Amy Vaughan:
Hello everyone and welcome to our weekly Power Lounge. This is your place to hear authentic conversations with those who have power to share. My name is Amy Vaughan and I am the owner and Chief Empowerment Officer at Together Digital. A diverse and collaborative community of women who work in digital and choose to share their knowledge, power and connections can join the movement@togetherindigital.com today we are diving into one of the hottest topics of our time. How to reclaim your time and energy in the age of AI. And I am thrilled, thrilled to welcome Monica Froese, the founder of Empowered Business, a leading voice in digital strategy and AI innovation. I also had the pleasure of being a guest on Monica’s podcast just a few weeks ago. So it’s so great to be hanging out together once again and also creating amazing content for folks while we’re at it.
Amy Vaughan:
Monica is the former corporate marketing leader turned seven figure entrepreneur who made it her mission to help women work smarter, not harder. She has been featured by major brands, invited to the White House, and even met the CEO of Pinterest. All thanks to her results driven approach to business growth. Through her courses podcast and Empowered Shop, Monica reaches businesses, teaches business owners how to ditch the overwhelm and leverage technology with confidence. Which sounds like something we all would love to do. What makes Monica’s perspective so valuable is that she understands the real challenges that women face. Juggling multiple priorities, feeling pressured to do it all, and wondering how to integrate new technologies without losing their minds. Today she’s going to share some practical, no nonsense strategies for using AI to save hours each week, amplifying your impact without sacrificing what matters most.
Amy Vaughan:
So whether you’re running your own business, leading a team, or simply just managing all the things, Monica’s insights are here to help you see that AI is not another overwhelming trend, but as your secret weapon for reclaiming your time and reducing burnout. To Monica and our wonderful live listeners in the audience today, welcome to the Power Lounge.
Monica Froese:
Thank you so much for having me. What a wonderful intro that was.
Amy Vaughan:
No problem, my friend. I mean, you know I had lots of great background because we got to spend time together on your show as well. But let’s start kind of with the elephant in the room. You know, AI, AI, AI, AI. We talk about it all day, all night, and I think for some of us we could do it all day. Prime example, you and I. But I do understand other people can feel overwhelmed by it. What is your perspective on why women in particular might be hesitant to embrace AI tools and how do you help them overcome that initial resistance.
Monica Froese:
Well, I was that person when ChatGPT launched, I. It was not a great time for me because I was going through a divorce at the same time. So I was, like, hearing the buzz about it because I, you know, I work in online business, B2B space, and so everyone’s buzzing about it, and I was, like, kind of hoping it was going to be one of those things that faded out and I wasn’t going to have to jump into it. And I actually ignored it for two years. And part of the reason I ignored it was because I didn’t have the bandwidth. And so it gives me a unique perspective, I think, for women, because I was like, we all are at that phase of my life, juggling more than I’d ever juggled before. I was getting used to a new schedule in my household. I didn’t have the same capacity mentally to be putting it into my business.
Monica Froese:
So I had to make these big changes in the business and all this stuff was going on, and it felt like just one more thing for me to take on. What I’ve now realized it is, is it’s not one more thing to take on. It actually can really help our mental load. And on the other side of my business, which is redefining mom, that’s what I help moms do, is how to take AI and take the mental load off of you. And I really didn’t even dive into it until January of this year. And so, like, what, we’re eight months in and I feel like I got a crash course. And I am so glad I dove in when I did. And I would encourage anyone who hasn’t to dive in now because it is moving really fast.
Monica Froese:
I don’t want that to intimidate anyone. But I do think that this is something that’s not going away. So us having a pulse on it and figuring out how we can use it for good in our own lives is really important.
Amy Vaughan:
I love it. This is why I like talking to you, Monica. You really just like, straight up, I haven’t touched it since January of this year. So many people come on to speak or guest on something and they’re just like, yes, I’ve been using it since the beginning. Early adopter. I know all the things. And that doesn’t help with the intimidation, but being vulnerable and saying, you know, yeah, I avoided it too, because I was hella busy. I think it just hopefully those who are listening can kind of sort of get that sense of relief that you’re not alone.
Amy Vaughan:
You know, there’s a lot of people that are there, but that shouldn’t be the thing that holds you back because I agree all of a sudden it feels a little evangelical. Sometimes I feel like, you know, when you find a fix for something that everybody seems to have the same problem with and it’s like, oh my gosh, this was a thing. And now I want everybody to know that like the problem you’re facing there is a solution. And so it’s’ like we don’t mean to be preachy, y’, all, but like we understand.
Monica Froese:
That’s exactly how I feel about it.
Amy Vaughan:
I love it. Now also, you know, on top of going through that, you’ve got what you’ve gone through with a divorce. Being a single mom, that is a lot. I mean, you know that that’s a lot. We’ve either, all of us have either, you know, our children have divorced, have experienced divorce, no friends who have. So to go through all of that while also building a seven figure business. First of all, I’m like, how the hell. That’s no small feat.
Amy Vaughan:
But could you share a specific moment that AI transformed how you’re approaching your workflow, like how have you used it to help you kind of keep your sanity and get through all that while building your business at the same time, I feel like.
Monica Froese:
I have plentiful examples from both sides of my life, personal and business. I think the moment it really started to click for me was so I approached using ChatGPT as my new Google. So I started training myself to ask Google, let me just go chat. And I understood the premise that when I ask it, it’s like having a conversation. And as I started using it over Google, I realized, well, when you put something into Google, you actually have to do a lot of the work to find the answer. But when you put it into ChatGPT, it does all the work for you to come up with the answer. So that’s how the tide started turning. And then one day, one of the things I felt like personally I was struggling with a lot was I don’t have my kids half the time and I was wasting so much food.
Monica Froese:
Like so much food was getting wasted in my house because I would buy as if I was still buying for a family of four. And I also had weight loss surgery. So I eat differently than anyone else. And so I started talking and I was like, well, here are my dietary restrictions, here’s how often I have to eat. Here are the macros I have to hit. Here are the days I have my kids. And then I just kept going and I was like, well, here’s what I have in my pantry and here are some of my favorite recipes. And before you knew it, I had trained it to understand me so well that now I can go to it.
Monica Froese:
And it has a running list of everything in my pantry, my freezer and my fridge. And I can tell what meals I want it to make. I can tell I’m shopping for seven days, eight days, nine days, this is how many days I have my kids. It knows my kids preferences and it gives me a grocery list based on my local grocery stores as well, and estimates my costs. It is like. And so then a step further, what it started doing was I was having a hard time through the chaos of everything tracking my macros. But it’s super important for my health for me to do so. So I started committing to tracking my macros with Chat.
Monica Froese:
I also had a habit of forgetting to take my vitamins and my daily pills. So now every time I open a chat, I’m trained to tell it like what I ate, what I ate. And it gives me my macro count, tells me what I need to like to work on as the day goes by. And then it will ask me, did you take your pills? And I’m this is amazing. Like there was nothing else that I have not missed a pill in seven months. Like that’s amazing.
Amy Vaughan:
Especially when you’re stressed. Like that’s so easy to get out of your routine. And like that, that’s how I know I am at the point of burnout when I start forgetting basic things, you know.
Monica Froese:
Well, the other day I actually was like, I don’t remember if I took my pills. And then the chat knew I did, so I answered it.
Amy Vaughan:
What a great accountability partner. Right? That’s a great way to look at it too. Right. It can be a coach, it can be an accountability partner. And for those of you who are kind of like, you know, I think some of us just naturally get prompting and what we need to ask for anybody out there who hasn’t, which I don’t know many people, at least within our community that probably haven’t touched AI, but if you are like that early in, like checking it out, I think one of the best things you can do is just see, say this is my goal or objective. What do you need to know to help me get to that goal or objective, like ask it to tell you.
Monica Froese:
What to ask for.
Amy Vaughan:
Do you know what I mean?
Monica Froese:
Yes. Because training it on yourself, training it on your business. Like, I have two sides of my business, so I had to train. I had trained them on both. But the thing is, when you treat it holistically, I find like I, in my business, I actually took back my emails. I send emails every single day, rarely miss a day. I have not been the one writing emails in my business for, like, four years. I took it back.
Monica Froese:
And the reason I can use it. The reason I can use AI and it can still sound like me is because I tell it everything. Like, I will tell you the most anecdotal stuff. Like, my girls went back to school this Wednesday. My daughter. This daughter was acting like this. This daughter was acting like that. We did this cool thing.
Monica Froese:
We might get a new kitten. And then it weaves it into my storytelling when I. When I write emails without me having, like, when I used to write emails a decade ago, a really good email could have taken me all day to do. Now I can do a solid email that’s going to make me a lot of money in 45 minutes. But it’s not like I’m not involved in the copy process. It’s just I’ve trained it to understand me so well. And so back in January, what I did. And my daughter was actually making fun of me for this because it was a weekend.
Monica Froese:
She was with me and I’m on the couch and I was just like, on the typewriter. Wow. Old school. On the computer. And she’s like, mom, what are you doing? I’m like, I’m educating myself. She goes, what are you talking about? And I just started telling CHAT everything about my business. I started, like, the business timeline from 2013. I educated on my brands and major milestones.
Monica Froese:
And then after I, like, kind of brain dumped all that, I said, what else do you need to know about me? And then it started asking me questions like, do you have any. Can you upload previous emails to me so I can understand your tone of voice? And at the end of this, it actually came up with a writing style guide for both my brands and, like, the tone and certain phrases that I use a lot because I have a decade of podcast episodes, of workshops I’ve done, of membership calls I’ve done. So I haven’t given it all of that because that would be a lot, but I chose some key things, like some key webinars that I’ve done, and it picked up on my natural language. And I also then educated it on what I don’t like.
Amy Vaughan:
Like, right.
Monica Froese:
Mine likes to say, I Know, this is pretty common but like mine says no fluff all the time. I’m like, please stop.
Amy Vaughan:
Yeah, right, Yep. Are certain GPT words or language that you’re like, I would not say that. And that’s what we mean by training. I think sometimes two people hear us talking about, you know, building, you know, or training AI agents or something, and when we start to use that language, it feels very like, oh, that sounds time consuming. You are literally just typing in as if you’re having a conversation with a friend, giving them a basic download of information. And like you said, you can up. Upload so much information. And again, like I.
Amy Vaughan:
I do personally recommend a pro account for whatever chat you know, or GPT that you decide to use. Just so all that information about you, your business and stuff like that remains like private confidential information and isn’t shared broadly within the full, like AI learning LLM. But yeah, it’s. That’s all we mean by training is really just giving it more input and information and saying, yes, this is what I want to hear and no, that’s kind of what I don’t like or don’t want to hear.
Monica Froese:
And an easy way to do it. I do recommend getting a plus as well. It’s 20amonth, honestly, for how much you use it and how much it’s like. I operate the majority of my day.
Amy Vaughan:
Yeah.
Monica Froese:
Whether it’s personal or not, or business inside a chat. And one of the hacks I have is after I drop the girls off at school, I just did it this morning, I picked up my phone. I don’t pick up my phone, I put it on the console next to me and I press the record button and I just spit, spitball. All the things on my brain. What happened last night? If I have to remember things for dinner, if I have to run an errand, oh, I have to remember the kid needs this. And then I say, oh, don’t forget this about the business. Don’t forget that you have. You have to tell your ex this.
Monica Froese:
And I just say every single thing. And we, I know as women, this is. We carry the mental load.
Amy Vaughan:
We do.
Monica Froese:
I love those TikTok videos where it’s like a woman sitting at her desk and her thoughts are going off. So, like, she’s actually working, but she’s thinking, well, I have to go to soccer at 6pm, which means I have to leave then and I have to. And she’s like going back. Well, that’s basically what I do to chat. And then what ends up happening is my day starts off with it organizing everything I have to do, it even timestamps things for me. Like, you have this. You have an hour block here to work, work on your emails because you have to record these two podcasts and you have to remember to get your daughter to volleyball by 4 o’. Clock.
Monica Froese:
It’s. It really does extract the mental load in ways. I mean, and I’ve talked about the mental load through my Redefining mom blog for 12 years and nothing has ever solved it like this.
Amy Vaughan:
Right, exactly. Yeah, I agree. It’s like our own little external processor and admin assistant. All those good things. All right, so, you know, your story probably resonated with a lot of our listeners there. What you just explained, that woman sitting at work, you know, two minutes inside a woman’s head, and it’s like, whoa, that’s a lot of thoughts, that’s a lot to do. That’s a lot of worries, that’s a lot of concerns. You know, a lot of us are kind of drowning in tasks and feeling like we need to be everywhere all at once.
Amy Vaughan:
What’s like the first AI tool or strategy that you’d recommend someone to, someone who’s completely new to this space?
Monica Froese:
So I get asked this question a lot, especially because there’s a lot of different LLMs out there, right? You have Gemini, Perplexity, Grok, Claude, and ChatGPT, of course, which we’ve mentioned. And people will tell you that certain LLMs are better for certain tasks. But the thing is, if this is my opinion, if you try to do them all, you’ll end up sticking with none. So I found it most beneficial for me to start with one, which I chose ChatGPT, because it was the most buzzy and popular. And I’d say, honestly, it does have the most users still. So I started with that because I figured that would give me the opportunity. Two things give an opportunity for a model to get to know me, because that’s the power of it. Once it knows you, that’s why it’s so useful to me.
Monica Froese:
So if I was spreading myself across three different things. One, yeah, you know, that would be. And I did that for a solid six to seven months. I just recently started branching out to a few other ones based on its skill. Like right now, I’ve been using Gemini with my daughter too. My daughter’s very artistic and Gemini just got upgraded with a pretty good image creator. And so we’ve been having fun with that on the weekends. And then Claude, a lot of people have said that it’s better for copy.
Monica Froese:
And now that I have so much information in ChatGPT that I can extract to give to Claude, I will say I am enjoying that. But I waited months and months before I did that. Like, so just start with one.
Amy Vaughan:
Yeah, I think that’s great advice. I agree with you. I think once you kind of learn what works for you within one, it’s easy to kind of extract what you’ve done, maybe replicate it, try it and see what happens in others. But yeah, I agree with you because I tend to jump as well. I was a copywriter, writer by trade and a writer by nature. So yeah, I’ve always felt Claude had the most like, natural, like from a human language standpoint. But then there’s definitely certain things about team GPT that’s amazing. If you’re kind of like creating standardizations or prompts across the board that you want your team to leverage for the sake of like, consistency and things like that.
Amy Vaughan:
You’re right. It’s kind of like, it’s sort of like, you know, picking up a hammer for the first time and it’s like, do I want this brand of hammer or this brand of hammer? This one has a, like a slightly squishier handle. This one has a better like, like, like, what’s the word? The lever or whatever. So it’s like the, the leverage is better on this one and so I can hammer longer, but then this one I can hammer more comfortably. It’s like sticking with one hammer to start and then start picking up others and see what works.
Monica Froese:
Honestly, that’s always been my advice in the business to anytime, like when I get someone new who doesn’t have an audience, let’s say, what do I always tell them? Pick one place. Get good at it to get your leads. Because if you try to stretch yourself too thin, then you make no progress. It’s like that same concept.
Amy Vaughan:
That’s great advice. And let’s dig a little deeper into sort of that, the business applications of this. So, you know, you’ve worked in corporate marketing, but now you obviously run your own business. How do you see AI differently impacting women entrepreneurs versus traditional and corporate roles?
Monica Froese:
Yeah, so I, I, I thought about this actually a lot before talking to you because I am 11 years removed from corporate now, but I was in corporate tech, so you know, I was around for like the dawn of cloud computing. So I saw a lot of disrupting things while I was in it. And I think one of the things that really stands out to me is that initiatives like this are usually driven from the top down. And we all know that there’s not as many seats on the top in a lot of these big corporations for women. And so if we are not getting as much say in the initiatives, I think that’s an issue. And so I actually think, what corporate women. So if I was still a corporate still, what I would start doing is within the parameters of what the company would allow. I would try my very best to integrate as much AI into my daily role as possible and talk about it, bringing initiatives up the ladder.
Monica Froese:
Because I really feel like, you know, I remember. I can remember so many times sitting in my cubicle that I would have my day planned out and then some stupid thing would come down from the top. And we all had a scramble, but we still had to get all the other stuff done. And I just. I want to. I feel like this is such an opportunity for women to, like, actually shine right with this. And the other thing, too, that I think is really important. If we’re not involved, I mean, there’s a lot of reasons to be involved in these decisions.
Monica Froese:
But the other thing is, AI is going to be one of the biggest wealth creators that we’ve ever seen. And so if we’re not having a say in it, we’re going to be the ones left behind. Like, we should have that equal power. So we need to be involved in those decisions. So in my opinion, it’s like, I’m sure I know, like, I know a lot of people that still work in corporate, and they have, like, AI panels that they’re hosting. They have those think tanks, essentially, get involved, like, don’t let your voice not be heard in those types of things. As an entrepreneur, we are very lucky, in my opinion, because guess what? I get to decide how I want to do it. And I’m a sponge, and I love learning.
Monica Froese:
And one of the things I have to say is, during the two years that things were really rough for me, I really stopped consuming content. I really stopped learning. And for the most part, in terms of, like, how to run my business and different, like, marketing things, like, there’s very consistent things about how you sell to people. And I feel like I kind of just reached that point where I’m like, I know what I’m doing. I just have to do it well. AI kind of blew the doors off of that. And now I find myself for the first time, investing in education again, trying new tools, excited to record my podcast to talk about the new things I find out. And I feel like I definitely recognize that women need a seat holistically at the AI table.
Monica Froese:
And I think through the business and talking about it so much it can really kind of elevate us all.
Amy Vaughan:
Yeah, no, absolutely, absolutely. Yeah. Agree with so much that we said just there. But I also just dropped for our live listening audience and we’ll include it in the show notes. We just did an episode the week before last that was talking about how to implement AI with your team responsibly. Just because it is, it’s, it’s very tricky within corporate environments. Some places it’s still taboo, which is kind of sad because it’s like, like you’re really missing the boat. And it’s more about taking an accountable, responsible, measured approach to leveraging the technology versus avoiding it altogether.
Amy Vaughan:
Because at the end of the day I think that’s the thing about us entrepreneurs, we know there’s no avoiding it, you know, and so while businesses definitely have bigger, better resources and they’re going to want to believe that those bigger, better resources are somehow better than AI, I think that is like to me, I don’t know in some ways I’m probably over optimistic but I feel like AI for business owners, it’s like an equalizer. Now me as one small business could work as a medium sized business because of the amount of efficiencies, optimizations and things like that that we have gained by leveraging the tool with really, you know, and doing it so responsibly but because we don’t have to kind of go through all the layers and levels and bureaucracy to get what not approved, you know, it’s great. So I do understand the struggle women who are within corporate are really facing which is I think why that more extensive episode where we kind of focus on just that would be really good for you. Those of you who are listening to go back and hear.
Monica Froese:
Yeah. And the other, other thing to keep in mind if you are in a corporation where either it is really hard to get a say in how AI is being implemented and or they are kind of against it, that’s even more reason to invest in it outside of your work life. Because we really don’t know the impacts yet of what jobs are going to change because of AI and this is a skill set that is definitely not going to go away. So even if you really can’t get that experience at work.
Amy Vaughan:
Yeah.
Monica Froese:
Make it for yourself. Because like what if something does happen to the industry you’re in? Well now you have this skill set that you can use and maybe go out on your own, maybe become an entrepreneur or it’ll be hopefully easier for you to be able to interview for your next job.
Amy Vaughan:
Yeah, yeah. Now I 100% agree. AI is a part of your professional development. Like, we all need to take it as such because, you know, my husband works for an AI market research company and they’re trying to hire for and create roles that don’t exist yet. And, and so if you’re not taking it on yourself to learn this, even if it’s not for the benefit of your current employer, like you said, do it for yourself because people are going to be looking. We’re not going to get replaced by AI. We’re going to get replaced by people who know how to use AI better than we do.
Monica Froese:
I 100% agree with that. It’s not going anywhere. And that was the epiphany I had in January of this year. And especially being an online business. It was one of those things I could see. I’ve, I’ve always been good at being able to see outward and I guess that’s the visionary as a CEO, right? Like, yeah, I, I’ve always been able to see outward and be like, okay. And I was kind, I was clouded for those two years. I was not involved.
Monica Froese:
I just didn’t, I didn’t have the mental bandwidth. Then as the fog cleared, I was like, I’m either going to get on this bandwagon and you and figure out how to use it and be very energetic about it, or my business is going to cease to exist by the end of this year. And I do believe that, like, for me personally, if I had not embraced it, I would not be where I’m at today.
Amy Vaughan:
Well, that’s a testament for sure then. All right, let’s talk about another fun thing that we deal with a lot as women. We talked about the mental load. Along with that comes often decision fatigue. Right. Because we’re making choices for ourselves, for the people we employ, for our families. It’s definitely something a lot of our members struggle with. How are you using AI to make faster, better decisions, whether it’s in life or business?
Monica Froese:
I mean, for my business, I will say I built. I almost feel like this is a little jargony, but for lack of a better term, I feel like I built a team of GPTs for myself. So I think one of the things that I have benefited a lot in the business from AI is that while I have always been a visionary, I’m also a very type A detail oriented person. And because of that, people have commented when they, like, I have contractors come into the business, they’re like, wow, you’re like, really organized. I’m like, I am very organized. But so what that has allowed me to do is take all of those processes and put them into like their own mini GPTs. And so that’s why I call them like a team. Because here, even though my processes have always been organized, now I can run something through a GPT where it would have taken me still a lot of human hours to do.
Monica Froese:
Like, let’s just take my podcast, for example. I eliminated quite a bit of contractor expense because I built a GPT. I know exactly what I need it for. The output, everything from the Instagram reel to the script that I want it. And I built a logic flow and I just, I simply dumped it in. This is what I want the episode to be about. I get a few key points and this GPT takes it all the way through.
Monica Froese:
I mean, and even now, like descript, I can edit my own podcasts. Before I had. I had no idea how to edit it. And, and then like, I can get podcasts out the door. What? That has opened the door for me to come out with new private podcasts for my audience because it’s cut down on so much time. So now it’s just enabled me to be way more present in the business. I think that’s it. That’s the key.
Monica Froese:
So I view them like little mini me’s. They’re like, yeah, like little mini robots of me that have my brain and, and they stay on the guardrails and the GPT. That’s why I have so many of them. Because if you’re like, here, here’s the process to run my entire business, it’d be like all over the place.
Amy Vaughan:
You can’t do that.
Monica Froese:
So the, the I. It’s funny because I’m probably working harder than I have in a lot of years, but yet I’m in any other phase, I feel like I would have been under massive burnout.
Amy Vaughan:
Oh yeah.
Monica Froese:
And while I have moments where I feel like I’m approaching burnout, AI has actually allowed me to step back from that because it has allowed like, for example, the one day I was almost near tears on my ex. It was still a summer day. My ex came, picked up the kids, and it was like 8am in the morning. I was so excited. It was a Wednesday. I’m gonna have to work all day in silence. It’s gonna be amazing. I’m gonna get so much done.
Monica Froese:
3pm rolled around and my brain wasn’t gonna turn on. It was because I was in a phase of burnout. My brain was just like, forget it. And I finally, almost in tears, went to chat, and I was like, I. My whole productive day just got blown away. I feel like I’m behind on everything. And it came back and it’s like, well, let’s prioritize. What’s like, the must do versus do you really have to do this? Or can you delegate it? Or can we build a system for it? And that day that I couldn’t get my brain to turn on chat actually helped me build three more GPTs to use in my business.
Monica Froese:
That knocked three of the tasks that I was stressed about that day off my plate in like 45 minutes. And then suddenly I was re. I was like, re. Energized again. And I ended up working late into the night for fun. Because it was fun.
Amy Vaughan:
Yeah, no, it’s great to have what feels like a collaborator when you’re working alone, which is often the case when you’re an entrepreneur. And so I like to give it like this or that situation and have it do some analyzing or say, like, what are the gaps that are missing from this? Or what am I not seeing that I should notice? Another prime example is, like, talking about decision fatigue. I just made a new hire, and she, like, I need to get her a laptop. She’s like, oh, I like PCs. And I was like, oh, I only know Macs. So I jumped on Claude and I’m like, here’s what her job is. Here’s what she’s going to be doing day in and day out. Here’s what she needs.
Amy Vaughan:
Give me some recommendations. Here’s my budget. And it gave me such a great, thorough, rational list of what I needed to consider to get her. And then I said, well, what else am I missing or not considering or what else would you need to know in order to help me make this decision? And it gave me more. And so that’s like the other great thing. It’s like sometimes you just feel like, I mean, I could go and start asking people like, oh, PC users, what does everybody think? But I can just Google it.
Monica Froese:
And reading through all of them.
Amy Vaughan:
Exactly.
Monica Froese:
All the reviews, there are so many ways, like, I’m pretty proficient in spreadsheets, but once I left corporate, some of those skills kind of, you know, gave way. And as I grew my business, I started realizing, well, there’s a lot of skills I learned in corporate that are very helpful with me running the Back end of my business, but I forgot how to do it, and I could have watched YouTube tutorials instead. The amount of times I’m like, I forgot this formula, or I want to build this pivot table, or I really want my spreadsheet to do X, but I. I don’t know how to make it.
Amy Vaughan:
It does it right.
Monica Froese:
And it is step by step or building zaps. Like, the amount of.
Amy Vaughan:
Oh, my gosh, I love it. For building zaps. Yeah. Oh.
Monica Froese:
Because zaps, you know, it’s definitely gotten better than when I started using it. But sometimes we, like, we can’t even imagine the capacity of some of these apps and what they can do working together. So sometimes I throw out these outlandish scenarios of, like, I would love to start way over here in left field, and by the end of it, I’m way over in right field. Can you make this happen? And it comes back step by step on how to do it. And that would have taken some of these builds, would have taken me weeks to figure out on my own. Right.
Amy Vaughan:
Love it, love it, love it, love it. Awesome. All right, so, you know, obviously, you. You’re doing a lot of teaching about digital project products. I can talk. It’s Friday. And scaling businesses. How has AI changed your approach to product creation and customer service? And what’s.
Amy Vaughan:
What do you feel like is really working for you right now?
Monica Froese:
That is. It is a super great question. So right now in the digital product space, I would say. So this is very interesting because the program that I built to teach people how to create their digital products was called the Empowered Business Lab, and I built it in 2020. And so I’ve had thousands of students go through it. So many digital products have come out of this, and it was. I teach based on frameworks. And so when 2025 rolls around and I’m like, okay, now everything I’m doing, I really have to.
Monica Froese:
I’m going to layer on AI. So I redid the entire system, and it’s called the Empowered Business Lab. AI now. But where I’m going with this is the crux of it is because I had these proven frameworks, I think what people forget is we’re still. We’re still a business, selling to other humans. So people aren’t trying to buy from robots, actually. They still actually want to buy from you. It’s just that if you’re not using AI, you’re not gonna be able to keep up with the pace of the people who are.
Monica Froese:
So when I was going through and redoing this course, what I realized is all of my frameworks of how to build a high converting digital product, of how to sell a high converting digital product are completely relevant. I built six GPTs that reside in that course that essentially took these separate frameworks and now you can chain links together and, and chat. So basically. And I’m like a real life example of this because back in 2016 I was creating my very first ebook and I remember it took me the entire summer. I have a very vivid memory of writing it. I had a habit of editing it and then I have no design skills. So then I had to hire out. I wanted this companion workbook, so that means I had to come up with a companion workbook.
Monica Froese:
I had to do a Google Doc and then hand it over to the designer. I did something extremely similar for the Redefining mom brand, which I’ve wanted to relaunch forever using the 6 GPTs based on my frameworks. And I knocked out the entire product in less than two days. It blew my own mind. And when I. I’ve created and launched hundreds of digital products over the last decade. And how fast I can take a concept straight through to promotion and making money off of it still to this day blows my mind. It really does.
Amy Vaughan:
Yeah.
Monica Froese:
So there’s another part to the original question because it was how, how it’s helping me with the digital products and what else was it?
Amy Vaughan:
Yeah. And then as far as your approach to product creation, which I think you touched on customer service and then what’s really working for you right now?
Monica Froese:
Yeah, I mean, honestly, I think one of the reasons I had such a great summer, like money wise, is I’ve really been focusing on that program particularly and helping my fellow content creators get and understand how to use AI. And what I started doing on my live webinars is demonstrating it. And when people can see it, really, it’s one thing for me to talk about it like this and be like, you know, you take my frameworks and you put it in and it can spit out all this information, that sounds great. But when you actually see it in action and I show them from using the 6 GPTs to here’s my finished product, they’re like, what?
Amy Vaughan:
Yeah, how?
Monica Froese:
What? It’s, it’s. Honestly, it’s awesome.
Amy Vaughan:
Yeah, no, that’s fantastic. I really do think that there’s a, there’s a marketplace for that too. Right. Where people who are just really skilled at understanding how to train and create what we call agents, but it’s effectively what you’re talking about and then selling them. I’ve had a few friends that are creating and agents that are helping them achieve certain objectives, that have certain goals. And you know, they’ve been like, hey, test this, use it, see if you like it, what are you going to use it for? And I’m like, this is brilliant. It’s a really fun way to, you know, kind of take what you’re saying, your frameworks, your original content and thinking and put it into a way that makes it accessible to others, but also potentially profitable for you. So I think that there’s like a whole trend coming in that for sure.
Monica Froese:
So I, this is, I, I feel like you’re going to touch on this. But I, I know I always get asked this, which is about the human touch and like, is it all AI? So one of the things that irritates me so much is those bros on TikTok who are like, you can create a chat GPT and make $10,000 a month. No, that’s actually not the way it works. And this is the example I always like to give. So the objection I used to get about digital products was why, if you, I could Google that and get it for free, so why would anyone pay me for it? Now, my very first digital product I ever launched was called the Family Budget Spreadsheet. It has sold almost 100,000 copies. So it’s made me lots of money. And I would tell people on my webinars, go to Google and Google Budget Spreadsheet, you are going to find hundreds, if not thousands of free ones that you can download.
Monica Froese:
But you know what the difference is? When you’re on the sales page for mine, you’re seeing that it worked for a real person and it solved her problems. It addresses your, it addresses the person’s actual. I’m meeting them where they’re at, like what they’re trying to do. When you download a random thing off the Internet, you don’t know if it’s really going to work. So what AI has allowed us to do product creation wise, and this is what I tell my students, it is a great organizer. So it helps you organize your thoughts, it helps you think of different angles that you might be missing. So that’s the first thing I love about it and as I’m working with it on content, like the very first product I did from start to finish with my own frameworks and the GPTs was an empowered divorce planner. And one of the things I would say is, guess what? This bot still does not have emotion.
Monica Froese:
It does not know what it’s like to sit across and have to talk about not having your kids 50% of the time, or are you not going to get to see your kids on Christmas morning?
Amy Vaughan:
It is.
Monica Froese:
It cannot feel that emotion. I cannot understand that. It can think practically, but it can’t understand why I might ask a certain question for the welfare of my child. So while it helped me organize and come and even gave me ideas that I hadn’t thought of, I’m like, that’s great. Oh, I wish I had that and I can incorporate it. The people who are going to buy that planner from me are not buying it from a bot. They’re buying it from me. Someone who went through it and wished I had had it when I was going through that process.
Monica Froese:
All the things I wish I had known, but I was too emotional to figure out for myself.
Amy Vaughan:
Yeah, yeah, no, I definitely hear you on that kind of objective viewpoint through very challenging and sometimes traumatic situations. But I think one other thing I was thinking of as you were talking was that I think we shouldn’t be asking for authenticity from any GPT because at the end of the day, like, we are the authenticity, right? We are what we are, it is what we give it. And even when we give it, what it gives back is still like a culmination of data input and information. And so I think that authenticity and personal touch, it comes from you in the way you structure, leverage and utilize the tool. But then also what you do with what it gives you after, right? You don’t just take it and run with it as is. You always go back and make sure you’re maintaining your voice, your brand, your personality and all these different things. Right? You know, at the end of the day, it’s like, like it’s the tool, it’s the paintbrush, but you decide like the strokes and the colors and all those other things that make it authentic.
Monica Froese:
It’s funny because I feel like in what I do there was. We had a kind of a swing towards no one who wanted to get on Zoom. Everyone was zoomed out, especially after, after Covid. And now I’m noticing because AI one of the flip sides is it’s so helpful, but also can make you feel so isolated too, that now there’s a big call in like my product community where they want touch with the product creator more so than I’ve ever seen in the 12 years that I’ve been making products. And so that’s like, that’s the flip side, I think we have to remember that people are still people. Yeah, I still want to talk to people. I still want to get on podcasts. Like, I.
Monica Froese:
I think that there. I’ve heard some very interesting things, like bots being sent in, like, clones of you being sent into meetings and stuff like that. You know, everyone’s got to decide what they’re okay with when it comes to that.
Amy Vaughan:
But
Monica Froese:
But, like, I know personally, I don’t want to create podcasts where it’s my clone showing up. I want to be. I want people to build relationships with me. And that’s been my personal line with that.
Amy Vaughan:
I agree. Well, because there’s that. That spontaneity, the chemistry, the conversation that’s still just so, like, absolutely genuine. That. Yeah, that’s, like, to me, I agree with you. That’s one thing that doesn’t. I mean, I don’t know, maybe it’ll get replaced, but as far as I’m concerned, I like, no, like, the conversations that we have and the nuance of them and the authenticity of them, I doubt that could ever be truly replicated. No matter how deeply inflective the voices are or how much the internality changes and things like that, for the sake of drama, at the end of the day, it’s still a culmination of generalizations, biases.
Monica Froese:
It is going to be made. I feel us as a population really, really have to hone our discernment skills, because we already were up against a lot of things. Like, even when you see a news article, you have to discern, is this honestly real? Is it not real? Is it an opinion piece? Is it not? And now, like, honestly, I’ve said this, if I was a celebrity, I’d be way more like, ooh. About it. Because, you know, once someone sees you do something, whether it was you or your clone, that it sticks. It sticks in people’s minds. So I think of someone just like Taylor Swift, like. Like, someone could put out a video, like, and it could look so much like her.
Monica Froese:
And people think that she actually said these words or did these things. And that’s why I feel like discernment is going to be so important for us to remember. Don’t be quick to. Just because you saw it on the Internet. Yeah, I know. We already knew that. More so now.
Amy Vaughan:
Even more so. Absolutely. I feel like this already happened with Lady Gaga. I think I heard on the radio recently that some of the DJs were saying even they got. Got fooled and were really confused because they’re like, we didn’t get the memo that she had new music coming out and they know that she’s been building up an album, but they didn’t know that a new song had dropped and it was a music video and it’s Lady Gaga, and I haven’t gone back and watched it yet. But that, that whole moment stuck with me because of exactly what you’re saying. Yes. It has the potential to mimic reality, and that’s why we have to use our discernment.
Amy Vaughan:
And really kind of like you’re saying, like, keeping diverse and women voices in the mix of what’s getting created and how it’s getting created is super important. Right. Because we need to use the tool responsibly and respectfully so that, you know, we aren’t damaging other people’s, you know, hard work. We’re protecting their artistry, things like that.
Monica Froese:
And as a mom, I feel like I have to be very aware of what’s going on because our kids, we all know our kids learn technology faster than we do. So I. If I’m not involved in this, who? Who knows the kind of influence it could have on my children? Just like parents who didn’t understand social media when I got it for the first time. Sure, post whatever you want. And then you’re like, oh, that’s bad.
Amy Vaughan:
Be one in every chat room you want. It’s not a problem.
Monica Froese:
Exactly. Like, and. But they’re so great. Like, my daughter came home at the end of last school year and she. And she was laying on the couch and it was exam week. And I’m like, yo, aren’t you supposed to be studying right now? She’s like, I am. And I’m just looking at her like, okay, she had her earbud in and her friend in science, they deemed this friend the best note taker. And this friend went and took her Google Doc notes and put them into NotebookLM, which is a tool you can use with Google.
Monica Froese:
And it created this two way podcast, which is super cool. I’m not gonna lie. It is so cool to listen to a topic being talked about. So my daughter got a 98 on this science test, and the way she studied was by listening to this two way podcast that was developed by NotebookLM based on her best friend’s notes.
Amy Vaughan:
I love it. Well, that’s amazing too, because it really lends itself towards different learning styles. It takes content and transforms it into something that is based on how you learn and digest and remember information, allowing you to do that. Yeah. Which is 100% why it’s like, not that it’s AI related at all, but like, well, we do use AI for it. Like, we have this podcast, we have our amazing live listening audience. So folks, don’t forget to drop comments in the chat if you’d like or ask questions if you have some extra questions outside of what I’m asking. But outside of that, like, you know, we’re, we’re Touchpoint.
Amy Vaughan:
There’s a touch point of the live listening audience. There’s a touch point for those who listen to the podcast. After, we’ll evolve that into a blog post or social posts. Like, there’s just so many ways to slice and dice your content and information so that people based on how they prefer to receive it can receive it. Because I, that’s why I kept this as a part of a live show was because there are people that were just like, I want to be there and listen. I want to be able to ask questions. And others are like, I’m so damn busy, I can’t even stop for lunch to listen. So I, but I would love to be able to take a listen after.
Amy Vaughan:
And we love podcasts or maybe I just want to read about it.
Monica Froese:
So, yeah, you know what was really cool? The other day I signed up for this training. It was a three day training. It was two hours every day for the three days. I don’t have six hours to sit for this live training.
Amy Vaughan:
Yeah.
Monica Froese:
And so they gave the transcript from the 2 hours of live. I put it into my chat and I said, hey, this is why I signed up for this training. This is what I’m trying to learn from it. Can you summarize what happened and what I need to know and if there’s any action that I need to take, Love it. That I still am speechless with these things. It gave me an amazing summary, it gave me action items. And basically instead of me having to consume 6 hours of content that I don’t have time to consume, we narrowed it down to like 30 minutes of my time.
Amy Vaughan:
Right. That is such a great example. And I think that that is, you know, it’s, again, it’s going to be such a great tool for learning because of that. Because some of us need story and context and other people are like, just give me the damn bullet points.
Monica Froese:
Yeah, yeah.
Amy Vaughan:
From all of this. So I know what I can take away. And especially if it’s like, take away what’s important to me. So if I’m telling you this is, this is my business, this is what I need to know. Because we just give such blanket advice. Hell, even on the podcast we’re just like, like, yay. We’re not. We can’t speak to everyone in every situation with every need.
Amy Vaughan:
But I think leveraging tools like AI can actually help you take all that, like, plethora of content, which can feel very, you know, that that’s overwhelming. If nothing else, like, use AI to cut down the overwhelm by giving it that content and saying, what do I actually need to take away from this? I love that. So that’s kind of a good time saving tip. My next question was actually about time saving for busy moms and things like that. And then Nicole from our live listening audience was reading my mind. She popped right in and she knows how to prompt is so important, which obviously we agree. Can you provide us with some specific prompts that you have found most helpful as a busy mom?
Monica Froese:
That is a great question. So I will say I, I honestly, especially from the personal side of stuff, I talk to it just like I’m talking to you. And I feel like a natural prompting, that’s what I call it. Natural prompting is the best way to get the results. So, you know, I. You ever see those like, like the really long prompts where it’s like, act as this expert and I’m not saying those are bad prompts or anything and I think there’s a time and a place. But when it comes to it working, well, for me personally, it was the conversationalness that I had with it that really helped it. Like when I sat down and explained my dietary preferences and I explained what my kids like and I explained the days I have them and what my budget is.
Monica Froese:
The other thing too, that was super helpful was I went back. Now be careful when you upload content into chat. Like, you know, I, when I’m going to tell you this, I’m not going to say I uploaded all my credit card transactions, but not my actual statements. I downloaded just the transactions and stripped out my personal information just so everyone does that. And I went back and did it. Since I took over my finances by myself and I didn’t have a second income coming into the house. I was actually kind of blown away by how much money I was, because in my mind I was like, I don’t know where else I can cut it. I feel like.
Monica Froese:
And you know, honestly, I can’t say every single month I combed through every single transaction in my life, especially with running a business. So I analyzed like two years of data for me, my bank statements, it Analyzed my credit card statements and I was blown away. I keep saying that, but really, AI does make me feel blown away. So what ended up coming out of it was I have saved 15, 18, about $1800 on insurance between my car and my house. It also told me where I should source it from. And I took my current homeowners policy, ran it against the quote I got and had it compared. So the quote for homeowners was like 500 less. I’m like, what am I missing? And chat came back and said, oh, your new homeowners are actually a lot better.
Monica Froese:
Let me tell you why. Like, one of the things, I have underground power lines at my house and I wasn’t protected with that on my last policy, but the new policy does. And so this is all this all stemmed from me giving it my transactions for the last two years. It told me I was getting double charged for Disney plus because you know how they like combined. And so there was still a Hulu charge on there, but I was also paying for it through Disney plus, so we saved money there. It told me I was overpaying on my cell phone bill. It was just, it was just wild. And it will give you scripts too.
Monica Froese:
Like, I went and negotiated my. So I bought out the lease of my car last year and so it came to me, it was noticed in my bank transactions that my lease payment was lower than the payment when I bought it out. So it came to me and said, can you upload your car loan contract? So I did. And when I uploaded it, it said, oh, we can negotiate a better rate. It gave me a script on how to do it and I saved two points on my car loan.
Amy Vaughan:
That’s awesome. Yeah, it is a great application. I think that’s such a fantastic idea. And I think that’s the thing again, like it’s once you start and you find a use case, you’re going to find another and another and another. So 1 thought I wanted to go back to that you shared earlier for you, Nicole was, you know, Monica was sharing how she just kind of verbally vomited all over chat and was like, this is everything I’m dealing with. And so again, it’s not really. Sometimes I think we just want to go straight into prompting. But I think actually that first tier is use case figuring out what you want to use it for and what you want that outcome to be and then working on figuring out what’s the right prompt and even then making sure that you’re asking it like, what’s the best prompt to achieve this goal.
Amy Vaughan:
It’s like, hey, I just took over control of my finances after going through a divorce. I don’t know where to start. I’m completely overwhelmed. Where do I, where do I go? What should I do? What can you help me with? And you would be amazed at the things that it’ll recommend. And then I feel like maybe ChatGPT is better about this too. I think that it always wants and proposes some sort of next step where it’s like, are you ready to do this now? And it’s like, oh, okay, yeah.
Monica Froese:
Well, here’s the other thing that happened to me. I always had corporate benefits and now all of a sudden, I was without health insurance for the first time in my entire life. And so I went on my ex’s Cobra, which was outrageously priced. I’m like, I gotta fix this. I felt like I didn’t have time to fix it. So I am again overwhelmed and why marketplaces are not easy to use and why everything to do with health insurance unless you have business or like a grad degree in it? And I’m a smart person and I swear I’m like, I don’t know how these. None of this makes sense. So I had to navigate first, can you please help me figure out how to use the marketplace? And then you have to fill out.
Monica Froese:
Oh, what felt like a forever form that was asking questions. I felt almost meant to trick me. And so I was like going back and forth with it. Then I finally get into it, I get approved and I have a million plans coming at me. And it’s like, well, if you choose this level, you’re gonna save this. And I was like. So I went to chat and I was like, okay, well, here are the doctors I have to see here. And I also needed help in figuring out who was going to be in the network, who’s going to be out of the network.
Monica Froese:
It was just, it was one of the most overwhelming things I had to do. And honestly, without chat, I don’t know, it would have been so much harder and taken me so much longer.
Amy Vaughan:
It’s a great, great research tool. Especially again when you’re fried and you’re having to make really hard life decisions. It just is really great at pulling and researching and finding objectives. Yeah, agreed, Agreed. I think that’s another big thing for women. I definitely brought it up on the podcast. Anytime we talk about AI is like the impact on health care and just women being able to advocate themselves.
Monica Froese:
Yeah.
Amy Vaughan:
It is like a whole another conversation for sure.
Monica Froese:
Yeah. Well, I turned 40 this year and had my first mammogram. And I remember I felt like it was like a factory, like, and out there doing scan, scan. Then they pull you into this room, they give you this piece of paper. And like, my piece of paper was like, well, we found two nodules. Come back in six months. And that was that. And I was like, well, what?
Amy Vaughan:
What does it mean?
Monica Froese:
And I tried asking and it was kind of like, you’re holding us up, up. Like, that’s what I felt like. And this is how we all know this, how the healthcare system is with women. I realized that that’s why redefining mom started, because I almost died in childbirth and it was definitely negligence. Why? And so I was. After that, I was like, absolutely not. I learned real quick that I had an advocate for myself. So I went back with my lab results and I put it in chat and I was like, who do I got to contact? What kind of questions do I have to ask about this? How mysterious is this? But without that, you know, you’d be paying another hundred dollars to try to talk to another specialist who’s probably going to blow you off.
Amy Vaughan:
Right? It’s so funny in a weird way because this leads into my last question and then we’ll get to the power round. Some fun quick questions. Unless a live audience, you’ve got more, of course, keep going. Bringing them. There’s something so empowering about AI for women. It’s almost as if we’re learning to read for the first time in a way of, like, now we have all this information, knowledge, and some place space to bounce thoughts, ideas off of and not having to depend on necessarily immediate people within our vicinity to do that. So, you know, and when we talk about ChatGPT, you know, when I talk to men versus women, it’s kind of funny because, you know, I think by nature we’re more relational, so it feels like there’s a relationship between women and AI. And I’m kind of curious to see, like, looking ahead, how you see that relationship evolving and what opportunities are you most excited about for your community?
Monica Froese:
Oh, that’s such a good question. Well, first of all, I think the way it’s going to evolve is in ways that we can’t even imagine. Every day I feel like I learn something new that blows my mind when it comes to AI. So I feel like the sky’s the limit. To be honest with you, I have a hard time even saying, like, what do I think’s next. But I can tell you I know what I am excited about. And right now I am working on more advanced agents for my students to help them automate a lot more of their back end processes. That is super exciting to me.
Monica Froese:
Like things that just, I think a decade ago used to take me so long to do. And then I just think I work with so many women like you do. We have these skill sets that we really can do, do such good in the world. So to be able to take that, all that admin stuff off.
Amy Vaughan:
Yeah.
Monica Froese:
Helping them automate as much as they can, to free them up, to really operate in their zone of genius and to give back in the ways that they actually can, I think that’s going to be the biggest impact for women.
Amy Vaughan:
Agree.
Monica Froese:
It’s allowing us to really like, when I think of it, like even the mental load it’s taken off of motherhood so I can actually spend more time with my children. Like my oldest is going to be 13 and before you know it she’s going to be gone.
Amy Vaughan:
Yep.
Monica Froese:
And I’ve refused to believe that, but it’s gonna happen. And you know, so like I get more time with her now. It’s even more important now that I only have her 50 of the time. So I think that’s what the power of AI for women is going to do for us.
Amy Vaughan:
Well, because information is liberation. Right. Like you said, I actually have had a couple of friends who have been going through some pretty tumultuous relational things and you know, potentially then divorce. And it’s just outside of being such an emotional roller coaster, there’s so much from a logistics standpoint and in most of those scenarios, those women could not afford expensive lawyers because they weren’t making the income that their husbands were making or you know, they didn’t have the knowledge and expertise of the legalities and what were, what were their rights and what weren’t their rights. And I’m finding a lot of them are using different GPTs to basically be a sounding board to build the case that they need to build to get what they need when things are kind of coming to a head at a very, very emotionally difficult time. And it’s just fascinating.
Monica Froese:
Yeah, I wish I had it. And here’s the thing. Even if it’s a, like my ex and I are extremely cordial and yet it was still one of the hardest things I went there. We even did mediation. And it reminds me of when I started the business with Red Finding Mom. I started it because I realized the lack of maternity leave and all that stuff. After I came off of this. This birth and was diagnosed with postpartum ptsd, I started the blog because I was upset about it, and then I realized I was, like, in the top 7% of benefits in this country.
Monica Froese:
And I’m like, wait, this is, like, this hard for me, and I am, like, really quite privileged. And so I was like, this is bs, and I went off about it. And, you know, that’s exactly kind of how I felt in that scenario too. You know, you don’t know what you don’t know.
Amy Vaughan:
No, you don’t.
Monica Froese:
And. And yet here I was fortunate to not have an ex who was trying to screw me over. We had equal earning power. We both wanted to do what was best for our kids. We were agreeing to mediation. And yet I still feel like I. There’s so much. So much I wish I had known.
Amy Vaughan:
Right? Exactly. Yeah. And that goes the same for working through, negotiating a job, being in a tricky work situation where, like, your rights as an employee might have been compromised. And, I mean, that’s really it. Honestly, that’s what stemmed together Digital was the founder was sexually harassed at lunch one day by her boss, and the company did not handle it appropriately. And, you know, that was just such a. Such a shattering moment for her life, personally, professionally. And this was, you know, in 2016, so definitely kind of at that height of the MeToo movement.
Amy Vaughan:
But there was, like, little information for her to know, like, what are my rights? Who do I contact? Who do I talk to? How do I tell people about what happened to me? Because there’s so much. Much shame is behind when things like that happen. So much emotion behind things like that when that happens. It’s really hard. To be objective. And so on. In a place where you can be vulnerable, because we all know AI is not judging as well. I think that’s the other thing.
Amy Vaughan:
I think that’s why there’s, like, that weird relational aspect. I don’t know. Matt, other fellas speak up. Let me know if you all feel like chatting and all. Those are your BFFs, too. But I think us ladies are just really finding some weird sense of solidarity and having a safe space and the informational, like, power to kind of take what we need when we need it most. So, yeah, I’m excited to kind of see where things go for a lot of us who are making the best we can in the ways of using it. So.
Amy Vaughan:
All right, on that note, let’s get to the power round. So these are some fun. Like, last Little quick hit questions. It sounds like your go to AI tool is chat got. Would you say that’s the one you can’t live without?
Monica Froese:
Yep.
Amy Vaughan:
Okay, cool. 100. I. You know, we all got our fave, right? All right, finish this sentence. AI is like having a really good assistant because.
Monica Froese:
Because it reads my mind and tells me what to eat.
Amy Vaughan:
I love it. That’s great. It’s one less thing to think about. Decision fatigue, Right?
Monica Froese:
I re. I. I distinctly remember starting this business and my husband coming down asking, what’s for dinner? And I wanted to bite his head off because I could not make another decision if, like, I just couldn’t. And instead, like, now it’s like in a. It knows what I already ate, so it knows the macros I have to hit. It’s wonderful. It’s. I don’t even have to think about it.
Amy Vaughan:
I don’t think people quite understand what a loaded question that is at the end of a day.
Monica Froese:
Oh, he definitely didn’t. He learned real quick, right?
Amy Vaughan:
No, you’re not alone. And he’s not either, unfortunately. All right. What is the most surprising way that AI has improved your personal life and not just business?
Monica Froese:
I think it’s that I feel like I’ve been able to be a lot more present for my daughters.
Amy Vaughan:
I love that. That’s fantastic. That’s such a wonderful benefit. And it’s so funny because people are like, robots are going to take over the world. It’s like, no. Robots are going to do the things robots should do so we can do more of the human things we should do.
Monica Froese:
Yes, 100%, I agree.
Amy Vaughan:
All right, last one. One AI myth that you wish you could bust for everyone that’s listening to Day.
Monica Froese:
Oh, gosh, that’s a good one. I guess it would be that AI is a negative thing. I. I really wish. I mean, I wish people could understand that, like, with most things, it’s what we make out of it. And so choosing to go in with a positive outlook and using it with guardrails with your, like, what your moral code is, it’s honestly not a negative thing. It really can enrich your life.
Amy Vaughan:
Yeah. No, I agree. Oh, I love it. Thank you, Monica, so much. It’s been so great having you here with us today. You’ve obviously, based on the responses from our live listening audience, have shared some very practical but also empowering insights on, you know, how we can leverage AI and approach it, make it accessible, human centered. All those good things that we’re looking forward to doing. Also of course, most importantly, reclaiming our time being more present with ourselves and our family.
Amy Vaughan:
It’s exactly what our members are needing to hear, especially in a world like today. For everyone listening, remember that you don’t need to be a tech wizard to work smarter. Start small, like we said, experiment with one tool. Start there and give yourself some permission to reclaim those precious hours that you’ve got in your week when you can. Everyone, please, if you’d like to connect with Monica on LinkedIn and learn more about her courses and resources at Empowered Business, and then to our digital community together, this conversation is just a perfect reminder that technology should serve us and not the other way around, right? It is a tool for empowerment. We are not beholden to it. So as we continue to navigate this evolving digital landscape, let’s support one another and find tools and strategies to help amplify our impact while honoring our well being. Because that’s what it’s all about, right? All right, everyone, thank you for joining us today.
Amy Vaughan:
Until next time, keep asking, keep giving, keep growing. We can’t wait to see you again soon. Thanks again, Monica. This is fantastic.
Monica Froese:
Thank you.
