Six ways I use AI in my business as a new mom — Episode 5 of Building a Coaching Business in Motherhood

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Gillian Bennett: Hello, and welcome to an episode.

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Gillian Bennett: Hello, and welcome to Building a Coaching Business in Motherhood.

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Gillian Bennett: I’m Gillian, and today we are going to talk about 5 ways I use AI as a mother running a coaching business on limited and unpredictable time. And if you’re a mom, you can relate to this, because I’m recording this after one of the worst nights of sleep we’ve had since the 4-month sleep regression.

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Gillian Bennett: It somehow seems like our son just casually forgot to sleep last night, and then…

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Gillian Bennett: you know, I’ve heard that, oh, well, when the nights that they struggle to sleep, it’s because they are learning a new skill. And so we’re basically expecting him to be able to do somersaults this morning, which, of course, he didn’t. He’s totally normal. But we also, after that horrible night of sleep, went to urgent care because he had a little rash on his butt.

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Gillian Bennett: And while we thought it was nothing, and it turns out it was nothing, and probably not related to his lack of sleep, it’s been… it’s been a morning. And… I think this is just, like.

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Gillian Bennett: this is just motherhood, right? Is these things happen, and because these things happen, and because we can’t predict them, we need to…

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Gillian Bennett: be learning tools like the ones that I’m gonna share in this episode, because we don’t have as much capacity as we did pre-baby, and we’re probably not gonna get it back, maybe ever, especially because my brain kind of feels like it is on slow motion this morning. So…

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Gillian Bennett: Let’s get into it.

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Gillian Bennett: You may have listened to the last episode of this podcast, sorry, not the last episode, two episodes ago on time management, the last solo episode, and you probably heard me mention really briefly how I use AI to help me get things done, and I really believe that part of my ability to continue to run this business

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Gillian Bennett: As a mother, as a mother who has been the primary parent, we just very recently got daycare for our son.

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Gillian Bennett: it’s been incredibly helpful for me, and I don’t use AI as my best friend, I don’t use AI as my business coach, I don’t use AI to help me coach.

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Gillian Bennett: I think of AI more as, like, a virtual assistant type role, even though there are many tasks that a virtual assistant would be able to do, or I might ask them to do, that I might not ask AI to do. But I want to be specific on… actually, I have 6 things. I have 5, and then an added sort of bonus

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Gillian Bennett: way that I use AI. Specifically, the AI that I use primarily is Claude. I used to use ChatGPT, I’m gonna talk later in this episode about why I don’t use ChatGPT anymore.

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Gillian Bennett: But I want to give you some specifics on how I use AI without having it write my posts, without having it coach, without turning my content into, like, robot voice, and…

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Gillian Bennett: Let’s get into it. So, the first way that I have been using AI is through dictation, and I realized when my son was very, very young, I think he was maybe, like.

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Gillian Bennett: this was right as I was coming back from maternity leave, so he was very little. I realized that I could set up dictation not just on my phone, which is something that we probably are already using on our phone occasionally. My dad loves to use it to send

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Gillian Bennett: To send texts that never make any sense.

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Gillian Bennett: But you can set it up on your computer, and so I started using it to dictate emails, which… not as easy as typing them out, but I use dictation now all the time, usually for things like dictating a podcast outline, dictating ideas for reels or posts, and then I will use Claude to organize my thoughts. And specifically, one of the things that I think is so incredibly important when you are using

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Gillian Bennett: any AI.

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Gillian Bennett: Is, in order to keep it sounding like you, being very specific about

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Gillian Bennett: having the AI organize what you’re saying, or lay it out in a certain way, rather than edit it. And being very, very clear about how you want AI to help you with that, help you organize things, is so important, because otherwise you are going to end up with those very typical AI-type

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Gillian Bennett: phrases that nobody likes. And so, this episode, specifically… I actually didn’t use AI for this episode. I did dictate, but I didn’t use…

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Gillian Bennett: Claude to organize it, because I was able to just dictate these points directly.

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Gillian Bennett: But that is something I use probably daily, often on stroller walks, or even if my son is in one arm, and, like, you know, I’m holding him, and I have an idea that I really need to get out, of course I’m not gonna remember it. So I will dictate a note, and then often plug that into Claude later to organize my thoughts into something a little bit… that has a bit more of a flow.

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Gillian Bennett: The second way that I will use AI is I recently created sort of a loose weekly schedule that helps me understand what is essential for me to get done each day, based on the time I think I have available. And I say I think because, like today, I have…

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Gillian Bennett: 2 hours less.

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Gillian Bennett: of time to work, because of, you know, we didn’t sleep well, and so we woke up late. I had to go to urgent care, and that took time. I took my son to daycare late, and so I had Claude help me, based on the tasks that I told it I need to get done.

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Gillian Bennett: I had it create sort of like a loose weekly schedule, so I know, for example, today is my podcast day, and I am actually now a week ahead, or two weeks ahead, which is fantastic, and in part, that’s because it no longer takes me so long to get podcasts ready, because I’m dictating, and because I’m using Claude to organize it.

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Gillian Bennett: So I have this loose weekly schedule, that means that when I sit down at my computer, I open it up, I take a look at, oh, okay, this is what my focus is for today, and one of the things, and I will have to do an episode on this, is I’ve deprioritized a lot based on what my current business strategy is, and so that means that I’m actually not asking a ton of myself every single day, which means that even though I’ve lost a couple of hours today, I can still get everything I need

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Gillian Bennett: need to done.

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Gillian Bennett: The third way I use Claude is I will brain dump into Claude. I will use the dictation, the dictation feature, and I will brain dump into Claude to help me define a workflow or figure out any tech issues so that I don’t waste time, like, scouring through the customer support pages or the help pages of the software I use. So, for example, I use

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Gillian Bennett: practice better software, I use Thrivecart software, and often Claude is really helpful. If I bring them in what I would like to do, Claude can give me sort of the steps of, like, this is how you can do it. Sometimes it’s wrong, but it saves a lot of time for me, because then I’m not on the help page of Thrivecart, trying to dive through it. Claude can sort of filter through it for me.

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Gillian Bennett: The fourth way that I use AI is it creates show notes for each podcast episode, and I will ask for a few ideas for emails and posts based on the episode. The way that I do this, so this is personal to me, this is how I create podcasts, maybe this will be helpful for you.

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Gillian Bennett: I record my podcast in Zoom, so I’m currently recording this in Zoom. I will upload the transcript of the podcast to Claude, and ask it to create show notes. Now, a really important thing to do here is giving AI parameters for how you would like it to do repetitive tasks.

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Gillian Bennett: So, for example, the first… if I was just to ask Claude, create show notes for this, which, the very first time I… when I switched over from ChatGPT to Claude, I said, hey, create show notes based on this transcript, and the show notes were not how I like them at all. Super, super long, didn’t work for me.

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Gillian Bennett: So, in order to make it efficient, we need to be giving specific

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Gillian Bennett: directions on, this is how I would like you to create show notes. I will be very upfront, I pay for Claude, I think it’s 100% worth the money that I pay for it. This is not, like, me telling you you need to pay for it, this is what works for me.

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Gillian Bennett: And that means that I can now upload the transcript from the podcast episode that I’m recording, so I will upload this transcript, and Claude will turn it into show notes that are structured in a way that I like. I will still usually edit them a little bit, because…

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Gillian Bennett: it’s AI, and AI doesn’t always sound like us. But that saves me a lot of time, so I am not…

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Gillian Bennett: going through the transcript and writing my own show notes. And… the… the ideas that it gives me for emails and posts, those usually spark ideas of my own. I don’t usually use those ideas word for word, because again, it tends to sound like AI, it will use words that you’re like.

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Gillian Bennett: who talks like this? But it will often get my brain thinking about, oh, this was a main point that I talked about in the podcast, that is how I’m gonna now build my post, or build my email.

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Gillian Bennett: The fifth way that I use AI is I use Zoom summaries for my call notes. So for many, many years, I’ve been coaching for a decade at this point, and for many years, I took hand-typed notes while I was on calls. Then I realized that Zoom could do summaries for me, and…

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Gillian Bennett: at first, they were terrible, like, absolutely terrible. They’ve started to get better, but what I’ve found is, especially because my style of coaching is I tend to use a lot of motivational interviewing, one of the things that is incredibly important for me is that whether it is a coaching call or a mentorship call, is being able to be 100%

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Gillian Bennett: Present and focused on the person in front of me.

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Gillian Bennett: When I would take notes, that would sometimes briefly take me out of being present.

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Gillian Bennett: So because I’m using Zoom summaries, I can be 100% focused on what is happening right there and then, and then I will look through those summaries. I often edit the summaries because, again, AI, we cannot trust it 100%.

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Gillian Bennett: And that saves me a ton of time, because now I’m not trying to take notes that don’t allow me to be 100% focused in my calls.

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Gillian Bennett: I’m not taking those notes and trying to put them into an email format.

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Gillian Bennett: I am looking at the summary that Zoom gives me, I’m editing it so it is more relevant, I’m taking things out that are perhaps redundant or not relevant, I’m adding things in that I remember, because of course, if I’m more present on the call, I’m also going to be able to remember more of it.

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Gillian Bennett: And that saves me so much time when it comes to writing emails, because I always send notes after my calls. And then, I did have a sixth that

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Gillian Bennett: way that I use AI, and this is sort of a bonus, and I want to be really clear that when I

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Gillian Bennett: tell you about this way that I use AI.

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Gillian Bennett: We need to be very, very aware of the fact that I’ve said this a couple of times, is that AI is still a machine. It does not think and feel like a human, it does not have human empathy, it is not your brain as much as you quote-unquote train it.

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Gillian Bennett: And so I will… if I’m feeling stuck, because one of the things now, especially as a mother, is I don’t have a ton of time to just sit and, like.

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Gillian Bennett: like, spend so much time thinking about one thing, especially if I’m having a day where I feel kind of blocked.

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Gillian Bennett: Right? And so sometimes, I will use AI to help me spark ideas when my brain is coming up with nothing, or when I feel really stuck on a task.

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Gillian Bennett: And often, that will give me just a little bit of a jump start, so that I can run with it from there. What will often happen is I end up rewriting the entire idea that AI has given me. This is just…

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Gillian Bennett: a way for me to sort of jog a little bit of, oh, okay, wait, this is a direction that I could potentially go. I will sometimes go a completely opposite direction.

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Gillian Bennett: I will not use AI to coach for me, ever. In part because AI is often still incorrect, it will sometimes, like, even if you ask for research, it will give you links to research that does not exist.

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Gillian Bennett: AI tends to be sycophantic, so it will just tell you that, oh, such a great idea, wow, I didn’t even think of that. Or like, you know, you’re totally on the right track, even when you are not on the right track.

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Gillian Bennett: And so if you do not know enough about the topic that you’re asking about, or you don’t have the capacity to critique the AI response.

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Gillian Bennett: You are putting yourself in a dangerous position, where potentially you are coaching in a way that is not ethical, that is not evidence-based, and…

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Gillian Bennett: the only way that I… I think you can use AI to help you with things like that is if you are so well-versed on the topic that you are asking it about that you know when AI is incorrect, in which case, why would you be using AI?

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Gillian Bennett: So…

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Gillian Bennett: I say this because sometimes, especially, like, right now, today, I had this horrible night of sleep, took my son to urgent care, the morning was rushed, only two coffees deep, might need a third.

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Gillian Bennett: like, sometimes we want to use it as our brain. We want to have AI kind of take up

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Gillian Bennett: Take off that mental load.

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Gillian Bennett: And sometimes you can get some great ideas, like business strategy-wise, business planning, sometimes you can get some great ideas, but there are often gaping holes in the strategy that AI offers. I’ve tested this, and I’ve sort of looked at it and been like, wait, this doesn’t align. I’ve been in business now for a really long time, I’ve been mentoring for a really long time.

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Gillian Bennett: Even though I’ve just recently

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Gillian Bennett: pivoted into specifically business mentorship for mothers who coach. I have been mentoring coaches now for… going on 5 years. It’ll be 5 years in a few months.

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Gillian Bennett: And so, I know a lot about the inner workings of coaching businesses, and I don’t love a lot of what AI comes up with. I think, again, if you have the capacity to critique AI, or maybe you bring ideas that AI has offered you to your business coach or business mentor.

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Gillian Bennett: that can be great, but I wouldn’t just follow it blindly. And then, I do want to talk about the ethics and the ethos of AI, and what’s happening with data centers, water usage, politics. I don’t love it. I really don’t, and if…

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Gillian Bennett: The world that we lived in.

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Gillian Bennett: was going at the pace in which it made sense for me to not use AI, maybe I wouldn’t use it. But at the same time, I’m not willing to fall behind in the things that are important to me. My business is very important to me. Making enough money to support my family and the things that are important to me is important to me, of course. And…

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Gillian Bennett: I don’t want to fall behind because I commit to doing things the quote-unquote analog way.

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Gillian Bennett: Personally, I use Claude over ChatGPT because it works better, I’ve tested both, and my understanding of the Anthropic policy, so Anthropic is the parent company to Claude.

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Gillian Bennett: Openai is the parent company to ChatGPT. My understanding of Anthropic’s policies is… are that they are better and more ethical than other AI companies. I know sometimes

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Gillian Bennett: we don’t have a choice which AI we use. For example, you know, some credit card companies give you free access to perplexity, or whatever.

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Gillian Bennett: My understanding is Anthropic is, as far as AI goes, a little bit better. A lot of what I know about AI comes from my fiancee, who… that is his job, he works in AI, so I tend to follow his advice on these things.

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Gillian Bennett: All of that to… to say.

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Gillian Bennett: motherhood and running a coaching business, two very hard things when you are in motherhood and running a coaching business at the same time, those two very hard things come together to be… like, it’s hard. It’s really, really hard. It’s very challenging in so many different ways, and I don’t feel the need to make it harder on myself.

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Gillian Bennett: And I believe that using AI effectively, without overusing AI, is a way for me to make it easier on myself to continue to run this business.

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Gillian Bennett: There are ways that I’ve found to help me run my business on limited and unpredictable time, and it helps me get out content like this.

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Gillian Bennett: And so, I will leave you with that. You can make your own choices around the ethics of AI, I am just here to share some ways that I use it that have been extremely helpful for me.

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Gillian Bennett: And so if you found this helpful, send it to someone else who might find it helpful, or useful, or interesting. Make sure that you are following Building a Coaching Business in Motherhood so you don’t miss any episodes.

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Gillian Bennett: If you would like a little bit more behind the scenes, I share strategy, I share the struggles that I’m going through, I share how I’m managing my capacity in motherhood.

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Gillian Bennett: In my weekly emails, and you can find the details for that in show notes, if you’d like to inquire about mentorship, also in show notes. But I will… I will end there.

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Gillian Bennett: Thank you so much for being here, thank you for listening.

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Gillian Bennett: And hopefully, I get a nap today.