Document one process that currently lives only in your head.

 

Connect with Susan Diaz on LinkedIn to get a conversation started.

Agile teams move fast. Grab our 10 AI Deep Research Prompts to see how proven frameworks can unlock clarity in hours, not months. Find the prompt pack here.

If you're measuring AI success by "hours saved" you're playing the easiest game in the room. In this episode, Host Susan Diaz explains why time saved is weak and sometimes harmful, then shares a better "AI ROI stack" with five metrics that map to real business value and help you build dashboards that actually persuade leadership.

 

Episode summary

Time saved is fine.
It's also table stakes.

Susan breaks down why "we saved 200 hours" is the least persuasive AI metric, and why it can backfire by punishing your early adopters with more work. She then introduces a smarter approach: a set of five metrics that connect AI usage to quality, risk, growth, decision-making, and compounding capability.

If you want your AI work funded, supported, and taken seriously, you need to move the conversation from cost to investment. This episode shows you how.

 

Key takeaways

Time saved doesn't automatically convert to value.
If no one reinvests the saved time, you just made busy work faster.

Hours saved can punish high performers.
Early adopters save time first.
They often get "rewarded" with more work.

Time saved misses the second-order benefits.
AI's biggest wins often show up as fewer mistakes, better decisions, faster learning, and faster response to opportunity.

Susan's "AI ROI stack" has five stronger metrics:

1. Quality lift
   Is the output better?
   Track error rate, revision cycles, internal stakeholder satisfaction, customer satisfaction, and fewer rounds of revisions (e.g., proposals going from four rounds to two).

2. Risk reduction
   AI can reduce risk, not only create it.
   Track compliance exceptions, security incidents tied to content/data handling, legal escalations/load, and "near misses" caught before becoming problems.

3. Speed to opportunity
   Measure time from idea → first draft → customer touch.
   Track sales cycle speed, launch time, time to assemble POV/brief/competitive responses, and responsiveness to RFPs (the "game-changing" kind of speed).

4. Decision velocity
   AI can reduce drag by improving clarity.
   Track time-to-decision in recurring meetings, stuck work/aging reports, decisions per cycle, and decision confidence.

5. Learning velocity
   This is the compounding one.
   Track adoption curves, playbooks/workflows created per month, time from new capability introduced → used in production, and how many documented workflows are adopted by 10+ people.
   
   

Dashboards should show three layers:
Leading indicators (adoption, workflow usage, learning velocity).
Operational indicators (cycle time).
Business outcomes (pipeline influence, time to market, cost of service).

You're not investing in AI to save hours.
You're building a system that produces better work, faster, with lower risk, and gets smarter every month.

 

Timestamps

00:01 — "If you're measuring AI success by hours saved… that's table stakes."
00:51 — Why time saved doesn't translate cleanly into value
01:12 — Time saved doesn't become value unless reinvested
01:29 — Hours saved can punish high performers (they get more work)
02:10 — Time saved misses second-order benefits (mistakes, decisions, learning)
02:45 — Introducing the "AI ROI stack" (five better metrics)
02:59 — Metric 1: Quality lift (error rate, revision cycles, satisfaction)
03:31 — Example: proposal revisions drop from four rounds to two
04:14 — Metric 2: Risk reduction (compliance, incidents, legal load, near misses)
05:19 — Metric 3: Speed to opportunity (idea to customer touch, sales cycle, launches)
06:11 — Example: RFP response in 24 hours vs five days
06:34 — Metric 4: Decision velocity (time to decision, stuck work, confidence)
07:30 — Metric 5: Learning velocity (adoption curve, workflows, time to production)
08:57 — Dashboards: leading indicators vs lagging indicators
09:15 — Dashboards should include business outcomes (pipeline, time to market, cost)
09:32 — Reframe: AI as a system that improves monthly
10:08 — "Time saved is the doorway. Quality/risk/speed/decisions/learning is the house."
10:36 — Closing + review request

 

If your AI dashboard is only "hours saved" keep it - but don't stop there.

Add one metric from the ROI stack this month.
Start with quality lift or speed to opportunity.
Then watch how fast the conversation shifts from cost to investment.

Connect with Susan Diaz on LinkedIn to get a conversation started.

 

Agile teams move fast. Grab our 10 AI Deep Research Prompts to see how proven frameworks can unlock clarity in hours, not months. Find the prompt pack here.

Host Susan Diaz sits down with Jennifer Hufnagel (Hufnagel Consulting), an AI educator and AI readiness consultant who's trained 4K+ people. They break down what "AI readiness" actually means (spoiler: it's not buying Copilot), why AI doesn't fix broken processes or dirty data, and how leaders can build real capability through training programs, communities of practice, and properly resourced AI champions.

Episode summary

Susan Diaz and Jennifer Hufnagel met in "the most elite way possible": both were quoted in The Globe and Mail about women and AI.

Jennifer shares her background as a business analyst and digital adoption / L&D consultant, and how she pivoted when clients began asking for AI workshops right after ChatGPT's release.

Together, they map a simple but powerful framework:

• AI awareness (practice + play, foundational learning, early change management)

• AI readiness (software stack, data quality, workflows, current state, and - quietly - the "people audit")

• AI adoption (implementation, strategy, and ongoing integration)

Jennifer explains why "audit" language scares people, but the work is essential - especially talking to humans about what's frustrating, what takes time, and where fear is showing up. She shares what she's seeing after training thousands: AI fluency is still low, people obsess over tools, and many assume AI will solve problems that are actually process or data issues.

The second half gets practical: what "workflows" really mean (step-by-step checklists), how AI now makes documenting processes easier than ever (voice → SOPs), why prompt engineering isn't dead but "100 prompts for your bookkeeping business" is mostly snake oil, and why one-off training sessions don't create real fluency.

They close with how to build sustainable AI capability: proper training programs, leadership-led culture, communities of practice, and protecting champions from becoming unpaid help desks.

Key takeaways

AI readiness is the middle of the journey. Jennifer frames AI maturity as: awareness → readiness → adoption. Most organisations skip readiness and wonder why adoption stalls.

Readiness includes software, data, process… and people. You can call it a software/data/process audit, but you still have to talk to humans about their day-to-day work, pain points, and fears. That's where the truth lives.

AI fluency is still lower than the headlines suggest. Jennifer questions rosy "90% adoption" stats because many rooms she's in still show low real-world usage beyond basic experimentation.

Stop obsessing over tools. Companies are writing AI policy around tools and forcing everyone into a single platform. Jennifer argues the real goal is discernment, critical thinking, and clarity - not "pick one tool and pray".

AI doesn't fix broken processes or dirty data. If your workflows aren't documented, AI will scale the chaos. If your data is messy, the analysis will be messy too. Readiness comes first.

A workflow is just a checklist. Jennifer demystifies "workflow" as step-by-step instructions and ownership: who does what, when. Sticky notes on a wall is a valid start.

Process documentation is easier than ever. You can dictate steps into a model (without passwords) and ask it to produce an SOP/checklist - getting knowledge out of people's heads and into a shareable format.

Prompting isn't dead, but promise-all prompt packs are mostly hype. Prompting differs by model, and the best move is often to ask the model how to prompt it - and how to troubleshoot when output is wrong.

One-off AI workshops don't create fluency. AI changes too fast. Real capability requires programs, practice, communities of practice, office hours, and change management - plus leadership modelling and culture.

Don't burn out your AI champions. Champions need dedicated time, resources, and leadership sponsorship. Otherwise they become unpaid AI help desks and the entire initiative becomes fragile.

Community of practice is the unlock. Jennifer shares her in-person "AI Chats & Bites" group and encourages finding online + in-person + internal communities to keep learning alive.

Episode highlights

00:01 — The 30-day podcast-to-book sprint and why people are saying yes in December

00:40 — Susan + Jennifer meet via The Globe and Mail "women and AI" feature

01:21 — Jennifer's origin story: business analyst → digital adoption/L&D → AI readiness

04:09 — The three-part framework: awareness → readiness → adoption

05:03 — Readiness: software stack, data quality ("dirty data"), and mapping current state

06:13 — "People audit" without calling it that: interview humans about pain + fear

08:02 — What Jennifer sees after ~4,000 trainees: fluency still low + stats don't match reality

09:38 — AI doesn't fix broken processes; it scales whatever is there

10:55 — Workflows explained as checklists; "won the lottery" handoff test

12:18 — Dictate your process into AI → generate SOPs/checklists

14:24 — Prompting isn't dead; ask the model to help you prompt + troubleshoot

17:50 — Why one-off training doesn't work; AI fluency requires a program + practice

22:15 — Burning out champions and why AI culture must be top-down

27:49 — Communities of practice: online + local + internal

31:00 — Common mistakes: vending-machine mindset, believing output, not defining the problem

35:31 — Women and AI: opportunity, fear, resilience, and "be in the grey"

39:51 — Where to find Jennifer: hufnagelconsulting.ca + LinkedIn

Guest info

Jennifer Hufnagel

• Website: hufnagelconsulting.ca

• Email: hello@hufnagelconsulting.ca

• Best place to connect: LinkedIn - Jennifer Hufnagel

If AI adoption feels stuck in your organization, don't buy another tool first.

Start with readiness:

1. Map one workflow end-to-end.

2. Talk to the humans doing it daily.

3. Clean up the process and data enough that AI can actually help.
   
   

Then build fluency through a program - not a one-off workshop - and protect your champions with real time and resources.

 

Connect with Susan Diaz on LinkedIn to get a conversation started.

Agile teams move fast. Grab our 10 AI Deep Research Prompts to see how proven frameworks can unlock clarity in hours, not months. Find the prompt pack here.

If your organization ran an "AI 101" lunch-and-learn… and nothing changed after, this episode is for you. Host Susan Diaz explains why one-off workshops create false confidence, how AI literacy is more like learning a language than learning software buttons, and shares a practical roadmap to build sustainable AI capability.

Episode summary

This episode is for two groups:

1. teams who did a single AI training and still feel behind, and

2. leaders realizing one workshop won't build organizational capability.
   
   

The core idea is simple: AI adoption isn't a "feature learning" problem. It's a behaviour change problem. Behaviour only sticks when there's a container - cadence, guardrails, and a community of practice that turns curiosity into repeatable habits.

Susan breaks down why one-off training fails, what good training looks like (a floor, not a ceiling), and gives a step-by-step plan you can use to design an internal program - even if your rollout already happened and it was messy.

Key takeaways

One-off AI training creates false confidence.
People leave either overconfident (shipping low-quality output) or intimidated (deciding "AI isn't for me"). Neither leads to real adoption.

AI literacy is a language, not a feature.
Traditional software training teaches buttons and steps. AI requires reps, practice, play, and continuous learning because the tech and use cases evolve constantly.

Access is not enablement.
Buying licences and calling everyone "AI-enabled" skips the hard part: safe use, permissions, and real workflow practice. Handing out tools with no written guardrails is a risk, not a training plan.

Cadence beats intensity.
Without rituals and follow-up, people drift back to business as usual. AI adoption backslides unless you design ongoing reinforcement.

Good training builds a floor, not a ceiling.
A floor means everyone can participate safely, speak shared language, and contribute use cases—without AI becoming a hero-only skill.

The four layers of training that sticks:

1. Safety + policy (permission, guardrails, what data is allowed)

2. Shared language (vocabulary, mental models)

3. Workflow practice (AI on real work, not toy demos)

4. Reinforcement loop (office hours, champions, consistent rituals)

The 5-step "training that works" roadmap

Step 1: Define a 60-day outcome.
"In 60 days, AI will help our team ____."
Choose one: reduce cycle time, improve quality, reduce risk, improve customer response, improve decision-making.
Then: "We'll know it worked when ____."

Step 2: Set guardrails and permissions.
List:

• data never allowed

• data allowed with caution

• data safe by default
  
  

Step 3: Pick 3 high-repetition workflows.
Weekly tasks like proposals, client summaries, internal comms, research briefs.
Circle one that's frequent + annoying + low risk.
That becomes your practice lane.

Step 4: Build the loop (reps > theory).
Bring one real task.
Prompt once for an ugly first draft.
Critique like an editor.
Re-prompt to improve.
Share a before/after with the team.

Step 5: Create a community of practice.
Office hours.
An internal channel for AI wins + FAQs.
Two champions per team (curious catalysts, not "experts").
Only rule: bring a real use case and a real question.

What "bad training" looks like

• one workshop with no follow-up

• generic prompt packs bought off the internet

• tools handed out with no written guardrails

• hype-based demos instead of workflow practice

• no time allocated for learning (so it becomes 10pm homework)
  
  

Timestamps

00:00 — Why this episode: "We did AI training… and nothing changed."
01:20 — One-off training creates two bad outcomes: overconfident or intimidated
03:05 — AI literacy is a language, not a software feature
05:10 — Access isn't enablement: licences without guardrails = risk
07:00 — Cadence beats intensity: why adoption backslides
08:40 — Training should build a floor, not a ceiling
10:05 — The 4 layers: policy, shared language, workflow practice, reinforcement
12:10 — The 5-step roadmap: define a 60-day outcome
13:40 — Guardrails and permissions (what data is never allowed)
15:10 — Pick 3 workflows and choose a low-risk practice lane
16:30 — The loop: prompt → critique → re-prompt → share
18:10 — Communities of practice: office hours + champions
20:05 — What to do this week: pick one workflow and run one loop

If your organization did an AI 101 and nothing changed, don't panic.

Pick one workflow this week.
Run the prompt → critique → re-prompt → share loop once.
Then schedule an office hour to do it again.

That's how you move from "we did a training" to "we're building capability".

Connect with Susan Diaz on LinkedIn to get a conversation started.

 

Agile teams move fast. Grab our 10 AI Deep Research Prompts to see how proven frameworks can unlock clarity in hours, not months. Find the prompt pack here.

 

Host Susan Diaz is joined by Chris McMartin, National Lead for the Scotiabank Women Initiative (Business Banking), for a real-world conversation about how women are approaching AI. They talk about time poverty, fear of asking "dumb" questions, the shame myth of "AI is cheating", and why the most powerful move right now is women holding the door open for each other - learning in community and sharing what works.

Episode summary

This episode is a candid, energetic conversation with Chris McMartin - aka "Hype Boss" online and a long-time hype woman for women entrepreneurs.

They explore what's different about women's AI adoption, and it's not lack of interest. They discuss the reality of learning AI at 10pm on the couch after the "82-item checklist" of the day is finally done. And the catch-22 at play - AI can save time, but learning it takes time first - like baking cookies with kids turning a 20-minute task into a two-hour event.

From there, they unpack a deeper barrier: many women hesitate to ask questions because they don't want to look silly. Chris argues women often use AI "just a little bit" because it doesn't require admitting what they don't know - meaning AI becomes a copywriting helper instead of a real growth lever.

They also confront the "AI is cheating" narrative. Chris shares her no-apologies stance: if AI improved your grammar overnight, that's not shameful - it's smart. And if you're worried about being judged for questions, ask AI itself - because it won't judge you.

The conversation closes with practical advice for women-led teams (especially 5-50 people): start by identifying the task everyone hates and use AI there first, and schedule learning time during business hours instead of relegating growth to late-night exhaustion. Along the way, Susan brings in a powerful metaphor: "hold the door" leadership - women who are already in the room have a responsibility to bring others in with them. (Metaphor inspired by Game of Thrones and Bozoma Saint John. 

Key takeaways

Women aren't unwilling. They're time-starved. Many women try to learn AI at the end of the day, when they're exhausted - because that's the only time left.

AI has a "cookie problem". It has huge benefits later, but it costs time upfront to learn - just like baking with kids. That learning curve is real, and it's a major adoption barrier.

Fear of questions limits adoption. Chris observes women often hesitate to ask "how do I use this better?" which keeps AI usage stuck at surface-level tasks like captions and posts.

"AI is cheating" is a myth that needs to die. Chris's take: using AI to communicate more clearly isn't unethical. It's an upgrade. She also notes men rarely apologize for finding ways to do things better.

Ask AI how to use AI. If you feel silly asking humans, ask your LLM: "What questions should I answer so you can help me solve this?" That's the difference between generic output and useful work.

Community is a women's superpower. Women often collaborate with "competitors" with zero weirdness. That community-of-practice energy is exactly what AI learning needs.

For women-led teams: start with pain. Chris's first practical move: ask your team what task they hate most, then use AI to reduce or remove that pain point to build buy-in.

Schedule learning like leadership. Don't push AI learning to 10pm. Put it on the calendar during work hours. Your development is part of the job.

Grants can fund AI training and tech upgrades. Chris reminds listeners that many grants support technology advancement and hiring expertise - even for non-tech businesses - and AI can reduce the pain of grant writing.

Episode highlights

[00:03] Meet Chris McMartin + the Scotiabank Women Initiative.

[02:00] "10pm on the couch" and why time poverty shapes women's learning.

[02:44] The cookie analogy: AI saves time later, but learning costs time now.

[05:00] Women using AI 1%: safe tasks without asking questions.

[06:46] Why this matters: many "at risk" roles are held by women.

[09:35] "AI is cheating" + the grammar glow-up story.

[11:42] "Ask AI questions - AI doesn't judge you."

[13:00] Relationship mindset: don't be transactional with AI; ask better questions.

[16:21] "Hold the door" leadership and building rooms where women feel welcome.

[21:43] Two tactical tips: solve a pain point first + schedule learning time.

[33:48] Grants as a funding path for training and tech improvements.

[38:57] Say yes to conversations even if you "don't know enough."

[41:18] Where to find Chris + her podcast I Am Unbreakable.

If you're a woman entrepreneur (or you lead women in your organization), take one action from this episode this week:

1. Ask your team what task they hate most.

2. Pick one painful workflow and test AI there first.

3. Put one hour of AI learning on the calendar during business hours.
   
   

And if you're already "in the room" with AI?
Hold the door. Invite someone in.

 

Connect with Susan Diaz on LinkedIn to get a conversation started.

 

Agile teams move fast. Grab our 10 AI Deep Research Prompts to see how proven frameworks can unlock clarity in hours, not months. Find the prompt pack here.

Connect with Chris McMartin on LinkedIn.

AI can feel like a creativity cheat code… or like the death of originality. In this short, punchy solo episode, Susan argues the truth is simpler: AI doesn't create creativity. It creates options. Creativity still belongs to the driver—your taste, courage, and point of view.

Episode summary

Susan tackles a question she hears constantly: does AI expand creativity or flatten it?

Her answer: it depends on how you're using it. If you use AI like a photocopier—generate a first draft and ship it unchanged—you're not becoming more creative. You're becoming more efficient at being generic.

But if you use AI like a paintbrush—as a sparring partner, a possibility engine, a constraint generator, or a remix assistant—it can shorten the distance between blank page and something you can shape.

The episode is a practical reset on what creativity actually requires in the AI era: taste, discernment, point of view, and the courage to be a little weird on purpose.

 

Key takeaways

• AI doesn't create creativity. It creates options.
  Creativity still requires intent, judgement, and discernment.
  
  

• Paintbrush vs Photocopier is the core distinction.
  
  

• Photocopier: you accept the default output and publish it.
  
  

• Paintbrush: you use AI to generate raw material, then you curate and shape.
  
  

• People can "spot AI writing" when there's no point of view.
  Generic writing usually means the human outsourced the messy parts: emotional clarity, lived experience, and risk.
  
  

• Creativity needs both taste and courage.
  AI doesn't do courage.
  Taste is what you choose—and what you reject.
  
  

• Better prompts aren't about asking for "the answer."
  They're about asking for raw material: angles, metaphors, structures, constraints, and pushback.
  
  

Ways to use AI like a paintbrush

Try these modes when you feel stuck:

• Sparring partner: "Push back on this." "Argue the opposite." "What am I not seeing?"
  
  

• Possibility engine: "Give me 20 angles." "Give me metaphors." "Suggest surprising structures."
  
  

• Constraint generator: "Make this an 8-word active headline." "Explain it for a 12-year-old." "Turn it into a story with a clear villain."
  
  

• Remix assistant: "Turn this into a framework." "Make it a checklist." "Turn it into a debate."
  
  

The mini exercise Susan gives you

Pick something you're working on (a post, pitch, talk, plan). Then ask AI:

1. What's the most boring version of this?
   
   

2. What's the boldest version of this?
   
   

3. What's the truest version of this for me?
   
   

Then you decide what to keep, amplify, or reject.
That's the creative act.

 

Episode highlights

 

00:02.36 — The core question: does AI make you more or less creative?

00:18.46 — "It depends who's driving" (AI amplifies you)

00:55.04 — Core belief: AI creates options, not creativity

01:23.10 — Paintbrush vs photocopier framing

01:38.81 — The photocopier trap: shipping first drafts unchanged

02:16.38 — Why people can "tell it's AI" (patterned, POV-less output)

03:03.35 — Creativity requires taste + courage (AI doesn't do courage)

03:19.86 — Choose the paintbrush path

03:37.29 — Use AI as a sparring partner (push back / argue opposite / what am I missing?)

03:47.10 — Use AI as a possibility engine (20 angles, metaphors, surprising structures)

04:18.08 — Use constraints to force originality (8-word headline, etc.)

05:16.92 — What "taste" actually is: what you choose (and reject)

05:45.66 — Ask for raw material, not "the answer"

06:05.56 — Mini exercise setup (post, pitch, talk, plan)

06:21.82 — Three-question prompt: boring vs bold vs true

07:27.10 — When AI makes you less creative: avoiding the thinking

07:38.96 — Don't quit AI—change the prompt

07:51.10 — Ask for "stranger / truer / mine"

08:03.45 — Wrap: creativity is in the driver's hands

08:19.29 — Quick ask: rating + review

 

If you're feeling creatively stuck, don't ask AI to be creative for you.

Ask it to help you explore—then use your taste to choose.

And if you're enjoying this 30-day podcast-to-book sprint, leave us a quick rating + short review to help more people find the show

Connect with Susan Diaz on LinkedIn to get a conversation started.

 

Agile teams move fast. Grab our 10 AI Deep Research Prompts to see how proven frameworks can unlock clarity in hours, not months. Find the prompt pack here.

 

Host Susan Diaz is joined by Shona Boyd, a product manager at Mitratech, a SaaS company, and a proudly AI-curious early adopter, for a grounded conversation about what AI literacy actually means now. They talk about representation, critical thinking, everyday meet-you-where-you-are workflows, shadow AI, enterprise guardrails, and why leaders must stop chasing AI features that don't solve real user problems.

Episode summary

Susan introduces Shona Boyd - AI-curious early adopter and SaaS product manager—whose mission is to make AI feel less scary and more accessible.

Shona shares how her approachable AI philosophy started in product work: she used AI to build audience insights and feedback loops when job seekers weren't willing to do interviews, and quickly realized two things: (1) AI wasn't going away, and (2) there weren't many visible women or people who looked like her leading the conversation. So she raised her hand as an approachable reference point others could learn from.

From there, the conversation expands into what AI literacy has evolved into. It's no longer just "which tool should I use?" or "how do I write prompts?" Shona argues that today literacy is about critical thinking, learning how to talk to an LLM like a conversation, and choosing workflows that benefit from AI rather than chasing hype.

They also get practical: Shona gives everyday examples (Medicare PDFs, credit card points, life admin) to show how AI can meet you where you are, without requiring you to build agents or become super technical.

Finally, Susan and Shona go deep on organizational adoption: why handing out logins without policies is risky, how shadow AI shows up (hello, rogue meeting note-takers), why leadership sponsorship matters, and what companies should stop doing immediately: AI for the sake of AI.

Key takeaways

Representation changes adoption. When people don't see anyone who looks like them using AI confidently, they're less likely to lean in. Shona chose to be a visible, approachable point of reference for others.

AI literacy has shifted. It's no longer mainly about which model or prompt frameworks. It's about:

• learning the language (LLM, GPT, etc.)

• staying curious

• building critical media muscles to evaluate what's true, what's AI, and what needs sources.

Workflows aren't just corporate. A workflow is simply: tasks + the path to get them done. Shona's examples show AI can help with day-to-day life admin (PDFs, policies, benefits, points programs), which makes AI feel more approachable fast.

The first output is not the final. "I can spot AI content" usually means people are publishing raw first drafts. High-quality AI use looks like: draft → critique → refine → human judgement.

What good organizational training is NOT: handing out tool logins with no policy, no guidance on acceptable use, and no understanding of enterprise vs personal security.

Shadow AI is already here. People are adding unapproved AI note-takers to meetings and uploading sensitive info into personal accounts. Blanket bans don't work - they push experimentation underground.

Adoption needs product thinking. Shona suggests leaders treat internal AI like a product launch:

• run simple feedback loops (NPS-style checks)

• analyse usage patterns to find sticking points

• apply AI where it solves real pain, not where competitors are hyping features.

Leadership ownership matters for equity. When AI is run department-by-department, you create "haves and have-nots" (tools, training, access). Top-down support plus safe guardrails reduces inequity and increases psychological safety.

Spicy take: stop doing AI for the sake of AI. If you can't explain how an AI feature improves real user life in a non-marketing way, it probably shouldn't ship.

Episode highlights

[00:01] The 30-day podcast-to-book sprint and why leaders are still showing up in December.

[01:14] Shona's origin story: using AI to build audiences and feedback loops in a job board context.

[02:17] The visibility gap: not many women / people who looked like her in early AI spaces.

[05:55] What AI literacy means now: critical thinking + conversation with an LLM + workflow selection.

[07:16] "Workflows" made real: Medicare PDFs and credit card points examples.

[10:13] Three essentials: foundational language, curiosity, and critical media literacy.

[12:23] What training is NOT: handing out logins with no policy or guardrails.

[15:49] Handling fear and resistance with empathy and a human-in-the-loop mindset.

[23:27] Product lens on adoption: NPS feedback loops + usage analytics to find real needs.

[28:14] Shadow AI: rogue note-takers, personal accounts, and why bans backfire.

[31:17] Policies at multiple levels, including interviewing and candidate use of AI.

[36:49] "Stop AI for the sake of AI" and the race to ship meaningless features.

[39:13] Where to find Shona: LinkedIn (under Lashona).

 

Connect with Susan Diaz on LinkedIn to get a conversation started.

 

Agile teams move fast. Grab our 10 AI Deep Research Prompts to see how proven frameworks can unlock clarity in hours, not months. Find the prompt pack here.

 

Connect with Lashona Boyd on LinkedIn

 

Most teams are stuck in tool obsession: "Should we build agents?" "Should we buy this AI platform?" In this solo, workshop-style episode, host Susan Diaz pulls you back to reality with a simple decision guide: buy vs bolt-on vs build, four leadership filters, and a practical workflow exercise to help you choose the right approach - without falling for agentic fantasies.

Episode summary

Susan opens with a pattern she's seeing everywhere: 75% of AI conversations revolve around tools - agents, platforms, add-ons - and they're often framed as all-or-nothing decisions. She reframes it: AI is best understood as robotic process automation for the human mind, not a single agent replacing a person or a department.

This episode is structured like a mini workshop. Susan asks you to grab paper and map a real workflow step-by-step - because the decision isn't "which AI tool is hot" it's what job are we automating.

Then she defines the three choices leaders actually have:

• Buy: purchase an off-the-shelf solution that works as-is.

• Build: create something custom (apps, integrated experiences, models).

• Bolt-on: the underrated middle path - use tools you already have (enterprise LLMs, suites), then add custom GPTs/projects, prompt templates, and lightweight automations.

She introduces a six-level "ladder" from better prompts → templates → custom GPTs/projects → workflow automation → integrated systems → custom builds, and offers a gut-check on whether your "agentic dreams" match your organizational capacity.

Key takeaways

Start with the job-to-be-done, not the tool. The most common mistake is choosing tech before defining the workflow. A workflow is simply a chain of small tasks with clear verbs and steps.

AI is RPA for your brain. Think "Jarvis" more than "replacement." It's about removing repetitive noise while keeping human judgement, discernment, and creativity in the lead.

Buy vs Build vs Bolt-on:

• Buy when you need reliability, guardrails, enterprise support, and the use case is common (summaries, note-taking, analytics).

• Build when the workflow is your differentiation, data is proprietary, outcomes are strategic, and you can support ongoing maintenance and governance.

• Bolt-on for most teams: fast, cheaper, easier to change. Start by layering custom GPTs/projects and lightweight automation on top of existing tools and licences.

Six levels of maturity (a ladder, not a leap):

1. Better prompts (one-off help)

2. Templates / prompt libraries (repeatable help)

3. Custom GPTs / projects (consistent behaviour + knowledge)

4. Workflow automation (handoffs between steps)

5. Integrated systems (data + permissions + governance)

6. Custom builds (strategic + resourced)

Four decision filters for leaders:
A) Repeatable workflow or one-off?
B) Is the value in the tech itself, or in how you apply it?
C) Data sensitivity and risk level? (enterprise controls matter)
D) Do you have operating maturity to run it? (monitoring, owners, governance, feedback loops)

Automation ≠ autopilot. Automation is great. Autopilot is abdication. If you ship first-draft AI output without review, you'll get "garbage in, garbage out" reputational risk.

A simple friction-mapping exercise:
Map a 10-step workflow (open, check, find, copy, rewrite, compare, ask someone, format, send, follow up).
Circle the friction steps.
Label each friction point:
R = repeatable
J = judgement-heavy
D = data-sensitive
Then choose: buy / bolt-on / build based on what dominates.

Reality check for "agentic dreams":
Before building:
Do you have a documented workflow?
Do you have a human owner reviewing weekly?
Do you have a feedback loop?

If not, you're building a liability, not a system.

The real bet isn't build vs buy. It's this: "What repeatable work needs a personalised tool right now?"

Episode highlights

[00:02] Why most AI conversations are tool-obsessed (agents, platforms, add-ons).

[01:50] "RPA for the human mind" + the Jarvis analogy.

[04:14] Workshop setup: buy vs bolt-on vs build + decision filters.

[05:15] Step 1: define the job-to-be-done (not the department).

[08:13] The 10-step workflow template (open → follow up).

[10:49] Definitions: buying AI vs building AI vs bolt-on AI.

[14:13] The ladder: prompts → templates → custom GPTs → automation → integrated systems → builds.

[16:42] Filter A: repeatable vs one-off (and why repeatable is bolt-on territory).

[18:27] Filter C: data sensitivity and enterprise-grade controls.

[19:45] Filter D: operating maturity—where agentic dreams go to die.

[20:08] Automation vs autopilot (autopilot = abdication).

[21:24] Circle friction points + label R/J/D to decide.

[25:42] Reality check: documented workflow, owner, feedback loop.

[26:33] The takeaway: personalised tools for repeatable work beat agent fantasies.

 

Try the exercise from this episode with your team this week:

1. Pick one recurring, annoying-but-important job.

2. Map it in 10 simple steps.

3. Circle friction points and label R / J / D.

Decide: buy, bolt-on, or build—and write: "For this workflow, we will ___ because the biggest constraint is ___."

 

Connect with Susan Diaz on LinkedIn to get a conversation started.

 

Agile teams move fast. Grab our 10 AI Deep Research Prompts to see how proven frameworks can unlock clarity in hours, not months. Find the prompt pack here.

 

Host Susan Diaz sits down with her business buddy and go-to-market consultant Suzanne Huber to talk about what AI has actually changed in marketing. Together they explore AI as "robot arms" (an extension of expertise), why first-draft AI content gets a bad rap, how modern marketers use AI for research, planning, editing, and proposals, and why thought leadership and personal brand matter more than ever.

Episode summary

Susan and Suzanne have been talking about AI since 2022. In this episode, they make it official.

Suzanne introduces a metaphor that sticks: AI as "robot arms". You're still the driver. AI can extend your reach, speed up the grunt work, and help you close expertise gaps—but it still needs human judgment, critical thinking, and craft.

They compare marketing before vs after AI: headlines, research, applying feedback, simplifying complex plans into executive-friendly formats, cross-checking sources (especially Canadian vs US), and building repeatable workflows with custom GPTs.

They also tackle the bigger questions:

• Does expertise still matter?

• Is personal brand becoming more important in the age of AI?

• What should writers do if they feel threatened?

Spoiler: AI can speed up output. But insight, values, differentiation, and taste are still the human edge.

 

Key takeaways

AI is "robot arms" not a replacement brain. It's an extension of expertise. You still need to steer, evaluate quality, and avoid publishing raw first drafts that can damage trust.

First-draft AI is the content factory problem. AI-assisted content gets a bad reputation when junior-level or high-volume systems publish credible-sounding fluff with no real subject matter expertise behind it. Craftsmanship still matters.

Marketing got faster because the grunt work collapsed. Headlines, rewrites, reformatting, applying feedback, outlining, and turning long documents into charts/tables can happen in minutes - not hours. You still refine, but you're starting from a better baseline.

Research and fact-checking changed dramatically. Instead of trawling search results for hours (and getting US-default sources), AI tools can surface targeted sources fast - then humans choose what's credible and relevant.

Custom GPTs shine for repeatable processes. Susan shares how she uses custom GPTs (including MyShowrunner.com) for guest research, interview questions, emails, and packaged deep research briefs - turning recurring work into reusable systems.

Expertise always matters - especially for positioning and thought leadership. Differentiation, values, hot takes, and human intuition are what attract the right people (and repel the wrong ones). AI can assist, but it can't replace lived POV.

Personal brand matters more in the age of AI. As audiences get more suspicious of generic content and AI avatars, trust increasingly attaches to real humans with visible ideas, proof, and consistency.

For writers who feel threatened: use it or get outpaced. AI can accelerate production for factual formats (press releases, timely content). Writers who combine craft + AI + fast learning become the force multipliers. But journaling/introspective writing still belongs to the human-only zone.

Episode highlights

[01:29] Suzanne's "robot arms" metaphor: AI as an extension of expertise.

[02:47] Why first-draft AI should never leave your desk.

[03:56] The telltale signs of lazy AI writing (and why it gets a bad rap).

[05:00] Before vs after AI: the research + writing process changes.

[07:24] Simplifying complex work: plans → tables → charts for execs.

[09:10] Deep research for Canadian sources without wasting hours.

[10:25] Custom GPT workflows (MyShowrunner + research briefs).

[12:29] Where expertise still matters in an AI-saturated world.

[16:56] Personal brand: attracting the right people + repelling the wrong ones.

[20:00] AI for proposals and even pricing guidance.

[22:00] Advice for writers who feel threatened by AI.

If you've been resisting AI because you're worried it will erase your craft, try this reframing: Use AI for the grunt work.
Keep the human parts for the parts that build trust: taste, judgement, voice, and values.

And if you want a simple starting point, ask yourself: What could use "robot arms" in your marketing workflow this week - headlines, research, rewrites, proposals, or planning?

Connect with Susan Diaz on LinkedIn to get a conversation started.

 

Agile teams move fast. Grab our 10 AI Deep Research Prompts to see how proven frameworks can unlock clarity in hours, not months. Find the prompt pack here.

 

Connect with Suzanne Huber on LinkedIn. 

 

AI doesn't fail in organizations because the tools are bad. It fails because culture is glitchy. In this solo episode, host Susan Diaz explains why AI is just the "app" while your organizational culture is the real operating system - and she shares six culture pillars (plus practical steps) that determine whether AI adoption becomes momentum… or messy risk.

Episode summary

Susan reframes AI adoption with a simple metaphor: AI tools, pilots, and platforms are "apps". But apps only run well if the operating system - your culture - is healthy. Because AI is used by humans, and humans have behaviour norms, and they value incentives, safety, and trust.

She connects this to the "experiment era" where organizations see unsupervised experimentation, shadow AI, and uneven skill levels - creating an AI literacy divide if leaders don't intentionally design expectations and values.

From there, Susan defines culture plainly ("how we think, talk, and behave day-to-day") and shows how it shows up in AI: what people feel safe admitting, whether experiments are shared or hidden, how mistakes are handled, and who gets invited into the conversation.

She then walks through six pillars of purposeful AI culture and closes with tactical steps for leaders: naming principles, building visible rituals, supporting different AI archetypes, aligning incentives, and communicating clearly.

Key takeaways

Stop treating AI like a one-time "project". AI adoption doesn't have a clean start/end date like an ERP rollout of yore. Culture is ongoing, and it shapes what happens in every meeting, workflow, and decision.

The "experiment era" creates shadow AI and uneven literacy. If unsupervised experimentation continues without an intentional culture, you get risk and a widening gap between power users and everyone else.

Six pillars of an AI-ready culture:

• Experimentation + guardrails - Pro-learning and pro-safety. Define sandboxes and simple rules of the road not 50-page legal docs.

• Psychological safety - People won't admit confusion, ask for help, or disclose risky behaviour without safety. Leaders modelling "I'm learning too" matters.

• Transparency - A trust recession + AI makes honesty essential. Encourage show-and-tell, logging where AI helped, and "we're not here to punish you" language.

• Quality, voice, and ethics - AI can draft, humans are accountable. Define what must be human-reviewed and what "good" looks like in your brand and deliverables.

• Access + inclusion - Who gets to play? Who gets training? Avoid new "haves/have-nots" dynamics across departments and demographics. AI literacy is a survival skill.

• Mentorship - Champions programs and pilot teams only work if mentorship is real and resourced (and doesn't become unpaid side-of-desk work).

Four culture traps to avoid:

• Compliance-only culture (all "don't", no "here's how to do it safely")

• Innovation theatre (demos and buzzwords, no workflow change)

• Hero culture (1-2 AI geniuses and nothing scales)

• Silence culture (confusion and shadow AI stay hidden and leadership thinks "we're fine")

Culture is the outer ring around your AI flywheel. Your flywheel (audit → training → personalized tools → ROI) compounds over time, but culture is what makes the wheel safe and sustainable.

Episode highlights

[00:01] AI is a tool. Culture is the system it runs on.

[01:30] The experiment era: shadow AI and unsupervised adoption.

[02:01] The AI literacy divide: some people "run apps," others can't "install them."

[03:00] Culture defined: how we think, talk, and behave—now applied to AI.
[04:56] Pillar 1: experimentation + guardrails (sandboxes + simple rules).
[07:23] Pillar 2: psychological safety and the shame factor.
[11:37] Pillar 3: transparency in a trust recession.
[13:57] Pillar 4: quality, voice, ethics—AI drafts, humans are accountable.
[16:33] Pillar 5: access + inclusion—AI literacy as survival skill.
[19:00] Pillar 6: mentorship and avoiding unpaid "champion" labour.
[23:31] Four bad patterns: compliance-only, innovation theatre, hero culture, silence culture.
[25:47] The closer: AI is the latest app. Culture is the operating system.

If your organization is buying tools and running pilots but still feels stuck, ask:

1. What "AI culture" is forming by default right now - compliance-only, hero culture, silence?

2. Which one pillar would make the biggest difference in the next 30 days: guardrails, safety, transparency, quality, inclusion, or mentorship?

3. What ritual can we introduce this month (show-and-tell, office hours, workflow demos) to make AI learning visible and normal?

Connect with Susan Diaz on LinkedIn to get a conversation started.

 

Agile teams move fast. Grab our 10 AI Deep Research Prompts to see how proven frameworks can unlock clarity in hours, not months. Find the prompt pack here.

 

Why are women adopting AI at lower rates than men - and what's really going on underneath the stats? In this episode, host Susan Diaz and Heather Cannings, Women Entrepreneurship Program Lead at InVenture and producer of StrikeUP Canada, dig into time poverty, "cheating" fears, late-night upskilling, and what real support for women entrepreneurs needs to look like in an AI-forward world.

Episode summary

Susan is joined by Heather Cannings, who leads women's entrepreneurship programs at InVenture and runs StrikeUP, a national digital conference that reaches thousands of women entrepreneurs across Canada and beyond.

Heather shares what she's seeing on the ground: huge curiosity about AI, mixed with pressure, fatigue, and a sense that it's "one more thing" women are expected to learn on their own time. Many of the women she serves are juggling multiple roles - business owner, employee, caregiver - then experimenting with AI at 10-11 pm after the workday and bedtime routines are done.

They unpack the emotional layer too:

• why AI still feels like "cheating" or being an imposter for many women

• the question of whether you have to disclose using AI

• how to reconcile charging premium prices while using AI behind the scenes

Susan and Heather link lower AI adoption rates among women to a wider pattern: another version of the wage gap and systemic inequities in who has time, safety, and support to skill up.

The conversation then turns to:

• Practical, real-world use cases women are already using AI for (grant writing, content, summarizing long docs).

• What good support systems actually look like for time-strapped entrepreneurs (designing for constraints, not fantasy calendars).

• How small, scrappy businesses and large organizations can learn from each other on speed, governance, and risk.

• The uncomfortable reality that many roles most at risk of AI automation - admin, entry-level comms, research - are heavily female.

They close with a hopeful lens: how women can use AI to increase their value and control over time and income, why this moment is a genuine opportunity for democratization, and how Heather's StrikeUP event is trying to meet women exactly where they are.

Key takeaways

AI doesn't feel neutral for women - it feels like another test. Many women entrepreneurs are curious about AI but also feel judged, worried about "doing it wrong," or like they're cheating if they use it. Imposter syndrome shows up as: "Is this really my work if AI helped?"

Time poverty is the real barrier, not lack of interest. Heather sees women using AI at 10-11 pm after full workdays and caregiving, trying to finish newsletters, social posts, or grant drafts. They are upskilling - just in stolen moments, not spacious strategy sessions.

Support systems must be designed for real constraints. Don't assume people have:

unlimited time

teams

strong internet

quiet workspaces

Many women join digital events from cars, back rooms, or storage areas between tasks. Training and support must be consumable, flexible, and realistic.

One-off AI webinars aren't enough. A single 60-minute "intro to AI" often just generates an overwhelming to-do list. What works better:

smaller, workshop-style sessions

hands-on guidance on a specific task or tool

practical, "do it in the room" support so women leave with something done, not just inspired.

Women are already using AI for practical, high-impact tasks. Common use cases include:

writing and improving copy

content planning and social media

summarizing long documents

drafting grants and pitches

The focus is on time savings, staying within tight budgets, and safely getting more done—not chasing cutting-edge AI for its own sake.

Enterprise and small business can - and should - learn from each other.

Big firms: bring resources, governance, and policy thinking.

Small businesses: bring speed, scrappiness, and the ability to implement immediately.

Ecosystem players (non-profits, funders, educators) can translate between the two and help find a healthy middle ground.

There's a gendered risk in AI-driven job change. Roles often flagged as "at risk" - admin, entry-level comms, research - are heavily staffed by women. Without intentional upskilling and redeployment, AI could quietly deepen existing inequities.

There's also real opportunity. AI can be a "quiet force in the background" that removes 5-10 hours of repetitive work a week - enough to change a woman's lifestyle, income, and capacity. It can help women move up the ladder, redesign roles, or reshape their businesses around higher-value work.

Designing AI with women's realities in mind matters. Women shouldn't just be users; they should help shape how tools are designed, so AI reflects real constraints like caregiving, part-time work, and patchy access - rather than assuming a mythical founder with unlimited time and support.

Episode highlights

[00:01] Susan sets the scene: 30 episodes in 30 days and how Heather fits into the series.

[00:57] Heather introduces InVenture and her role as Women Entrepreneurship Program Lead, plus the StrikeUP conference.

[01:55] Why AI remains a hot topic for StrikeUP's audience of women entrepreneurs.

[02:57] AI as a catch-22: it can save time, but learning it feels like "one more thing."

[03:56] "Is this cheating?" – women's fears about using AI and being judged.

[05:09] AI, transparency, pricing, and the complexity of "should I tell clients I used AI?"

[05:39] How this ties to stats showing women adopting AI 25% less than men—and why Susan sees it as another version of the wage gap.

[07:07] Draft vs final: why treating AI output as a first draft, not finished work, is crucial.

[08:33] The problem with generic, AI-generated content about "women in AI" that sounds impressive but says very little.

[09:20] Real-world use cases Heather sees among small business owners.

[10:22] The 11 pm pattern: women learning AI in stolen, exhausted moments.

[12:06] Why women are resilient and experimenting—but lack daytime access to deep learning and setup time.

[13:27] Designing support systems that don't assume unlimited time, teams, or bandwidth.

[14:24] Making training consumable, recorded, and accessible from phones, cars, and storage rooms.

[15:34] Why one-off webinars don't work—and the case for small, workshop-style sessions.

[18:09] What big firms can learn from scrappy entrepreneurs (and vice versa).

[20:10] The myth that corporates "have it all figured out" on AI.

[22:19] AI and job loss: the gendered impact on admin, entry-level comms, and research roles.

[23:20] Reframing: how women can use AI to increase their value and move up.

[25:16] Adaptation over doom: calculators, the internet, and why we'll adjust again.

[27:04] Heather's vision: AI as a quiet force helping women gain more control over time and income.

[28:41] StrikeUP 2025 details: date, format, giveaways, and on-demand access.

If you support or are a woman entrepreneur, use this episode as a prompt to ask:

1. Where are women in your world already using AI - in stolen moments - and how could you meet them there with better support?

2. How can you design AI training and tools that assume real constraints, not fantasy calendars?

3. What's one concrete way you can help a woman in your ecosystem use AI to increase her value and control, instead of feeling like she's at risk of being automated away?

Connect with Susan Diaz on LinkedIn to get a conversation started.

 

Agile teams move fast. Grab our 10 AI Deep Research Prompts to see how proven frameworks can unlock clarity in hours, not months. Find the prompt pack here.

You can learn more about StrikeUP and register for the free digital conference at strikeup.ca and connect with Heather Cannings on LinkedIn.

Some AI projects in your organization feel weirdly easy. Others feel impossible. In this solo workshop-style episode, host Susan Diaz introduces the Four AI Cliff Archetypes - Divers, Pathfinders, Operators, and Bridge Builders - and shows how understanding your mix of people (not just your tools) explains most of your AI momentum or lack thereof.

Episode summary

Susan opens with a familiar problem: in the same organization, some AI projects glide and others grind to a halt. The difference, she argues, isn't the tech - it's how different types of people respond when they hit a "cliff" moment, where the familiar path disappears and AI represents a big, unknown drop.

Drawing on personality and operating-style frameworks like Kolbe for inspiration, she introduces the Four AI Cliff Archetypes:

• Divers - jump first, learn in motion, create raw experiments and speed.
  
  

• Pathfinders - map risk and opportunity, research, and ask the hard questions.
  
  

• Operators - take a plan and run it, turning ideas into executed workflows.
  
  

• Bridge Builders - turn chaotic experiments into systems, documentation, and "this is how we do it here"

Listeners are invited to score themselves 0-10 on each type as Susan walks through how each archetype behaves at the cliff, what sentences give them away, and how they help or hurt AI adoption if unmanaged. She then moves from personal reflection to organizational design: how to sequence work so each type shines in the right place - especially across the AI flywheel of audit, training, personalised tools, and ROI.

She closes with a "cliff to bridge" sequence - Divers jump, Pathfinders map, Operators ship, Bridge Builders scale - and a practical homework exercise for mapping real people on your leadership team to each archetype so you can stop fighting human behaviour and start designing with it.

Key takeaways

The friction isn't just tools, it's temperament. AI feels like a cliff: the path ends, the map is unclear, the bottom is invisible. People respond to that uncertainty in patterned ways - and those patterns shape your AI projects.

The Four AI Cliff Archetypes:

• Divers - "Let's just try it." Early experimenters who move fast, download tools before memos, and learn by motion. They create velocity and risk (shadow AI, lack of documentation, burnout).
  
  

• Pathfinders - "Hold on, what does this do?" Risk scanners who research, ask for evidence, and think about policy and edge cases. They prevent disasters but can get stuck in analysis.
  
  

• Operators - "Tell me the plan and I'll run it." Execution machines who thrive on clear outcomes, ownership, timelines, and metrics. They build powerful machines… which can be pointed at the wrong target if leadership is vague.
  
  

• Bridge Builders - "No one should have to jump this every time." System designers who create repeatable workflows, playbooks, and training so experiments become infrastructure. They can over-engineer too early if they don't have real-world data.

No one type is "best" - you need a mix. A team full of Divers = chaos. Pathfinders-only = analysis paralysis. Operators-only = beautifully executed wrong things. Bridge Builder-only = process with no proof. Balance beats dominance.

Sequence the humans, not just the tasks. Susan offers a simple sequence for AI initiatives:

• Divers jump - generate raw experiments and discover real use cases.

• Pathfinders map - assess risk, compliance, and opportunity.

• Operators ship - turn what works into pilots and deployed workflows.

• Bridge Builders scale - standardize, document, and build bridges so others can cross safely.

Map archetypes onto your AI flywheel. In audit, Pathfinders and Bridge Builders lead with Divers exposing shadow systems. In training, Bridge Builders and Operators lead while Divers provide examples. For personalized tools and ROI tracking, all four types play different roles - from prototyping to governance to metrics.

Design for behaviour, don't fight it. You can't force Divers to become Pathfinders or Operators to become Bridge Builders. You can design projects, governance, and sequencing so each type does the work they're naturally wired for - reducing friction and accelerating adoption.

Episode highlights

[00:02] Why some AI projects feel easy in your org—and others feel impossible.

[00:26] "It's not the tools. It's the people." Setting up the archetype model.

[01:16] The cliff metaphor: the path ends, the map is unclear, and AI = the drop.

[01:57] Inspiration from Kolbe and operating modes for creating these archetypes.

[03:11] Introducing the four types: Divers, Pathfinders, Operators, Bridge Builders.

[04:14] How to play along: scoring yourself 0–10 on each archetype.

[04:53] Deep dive on Divers: language, strengths, and how they accidentally create shadow AI.

[06:41] The "sandbox plus guardrails" playbook for managing Divers (including burnout protection).

[08:02] Pathfinders: risk scanning, research, and how to avoid permanent evaluation mode.

[09:37] Two-week sprints and one-page memos as tools to keep Pathfinders moving.

[11:02] Operators: "tell me the plan and I'll run it," and why goals matter more than tools.

[13:04] Translating AI into workflows and metrics Operators can own.

[14:22] Bridge Builders: turning chaos into infrastructure and culture ("this is how we do it here").

[15:40] Pairing Divers + Bridge Builders, and Pathfinders + Bridge Builders, to avoid over-engineering.

[17:27] Why a team full of any single archetype breaks your AI efforts in predictable ways.

[18:35] Mapping each archetype onto the AI flywheel: audit, training, tools, ROI.

[21:28] Applying the model to your leadership team: spotting overloads and missing roles.

[22:37] The "cliff to bridge" sequence: Divers jump, Pathfinders map, Operators ship, Bridge Builders scale.

[23:38] Homework: map one current AI initiative against the four archetypes and adjust who does what.

Use this episode as a mini workshop for your next AI initiative:

1. Score yourself across Diver, Pathfinder, Operator, Bridge Builder.

2. Pick one real AI project and write actual names next to each type on your team.

3. Ask: "Where are we overloaded, where are we missing a type, and how can we re-sequence the work so each archetype shines at the right moment?"

That's how you stop treating AI like a terrifying cliff - and start treating it like a crossing your whole team actually knows how to make.

Connect with Susan Diaz on LinkedIn to get a conversation started.

Agile teams move fast. Grab our 10 AI Deep Research Prompts to see how proven frameworks can unlock clarity in hours, not months. Find the prompt pack here.

What does it really mean to build an AI-forward company that is still deeply human-first? In this episode, host Susan Diaz and senior HR leader and mentor culture advocate Helen Patterson talk about jobs, guardrails, copyright, environmental impact, and why mentorship and connection matter more than ever in the age of AI.

Episode summary

Susan is joined by Helen Patterson, founder of Life Works Well, senior HR leader, and author of the upcoming book Create a Mentor Culture.

They start with a Y2K flashback and draw a straight line from past tech panics to today's AI headlines. Helen shares why she sees AI as the latest evolution of technology as an enabler in HR - another way to clear the admin and grunt work so humans can focus on growth, development, and real conversations.

From there, they dig into:

• The tension between "AI will kill jobs" and tens of thousands of new AI policy and governance roles already posted.

• How shadow AI shows up when organizations put in blanket "no AI" rules and people just reach for their phones anyway.

• The very real issues around privacy, copyright, and intellectual property when staff feed proprietary material into public models.

• The less-talked-about environmental impact of AI and why leaders should demand better facts and more intentional choices from tech providers.
  
  

In the second half, Helen brings the conversation back to humanity: mentorship as a counterweight to disconnection, her One Million Mentor Moments initiative, and how everyday "micro-mentoring" at work can help people adapt to rapid change instead of being left behind. They close with practical examples of using AI for good in real life - from travel planning and research to late-night dog-health triage - without letting it replace judgement.

Key takeaways

This isn't our first tech panic. From Y2K to applicant tracking systems, HR has always framed tech as an enabler. GenAI is the newest layer, not an alien invasion. Looking back at history helps calm "sky is falling" narratives.

Jobs are changing, not simply disappearing. Even as people worry about AI-driven job loss, platforms like Indeed list tens of thousands of AI policy and governance roles. The work is shifting toward AI-forward skills in every function.

Blanket "no AI" rules don't work. When organizations ban external tools or insist on only one locked-down platform, people quietly use their own devices and personal stacks anyway - creating shadow AI with real privacy and IP risk. Guardrails and education beat prohibition.

Copyright and confidentiality need more than vibes. Without clear guidance, staff will copy proprietary frameworks or documents into public models and re-badge them. Leaders need simple, well-communicated philosophies about what must not go into AI tools.

Environmental impact is part of human-first. Training and running large models consumes energy. The real solution will be systemic (how tech is built and powered), but individuals and organizations can still use AI more efficiently, just like learning not to leave all the lights on.

Mentorship is the ultimate human technology. Helen's work on Create a Mentor Culture and One Million Mentor Moments reframes mentoring as everyday, one-conversation acts that share wisdom, reduce fear, and help people reskill for an AI-forward world. Tech should support that, not replace it.

Upskilling beats layoffs. When roles change because of AI, the most human-first response isn't to cut people loose, it's to invest in learning, mentoring, and redeployment so existing talent can grow into new, AI-augmented roles.

Use AI to simplify life, not complicate it. From planning multi-country trips to triaging whether the dog really needs an emergency vet visit, smart everyday use of AI can save time, money, and anxiety - freeing up more space for the work and relationships that actually matter.

Episode highlights

[00:01] Susan sets the scene: 30 episodes in 30 days to build Swan Dive Backwards in public.

[00:39] Helen's intro: Life Works Well, heart-centred high-performance cultures, and her focus on mentorship.

[03:43] What an AI-forward and human-centred organisation looks like in practice.

[04:00] Y2K memories and why today's AI panic feels familiar.

[06:11] 25–35K AI policy jobs on Indeed and what that says about the future of work.

[07:49] Jobs lost vs jobs created—and why continuous learning is non-negotiable.

[15:19] The danger of "everyone is using AI" with no strategy or safeguards.

[19:25] Shadow AI, personal stacks, and why hard bans don't stop experimentation.

[21:13] A real-world IP scare: proprietary material pasted into GPT and re-labelled.

[23:06] GPT refusing to summarise a book for copyright reasons—and why that's a good sign.

[24:03] The case for a simple AI philosophy doc: purpose, principles, and communication.

[25:24] Environmental concerns, fact-checking, and the server-room-to-laptop analogy.

[30:17] New social media laws for kids and what they signal about tech accountability.

[30:41] One Million Mentor Moments: why one conversation can change a career.

[31:22] From elite programmes to everyday mentor cultures inside organisations.

[35:01] AI for mentoring and coaching: bots, big-name gurus, and internal use cases.

[36:30] Using AI for travel planning, research, and everyday life admin.

[37:35] Susan's story: using AI to triage a dog-health scare instead of doom-scrolling vet sites.

[38:37] Life Works Well's roots in work–life harmony and simplifying with tech.

[39:35] Where to find Helen online and what's next for her book.

If you're leading a team (or a whole organization), use this episode as a prompt to ask:

1. Where are we treating AI as a tool in service of humanity - and where are we forgetting the human first?
   
   

2. Do our people actually know what's OK and not OK to put into AI tools?
   
   

3. How could we use mentorship - formal or informal - to help our people navigate this shift instead of fearing it?

Connect with Susan Diaz on LinkedIn to get a conversation started.

 

Agile teams move fast. Grab our 10 AI Deep Research Prompts to see how proven frameworks can unlock clarity in hours, not months. Find the prompt pack here.

You can connect with Helen Patterson on LinkedIn and follow her work on Create a Mentor Culture and One Million Mentor Moments via lifeworkswell.ca

Most leaders talk about AI in terms of pilots, projects, and one-off tools. In this solo episode, host Susan Diaz explains why that mindset stalls adoption - and introduces the idea of an AI flywheel: a simple, compounding loop of audit → training → personalized tools → ROI that quietly turns experiments into momentum across your whole organisation.

Episode summary

Susan opens by contrasting how most organizations approach AI - pilots, isolated chatbots, a few licences to "see what happens" - with how enduring companies build flywheels that compound over time.

Borrowing from Jim Collins' Good to Great, and examples like Amazon's recommendation engine, she reframes AI from "one big launch" to a heavy wheel that's hard to move at first, but almost impossible to stop once it's spinning.

She then introduces her AI flywheel for organizations, built on four moving pillars:

1. Audit - reality-check where AI already lives in tools, workflows, risks, and guardrails.
   
   

2. Training - raise the floor of AI literacy so more people can safely experiment.
   
   

3. Personalised tools and workflows - move beyond generic prompts into department- and workflow-specific systems.
   
   

4. ROI tracking - measure time saved, errors reduced, risk reduced, and adoption so the story keeps getting funded.
   
   

Instead of a linear checklist, these components form a loop - each turn of the wheel making the next easier, and creating an unfair advantage for organizations that start early.

Finally, Susan adds the outer ring: human-first culture and governance as the operating system around the flywheel - psychological safety, champions and mentors, and values like equity that ensure AI momentum doesn't quietly recreate hustle culture or leave people behind.

She closes with practical questions any leadership team can use this week to start their own AI flywheel.

Key takeaways

Projects start and end. Flywheels don't. Treating AI as a string of pilots and vendor launches creates start–stop energy. Designing a flywheel turns every experiment into input for the next win.

A flywheel is heavy at first - but gains unstoppable momentum. Like a giant metal train wheel, it needs a lot of initial force, but each full turn adds speed. AI works the same: early experiments feel slow, compounding learning later feels unfairly fast.

The AI flywheel has four core pillars:

• Audit - map current tools, workflows, risks, and guardrails; discover hidden wins and power users.

• Training - treat AI like financial literacy: a minimum viable level for everyone so they can ask better questions and prompt more effectively.
  
  

• Personalised tools & workflows - stop asking "Which LLM?" and start asking "Which steps in this 37-step process should AI do?" Workflow first, tool second.
  
  

• ROI tracking - measure time saved, errors reduced, faster time to market, risk reduction, and % of AI-augmented workflows so leaders keep investing.

Culture is the operating system around the flywheel. Without psychological safety, people hide experiments. Without support, power users burn out. Values like equity matter: who's getting trained, who has access, and who you're helping reskill. Governance should feel like guidance, not punishment.

You don't build an AI flywheel in a day. You start with one audit, one workflow, one dashboard that makes things more transparent - and commit to one small centimetre of momentum at a time.

Episode highlights

[00:02] Why "we're piloting a chatbot" is not a strategy.

[01:34] Flywheel 101: the train-wheel analogy and why momentum beats one-off effort.

[03:19] Amazon's recommendation engine as a classic business flywheel.

[05:02] Applying Jim Collins' Good to Great flywheel lens to AI initiatives.

[05:30] From big bang ERP-style AI projects to small, compounding loops.

[08:00] Introducing the four pillars: audit, training, personalised tools, ROI.

[08:53] Audit as reality check: surfacing hidden wins and DIY power users.

[11:14] Training as "raising the floor" of AI literacy.

[14:08] Workflow-first thinking and the myth of the single all-powerful agent.

[17:33] ROI stories: error reduction, faster time to market, and risk reduction.

[20:19] Culture as outer ring: psychological safety, champions, values in action.

[23:06] Starting your flywheel: three questions for your leadership team.

Use this episode as a design tool, not just a definition.

Grab a whiteboard with your leadership team and map:

1. Where are we already auditing, training, personalising tools, and measuring ROI - however informally?

2. Where is the wheel broken, or missing entirely?

3. What's one centimetre of movement we can create this quarter - one audit, one workflow, one dashboard - to start our AI flywheel turning?

Connect with Susan Diaz on LinkedIn to get a conversation started.

 

Agile teams move fast. Grab our 10 AI Deep Research Prompts to see how proven frameworks can unlock clarity in hours, not months. Find the prompt pack here.

 

What does modern sales leadership look like when AI is in the mix? In this episode, host Susan Diaz and sales leadership coach Kirsten Schmidtke unpack how AI and humanity can peacefully coexist in sales, why scale starts with clarity and process (not tools), and how leaders can shift from output-obsessed hustle to outcome-focused, identity-level leadership in an AI-forward world.

Episode summary

Susan sits down with sales leadership consultant Kirsten Schmidtke to talk about AI, scale, and the "identity-level shifts" leaders need to make in modern sales.

They start at the intersection of mindset and skillset - why AI is now part of the sales skill stack, but can't replace the human mindset, judgment, and presence required to sell well. Kirsten shares how sales organizations have moved from using AI as a basic copy/research tool to embedding LLMs in meetings, CRMs, and internal platforms, and even building their own AI features once they deeply understand their market and product.

From there, they zoom out to the trust recession, spammy AI outreach, and the difference between being AI first and AI forward. They discuss AI as a way to free people into their zone of genius (hello, The Big Leap), the historical pattern of tech disruption and new job creation, and why AI should be seen as a massive upgrade to human potential - not a replacement.

In the second half, they dig into scale and operations: why AI will only scale chaos if you don't have clear goals, processes, and SOPs. Why many sales orgs still lack documented sales and go-to-market processes. And how documenting before automating is the hidden unlock for using AI well.

Kirsten closes with her identity-based leadership model (be → do → have), her outcome-over-output philosophy, and practical invitations for leaders who want to use AI to reduce burnout instead of fuelling hustle culture.

Key takeaways

Modern sales lives at the intersection of AI and humanity. AI is becoming part of the sales skillset, but the mindset - who you are being as a leader or seller - still drives how effectively those tools get used.

Sales orgs have evolved past AI as copy tool. Early use was mostly email drafting and light research. Now teams are:

• choosing an LLM of choice (ChatGPT, Copilot, Perplexity, etc.) and tailoring it to their sales strategy

• embedding AI in meeting tools to surface questions and summaries in real time

• building AI into internal platforms based on deep knowledge of market, product, and GTM.
  
  

We're in a trust recession - and lazy AI is making it worse. Spray-and-pray LinkedIn DMs and generic AI pitches erode trust and make buyers more sceptical and confused. Being AI forward means intentional, human-centred use of AI, not pushing AI for its own sake.

AI should move you toward your zone of genius, not further into busywork. Borrowing from Gay Hendricks' The Big Leap, Kirsten and Susan talk about AI as a way to strip away tasks in your zones of incompetence/competence so you can spend more time in your zone of genius - and potentially unlock higher human experiences and contribution.

Scale requires clarity and process before tools. AI isn't a magic scale button. Without a clear what and why, it can't help with the how. Leaders must:

• define the outcome and purpose of what they're scaling

• decide what not to do

• document the current process (SOPs) before asking AI to automate or optimise it. Otherwise AI just scales the chaos.

Most salespeople are executors, not system builders. They're brilliant at doing the thing - calls, meetings, negotiation - but often not trained to design processes and ops. Pairing them with ops-minded people (and AI) to document and structure their best practices is where real scale lives.

Identity-level leadership: be → do → have. Instead of "when I have the title, I'll be a leader", Kirsten coaches leaders to start with identity: "I am the leader of an AI-forward sales organization." That identity shapes thinking, then actions, then results.

Shift from output to outcomes to avoid AI-fuelled burnout. If you treat AI as a way to cram more tasks into the same day, you just recreate hustle culture. Focusing on outcomes (what actually changes for customers, teams, and the business) allows you to use AI to create space - for thinking, rest, and higher-value work - instead of filling every spare minute.

Episode highlights

[00:01] Meeting Kirsten and why you can't talk about modern sales without talking about AI.

[01:07] Mindset + skillset at the intersection of AI and humanity in sales.

[02:35] How sales orgs first used AI as a copy / research tool—and what's changed.

[04:45] Embedding AI in meetings and tools vs building AI features in-house.

[06:11] The "spray and pray" LinkedIn problem and AI's role in the trust recession.

[08:53] Being "AI forward" instead of "AI first."

[10:39] Why humans remain safe: discernment, judgment, spidey senses, and taste.

[11:39] Arianna Huffington, Thrive, and using AI to free time for human development.

[13:19] The Big Leap and using AI to move into your zone of genius.

[17:01] Tech history, job loss, and why we're in the messy middle of another big shift.

[19:34] What scale really means: more impact with less time and effort.

[20:33] Why AI can't fix a lack of clarity—and how it can accidentally add work.

[23:32] "AI will scale the chaos" if you skip documentation and SOPs.

[25:08] Salespeople as executors, not ops designers, and the power of pairing them with systems people.

[27:47] Branding, buyer clarity, and why AI can't replace the hard work of positioning.

[31:00] Identity-level shifts for leaders: adopting "I am…" statements.

[35:21] AI and burnout: from productivity for productivity's sake to outcome-focused leadership.

[37:25] Newtonian vs Einstein time and rethinking how we use the time AI frees.

[39:59] "Outcome over output" as a leadership mantra in the age of AI.

[40:38] Kirsten's invitation: a Sales Leader Power Hour to work on your mindset and identity.

If you're leading a sales team - or are the sales team - and you're feeling the tension between AI, scale, and leadership start here:

1. Pick one sales process and document it end-to-end.

2. Identify one step where AI could genuinely reduce effort or time.

3. Ask, "Who do I need to be as a leader of an AI-forward sales org?" and let that identity shape your next move.

Connect with Susan Diaz on LinkedIn to get a conversation started.

 

Agile teams move fast. Grab our 10 AI Deep Research Prompts to see how proven frameworks can unlock clarity in hours, not months. Find the prompt pack here.

To go deeper on mindset and identity shifts, connect with Kirsten Schmidtke on LinkedIn and book a Sales Leader Power Hour here: https://www.kirstenschmidtke.com/sales-leader-power-hour 

 

Midway through a 30-episodes-in-30-days podcast-to-book sprint, host Susan Diaz gets honest about what's working, what's hard, and how she's actually using AI as a thinking partner, draft machine, pattern spotter, and quiet project manager - plus what leaders can learn from this for their own AI experiments.

 

Episode summary

This solo episode is a behind-the-scenes check-in from Susan's "completely unhinged" (her words) experiment to record 30 episodes in 30 days as the raw material for her next book.

Nine episodes into twelve days, she talks candidly about fatigue, capacity, and why she refused to skip this recording even though she could have. She pulls back the curtain on the very practical ways she's using AI to structure ideas, draft assets, spot patterns across episodes, and manage the subtle project/energy load of a sprint like this.

Then she zooms out to translate those lessons for founders and teams: why consistency beats intensity, why experiments are allowed to be small and honest, and why capacity has to be part of your AI strategy instead of an afterthought.

Key takeaways

This sprint is a live experiment in sustainability, not heroics. The goal isn't to "win" 30 episodes perfectly, it's to see what pace, support, and structure actually make ambitious AI-powered work sustainable for a real human.

AI is a thinking partner first. Susan uses voice input in her LLM to dump messy thoughts, then asks it to shape them into outlines, angles, and talking points so she's never facing a blank page. (Pro tip: the built-in mic usually cuts off around five minutes - annoying but survivable.)

Drafting support is where AI shines next. From show notes to extra research points to contextualising guest insights, custom GPTs help expand and refine ideas so she can focus on judgement and voice instead of first drafts.

Pattern spotting turns episodes into chapters. By feeding multiple conversations into AI and asking for common threads or how ideas map to her core pillars, she can see where book chapters naturally want to live - and build something far more cohesive than her first, fully manual book.

AI also helps with energy management. It quietly supports the admin around the sprint: drafting guest emails, summarizing notes, organizing ideas, and helping her see where there's too much on the go so she can re-plan.

For organizations, three big lessons emerge:

• Consistency beats intensity - small, steady steps with AI are better than unsustainable bursts.

• Experiments can be small and honest - you don't need a centre of excellence to start. A one-hour training or a tiny workflow tweak counts.

• Capacity is strategy - pretending people have unlimited time and energy guarantees failure. Designing AI work around real capacity gives it a chance to stick.

Good AI literacy lowers the cost of entry and raises the quality of thinking. Used well, AI doesn't replace your brain, it gives your best ideas a better chance of making it out of your head and into the world.

Episode highlights

[00:02] Setting the scene: a 30-episode sprint at the end of 2025 to get the book out of her head.

[01:43] Nine episodes in twelve days, fatigue, and choosing to show up anyway.

[03:21] Why the sprint mirrors how leaders feel about AI: "We know it matters… but keeping the pace is hard."

[05:02] Using AI as a structure-building thinking partner via voice dumps and outlines.

[05:30] The five-minute mic limit, word-vomit sessions, and how AI turns fuzz into flows.

[07:02] Drafting support: research, context around guests, and custom GPTs for show assets.

[07:44] Pattern spotting across episodes to find the book's real chapters and through-lines.

[09:18] Why this AI-supported book will be "twice, thrice, ten times" better than the first one.

[10:24] Energy and project management: emails, reflections, and organising all the moving pieces.

[11:46] Lesson 1 – consistency over intensity for teams experimenting with AI.

[13:29] Lesson 2 – small, honest experiments beat grand, delayed programs.

[13:59] Lesson 3 – capacity as a core part of AI strategy, not a footnote.

[15:01] Gentle prompts for listeners: where you're already experimenting, where AI can remove friction, and who your inside champions are.

Use this episode as a mirror, not a mandate.

Ask yourself and your team:

1. Where are we already experimenting with AI, even in tiny ways?

2. How could AI remove friction from that work instead of adding pressure?

3. Who are our quiet inside champions - and what support or validation could we offer them this week?

Answer even one of those honestly, and you're already moving from vague AI interest to real AI literacy.

Connect with Susan Diaz on LinkedIn to get a conversation started.

Agile teams move fast. Grab our 10 AI Deep Research Prompts to see how proven frameworks can unlock clarity in hours, not months. Find the prompt pack here.

In every organization there's at least one person quietly doing wild things with AI - working faster, thinking bigger, and building their own personal AI stack. In this episode, host Susan Diaz explains how to find those secret power users, support them properly, and turn their experiments into an organizational advantage (without burning them out or making them your unpaid AI help desk).

Episode summary

This solo episode is a field guide to the people already living in your organization's AI future.

Susan starts by painting the familiar picture of the "suspiciously fast" teammate whose work is cleaner, more strategic, and clearly powered by AI - even if no one has formally asked how. She names them for what they are: AI power users who have built quiet personal stacks and are effectively acting as your R&D lab for AI.

From there, she walks through:

• How to spot these people through audits, language, manager input, and usage data.

• Why most organizations ignore or accidentally exploit them.

• A practical three-part framework - Recognition, Resourcing, Routing - to turn power users into supported AI champions instead of secret heroes headed for burnout.

• The equity implications of who gets seen as a "champion" and how to ensure your AI leaders reflect the diversity of your workforce.

She closes with a simple champion blueprint and a piece of homework that any founder, leader, or manager can act on this week.

Key takeaways

You already have AI power users. The question isn't "Do they exist?" It's "Where are they, and what are we doing with them?"

Power users are your unofficial R&D lab. They're not theorising about AI. They're testing it inside real workflows, finding what breaks, and figuring out how to prompt effectively in your specific context.

They are rarely the most technical people. Your best champions are often people closest to the work - sales, customer-facing roles, operations - who are simply determined to figure it out. Not just IT.

If you ignore them, three things happen:

1. They get tired of doing extra work with no support.

2. Their workflows stay trapped in their heads and personal accounts.

3. Your organization misses the chance to scale what's working.

Use the 3 Rs to turn power users into champions:

Recognition - Name the role (AI Champions/Guides), make their contribution visible, and invite them into strategy and training conversations.

Resourcing - Give them real time (10-20% of their week), adjust workload and goals, and reward them properly - ideally with money, training, and access.

Routing - Turn personal hacks into shared assets: playbooks, Looms, internal training, and workflows embedded in L&D or ops.

Connect - don't overload - your champions. Give them a direct line to IT, security, legal, and leadership so they can sanity-check ideas and inform strategy, without becoming the AI police.

Equity matters here. If you only see loud voices and people closest to power, you'll miss quiet experimenters, women, and people of colour who may be building brilliant systems under the radar. Use multiple ways (surveys, nominations, self-identification) to surface a diverse group of champions.

Champions must be guides, not gatekeepers. Their role is to make it easier and safer for others to experiment - not to punish or shut people down.

A simple champion blueprint: identify → invite → define → resource → amplify. Done well, your champions become the bridge between today's experimentation and tomorrow's AI strategy.

Episode highlights

[00:02] The "suspiciously fast" colleague and what their behaviour is telling you.

[02:00] Personal AI stacks and why Divers "swan dive backwards" into AI without waiting for permission.

[03:37] The risk of ignoring power users: burnout, trapped knowledge, and missed scaling opportunities.

[05:03] Why power users are effectively your AI research and development lab.

[06:33] How to surface power users through better audit questions, open-ended prompts, and usage data.

[07:25] Listening for phrases like "I built a system for that" and "I just play with this stuff because I'm a geek."

[08:25] Using managers and platform data to spot a small cluster of heavy AI users.

[09:37] The danger of quietly turning champions into unpaid AI help desks.

[10:33] The 3 Rs: Recognition, Resourcing, and Rooting.

[11:18] What real recognition looks like—naming, invitations to strategy, and public acknowledgement.

[12:05] Resourcing: giving champions time, adjusting workloads, and updating job descriptions.

[13:14] Rooting: creating playbooks, Looms, and embedding workflows into L&D and ops.

[14:29] Connecting champions with IT, security, legal, and leadership.

[15:45] The equity lens: who gets seen as a champion and who's missing.

[17:16] The risk that women and marginalised groups get left behind and automated first.

[18:30] Using surveys, nominations, and explicit invitations to diversify your champion group.

[19:07] Why champions should be guides, not AI police or gatekeepers.

[19:47] The 5-step "champion blueprint": identify, invite, define, resource, amplify.

[22:15] Your homework: talk to one secret power user this week and ask how you can make space for their experimentation.

Think of one person in your organization who's already that secret AI power user.

This week, have a conversation that goes beyond "cool, can you do that for everyone?" and into "This is important. How can we make space for you to keep experimenting like this and help others learn from you?"

That's the first step in building your AI champion program - whether or not you call it that yet.

Connect with Susan Diaz on LinkedIn to get a conversation started.

Agile teams move fast. Grab our 10 AI Deep Research Prompts to see how proven frameworks can unlock clarity in hours, not months. Find the prompt pack here. 

Most leaders have no clear, single picture of how AI is actually being used inside their organization. In this solo episode, host Susan Diaz walks through a practical, human-first AI audit you can run in weeks (not years) to map tools, workflows, adoption patterns, and risks - so your AI strategy isn't built on vibes and vendor decks.

Episode summary

This episode tackles a simple but uncomfortable question: "Do you actually know what's happening with AI inside your organisation right now?"

Not what vendors say.
Not what a slide in a strategy deck says.
What people are really doing - with official tools, embedded features, and personal accounts.

Susan breaks down a four-part AI literacy audit that gives leaders a coherent baseline:

1. Tools - Which AI-powered tools are already in play, where AI is embedded in existing platforms, and where spend and capabilities overlap.
   
   

2. Workflows - Where AI is already changing how work is done, which tasks are automated or accelerated, and which manual processes are obvious candidates for support.
   
   

3. Adoption patterns - Who's confident, who's dabbling, who's avoiding AI entirely, and how evenly (or unevenly) AI usage is distributed across teams and levels.
   
   

4. Risks and blind spots - Shadow AI, unsanctioned tools, data exposure, governance gaps, and the places where "nothing's gone wrong… yet" is not a strategy.
   
   

She then walks through a step-by-step approach to running an audit without turning it into a year-long consulting project, and shows how to turn your findings into training, workflow redesign, and a credible AI ROI story.

Key takeaways

If you skip the audit, you're flying blind. Without a baseline, every AI decision - platforms, pilots, hiring, training - is a shot in the dark based on guesswork and anecdotes.

A good AI audit is four-dimensional, not just a tools list. You need to understand tools, workflows, adoption patterns, and risk/gaps together if you want a true picture of AI activity.

The hidden costs of "no audit":

• Duplicate spend on overlapping tools in different departments.

• Shadow AI and data risk from personal accounts and unsanctioned apps.

• Wasted efficiency gains because great use cases stay trapped in individual heads and folders.

• No convincing story of AI ROI for your CFO, board, or leadership.

Think of the audit like an MRI, not a court case. The goal is visibility, not blame. If people feel they'll be punished for experimenting, they'll simply stop telling you the truth.

You can run a meaningful audit in five practical steps:

1. Listen - Short surveys + focused interviews with department heads, AI champions, and sceptics.

2. Map tools and spend - Inventory official tools, quiet add-ons, free/low-cost apps, and personal subscriptions used for work.

3. Document workflows - Pick priority functions (often marketing, HR, sales, ops) and map how work gets done today, then mark where AI shows up or could.

4. Assess risk and governance - Where does confidential data touch AI? What's policy on paper vs in practice? Where are the biggest gaps?

5. Build an opportunity backlog - Quick wins, experiments, and longer-term projects that emerge from the audit.

Your audit output should be short and usable, not a 90-slide graveyard:

• An executive summary with top risks, opportunities, and 3/6/12-month priorities.

• A tool + workflow map that shows overlaps, gaps, and shadow usage.

• A risk and governance section with clear start / stop / continue recommendations.

• An opportunity backlog that can plug into project management and resourcing.

Don't make it an IT-only exercise. AI touches how people think and work across functions. The audit should be leadership-backed and cross-functional, not dropped on a single department.

The audit is the bridge, not the endpoint. Once you can see what's happening, you can design training, governance, workflow changes, and ROI tracking that match reality instead of hopes.

Episode highlights

[00:02] "Do you know exactly what's happening with AI inside your organisation right now?"

[01:10] Why an AI audit should come before platforms, hires, or big training programmes.

[03:18] Reframing audits: from "innovation killers" to foundations for better decisions.

[04:00] The four dimensions of an AI literacy audit: tools, workflows, adoption, risk/blind spots.

[05:24] Questions to ask about tools: what's in play, where AI is embedded, where teams overlap.

[04:52–05:24] Questions to ask about workflows: where AI is changing work, what's automated, what's still painfully manual.

[05:24–06:56] Mapping adoption patterns: power users, dabblers, avoiders, and distribution across departments and levels.

[06:56] Shadow AI, unsanctioned tools, and governance gaps as audit essentials.

[07:23] Why a single coherent picture of AI activity becomes your baseline for everything that follows.

[07:54–10:28] Four costs of skipping the audit: duplicate spend, risk, wasted gains, and weak ROI stories.

[10:51–13:03] Step 1 + 2: listening through surveys and interviews, then mapping tools and spend without turning it into a witch hunt.

[13:03–14:22] Step 3: documenting workflows in priority functions and spotting patterns.

[14:22–15:40] Step 4 + 5: assessing risk/governance and surfacing quick wins + deeper opportunities.

[16:15–17:47] What a practical audit output looks like (and why it shouldn't die in a folder).

[18:16–18:57] Common traps: making it IT-only, punitive, or overcomplicated.

[19:56–21:10] Turning audit insights into training, governance, workflow redesign, and credible ROI tracking.

If your current AI strategy rests on vendor promises, scattered pilots, and vibes, this episode is your sign to step back.

Share it with:

• The exec who keeps getting asked for AI ROI.

• The IT or ops lead worried about shadow AI but unsure where to start.

• The internal AI champion who's been documenting everything in a lonely Notion doc.

Then ask as a leadership team: "What would it take for us to have a clear, one-page picture of AI activity across this organisation in the next 60 days?"

Connect with Susan Diaz on LinkedIn to get a conversation started.

Agile teams move fast. Grab our 10 AI Deep Research Prompts to see how proven frameworks can unlock clarity in hours, not months. Find the prompt pack here.

Should you build custom GPTs, agents, digital interns, Gems, and artefacts… or just learn to prompt better? In this roundtable, Susan, social media + AI power user Andrew Jenkins, and GTM + custom GPT builder Dr. Jim Kanichirayil unpack when you actually need a custom build, when a strong prompt is enough, and how to stop treating AI output like a finished product.

In this episode, Susan brings back two favourite guests who sit on different ends of the AI usage spectrum:

• Andrew Jenkins - multi-tool explorer, author, and agency owner who "puts the chat in ChatGPT" and loves talking with his data.

• Dr. Jim Kanichirayil - founder of Cascading Leadership, builder of thought leadership custom GPTs for go-to-market, content, and analysis.

Together they break down:

• How Andrew uses conversation, prompt optimizers, projects, and tools like NotebookLM and Dojo AI to "talk to" his book, podcast, and data.

• How Dr. Jim uses a simple Role-Task-Output framework to design custom GPTs, train them on his voice (and the voices of his clients), and keep them on track with root-cause analysis when they drift.

• The messy reality of limits, context windows, and why AI is still terrible at telling you what it can't do.

• Why using AI on autopilot (especially for outreach and content) is a brand risk, and how to use it as a drafting and analysis system instead.
  
  

Key takeaways

You don't have to choose only prompts or only custom GPTs.
Strong prompting is the starting point. Custom GPTs make sense when you see the same task, drift, or "bleed out" happening over and over again.

Start every workflow with three things: Role, Task, Output.
Who is the AI supposed to be?
What exact job is it doing?
What should the output include and exclude?
Then ask the model: "What else do you need to execute this well and in my voice?"

Knowledge bases are just your best examples and instructions in one place.
Transcripts, scripts, PDFs, posts, style packs, platform-specific examples - they're all training material. AI does best when you feed it gold standard samples, not vibes.

Projects and talking to your data are the future of reading and research.
Andrew uses his entire book in Markdown as a project, then has conversations like "find me five governance examples" instead of scrolling a PDF. NotebookLM turns bullet points into decks, mind maps, and videos, then lets you interrogate them.

AI is a 60-70% draft, not a finished product.
If you post straight from the model, it will sound generic, over-written, and slightly robotic. The job is to take that draft and ask: "Does this sound like me? Would I actually say this?"

Automation is good. Autopilot is dangerous.
Using AI to analyze content performance, structure research, or standardise parts of a workflow = smart.
Letting AI write content and outreach you never review = reputation risk and audience fatigue.

More content is not the goal. Better feedback loops are.
Dr. Jim chains GPTs: one for drafting with his voice, one for performance analysis, one for insights. That loop makes the next round of content sharper instead of just… louder.

Episode highlights

[00:13] The core question: build digital interns (agents/custom GPTs) or just prompt better?

[01:09] Andrew's origin story and why he "puts the chat in ChatGPT."

[03:39] How Andrew uses prompt optimizers, multiple models, and Dojo AI as an agentic interface.

[07:24] Dr. Jim's world: sticking to GPT, building tightly scoped custom GPTs for repetitive work.

[08:37] When "bleed out" in prompts tells you it's time to build a custom GPT.

[09:26] Using root-cause analysis inside the GPT configuration when outputs go off the rails.

[10:25] Projects, books in Markdown, and "talking to your own material" via AI.

[13:05] Case study: using AI to surface case examples from a 3.5-year-old book instead of scrolling PDFs.

[14:27] NotebookLM for founders and students: one email of bullet points → infographic, map, slide deck, video.

[19:03] The Role–Task–Output framework and the importance of explicitly designing for your voice.

[22:02] Platform-specific style packs and use cases (spicy vs informational vs editorial).

[26:29] The frustrating reality of token limits and why models rarely warn you before they hit a wall.

[36:54] What's happening "in the wild": early-stage founders treating AI output as final product.

[39:01] Why "more" isn't better, "better" is better: drafts, polish, and content analysis GPTs.

[42:03] Automation vs autopilot in B2B social, and why Andrew refuses to buy from a bot.

[43:29] Emerging tools: Google's Pommely, Nano Banana for image creation, and AI browsers like Atlas, Comet, and Neo.

If you've been stuck wondering whether to spend time on custom GPTs or just prompt better, this episode gives you the mental models to decide.

Share it with:

• The teammate who keeps saying "we should build a GPT" but hasn't defined the workflow.

• The founder treating AI drafts as finished copy.

• The ops brain in your org who secretly wants to be a bridge builder.
  
  

Then ask as a team: "Where do we actually need great prompts, and where do we need a repeatable GPT or project with a real knowledge base?"

Connect with Susan Diaz on LinkedIn to get a conversation started.

Agile teams move fast. Grab our 10 AI Deep Research Prompts to see how proven frameworks can unlock clarity in hours, not months. Find the prompt pack here.

You may have heard host Susan Diaz say she "swan dove backwards off the cliff into AI". In this episode, she unpacks what that actually means, how it became the working title of her book, and the concrete frameworks leaders can use to move boldly into AI without being reckless.

This is a personal, behind-the-scenes episode.

Susan shares how she went from not being in the famous first 6 million users of ChatGPT… to becoming the person who showed up a week later and refused to leave.

She explains why generative AI felt different from every underwhelming AI-ish tool she'd used before.
Then she introduces two big ideas that will run through the book and the podcast series:

• The four cliff archetypes of AI in organizations.

• The five moves of a swan dive that turn bold experimentation into lasting infrastructure.

It's part origin story, part field guide, and part invitation to join the Early Divers instead of waiting for the bridge to magically appear.

Key takeaways

Generative AI was a pattern-breaker. What hooked Susan wasn't hype. It was the combo of: credible output, ability to handle large volumes of messy information, and being free to use. That trifecta changed the game for everyday operators.

"Swan dive backwards" is not recklessness. It's a personality pattern. Quick starts jump with a scan for rocks and a plan to tuck their elbows. The instinct is to move, not freeze, when the path ends.

Every organization has four cliff archetypes of AI:

1. Divers - the early experimenters pressing all the buttons.
   
   

2. Pathfinders - the risk-mappers and governance folks asking "how do we do this safely?"
   
   

3. Operators - the people who turn experiments into actual workflows and pilots.
   
   

4. Bridge builders - the systems people who turn one-time wins into playbooks, platforms, and training.

You are rarely just one archetype. You're more like a sound mix across all four. That mix determines how you respond when AI shows up as a cliff, not a gentle slope.

The five moves of a swan dive give you a pattern:

1. Spot the cliff - recognize this is a step-change, not another incremental tool.
   
   

2. Check the water - test, set guardrails, understand risks and boundaries.
   
   

3. The dive - move out of analysis into real use on real work.
   
   

4. Surface with a map - name patterns, document what's working, share stories.
   
   

5. Build the bridge - turn what you learned into infrastructure so others don't have to jump cold.
   
   

AI is too big to leave to one personality type. Divers alone will splatter. Pathfinders alone will stall. Operators without bridge builders will create one-off wins that never stick. You need all four.

This book and series are a public swan dive. Backwards! The 30-episode challenge, the naming of Swan Dive Backwards, and the frameworks are all being built where others can see and eventually walk the bridge.

Episode highlights

[00:00] "I swan dive backwards off the cliff into AI" - why that line sticks and what it actually means.

[01:19] Naming the book Swan Dive Backwards and the meta moment for future readers.

[01:47] Why Susan was not in the first 6 million ChatGPT users, and why early AI tools had underwhelmed her.

[03:03] The three markers that made generative AI different: credible output, large-volume handling, and being free.

[05:27] "Late to the party, then refused to leave" – how personality type shaped her AI journey.

[06:28] The cliff analogy: divers, plotters, doers, bridge builders.

[09:33] Why Susan is a classic "diver" and how that shows up in entrepreneurship.

[12:08] The LinkedIn comment from Alison Garwood-Jones that locked in the book title.

[14:53] The four cliff archetypes of AI inside companies, in explicit AI terms.

[18:38] Move 1: spotting the cliff – realising AI is a calculator/PC-level shift, not a passing tool.

[19:44] Move 2: checking the water – personal tests, failures, and organisational governance.

[20:45] Move 3: the swan dive – moving from theory to workflow-level experiments.

[21:50] Move 4: surfacing with a map – turning experiences into language, frameworks, audits.

[23:03] Move 5: building the bridge – connecting experiments into ongoing systems and training.

[23:31] Why the real courage is building so others never have to jump cold again.

This episode is both an origin story and a mirror.

Ask yourself and your team

1. Which cliff archetype do you lead with: Diver, Pathfinder, Operator, or Bridge Builder?

2. Where are you on the five moves of the swan dive: staring at the cliff… or quietly building the bridge?
   
   

Share this episode with the biggest "diver" you know and the most trusted "pathfinder" in your organization.
They're going to need each other.

Connect with Susan Diaz on LinkedIn to get a conversation started.

Agile teams move fast. Grab our 10 AI Deep Research Prompts to see how proven frameworks can unlock clarity in hours, not months. Find the prompt pack here.

Many teams have a Notion page full of prompts. Very few have real, repeatable AI workflows. In this episode, host Susan Diaz and product/go-to-market leader Jason Dea dig into how to move from playing with prompts to designing workflows, building tiny specialist agents, and avoiding a new wave of shadow AI inside organizations.

Susan is joined by venture studio and SaaS veteran Jason Dea from Coru Ventures in Toronto.

They unpack why AI is not a magic wand or a single feature, but an enabling technology that only delivers value when it's wired into actual workflows.

Jason shares his "swarm of bumblebees" metaphor for AI, how he builds small specialist agents to clone his own work style, and why enterprises are about to repeat the mistakes of shadow IT if they don't get serious about orchestration and governance.

They close by talking about leaders using AI in their own day-to-day work, and Jason's personal experiments with family apps, coding, and even a butterfly-catching game for his daughter.

Key takeaways

Prompts ≠ workflows. Collecting prompts in a shared doc feels productive. But until you map the 8–10 steps of a job and decide where AI fits, you're just doing experiments, not transformation.

AI is not a magic one-shot. It's an enabling technology. The real gains come when you see your work as a chain of small tasks and let AI take over the repetitive, boring, or "toil" links in that chain.

Think "swarm of bumblebees." You are the queen bee. AI is a swarm of tiny worker bees, each doing one specific task very well (emails, slides, requirements, research), not one mega-agent doing everything.

Documenting workflows doesn't have to be fancy. A workflow is just "tell me the 10 steps." Start with the human sequence. Tools come second. Once it's visible, the friction points where AI can help become obvious.

Shadow IT is turning into shadow AI. Cheap, bolt-on AI features and swipe-a-card tools make it easy for every team to spin up their own stack. Without orchestration, you recreate silos, risk, and tool sprawl at AI speed.

IT should govern, not own everything. Governance, security, and guardrails matter. But AI also democratises small bits of "coding" and automation, letting non-technical teams build more, faster—if they have guidance.

Leaders need hands-on literacy. The fastest way out of the hype is to use AI yourself for your own toil. Drafting emails. Planning. Decomposing big tasks. You get more realistic about what it can and cannot do.

AI is an "unstuck" tool in work and life. From relearning to code, to building tiny family apps, to cataloguing knick-knacks and designing games for kids, AI opens up projects that were unrealistic even five years ago.

Episode highlights

[00:01] Jason's background in startups, SaaS, product, and go-to-market, and his role at Coru Ventures.

[02:00] Where we are on the Gartner hype cycle and why the trough of disillusionment is inevitable and useful.

[04:40] Why some people can't imagine life before ChatGPT—and why that's not true for everyone inside organisations.

[05:50] Mapping work as a sequence of steps instead of hunting for a single "magic" AI prompt.

[08:01] The "swarm of bumblebees" metaphor: you as the queen, AI as many small worker-bee agents.

[09:59] How to define a workflow in plain language: "tell me the 10 steps," tools aside.

[11:00] Paperwork and OCR as a classic example of where generative AI finally unlocks messy, grey-area tasks.

[13:50] Using AI first to remove the tasks you hate and identify the links you should outsource to machines.

[15:20] Jason's "digital clone" AIs trained on his own content and patterns.

[19:00] Building multiple mini-AIs: one for social posts, one for slide decks, one for product requirements.

[21:10] Bolt-on AI features everywhere + messy workflows = amplified confusion and risk.

[22:10] From shadow IT to shadow AI: why orchestration and shared understanding of workflows is critical.

[24:40] Startups' speed vs enterprises' risk aversion, and what each can learn from the other.

[27:10] Why IT should set guardrails while letting departments experiment and build more on their own.

[30:10] Jason's advice to leaders: use AI yourself to see where it really helps and what it really takes.

[36:00] Personal-life AI: relearning to code, family apps, cataloguing home items, and a butterfly game for his daughter.

[38:00] Susan's idea: vibe-coding a family recipe app as a way to preserve memories and workflows.

If your organization has a folder full of prompts but no clear AI workflows, this episode is your sign to pause and rethink.

Share it with:

• The person who keeps buying new AI tools.

• The leader who thinks "IT will figure it out".

• The teammate who's already acting like the queen bee and quietly building their own swarm.

Then ask as a team: "Where are our 10-step workflows, and which links should really be done by AI?"

Connect with Susan Diaz on LinkedIn to get a conversation started.

Agile teams move fast. Grab our 10 AI Deep Research Prompts to see how proven frameworks can unlock clarity in hours, not months. Find the prompt pack here.

Most enterprises don't have an AI problem. They have a literacy problem. In this episode, host Susan Diaz breaks down the "AI literacy divide" inside organizations, why it quietly creates haves and have-nots, and what baseline literacy actually looks like in practice.

AI literacy should be treated the same way we treat financial or health literacy - as a non-optional, minimum standard for everyone, not a niche skill for "AI people".

Susan maps out the current reality in many companies - a small group of confident experimenters, a vocal group of sceptics, and a silent majority stuck in the middle waiting for direction.

Then she paints two futures and shows how intentional, organization-wide AI literacy turns curiosity into real innovation instead of resentment, inequity, and stalled adoption.

 

Key takeaways

You don't have an AI tool problem. You have an AI literacy gap. Most people can "open ChatGPT" but don't understand what LLMs are, what they're good at, and where the risk line is.

Think "financial literacy" not "prompt engineering". Just like everyone is expected to understand interest, debt, and prevention in health, everyone should understand the basics of everyday AI, not build custom agents on weekends.

AI knowledge inside organizations is wildly uneven. A few people experiment confidently. A few are loudly doomsday. Many say nothing, don't feel safe asking questions, and quietly fall behind. That's the divide.

Leadership is often the least literate group. Junior staff may be hands-on with tools, while executives and middle managers are too busy or embarrassed to be beginners again - creating a strange power/knowledge mismatch.

Stop hunting for "one magic AI tool". AI in your company will look more like the internet than a single CRM. It will run through everything, not live on one platform. Literacy and workflows beat silver bullets.

Two things to stop immediately:
Stop treating AI as a binary "for or against" issue. It's already here, like calculators and the internet. The real question is how you'll adopt it.

Stop pretending inequity isn't part of AI adoption. If training only reaches leaders, tech folks, or men who speak up first, you're baking old bias into a new system.

Episode highlights

[00:01] "Most enterprises don't actually have an AI problem. They have a literacy problem."

[00:40] Financial and health literacy as models for what AI literacy should look like.

[01:39] The current reality: pockets of brilliance, pockets of panic, and a big silent middle.

[06:03] The Star Wars council metaphor: the Yoda faction, the doomscrolling faction, and the quiet middle.

[10:16] The first big red flag: leadership has never sat down to talk about AI as a cultural, strategic, and operational shift.

[12:13] Two employees in the same company: the confident AI experimenter vs the quietly left-behind colleague.

[18:21] When formal power and AI experience don't live in the same people.

[19:31] Why there will never be "one tool to rule them all" inside organisations.

[26:20] Company A vs Company B: what baseline AI literacy actually looks like.

[31:16] The skills every employee needs: plain-language understanding of LLMs, basic prompting, simple workflow mapping, and evaluation.

[32:13] Two things to stop doing now: binary thinking about AI and ignoring inequity in who gets to learn.

If you suspect your organization is quietly suffering scattered pilots, no shared language, lots of vibes but no vision, start here. Ask your leadership team: "What does baseline AI literacy look like for everyone here, and what's our plan to get there?"

Then share this episode with one person in your org who's brave enough to start that conversation.

Connect with Susan Diaz on LinkedIn to get a conversation started.

Agile teams move fast. Grab our 10 AI Deep Research Prompts to see how proven frameworks can unlock clarity in hours, not months. Find the prompt pack here.

Lots of teams are playing with AI. Few are documenting, sharing, or governing what actually happens. In this episode, Susan unpacks the hidden cost of experiment-only AI literacy inside enterprises, from duplicate spend to shadow AI, and offers a path from Wild West to structured innovation.

Episode summary
In this solo episode, Susan looks at what really happens when AI experimentation is encouraged, but never captured or guided.

She explains why leadership often only sees one of two AI universes running inside the same company.

Then she breaks down how to keep curiosity alive and add just enough structure to protect brand, budgets, and people.

Key takeaways

AI is already in your organisation, whether it's "approved" or not. Even with blanket bans, people de-identify data and reach for personal tools like ChatGPT or Claude on their phones.

You're probably running two parallel AI universes. One official, "enterprise safe" tool stack that leadership can see. One unofficial, personal stack that actually solves problems.

Experimentation is good culture. "Experiment-only" is expensive. Without reporting, shared learning, or guardrails, you get duplicate tools, compliance risk, brand drift, and fake efficiency.

People are treating AI the way they once treated Google. If they can't get answers inside the firewall, they go around it. That behaviour is normal… but now the stakes are much higher.

Stop chasing a single super-agent. AI can replace steps, not entire, multi-step, values-based processes that require judgement, politics, and context.

The real leverage is in literacy, not licences. Tools without shared language, playbooks, and training will never compound into competitive advantage.

Episode highlights

[00:02] The conference metaphor: high inspiration, zero notes, nothing sticks.

[01:30] The uncomfortable truth: people are using AI, even if policy says they shouldn't.

[03:20] Why internal "safe" chatbots often feel generic and miss political and market nuance.

[05:22] How smart staff quietly step outside approved tools and into personal LLMs.

[10:05] The rise of two AI universes: official vs shadow, and where leadership can actually see.

[14:22] Experimentation as a sign of healthy, curious culture. Where it tips into risk.

[16:35] Hidden costs: duplicate spend, overlapping capabilities, and tool sprawl.

[17:28] Shadow AI, compliance risk, and what happens when sensitive data hits public models.

[18:05] Brand voice drift and micro-messaging shifts that compound over time.

[20:21] What leaders can do next: audits, simple guardrails, sandboxes, and shared findings.

[21:19] What a real AI playbook is (hint: documented workflows, not a buzzword PDF).

[22:24] The core question: do you actually know how your people are using AI today?

If you suspect there's an invisible AI Wild West running inside your organization, start here.
Listen to the full episode and then ask your leadership team one question: "Do we really know how our people are using AI today?"

If the honest answer is "not really", that's your starting point for an AI audit and a literacy plan.

Connect with Susan Diaz on LinkedInfor to get a conversation started.

Agile teams move fast. Grab our 10 AI Deep Research Prompts to see how proven frameworks can unlock clarity in hours, not months. Find the prompt pack here.

What if you didn't have to disappear into a cabin for a year to write a meaningful book on AI? In this episode, host Susan Diaz kicks off a 30-day podcast-to-book challenge, sharing why her first book changed everything in her business and how she's now using AI and this podcast as a live "thinking lab" to build her next one.

In this solo reflection, Susan:

• Looks back at how her first book Unboring: Take Your Content Marketing from Blah to Brilliant reshaped her identity, authourity, and client pipeline.

• Gets honest about why her AI book has been "stuck in a Google Doc" for over a year.

• Shares how a 30-day podcast challenge (inspired by Dan Sanchez and Ken Friere) will turn daily episodes into the raw material for a new, evergreen book on AI literacy for companies.
  
  

Key takeaways

• Books change rooms, not just shelves. Being an author didn't make Susan "book rich" but it did change how decision-makers perceived her, filtered in better-fit clients, and gave her a framework for talks, workshops, and content.

• A realization that the book doesn't need to chase the news cycle. Instead of writing about tools and updates that age in months, Susan is focusing on evergreen questions: how we think, work, govern, and design AI inside companies.

• Stuck isn't a lack of ideas. It's a lack of structure and urgency. The AI book already existed as outlines, pillars, and scattered drafts. What was missing was discipline and a public commitment.

• Podcasting can be a "thinking lab" for your book. Daily episodes will act as live experiments for frameworks, stories, and interviews that can later be shaped into chapters.

• AI is a collaborator, not a ghostwriter. Susan uses AI to help think, outline, pattern-spot, and structure - while all ideas originate from real conversations, reflections, and lived experience.

• This is a long game for leaders. AI literacy and adoption inside organizations will take years, just like online banking. Some people will resist to the bitter end, but most will eventually adapt.
  
  

Episode chapters (timestamps)

[00:00] Why writing and storytelling still sit at the centre.

[01:00] The identity shift of publishing Unboring and how it changed client perception.

[03:45] How the first book became a "north star" for talks, workshops, and marketing content.

[07:10] The uncomfortable truth: the AI book has been stuck as outlines, half-finished drafts, and scattered notes.

[08:20] The fear that an AI book will be obsolete by the time it's finished - and why that thinking is flawed.

[09:56] What this new book will be about: humans, companies, culture, governance, and real workflows.

[10:53] Enter the catalyst: Dan Sanchez, Ken Friere, and the idea of building a book in public using AI.

[12:50] Deciding to do a 30-day podcast challenge… at the end of November… right into the holidays.

[14:18] What a previous 30-day Instagram Live challenge did for speaking opportunities and authourity.

[16:03] How this 30-episode sprint will turn the podcast into a thinking lab for the book.

[17:40] The mix of episodes to expect: solo reflection, teaching, futurism, and subject-matter-expert interviews.

[18:48] Why AI literacy in companies will mirror the long, messy adoption curve of past technologies.

[20:29] The types of guests Susan wants to bring on: innovators, practitioners, futurists, ethicists, and policy voices.

[21:25] How AI will be used behind the scenes to turn conversations into chapters and frameworks.

[22:10] An invitation: come along for 30 episodes of experiments, rough edges, and real-time learning.

Links and resources

Get Susan's first book - Unboring: Take your Content Marketing from Blah to Brilliant


Connect with Susan Diaz on LinkedInfor behind-the-scenes updates on the challenge.

Agile teams move fast. Grab our 10 AI Deep Research Prompts to see how proven frameworks can unlock clarity in hours, not months. Find the prompt pack here.

If this episode sparks something in you, don't just listen - build alongside it.

• Use these 30 episodes as prompts to ask better questions about AI in your own company.

• Share this episode with a founder or leader who's "AI-curious" but stuck in planning mode.

• Hit follow/subscribe so you don't miss the next 29 days of this experiment.

If you're leading a team and want help turning your lived experience into AI-powered IP (like a book, frameworks, or talks), send Susan a DM on LinkedIn with the words "podcast to book" and she'll share next steps.

Founder-led teams can use AI to run effective, specific outreach - without sounding robotic. In this episode of 'AI Literacy for Entrepreneurs', I share a five-part "non-cringe" follow-up, a reusable variable-block system, tone/quality checks, a 5-step SOP you can paste into your AI tool, and a 48-hour challenge to make it real.

Inside the episode:

• The 5-line follow-up that doesn't make you cringe (context → value → ask → next step → grace).

• A variable-block library (Persona, Pain, Proof, Offer, CTA) so AI can personalize at speed.

• Three 60-second QC checks to keep tone clean and human.

• A tiny SOP you can paste into your LLM and ship five follow-ups this week.
  
  

If referrals aren't enough anymore for your business, this is your nudge to build a simple system and hit send.

Want more?

Agile teams move fast. Grab our 10 AI Deep Research Prompts to see how proven frameworks can unlock clarity in hours, not months. Find the prompt pack here.

Join the Marketing Power Circle (MPC)

Connect with Susan Diaz on LinkedIn

If this helped, a quick ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ keeps the show discoverable for other entrepreneurs.

"AI can't use what you haven't organized." In this solo teaching episode, host Susan Diaz lays out a lightweight, repeatable structure for an internal knowledge base that actually powers your AI - so custom GPTs, Gems, or projects stop guessing and start producing on-brand, accurate work. 

You'll learn the difference between rules (how your AI behaves) and knowledge (what it must know), how to build a four-folder knowledge base, ways to keep it fresh, what not to include for privacy/safety, and a 48-hour challenge to prove it on a real workflow.

What you'll learn

Rules vs knowledge: rules = behaviour, steps, tone, guardrails; knowledge = the factual assets (offers, pricing, voice, proof) your AI must reference. Use both, or you'll get either generic tone or rambling, off-base outputs.

The 4-folder knowledge base: Brand Voice, Product Facts, Policies & Pricing, and Examples - what goes in each, and why this crushes hallucinations.

Freshness rhythm and versioning: set a monthly/bi-monthly review, version by date, and keep a simple changelog so quality doesn't decay.

Privacy and safety notes: what to exclude (confidential contracts, unreleased IP), how to anonymize examples, and who should have edit vs view access.

Live example: how Susan used this exact setup to draft a Northlight landing page that was ~80% right on first pass.

48-hour challenge: create the four folders and drop 1-2 docs into each; test on one real deliverable (do this now)

• Create the four folders.

• Drop 1-2 docs in each (rough is fine).

• Run one real deliverable through your setup; note time saved + edit depth.

• Bring your folder map to Susan's MPC open house for live feedback.

 

Want more?

Agile teams move fast. Grab our 10 AI Deep Research Prompts to see how proven frameworks can unlock clarity in hours, not months. Find the prompt pack here.

Join the Marketing Power Circle (MPC)
Connect with Susan Diaz on LinkedIn

Please take a moment to rate and review this podcast: 5⭐ helps more founders find this show

 

Episode summary

Three different leaders told me the same thing last quarter: "We tried AI. It felt cool. It didn't change any results." Northlight exists to fix that gap. In this episode I introduce Northlight - my AI literacy + implementation firm for teams that are done dabbling and ready for workflow wins they can measure. We turn AI from a novelty into a compounding asset using SOPs, custom GPTs/agents, and responsible guardrails. You'll also hear a simple 48-hour challenge to prove the value on one real workflow, plus a founder-friendly launch offer for a rapid diagnostic.

What you'll learn

• Why tools aren't your bottleneck - workflows are. How to move from ad-hoc prompting to repeatable systems.

• The "calculator → computer → AI" analogy. Each shift frees humans to solve bigger problems (if you redesign the work).

• Northlight's 5D Flow (our method): Discover → Design → Deploy → Document → Dial-in.

• What our engagements look like: 2-week diagnostic, 6-week implementation sprint, ongoing enablement/governance.

• Two mini-case studies:

• Content ops cut from a day to <2 hours with a voice-matched GPT + SOPs, with a lift in organic impressions.

• Audience-intelligence briefs saving ~⅓ of strategist time, with citation and QA baked in.

• Responsible AI in the real world: privacy, citations/fact-checking, inclusion and equitable access to AI literacy.
  
  

The 48-hour Northlight challenge (do this now)

1. Pick one weekly workflow.

2. Write a 5–8 step SOP for how you actually do it today.

3. Feed that SOP + one gold-standard example into a custom GPT.

4. Run a real task through it. Measure cycle time and quality.
   If your time doesn't drop, DM me "Northlight" and I'll send templates to fix it.
   
   

Links 

Book a Northlight Diagnostic Discovery Call (5 launch slots, founder-friendly rate): https://wearenorthlightai.com/appointments

Connect with Susan Diaz on LinkedIn

Join Marketing Power Circle (AI implementation mastermind): https://cpdigitalinc.vipmembervault.com/products/courses/view/1157552

How do diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) goals evolve in a world being rapidly reshaped by AI?

In this episode, I sit down with Gabby Zuniga, founder of InclusiveKind, where she helps organizations across nonprofit and corporate sectors do DEI right through assessments, strategy, training, and policy review.

We dig into:

The ebb and flow of organizational commitment to DEI since 2020 - and why some companies stick with it while others quietly pull back.

Why DEI is not just about race or ethnicity but also about learning styles, generational diversity, and workplace equity at every level.

How AI is creating new urgency for DEI conversations - from algorithmic bias to ensuring inclusive adoption of technology.

Practical ways founders and leaders can keep DEI at the center, even as priorities shift.

Gabby's perspective is both real and hopeful: while some organizations are stepping away, the ones that ground their DEI in values - not headlines - are leading the way.

This is an important listen if you're navigating how to keep people and inclusion at the heart of your business while embracing AI as a growth tool.

👉 If you found this episode valuable, please leave a rating and review. It helps more entrepreneurs discover the show.

👉 Ready to move from learning about AI to implementing it with confidence? That's exactly what we do inside the Marketing Power Circle (MPC) - my AI implementation mastermind for founders, consultants, and small business teams. Think hands-on tools, peer accountability, and real results. 

Join us here: https://cpdigitalinc.vipmembervault.com/products/courses/view/1157552

AI search is here. People are using ChatGPT and other tools to discover businesses - but my guest today on the podcast, Andrew Jenkins shows why the foundations of SEO still matter. Andrew is CEO of Volterra Digital, a top-ranked social media agency, and a long-time member of my Marketing Power Circle (MPC).

We dive into:

• Why getting found on AI isn't a "flip the switch" formula

• The role of reviews, backlinks, and industry recognition in AI search rankings

• How Andrew used Clutch.co to build a discoverability flywheel

• How custom GPTs and vibe coding are transforming small agency workflows

• The mindset shift from AI as content spam to AI as your second brain
  
  

🔗 Connect with host, Susan Diaz on LinkedIn.

⭐ Enjoying the podcast?

If this conversation gave you an aha moment, please take 30 seconds to leave a rating and review. It helps other founders and entrepreneurs discover AI Literacy for Entrepreneurs and join us on this journey.

🚀 Ready to go beyond inspiration into implementation?

That's exactly what we do inside Marketing Power Circle (MPC) - my AI implementation mastermind.

It's where founders, consultants, and in-house leaders stop doomscrolling and start doing:

• Building custom GPTs for their workflows

• Repurposing content at scale

• Designing intelligent automations that buy back hours every week

• And most importantly, experimenting with AI in a supportive, peer-driven community
  
  

✨ If you've been watching AI from the sidelines, MPC is the room where it happens. 

It's the only AI implementation mastermind designed for small business teams. 

Learn more here.

 

In this episode of AI Literacy for Entrepreneurs, I sit down with Emily Baillie, founder of Compass Content Marketing and longtime digital marketing strategist turned AI literacy expert.

Emily has been helping businesses navigate digital change for over 15 years. When ChatGPT first launched, she quickly saw the impact AI would have and started teaching AI and marketing workshops - which are now her most requested service.

We dive into:

• Canva's AI superpowers: from the one-click background remover to magic resize, magic write, and even language translation.

• Where to start if you're new to AI in Canva (and which tools to skip).

• How Canva makes it easier to create high-quality content quickly, even if you're not a designer.

• Why iterating and refining AI outputs is the secret to avoiding "AI slop".

• Creative use cases, from growing email lists with QR codes to recording presentations and sharing with a single link.

• Canva's free subscription for nonprofits and why more organizations should take advantage of it.

Emily reminds us that AI tools are meant to save time, build confidence, and open doors to creativity - not replace the human touch.

🔗 Connect with Emily Baillie

• Website: compasscontent.ca

• LinkedIn: Emily Baillie

🔗 Connect with host, Susan Diaz on LinkedIn.

⭐ Enjoying the podcast?

If this conversation gave you an aha moment, please take 30 seconds to leave a rating and review. It helps other founders and entrepreneurs discover AI Literacy for Entrepreneurs and join us on this journey.

🚀 Ready to go beyond inspiration into implementation?

That's exactly what we do inside Marketing Power Circle (MPC) - my AI implementation mastermind.

It's where founders, consultants, and in-house leaders stop doomscrolling and start doing:

• Building custom GPTs for their workflows

• Repurposing content at scale

• Designing intelligent automations that buy back hours every week

• And most importantly, experimenting with AI in a supportive, peer-driven community
  
  

✨ Think of it as your shortcut from "curious" to "confident".

👉 Learn more and join us here:

https://cpdigitalinc.vipmembervault.com/products/courses/view/1157552

 

This episode dives into the evolving space where entrepreneurship, education, and AI collide. Host Susan Diaz sits down with Deborah Carraro, an educator, AI leader, and founder of ideborah, to unpack how early-stage entrepreneurs can approach AI with creativity, experimentation, and values alignment.

Deborah, who also leads AI efforts at Coralus (formerly SheEO), shares her insights from working with founders and students navigating new tech - often for the very first time.

💡 Key Themes

Confidence over perfection: The first step to AI literacy is giving yourself permission to try

Small experiments > Big overwhelm: Starting with low-stakes tools to build intuition

AI as a creativity booster: Using tools to prototype faster, not skip the strategy

The Coralus approach: Why community, trust, and collective intelligence matter in this tech shift

Values-aligned implementation: Replacing fear narratives with intentional, human-first use

📌 "AI is just a tool - the magic is in how you apply it." — Deborah Carraro
"We can't wait until we feel fully ready. We need to start experimenting now." — Susan Diaz

🔗 Guest Links

Website - ideborah.com
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/ideborah1/ 

Loved the episode and want guided implementation? 

Marketing Power Circle is where founders and fractional CMOs build the workflows that free 5-10 hours a week. 

You'll find more information here: https://cpdigitalinc.vipmembervault.com/products/courses/view/1157552 

Rate and review the show so more entrepreneurs can commit to AI literacy.

In this episode, Melissa Lloyd, founder of Aigility Hub, joins host Susan Diaz to explore the mindset-first approach to adopting AI. We unpack why tools and tactics should follow clarity, confidence, and intentional leadership.

This conversation is a must-listen for entrepreneurs and leaders feeling overwhelmed by tech shifts and wondering how to bring human-centred strategy to their AI journey.

💡 Key Themes:

Mindset before tools: Why jumping into automation without alignment is a fast path to failure

From fear to fluency: A leader's journey from AI-skeptic to AI-evangelist

Overwhelm is optional: Practical ways to curate your learning and stay grounded

AI ≠ a separate strategy: It's your business strategy with AI built in

Trust in the age of deepfakes: How emotional intelligence and values build durable credibility

Leadership redefined: The new rules of leading with EQ in uncertain times

🔗 Guest Links:

Website: agilityhub.ai
LinkedIn: Melissa Lloyd

🧠 Snippet to remember:

"There's no such thing as getting it wrong - just get going. The only thing in your way is your mindset." – Melissa Lloyd

Timestamps to note:

03:15 – Why the mental "lens" you carry drives every AI decision and result
08:45 – The overwhelm loop: news velocity, comparison and "never-enough" skills
15:30 – Coaching leaders one-to-one when the org isn't aligned yet
19:10 – How curiosity neutralizes fear and opens space for experimentation
22:40 – Micro-habits for AI mastery: 20-min sandbox, daily reflection log
 

Loved the episode and want guided implementation? 

Marketing Power Circle is where founders and fractional CMOs build the workflows that free 5-10 hours a week. 

You'll find more information here: https://cpdigitalinc.vipmembervault.com/products/courses/view/1157552 

Rate and review the show so more entrepreneurs can commit to AI literacy.

Ready to stop cursing at that under-performing GPT (that you lovingly built - only to watch it spit out meh)? In this short episode, host Susan Diaz breaks down five foundations every custom GPT needs before it can truly earn a spot on your team, plus a 48-hour challenge to tune-up (or totally transform) the bot you already have.

What's inside

🧑‍💻 The mindset flip: treat your GPT like a junior hire, not a piece of software.

⚙️ SOPs > prompts: why bolting on a clear, bullet-proof workflow instantly levels up output quality.

📚 Rules vs. knowledge base: the single most common structural mistake - and how to fix it in minutes.

🔄 Iterate like a dev: simple edit-test loops that turn "average" into "80% done for me".

🌟 Show, don't tell: how curated examples teach your bot what "good" looks like.

🛠️ Troubleshooting trio: quick fixes for vague answers, hallucinations, or bland, off-brand copy.

🚀 48-Hour Challenge: a step-by-step sprint to debug your weakest GPT and get it producing win-worthy work.

Quick-hit timestamps

00:48 – Why custom GPTs are a core skill inside Marketing Power Circle
03:12 – The five foundations - tl;dr
04:35 – Foundation #1: delegate like you're onboarding a human
05:48 – Foundation #2: document every step (your GPT can't read minds)
08:50 – Foundation #3: split rules from reference material
10:37 – Foundation #4: iterate, test, let teammates break it
11:57 – Foundation #5: define "done" with gold-standard examples
12:42 – Common failures
15:04 – The 48-Hour GPT Fix-It Challenge
15:52 – Ready for real momentum? Join Marketing Power Circle

Resources and next steps

Marketing Power Circle (MPC) – Susan's AI-implementation mastermind for founder-led teams ready to save 5-10 hours a week with battle-tested workflows → Grab your seat here

Want Susan to review your tuned-up GPT? DM her "Challenge Complete" on LinkedIn, after you run the 48-hour sprint - one listener will snag a free MPC Open-House pass.

Enjoying the show? 

Drop a 5-star rating so more founders can build AI literacy (and fewer "meh" GPTs).

AI literacy is non-negotiable for the future - thanks for learning alongside us!

In this week's 'AI Literacy for Entrepreneurs' I tap three founders who turned very human skill-sets - strategy, street-level video, personal style - into AI-fuelled growth engines.

What we cover

Quiz funnels that work while you sleep

Growth strategist Maiko Sakai dissects why most quizzes flop, then shows how she drafts curiosity-packed titles in ChatGPT and lets Interact's new AI builder spin out all the logic branches in minutes.

From one hour of phone clips to 40+ assets

Dori Adams, founder of Shutterb, explains how she'd turn everyday "content-paparazzi" into content for days. She walks us through the stack that multiplies content raw material into a month of social posts.

Confident personal brands

Personal-brand stylist Renee Lindo explains why your outfit is the "packaging" of your expertise and how AI is becoming a low-risk playground for trying colour palettes, outfit pairings and mood-board inspo before you buy.

I close with three points:

1. Small teams can now run at enterprise speed.

2. Custom GPTs are documented SOPs on autopilot.

3. Your next job is to decide what still needs your brain - and delegate the rest to the bot.
   
   

Resources mentioned

Interact AI Quiz Builder - Maiko's go-to quiz platform

ReelTrends - Dori's "what's-popping" audio and format tracker

Want deeper implementation?

Founders are building these workflows live inside Marketing Power Circle (MPC), my AI-implementation mastermind for founder-led teams.
You'll find information here.

Rate + review if today's episode sparked an idea - and see you in the next episode!

'AI Literacy for Entrepreneurs' gets a role-reversal this week: host Susan is in the hot-seat, guesting on Bárbara Daroca's Hello, Success! Podcast and the convo was too good not to syndicate here. If you're building a business on your own terms (and wondering how AI fits into that life-by-design plan), save this one for your next walk.

Why listen:

Susan's origin story - from lifetime marketer, to chocolate-maker, to AI-agency founder

The 4am Report pivot, and why podcasting early (and tiny) massively paid off (even inspiring Barbara to launch her own podcast.

How generative AI really changes the writing game (hint: commodity content is toast; strategy wins)

Grocery-list automation, Instacart GPTs, and other un-sexy life hacks that buy back brain-space

Defining success as 60 % white space - and how to protect it while scaling

Timestamps: 

03:12 - From newborn + nine-to-five to solopreneur experiments (including artisan chocolate) 

09:40 - Launching the 4am Report - catching podcasting's "second wave" 

15:30 - ChatGPT's light-bulb moment: "This is the next calculator." 

19:50 - Will AI replace writers? Only if you let it. 

23:45 - Master-prompts: ask the AI to ask you better questions 

27:20 - Success = space: designing work and life with 60 % white space

Links and resources:

Bárbara Daroca's podcast Hello, Success! - follow here → https://open.spotify.com/show/71SThCwTzHSFC1F9N5jBKZ

Susan's AI agency: https://www.peacefulaimarketing.com

Marketing Power Circle - the implementation mastermind for founder-led teams → https://cpdigitalinc.vipmembervault.com/products/courses/view/1157552

If this episode helped you rethink what success could look like, share it with a fellow founder.

Drop a rating inside your podcast app. Your five-seconds of love keeps these conversations flowing.

Stay curious, stay human, and keep 60% of your calendar blissfully blank.

In this episode of 'AI Literacy for Entrepreneurs', Susan Diaz chats with Jesse Clarke - founder of JN Clarke Consulting and a strategic advisor to nonprofits and social impact entrepreneurs. With deep roots in both federal government and charitable sectors, Jesse brings a pragmatic, values-first lens to the role AI is beginning to play in nonprofit strategy.

What to expect:

How AI is quietly transforming grant writing and government funding workflows

The ethical red flags nonprofits must consider as they adopt Gen AI

Why 30-35% of orgs are already using AI (and more unofficially)

How Jesse uses AI in her work - and her personal life

The hidden opportunity for small teams to leap ahead before regulation catches up

This conversation is packed with real-world use cases, policy-level insight, and warm, witty reminders that critical thinking and values must still lead the way.

🔗 Links & Mentions

Follow Jesse Clarke on LinkedIn for her upcoming "AI for Grant Writing" course and strategic tools for working with government.

👋 Connect with Susan Diaz on LinkedIn or Instagram. Stay connected with Susan and other human-first, AI-smart marketers: Join the Marketing Power Circle for monthly deep dives, custom workflows, and peer-led AI innovation.

📌 Don't forget
Podcasts live forever - bookmark this one for your next team strategy day.

💥 If this episode resonated, share it with a friend - and don't forget to leave a 5-star rating. It helps more founders find the support they need in an AI-powered world.

In this episode of 'AI Literacy for Entrepreneurs', Susan Diaz chats with Jesse Clarke - founder of JN Clarke Consulting and a strategic advisor to nonprofits and social impact entrepreneurs. With deep roots in both federal government and charitable sectors, Jesse brings a pragmatic, values-first lens to the role AI is beginning to play in nonprofit strategy.

What to expect:

How AI is quietly transforming grant writing and government funding workflows

The ethical red flags nonprofits must consider as they adopt Gen AI

Why 30-35% of orgs are already using AI (and more unofficially)

How Jesse uses AI in her work - and her personal life

The hidden opportunity for small teams to leap ahead before regulation catches up

This conversation is packed with real-world use cases, policy-level insight, and warm, witty reminders that critical thinking and values must still lead the way.

🔗 Links & Mentions

Follow Jesse Clarke on LinkedIn for her upcoming "AI for Grant Writing" course and strategic tools for working with government.

👋 Connect with Susan Diaz on LinkedIn or Instagram. Stay connected with Susan and other human-first, AI-smart marketers: Join the Marketing Power Circle for monthly deep dives, custom workflows, and peer-led AI innovation.

📌 Don't forget
Podcasts live forever - bookmark this one for your next team strategy day.

💥 If this episode resonated, share it with a friend - and don't forget to leave a 5-star rating. It helps more founders find the support they need in an AI-powered world.

In this heartfelt and thought-provoking conversation, host Susan Diaz sits down with Liat Horovitz - results coach, founder of Revival Retreats, and host of The Results Club Podcast - to explore what it really means to grow a business (and a life) in the age of AI without losing your humanity.

With a background in big tech and marketing, Liat walked away from corporate life to pursue a more connected, values-led path. In this episode, she shares what it takes to make a bold leap - and how we can embrace AI without sacrificing the human essence that makes us impactful leaders.

💡 In This Episode, we Cover

Why Connection Is the Real Currency: AI can do a lot, but it can't replace human connection. Liat shares how connection remains the heartbeat of business success.

Bridging Corporate and Entrepreneurial Mindsets: Liat explains how her background in both worlds helps her coach entrepreneurs through high-stakes decisions.

Facing AI Fears with Curiosity: From data privacy to job security, we unpack the real concerns people have with AI - and why asking better questions is the antidote to fear.

The Power of Thoughtful Adoption: We talk about how Liat uses ChatGPT, how her team is automating the right things, and why AI can be your secret time-saver when approached with intention.

Revival 5.0 and the Future of Human-Centered Business: Liat reflects on what it takes to build sustainable communities and experiences - and why the future of growth is relational, not transactional.

Key Quotes

"AI will never replace connection. It can support you, enhance your process, but it will never replace the feeling of being seen and heard."

"Every bit of success I've had has come from relationships. There's no hack for that."

"You don't want to make business decisions from a place of scarcity. That's where so many people get stuck."

🎧 Listen Now and hit that 5-star rating button as you play.

 

👋 Connect with Liat:

• Website: liathorovitz.com

• Podcast: The Results Club

• Instagram @liathorovitz

• Liat Horovitz on LinkedIn

 

👋 Connect with Susan Diaz on LinkedIn or Instagram.

💥 If this episode resonated, share it with a friend - and don't forget to leave a 5-star rating. It helps more founders find the support they need in an AI-powered world.

Want to deepen your own strategy and stay ahead in the AI landscape?

👉 Join the Marketing Power Circle for monthly deep dives, custom workflows, and peer-led AI innovation.

 

In this foundational solo episode, host Susan Diaz breaks down the three core concepts every founder-led team needs to understand to build a meaningful relationship with AI. Whether you're just dipping your toes into AI or looking to sharpen your implementation strategy, this is your no-fluff starting point.

What you'll Learn

📌 Why founder-led teams are uniquely positioned to thrive with AI - if they embrace literacy and implementation now.

📌 Why mindset is just as important as toolset.

📌 How to avoid the trap of chasing shiny new tools and instead build a strategy that aligns with your business.

Core Concepts Covered

🧩 Machine Learning – How AI spots patterns and evolves (and how you're already using it without realizing).

🧩 Generative AI – The game-changer: from content to music, what it means to generate vs. predict.

🧩 Prompt Engineering – The real skill for entrepreneurs: how to speak to AI in a way that makes it useful and strategic.

🛠 Plus

→ How to stop thinking of AI as just a tech tool and start treating it like a strategic team member.

→ A reminder that AI is non-optional - it's your job as a founder to set the tone for how your team uses it.

🎯 Top Quote: "Think less tools and more strategy. Name and solve your fears. Your mindset is the single biggest unlock to using AI as your growth engine." – Susan Diaz

🎧 Listen to the episode now and start building your own AI literacy foundation.

👉 Subscribe and leave a 5⭐️ review 

🔗 Resources and Freebies

📘 Download the free guide: Reclaim 3 Hours a Day – The Busy Founder's AI Toolkit

11 practical AI tools to streamline marketing, sales & operations. No tech background required.

➡️ Get it here  peacefulaimarketing.com/busy-founders-ai-toolkit

 

🎓 Join MPC Susan Diaz's AI Mastermind

Want to go from AI curious to AI confident? Join our Marketing Power Circle mastermind. Learn alongside a council of peers, build custom workflows, and unlock compound time savings.

Learn More About Marketing Power Circle 

🔔 Stay Connected

Follow Susan on LinkedIn and Instagram for more behind-the-scenes breakdowns, real-time AI experiments, and resources built for founder-led brands.

 

In this insightful episode of 'AI Literacy for Entrepreneurs', host Susan Diaz sits down with Steph Sedgwick, founder of Clarity Web Design, to explore how good web design is evolving in the age of AI, accessibility, and changing SEO dynamics.

About Steph Sedgwick: Steph specializes in creating websites that genuinely perform - going far beyond aesthetic appeal to ensure they're accessible, user-friendly, and strategically optimized. She highlights how designing for accessibility is not just inclusive but also excellent business strategy, significantly boosting organic traffic.

Key Discussion Points:

Good Web Design in 2025: Why visual aesthetics alone won't cut it. Good design means functionality, accessibility, and essentialism - focusing intentionally on content that delivers clear, measurable value.

Accessibility as a Business Advantage: Steph shares startling statistics - 97% of websites aren't accessibility-friendly. She details how making your website accessible leads to dramatically improved user experience and organic search results (average 450% increase!)

Why Pretty Paperweights Don't Work: Websites need to serve practical purposes, not just look appealing. Learn why functionality and accessibility should be your priority.

AI and Web Design: Steph demystifies the hype around AI-generated websites. AI can enhance your workflow but can't replace human strategic insights or understanding of customer needs - yet.

SEO and AI: Practical advice on using AI to evaluate your web copy for readability and skimmability, ensuring your content appeals to both humans and search engines.

Steph's Pro Tips for Entrepreneurs:

• Avoid "ego-driven" website designs. Your website should appeal to your target audience, not just reflect your personal preferences.

• Conduct regular checks on basic website functionality (responsive design, working links).

• Use AI wisely - especially for tasks like editing and improving clarity, rather than expecting fully autonomous website creation.
  
  

Time Stamps for Key Highlights in this Episode:

• 01:27 - The importance of moving from "pretty paperweights" to functional web design

• 02:32 - How accessibility boosts organic traffic by 450%

• 06:29 - Defining "good design" in 2025

• 11:21 - Why responsive design remains critical

• 27:10 - AI-generated websites: myth vs. reality

• 35:26 - Practical SEO tips using AI

• 39:14 - How Steph personally leverages AI for productivity
  
  

Connect with Steph Sedgwick on LinkedIn.

Website: claritywebdesign.ca 

Instagram: @claritywebdesign

Upcoming Roundtable Event: Steph host regular insightful roundtables. Her next one is "From Invisible to Unmissable: SEO and Accessibility Intersection", diving deeper into how to effectively blend SEO and accessibility for maximum business impact.

🎧 Listen now to elevate your website's functionality and accessibility in an AI-driven world!

Subscribe and Review: If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and review the podcast - it helps us continue to bring AI literacy your way!

Follow Susan Diaz on LinkedIn: Susan Diaz

Free Resource for Busy Founders: Reclaim 3 Hours a Day with The Busy Founder's AI Toolkit
11 Practical AI Tools to Streamline your Marketing, Sales, and day-to-day Operations - No Tech Background Required.
👉 Grab your free toolkit now

In this episode, Susan Diaz sits down with Renee Lindo, personal and brand stylist, to chat about why personal style is crucial for entrepreneurs building strong brands in the age of AI. Renee shares how style acts as a powerful communication tool, setting the stage before you even say a word.

Key Takeaways:

Your Style as Personal Branding

Renee emphasizes how your style is your "packaging" and directly influences first impressions, branding consistency, and professional opportunities.

Capsule Wardrobe 101 for Entrepreneurs

Practical tips to create a personalized capsule wardrobe, saving entrepreneurs valuable time and mental energy.

The Intersection of Style, Energy, and Confidence

Insights on how dressing intentionally can shift your mindset, elevate confidence, and open doors to new opportunities.

Common Style Challenges for Entrepreneurs

Renee discusses overcoming blocks like feeling camera-ready and creating content with ease simply by being intentional about getting dressed each day.

Can AI Enhance your Style?

Tips on leveraging AI as a starting point for outfit ideas, online shopping recommendations, and even color choices, while still emphasizing the importance of personal touch.

Practical Advice:

• Conduct a style audit: Align your wardrobe with your brand by clarifying your personal style and using tools like Pinterest for inspiration.

• Invest intentionality: Plan outfits ahead to boost content creation ease and reduce decision fatigue.

 

Episode Timestamps:

02:45 Why your personal style matters more than ever in the age of AI

07:12 How your wardrobe directly impacts your confidence and opportunities

12:30 Creating a capsule wardrobe to simplify entrepreneurial life

17:05 Overcoming style blocks and feeling camera-ready effortlessly

21:50 Leveraging AI to elevate your personal style without losing your authenticity

28:15 Conducting a practical style audit to align your wardrobe with your brand

Guest Spotlight:

Renee Lindo specializes in empowering entrepreneurs through style and confidence. Connect with her on LinkedIn and explore her insights on personal branding and styling.

Connect with Renee on LinkedIn: Renee Lindo

Tune in and discover how to amplify your entrepreneurial success through intentional personal branding and styling.