Finola Howard 0:01
I'm Finola Howard, Business Growth strategist with a joyful heart and your host of the your truth shared podcast, I believe that every business has a story to tell, because that's how the market decides whether to buy or not, and your story has to resonate with who you are and with the people you want to serve. And this podcast is about helping you reach the market in a way that feels right to you. So if you're an entrepreneur with a dream you want to make real, then this is the podcast for you, because great marketing is your truth shared. And today's episode, I want to share something that came up in one of my group programs last week, in the actually, in the SOAR program, which is my next level growth program for entrepreneurs, and where we're using AI in the program, and it's something that I've introduced really regularly into all of my work, is the practical application of how AI can help you do your research faster, get things done faster, and proceed to growth, you know, not be held back by those things that invariably hold entrepreneurs back in their marketing, because there's so much to it. Okay? So we were working on aligning customers, you know, digging deep with customers and pain points, and we were aligning that with have we got the right offer for those pain points? And what we were doing is using the tool to help transform those offers into something that would be what we call a Grand Slam offers. And it was powerful, and it's really powerful, and AI did exactly what it's brilliant at filling in the missing pieces and helping us move faster. Okay? But then somebody asked a question or made a suggestion that actually triggered a real gush reaction in me, one of those No no no no, no moments, and it got me thinking quite deeply about the real risk we face as entrepreneurs when it comes to AI, not how powerful it is now, not even the environmental cost, which is also a consideration, but actually the danger of handing over something too precious to lose, and that something is your agency in your own business, okay? And it's really important. So today I want to explore this theme of AI. Yes, AI can support you, but it shouldn't decide for you, because without it, you're not building your own business. You're actually letting someone else build it for you, and that kind of defeats the purpose of having your own business in the first place, doesn't it? So let's start on this kind of exploration. And for me, I'm such a powerful advocate of using AI, using AI as a powerful tool in your business, training it, teaching it, training it into your voice, your perspective, really using it as a collaborative tool. And I think it's collaborative tool to help you get to where you want to go faster. Okay, it just saves so much time. I feel it's actually an act of freedom using AI in your business, because it creates the space and the time for you to truly tap into your own potential that with restrictions of time before, we weren't always able to do that, so I feel that it is a way of elevating so many more small entrepreneurs to a stage where so many more entrepreneurs can make more money, and that's why I think it's such a really useful positive force for business. Okay, let's just stick with the business thing, and I want to take on all of the aspects of AI, right? So, but the thing about that is you still have to remember it's just a tool, okay? We don't want it doing anything else except work with us. Work for us, okay? And but the moment we forget that, we really move into dangerous territory, okay, so let me dig into what happened, okay, why we were doing all these exercises, and we were using prompts, and we're using, you know, exercises to, you know, bring that match between customer and offer, okay, customer and product, customer and service, okay? And then someone in the room said, but maybe, and here's what was said, maybe I could have aI prompt me on my strategy as well of what I should do next. And that's when I just went, No, and I had to reflect on it afterwards. But I just like I can feel it in my stomach now, no, no, no, no, and I had to reflect on why my reaction was so strong, I even feel it right now, okay, and the reason I feel this is because, because I've been here before, and I'll explain that to you in a minute, but the reason I find myself hesitating because I've seen it in loads of networks as well, this idea of AI as your strategist, working. Beside you. Now the reason I have that reaction is this is actually about agency. This is about deciding the future of your business. It's not just simple decision making. It's about strategy, deciding the future of your business. It's not and strategy is not just another task. It's the seat of your decision making. It's the seat of your freedom that you set your business up for in the first place. Because, let's face it, most entrepreneurs set up their own businesses, apart from their bigger goal, is also for freedom, and you hand that away. If you hand over your decision making, if you hand over your agency, let's What does agency actually mean anyway? What's the definition of agency that's good to reference, so let me read it for you. So according to the American Psychological Association, a dictionary of psychology. I know there's lots of other places I could but here's a good starting point. So here's the quote, agency is the capacity of individuals to act independently, to make their own free choices and to impose those choices on the world. To act independently, to make your own free choices. When you hand strategy over, you hand over your ability to choose for your own business. Agency is about being the architect of your own future. It's about making your own decisions, not subcontracting them out. And when you subcontract out your decision making, whether it's to a consultant, because this is where we've seen it before, or a formula or to AI, you've lost the greatest benefit of being in business in the first place. So I even go as far as to say that when you outsource your decision making, you're actually outsourcing your future. That's important to think about and to reflect on. Okay, so come back to this idea of saying I've seen this before, and I have seen this before. I've seen this before, in this concept of this idea of being over consulted. So I'm in business over 30 years, okay, and and in the advisory game for over 30 years. And I've seen small businesses, medium sized businesses, you know, bring in consultants, consultants, consultants, and keep bringing them in because of a fear of making decisions, or I'm not sure what decisions to make. So this idea of handing over agency is not a new one. It's it's a it's possibly a stage of growth in an entrepreneur of this ability to start to believe in their own ability to make decisions. So what we're wanting is to nurture the idea of decision making more firmly at an earlier stage in the growth of an entrepreneur. And that's what this AI tool is dragging up for me and reminding me of because there is that pattern in early stage entrepreneurship of handing over decision making to someone you think knows better than you. Okay, that's really so the consultant you think knows better than you, but you are the only one who's making the decisions for your business, who bears the responsibility of those decisions. When you outsource them, and you make and if a decision is incorrect for the future of the business, what's AI going to do about it? What's that external consultant going to do about it. You know, the book stops with you. So the faster you get better at making decisions, the faster you grow. The other thing that I see people at source decision making around as, especially in their marketing, is formulas, following gurus or formulas and trying them out in their business. But and I, even I wrote a book about this, and the core part of the book was about really starting to sit with yourself, to understand the wisdom of your own strategy for your own business, The own your own direction for your own business, and until you can hear your own voice and you know confirm it with data and evidence that you're correct in your thinking process, but still make the decision yourself, because The decision the book stops with you. Okay, I remember, ah, could be maybe even 15 years ago, and I remember sitting in at a board meeting. And at this board meeting was a client of mine who I would have known for a very long time and would have advised over the years, and I hadn't been advising him for a while, and I was brought in to sit in on this meeting because he wanted my input at that meeting. Other people in that meeting were an agency supporting them, an investor that was supporting them, a new sales guy who was moving into the US for them. And what I saw around the room was.
Finola Howard 10:00
This, this inability to tell this business owner the truth of what they really believed needed to happen in the business, a fundamental change needed to happen with how they produce their product. Was really clear to everyone, but I didn't know that at the time. It was really clear to everybody, but nobody would broach it because it was too much of a personal issue for the business owner, and I raised it in the meeting so that that business owner could have the benefit of some advice that was not people pleasing oriented. I raised this because, and I remember the other people in the room saying, We're so glad you raised it, Finola, and I'm like, But why am I the only person who's raising it? AI is like this. AI is, if you hand your strategy over to Ai, ai is designed to people please. It's, it's, it's primary purpose is to make you happy, to give you the information that you want, not necessarily always the information that you need, but definitely the information that it believes you want. It's people pleasing in its nature and the best. And we have an episode about people pleasing earlier, and I'll note it in the show notes, people pleasing advisors are the bane of your growth. You need someone as an advisor that's going to tell you and share with you the truth of things, and AI can't do that for you. And if you don't have access to all the information that you need to grow, you can't make decisions. You still need to make the decision. Okay? I reiterate, AI is designed to people please. And if you hand over the power of your business over to a people pleaser, what kind of business are you creating? Okay, let's ask that question. Why are you handing over decision making? What do I see in my experience, okay, in order to grow this is, this is the first really tough thing when you become an entrepreneur, particularly, probably, if you come from a corporate sector, the amount of decisions you have to make on a day to day basis, and often we'll hand over decision making to or rather delegate decision making, some decision making, to empower employees, maybe to foster innovation in those employees, and that's to help you manage your own workload so you can follow you can worry about the strategic nature of the thing, but we never outsource or delegate or hand over agency or strategy. That's not the kind of decision making we need to be delegating. We need to delegate only the things that help us focus on the growth of the business, the strategic direction of the business, the vision for the business, and so that's why that flag was raised, for me to to to make sure that we are resisting that kind of approach to growing our businesses, and that kind of approach to AI if I look at why entrepreneurs generally are slower around decision making or hand over decisions. It's often because they're not used to making so many decisions, because they're entering into the entrepreneurial space for the first time. They're often afraid of making the wrong decision because of what of the impact it could have on their families, perhaps, or there could be just simply overwhelmed by the sheer volume of decisions that are required in in having your own business, when sometimes agency or decision making itself can feel foreign, because it's like, really I get to choose how I shape my future can often be quite a big deal when you enter into this space for the first time, and so you don't always know what to do with that power when you get it for the first time, but you've got to learn quite quickly how to use that. So I kind of sense that there is a growth path around decision making in a business. Okay, so early stage, I would say the first challenge is learning how to make decisions at all, okay, and not stressing so much about them. That's early stage, mid stage, I'd say. Or if you're thinking, if you're reflecting on your own business and your own behavior on your own business, I'd say the next challenge is actually living with the outcomes of decision making, you know, and realizing it actually doesn't matter the decision you make. It just matters what you do as a result of those decisions. That's the key here. Then, if you're if we're talking about more of a mature stage in your entrepreneurial path, I would say that you eventually learn that decision making is a rhythm that you kind of test, decide, you test, test, measure, improve, and that's that becomes a rhythm. So the decision making you. You forget that you're actually making decisions, because it's so second nature to you. It's just this rhythm of how you grow. So it's critical to your own growth path in your own business. So it's it's important that you don't outsource that from the very beginning, and that we don't do that with AI, that we simply see AI as another tool in the business, and that we get to develop our own rhythm for growth. That is the growth path, the power to make decisions, to act on the decisions, to correct the decisions, to not worry about the decisions, but just simply to keep moving and not worry about the failure of decisions. Because there are no failures of decisions. They're just simply the next step. What's the next step? When you give away that ability or that rhythm, that learned rhythm that you develop over time, you're kind of giving away agency. You're giving away the growth path itself, actually. So the great for me, the greatest gift of entrepreneurship, is that power to choose? Is that agency that I have over my own life and my own direction that allows me to change direction? And I have, all my life, all my entrepreneurial life, changed direction, and I only started really realizing that a few years ago, when I've I remember sharing a story of, Oh, I've had to pivot again. I remember saying that to a friend of mine, and they said to me, but you're always pivoting, Finola, you're always growing. Because that's the nature of entrepreneurship, and you have to be happy with that ability to move, to weave, to grow, to get you where you want to go. So if we think of agency as a gift of entrepreneurship, why wouldn't you exercise that gift? Interestingly enough, the very next day after this happened, this guttural reaction that I had I was looking at I opened up LinkedIn, and I saw a post from Mark Schaefer, which was interesting, because I'm about to interview him again, and it just felt very timely. And he asked, he has just released a new book, okay? And he asked 21 year old if he could interview her about how she uses AI, okay? And she shared with him her first thought, and her first thought was, maybe I should get chat GPT to write the quote for me, she admitted her fear that AI was making her dumber, and where am I in the message then, and that's exactly the risk dependence on that external factor that AI can erode your confidence in Your own ability to express yourself, to make decisions, to do all these things. It can erode originality, and it can actually erode your voice. And while we do not want to erode our voices, they're so hard won. So if I think about this from a human perspective, and this idea that, you know, there's this idea that everybody says there's no such thing as a new idea or original ideas, that we're all simply piecing things together from before. And if we were looking at that, someone would say, well, that's how all AI is doing. But I contest that perspective. And I contest that perspective because of the exposure I've had so many entrepreneurs over the year, years, and I remember, I actually remember so many scenarios where, where I've been with entrepreneurs, particularly in the tech space. We're so used to carving new territory and breaking boundaries, that they would have done things that I never would have thought of doing. And then AI would never have thought of doing because as humans, we can switch directions so quickly that have little to do with what we've done. Historically, we can change, and we can evolve in a heartbeat, in a moment. AI is never going to do that. Our ability to try something new, to see the writing on the wall and go, I'm going to shift right now in this moment, but AI can't do that. AI is historical. Effectively, it's not creating anything new. It can remix what's there already, but only humans can reinvent
Finola Howard 19:27
so here's where I want to leave you. Yes, train AI, I love it. Yes, it's powerful. Yes, let it sharpen your offers. Yes, let it save you time and yes, let it accelerate you and your business, but don't hand it. Your strategy, don't hand it. The steering wheel of your business, your agency, your ability to make your own choices, your own decisions, to act intentionally, to be the architect of your own future, is the greatest gift of entrepreneurship. Yeah, and I urge you to guard that fiercely, because without it, you're not running your business. You're letting someone or something else run it for you. And remember this also, we reiterate this one AI can remix, but only humans can reinvent or invent. Thank you for listening to this episode of your truth shared. If this landed for you, please share it with a fellow entrepreneur who needs a reminder. And I'd love to hear what agency means to you, and come connect with me. Listen to the next episode, and until next, time, mind your agency. Take care of your ability to choose and keep building the business that feels like you
Unknown Speaker 20:45
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